They grow up so fast

Ahh, internet.  You finally let me upload these pics.

The hens we have now we got when they were already "teenagers".  We all know babies are much cuter that teenagers!  This is also very true for chickens.

Take a look at our babies growing...

a couple days old

one week old



D thinks they are easier to catch with his baseball glove.

three weeks old

Today they are six weeks old!

(picture to come later)

They can now fly up to the first shelf in the greenhouse.  Found that out the morning I went out to check on them and they had eaten the tops off of everything at that height!  Oh, the things I'm learning.  We have been keeping them in the greenhouse because (1) it's warmer and they can't stay in our house and (2) they can't be with the big hens yet--they don't eat the same thing and we don't want the hens getting too rough with them.  However, if I'm going to be able to keep anything in the greenhouse they are going to have to be relocated pretty soon. 

Learning, learning.

The Milk Goat Project

Meet the newest members of the homestead...

We have recently acquired a couple goats, one of which we get to milk. 

I'll let you guess which one.

Yes, the milk is good.  It tastes very much like whole cow's milk.

Yes, we drink it.  And use it in our cereal.

We made ice cream with it last week and it was a definite success.  Yogurt and cheese is on the agenda.  If I can only find the time.  Maybe when school gets out things will slow down a bit.  (a mother can dream, can't she?)

The new girls are barred rock hens, same as our chicks.  They are already laying (eggs) and since the chicks won't be laying until September or so this ups our daily egg count to 4!  Yea for fresh eggs!  I take some spinach from the garden, saute it in a little butter, and throw it in with the scrambled eggs.  Breakfast of champions.

Now that's eating local!

Sustainable Living

*DISCLAIMER:  Do not read if you are easily grossed out.*

We would love to be those people that grow all their own food, get their milk from the goat out back, make their own brews, absolutely never buy store bread, etc.

Let me just say:

We're not there yet.

This summer we acquired a handful of chickens. 

Remember how one of them turned out to be a he-chicken? 

Well, he is a very good crower.  All day long.  And then he made the mistake of attacking Jonathan.  (He has this effect on animals.  Maybe his legs are just too long?)  And we don't really want tiny chicks in our morning breakfast.  I think you see where I'm going with this.

The rooster had to go.

We did some research and came across this very helpful blog on how to butcher a chicken.  It takes you through the whole process step by step.  With pictures.  Very helpful.

The first step is to catch the chicken.  We did not have a large net like the helpful blog suggested and we didn't want our first kill to be in front of the kids.  We just didn't know what would happen exactly.  What did happen was I herded the rooster into the shed with the canoe paddle (it took several attempts because we didn't want to take out the layers in the process and they kept following the rooster right into the shed).  Then, Gard-dawg took him out with the other paddle.  Away from the eyes of the curious, innocent children. 

Next, he took the rooster out and, well, chopped his head off.

It's what the instructions said.

At this point, we could contain the children no longer.  "Is he dead?  Did you kill him, Daddy?"

Their reactions were pretty predictable.



Joe and Trek were thrilled by the gore.

Dylan wanted to follow with his brothers but just not sure about it.

Abby chose not to look.

Jonathan took care of the rest of the cleaning of the rooster by himself.

He gathered all his tools.

Boiling hot water.  Sharp knives. KVMR.

And, that's about all the pictures that I feel need to be shared.

Except this one more.



I'm pretty sure he cut open something the blog people said not to cut because it was awfully smelly and quite possibly have turned my husband into a vegetarian.

So.

Got any vegetarian recipes to send my way?

Oh, and this wasn't just a way to get rid of Red.  The meat is being fried up at guys' night (a very honorable ending for our rooster, Don't you think?)



News from the Coop

We ended up with chickens this summer kinda by default.  They needed them to be part of the entertainment for summer camp and the birds had to have a place to stay, so...the old greenhouse shed is next door to our house and was easy to convert into a chicken house.  Since they were going to be living so close to us, I requested that we get all hens.  And that's what we thought we had

until recently.

One of the girls was starting to look a little suspect--going red in the gobbler and comb region.

This week it was confirmed.

There is definite cockadoodling.

AND,

we got our first egg!!!

So at least one of them is a hen.

Any suggestions on how to get her to lay IN the chicken house?