13 posts tagged “chickens”

Well, the chickens are in the basement and they are PISSED. I have them in a dog crate linked to a dog exercise pen, covered with towels so they don't fly out, and of course they're flinging pine shavings all over the place. It's still too cold for them to go back out (they could handle the cold but their water freezes too quickly), so they'll be staying the night in the basement one more time. It's -10 right now, and the low for tonight is -4, so they can't go back out yet. But tomorrow, they'll be back in their coop, and much happier...

My hens ate a frog tonight!

I let them out for a while to roam and stretch their legs, and while I was watering the garden I saw Ophelia go streaking through the yard with something enormous dangling from her beak. All the other hens were running after her to get a piece. At first I thought it was a baby bird, but then I saw its legs....ewwwww. A frog for sure. They picked it clean. NASTY!!!

 

I've spent all day working in the yard. It felt heavenly! And what an absolutely bizarre day it's been...

First, I planted some seedlings in the front beds. I planted malva 'Zebrina' and aubrieta close to the door. The malvas will grow tall (3-4') and be covered in daisy-like white flowers with purple veins. The aubrieta is a low-growing ground cover that's covered in bright pink flowers in spring; it probably won't bloom until next year since it's a perennial.

 

 

While I was busy planting these seedlings, Patrick noticed turkey vultures in the cornfield across the street. They were picking at something, so we grabbed the binoculars and discovered they were dining on a rabbit. Ick. Necessary creatures, but still...ick.

While we're watching the turkey vultures, we turn to our left, and standing in our driveway is a gigantic bird of some sort, like nothing we'd ever seen. At first, because it had pink wattles and a pink comb, we think it's a turkey vulture baby...but something about it looked like a game bird. Its shape and movement all looked game-birdy to me. 

I grabbed the camera and took a few pics while it was squawking up a storm, apparently unable to figure out how to get itself off the driveway for a good ten minutes or so. 

 

After a few minutes, our little friend finally ran rather than flew into our back yard and under the shelter of a spruce tree.

A few moments later, here comes another one! Now there are TWO! 

 

Our initial thought was that these two might be fledglings taking their first walk out of the nest, but they looked too mature. I ran into the house and grabbed a field guide, and discovered that the birds were common peafowl, an upland game bird...and probably escapees from a zoo! They've formed a feral population in southern Florida, according to the field guide, but aren't known anywhere else. I plan on sending their pics to Cornell's ornithology lab for confirmation and also so they can record their presence here.

 

While we're watching them stroll through our yard and reading about common peafowl, in swoops a hawk, looking for some easy lunch. I swear, it was like a freaking PBS special between the turkey vultures, the zoo escapees, and now the damn Cooper's hawk coming in to complete life's magical cycle right before our eyes. I saw the hawk before the peafowl did, and started running toward the birds. The hawk took off but didn't go far; I'm sure he (small, so likely a male) was waiting very close by.

Meanwhile, the peafowl kept veering a little too close to my vegetable beds, and they also seemed intrigued by the chickens (who did NOT like the new kids on the block, and proceeded to ogle and bug-AWK!!! at them when the peafowl came up to their run). I decided to chase the interlopers back toward the stream on our property...lest they be eaten by my dogs, eaten by the neighbor's Lab, or lest they devour my vegetable seedlings. They ran all the way back to the stream, squawking and screaming, and then Patrick called me to show me their nest...they were a mating pair! They'd created a nest directly next to our driveway, a deep cup shape behind a large shrub. I feel bad that we ran them off the nest, but my dogs most certainly would have killed them if we hadn't shooed them from the driveway area. They couldn't have been there more than a few days and there were no eggs in the nest.

After all the birdie hullabaloo, I went back to planting, working in a bed I've never done anything with. It's the one my office window looks out on, and we've just tried to keep it clear of weeds for the past four years. Now that I have thousands of seedlings waiting for new homes, I cleared a portion of that bed and put in some California poppies, mixed bachelor buttons, black bachelor buttons, and Jolly Jester French marigolds. My goal for this bed is a population of flowers that reseeds so they can bring themselves back every year. These are all self-sowing flowers. 

