Back Up

[shanmonster]

My back is really sore. For a while, I thought it was because of the hour or two I'd spent bent awkwardly while preparing a sand casting. However, the pain is getting worse, and when I walk, each step jars through my filet mignons. My neck is starting to hurt, up close to my face. f00dave's back is also starting to hurt. A couple of days ago, snowy_kathryn's back was killing her. I think maybe we've all caught the horrible back-eating flu. Almost everyone has had it in the metal studio. It seems to involve vomiting and migraine headaches. I hope I don't have it. I also hope I don't get the pinkeye that's plaguing so many people in the metal studio. Yuck! Still, if I'm going to get sick, this is the time for it. All of my homework assignments are completed.

Then again, I'm dancing at Kathryn's handfasting on Saturday. Ok, so I don't dare get sick until after that!

The pigeon chronicles continue. Late last night, f00 scared away a pigeon that was roosting below the window. This morning, he found an unattended egg lying on the concrete. The egg shell had the faintest pink tint. It was very cold, and laying the egg must have been difficult, because there was a fair amount of blood on it. The ideal colour for rubies is pigeon's blood. Maybe Ms. Lemmiwinks was trying to lay a ruby.

In the meantime, Jubjub Bird sits implacably, surveying all with his plastic eyes.

Comments

[zombienought.livejournal.com]

Maybe it's meningitis? Or something toxic
in the workspace?

I had no idea that birds bled when they
laid eggs. Are they in need of episiotomies?

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

I think it's the flu with standard body aches.

Birds often bleed when they lay eggs. At least, chickens do. The eggs you buy in grocery stores have all been washed. When I collected eggs from the hen house, they often had blood and/or shit on them. The older a bird gets, the bigger its eggs become, too. The eggs you buy in grocery stores come from young birds. Mature hens can lay eggs about twice the size of extra large carton eggs.

[zombienought.livejournal.com]

Wow, that's a bit gross. I guess it
all comes from the same cloaca, so
the shit/blood thing makes sense.

However, when I had ducks, they laid
pristine eggs without any real need
for washing. The eggs were also much
bigger and tastier than store-bought
eggs.

I'm guessing older hens lay fewer eggs,
so get slaughtered when they start
producing larger eggs?

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

Older hens may start laying fewer eggs, but I know of hens well into their teens who laid eggs daily, and only slowed down in the weeks before their death.

[zombienought.livejournal.com]

Then why is it that grocery store eggs
remain of a small size? What happens
to the larger eggs?

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

They butcher the chickens before they get old enough to make the really big eggs.

[zombienought.livejournal.com]

So why do they butcher them at that age?
Do they get stringier? Do they die too
often due to their squalid living con-
ditions?

I'm seriously interested in this. Ever
since I saw a clip of the sexing and
debeaking of chicks, I've been trying
to spread the word.

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

The older the chicken, the stringier the meat. If memory serves me correctly, these "old" hens become broilers and roasting chickens.

I'm also guessing it's because the eggs of older hens are often strange-looking, and don't necessarily fit into cartons too well.

And yes, I'd bet that squalid living conditions probably have something to do with the chickens' early demise, too.

[cynebeah.livejournal.com]

Not the eggs that you buy at an Austrian grocery store - they still have the crap and feathers stuck to them. Yum! Extra protein.

Yes, if it's any compensation, my back is starting to kill me as well. I have pains shooting from my neck, through my ass, knees and ankle. It's grrrrrrrrrrrrrreat!! I'm hoping that my back doesn't go again so I won't have to go potty in a bucket.

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

Yum yum! It's just like home....

I hope you don't have to potty in a bucket anymore. That sucks enormously!

[cynebeah.livejournal.com]

Want me to save an egg with crap and feathers stuck on it just for you? ;-)
I had a friend from Ottawa visit here last summer and literally ran away screaming from the eggs covered in doo.

I hope I never have have to potty in a bucet ever again and I also hope that no one else that I know has to potty in a bucket. It's so not a good thing...

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

Was it Annbie?

[freakwoman.livejournal.com]

Holy crap! I hope you escape this thing, its cocktastic. I recommend you stock up on lots of juice and something that both reduces fever and is a good pain killer. That and plan to spend a lot of time in bed. You guys should come and see us some time soon, you can oogle the chinchlings and we can watch some movies.

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

I'm hoping whatever it is is leaving, posthaste. Although my back still aches, it isn't nearly as bad as it was, yesterday.

I'd love to come over to visit, sometime! When is good for you? We'll have to compare schedules....