Chickens Love Octopus or Squid?

My neighbors decided that they didn't like Octopus or Squid, not sure which it was. They gave it to me and I didn't have the desire to try it, it just didn't look appetizing to me and I will eat just about anything.

I thawed it and put it out for the chickens, they were delighted. Garfield, our finicky cat liked it too and he doesn't even like tuna.

Looks wonderful doesn't it?



This hen wanted hers breaded, so she rolled it in some sand.

Most of them just grabbed some and ran.





The good news is that after their feast they laid 6 eggs. We haven't gotten that many eggs in a long time.

2009 Hatchlings

I have ended up this hatching season with three hens who successfully incubated their eggs. The first standard sized hen hatched out nine bantam chicks only smashing one of them. Her eight remaining D'Uccle chicks are now nearly adult size and five of those eight are roosters, four of the five roosters are turning Mille Fleur. I am currently trying to find them new homes.

The other two hens were both D'Uccles, one hatched six chicks and the other hatched three. These chicks are all D'Uccles as well, but are still little balls of fluff, so I don't know if they are pullets or cockerels.

Egg production has dropped drastically in the last few weeks. When we were getting plenty of eggs, no one wanted to buy them, now we have a waiting list. I guess fresh farm eggs are getting harder to find because of the season. This is hard on our dogs who are use to getting a few eggs everyday.

I am glad to report no chicken losses other than one smashed chick. Having Great Pyrenees can cut your chicken losses as long as it isn't your Great Pyrenees who are killing your chickens. My older dog does chase them a little bit when she is feeling frisky and my cat does too, but neither has ever hurt one of them.

I am really impressed with my cat, Garfield, he kills birds, mice, chipmunks and rabbits but the little tiny chicks can walk right over his front paws and he only twitches. I have been afraid that he will snap one day, but so far so good.

Sludge

Our barn is just full of it, last night it was rain water, today it is sludge. It has been years since we have seen this much rain. Indian Creek has rerouted itself into our lower pasture and is still rising. The roaring sound of the creek, that is temporarily a river, is filling this valley.

Poor Calico and kids are on the only high spot in the stall. She isn't even wading the waters to go to her hay feeder. I was awake all night, it started with a glance at the weather radar when I knew something bad was going to hit us, there was no escape.

By the time that I got the computer shut down because I was starting to hear the thunder, it was here. There was no sleep after that. The lightening, thunder, hail and wind were really scary. I was just sure that we were going to get hit by a tornado any second. My DH just kept snoring, I talked to him anyway, he even answered.

I was expecting to find things blown all over the yard this morning and trees down but nothing seems out of place but our spring creek and Indian Creek. However, it does look like a jungle out there, the grass and weeds all grew several inches over night. The horses will have plenty to eat, they will all start getting obese again.

Poor Angus was outside in all of that mess, I don't know where he was but he didn't come into the barn before I had to close up everything. I had just closed the big sliding door to the barn, locked it and gone back to bed when I heard the cat hollering to be let in. So I went back out to let him in and he had already found another way. He looked like something that the cat had drug home. There was a lot of hail so I wasn't surprised to see him looking quite confused.

Golden Egg

Well actually it is a dark brown egg. We are currently getting only extra large, large and small eggs. But the other day we got an extra, extra large egg, the size of a duck egg. I was very curious about which hen was laying this distinctive extra large, dark brown egg, it is the only dark brown egg that we get. I don't have one hen that is different from all of the rest, so I had to do some detective work.

The egg in question is usually already in the nest when I wake up in the mornings, so for me to catch this hen would mean that I would have to get up with the chickens and I am not an early riser. However, this morning I caught a break, my super sleuthing cat decided to sleep in front of the nest boxes in the barn/house last night and he is a late sleeper also. The hens were not happy when I went out and removed him. They were all gathered in a disgruntled group.

The first one to jump in the box was one of the new red hens. I had suspected that it might be her, she is no bigger than some of my other hens but she is the biggest of the three new red hens. Sure enough, without so much as a cackle, she left the nest a few minutes later and there was the big dark brown egg. Case closed, thanks to my partner, Garfield.