 

In case you couldn't tell, winter sowing has been a rousing success. I have a total of about 80 containers right now and will likely do 15-20 more, now that I have more containers (thanks to my friend Lori who casually raided her neighbors' recycling bins). The number of seedlings I have right now would have cost me thousands of dollars at a nursery, and that's no exaggeration considering that ten nursery plants usually costs about $50 here. Except for the occasional treat, I see no reason to ever buy nursery plants again...not when I can produce plants like this! 

Here's some of what I have yet to plant:

 

 

 

 

Happy spring, everyone!

I've had too many eggs for about a week now; this morning, I had more than three dozen in the fridge. One dozen was "aging" because fresh eggs don't hardboil well and I wanted some hardboiled eggs, but I couldn't figure out what the heck to do with the other two dozen (family all lives a minimum of 30 minutes away, and I just haven't had time to bring anyone a batch).

So, I cooked four eggs, shells and all, and fed them back to the girls (this is not only okay, it's extremely good for them). I baked a batch of liver brownies for the dogs for our dog show this weekend, and that used another four. I fed the dogs raw eggs with their dinner last night. I ate two for lunch today (made ranch eggs...yum). I still had too many left, so I put a dozen on Freecycle.

I'll be darned...I had 6 or 7 requests for those eggs, and I had two people email me off-list to tell me that they'd love to buy eggs from me! Apparently, everyone else knows that truly farm-fresh eggs (not those fakey-fake meaningless labels they put on eggs in the store) taste a whole lot better. I really had no idea until I had my own chickens. Someone came tonight and picked up a dozen, and she was thrilled to get them. She said she remembered eating fresh eggs as a kid and the taste is truly superior. She complained about how flavorless the yolks of store-bought eggs are.

I want more chickens...

It's bitter cold today, about 16 degrees outside, with the wind chill hovering around 7 degrees. I was very worried about the chickens last night because the temps were in the single digits and the wind chill was right around 0. There are icicles hanging off the side of the coop roof. The girls have a heat lamp in the coop that's doing a good job keeping the temperature right around freezing, and they're protected from the wind in their cozy little coop, but I still worry. I just went out and added bedding to the coop, changed their water (they LOVE when I put warm water in their waterer!) and fed them some leftover artichoke-feta linguine. They had a blast horking down the noodles and running all over their little coop, trying to snarf them down as fast as possible so they don't have to share.

Rosie, one of the Dominiques, was pissed because she was busy laying an egg in the nest box while I was doing these chicken chores; she was whining the whole time, wishing I'd just go away. She's such an unpleasant little girl, my least favorite, and my least regular layer, too. Ruby, on the other hand, laid her egg while I was out there with a cute little chicken "grrrrrmmmmmmph" and the fiercest look of chicken determination I've ever seen, then hopped right out of the box so I could take her egg.

We gave eggs to my in-laws this week and they were a big hit. My MIL, who could easily stand in for Martha Stewart with both her cooking and decorating skills, really enjoyed them. I had hyped up the superior taste, so I was relieved that she liked them so much. Especially since I'll be sending more her way; we're getting about two dozen eggs a week, far more than we can eat on our own. It's fun to give them away. I think next year, depending on how everyone is laying, I might add one or two more chickens to our little flock; I want Ameraucanas, which are also known as "Easter Eggers" because they lay aqua blue eggs!

Off to make bread, by hand this time...

This fall, I decided to start making my own bread. I was tired of paying $4 a loaf for delicious organic bread that went to waste because there are only two of us in the house, and I'm also trying to produce as much of our own food as possible. (Eggs from our own chickens: check. Vegetable garden: in the planning stages for this spring. Vegetables frozen and stored from this summer's farmer's market: check. Compost pile: steaming as I write. Homemade cheese: on the agenda for summer, after I graduate. Homemade bread? Check. I went out and bought a bread machine.)

I know, the bread purists are probably horrified by bread machines, but the machines make homemade bread a lot more accessible for those of us with busy lives. And I'm now ready to dabble in truly homemade bread; I plan on making a loaf tomorrow, from scratch. But the bread machine is still a wondrous and beautiful thing.

