Laid in my hand...

Was out checking the chooks this morning and I found a chook in behind both the nesting boxes in an odd position...

She made a couple of funny noises so I quickly put my hand under her back end... And with a little push, she pushed out a perfectly warm egg and it dropped right into my hand... First time :) Very cool experience... I said a Big Thank you and took it inside...

Quickly took photos, even while it was still wet! Very cool...

Blessings,

That egg...

Yes, that massive egg we got last week... Josh cracked it tonight for Father's Day dinner... What a double yolker... Again, well done chooky...

Blessings,

Flintstone egg...

Look what I found ;) So bumpy and rough. Bet it's the same chook as the one that laid the huge one a couple of days ago...

Blessings

What The???

One chook late last week decided to lay a whopper of an egg... Ready for the weight??? 95gr!!! Poor chook bottom is probably still sore :(

Wonder if it has one or two yolks?

Blessings,

Treats for the chooks...

One sunflower head has been plucked and given to the chooks... Bit of a treat for them :) So fresh!

Blessings,

Grateful for...

Each and every egg I get...

Over the last few weeks, I've had more and more of the girls go off the lay... Not much I can do. I feed them the right things but when they are free range and not fed food that makes them lay, it's pot luck.

So yes, I'm grateful for any egg I get! At the moment it's between one and two a day... Still enough to give them away, which I love to do :)

Blessings,

Leak and corn quiche...

Oh, yummy... Yes, it was... Only needed 4 of our lovely chook eggs but it rose so well in the oven. 

I must say, I love using our own eggs hands down over shop bought ones any day... Even their so called free range eggs are nothing compared to ours here. Their free range and mine are completely different and for that my chooks and I are thankful! Yes, mine are free range and also anything that they eat is organic and wholesome. No pesticides, hormones or antibiotics at all. I don't need it out here. The only problem we have had here is live and that's happened twice in six years, after allot of rain. So glad to know that our eggs are as close to what nature intended as possible and for 6 months of the year we get to enjoy them in abundance.

That reminds me, I have to slow up on giving all my excess eggs away and start freezing them... Last season, I had to buy eggs for two out of the six months that my lovelies were off the lay. Must try and reduce that even more this season :) Does anyone freeze their eggs too?

Blessings,

Gigantic egg!!!

My eldest just brought in today's lot of eggs... Good girls... 12 in total :)

One was very little... One was very huge... Hehe

Wonder if it's a double yolker?

Blessings,

Treat factory for chooks...

Slug farm! That's what my eldest calls his new venture :)

He got up this morning and turned over a heap of bricks for the chooks so that they could go to town with all the grubs underneath them. Then he decided the chooks needed an area set up, where he can get treats for them on a weekly basis!

So he hunted around the place and found a heap of unused house bricks, a paver and a tank inlet cover...

He arranged them, I watered around them and now we wait for a week to see what little slugs, grubs etc come up. The worms will be resettled in the raised garden beds :)

He's very happy with the end result and loved how the chooks kept following him as he moved bricks around, just in case there was a bug that might of been missed ;)

Blessings,

Ahhhh, she's a lovely girl...

This is the tamest of the three that my brother gave us a fortnight ago... 

She has a cute nature and loves to chat :)

She loves a cuddle and goes just about limp when you stroke her down her waddle... 

All three have fitted in really well. Have seen no fighting at all... Though they don't eat with all the others but they all drink together :) All in good time... Something we have allot of here... Love it slow. 

Blessings,

Oh, what a crop...

Noticed about a week ago, that Floppy had a huge crop...

She is still eating and drinking fine. Has not lost any of her condition and doing chooky things, just like normal. It was centred last week but I noticed today that it is leaning to the right. It's huge... Imagine holding a grapefruit huge... Not tight and there's been no throwing up either... Her droppings are normal too. 

Tonight, when the chooks get shut in, I'll seperate her with her own source of water and grain... Hoping she's ok... 

Blessings,

5 layers...

Last couple of weeks I was having one of my hens lay. One week ago, another joined her... As of today, there are five layers!!!

There are only four eggs though as one got squashed by a chook! So, here are the four, very differently sized eggs :)

Keep them coming lovelies...

Settling in...

The three lovely chooks from my brother are settling in :) The were in one of my relocation cages so they could get used to their new home. That stay lasted just under a week.

Last night, only one of the three had to be put to bed by hand into the big chook house. The other two went in by themselves :)

They are getting there... Still preferring to eat on their own they are starting to come up to me when I have grain and rattle the container... No silly chooks here hehe

Soon they'll be just another three of the crowd of 20 chooks! Yay!!!

Blessings,

An extra layer...

The dozen eggs are all from the same lovely hen... Yesterday another chook has joined in and has laid as well :)

Yay! So happy to have my first dozen for the season... Thank you lovely, precious hen!

Blessings,

Wow... Eggs!!!

Yes, it's been ages since our last lot. My eldest and I went to look today if we had some, by some sort of miracle...

And there were 5 lovely eggs!!! Woohoo, so exited. Never mind that I bought a dozen today... :(

This means that they will all start laying soon. They are all or nothing...

Am picking up my youngest brother's three girls on Sunday after my shift at work so will have 20 chooks again...

I'm about to be inundated with eggs... Yay!!!

Blessings

Eggs and more eggs...

The girls have settled now on six eggs a day. Needless to say, I'm still giving allot of eggs away...

Am bartering too, which I love :) This quiche was made by hubby... It was truly divine :)

Cheers

Babies are out...

Late in the afternoon yesterday, we let the three babies out. No, not really babies as such but they are the latest ones the join our family :)

These RIR's are lovely but still very jumpy as you can imagine. They will settle and had an uneventful night in the hen house last night. It's very hot here at the moment, so all the chooks are sticking near water and shade. Not many eggs right now...

Never mind as I have nine dozen anyway... They need to preserve their energy, poor things...

Cheers

But Seriously...

Allot of times lately when I'm away working, my eldest forgets to get the chook eggs... When I got home today, I collected 27!!!

At this point, I am going to be reducing our numbers. There is just too many. The purebreds and Bruce, the rooster will stay. Ducks are also going. Going to just keep it to chooks from now I think! Am thinking 10 hens and the rooster :) Sounds like a much better number :)

Cheers

Bruce and his girls...

While I was cutting the boys' hair this afternoon, we had Bruce and his girls come by for a bit of a chat :)

They love digging up there. Love Bruce talking to his chooks as they scratch away :)

My eldest couldn't stop giggling... Love how much personality they have ;)

Told Bruce at one point to please show his beautiful side, so I could send my friend Angela a picture of him... He was very obliging :) Gentleman that he is!

Cheers

Visiting Rebecca and Mark...

I love going out to their place... They have soooo many different types of purebred chooks. Now they are breeding them too. Oh, the hundreds of babies... I was in heaven :)

Yep, I came home with three new babies of my own ;) Three pullets... They're show quality Rhode Island Reds :) :) :)

Have wanted to get more for ages as we all love that breed out here and Mark just happened to have four. Oops I now have three of them hehe... All happened so fast and before I knew it, I was on my way home with a box of chookies :) He's so lovely for letting me take care of his precious babies for the rest of their lives...

My chook boy was so happy with the three pullets :) No sitting with me in the front on the way home from Gymnastics... Oh no, he had to sit in the back so he could converse with them :) Just love it!

Now we are looking forward to them getting the last of their adult feathers and seeing what their personalities end up like :) Can't wait to name them :)

The first picture is one of Bec and Mark's out on their lovely farm, the second... Meet our three new girls :)

Cheers