When Chickens Quadruple Their Egg-laying

When Rose took over taking care of our chickens after Timmy became too busy with other projects, she began studying why our many chickens were only producing a few eggs.

Well, first, there were too many roosters. A flock of hens should only have one rooster per about 10 hens. Too many roosters keeps the hens flustered and their neck feathers pecked off, decreasing egg laying. So Rose and the boys put about 8 roosters into the freezer.  And right away there were two or three more eggs per day.

Next, Rose learned that the hens need calcium in order to lay well, so she bought oyster shells to feed them. I could tell within a day or two, that the calcium supplement was also making a difference in a tougher shell. I had to crack the eggs sometimes twice on the side of a bowl to get it to crack open while I made scrambled eggs. We also started getting a few more eggs a day!

Rose kept studying, and she learned that if you soak and/or cook their grains and serve them warm grains or mash, they eat more and lay better. So every evening she fills two big pots half full of wheat, corn, and other grain, and covers it with water. And they lay still more eggs!

Warm grains are especially helpful on cold winter days like today with icicles hanging off the chicken coop roof!

Finally Rose learned that if chickens drink plenty, they will lay more eggs. And to get them to drink more, you need to feed them something to make them thirsty! So she sprinkles liberal amounts of salt, cinnamon, and cayenne into their feed before cooking it up on our woodstove early in the morning!

The chickens love their spicy, salty feed and they reward Rose for her efforts by giving her lots and lots of eggs. Where they used to lay only 9 to 12 eggs a day a few weeks ago, now they are laying 36 to 42 eggs a day!

When we are unfruitful in our Christian walk, it would be good to study what may be wrong. Are there too many "roosters" in our lives? How many people are we trying to please? Are we keeping our priorities straight, limits on the unhealthy interactions in our lives? Healthy boundaries against encroaching others while being faithful to and caring for the ones we promised to cherish and love? Are we seeking and finding healing for hurts in our pasts so we can live fully and lovingly today?

Are we missing some essential ingredient in our Christian experience or walk with the Lord that would help us be more fruitful, more resolved, more steady, stronger and firmer in Him? Ingredients like patience, diligence, honesty, purity, openness, more of God's Word, making decisions based on principle rather than convenience?

Has our love for Christ grown cold? Would not a warmer love for Him result in more fruitfulness?

Have we enough thirst for God and for spiritual things? What would increase our thirst for Christ?

"Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled," and they shall also be fruitful.

"As the deer panteth for the water," as the hens eat their salty and spicy grains and become thirsty, "so my soul longeth after Thee, O God." 

What if He feeds us the hot spice of suffering, the cinnamon of difficulties, the salt of correction and chastisement to make us thirst for Him, and become more fruitful? What if during times of hardship we were simply quiet before Him, and right in the middle of the daily routines we would find that He is making us fruitful in different ways? He is increasing our dependence on Him, our love for Him, our desire toward Him. What if we move toward our family members, appreciate them more, serve them more? What if we reached out to others in ways we didn't think of before? What if we studied how to be more fruitful in Christ the way Rose studied how to help her hens produce more eggs?