DON'T COUNT YOUR CHICKENS UNTIL THEY'RE HATCHED
“What does that have to do with the price of eggs?” A saying often heard when I was growing up, that I find myself still using. It means merely that what one is saying has nothing to do with the topic we are supposedly discussing.
Being so old I find there are many new phrases that are total “GreeK” to me as my comments are to the younger generation. One I use freely is “don’t count your chickens until they are hatched.” That is probably very confusing to many so decided while I am “killing time” I will talk about chickens and how the saying is very appropriate.
There was an era when many people had chickens and they came about the natural way....not with incubators where one could buy them already hatched. That actually was happening when I was a child and before. but I am still well acquainted with the natural method.
To raise chickens the natural way you needed hens and at least one rooster so the eggs would be fertile. While we always kept our chickens in a chicken house many did not. They put them in a house at night if possible to protect them from the other animals that enjoyed the taste of chickens. However, in the daytime they roamed about at will. That part was always a bit difficult because the chicken, duck and especially goose poop was quite yucky and walking through it was rather like tiptoeing through the tulips.
But to go on. In situations like that when the she decided it was time to be a mother, (which came at certain cycles) she would find a secret hideaway, and it might be anywhere. If the owners were alert enough they would keep them in the chicken house for that process but often they might nest in their own secret spot.
My Mom who loved and mostly cared for our chickens would watch for those broody hens, then off with their heads and we had chicken for supper. That was not the way of many though - so the wait would begin. First the mama hen had to get her nest full of eggs which took some time at an egg a day and then start to sit on them for three weeks waiting for them to hatch. So the pioneers and all in the past patiently waited to see how many chicks would come from those ten or twelve eggs.
As we are currently isolated we need that kind of patience for sure...perhaps that is a phrase we could invent for this time??
One never knew if the hen would be faithful enough to sit as much as she should or if the eggs would be properly fertile or the weather would create issues so the phrase “don’t count your chickens until they are hatched” had a true meaning.
So you see it is a valid phrase to be used in many situations. Currently it is very appropriate for many plans have been totally destroyed during this corona virus situation. Whether it is monetary or plans of other things until it is accomplished it is still like those eggs....can’t count as chickens until they are running around peeping.
That goes along with my favorite phrase when someone asks if I will do something and I use the phrase “If the Good Lord’s willing and the creeks don’t rise.” The scriptures are clear on this too for in James 4:13 we are admonished “Come now, you who say, today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, and spend a year there and carry on business and make money....you do not know a thing about tomorrow.
We definitely are experiencing this now, so may we all have the patience of an old hen as she patiently awaits her chicks and know from this time what really is demonstrated by the phrase.....”Don’t count your chickens until they are hatched.” God Bless Catherine
“What does that have to do with the price of eggs?” A saying often heard when I was growing up, that I find myself still using. It means merely that what one is saying has nothing to do with the topic we are supposedly discussing.
Being so old I find there are many new phrases that are total “GreeK” to me as my comments are to the younger generation. One I use freely is “don’t count your chickens until they are hatched.” That is probably very confusing to many so decided while I am “killing time” I will talk about chickens and how the saying is very appropriate.
There was an era when many people had chickens and they came about the natural way....not with incubators where one could buy them already hatched. That actually was happening when I was a child and before. but I am still well acquainted with the natural method.
To raise chickens the natural way you needed hens and at least one rooster so the eggs would be fertile. While we always kept our chickens in a chicken house many did not. They put them in a house at night if possible to protect them from the other animals that enjoyed the taste of chickens. However, in the daytime they roamed about at will. That part was always a bit difficult because the chicken, duck and especially goose poop was quite yucky and walking through it was rather like tiptoeing through the tulips.
But to go on. In situations like that when the she decided it was time to be a mother, (which came at certain cycles) she would find a secret hideaway, and it might be anywhere. If the owners were alert enough they would keep them in the chicken house for that process but often they might nest in their own secret spot.
My Mom who loved and mostly cared for our chickens would watch for those broody hens, then off with their heads and we had chicken for supper. That was not the way of many though - so the wait would begin. First the mama hen had to get her nest full of eggs which took some time at an egg a day and then start to sit on them for three weeks waiting for them to hatch. So the pioneers and all in the past patiently waited to see how many chicks would come from those ten or twelve eggs.
As we are currently isolated we need that kind of patience for sure...perhaps that is a phrase we could invent for this time??
One never knew if the hen would be faithful enough to sit as much as she should or if the eggs would be properly fertile or the weather would create issues so the phrase “don’t count your chickens until they are hatched” had a true meaning.
So you see it is a valid phrase to be used in many situations. Currently it is very appropriate for many plans have been totally destroyed during this corona virus situation. Whether it is monetary or plans of other things until it is accomplished it is still like those eggs....can’t count as chickens until they are running around peeping.
That goes along with my favorite phrase when someone asks if I will do something and I use the phrase “If the Good Lord’s willing and the creeks don’t rise.” The scriptures are clear on this too for in James 4:13 we are admonished “Come now, you who say, today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, and spend a year there and carry on business and make money....you do not know a thing about tomorrow.
We definitely are experiencing this now, so may we all have the patience of an old hen as she patiently awaits her chicks and know from this time what really is demonstrated by the phrase.....”Don’t count your chickens until they are hatched.” God Bless Catherine
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