Since I bought our machine (a Breadman, which I love), I've made all different kinds of breads; occasionally we get a dud loaf that just isn't good (due to the recipe, not the machine), but most of them turn out pretty well. Patrick and I have gotten hooked on a few favorites that I make regularly, but our all-time favorite is rosemary bread. It smells delightful while it's baking, and while it's tasty sliced and eaten fresh, it's out of this world when it's toasted or grilled. For lunch today I made a grilled cheese with good-quality sharp Cheddar on rosemary bread, and I swear it was the best grilled cheese I have ever eaten. I could eat it every day for the rest of my life, I think. 

 

 

Here's the recipe for the bread, if anyone out there in Voxland has a bread machine and wants to try making this. I promise it's worth it.

Rosemary Bread

(add ingredients to bread pan in the following order)

1 c. water

3 tbsp. olive oil

1 1/2 tsp. white sugar

1 1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. Italian seasoning

1/4 tsp. ground black pepper

1 tbsp. dried rosemary

2 1/2 c. bread flour

1 1/2 tsp. active dry yeast

Select the white bread cycle, light crust, 1.5 lb. loaf. Enjoy! 

So Christmas is over. We had a good holiday...some years, it seems like the family time is exhausting, the commitments are overwhelming, the pressure to buy buy buy for everyone is crazy, etc., etc. But this year worked out just fine.

Thanks to my buddy LaidOutInLavender, we made our gifts this year instead of buying for everyone. Patrick and I made bars of soap (honey almond oat, jasmine chamomile and peach apricot) and then two pans of the most decadent brownies ever created (loaded with chocolate chips, marshmallows and nuts). Making the soap was a lot of fun, although it did make my allergies and asthma kick into overdrive from all the scents. I ended up in a heap on the couch for the rest of the day after we made the soap because I couldn't breathe. The brownies were a bit of an adventure too, because I had issues with the eggs from my girls; they're smaller eggs than you get in the grocery store, but their weight is identical to large grocery-store eggs, and it caused all sorts of confusion for me with conversion. But it worked out okay in the end, and the brownies were a hit. Thanks, Lydia!!

My mom and sort-of-stepdad (mom's boyfriend) came down on Sunday and stayed with us; they're very easy houseguests and don't require much, so we had a wonderful time. My mom helped me collect eggs on Sunday, which just amused her to no end. We had brunch on Christmas Eve and then they stayed for the rest of the day, until Patrick and I had to leave for his family's house around dinnertime. Once we got there, we opened gifts before dinner, and my SIL (mother of Big Head) bought me the game CatchPhrase, and we all played after dinner...what a scream! If you haven't played this game, you must get it...it's great for big family gatherings or parties. My MIL made a heavenly pan of vegetable lasagne, just for me (everyone else ate regular lasagne with meat in it), and I even got to take some home for lunch on Christmas. My little nephew, Big Head, had fun playing in his wrapping paper; he wasn't really interested in the gifts, but he sure did like the boxes and the tissue paper and plastered them over his head and rolled them into tight balls. My other SIL (hubby's sister) gave us a book of photos from their wedding in October, and also a subscription to Mother Earth News (yeah!!!). My in-laws gave me a great cookbook by the vegetarian cooking guru Deborah Madison. We had a wonderful time.

Christmas was just for hubby and me and the dogs; it was wonderful to relax and do absolutely nothing all day. Patrick put together his new TV, a gift from his parents. I didn't really want to use our Christmas money for a TV, but our old television was in pretty rough shape...the plastic casing was falling off the front and the screen was blurry and unfocused. In our ten years of being married, we've never bought a TV, instead using the one he had in college and then eventually his grandma's after she passed away, so I guess we were due. The picture is so crystal-clear; I thought HD was a scam until I saw this. It's like a movie theater! It also has some special audio leveling thing that keeps commercials at the same volume as whatever show you're watching, so the commercials don't scream at you. It's great! 

The dogs got new chewies and two stuffed pigs for Christmas, and they had fun fighting over those all day. We took them to our favorite metropark late in the afternoon and hiked on the trail; it was beautiful, sunny and 40 degrees, and it felt good to walk after eating so much bad food for days on end. It was a little muddy and the dogs ended up with a bunch of burrs on their feet, but it was still worth it. 

