Chicken food

Chickens eating walnuts.

These chickens have well adapted to their new, larger range. I've made a very large yard for them to use for foraging and whatnot. I bought a few rolls of black plastic fencing, which is very light weight and easy to maneuver. Their area now includes a space underneath  some small trees that had collected lots of leaf litter for them to dig into. They can also dig around under some shrubs and young olive trees. Since these chickens are not particularly large, they don't seem to do too much damage to the trees. In fact, they are keeping the grass down around the trees, and foiling any pest build up. On occasion I'll let them out of that area and they inevitably head over toward the house and the granite patio. I'll let them hang out around the house for awhile and then lure them back to their own fenced area by cracking walnuts with brick. They know what the sound of walnut shells breaking sounds like, and they make haste to get to the spot where I crack the nuts. They love to eat walnuts, and do so with a real fervor.
Walnuts have lots of that healthy, omega 3 fat in them, so I'm thinking that will make the eggs omega eggs.

The eggs are coming two days on and one day off, from chicken number 1 at this point. Chicken number 2 looks like she's getting ready to start laying (her bottom is starting to get larger).

I am enjoying the chickens much more, now that we have grown more accustomed to each other, and I love that the hen eats bugs and walnuts and other things I don't like to eat, and then makes eggs out of them. The rooster has grown into a beautiful, bird, glossy black feathers shine green in the light. His ruff and tail feathers are fantastic.

I can see how important it is to have animals in a Permaculture situation, they offer so much as labor and as food. They keep weeds down, create food with their eggs, and break pest cycles. They also make fertilizer for the garden. The coop litter (straw and wood shavings) will mix with all their crap and become a wonderful addition to a compost pile.

Hummingbird nest being refurbished

A hummingbird hen has been working on updating the furnishings of last year's hummingbird nest. The nest was in such a protected spot that it suffered little wear and tear during the winter winds and rains (thus far). A hummingbird has been sprucing up the place, adding pieces of spider silk, and other materials, to the exterior and interior. Soon, I suspect she'll be sitting on eggs, though it isn't even February. I did witness various hummingbird mating activities in the past month or so. The male soaring way up high and other macho acts.

Last year's hummingbird event was so incredible! It is looking as if it will happen again. We have had a pretty mild winter, but we're barely half-way through it, so I'm wondering if she'll lay eggs soon. It will be clear though when she starts sitting on the nest. I'll try to get more photos of the process, but will be mostly content to watch it and not bother the birds.

A Sunny January Day

Today the weather report said sun and temps of 75 F.
It was a lovely day to spend in the garden. I let the chickens have the run of the whole yard. They like to hang out on the decomposed granite patio and also to dig in the Mulberry leaves, which cover the mostly ornamental beds nearby. The hen that is laying is very focused on finding bugs to eat. She scratches at the leaves and then snaps up any bugs she sees. The rooster and the other hen do the same, but with less focus.
While they were visiting various places in the yard I spent some time collecting scion wood from the white peach and the Moorpark apricot. I'm going to work on grafting in the spring and want to have some dormant wood to work with. I'll try grafting them both on various peach seedlings I have growing in a few places. I also took some black currant cuttings and stuck them in the ground.
Around 2 p.m. the hen which lays went into the coop and settled into her little dent in the straw, and went about laying an egg. I watched her from the window for a while and she seemed to not be making progress. Then the rooster and the other hen came in, and he stood right by her and the other hen took a little nap nearby. All this went on for some time, so I left and waited, until I saw them come out of the coop, to go get the egg. It was still warm when I picked it up. I now have half a dozen peewee eggs in the fridge. This is a collection from the past week or so.
The peewee eggs translate to large eggs with four peewees being the same as 3 three large. Last weekend I used four peewee eggs to make a batch of fresh pasta that I then used to make ravioli. The yolks were such a deep yellow that the sheets of pasta were a brilliant yellow when the sun shone through them.
Chances are good I'll repeat the procedure. The raviolis were delicious. Fresh made pasta is a wonderful food.

Hydrologic cycle & three more eggs

Sunset Jan 2011.

We visited the Pacific Ocean for five, mostly-sunny days. Every day we walked on the beach, a little further each day. On our last full day there we walked seven miles on the beach, in bare feet. The water was cold and the sand was cold, but there was enough sun to keep us warm, so long as we kept moving. Many days of rain preceded our visit, and some areas to the north and the south of where we stayed were experiencing landslides and broken sewage pipes leaking into the ocean. I wanted to visit Moonstone Beach State Park near Cambria, but that beach was considered too toxic from a sewage leak and other toxins in the water system, and was closed. Knowing that our water will make its way to a creek, river, lake, or ocean, should  keep us keenly aware of what we put into it as "waste." In April of 2010 Time magazine did a piece about various pharmaceuticals making their way into water supplies. The hydrologic cycle is a local and global concern. It sure is beautiful to look at too.

Three eggs, in the carton now, with the pointy end down.

When we returned I found three more eggs deposited in the chicken coop. They were on the floor in a corner, not in the nest boxes, so I've put two fake eggs into a nest box to help encourage the chickens to lay in there. I'm not sure if the chickens will get it, since the eggs are purple and green. They are musical shaker eggs but they were the only "fake" egg-shaped thing we had around just now.

After consulting a chicken book I weighed the eggs and found that they weigh 1 1/4 - 1 1/2 ounces each. The formula for figuring out their weight is to multiply the weight of one egg by twelve to get the carton weight. These eggs rate as "peewee" sized eggs. The book also says the eggs should get a bit larger in the coming weeks, so I'll weigh future eggs to check on that assumption. Every chicken book I consulted said that chickens would not lay with less than 14 hours of daylight (which is one reason why many people put lights in their chicken coops). I have no artificial light in the coop, so I'm still not sure what the scoop is with that idea. We are only getting about 9 hours 45 minutes.

First Egg

Well, there it is. 

What a surprise to find a little white egg in the chicken coop, this second day of January.

The books I've read said the chickens wouldn't lay with less than 14 hours of sunlight, so I didn't expect any eggs until spring.

I admit it was exciting to find the egg.

First egg interior. A very deep yellow yolk, which is held high in the white.

The first egg yolk (top) is much deeper yellow and the white is much firmer than the commercial egg (bottom). These two eggs were put into a batter for banana bread.