Well, it has been just over a week since the chooks arrived, and what a difference they have made to the place.
Big bum Bunty is the boss and owns the big perch in the run. Edwina is the most curious and just loves it when Butch the wonder dog puts his nose through the wire. Ginger is usually the first to lay each day and is the only one eating the pellets in the grain mix. Polly is cute and shy, is the smallest, and has not yet laid, but I reckon she is a few weeks younger than the rest. We love them all, and can’t believe that only a week has passed by. They have really made themselves at home. Butch has settled down around them and only gets flustered if Edwina gives him a peck.
Today was our first 3 egg day, so that takes the grand total since Tuesday (when they came on the lay) to 14 eggs, with most about 45g in weight. Not bad for the girls first week living it large at TGOG’s house. I mucked out their house and run on Saturday morning, and it took me a good hour to finish it. I took it real easy because I haven’t had much shovel action over the last year so didn’t want to upset the back too much. I did the run first before I let them out of their house for the day, and once clean and with the bedding refreshed, I took a 10 minute breather and then cleaned out their house. I put the straw and chook poo on the garden beds as mulch to stop the beds from drying out. The manure will certainly help the vegies grow! The house had too much fresh manure, so I put that lot in the compost bin to rot for a while. If I have to do this every week, like I do, then I am going to have to think of very inventive ways of using the soiled bedding. Maybe I can bag it and sell it as naturally fertilised mulch? What do you think, is there a market for that sort of thing?
Anyway, here is a picture of “The Dirty Dozen”, because Ben ate the first two in an omelette. Ben thinks that the eggs taste fantastic. I think I will have a few soft boiled eggs with soldiers for breakfast tomorrow! Yummy. Click on the photo to enlarge and you will see that we have written the laying date in pencil on each egg. That way we can keep track of them and eat the oldest first. The spotty egg was Bunty’s first effort. The eggs have all come out very clean, and I give them a quick rub with an old tea towel before popping it in the carton.
As Kate from Hills & Plains Seedsavers has often told me, ‘Get there quick, then take it slow!’. Right as ever Kate and sound advice for anyone on a sustainable journey.
Big bum Bunty is the boss and owns the big perch in the run. Edwina is the most curious and just loves it when Butch the wonder dog puts his nose through the wire. Ginger is usually the first to lay each day and is the only one eating the pellets in the grain mix. Polly is cute and shy, is the smallest, and has not yet laid, but I reckon she is a few weeks younger than the rest. We love them all, and can’t believe that only a week has passed by. They have really made themselves at home. Butch has settled down around them and only gets flustered if Edwina gives him a peck.
Today was our first 3 egg day, so that takes the grand total since Tuesday (when they came on the lay) to 14 eggs, with most about 45g in weight. Not bad for the girls first week living it large at TGOG’s house. I mucked out their house and run on Saturday morning, and it took me a good hour to finish it. I took it real easy because I haven’t had much shovel action over the last year so didn’t want to upset the back too much. I did the run first before I let them out of their house for the day, and once clean and with the bedding refreshed, I took a 10 minute breather and then cleaned out their house. I put the straw and chook poo on the garden beds as mulch to stop the beds from drying out. The manure will certainly help the vegies grow! The house had too much fresh manure, so I put that lot in the compost bin to rot for a while. If I have to do this every week, like I do, then I am going to have to think of very inventive ways of using the soiled bedding. Maybe I can bag it and sell it as naturally fertilised mulch? What do you think, is there a market for that sort of thing?
Anyway, here is a picture of “The Dirty Dozen”, because Ben ate the first two in an omelette. Ben thinks that the eggs taste fantastic. I think I will have a few soft boiled eggs with soldiers for breakfast tomorrow! Yummy. Click on the photo to enlarge and you will see that we have written the laying date in pencil on each egg. That way we can keep track of them and eat the oldest first. The spotty egg was Bunty’s first effort. The eggs have all come out very clean, and I give them a quick rub with an old tea towel before popping it in the carton.
As Kate from Hills & Plains Seedsavers has often told me, ‘Get there quick, then take it slow!’. Right as ever Kate and sound advice for anyone on a sustainable journey.
