Easter Surprise

We spent Easter day at the house, doing "Easter-ie" things.  Like hiding candy-filled plastic eggs in the front yard (the adults) and subsequently finding same and plopping them into a basket or immediately opening them and cramming the contents into our mouths (Rhiannon, not me!).

The afternoon was filled with outdoor activities like shoveling compost, moving rocks, weeding the garden and the normal barnyard routines.  Sounds like a perfect Easter celebration, hugh?  Well, there was some excitement that afternoon.  While passing the barn where the broody hen decided to take up residence, I hear it.  Peeping!!

I ran towards the house and shoo'ed the cats inside (so they wouldn't be tempted to have any "Peeps" for an Easter snack) and grabbed my camera:

Momma hen butt, dud egg (been there, neglected, since I first found the hen)
and peeping, fluffy, cute as can be (and hopefully still alive) newly hatched chick!

The hen actually got up and exited the underside of the barn to get a drink from a nearby pan of water, but hurriedly made her way back to the chick and proceeded to fluff back up and re-establish herself on the rest of the eggs (I'm assuming there were more eggs although I couldn't see any).  The little chick was wandering around under the barn and back to the hen, but the hen would peck at it when it got too close.  Which, of course, got me worried so I sat there on my hands and knees, face resting on the gravel and oak nut covered ground (this was definitely not a comfortable position and I think I still have divot marks on my knees) waiting to see if the hen would allow the chick back under her fluffy mass of feathers.

I finally tired of waiting (and could no longer feel my hands or knees) so I left them.  When I went back a while later, there was no sign of the chick nor any peeping so I'm hoping that it made it underneath the hen again (and didn't get pecked to death by it's mother.....I always suspect the worst).  

I'm not sure if I'm just going to let Nature "take it's course" and leave the hen and chick(s) to their own devices or what.  But probably not.  When I'm certain the hen is done hatching, I'm going to try to gather up her and her chicks and put them in one of the smaller pens in the goat /chicken barn where they will be safe and contained.

Hopefully come daylight (why am I up at ten minutes to three in the morning writing a blog post???) I'll go outside to the sound of more peeping chicks.  

Yup, I did it.....

I saw something like this on the internet and just HAD to make my own......

If you don't hear from me in several days, you'll know I overdosed on sugar.  Oh man, I'm really going to regret this one :)

Happy Easter! 

Rooster Mojo

Since being injured, Porch Rooster (PR for short) has been pretty much pampered.  Yes, I know, he's only a stupid chicken, and we usually don't "pamper" the poultry around here because they are, after all, just livestock.  But he was always a nice rooster, and those of you that have raised roosters already know, a nice rooster is hard to find.

He had his own little recovery room for a while and has since been hand fed the choicest of chicken scraps and given fresh goat milk to drink.  PR's tail feathers have come back in and the rest of his feathers are looking nice and shiny.  He's also gained weight (all that goat cheese and leftover meatloaf obviously helped) and his comb, which was all saggy, flopped over and a dull red, is now perky and bright red.

Porch Rooster (PR) coming up to the house for his breakfast.

And a few days ago, I heard him crow!  It wasn't a full-out, "I'm king of the chickens - don't mess with me or I'll cap your ass" crow, but it was definitely a crow.  I haven't heard him crow since the attack.  Then the next day he crowed again, this time with a few ladies present.  And today he has a small following of the older hens gathered around him hoping that he'll do the rooster-clucking-thing that basically means, "Hey ladies, I got a tasty bug over here, want some?".   I haven't seen any chicken lovin' going on yet, but I'm happy he's getting back to his old self.

I don't think he's ready to compete with the younger roosters yet, and not sure if he ever will be.  But at least PR's got his own little hen harem now.....and found his Mojo. 

Fast Food "Duh" moment

I'm a horrible mother.  There have been more than a handful of times when I've purchased items from the frozen food section at the supermarket specifically for Rhiannon.  Namely, the cheap-o frozen pizzas and corn dogs.

