Snookums lays her first egg!

 

At just on 5 months old (20 weeks), Snookums rushed into my Studio shortly after I let the girls out of the coop and headed straight for Kiep's old nest box on one of my art tables. After a lot of inspecting, scratching, packing and organising the grass neatly, she settled down to the serious business of laying.

 

For the fact that it was her first egg, it was quick, painless and smooth! I was expecting a lot of grunting and groaning, like with Missy's first egg, but before I could wipe my eyes, there it was, in all its glory!

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At first she stood quietly, as if contemplating whether the deed is finished or not, with a bit of a surprised look on her face.  

Then she burst into cackling, proclaiming her proud achievement to the world!

After I pointed to the egg and asked her, "What's that?", she duly started inspecting the miracle she had just created, touching the egg gingerly and looking at it from all angles. She spent quite some time with her treasure before jumping down and heading towards the garden, in full cackle.

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Autumn and Winter in S.A.

A cycle has been completed once again - Autumn has peaked, it's May, and another Winter is looming on our doorsteps. Winter 2006, as the picture above shows, was quite severe for us in South Africa, as snow is something we rarely experience and therefore always creates great excitement as well as hardship. Especially in the farming community, as livestock is always at risk because of the vast sizes of our farms and the large numbers of livestock we farm with - no barns really big enough to house all of them. No protection against the freezing temperatures and also a great problem with feed supplies. 

Every Winter brings its own beauty as the veld blossoms with Cosmos flowers in March and our gardens make way for the Winter annuals like Viola, Pansies, Lobelia, Primulas and various others and, of course, the Red Hot Pokers (Kniphofia) springing into action, supplying plenty of nectar the Sunbirds and other nectar feeders.

Another Winter special is the lovely temperatures we can enjoy at the Coast - no blistering heat or searing sun and a lovely ocean to boot! 

On farms and smallholdings though, Winter does also bring a special set of circumstances - exposed pipes from boreholes and water tanks often freeze up and then water is a problem until the sun has defrosted things sufficiently for water to flow freely again. Staff handling livestock outside have to be warmly clothed, wrapped in scarves and gloves and often having their 'konka' (a fire made in a drum) placed close-by to supply some warmth.

Luckily our Winters are short-lived, with our Autumn months being warm, calm and serene. In March, the most beautiful colours start emerging as trees put on their Autumn outfits, getting ready for their long-earned rest. April brings all the dropping leaves, ensuing in a great garden clean-up as leaves are gathered for the compost heap ready for use in Spring.

Here in Gauteng we are also lucky in that we don't really have to take special precautions for our chickens, like heating the coop. A closed door is enough protection against the elements. I do, however, make sure that nesting boxes are warm and clean and that the concrete floor is covered in a nice thick layer of grass.

May is one of the most beautiful months, warm enough outside to sit at the garden table and enjoy the birds frolicking around. The bird baths are still in full use and the lesser foliage on the trees allows the birds to sit and bask in the sun, drying out before the flit off on the next adventure. In June winter starts seriously setting in and by August/September we're ready for Spring again!

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Missy & Kiep

Having grown up in the house, both Missy and Kiep are quite capable of making themselves at home wherever they please. This morning I found them sitting quite happily on my wooden Leopard-inlay just inside the front door in the entrance hall. Why they would choose that spot is quite beyond me! Maybe the wood was slightly warmer than being outside, our days are decidedly nippy now, and neither of them moved as I made my way towards the door. They spent about half-an-hour relaxing there before making their way through my bedroom to have a scratch around in my bathroom court-yard.

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Eggs-traordinary ways with eggs

What's more perfect than an egg? These versatile packages of goodness are the magic ingredient in the kitchen.

 

QUICK AND EASY:

•  Fry eggs in a little good quality olive oil for a different taste sensation

•  Chop a few green olives and fresh dill into scrambled eggs for a great taste and texture comibination

•  To make tartar sauce, stir chopped Italian parsley, spring onions, gherkins, hard-boiled eggs and capers into home-made mayonnaise

•  Simmer hard-boiled eggs in a little green curry paste and add coconut milk. Serve with fragrant rice.

•  Fry some onions in butter and balsamic vinegar until slightly caramelised. Use as a filling for omelettes.

