Homegrown

 

Asian Pears

The garden is producing a few things for us to harvest.  The Asian Pear tree produced several fruits that we've shared with M and my friend R.  There are four different varieties grafted onto the one tree and they ripen at different times.  

I'm also beginning to pick pods from the moringa tree:

Moringa Pods

We peel the outer layer, cut the pods into smaller pieces, and cook them in a curry.  I shared some of the pods with friend R.

This year, we are also having homegrown eggs!

Fresh Eggs

Niwatori and Henny Penny have given us 17 eggs, between them, so far!  They are not quite free range, yet, but, I am starting to fancy that the yolks are turning a little yellower.  

We still have more calamondine to pick and process.  We will ask M to help because we can't reach the ones at the top of the tree.

I am grateful for:

- Garden produce
- Homegrown eggs
- Water for the garden
- M's help with the garden
- Daughter's help with the garden

Are you growing any fruits and vegetables in your garden, this year?  

One Year, Already!

Niwatori Perched on Daughter's Back

It's been one year since my daughter moved back home!  That year has flown by!  I am very thankful she's home with me (especially with my health issues popping up every so often) and she says she's happy to be home.  We've readjusted to living together without any problems, making a few accommodations to keep the house fairly quiet during her work hours since she works from home for the most part.  I do the majority of the cooking and she has been taking on more of the house cleaning, especially the vacuuming after my most recent sciatica flare up (although she dislikes housework).  She's taken over some of the yard work, too, and taking out the trash cans, etc.  I still do most of the driving and she has taken over the online bill paying, since she has assumed responsibility for the utilities.  In a way, we've assumed the sort of relationship my mother and I had (my mother did most of the cooking and I did most of the housework, for example). 

We share the chicken care duties, too.  I wake up early to let them out of the coop into their enclosure and give them breakfast.  Daughter cleans the coop, make sure they have food and cool water (during this summer heat we are having, she puts a bottle of frozen water in their water container to keep the water cool), collects any eggs, and puts them back in the coop for the night.  The hens have laid 16 eggs to date!  We've eaten five of them, given away eight of them (four to M who has helped us so much with getting the coop and enclosure ready and four to neighbor S who brought us dinner tonight!)

Today, being the 1st of August, I made milkrice for breakfast.  Later in the morning, daughter's friend V came over to spend some time with her.  They chatted, played a video game, and did some cross stitching together.  Daughter ordered pizza for lunch and, when V was leaving, gave her the gifts to give her daughters (the fishing game to her older daughter and a board book for her younger daughter).  

Later in the afternoon, we did a load of laundry.  

In the early evening, neighbor S called to ask if we'd like to have some Chinese food she had bought (apparently, she had some company over to lunch).  I said I'd love to have some and she and her mother brought over a feast:

Chinese Food Plus Fruit and Dessert

Daughter and I gifted them with four of the eggs our chickens had laid and they were so happy.

By the way, remember the blanket I crocheted with all the yarn neighbor S's mother had given me?

Crocheted Blanket

A couple of weekends ago, I had taken it over to neighbor S's house and given it to her mother who was very pleased to receive it.  

Later in the evening, daughter and I put the chickens in for the night (she did all the work while I sat in a garden chair and watched "live chicken TV")  LOL.  Niwatori seems to think that daughter makes a good perch and yesterday, she climbed onto daughter's shoulder!

Today, I am grateful for:

- Daughter being home with me
- All the blessings of this last year that she's been home
- Daughter being able to spend some time with her friend
- Neighbor S bringing us dinner
- Chickens providing us with eggs and entertainment

Plans for tomorrow include:

- Watering the house plants
- Cleaning the kitchen
- Decluttering 

How was your Saturday?  What are your plans for Sunday?

On Sunday

 

They wanted to roost on the door to the inner coop!

On Sunday morning, I got up at 8:00 a.m. and let the chickens out of the inner coop and gave them more food.  They both let me pet them a little bit before I went back inside.  

The morning was relatively cool and after I had a cup of tea and said my morning prayers, I decided to sweep and mop the kitchen floor and, later, I cooked a chicken curry (we won't tell Niwatori and Henny Penny about that!) for dinner.  I also folded and put away a load of laundry.

My daughter checked on the chickens and cleaned out the coop a little after noon and she found one brown egg!  She said she took a few blueberries out to them and held out the berries in her gloved hand and they came up to her and pecked the berries from her hand!  She said that while she was there, Niwatori went into the hen house and we assumed she went to the nest box at the back of the hen house.  Sure enough, when daugher went to check on them later in the afternoon, there was another egg in the nest box!  That makes a total of seven eggs since we got them on Tuesday! 