And the stupid thing about it is, I make homemade pizza here about once a week.  But it does take time, even when I'm using pre-homemade sauce and frozen mozzarella and goat cheese.  So when Rhiannon suddenly decides she wants lunch, like right NOW, I pull out a corn dog or pizza from the freezer.  It's just too easy to pop a frozen pizza in the oven, plop it in front of her and call it "Lunch".

So what did I finally do last night while making our almost-weekly pizza for pizza & movie night?  I actually made a mini-pizza and froze it!  

My batch of dough is usually made into one large pizza crust and a pan of bread sticks.  But this time I made the usual large pizza and then a smaller pizza.  I partially cooked the small pizza crust then put the sauce & cheeses on it (Rhiannon is a cheese-only kind'a kid) then wrapped it in aluminum foil and stuck it in the freezer.

The next time Rhiannon is hankering for lunch and I'm too busy to prepare a real meal, I'm going to go into the freezer and take out my homemade frozen pizza.  And I won't feel quite so guilty.

Now I'll just have to get my bum in gear and freeze some of my homemade corn dogs.  Maybe I'll even put the little stick in them like the store-bought ones to make it more "authentic".

Hard Boiled Egg Hell, Part 2

Ok, so I still haven't tried any of the many suggestions I received from my wonderful blog pals.  Eventually I'm going to go through them one by one and see which one(s) work for me.  

But it could just be as Mama Pea suggested;  I have some sort of curse that will not allow me to successfully nor easily peel a homegrown hard boiled egg.  Hopefully that curse does not pass onto Rhiannon as I'd hate to know that I would be the underlying cause of her suffering when she ever decided to make deviled eggs.

After recently having my first egg salad sandwich in over a year, I could not get the craving out of my system.  But there was no more egg salad left.  Which meant that I would have to attempt peeling eggs again.  Which meant that I would likely burst a blood vessel.  I just wasn't in the mood to try experimenting with the suggestions just yet.

So, without further ado, I'd like to introduce you to this modern miracle of engineering:

Now before you all get on my case about giving up on the old fashioned way of boiling and relieving eggs of their shells, let me tell you that this product was just a week ago given to me by my neighbor.  One of her friends knew she also had trouble peeling homegrown eggs so gifted her with this.  And she in turn, re-gifted it to me.  When I reluctantly accepted it I told her that I couldn't promise that she wouldn't see it at the Salvation Army thrift store in the next couple of weeks and she just smiled a knowing smile.

After a week of Rhiannon playing with the box and contents, I finally had a strong enough craving for egg salad that I gathered what parts I could find (notice there are only five complete Eggies in the pot instead of six) and set upon making myself some hard boiled eggs.

Eggies!  And if you call now, you'll receive a FREE egg separator!

I cracked an egg into each Eggie, put the top on & screwed the ring on.  Plopped them into the pot of water, brought it to a boil then let it sit with a cover on top for fifteen minutes.  I pulled each Eggie out of the water and let them sit on the counter until they were cool enough to touch.  And here's what I got:

Some pretty strange lookin'g eggs, hugh?  I don't see how one could make deviled eggs from them, although I suppose if an egg yolk were to end up centered, you could scoop it out and then use the flat side of the egg as the bottom and wouldn't have to worry about them rolling all over the serving plate.  But then you wouldn't have an excuse to dig out that deviled egg platter you got for a wedding gift years ago (but never actually registered for).  I guess if you cracked two eggs into the Eggie it would fill completely up and make an egg shaped egg (now wouldn't that be a novel idea?).

They didn't come out of their plastic shells without me whacking them on the counter half a dozen times and squeezing them until I thought they'd never return to their original shape.  Should I have sprayed the Eggies with cooking spray before I cooked them? 

Maybe I'll go on youtube and find the commercial and see how they do it.  But if it's anything like the infomercials from years ago, it will probably show a ditsy lady peeling eggs like she was on cocaine, RedBull and meth all at once, hands flailing like she was being attacked by hornets,  eyes rolling back into her head and egg shell flying everywhere, finally giving up with a loud "huff" and positioning her hands on her hips with a sigh.  Then enter Eggies, stage left.  

Wait a second.  That IS what I look like when I'm trying to peel eggs.  Shit.

After all was said and done, they did make perfectly acceptable egg salad.  I'm not sure I'll continue using them as I'm not crazy on the idea of heating up my food in plastic vessels, let alone plastic vessels manufactured in China.  

