Posted in Frugal Living, tagged backyard chickens on July 11, 2010| 19 Comments »
Friends, Romans, countrymen…send me your weeds!
Our chickens love oxalis and onion weed, but more than anything else in the whole world, even more than corn on the cob, they love dandelions. Thankfully they grow like…ahh…weeds in the front yard. I thought you might enjoy seeing the frenzy that precedes the daily feeding…
Posted in Frugal Living, tagged backyard chickens, homegrown eggs on July 3, 2010| 32 Comments »
Our chickens have started laying.
Over the last couple of days, they’ve given us four little eggs. They’re quite small – between 43 to 49 grams (yes, I weighed them), which is hardly surprising, since our girls are still very young.
Here’s one of them next to the standard 59g egg that we buy from the markets…
As I’m now chicken obsessed, I have, of course, been researching eggs. I was interested to learn that there are two layers of albumin – a thick inner layer and a thinner outer one. As the egg ages, the thick layer becomes watery and indistinguishable from the thin layer.
Our little eggs are so fresh that the thick albumin hasn’t started to break down at all. This one was laid the day the photo was taken…
It made the most delicious poached egg. Pete thinks the lovely golden yolk is a product of all the dandelions he’s been feeding the hens!
Posted in Frugal Living, tagged backyard chickens, buckwheat on June 24, 2010| 20 Comments »
As you know, our chickens are here to garden for us. The plan is to move them from bed to bed, allowing them to eat everything in sight and then fertilise the soil, ready for planting.
Yesterday, they had their first rotation – into a bed of buckwheat grown just for them. I thought you might like to see some photos of our happy ladies…
Good news, we had another egg! A little pullet egg, with a deep golden yolk and a good firm shell. The hen who laid it was so proud of herself, she came out of the nesting box clucking and carrying on, until one of the more dominant chickens got sick of it and came over and pecked her on the head – as Christina said, that will teach her to show off!
Posted in Frugal Living, tagged backyard chickens, egg laying chickens, ISA brown chickens, pet chickens on June 17, 2010| 27 Comments »
It’s now been nearly a fortnight since we brought our chickens home.
In that time, they’ve plumped up a little..
…and today they actually agreed to stand still and have their portrait shots taken.
They’re astonishingly intelligent birds.
In the short time they’ve been here, they’ve learnt to fly up to a high roost, eat greenery, and scratch for worms. They recognise both Pete and I, and come running whenever we approach, clucking and begging for food. They’ve also established a clear pecking order…
I adore their distinct personalities. One hen is particularly bonkers, and spends much of her time pecking at the laying box. I’m sure she’s trying to communicate with us in Morse code. Tap-tap. Tap-tap-ti-tap.
Another steadfastly refuses to follow the flock – she feeds in a different area to the others, chases her food more vigorously, and has her own unique method for ascending to the 5′ roost – she takes aim, leaps straight up like a Harrier Jump Jet and flies between the slats of the roosting platform, tucking her wings in at the last minute to fit through the small opening. One day we will probably have to rescue a wedged chicken from the roost.
After laying four eggs in quick succession, the hens have now completely stopped – a common occurrence after they’ve been transported. And to be fair, we have substantially changed their lifestyle – they now live outside and eat food scraps, lots of weeds and plants, and worms and snails that they dig up from the garden. We still supplement their feed with grain mix, but it’s no longer their sole source of food.
To try and encourage them to lay, Pete put two plastic golf balls in the nesting box – the sight of an “egg” is supposed to inspire them to add their own eggs to the clutch. Our hens simply dragged the balls out and played chook soccer with them. Sigh…
One of the cutest things they do – and I’d like to think it’s a sign that they’re happy and well fed – is have an afternoon siesta. After lunch, they all snuggle up together in the middle of the enclosure, make a few contented clucking noises, then settle down for a little kip. I took this photo today, as they were settling in for rest time – it reminded me of a group of ladies gossiping at the hairdressers…
In the week or so that they’ve been here, they’ve almost completely emptied our garden of weeds. Not that we have “weeds” anymore – now all unwanted plants and pests are viewed as chicken feed. They’re brilliant at getting rid of onionweed – I’ve watched them meticulously digging out the bulbs one at a time. And their current favourite food is fresh buckwheat, which they’ll happily allow us to handfeed to them.
As you can tell, we’re really enjoying our chickens!
Posted in Food & Friends, Frugal Living, tagged backyard chickens, ISA brown chickens on June 6, 2010| 38 Comments »
The chickens have landed!
Six young ISA Brown hens have taken up residence in our backyard, and I am completely besotted. I had a long list of tasks planned for this morning, and instead I’ve been sitting outside watching them scratch and forage.
ISA Browns are a hybrid cross of Rhode Island Reds and Rhode Island Whites, and particularly suited to suburban backyards. They’re reputed to be excellent layers – which may well be true, as we found our first egg within half an hour of the chickens arriving…
The chickens are here to garden for us – the supply of eggs is an ancillary bonus. If the permagarden gurus are correct, they’ll weed and de-bug our vegetable beds, then fertilise them, ready for planting.
One day in, and I’m no longer concerned with any of that – I’m just so happy to have them in the backyard, with their gentle clucking sounds and funny little ninja moves. They scratch the ground with one foot, then the other, then leap back quickly like a Phantom Agent and gaze intently at the ground to see if any worms have been uncovered. They’ll repeat this over and over as they work from one side of the enclosure to the other. I could watch them all day long! In fact, I think I’ll go see what they’re doing right now…
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