Chicken Drama

Apparently, feather-sexing in mixed breed chickens does NOT work.  Two out of three babies turned out to be roos.  At eleven weeks old, one of the roos viciously attacked the little hen. Poor Rose lost all the feathers, and much of the flesh, from her head and neck.  She is now in isolation, trying to heal.  While I tried to catch her, the roo continued to attack.  I had to hit him with a broom a few times to keep him away.  Awful!

It's been a few days, and Rose is doing well.  She is alert with no signs of infection.  We continue to keep her isolated from the other hens to keep them from picking at it.  The roos have been evicted, and are now living at a friend's farm.

In the meantime, Lucy has gone broody again. She is sitting on eight eggs, due to hatch around July 17.  I have no intention of keeping any of the babies.  At about 5 or 6 weeks, whenever she is done "mothering" them, all the babies will go to the farm.

Baby Chicks

Lucy, our gorgeous Salmon Faverolle hen, went "broody" in March.  She was obsessed with sitting on eggs and trying to hatch them. Without a rooster in the yard, we knew her efforts would be met with failure. After watching her determination, we decided to help her out. A friend donated fertilized eggs, and on March 26, the incubation began.  Lucy faithfully sat on those eggs - leaving the nest only once a day to stretch and grab a bite.  Each day I'd check on things and usually found her with extras. Fortunately, we marked the 6 fertilized eggs and knew which ones didn't belong.  I'm not sure if the other hens were laying them in the nest with her, or if she was stealing them from the other nesting box, but I consistently found 7 or 8 eggs in Lucy's care.

April 14, we noticed a little hole in one of the eggs. We could hear the little baby chirping inside! After about 4 hours - our first little chick, a French Blue Copper Maran, had hatched.  In the morning, we found another freshly hatched babe, and an egg pipping.  We ended up with just 3 out of 6 hatching - but all 3 very healthy.  

If feather-sexing techniques work, we are quite certain they are all girls. Lucky us! Living in the city, we are unable to keep roosters, so any boy babies would have been re-homed after a few weeks.  In a few more weeks, we will know for sure.  Preliminary girl's names have already been chosen - Rose, Donna and Amelia. Yes, Doctor Who fans, these are three of The Doctor's companions. 

It has been fascinating to watch Lucy care for her babies. She's a great mom, and of course, all of this is natural instinct.  

You can watch the series of videos with Donna hatching here:

It's a snowy day - time to write!

Lately, I've been "bitten" by the Pinterest bug.  I thought StumbleUpon was the devil - until I discovered Pinterest. Holy Cow!  LOVE IT.

I've filled boards with gorgeous, colorful pictures of things I like - food, crochet projects, artsy-craftsy things I will never have time for but wish I did.  It's a dream and a nightmare all in one. (But more of a dream, for sure.)

Stumble Upon is the Devil

Yup, it is. Don't sign up for it - it will suck away all your time.

I've been stumbling around the internet lately, looking at projects other people are crocheting. It reminded me that I used to make lovely things, too.  It's been years. Seriously.  

So guess what I'm doing now? That's right - I've got a huge bag of vibrant yarn and I'm working on a new blanket. I think it's turning out quite nice.  This photo doesn't really do it justice. 

Pictures from Summer 2011

I'm having a hard time transitioning to fall.  Don't get me wrong - I love the change in seasons. I guess I'm just not ready for summer to end.  

We picked 42 pounds of strawberries and made multiple batches and varieties of jams:  strawberry, strawberry rhubarb, strawberry vanilla, strawberry rum, and strawberry rum syrup.  

We also made amazing strawberry sorbet, with my new Cuisinart Ice Cream/Frozen Yogurt Maker.  I'm wondering why I waited so long to buy that.  OMG. I felt compelled to test as many ice creamy things as possible, so we had lemon, raspberry and strawberry sorbets, lemon frozen yogurt, vanilla ice cream, and chocolate chip ice cream.  I'm hooked.

I've still got a gallon ziploc bag of strawberries in the freezer - waiting for the middle of winter - when I need to remember summer.   

Seriously delicious.  We will be making this again. And again. 

Chickens!  Hey, how did they get in here?

These garden shots are from the middle of summer, when everything was big, green and lush.  Pictures from today are not so pretty.  I've still got a few things to harvest:  basil, carrots, and butternut squash.  But really, it's over. 

The garden was decent this year, although not as productive as I would have liked.
Increasing productivity is on my reading/research list for winter.  Next year, I'm not even trying summer squash.  No squash vine borers will be fed in my yard. Hopefully, the year off will get rid of them.  I'm tired of building up my hopes, only to be frustrated and disappointed by no zucchini.  