We are getting 7 to 11 eggs per day now. Which means that our refrigerator is full of eggs most of the time. I still need some faithful buyers, but I did sign up to bring deviled eggs for the Church pitch-in. So I have been reading about how to make perfect hard boiled eggs from fresh eggs, that peel easily. So far here is a list of tips that I have found:

• Put Vinegar in the water
• Put Salt in the water
• Put Vinegar and Salt in the water
• Put Baking Soda in the water
• Put room temperature eggs in already boiling water
• Don't boil at all, just place in boiled water and cover with a lid
• Tap rounded side of egg on hard surface to slightly crack then boil
• Cool immediately in ice water
• Cool eggs quickly in cold tap water then put in freezer for 5 minutes
  

I am confused and don't know which method to use. I am thinking that what I could do is take all of the eggs that I gather today, super fresh, and try a different method on each egg to find which method is the easiest and quickest.

Too Much Milk

Since I sold Copper, I am milking two goats each day, that results in a lot of milk. It also results in a lot of dirty dishes and no refrigerator space. My sink is piled high right now but I did give my Son one and a half gallons of milk last night, so that freed up some space in the fridge.

I need to find someone to buy part interest in one of my goats, so that I don't drown here. I am already feeding milk to my chickens, dogs and cat. My Schnauzer looks like she could pop at any given moment and my cat is too fat as well. Angel usually gets milk once per day but she must still be growing because she isn't bloated like the other two.

Here are a couple of pictures of our fat cat, Garfield. He loves being packed around by our Granddaughters. You would think that he would run when he sees them coming but he just loves the attention.

Mr. Shorty

Mr. Shorty is our miniature horse, who thinks that he is a draft horse. He has a bad case of LMS (Little Man Syndrome). What he lacks in height he makes up in attitude and desire to one day rule the world.

We acquired Shorty several years ago, as a badly foundered and neglected kid's pony. He was free, so why not? The price was right. He did require some foot adjustments.

And in case that you didn't notice his feet....

Because poor Shorty couldn't stand on his other three feet to have one foot trimmed, he was stretched out on his side, while my husband and a neighbor took a hacksaw to him.

The picture above is after we had had Shorty for awhile and my poor husband had finally gotten his feet back in shape. He complains that he is the hardest horse to trim that we have, not because he doesn't behave himself but because he is so short and it is back breaking work.

Mr. Shorty is a very good natured feller when he wants to be, as you can see by these pictures of him with our cat, Garfield. Not only does Garfield like Shorty but my hens seek refuge on his back as well, to get away from the rooster. Our rooster even occasionally takes a free ride on Shorty's back. The goats like to chew on his mane and tail, stand on his back when he is laying down and play tag with him, he always wins.

But Mr. Shorty's true love is kids, he likes them for some reason. He doesn't care at all for adults though, he doesn't even tolerate them well.

These pictures are of Shorty with our Grandson when he was younger. We took Mr. Shorty to Sunday School one Sunday morning and he nickered when he saw the little children coming to ride him. He is really good with kids and he just loved our Grandson until he reached about 7 years of age, then he started considering him an adult and wanted nothing more to do with him.

Shorty looks like the perfect little pony in these pictures, but looks can be deceiving. He is a wolf in sheep's clothing. He picks a fight with horses six times his size, he torments both of our stallions, he is impossible to catch if an adult tries to catch him, however, any small child can catch him at anytime. He walks under fences and goes anywhere he decides to go. He is very hard to lead unless it is a child that is leading him, then they can drag him around anywhere.

We have to keep Shorty in a special pen that he cannot escape from in order to keep him from foundering. It takes only a small amount of grass to founder him and he has even foundered on too much hay, so we have to feed him carefully. He is also a master mind when it comes to gates and his timing is always perfect for escaping through any open one. On these occasions, Mr. Shorty gets the rips and that is very entertaining to watch, he is very athletic and fast and can leap small buildings in a single bound.

All in all, Mr. Shorty is pretty worthless and pretty valuable at the same time and we love him.