100 happy days :: day 12

you know it's going to be spring soon when the chickens start to lay eggs. we have three hens and i now (if i can find them), pretty reliably get 3 eggs every day. yay! we get to eat soufflés and omelettes again!

i even get a kick out of finding the eggs where they've hidden them. this one was in the straw bale stack, four bales up! i used to get help from frankie to find the eggs, but since we lost him, none of the cats have shown signs of being egg hunters. until today, tobias actually helped me find this one. so cats are good for something!

oh what a beautiful morning

i'm finally feeling better after battling a low-grade fever for several days. i think i've got it licked now.
or maybe it's just that the sun came out and it was a glorious morning.
the chickens love hanging out near the horses.
as soon as i let them out in the morning, they run over there.
it's like they're friends. or maybe they just like horse poo.

* * *

and the nobel prize for literature 2013 went to alice munro.
oddly, i've never read her.
actually, not so oddly, as i don't often read north american writers.
except jonathan franzen, barbara kingsolver, paul auster and siri hustvedt.
and david foster wallace.

* * *

did you know about the bandcamp website?

it's full of cool, indie music. 

like this - something fierce by marian call

or this song - cats and netflix that i suspect is about me.

bandcamp might be myspace for hipsters. 

in a good way.

chicken rustlers

we started off with 12 chickens - 9 hens, 3 roosters, two breeds - swedish blacks and the danish landrace. that was back in summer 2011. the next summer, they began to nest on their eggs and made themselves some more chicks.

those were a blend of the two races, as you can see in this photo...combo chickens and rather unique-looking. at the beginning of the spring season, we had approximately 30. husband took out a couple of roosters because they were driving us insane with all that crowing. oddly, they literally had a pecking order and didn't fight with one another. but that's because we've got plenty of room.

this spring, the hens got down to work, hatching out eggs in odd places - in an old wagon, out in the barn where the horses are stalled, so there were baby chickens and half grown chickens all over the place. we were up to around 40 chickens around here when we came out one saturday morning a few weeks ago to this:

initially, we were sure a fox had struck. there were about 15 separate piles of feathers here and there around the henhouse and garden and the henhouse itself was filled with feathers, as was the little nesting addition on the back of it. there wasn't a trace of a chicken or a single drop of blood. we were strangely impressed that a fox could do that. we expected that a bunch of the chickens were scared off and would show up again in the next few days. so we waited. and waited. and had a friend with a hunting dog come by to try to flush them out. nothing.

we talked to a lot of people. all of them were skeptical that a single fox or even a fox with a few pups could take so many chickens so bloodlessly. even the four little ones who were out in the other barn, far from the henhouse were gone. and to my knowledge, they had never been over with the main flock, so how could a fox know to go over there and take them?

and so we got to thinking. the day before they disappeared, a middle-aged danish couple came to look at some rabbits we had for sale on dba.dk (an eBay owned sales site that's more like craig's list than eBay). they pulled up in a rather battered black station wagon. the woman was very interested in checking the bunnies (there were still five left at that point) to see whether they were boys or girls (this is a nearly impossible task). so while she and i and sabin turned bunnies upside down and tried to see, the man wandered off, disinterested in the task. in the end, she decided it was too risky and she didn't buy a bunny and they got in their car and left. we departed soon after to go to the movies in vejle. it occurred to me later that i had told the "bunny people" that when they made an appointment - telling them they had to come before six, because we had somewhere to be and had to leave at six. so they knew we weren't going to be home that friday evening.

there are a lot of summer markets around in denmark and we think our chickens are going to be appearing at one (or more) of them. the big one is next weekend and we're going to go check, as our chickens, with their blend of the two races, are pretty distinctive. we have also reported the theft to the police and oddly, it's not the only reported chicken theft in the area. there are chicken rustlers afoot (thanks bill, for reminding me of that word). unfortunately, i had enough calls afterwards (and before i got to thinking about it) that their telephone number disappeared from my phone, but i am sure it had to be those "bunny people." the woman remarked on those 4 young chickens out there in the barn and how much fun they appeared to be having pecking around in the horse's stall. it took someone who knew they were there for them to disappear with the rest of the flock. and it explains why there was only feather carnage and no actual carnage. it also explains why our chicken-catching net wasn't where we left it.

many of the people we talked to suspected eastern europeans as the culprits and tho' we don't really know for sure, the people who came to ostensibly look at bunnies were as danish as could be. so it seems that anyone can be a thief.

the last hen standing

we awoke saturday morning to silence. no incessant crowing of various roosters, some young, just trying out their crackly voices and one mature but hoarse little black swedish rooster, none of the incessant chatter of what i call chicken cheerleading, which the other hens sometimes do when one of their compatriots is laying an egg. i didn't notice it at first, since it has become part of the background noise of my world. then husband came in from a visit to the compost heap and he asked if i'd seen any chickens this morning. i hadn't yet been out to scatter their grain, so i said no. he said there were an awful lot of feathers around and in the coop and he was afraid we'd had a visit from a fox.

