Of Buzzing Bees and Crowing Cocks

One of the successes of the last garden season was the marketing of St. Mary’s on the Hill Wildflower Honey. In the late summer Mother and Sr. Maryeva packed 240 pints of honey for sale, and it was wildly successful. Many visitors came to the convent just to buy our honey!

We raised laying hens in an abandoned chicken house at our temporary garden site last summer. We learned that chickens are particularly fond of tomatoes and pumpkins, so they will not be invited back into future gardens! Their “mobile home” has been relocated several times and now resides behind the convent garage near where we plan to build a goat barn this summer.

We had purchased twenty layer chicks — ten Aracunas, five Rhode Island Reds and five Barred Rocks. After a loss to a predator and the adoption of an orphan American Black hen, our twenty have matured into (mostly) hens who lay brown and pastel green eggs. Two matured into beautiful cocks who kept the whole valley entertained with 3 A.M. crowing. The Aracuna male is gorgeous, sporting a flowing golden mane of feathers that makes him look very much like an old-style rock star. When you live in a hen house, don’t lay eggs, and make a lot of noise, it is helpful to be beautiful. Chanticleer survived the rooster cull this winter. We have even become fond of his version of the Matins vigil and Lauds.