To Walk a Pagan Path: Practical Spirituality for Every Day (24 page)

started to produce fewer eggs. A chicken lays best for the first f 175 2

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couple of years, and then begins to slow down. The good

news is that a hen continues to lay throughout her life, so an

older hen may suit you if you do not care how many eggs she

is giving you.

The advantage of beginning with pullets or hens are (1)

they are much more hardy than chicks, (2) you do not need

to invest in a brooder and heat lamp, (3) they will begin lay-

ing eggs now instead of months from now, and (4) you can

be absolutely sure that they are females.

After you’ve decided whether you want chicks or pul-

lets, you will need to decide on what breed or breeds you

are interested in. Your selection will be limited by what is

available near you, so it is a good idea to have more than one

breed in mind. If there are several breeds you like, and all are available near you, there is no reason why you cannot have

more than one breed of chicken. The hens do not really care;

to a chicken every chicken is just another chicken.

If you live in a warm or mild climate, nothing beats the

Leghorn for egg production. These are small, light birds, so

they consume less feed-per-egg than other breeds. Those

white eggs you buy at the supermarket almost always come

from Leghorns. Because they are light birds, Leghorns

are more likely to fly over a fence than heavier breeds, so a

roofed enclosure is advised. Leghorns also do not fare as well

as other breeds in colder climates.

For brown eggs, some of the best layers are Rhode Island

Reds and the Rocks: Plymouth Rocks, Barred Rocks, Par-

tridge Rocks. The Rocks are differentiated by the color of

their plumage. All of these are very good layers and tend to

be friendly birds. The hens that I now have in my back yard

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are three Rhode Island Reds who I have named Henny, Penny

and Jenny. They are always excited to see me, and this spring

they were each giving me almost one egg every single day.

I have mentioned the Sex Link hens, which come in both

Red and Black varieties. These are also said to be good layers

of brown eggs. The Black Sex Link lays a slightly darker egg.

If you can find one, an Araucana hen is a somewhat cau-

tious bird, but a good layer. The interesting thing about this

breed is that it produces blue-green “Easter eggs”.

There are seemingly countless breeds to choose from, but

the ones I have mentioned are some of the best for a small

backyard flock. In addition to standard sized chickens there

are bantam chickens, which are smaller and lighter. I have

not mentioned them here because their care is almost iden-

tical to that of larger hens. Because of their size and light weight, a roofed enclosure is very important and they will

fare better in mild or warm climates.

Once you have your pullets—whether you raised them

from chicks or purchased young layers—caring for them is

simple. Like any animal, they need fresh, clean water every

day. Feeding and watering your hens is no more bothersome

than feeding and watering a couple of canaries or finches.

For food I recommend high protein layer pellets. I add a little cracked corn, but this is not necessary. The important thing

is that your chickens have access to fresh grass and bugs to

supplement the feed you give them. When your birds eat

grass and bugs, and lay eggs, and you eat those eggs, you take

the essence of the land around you into your own body. You

become one with the world.

As an added bonus, the grass and bugs are free.

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Other than feeding and watering your chickens, the only

other routine task you will have is cleaning out the henhouse.

This needs to be done once a week and will take about as

long as cleaning a bird cage. A pair of rubber gloves will

make this much more pleasant. Before first releasing your

birds into the coop, you will want to put absorbent bedding

in the nest boxes and on the floor of the henhouse. This can

be either straw or shredded wood chips. Each week you will

need to remove all of this (now mixed with chicken poop)

and replace it with clean bedding.

If you also have a garden for herbs or vegetables, clean-

ing the chicken coop will be a task you will not mind at all.

The Earth Mother loves poop, and you will come to love it,

too. Well, maybe you will not love it, but you will appreci-

ate it. The dirty bedding you remove from the henhouse is

the raw material that can transform your garden into a fer-

tile paradise.

First the dirty bedding must be composted. Chicken

poop has a high nitrogen content and will burn your plants

if applied directly to the soil. Composting is just a polite way of saying “making things rot”. A compost pile can be as simple as a mound of organic material. My grandfather used to

compost his grass clippings in this way, but he had plenty of

space for piles of grass clippings and was not in any hurry.

The rotting takes place at the center of the pile, so compost-

ing goes much faster if you can turn it occasionally and get

all of the material into the center.

I use a composting drum. These are very convenient, but

they are expensive to purchase. If money is an issue, it will

cost much less to build a square 3’ by 3’ bin out of used lum-

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ber. The bin does not need a bottom; four walls to contain

the compost is sufficient. Every week or so you will need to

turn the compost with a gardening fork. (With a composting

drum you just turn the crank and the whole drum rolls over.)

Put all of the dirty bedding into the compost bin. The

straw or shredded wood will rot along with the poop. Also

add any weeds you pull from your garden and any vegeta-

ble scraps from the kitchen. All of this will decompose and

blend together to become the magical ingredient that will

cause your garden to flourish. Spread the compost over your

garden in the autumn, tilling or digging it into the soil. A second application can be added in the spring before you begin

planting.

Beginning around the age of five months, your pullets

will begin laying eggs. If your birds have access to grass and bugs, you will probably notice that their eggs taste significantly better than “store bought” eggs.

