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Saturday, May 6, 2017

The Chicken Waterer


I bid on this chicken waterer last week at an auction.
I see them every once in a while and think they are
not only interesting but easy to repurpose in a decorative
way.  Well, I have a collection of glass eggs, so that
seemed like the perfect combination.  
I think the chickens would approve! 

This city girl has learned a lot about country life by
working at and attending auctions.  My first learning
came from a friend talking about 'nesting boxes' and
I thought she was talking about what I had at home...
pretty floral hat boxes that are graduated in size and
can nest inside each other!  Well, no, she meant the
little cubicles in the hen house where chickens actually
have nests and lay their eggs!

The second one was about the white eggs in the photo.
I was working an auction and spied these beautiful 
white glass eggs among the auction items.
I'd never seen any before...obviously old, hand-blown
and so pretty!  I had to have them!
I was amazed when it came time to bid on them that
nobody else wanted them!  The old farmers didn't seem
impressed at all and I got them for the opening bid of
$2.50.  Turns out that they aren't really decorative at all,
but are standard useful farm equipment!  They are egg
decoys, slipped into each hen's nest as the real eggs
are gathered.  They fool the hen into thinking her eggs
are still there and she won't be upset that someone
took away her eggs.  She will sit on the decoys and even
lay more eggs.  Who knew?  

And the third thing was the chicken waterer.
Funny how all of these things have to do with chickens!
The jar is filled with water, the galvanized tray screwed on 
and when you turn it upside down, the trough fills with 
water and the chickens can gather around and drink.  
I've seen several over the years but liked this one because 
it was small and the glass had that pretty embossed detail.

Isn't that fun?
Cluck cluck!





31 comments:

  1. I love all your "Chicken" decor and now to hear a few new things. I was aware of most growing up with chickens, but the white glass eggs...that was new to me. It looks darling with the straw and eggs. What a lovely piece. Cluck, Cluck indeed.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Now I just need to find a place to display it! haha.

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    2. How about The Mister building a chicken run, get some chickens, put some water in it, and display it in there? Now there's a novel idea! No need to thank me. Ha!

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    3. I know you can't have real livestock in the suburbs because of the smell and noise (The chickens would soon get used to that anyway!). I meant get some ceramic chicks.

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    4. Well, there's a novel idea! :)

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  2. What a very fun piece! I wish my grandma had had some of those white glass eggs when I was a kid going to the chicken house with her every day. Maybe some of the chickens wouldn't have been so quick to peck at me. haha

    I've learned a lot about different things from reading here at your blog, Betsy...and it is so fun to have someone who enjoys auctions as much as I do!

    I'm so glad that Sterling knows where he can go when it rains. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. People that don't go to auctions just don't know what they're missing, do they? :) So fun!
      The egg decoys are really a great idea, aren't they? Yes, everyone gathering eggs needs a few of these!

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  3. that is fun. thanks for teaching me a bit about chickens. That is a wonderful display you have put together. Can you have chickens where you live? We can have 5 hens and a rooster but I am
    not going there.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No, we can't have chickens within the city limits....too bad...I'd be tempted! But I can't imagine trying to keep cats out of the coop...oh my! We are just inside the village but several farms just minutes away offer fresh eggs.

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  4. Hi Betsy - farmers et al are inventive, while you are creative ... wonderful to see ... cheers Hilary

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  5. I only learned about these things after marrying my farmer husband and we started raising chickens when the kids were young! We didn't have any glass eggs, but did have an egg-sized cowrie shell in one of the nesting boxes.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well, I know exactly what a cowrie shell is! That's perfect!

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  6. Why did the chicken cross the road?
    To get to the auction where Betsy was bidding!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. hahahaha....exactly! Maybe she wanted her eggs back. haha.

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  7. Your post reminds me of childhood. My grandparents kept a few chickens and I remember the ceramic eggs in their nesting boxes. You're very clever at repurposing things attractively.

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    Replies
    1. What a fun thing to remember about your childhood! love that!

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  8. When someone calls you a chicken
    They may mean you have lots of chicken knowledge for brain pickin'
    Never knew the fake egg swap
    As out it causes more to plop

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    Replies
    1. Pretty neat trick
      to make them lay lickety split!

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  9. You have picked up a lot about farm life! We had one brown speckled hen who NEEDED those fake eggs. She would HURT YOU if she thought her eggs were gone. None of the others seemed to care one way or another. I always admired her fierceness to protect her eggs/family. ;) But, did NOT like her wrath as a child. LOL! blessings ~ tanna
    ps you've made standard farm equipment beautiful decor.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I have a feeling the chickens that fussed about the egg gathering were the ones that
      inspired the decoys! haha. Nobody wants to gather eggs at their own peril! haha.

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  10. I remember filling these with my granddad when I was a little girl. I had never hear about those decoy eggs though, very interesting.

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    Replies
    1. Isn't that interesting that some who kept eggs knew about them and some didn't? Even on other sides of the world.

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  11. Having older friends who lived on a farm south of us, I did see their white nesting eggs and had one in my possession for a while. We had glass chicken waterers and I hope that it got moved with my things to the new place. I never thought about decorating with it but I sure have fruit jars that will work with it.

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    Replies
    1. Hope you can find your old waterer and display it some how. Maybe with your marble collection!

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  12. My niece and also good friends of ours raise chickens. I've learned a lot from them. We now eat multi colored eggs. Let me know if you need chicks. 😉

    ReplyDelete
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    1. I would love to have chicks! But we can't have them inside the village limits. And besides...can you see my cats with chicks? They are bird hunters already....wouldn't be good! haha.

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  13. Very interesting about the decoy eggs.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Isn't it? So many funny stories about how I learned the country ways....

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  14. I love those old jars, and the baby biddies circled round to drink. Those and the long pierced-top feeders with just enough room in each space for a hungry little head---I can just smell the crushed-corn "chops" and the dry dusty feathery scent of a hen-house right now.

    Gathering eggs, you'd have to lift each one, hefting it to measure its weight, so you'd leave the china one in the nest, for they were all equally warm. Its oddly dumb and endearing, all at once, that the mama hen will adopt cold glass and tend it as if it were her own.

    Would that some families would be as receptive.

    rachel

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    Replies
    1. Oh yes...if only!

      You know MUCH more about these things than me! I would have loved growing up on a farm...somehow I missed my calling there.

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