I spent the afternoon reading this, a gift from my sister:

This is a great book of quotes and sentiments by famous thinkers, politicians, scientists, etc. on the ridiculousness of religion and God. The book freaked my mom out and even when I shared some of the more innocuous quotes she felt inclined to argue, so I saved it for reading on Christmas Day (no irony there, huh?).

So that was our Christmas. Nothing too eventful or wild, just a relaxing time with family and food.

We got another egg this morning, light tan with white speckles at the pointy end. Very pretty!

Patrick and I scrambled our little egg last night and it was the most divine egg I've ever eaten. The yolk was a deep orange, like cheese, which is a sign of a healthy, happy pullet that's getting plenty of nutrients, fresh air and sunlight; the yolk was also shaped liked a bubble, rather than flat like the yolks of old grocery store eggs. If you have yellow, flat yolks, your eggs aren't fresh...and this describes literally ALL grocery-store eggs. The shell was so hard that it was a little difficult to crack, another sign of a healthy pullet. And the taste...oh my goodness, the taste is totally different. We've been getting fresh organic eggs from a farmer who lives a couple miles from us, and they were pretty darn good--but this is SOOOO much better! I always thought that an egg was an egg was an egg. No way! You can truly taste the difference!

I'm hoping that we get enough eggs around Christmas (we have four pullets) to make Cheddar Pie for Christmas Eve brunch...I'm keeping my fingers crossed. What a fun adventure this has been, and I'm so thankful that we got our girls. Next spring, we plan to start growing as much of our own food as we can. The closer we get to truly sustainable living, the better.

I have waited for this day for six long months. One of my chickens finally laid an egg today!

For the last few days, things have been a little weird in the coop. Zipper, one of the Dominiques, was nesting in the nest box yesterday and looked very much like she might lay an egg. I checked on them ALL DAY yesterday, but no egg. The other girls kept crowding around her and watching, very curious, and they all took turns hopping in the box with her. Ophelia, the Golden-laced Wyandotte, tried cramming herself between the nest box and the wall, a very tight space. It all looked very "nesty" in there. This morning when I went outside to let them out and put more bedding in the nest box, however, they all just stood around, very ho-hum and practically yawning with boredom, and nobody showed any interest in the nest box at all. I checked several times throughout the morning, but nothing. I was cursing them all day today...they're already about a month behind schedule for starting to lay!

This afternoon, Patrick and I decided to go to the library, and when I went outside to close up the girls in their coop, I checked the nest box again. No eggs. I lured them in with their treat and they began gobbling away, and then I went around to the front of the coop to close the chicken door for the night. Lo and behold, right in front of the gate to the run was a little brown egg! Just plopped there in the mud, covered in dirt and pine shavings, all by its lonesome. I couldn't believe it! I picked it up and ran inside to show Patrick, then washed it off and popped it in the fridge. I have no idea who laid it, but I'm pretty sure it was either Rosie or Zipper, one the Dominiques. I'm about to scramble it and sample my little delicacy. It looks much bigger in the pictures than it really is. It's about half the size of a grocery store eggs (pullets--female chickens under a year old--lay small eggs for a while, while they "grow up").

 

 

Wahooooooo!!!

 

What a gorgeous morning it is out there. Here are some pictures I took, so that you all can enjoy our snow day too!

 

 

 

And of course, the Scotties had a blast in the snow. This was Peach's first snow--she was a baby last winter, too small to go outside--and she thinks snow is the best thing EVER. She uses her long head like a snow plow. Here she is:

 

 

The Scotties caught the scent of something rodent-y under the snow behind the garden, and promptly set to work trying to unearth it:

 

And of course, this is the first time the chickens have seen snow....and they are NOT amused. I opened up the coop so that they could peek outside, and they refused to come out, true to their suspicious birdy natures. It was hilarious, watching the torment on their faces. They know I bring them treats, and they wanted to come out to me so badly, but they just couldn't. Ruby is always the bravest, and she almost came out, but she just couldn't. I can see their coop right now from my office window as I type, and they still haven't set foot outside. Ha! 

 

 

 

So now we're all inside, and I've started a fire and the dogs are confined to the breezeway until they lose all their crusty snowballs that are attached to their undersides. We're going to sit in the breezeway and watch the birdfeeders and enjoy nature's show...