•  Heat cream in a pan with chopped chives and garlic and cool. Break an egg each in small ovenproof dishes. Pour over the cream and bake for 6 minutes at 180 degrees C.

•  A pinch of nutmeg makes delicious scrambled eggs

•  Fry some drained butter beans and sliced chorizo before pouring on your eggs for a great omelette.

•  Add a dollop of wholegrain mustard to creamy scrambled eggs and serve with hot, buttered toast.

•  Next time you fancy egg on toast, pop a cookie cutter into a nonstick frying pan. Heat up and gently creack an egg inside. Cook over low heat until just right.

•  For Spanish picnic eggs, shell 4 large boiled eggs and sprinkle with smoked paprika. Slice the chorizo in diagonal slices and serve with the boiled eggs, black olive pesto and breadsticks.

•  Make the best-ever egg roll by mixing 1/3 cup of mayonnaise with 4 hard-boiled eggs, grated, and spoon onto a buttered fresh roll with some rocket. Top with a dollop of mango chutney

Info from Woolworths TasteMag

Disaster - a broken beak!

Yesterday afternoon as I went out to feed the chickens, I was surprised to see Artemis already on his roost in the coop, but didn't think all that much of it. I filled the food bowls and dished out some snacks to all the girls and then, what I did find funny, was the fact that Artemis didn't come for his share. I went up to him where he was sitting on the roost, and horrors above horrors, I saw that the top half of his beak was almost totally ripped off, with his palette exposed.

I gently picked him up and brought him inside for a closer inspection and my heart almost stopped as I saw the extent of the damage. I was in such shock that I never got a pic of the broken beak before I repaired it, but managed to take some photos after he had settled down a bit.

 He was surprisingly calm as I handled him. I first of all pressed his palette back into place and then put the loose beak into place. I usually have some biodegradable surgical gauze in the house, but for lack of that I cut a little piece off a teabag and placed it on top of a small dab of glue I had placed on the join. I held it in place for a couple of minutes and then dolloped some more glue on top, holding him while I waited for about half an hour for the glue to dry.

I used the quickset glue where you mix two of the tubes together. It takes longer to dry but gives a gooey mix which doesn't flow, as I didn't want it to flow into his mouth. He seemed to know that I was helping him as he sat quietly on my lap all the time I fiddled.

I don't actually know what happened, but the only thing I can think is that he and Chook, my other rooster, were having a fight through the fence of Chook's coop (they're separated exactly for that reason!) and that, somehow, his beak must've gotten caught in the fence.

He was a bit weary of me this morning when I went to check on him and didn't seem worse for the wear. He did take a couple of snacks from me before offering some to his girls and healthily crowing away in between, letting Chook know that he was still around! I'm a bit worried that the glue might fall off due to the natural oils in his beak, so I will be keeping a close watch over the next couple of days

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Half a beauty

Artemis during his moult. Half his cape and half his beautiful tail feathers are gone, but it won’t be long before they are all replaced by healthy, more beautiful than ever, new feathers!

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No broodiness allowed!

I've got 6 of my 11 hens wanting to be broody now, all at the same time, two of them for the first time, and as it is I'm only getting 2 or 3 eggs a day at the moment - change of season, moulting, new additions to the flock, who knows? I feel like putting up a sign, "No broodiness allowed!"

And they ALL want to do this in the same two nest boxes - why do they think I went to all the trouble of building enough beautiful, snug and warm, nest boxes so each one can have their own space?!

OK, granted I haven't put up the little curtains that I promised them yet, and I also have not painted the top nest boxes yet, but I just have not had the time due to other pressures, but I promise I will be getting to it soon!

 

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Did you know?

Eggs age more in one day at room temperature than in one week in the refrigerator. Eggs can be kept in the fridge for up to one month and about ten days at room temperature. They should be stored with the sharp point downwards preferably in the egg rack in the fridge door and not near strong smelling food like fish or garlic. But I get so many eggs that they overflow into all sorts of containers!

To tell if an egg is raw or hard-cooked, spin it! If the egg spins easily, it is hard-cooked but if it wobbles, it is raw.

A 'young' hen is known as a pullet.

If an egg is accidentally dropped on the floor, sprinkle it heavily with salt for easy clean up.

