Bartering System Now In Place . . .

This afternoon I took 3 boxes of eggs with us when we went to Nanna's.

They weren't wanted! How rude is that? They came home with us and were offered round the neighbours instead. One of Jessica's chum's mum takes a box now and then, next door will have a box every couple of months, but the people across from us have never had any from us, despite visiting in the early days and giving gratefully received glowing praise for the carpentry skills involved in erecting the chicken run.

Today they accepted a box and it has to be said they chuffed me to bits by sending not only a pound coin over for them but also tomatoes and peppers grown in their own greenhouse! Isn't that the coolest thing EVER? 

That's my story. All done. But while I was uploading the photo I remembered that Nanna's way of saying no to the eggs was to suggest to me that I need a source for them. Blink.

Isn't that what I have in the chicken run?

One Tip . . .

If there is one thing you learn from me - make it this one.

Don't crack eggs if you think they could be rotten.

That's it. Just don't. OK?

We got only 2 chicks out of the last lot of eggs. They ought to have hatched on Sunday the 9th, these two came along around the Monday, with one other chick not making it out of the shell.

I never thought Summer was going to be a particularly good mother and am quite sure the dead chick was down to her. And the lack of hatching among the other eggs I am putting down to the fact that she left them unattended for almost a full day.

Finally, Jessica and I removed the other eggs from under Summer and moved her and the two chicks into the nursery run. I then decided I needed to know what the other eggs contained. It was important to me to know if the eggs were fertile or not. I took them to the compost bin while Jessica nipped into the kitchen to get a knife for me.

I cracked the one egg I was sure was empty while she was away - yup it was. Then another one.

IT EXPLODED WITH A BANG.

I jest ye not! IT EXPLODED! Whodathunk?

We checked a couple and yes, there WERE dead chicks in a couple of them but by the time I had had 3 explosions I gave up checking anymore. 

Ever since there has been an almighty bad smell coming from the compost bin - am kinda hoping it goes away as soon as possible!

In other news, we have had TWO dead rats near the shed. The bait must be working - yay! The two traps had been sprung on one morning but I think the bait is winning the war at the moment. The rat this morning was the biggest thing you have ever seen - and Iain is still reacting like a big girl's blouse over the disposing of the bodies. For dear sake - if he can remove dead chickens why not rats?

*shudders*

Yea, you are right - there is a big difference between chickens and rats.

Show me your happy face though over the 2 dead'uns. Long may it continue!

Here I Ammm . . .

No, I hadn't forgotten about y'all. Every day I have been composing wee stories in my head for you as I busy myself around the chickens, the run, and the garden but LIFE! kinda gets in the way of sitting down and passing them along to you.

David has started Big School which requires him getting up extremely early. That doesn't affect us much until the tiredness at the other end of the day catches up with him and he becomes the most horrible child ever while trying to finish off homework. I think I have done more homeworks with him in the past month than I ever did in my own High School career. Between getting home, doing homeworks, trying to get to bed at a decent time every night, and doing LIFE! etc - time flies and yea, ok, I forgot about you. Sorry.

In chicken news, we hardly see the girls now. I spend the usual 15-30 minutes with them in the mornings but now the darker nights are here, they have put themselves to bed by the time we get home. They sit blinking at me when I open the doors to count them before shutting the pop-hole and I have to admit, on more than one occasion I have thrown corn for them in the hope they will come out and play with me for a few minutes. I can't keep doing that as the nights get earlier but I do feel that we are losing touch with each other ever so slightly.Will they even remember who I am?

About 3 weeks ago they were up to 4 eggs a day. Then suddenly they went down to 1 egg with just Sydney laying. Then for the past week there have been NO eggs at all. I have 2 sitting in my Egg Skelter which I am almost afraid to use as they may be the LAST EVER! Am hoping it doesn't continue like this all through the winter - I was expecting 2 a day with the two hybrids producing, knowing the pure breeds would stop but NONE?! Hummpph.

The grass seed we put down is now good long grass but the *lawn* area is so wet we can't get it cut. It isn't very thick yet and would be easily scratched up. There is no way we could let the girls out on it yet - so they haven't had any free ranging for ages - I have had to give them extra grit to make up for it.

In apple news, I continue to make the most gorgeous apple crumbles from the windfalls. The small tree has more or less finished but there is still plenty of fruit on the larger tree. Sooner or later I am going to have to get on the ladders and pick these but I don't think they will store too well so there may be loads frozen or given away.Or we may have to eat nothing but apple for a week.

I am so pleased with the amount the trees have produced that I would seriously consider putting another tree in the garden. I have a nectarine tree which is massive but produces nothing. It could very quickly be removed to make way for another apple tree.

Oh oh oh - so far I have made two bottles of Apple Schnapps after following this recipe. It is incredibly easy to make but takes 3 months to finish so I don't know a. if I have done it right yet or b. if anyone will like it! I could make loads more but we don't have copious amounts of vodka lying around. Any more.

Looking back at the photos the other chap took, I think I may have crammed far too much apple in to mine!

What a Pickle

"So, how did your cooking go the other night?" I hear you all cry.

Wellllll. . . the cake took ages to make but was reallly well worth it - even when I noticed the baking powder sitting on the table UNUSED as I took the cake out of the oven. OOOPS. Sure, it didn't poison us.

Then, after the eggs were pickled I realised that WHOLE Mixed Spice isn't really the same thing as GROUND Mixed Spice and the resulting liquid was a tad - well - yuk looking. Still tasted the same though. You learn from your mistakes don't ya?

Oh - and another thing - it is best to read all the recipes before you follow just one. Seemingly it is harder to peel a cooked fresh egg and if you are pickling it is recommended you use older eggs - even from a couple of weeks ago. There is no way our eggs would stay around long enough for that malarkey!

I made another Apple Cake last night and realised why the baking powder had been left out of the first one. IT ISN'T IN THE RECIPE! It is listed in the ingredients but there are no specific instructions to put it in the bowl! How rude is that? It's a good job it wasn't something vitally important in the 6 steps to cake perfection. Dude, what if they had forgotten to tell me to put it in the oven! I could still be sitting there waiting for it to cook!

In egg-production news - David rang me at work to tell me there were four eggs waiting for us and one was HUGE. He weighed it for me and he was right, it is the biggest one we have had yet at 83g - the next largest is in the mid 70s. It looks humongous beside the wee 49g ones Lacey lays but we have no idea who laid it. It could be a double yolk-er from one of the normal girls or a new lay-er who is going to produce much bigger eggs. Am dying to see what is waiting for us over the next few days.

Eggciting huh?

Four Eggs

Today is the first day we have had four eggs.

Once more I know who laid the second one as I watched Sydney lay it - this must be about the fifth time I've been there at the right time - poor girl. I recognise Lacey's with no problem as they are small and much lighter in colour but the other two are proving to be a little difficult to identify.

It doesn't really matter I suppose. They all go down the same way huh? It is just upsetting the geek in me that I can't be sure my spreadsheet is 100% correct.