But who knows; if I don't manage to find another way to peel eggs I may just continue subjecting myself to funky chemicals leaching into my food just as long as I get my egg salad fix. 

Chicken Surprise

No, I'm not talking about a chicken casserole dish.  Although I wouldn't mind one right now as I have yet to plan anything for supper.

For the past week, maybe more, I've been hearing two different hens do their "I just laid an egg" squawking right around the tool shed.  You know, where they're not supposed to be laying eggs.  I never got there in time to see exactly where they came from, they'd just be leaving the general area.  I looked around the shed, under the shed, in the pile of stuff leaned up next to the shed, but wasn't able to find the suspected hidden pile of eggs.  

Then this weekend, Paul, Rhiannon & I were sitting watching the goats graze near the shed when I spied an egg peeking out from just under the front of the shed.  I went down on my hands and knees and found three other eggs.  And after brushing a pile of leaves aside, I saw this:

At first I though it was just one of the squawkie hens, but she didn't move at all during the day.  And when nightfall came, she didn't go in the coop with the other chickens.  I checked on her in the morning and she was still there and when I checked again before dusk, she was still sitting there.

So I guess my wish for a broody hen has come to fruition!  But I was kind of hoping that it would happen in the safe confines of the coop and not in the "wilds" outside where there are numerous nighttime critters more than happy to have a midnight snack of chicken.

I'm not sure how long she's been under there, although I suspect at least since my last official chicken-count from last week.  I'm not sure how many eggs she has under her as I cannot reach that far and I don't want to spook here and break up the nest.  So I guess the wait is on.  

I know that broody hens will forgo food and water for most, if not all of their time on the nest, but I felt badly for her not knowing how long she's been under there or how long she will continue to set under there.  So I managed to toss a juicy pear just within reach of her beak.  And she just looked at it.  Well, actually she fluffed up and did the "don't touch my eggs or I'll kill ya' bitch" thing.  And then she looked at it.  Not sure if she ate it because I left her alone again.

Crossing my fingers that she survives the remaining nights on her nest and that we'll have peeping chicks here soon.

Because you know, we need to make more hard boiled eggs!

One year egg count

After noticing that some other bloggers religiously keep records on how much produce, meat, eggs and milk they produce on their farms, I though it would be a neat idea if I could manage to do the same.  

I started last April with the eggs, and just this spring kidding started measuring the milk output.  I've also been entering farm related receipts into the calendar even though I'm afraid that I will just prove that they are costing us money.  But knowledge is power, right?  Ugh.

Typical hens.....eight nest boxes, but five chickens in four boxes.

So anyway, today I did my tallying of the eggs for the year (why didn't I do this on a spreadsheet instead of just on a calendar???) and was pretty surprised at the total count and the flucuations during the seasons.  

Here are my monthly totals:

April: 244
May: 240
June: 157
July: 179
August: 152
September: 150
October: 89
November: 27
December: 23
January: 29
February: 238
March: 389

Year Total: 1,921

Up until the second week of February of 2012, there were only between twelve and fifteen hens (I didn't always keep track) of laying age.  The new pullets started laying on February 7th, and that accounts for the sudden increase from January's piddly total of 29 to a whopping 238.  So starting in February the number of laying hens almost doubled for a total of 20 (or so).   Yes, I'm a bad chicken counter.  All I know is that we currently have 25 chickens including roosters, but it's one more than I thought we had (I'll explain that in the next post).

We didn't use supplemental lighting through the winter months because I figured the gals could use a break, although I didn't realize until I started keeping count how much the egg numbers would decline.  The holidays were pretty much egg-free and I think I may have even bought store eggs for baking holiday cookies....oh, the horror!

The first part of February Paul installed the solar panel and lights in the chicken coop / goat shed so they did have some additional lighting at night before I got outside to shut the chicken door & turn the lights off.

We're eating eggs like it's going out of style and I still have plenty in the fridge to sell.  As long as we don't lose too many hens to predators this year, it looks like next year's totals could be almost double.  

I can't imagine what other egg dishes I'll have to come up with.