Hens with white feathers and ear lobes produce white-shelled eggs. Hens with red or brown feathers and red ear lobes produce brown-shelled eggs.

Eggs are the cheapest animal protein. 18 eggs = 1 kilogram = 18 portions. 1kg of any other animal protein food represents about 8 portions. Eggs are not subject to shrinkage when cooked, thus 1kg of the raw product is equal to 1kg of the cooked product.

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Empty nest syndrome!

ChiChi on my desk

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ChiChi slept in the coop for the first time with all the other girls last night (Sun 7th Apr 2013 - and I forgot to take a photo!) and after I let them out this morning, she followed me into the house, had her fill to eat, as was her usual morning routine when I let her out of her basket next to my bed and she then summarily fell asleep on the towel in the bottom drawer of my desk. I presume she did not have a good night's sleep! 

The battle of the pecking order had her running around in circles in the coop last night before it got dark as everyone let her know which roosts have been taken. I kept on popping around to the coop until it got dark to see how she was doing. As it got dark, I saw her on one of the bottom roosts, close to Snooky and Snookums, who have been great in taking her under their wing ever since she started joining them in the garden a couple of weeks ago. 

 

It's now 3½ months ago that I found her all alone on the lawn on the 17th Dec 2012 after her mother (one of Solly's hens) and the rest of the newly-hatched babies had wandered off somewhere, so of course she was brought inside, placed in a basket next to a hot water bottle and kept warm until she surfaced, peeping for some food. 

Since then she has spent all her time with me in the studio, either on my lap, walking on my keyboard as I work on the computer, wandering around the studio or roosting in the bottom drawer of my desk. At night she would follow me to the bedroom, climb in her basket, get covered with a towel and we all settled down for the night. 

Soon we started taking some walks in the garden and, to her great delight, she discovered how to sand bath! Snooky and Snookums, who also grew up in my studio, soon taught her all the ropes necessary to 'survive' in the garden and thereafter ChiChi couldn't wait to go out in the mornings. 

  Enjoying a sand bath

 Discovering grazing

 Snooky & Snookums showing ChiChi where to find the best snacks

ChiChi with Snooky & Snookums and Micky in the foreground. ChiChi has to stay out of Micky's way, who is second-last in the pecking order and has discovered someone she can bully in return!

ChiChi on my knee, surveying the garden

But the time came when she didn't want to get into her basket anymore and started searching for something higher to roost on in my bedroom. That's just the sign I was waiting for, knowing that she is now big enough to join the rest of the girls in the coop.

Over the past 2 or 3 years I have raised many chicks either abandoned by their mother or even where the mother has fallen prey to some predator and it's a long time now since I've been free of taking care of some bird or another. So ChiChi's independance has left me feeling lonely and abandoned and I couldn't wait to open the coop this morning and greet her!

But, in the same breath, I'm also saying that I have sworn to give up this 'chicken rescue' business - it's a time-consuming business requiring dedication and commitment, especially the way I do it, worrying about what every peep and squeak might mean, whether the chick is too cold or warm enough, supplying a feather duster for day-olds to nestle under, putting something in the basket for height that they can 'roost' on, taking them with me in a basket when I go shopping, taking them for regular outings in the garden and generally being the 'perfect' mother hen.

But how can one NOT react to the call of an abandoned chick...?

 

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Using eggs for burns

I have no idea if this actually works, will only know once I try it!

"A young man sprinkling his lawn and bushes with pesticides wanted to check the contents of the barrel to see how much pesticide remained in it. He raised the cover and lit his lighter; the vapors ignited and engulfed him. He jumped from his truck, screaming.

His neighbor came out of her house with a dozen eggs and a bowl yelling: "bring me some more eggs!"

She broke them, separating the whites from the yolks.

The neighbor woman helped her to apply the whites onto the young man's face.

When the ambulance arrived and the EMTs saw the young man, they asked who had done this. Everyone pointed to the lady in charge.

They congratulated her and said: "You have saved his face."

By the end of the summer, the young man brought the lady a bouquet of roses to thank her. His face was like a baby's skin.

A Healing Miracle for Burns:

Keep in mind this treatment of burns is being included in teaching beginner fireman. First Aid consists of first spraying cold water on the affected area until the heat is reduced which stops the continued burning of all layers of the skin. Then, spread the egg whites onto the affected area.