I have been asked at what age a hen stops laying. The

answer is that she does not. After a few years an older hen

will lay noticeably fewer eggs, but she will continue to pro-

duce throughout her life.

EGG DIVINATION

With your own eggs, you can practice one of the oldest forms

of divination. It is a practice known variously as oomantia,

ovamancy, oloscopy or oomancy; divination with eggs. Some

people try this with eggs purchased from the supermarket,

but what significance does an egg like that have? You do not

know when it was laid, or where it came from. It is rather

like trying to construct an astrological chart without know-

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ing a person’s date or place of birth. When you collect an egg

from a nest box, you know exactly when and where it was

laid. When you hold the egg laid by one of your own chick-

ens, you hold that moment in time and space when it came

into the world.

The ancients had different techniques for practicing div-

ination with eggs, but the method most commonly used

today involves the interpretation of the shape that the white

of the egg takes when poured into water. To do this, heat a

cauldron with fresh water. If you do not have a cauldron, any

contemporary cooking pot will suffice. That is what a caul-

dron is, after all; a medieval pot.

Select an egg laid that same day, and pray to a god or god-

dess of your spiritual path for guidance. I pray to Woden

who is a master of divination and magic among the Saxon

deities. After your prayer, carefully break open the egg and

separate the white from the yolk.

Remove the cauldron from the fire or stove. The water

should be hot, but not boiling. Slowly pour the egg white

into the water. The white will of course be clear when you

pour it, but will quickly become white (which is why it is

called the “white”) and take on shapes as it cooks in the hot

water. Like cumulus clouds on a summer’s day, some of the

shapes will remind you of objects or creatures. Ignore mean-

ingless wisps of egg white and note only those shapes that

seem to resemble something.

Egg divination is like crystal gazing in that it is extreme-

ly subjective. A shape may mean one thing to you and some-

thing entirely else to another person, and the same shape

may mean different things to you at different times. The

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shape of a serpent, for example, could mean danger (if you

are afraid of snakes), or renewal (because a snake emerg-

es from its old skin) or good health (especially for Hellen-

ic Pagans, for whom the snake is a symbol of healing). The

shape of a hammer could equally represent either construc-

tion or destruction, because a hammer can be used to build

something or to break something apart. When you note a

significant shape, consider what that shape means to you
at
that very moment
.

What you do with the leftover yolk is your own business.

If the omen was good, you may want to cook the yolk and

eat it, taking the blessing into yourself. Obviously you do not want to do this if the omen was not so good.

NECTAR OF THE GODS

Keeping two or three chickens is easy, but it does require a

few minutes from you each day. If you want to go out of

town, even for a weekend, you will need to make arrange-

ments for somebody to feed and water your chickens, and

collect the eggs. If this is more than what you want to com-

mit yourself to, there is another animal even easier to keep

that can connect you with the earth’s cycles. No “livestock”

of any kind demands less attention than the honeybee!

As with chickens, many municipalities permit residents to

keep a hive of honeybees. Amateur beekeepers can be found

in some of our largest cities.

You might be thinking, “But they are creepy bugs!” Yes,

and they are creepy bugs that can sting you. For this reason

if no other, it is a good idea to take a beekeeping class before getting actively involved in this hobby. There is nothing intui-f 181 2

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tive (from our human perspective) about insect behavior. You

know what it means when a dog snarls, but can you tell what

a honeybee is likely to do? When a chicken is sick you will

usually notice that something is wrong, however, without

some basic education, you can stare at an entire hive of dying

bees and think they are doing fine.

Why keep bees? There are a few excellent reasons:

• Honey. (We might as well start with the obvious.) If you

brew mead—a fermented honey wine—there is noth-

ing so nice as using your own honey. Jars of your honey

also make great Yuletide presents for coven members,

co-workers and friends.

• Beeswax. The caps from your honeycomb can be saved

when you collect your honey. These can be melted

down and made into ritual candles (a subject we will be

discussing in a later chapter).

• To connect with the earth’s cycles. Beekeeping is yet

another way to sharpen your awareness of the world

around you. Although bees are very low maintenance,

you may need to provide them with water during a

drought. You will look forward to warm, sunny days

when it is easiest to approach the hive. Every change

in the environment will take on deeper significance for

you.

• Pollination. Fruit trees and many other flowering plants

need bees to help carry their pollen from flower to flow-

er.

• Entertainment. Keeping a hive of bees is much like

owning a miniature city! The more you learn about

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your bees, the more you will come to appreciate them.

Each bee in your “city” will have her own duties. Some

will be responsible for comb construction, while others

will manufacture beeswax. Some will air condition the

hive in the summer, others will care for the young and

still others will stand guard duty at the hive entrance.

Although bees need very little attention, you may find

yourself “checking the hive” just for the fun of seeing

what your bees are up to.

• A beekeeper can be the life of any party. For most peo-

ple, beekeeping is an exotic and interesting subject. It is

sort of like being an astronaut or a rock star, but with

far less work.

By keeping a hive of bees you can have a complex and

thriving matriarchy in your own back yard. Your mini-me-

tropolis can have a population exceeding fifty thousand