Five Brothers and a War

1943—Food Supply Becoming Scarce

With the production of vegetables seemingly under control, attention was next turned to meat and eggs, which could be produced by building a chicken coop and inhabiting it with about 10-12 chickens. As long as they could get some chicken feed, in the form of maïze (“corn” in North America), the operation would be a success and they could start their own egg production. Corn, back then, was considered something only animals ate, so feeding it to chickens was not taking food from the table. Leendert bought all the materials for the chicken coop and on a Saturday afternoon Kees helped him build it. They built it along the fence in the backyard right behind the garden shed, based on information provided by Marie’s brother, Kees Sonneveld, who lived on the outskirts of Overschie, near Rotterdam. He had been keeping chickens for many years.

van Pelt

Kees Sonneveld also said they needed a rooster. “Eggs are better when they are fertilized,” he said. However, the ratio of ten chickens and one rooster, he found a little out of balance. His advice was that having a rooster with so few hens would reduce egg production. Leendert, being the inquisitive sort, needed to understand why that would be. “Why is that, Kees?” he asked his brother-in law. “Well” he replied, shoving his hat a bit further to the back of his head, very much aware he was getting on slippery ice, “this is how it works. Having an healthy, hormonal rooster, it would be better to have three times the number of hens than they had. With only ten, they would be so busy trying to get out of his way, they would not have time to lay eggs.” Leendert took a few moments to envision the situation, and then to digest it. Finally, having worked it all out, and without wasting words, responded, “I see!”

Five Brothers and a War

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