One woman burned a large part of her hand with boiling water. In spite of the pain, she ran cold faucet water on her hand, separated 2 egg whites from the yolks, beat them slightly and dipped her hand in the solution. The whites then dried and formed a protective layer.

She later learned that the egg white is a natural collagen and continued during at least one hour to apply layer upon layer of beaten egg white. By afternoon she no longer felt any pain and the next day there was hardly a trace of the burn. 10 days later, no trace was left at all and her skin had regained its normal color. The burned area was totally regenerated thanks to the collagen in the egg whites, a placenta full of vitamins."

From Carolyn Heppner's FaceBook page

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A place to start

What is an egg, but a place to start,

Nestled under a mother's heart?

What is a nest, but a place to be,

Surrounded by those whose love is free?

What is a chick, but a beginning new,

Fresh and sweet as the morning dew?

What is a pullet but a lady who waits,

For that day when she too can say;

What is an egg but a place to start,

Nestled under a mother's heart?

- Sheryl DéLeon SoRelle

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Roosters really do know what time it is

The rooster's morning cock-a-doodle-doo is driven by an internal clock, finds new research, suggesting the male chickens really know the time of day. 

 The study, detailed on March 18 in the journal Current Biology, found that roosters put under constant light conditions will still crow at the crack of dawn. 

Past studies have found that a myriad of animal behaviors are driven by an internal clock: at night, a dip in insulin causes humans to process food more slowly, and even blind cave fish use a circadian clock to tell time. 

"Cock-a-doodle-doo' symbolizes the break of dawn in many countries," said study author Takashi Yoshimura of Nagoya University, in a statement. "But it wasn't clear whether crowing is under the control of a biological clock or is simply a response to external stimuli." 

Because stimuli throughout the day — such as car headlights — will set off a rooster's crow at any time, it was also possible that increasing light was the trigger for the cock's crows. 

To find out Yoshimura and his colleagues put 40 roosters in a setting with constant light, then recorded when they crowed. 

 Sure enough, the chickens crowed at daybreak regardless of the light conditions. The roosters also crowed at other times of day and in response light and the crows of their fellow chickens, but those behaviors were much stronger at daybreak. The findings suggest that an internal circadian clock, rather than external conditions, drive the behavior.

Read more at Mother Nature Network

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Perching in my soul

Hope is a thing with feathers.
That perches in the soul.
And sings the tunes without the words.
And never stops at all.
- Verse from Emily Dickinson poem

Watercolour on Ashrad 300gsm smooth sketching paper – 20″ × 30″ 

Besides my love for all animals, and for birds in particular, my love affair with chickens started in the late 70’s, when we bought our first smallholding and, of course, the first thing anybody on a smallholding does, is get chickens, ducks and geese! (Won't mention a donkey, a cow and starting a veggie patch, those are stories on their own!)

After a couple of months of settling in on our new smallholding, I was given some Bantam chickens by a neighbour, and there was a mad scramble to erect some chicken coups. They were prolific little breeders and soon the yard was full of mothers with little chicks , all running like mad for a tit-bit when they see me.

One newly-hatched little fellow, however, seemed not to be able to keep up with the rest, so I duly ‘rescued’ him, carrying him around in a basket and feeding him at every opportunity. The result was Kentucky, the most beautiful specimen of a rooster I had ever seen, with bright, coppery feathers adorning his neck and the most beautiful blue, black and burgundy tail feathers a rooster could wish for! Although he ruled his chosen hens with an iron claw, he always was a bit of a loner, spending hours following me around, hens in tow, or roosting on the back of the couch in the lounge (with lots of newspapers on the floor!)

Unfortunately I don't have any photographs of him, but he had this weird habit of being 'mesmerised' when you turned your finger in circles in front of his face, going into a trance-like state, so I was able to do this sketch of him.

He spent many years with me, preferring to roost in the tree outside my bedroom window, in stead of the chicken coup with the rest, and my heart was broken when I went out one morning and found part of him under the tree, half eaten, killed by a Genet during the night. But he lives in my heart forever and I’m sure he’s still watching over me from chicken heaven.

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