In the evening, I went with daughter when she went to her gymnastics session (the first time she's gone this month) and stayed in the car and read my book while I waited for her.  

After we came home, daughter put the chickens into the inner coop while I cooked a pot of rice.  We had rice with chicken curry, green beans, and peach chutney for dinner and ice cream for dessert.

On Sunday, I am grateful for:
- Two more eggs from our chickens
- What I was able to accomplish
- Washing machines and dishwashers
- A safe drive to the gymnastics center and back (we passed a multi-car accident on our way back)
- Fans to keep us cool

Sunday's joyful activities included collecting more eggs!

Plans for Monday include:

- Returning my library books
- Picking up my medications
- Maybe a visit from friend R 
- Taking the trash and recycling out to the bins (daughter will wheel out the bins to the curb)
- Watering the indoor plants (daughter will water the garden)
- Making my meal plan options
- Scheduling a car service for an oil change, etc.

How was your Sunday?  What are your plans for Monday?

Eggsperiments

 

Newly Laid Brown Egg and Store Bought White Egg

Yesterday, daughter decided to compare and contrast the egg our new chickens laid (brown one) and one of the store bought eggs (white one).  These are the pictures she took.

Brown Egg on the Viewer's Left 

We expected the new chicken egg to have a more orange colored yolk, but, we didn't see any noticeable difference.  Maybe, once they start being out in the garden and eating more plants and insects, in addition to their pellets, we might see a change in the color.  Also, apparently, feeding them pieces of dried red chili flakes will also turn their yolks a deeper orange color!  

Scrambled - Brown Egg on the Left

Next, daughter scrambled them, each egg separately, to see if there was a noticeable difference in taste.  We both tasted them and to be quite honest, neither of us could taste a difference!  

The store bought eggs are "cage free", but, that does not mean that they are "free range" according to the definitions used in the U.S., with cage free chickens being kept mostly indoors in large barns and free range chickens being allowed outdoor access.  Niwatori and Henny Penny are kept in a fairly large enclosure (which would technically be a cage, I suppose?) but, it is outdoors and eventually, they will have access to the garden as well, over the next few days.

There were no eggs laid this morning when I let them out of the coop into the bigger enclosure or at noon when daughter checked on them during her lunch break and gave them more food, fresh water, and cleaned the enclosure.

She checked on them again in the afternoon and gave them more food and cold water (we are freezing bottles of water and putting them in their water containers to chill the water).  She also poured some water over one area of the ground in the enclosure to create a damp spot in which they could be to cool off a bit.  It's 96F today and the poor chickens need all the help they can get to keep cool!  Even though they are supposed to be heat tolerant, they were raised in northern California where it doesn't get quite as hot as it does down here! Also, if they are less than a year old, they would not have experienced summer time temperatures.

We checked on them again, after daughter got off work, with both of us going to see how they were doing.  Henny Penny had dug out a nice bowl shaped depression in the corner where the ground had been wetted down and was relaxing there while Niwatori was in the area under the coop. 

We offered them a couple of kale leaves, yesterday, but, they seemed quite uninterested in them.  Today, we gave them a few freshly picked blueberries and, at first, they didn't know what to do with them, but, then, they learned to pick them up and eat them.  I had daughter bring two of the garden chairs to the area by the coop and we sat and watched them as they scratched at the ground and pecked around.  

We went inside after that, and I made a cucumber salad to have for dinner along with rice, salmon, and green beans.  I also ordered some groceries to be delivered tomorrow.

Daughter put the chickens into the coop for the night at sunset.  We had checked on them last night, around midnight, and saw that they had settled down for the night, on top of their feeder and water container, in the open area of their coop.  We have to figure out a good roosting place for them, but, today, we placed an old metal ladder with just two rungs inside the coop.  It just fitted inside and still allowed the lid to be closed. Ideally, it should be a wooden ladder, but, hopefully, they'll use it for tonight.

Today, I am grateful for:

- The chickens made it through the night!
- That first egg
- Daughter doing all the hard work of tending to them and keeping the coop and enclosure clean
- Easy access to water which helps with cleaning the food and water dishes, etc.
- The joy of having backyard chickens!

Better brace yourself to a few more daily chicken reports over the next few days until we figure out what we are doing!  LOL.  I am thinking we are doing this at the correct time as there seems to be another egg recall due to salmonella contamination according to today's news broadcast!  The recall includes eggs sold at the grocery store from which I get my eggs!  I need to check if the last batch of eggs I bought are among the recalled ones!  

Niwatori and Henny Penny

Fresh Vegetables?

