Tag: eggs

The morning after

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After all the excitement of the hawk incident, most of my girls were pretty anxious to get back to business as usual.  So I was sorry to disappoint them yesterday by closing the gate in their face, but close it I did and left.  I had other work to do!   The Silkys on the other side of the yard were even more incensed as I did not let them out until I had made some sort of emergency makeshift run for them.

To accomplish this I put up a metal dog playpen and attached it to the chain link fence.  Then I took my staple gun and stapled garden bird netting directly to the sides of their hutch.  Next, I took a box of spring binder clips and attached the netting all the way around to top of the chain link and the dog playpen.  It looks  a ramshackle affair, but seems to be working!  I can live with it for a couple of days till Bob and I can do something more permanent and less ghastly looking…

When finished I quickly ducked under, opened up their hutch, gave them their ladder and watched for them to come out.   They didn’t.  I waited, and waited!  Oh-KAY-THEN.   I went inside to watch from the window.  It took the two adults about a half an hour to come out, but the three babies took till almost noon!   Poor things.

Later in the evening I went out to lock up the hutches and collect any remaining eggs from the day.  The egg count was understandably very low.  This happens when the girls get stressed.  However, the most curious thing I found wasn’t in the nesting boxes.

It was this…

and I found it in the leaf litter out in the run!

These are Tippy’s eggs.  the one on the right is normal, and the one on the left is about the size of a medium jaw breaker!

I know it to be hers, because she is the only girl I have that lays white eggs.  (blue tint is an anomaly of the photo)   The little one is called a *Wind Egg, or as some crusty folk call it,  a “Fart Egg.”  When opened the inside will contain only the albumin or “white” of the egg.  Quite irregular, but then I guess if you are throttled the day before by a hawk and he pulls out all your tail feathers, but you thankfully manage to get away, then you can be expected to be a little off the next day.

Poor baby!

*For more amazing and strange egg anomalies look here: http://www.poultryhelp.com/oddeggs.html

Growing up

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You may recall that earlier in the summer I had a little event on the Farmlet.  The hatching of the first chick (that’s her above in the headlines) was quite exciting for me, and over the next few days I watched as two more babies arrived into the world.

Well, as all babies must they continued to grow, and they are now about half the size of their parents!

They tend to hang around together and never really interact with the parent group.  I have no explanation for this.  I would have thought that as soon as Mama Roo and the Baby Roos were released into the yard that they would all have been one big happy family, wouldn’t you?

By the way, if you have an answer for this strange, standoffish behavior please enlighten me!  I’d love to know!

Now I originally got the Silkys to help me with hatching, and wouldn’t you know, I now have three laying hens that have been showing decidedly broody tendencies.  Ah well, better five broody hens than none!

Chicken Secrets

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~*~

The girls can often be found out on the yard, head to head, telling secrets.  Perhaps they were discussing where to find the best morsels and treats to peck, or more likely, Henrietta was whispering the latest gossip into Little Red’s ear?

Henrietta:  “Hey Lil’ Red have you heard that latest about Bertha over there?  Don’t look, keep pecking, or she’ll know we’re talking about her again!”

Lil’ Red:  “Do tell!  I haven’t had a good cackle in a while!”

Well, I never caught the whole conversation, but it sounded like something about “wrinkled eggs.”  Aww, poor Bertha.

By the way,  for those wondering about the old crocks in the background, well, they’re Goose toys.  Rain or shine, in or out of the pool, they are good goose and gander fun…  and best of all?   They’re indestructible and thus provide hours of *dibbling  fun and enjoyment!

*Dibbling = chewing

 

It’s the little things in life

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Today I had a friend over, a new friend actually!  She is one of my egg customers.  Usually, I bring her eggs to her where she works, but this week she asked if she couldn’t come get them from me here and “…save me the trouble.”

My first reaction was to say no.  This is principally because I’m just not a good housekeeper.  Now my friend Jayme is an absolutely immaculate housekeeper.  She stresses about it and admits it freely!  Me?  Not so much.  It is not for lack of wanting a clean house, but it just seems that no matter how I try I just never get it all done.  That is of course unless company is coming!  Then I race about cleaning everything till it sparkles and make sure all is tidy and put away.  My guests arrive and always say how lovely everything is and I smile, and I’m stressed, wondering what horrid thing I may have forgotten to take care of…  I think I would actually die of mortification should someone find out what a slob I can really be.  Generally speaking I do not have a good time when friends come over because I stress too much.

Well, that was then, and this is now.  Now I live in the sticks, more or less, and I have this constant dust that seems to creep into every nook and cranny no matter how hard I try to keep it out.  My poor couch after traveling nearly three thousand miles cross-country has a rather large smudge on one arm that would not come out, not completely anyway.   Adding insult to injury it has been rather over loved by my then kitten Clause, who bared the corners by using it as a scratching post when no one was looking…  I cannot afford a new couch at the moment, so I am currently looking for something to cover it with, to make do, until it can be replaced.

And so it was that today I dusted and vacuumed the living room, made sure the guest bath (which is vintage early 60’s in decor and looks it) was clean and sanitized for visitors.   The rust stains in the sink remain, the two tiles I replaced with the mysterious, ever dirty looking caulking were cleaned and will return over the next few days to their ugly and dirty looking  patina, but hey, I made the effort!

And then Marie arrived bearing unexpected gifts!

She brought lovely flowers and a pumpkin spice loaf, and I was surprised that she would go to the trouble to do this,  for me.   We talked quite awhile over coffee about everything, and then we went out so she could meet the menagerie of the Farmlet.  I introduced her to my geese, pointed out my hennies in the field and then showed her the inner world of my beehive (via the safety of the window on the side, because she’s afraid of bees!) and then we went to see the little broody hen and looked into her nest …

And there was a broken egg, and just for a moment I was upset, but then I realized we’d arrived at a birth!  The egg was hatching!  That was a special gift for me and her.  I can’t tell you who was the more excited to see such a thing.  Peeking through the little hole we could see the baby chick moving and struggling to free itself, to be out and into the world at large.

Later, after Marie left, I went out with my camera to take pictures and found my new baby had made its arrival.  It was still wet under Momma Hen!

Isn’t it darling?

So, over the next few days I’ll watch and wait to see how many more will hatch!

Now just a moment ago I read a comment from Cindy, a long distance friend who commented on my blog today.  She shared:

“I think you live in a dreamworld.  Thank you for sharing it.”

And I tell you all that I share the little things in my life with you because I must.  Somehow, I feel that not sharing would make my life  a parallel to this age old philosophical question:

“If a tree falls in the forest, and there is no one there to hear it, does it make a sound?”

Thus similarly…

If all the wonder and beauty that surrounds me is kept to myself and never shared… does it exist?

It’s the little things in the life I lead, the lessons learned, these daily gifts from God that are affirmations of his love for me, and I must share.  And along the way I learn to accept me, to make peace with dust and holey couch corners, and through the process of acceptance of my foibles…

I make new friends.