Aviary clever bird
Miracles really do take place. Easy enough to miss but wonderful to witness when you are aware of them. Like our amazing food processing unit I marvelled at in action again today.
Whatever I feed in one end, it always reliably produces a quality product out the other end. Even if I provide random mouldy, stale, over-ripe stuff, the output is consistently fresh and tasty, exactly the same as if I input expensive processed provisions.
This unique unit regularly produces perfect balls packed with protein, enclosed in a welldesigned solid, biodegradable outer package with thin external protective coating to exclude bacteria.
My unit takes just over a day to create this brilliant totally natural, delicious product, weighing about 50 grams.
Nice being able to lift the box lid to see the super sustainable process in operation and enjoy the moment the unit delivers another of its eco-friendly valuable goods.
With a warm, slightly sticky, smooth, ready-to-cook product in my hand, I know I am holding something special. Even more of a miracle is that if one of the incredible sustainable food balls is tucked under this processing unit for about three weeks a completely new small version of the original unit is created.
The special spherical ‘‘ball’’ I am describing, slightly larger at one end than the other with contents rich in proteins and essential nutrients, is of course the common egg.
My daily chores can become routine. But when I deliver rotting apples, cabbage leaves, old gravy, piles of peelings, and a scoop of pellets to my industrious chookies one day and then collect lovely perfectly shaped golden-yolked eggs from their nest boxes the next day, it opens my mind to consider simple daily miracles in front of me.
Usually the eggs are sitting in the hay when I gather them but occasionally I open the wooden nest box lid to find a hen sitting there quietly preoccupied in her task.
Little black beady eyes watch me watching her until she suddenly jumps up, hops out on her thin wee legs to see what is for breakfast.
The ultra-fresh gift left behind causes me to marvel again at the amazing creation a humble egg truly is.
A real natural ‘‘possible’’ product with no laboratory involved.
A pack of protein and essential nutrients, the yolk suspended in the white, the shell semipermeable allowing moisture and air to pass through pores, the air cell forming inside as the warm egg cools and contracts, the outer layer protecting quality by keeping out bacteria and dust.
And colours vary with pigments laid down by different poultry breeds – from white, brown and speckled to the unusual green which our little araucana hen lays.
And reproduction is inspiring as well. Our big, proud rooster minds, and mates with, our little hen harem.
His sperm last for 10 to 14 days inside the female, much better performance than mammalian wrigglers which survive a mere five days maximum. Eggs are then laid fertilised until a devoted clucky mother patiently sits and sits, keeping her precious progeny warm for 21 days.
A bantam hatched a clutch of four chickens in the coop on our lawn. Not just cute and fluffy but emerged from their cramped containers lively, clued-up and ready to go.
I am reminded again of the wonder of birth and motherhood, seeing a litter of piglets just born and a sow so huge, grunting contentedly nursing nine tiny new black babies.
It is good for me to ponder miracles sometimes when things outside our control wear me down. At home, weeks of winds and no moisture since before
Christmas means our place is drying and brown.
Overseas, coronavirus continues to devastate lives, families and communities,and even in our little country imports, exports and tourism are seriously impacted for an unknown length of time.
Election year Parliament opened with aggressive, insulting behaviour showing none of the kindness and respect widely talked about by politicians and expected from leaders. Upcoming referendums on abortion and euthanasia bring strong debate about life and death.
Meanwhile, I am quietly awestruck by the miracle of an egg.