“Jimmy crack corn and I don’t care,
“Jimmy crack corn and I don’t care,
“Jimmy crack corn and I don’t care,
“My master’s gone away.”
If you’re as old as I am, you may remember this Negro spiritual. Mama Ida used to sing this to me when I was a child.
It is said that this was one of Abraham Lincoln’s favorite songs. There are several theories about the lyrics. One is that a slave boy named Jimmy cracked open a jug of his master’s corn liquor, but no one cared because the master was gone and wouldn’t be coming back.
Maybe, but what does this have to do with feeding birds?
Only that Southern States now sells a 4-pound bag of finely cracked corn for less than $4 and my ground feeding birds are loving life. The gourmet cracked corn is from Brown’s. A special cleaning process removes all dust and debris and the corn is ground into easy-to-eat pieces
Not many birds can swallow and digest a whole corn kernel of corn – crows, mostly. But all birds can eat finely cracked corn. The grain is full of high energy protein and carbs that help the birds get through the winter. I have been mixing the cracked corn with millet seeds and scattering it for the cardinals, jays, sparrows, nuthatches, woodpeckers, snowbirds, doves, and other birds that eat from the ground.
In fact, next time I scatter some cracked corn, ol’ Jimmy here, might just crack open a jug of his own bourbon. That is if my master’s gone away.