we had indeed. and with around 40 chickens, not a single one remained, save a little black chick, just a few days old (it disappeared before i could take it in under a heat lamp, so i fear it's gone now too). even the pheasant babies they had hatched out had vanished. a snack for a fox and her cubs, no doubt. it was eerily quiet. we walked the property, looking for scared chickens in a tree, unable to believe that a single fox, even with the help of a couple of puppies (cubs?) could take out 40 some chickens without us hearing a thing. it's true we had grown lax. the chickens are completely free range and run around the property all day long, but they always come into the henhouse at night. we'd gotten lazy about closing them in, so we were tempting fate. one neighbor told us that foxes don't hunt in their own territory, so that explained why we'd seen foxes in the area, but never been visited by one in more than two years.

on saturday, when we were out in the garden, both husband and i swore we heard a bit of low chicken chatter, but we never did spot them. they were well and truly scared. we had no sightings at all on sunday, but it was rainy most of the day, so that was understandable enough. then this evening, as i walked down the path to see why the horses were running around like maniacs, i was sure i saw a hen dart across it ahead of me, but she quickly disappeared, so i wasn't sure. then, when i went to take the horses in, i spotted her up in a tree. all alone. she's a pretty one - a real mix of our two breeds - the danish land race and the swedish blacks, one of the young ones, hatched out at easter. i still hold out hope that there are a few of the others around.

i have oddly mixed feelings about the whole thing. on one hand, i'm sad that i didn't properly protect my chickens and on the other, i have a kind of strange, slightly awed respect for a fox that could take so many chickens in one go and leave only feathers behind. there weren't any bodies or blood or carnage at all. in some sense, nature is cool. i'm glad this pretty little hen survived. and i vow to take good care of her, closing her into the henhouse, safe and sound, at night. if she'll just go back over there.

scenes from a sunday

motivated by the impending visit from my family i did a bit of decorating. the entryway has long been a repository of coats and shoes and the odd case of wine and not much else.

our favorite cupboard, which we bought in the early days of our relationship stands there, but was serving only as a place where i keep kleenex and batteries and hang all of my various purses and bike helmets and oddly enough, a feather boa.

but i vacuumed out the spiders and cleaned it up today and even unearthed some of our other favorite things...glass plates and vases from our early days together, a fish plate we bought in istanbul, ceramic fish and hens we bought in palanga, martini glasses from prague...

...a few cookbooks and an inherited ceramic apple. it was fun opening boxes that have stood patiently waiting for almost three years(!) and bringing out these beloved items. it made me happy and it also made me wonder why i didn't do it long ago.

they promised better weather and today was much warmer, but still not all that nice...it was a bit rainy in the afternoon and rather grey and overcast all day. i've been watching this little mushroom all winter. it appeared last autumn sometime and has been hanging onto that stump for months.

a fine mist of raindrops on the crocus. there are crocus springing up all over the place - it seems like there are more this year than there were before. but perhaps i just don't remember them all from last year.

the little chicks are at that scruffy, awkward stage. their mother parades them around, scratching up good bits and clucking them over to gobble them up. they're pretty shy and never stop moving, so it's a bit hard to get a decent photo of them.

husband tilled around the strawberries - we've got 8 rows and will plant two more this year, to have ten. i hope it'll be a good year for strawberries! that big pile behind husband is cow poo that a neighbor kindly brought by. our sandy soil quickly loses any nutrients it has, so we need lots of fertilizer. that giant tank in the background is the gas tank we found buried right next to our well last weekend. we had to have it emptied and dug up. husband intends to cut it in half and make a big grill with it. with him, that's not just idle talk - it's not far from word to action around here, so i'm sure we'll soon be grilling on a grand scale.

i hope your sunday was a good one too!

broody hens

you couldn't tell it by looking outside, where snow is softly falling as we "speak," but there are signs of spring around here. this morning, these three little fellas (they'd better be girls) greeted me when i peeked in to check on their mama, who has been nesting in an odd spot away from the coop. i wasn't sure when she began, but thought she must be getting close. there are two more eggs in the nest, but i think they're duds. i wish i could reach them to take them out of there, but she's found such a weird place, i can only reach her with my camera lens. it's funny, if you google how to handle letting your chickens hatch out their eggs, you'll be led to believe it's impossible. we have definitely learned otherwise. last year, we started with 12 chickens and now we've got 30 (33 if you count these new ones). nature is pretty cool.

and this little hen, with the fetching straw on her head, is also in an odd spot away from the coop in another building. she was off her nest when i checked this morning and i found out she's working on hatching out TWENTY eggs. she must have had some help laying those, as i sincerely doubt she did it herself.  those other hens are clever, getting her to do all the work.

late this afternoon when i was feeding the horses, i found another hen hunkered down out in the horse barn. that's what you get when you have free range chickens, you never know where you'll find them.

last year, the broody hens drove me nuts, as it stopped the egg laying, but i'm getting up to ten a day right now and we can't keep up anyway (i've been giving eggs to everyone who comes by and took some to my friends at the library as well), so i'm just charmed by it. hens are so funny - they have a wide vocabulary and i just get a big kick out of them. so much more so than i ever thought i would. and these broody hens and their little chicks make me think spring must be on its way. right?

