Steamy Morning Broth

Chickens wear natural down coats and are well equipped for cold weather, they do quite well in the winter.  That being as it is, still when we look out at our chickens in the frosty morning forest, we know that they will be all the warmer inside their coats with a good serving of this nutritious steamy broth.

In the evenings as I fish the chickens down out of the trees, and get then settled into their coops, Jin puts a big pot of water on the stove. She puts in some seaweed meal, alfalfa and beet pellets, some fish meal, brussel sprout leaves or other garden vegetables * along with some soybean meal.  It simmers awhile and then waits till morning.
When the cocks crow**, Jin goes down and warms the broth back up, and brews up our coffee.   When the broth is warmed up she pours off the broth into bowls***  that we set around the yard, so all the chickens can get some.
Then we can enjoy our coffee inside, and watch our chickens drinking broth, and exhaling steam.

Now if they don't get their soup they come and peck on the windows.  It's kind of scary, so we don't skip the soup very often.

 * Recient batches have included generous amounts of winter squash
** 9 grown roosters & 1 adolesent roo who is just getting his voice, and sleeps in the livingroom for now
*** We save the solids for their mash