charlie's latest masterpieces

our charlie outdid herself this time - having four gorgeous kittens! one looks so much like frieda, only she has white paws, then there's a little frankie tuxedo cat with white paws and lastly, two of her usual - white with spots of color (black and orange) on their heads. so sweet and wonderful! it makes us so happy to have kittens. and charlie's are always easy to find homes for. i'll admit i'm already scheming ways of keeping the little frieda look alike. i do love torties.

meet bacon & bacon

this is bacon & bacon. we decided to name them that so that we don't get too attached and so that we remember what it's all about.

but i suspect it's going to be awfully hard not to fall in love with them. just a little bit. they're curious and funny and make all sorts of cute pig sounds. and just look at those little ears! and that expression. *sigh*

they are just so cute, one with ginger spots around her eyes and the other with a big black spot on her side.

they're as happy as can be in their new pen. there's lots and lots of weeds and even a few old potatoes to dig up and eat. i'm sure they'll have it cleaned up very nicely by the end of the summer. at least we hope so. it must have been a pretty stressful day for them, being taken from all of their friends, loaded into a trailer and brought to our house, because they've been napping all afternoon in the straw in their little pig shelter. poor little dears.

we got them from a nearby farmer who raises organic pigs that get to live their lives out in fields. we paid a little bit more for them than we would have from one of the big indoor pig operations, but we wanted to know they'd already had a good life, just the few weeks they are into it. and we definitely intend to let them continue that good life, at least until it comes time to make bacon.

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.

monday's lesson in spending your energy wisely

i learned a lesson this evening that i really need to remember. because it was something that i already knew, but rarely act on. i was supposed to go to one of those soul-draining meetings this evening. but i had had a headache all day and so i said i couldn't be there. and oddly, at about the same time, the clouds lifted, the skies cleared and the sun came out. really, i mean it. and my headache faded. and i went out to the barn and i spent time checking on all of the animals. we've got a regular nursery going around here - frankie's mama pepchen has 3 new kittens. this little black hen hatched out 4 fluffy little chicks (i zoomed in, i don't dare get too close, she's a meanie pants). and the bunnies, two batches, are almost 2 weeks old.

our coming 2 filly has gained weight in leaps and bounds since her worming and has shed her winter coat and is looking very pretty (tho' i didn't have the camera on me at the time, so i'll have to show you that another time). and after i tucked the horses in with their grain and some fragrant hay, i stepped out of the barn and across the greening field (i don't know whether it's wheat, barley or rye, but whatever it is, it's coming up fast), there was a deer grazing in the distance. the air was full of birdsong and it was peaceful and glorious and my soul felt restored. way better than some meeting full of senseless powerplays by a sexist, racist troglodyte. with my energy levels filled to overflowing, i can see him for the silly little man he is, rather than being angry or wound up about it. maybe my own skies have cleared now and it won't ever go back to how bad it was. but maybe, just maybe, i'll have to skip another meeting or two to be sure. in the meantime, i'll just enjoy this beautiful, peaceful calm contentment that has come over me after spending the evening in the company of my animals, the garden, the trees bursting forth in all their glory of green and the cool evening air, tinged golden by the last waning rays of sunshine. i will remember that this is how it feels to have made a good decision, just for me.

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?

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.

baby animal monday

this is peaches - she's 12 days old. just got her eyes open. and is the most amazing color we've ever seen. i can see a bit of her mama's expression on her face. and i call her her, but i have no idea if she's a girl or not.

this is her sister, creamy. also possibly not a girl, but there you have it. it's nearly impossible to tell with bunnies 'til it's too late.

it's definitely spring around here. we've got baby animals like crazy. the first batch of bunnies all found homes this weekend. we've still got the last two, waiting to be delivered over to sjælland, so we get to enjoy them a little longer, but the other four very quickly found homes.

i suppose we'll have to find homes for these little sweeties as well. husband has declared that he won't build any more bunny cages. apparently five is enough.

and here's our other baby animal - the little black chick. s/he is doing very well. i call it a he all the time, but i do hope it will be a little hen. i wonder if the mama even notices the chick must really belong to one of the other hens. she's moved it back into the main henhouse, from their separate quarters. he peeps VERY loudly if he loses sight of her. she spends most days not far from the henhouse, showing him how to scratch and peck and take a dust bath. she's a really good mama. i'm wholly won over. chickens are not as dumb as they might at first seem.

and today, pepchen had four kittens. there will be photos of them soon - the ones i took were either a bit dark or the kittens were a bit slimy. but now they're dry and cute and perfect and mama is tired, but very content. spring is a very good thing in the countryside.

just in time for easter

one perfect little black baby chicken was peeking out from beneath the broody hen this morning. clearly one of the swedish black hens sneaked her egg onto the nest, because this is definitely a swedish black and not a little brown danish chick. mama has two more eggs that she's working on. i've moved them from the flock into their own space with a heat lamp. and here i thought that hen was too stupid and unfocused to make it work. nature is pretty amazing.

naturally-dyed easter eggs

nettles (learned that they don't work), beets, turmeric, red cabbage + vinegar, red cabbage without vinegar

beets, turmeric, red cabbage + vinegar, red cabbage without vinegar. two eggs fit in each honey jar.

the dark blue is the result of the red cabbage without vinegar

the marbled look was produced by bubbles that appeared to be created by the vinegar in the dyes, as there were no bubbles in the jar without vinegar.

i made some easter eggs with natural dyes. i used the advice from here, despite the fact that one of the tags on that blog is about potty training. no potties were trained during the making of these eggs. i used stuff i had in my kitchen - red cabbage, beets, turmeric and i even tried some nettles (they don't work). i love the colors they turned out to be. the eggs were provided by our chickens. they're good that way. and while their eggs aren't white, they're a very light tan, so they color very nicely.

baby bunny love

mama mira gave this little one her white sugar-dipped nose.

2 grey, 2 calico and 2 white little darlings

mira, our super mama bunny, has had her second batch of babies. the daddy this time is samba, our first bunny. there are six and they are fat and happy if a little bit bald so far. i will surely be sharing more pictures of them as they get cuter. they'll be at their cutest just in time for easter!

mira and samba - immortalized as jacabobs by the fabulous kit lane.

happy sunday, one and all - if you fancy a bit of sunday baking, i recommend you bake these.