. . . and then there were seven.

We are now down from 10 to 7 chickens. Why we decided to start with 10 chickens is not clear to me.  One of those impulsive decisions.  Anyway, our original brood included two aggressive roosters which we relocated to Debi and Charles' farm just east of us.  One of them attacked Debi, so she made a delicious stew out of him.  Not too long after that Louie noticed that one of the remaining eight had a limp.  We isolated her in Lynn and Lisa's dog cage after deciding against shooting her with their pistol. Just couldn't do it.  Gimpilina (her nickname) lived happily there for a week, but her limp was not improving, so another neighbor, Todd, who I call the chicken whisperer, came and took her to his place to recuperate -- or to eat -- depending on how much time he had to process her.  Well, he brought her back about 7 days later as she had recovered from her limp.  She, however, was never accepted back into the flock.  The other seven would not let her out of the coop.  If she tried to get out, they would block the door, so after way too long, we finally decided to take our other chicken friend up on his offer to accept her into his chicken yard which he calls the United Nations of Chickens.  He has a gorgeous mix of many breeds who all get along.  So that's why we are now down from 10 to 7 chickens.

Sunrise.  December 1, 2012.  Red sky in the morning.  Josephina,
take warning.  

Josephina meeting her new chicken friends.
Ruffled feathers.  Hmm.  Maybe she is the
bully after all. 

Louie relocates Josephina number 8 to the
United Nations of Chickens in East Lawrence.

Chillie Willie Chicken House.  

cozy contemporary: this one time, at book club...

cozy contemporary: this one time, at book club...: The author came.  How cool is that?  The last book we read for book club was "The Chaperone" by Laura Moriarty.  She is a Lawrence...

The red chicken trivet from sister Lois in
Iowa looks great against the Jayhawk blue.

Well, here's some more news from the girls.  Louie collected NINE eggs today.  That's a record. Tomorrow night is the neighborhood potluck.  Guess what we're taking?
It's 7:00 pm.  Time to let the chickens out to scratch around the yard until dark. It has been interesting to track dusk with the girls.  Tonight they roosted at 7:40.  In the depth of summer we were out there with the girls until nearly 9:00 pm. I guess we'll start letting them out around 6:00 pm, so they have more time in the yard.

Another exciting view this evening:  Six geese flew right over me as I sat on the garden bench.  The sun glinted off their bellies and I could hear the flap of their wings.  It was another reminder of fleeting beauty, and I'm glad I was out there to see this one.

French toast:  Mix 4 eggs with cream or milk and a teaspoon of real vanilla (or rum).  Dip sour dough bread from Wheatfield's Bakery into the egg mixture.  Cook in butter in a cast iron skillet until golden brown.  Top with whatever you have on hand.  Today I topped with Louie's home made grape jelly and a dusting of powdered sugar.  Yum!

The Joesphinas just love Swiss Chard.  

The golden scratch is another favorite.  That's
corn.  

More eggs-citing news

Thanks to Cindy for my newest chicken
geegaw -- Farm Fresh Eggs.
 More to come.

 I have been a bad blogger.  I blame the heat and the drought. It has been a real challenge keeping the girls cooled and watered.  I fed them frozen grapes on the hottest days.  They loved them, and I do believe they added flavor to the eggs.  They eat mainly fresh produce from the garden.  They especially love Swiss Chard and tomatoes.

As the summer heat finally lets up, I am feeling such a relief for my girls. Just like a mother hen, I putter and worry about my flock. I knew I had this tendency when I first agreed to this venture of raising chickens and that's partly why I hesitated. But. Louie has taken such good care of them that my worries are subdued. And, now, the Josephinas have settled into a routine.  They begin bawking around 9:00 a.m.  By that I mean they start laying eggs.  We can hear their "bawk, bawk, BAWK," and we know egg production for the day has begun.  Laying between 6 to 8 eggs daily, those girls are more than earning their keep.  We have had no trouble consuming 42 eggs a week.  Well, not just us.  We share with our neighbors, and we are all aware of the cholesterol risks, so here's a link to what the Mayo Clinic has to say about that:  Eggs. Are they good or bad for my cholesterol?

I'll be back soon with more geegaws and a few of my favorite recipes -- with eggs as the main ingredient.

It's like a miracle every time I go into the
chicken house and find eggs.  I'll never
tire of this free produce. 

Eggs-citing News

This beautiful sight greeted me as I opened the chicken coop
last night after we arrived home from 3 days in cool, wet
Colorado.  

Look what I found!  July 9, 2012.  The first egg from our Rhode Island Reds.  I will try to determine who is laying.  We bought the chickens as pullets when they were about 6 weeks old on March 16, so I figure our hens our a little over 5 months old.  Good girls.

Our chicken partner, Jim, gets high marks for taking good care of the Josephinas in triple digit weather. Louie and I spent 3 days in Colorado for our grandson, Campbell's, birthday.  He is 5 now and is curious about the chickens.  If he comes to visit at the end of July, we will pop some corn and feed it to the hens. They love corn in all its forms.

Those chickens are beginning to be like pets.  I didn't want to like them so much, but . . . .

From the inside out

Not much new to report this week.  The girls are happier and more content without the roosters bothering them.  We visited our roosters at their new home on Friday.  They are very happy there, but won't leave the chicken run even though the gate is left open during the day to encourage them to go outside and forage. Our pullets have taken to roosting in the window above their nesting boxes.  I heard a loud banging against the window while I was in the sauna garden the other evening.  I panicked because I thought they might be under attack.  When I went to investigate, I saw two of them in the window pecking at bugs flying around outside.  I had to laugh.  Louie has had to put up more screen to keep them from breaking the window and/or denting their beaks.  They are vicious when on the hunt for bugs.  Now we're just waiting for eggs.  It will probably be this fall before they start laying.

Happily eating bugs.  I've had to put up more chicken wire
to keep them from devouring my zinnia seedlings.  I'm sowing
more seed today.  They ate all but three of the emerging plants.
I'm learning.  We will live peacefully together -- as long as they
start producing eggs.  I'm waiting.   

Those chickens in the window are keeping their eyes on the
bug prize.   

Freedom!

O.K.  I just had to show off my lavender.  It has never been
happier.  Nor have the chickens. We have been letting the
chickens out in the yard around dusk to eat bugs. Notice the
chicken in flight.

Since the chicken coop's completion, we have been busy fine tuning their feeding and watering stations.  We did have two roosters after all.  They were relocated today.  Our good neighbors, Debi and Charles, came over this morning and took them away.  Debi was fearless and captured both roosters.  One of them put up a fight and attacked her wrist and hand.  She had what she called a surface scratch, but her wrist was bright red with blood and had to be cleansed immediately.  She was on her way home to apply comfrey to her wound and to enjoy a fine chicken dinner. 

The grass really is greener on the other side.