¡gallinas!

them chickens!

My chickens, I like them but they are silly-heads! Yep. If you ask me about chickens now I can be honest and not in some sort of delirium about their good qualities ignoring the bad. It really is an amazing thing to have chickens in the backyard. I enjoy their bountiful oval blessings (aka: eggs) but there is another type of bountiful blessing that I don't enjoy. The size of their poo! Yes, seriously. Their poo is about the size of a ping pong ball and sometimes the size of an egg. Yep, that is big.

I am now a bit calloused to it, but not enough to want them wandering my yard. They just make too much mess when I don't give them the boundaries of a chicken tractor. Plus instead of rooting when it gets dark, they come over and peer through the sliding doors at me and my family as if to say, "we'd like to come in, now!". J thought letting them in was a great idea, but then I went on to explain the situation to him: You see if they do come in they would poo all over your toys, I don't think any of us would like that. NO! he yelled.

So, then because they don't roost when they are supposed to, I have been having to heard them like a madwoman after dark to get them back to where they should be. They have to roost (that is when they go in and sleep on a post or pole all together) if they don't they are prey to raccoons and who knows what else that comes out at night.

Anyway, long story short...my chickens will be let out every once in a while, but almost always they will now stay in their chicken tractors. Seriously! Unless someone wants to come clean up some chicken poo!

Do you have a chicken question?? Ask me!

them bungaree chickens!!

For those of you who are more interested in chickens, here is some information on what we did...the process, the building, the obtaining of the birds and their care. Don't let anyone fool you, this is a messy job and when the honeymoon phase wears off the chore aspect really kicks in. Still there is something about doing it yourself, using your backyard (or front yard) to raise food for your family.

I am not the conspiracy type, but still....why are we becoming a society of "I have no idea where it comes from and don't care" when it is what we eat!! goodness.

Here is our chicken saga from the beginning:

*the dream of simplification
*checking out different designs for chicken tractors
and the different breeds of chickens
*chicken tractor construction begins!
*obtaining our local birds (partridge rocks)
*chicken tractor complete!!!
*getting and falling in love with our day old chicks
*day trip to get some EE pullets (easter eggers: the ones that lay green, pink and blue)
*our day olds getting bigger
*partridge rocks named!
*moving babies outside into the grass
*the death of a chicken
*our first egg!!!!!!
*chicken pictures: New Hampshire Reds and EEs or Amerucanas
*soaking in the sun
*STAR, my favourite chicken
*Amerucanas FINALLY laying at 31 weeks!! (blue and green eggs!!!)
*chickens and snow
*TONS of eggs!!! (help!?)

when is enough too much?

We are now getting around 10 a day!! Seriously crazy chickens. I may have to start selling them soon, or giving them away. For now I am holding onto them since for so long we were begging the chickens to lay and...well...nothing. Now even though we are in full fledged production mode I am hoarding. Silly.

heavy snow from yesterday morning

no longer feeling the vibe from the frozen, white, snow.

squash abundance

Cooking squash is so easy, and is well worth it. I half or quarter depending on size of squash, and then put it insides down on a baking sheet. I spray the shell with oil sometimes, sometimes I don't.
-Then put it into the oven and cook it at 350 degrees until your knife can slice through the meat of the squash it is done (from an hour to hour and a half...it just depends on how big your pieces are).
-Let it cool and then scoop out all the good tender meat .
-I just pile all of mine up in a large (very large) mixing bowl and then smoosh it down a little . It hardly needs to be mashed as it is really tender.
Then I bag it up in sandwich bags and then put as many of those as will fit into a larger freezer ziplock.
-It will keep for a long time and is great in so many recipes. I love what we call spicy pumpkin soup, and I use it to make a sauce to go over pasta, also really good as a ravioli filling (with some cinnamon, salt and spices) lasagna filling. I like having it in the little bags, as that is the right size for our family.

Do you have any fun things to cook with squash/pumpkin?? I have a freezer full, and can't wait to use it !:)

green and blue eggs

Our first green and blue eggs!!! It is so hard to get an accurate colour of the rainbow toned eggs we are now picking out of the nests. I guess you will all have to stop by and take a look and we could grab cup of tea and chat for a while in real life...that would be so great. I have taken so many pictures of these first green and blue eggs! Our beautiful Ameraucanas are finally laying, they are currently 31 weeks, yes that seems old to me since our other breeds started laying at around 20 weeks! Silly chickens they will certainly free-load for as long as you'll let them. Since yesterday I told them I would put them in a soup pot and cook them and bring them to the homeless they decided to finally kick into action (haha, no, not really).

You will just have to imagine a shy pretty green, and a light sky blue. It is so fun to eat green and blue eggs. No, they don't taste any better really, but in my imagination they do :) We are now getting around 7 eggs a day!! We eat all of them, it is an excellent source of protein since we don't eat meat here at the house.

it isn't nice to play favourites...

...but I will. This is me with my favourite chicken. Her name is Star and she is an EasterEgger. She is a beauty! And she is really sweet too. She lays really light pink eggs.

sun soak.

I think even the chickens know that each day of sun we have now is like a precious and fragile gift. When the sun comes out they do too, they all cuddle together to soak in the rays. I didn't ever know chickens did this, at first I thought one who was laying like this was sick, but when they all joined and appeared fine I figured it out! time for a sun soak. fall is pressing in, today is foggy and crisp...I don't think I am ready for it to be this cold yet.

we be happy

We are now getting (most days) three eggs a day...and look at how pretty they are! We have brown and pink so far, and yes they all taste great. I think that 5 or 6 of our 12 are currently laying. The rest...well, we'll wait. The boys LOVE the eggs, especially O. We dip them in hot sauce....it is sooooooooo good.

introducing: pepa and francisca

My two New Hampshire Reds needed naming, and I went with a spanish theme. I think all the rest will follow suit, but well see :)
Pepa is lighter and francisca (pronounced: franthisca) is the darker. In the picture above they are the two behind the bearded chicken. Pepa is in the top left, Francisca is in the middle of the shot.

Below francisca is the one in front, pepa is behind her.

FranciscaPepa dancing flamenco (the rest are pepa, she is not so camera shy)

These two chickes are super friendly, probably my friendliest of them all (or most likely the best beggars). They are New Hampshire Reds and are 17 week old pullets (meaning young female chickens, under one year). They will start laying soon and I can't wait to see what colour their eggs are!!!