Broccoli plants early in summer. . .

Fresh broccoli is amazing.

No shortage of cucumbers from the garden, and that means pickles - lots and lots of pickles! I like to use a Bread 'N Butter recipe, but make it a little less sweet than normal.  And, I love sweet onions with the cukes.  Some jars even got a few hot peppers to liven things up.   

My first attempt at homemade ricotta cheese:

Simmering the milk & cream with the juice of half a lemon.You can see the curds and whey separate. Turn it off and allow to cool.  Strain in cheesecloth, collecting the whey in a bowl.  My dogs thought it was the best treat ever.   In the winter, I'll use the whey in homemade bread.  

Stuffed shells with homemade ricotta and sauce from the garden. Mmmmmm. Yes, it was as delicious as it looks.  I will never buy ricotta from the store again.  This was just too easy, and absolutely superior.  

For the first time ever, I made Sweet & Hot Pepper Jelly.  It is so beautiful!  And I really did it from scratch.   I made apple jelly from the skins and cores of apples I picked at a local farm.  The good parts went into our first apple crisp of the season.  I love that I could use the "unusable" parts this way before composting. I chose to start with apple jelly so that I wouldn't need to add in pectin. To the apple jelly, I added chopped sweet red peppers and a variety of hot green peppers.  

Canning reduced the heat of the peppers a little bit, but overall, this is a great condiment.  We've been  using it as a dip for cream cheese wontons and egg rolls.  I also like it with cream cheese on crackers.  Yummo. 

And we have EGGS!

A lot has happened since those little chicks have been here.  They are now 21 weeks old.  At 18 weeks, Martha laid her first egg.

I love how perfect and beautiful it is! Martha is an Australorp, and so far, she has laid 6 eggs.  One of the first was gifted to our neighbor, Michael.

When Michael was just 10, he was hit by a car. The injuries were severe and traumatic, and he has been confined to a wheelchair ever since.  At 57 years old, Michael loves to sit in the driveway, near the fence and watch the chickens run around, scratch in the dirt, and do chicken things.  Martha is his favorite.

Here is Martha's egg with a jumbo egg from the grocery, to show the contrast.  What you can't see, is the difference in flavor.  Holy Toledo! Fresh, creamy and delicious - Martha's eggs are amazing. 

Chickens Galore

All the "chickens being chickens" video you would ever want is right here:

 

 

What are the odds?

So, I'm out of town for work.  Last night, I had an informal dinner with a client before an evening business meeting.  We were chatting about work related things when her phone rang.  She looked a little embarrassed, but excused herself and took the call.  I heard something about checking temperatures, making sure "they" were comfortable.  She got off the phone and apologetically said, "That was my husband.  I just got chickens."

I almost fell over!  Needless to say, we were completely distracted from our discussion of nonprofit boards, fundraising, etc.  It was all about our chickens and comparing notes.  We both spent several years researching, chose breeds known for friendly temperaments, good egg-laying, and cold-hardiness.  We also wanted a good mixture of colorful birds and a colorful egg basket.  Not surprisingly, three out of six of  our birds were the same breeds:  two Easter Eggers and a Silverlaced Wyandotte.  

I was relieved to hear I am not the only crazy one.  Marcia admitted to sleeping with the baby monitor since her chickens moved out into the coop a few days ago.  (Her babies are four weeks old.)  My chickens are now six weeks old, but I was out in the yard at midnight, with a flashlight, checking on the girls every night during their first week in the coop.   

After sharing pictures of our babies and their coops, and having a good laugh, we got back to work. But somehow, our chickens kept sneaking back into the conversation!

6 weeks

Hard to believe how much they have grown!  

Chickens and Dogs = Danger

I was innocently checking on the girlies, while the dogs had a chance to get out in the yard.  The house has been under construction, so their backyard access has been a bit challenging.  Anyway, Loretta flew right past me, out into the grass.   Ellie (Golden Retriever) and Isabel (Heinz 57 - I think with a bit of Sheltie in her) went crazy.  CHICKEN!!!!  Fortunately, Gertie (Goldie- Newfoundland Mix), is afraid of our feathered friends.

Joe and I made a mad dash to grab the hounds - and I was able to get Loretta safely in my arms - and back to the coop.  Poor girl!  I'm anxious to give them a chance to roam the yard, but clearly, dogs must be securely in the house to do this.  It was frightening!