On Tuesday afternoon, we received a long awaited, yet, much delayed due to various factors including a sprained thumb, a potential job-related travel out of town (tickets booked and paid for, but, the meeting was cancelled at the last minute), and a mini heatwave, delivery of a box of...farm fresh vegetables?  What?  Who ordered fresh vegetables from a farm?

But, wait, what's that peeking out from one of the holes in the box?

Peek-a-Boo!

Is that an eye?  And are those feathers? 

Feathers!

Could it be?  Yes, it is!  Chickens!  Our chickens have arrived! 

Daughter opted to get chickens that had been feather-pecked by others in the flock because feather-pecked chickens deserved to be loved just as much as any other chicken (maybe the fact that she was bullied at school made her feel more empathy towards them).  The fact that they were half priced was a bonus.  She was told that they had feathers missing and bare patches, but, were otherwise healthy. Presumably, the feathers will grow back, eventually.

Daughter requested heat tolerant chickens suitable for our climate, but, the exact breed and age of the chickens we'd receive would depend on what was available, and the chickens would be anywhere from 3 months to 1 year (daughter had originally wanted coop-ready chickens that were still fairly young).  

The chickens we received are a bit bigger than we had expected, but, here they are:

Niwatori and Henny Penny

Introducing Niwatori (Japanese for chicken, with niwa meaning garden and tori meaning bird), a Barred Plymouth Rock, and Henny Penny, who we believe is a Rhode Island Red.  Daughter has emailed the farm to ask if they knew the exact breeds and ages of the chickens they sent us, but, we haven't heard back yet.  Not that it matters that much.  We already love them!

We introduced Niwatori and Henny Penny to the coop yesterday and they checked it out.  The coop comes with a small run, an open enclosure, which them seem to prefer to the coop, itself as they refused to stay inside the coop when daughter put them in there to see - can't blame them because who'd want to be cooped up inside when there's so much to see?  LOL.  

Henny Penny Smiling at the Camera

 They both have small patches of bare skin on their backs, but, there are no wounds as such.  

Henny Penny giving me the side eye, but
Niwatori seems unconcerned

Daughter has made the coop as predator proof as she could and that's where they will spend their nights.  However, the coop and its small run is placed inside a bigger enclosure (6' x 10'), which gives them extra room in which to run.  

Chicken Enclosure with Coop Inside

Daughter assembled the enclosure and gardener M helped her with the canopy and laying down the hardware fabric underneath to predator proof it.  After the hens had explored the coop, we let them out to explore the bigger enclosure.

Coop and Enclosure

It was funny to see them explore this bigger area.  Niwatori seems to be the more placid one.  She happily stood in one spot and made some contented sounding clucking noises as she pecked at bugs in the ground.  Henny Penny, on the other hand, took it upon herself to strut around the enclosure, crowing every few feet, as if to proclaim that this is her territory!  Then, she went over to Niwatori, gave her a small peck on the back as if to establish the pecking order, and stood next to her, still keeping an eye on us standing outside the enclosure.  

We plan to let them out into the garden, eventually, but, with the garden cats and other critters around, we will do so only when either my daughter or I are there to keep an eye on them.  The rest of the time, they will stay inside the enclosure until they need to go inside the coop at night.  We still need to trim the zip ties and tidy the enclosure a bit (even today, M put more soil on some areas inside the enclosure to bury some exposed hardware fabric so that the chickens' feet don't get damaged when they scratch, etc.), but, the chickens seem happy enough.

The First Egg!

In fact, one of them gifted us with an egg, this morning!  I found it when I went to let them out of the coop run into the larger enclosure!  They both lay brown eggs, so, I've no idea quite who laid it, but, I rather suspect Niwatori as she seems more relaxed while Henny Penny is still a bit wary.  When daughter carried them, yesterday, Niwaroti allowed herself to be carried without any fuss while Henny Penny flapped her wings and squawked a bit at the indignity of being carried!  LOL.

I brought the egg in and washed it and refridgerated it.  But, first, I took a picture of it next to a grocery store, size large egg:

Not a bad size, at all!

I'll let daughter have the pleasure of cooking the first egg as she has done all the work and spending to get the chickens and the coop and enclosure, etc.  

But, isn't it "eggciting"?  LOL.

I do wonder what Chicken Little would have thought about all this?

Chicken Little
(neighbors' hen who spent her days in my garden
and taught the garden cats who was the boss!)

Today, I am grateful for:

- Our own chickens
- Who arrived safely
- Who seems to have settled in nicely
- Our first new egg
- M's help with the chicken coop and enclosure

This is the first time we are having our own chickens and we are learning as we go!  We are hoping that the chickens will like their new home and reward us with many more eggs in the days and weeks to come.  

Have you kept chickens?