the week in review

the horseshoer blew a hole in the middle of my day. he called about 4 hours before he was due to come and asked if he could come early (must have been the first horseshoer in the history of horseshoers to do so). if the vet does it next, i may faint dead away.

so i was quite concentrated on my work before he called, but afterwards, forget about it. it was pinterest and looking for what to make for dinner after that. tiger, the tailless cat also helped me put red strips of fabric on the fence so we can turn the horses out tomorrow. we have our young 2-year-old filly home now. she's a rather interesting cross - a norwegian trotter for a mother and an andalusian for a father. but she's got a super sweet temperament and i love her red roan color. she's got a friend with her - an 8-month old pony foal who adores her, because in denmark you're not allowed to let a horse be alone. it's been snowy all week and they need to get outside. they have a big stall and plenty of hay, so they've been content. summertime (that's the filly's name) is a bit thin, so i've been trying to fatten her up a bit. it's just good to have horses on the place again.

we'll have baby bunnies sometime next week. the mama bunnies are already tearing out their hair and building their nests. i hope it warms up a bit before then, tho' i imagine those mamas know how to keep them warm. it means we'll have easter bunnies to sell come the end of march. plus, we love having baby bunnies around here.

my chickens are coming into the terrace. it's been well below zero all week and they're in search of water, despite my thawing their water with the kettle twice a day. i found a cache of 5 eggs out in the big barn. they apparently like that there are horses there and want to be out there. i've not really seen them over there before. strange that as it's turned cold, i'm getting even more eggs. so we're eating custards and soufflés (when we're not eating lasagne).

it's been a good week. i spent very productive time with a creative person with whom i am totally compatible. we were all over the place on wednesday, but in the end, it was very productive and we moved forward in leaps and bounds. we're not there yet, but we have a clear picture of where we're going.

i saw a play and it made me think. you can't really ask more than that, can you?

before the play, i ate a rather danish version of borscht (light on the beets and with a horseradish creme fraiche) and talked about a community art project with really cool, inspiring people. you also can't ask more than that.

i'll tell you more about that art project soon. there is a hint in the pinterest boards below.

here's wishing you all a happy weekend. stay off facebook. it's not good for your mental state (this means you, bill.) (i'll try to take this advice myself.)

~~~

a few new pinterest boards: events/happenings. horse is a horse of course of course. pretty party. sheepish. the torso project.

crazy chicken lady

i've been uncharacteristically absent here of late, letting several days go by between posts. it's partially that my words are going elsewhere at the moment (occupational hazard) as i scramble to finish some projects before the summer holiday. it's partially a few days of glorious sunshine last week and weekend that meant i spent every possible moment outdoors. but it's largely because i've become a crazy chicken lady.

we got nine hens and three roosters last summer. i was a bit skeptical of keeping chickens, since they don't seem to be the brightest animals around, but the lure of fresh eggs was too great. we got two nordic heritage breeds - danish land chickens and black swedish ones. and i got a bit of a kick out of them, way more than i thought i would. late in the winter, several of them became broody. pretty soon, the nest boxes were full of broody hens and the egg production had ground to a halt. husband built an addition at the back of chez poulet. all that early brooding resulted in one single little chick, just in time for easter.

he's now grown into a funny, motley rooster that's clearly a combination of both breeds. until his mother hatched out more chicks recently, he was even still getting in with her at night, sitting on top of her in the nest box, tho' he was getting far too big for that. now he's bottom rooster and has to content himself with a corner of the perch, rather far from everyone else. poor dear.

in recent weeks, the five brown hens have managed to hatch out another 14 chicks - 4 little brown ones and 10 black (which i suspect will be combination chickens like the motley rooster - as one of the brown roosters is top dog). the black hens were clearly very sneaky at getting their eggs under the brooding brownies, getting them to do all of the work of hatching out the chicks. we are consequently referring to the chicks all as SHE this time around, as we want them to be future hens. we certainly don't need another rooster around here. in fact, in the near future, one or two are going to be dinner.

there were 5 little brown chicks, but they killed off the first one that had hatched out. he did seem to be a little bit off in the eyes, so we think they knew something we didn't, tho' i was still unaccountably sad about it when i found him. it has made me a bit worried about the rest, so whenever i need a break from writing and editing and planning workshops, i head out to check on them. at the beginning, i needed gloves to lift the brooding hens, but now i just ignore their attempts to peck me and unceremoniously lift them up with my bare hands to see what's going on with the eggs. i find little peeps and help them find their mama again when they've wandered too far away into the tall grass. in other words, i perform all the duties of a crazy chicken lady. i can almost see the hens rolling their eyes at me.

the chicks are of varying ages, hatched out several weeks apart, but there are four brown hens sharing the tending duties between them. there's still one brown hen, sitting on a nest that's down to 7 eggs - and one more hatches every few days. then, when they're big enough to jump down from the nest box, they go and join the others and one of the tending mamas takes them in. the little motley rooster does a mighty duty in chasing the over-interested cats away and thus far, all the chicks have been safe thanks to his efforts. it really does seem to take a village to raise the chicks.

nature is cool.