Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Bon Appetite


My chickens love me, and here's part of the reason why. Yesterday when Jilda and I walked, my mind was somewhere else, which is contrary to my intention of being "in the now".
I heard her exclaim, "What is THAT!" When I turned, she was pointing to our young pecan tree. I took a closer look and saw hundreds of catawba worms on one limb and they had munched all the leaves off the limb.
Thank goodness they were concentrated on one limb and hadn't migrated to the rest of the tree. I hustled up to the shed and got the snippers, whacked off the limb and tossed it into the chicken pen worms and all.
The chickens, ever interested in all wiggling things gathered around the limb. I continued on our walk.
When we finished, I walked back by the pen to see what was shaking. I saw right off that it was not catawba  worms. The chickens ran to the gate expectantly as if to say, "what's the next course daddy?"
Some folks would have used some gosh-awful spray to rid themselves of the worms, but the chickens would have missed a marvelous meal.

3 comments:

  1. I am pretty sure you were about to be invaded by tent caterpillars. Catawba worms have been and gone several weeks ago. They stripped my tree completely, but its coming back. The worms didn't touch the pecan trees in the yard.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Besides giving eggs and the occasional chicken diner, another good use for chickens!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Whatever kind they were, the chickens thought they were yummy.

    ReplyDelete

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