Mishap

Well Hell. 


On day 2 of Bridget holding court on her unborn babies, we had a mishap. Shocking, I know.  Old girl got confused. I set her up in a nest box and blocked her off from the other girls. I put her some food and water and secured her in but it obviously was not too secure because she high jumped like an olympian right on out of there. Someone give this girl a gold medal please. Unfortunately, she couldn't get back in and ended up sitting on the other nest box which was empty except for one lonely golf ball. I'm not sure how long the eggs were chilling there without her heat, but I read somewhere (after frantically googling on my iPhone during a Feist concert) that broody chicks usually get up every other day for about 30 minutes at a time, leave the nest to take care of business and eat and drink a little. Since I didn't know how long she had been off the nest, I resigned myself to wait until day 7 to candle to see if they were still alive. 


Today is Day 6 and I could not wait any longer. I candled a few minutes ago and good news folks. The eggs are alive and kicking. Literally. I could see them moving inside the shell! So amazingly cool. I only candled a couple because I did not want to disturb her nest too much but the eggs seem to be progressing perfectly. One week down two to go. I think my bridgie girl can do it. 


I tried to take some video footage(its super raw). In it you can see a few veins and that black dot in the center was moving around like crazy back and forth.  Silkie Madness!

Chicken Freak

I'm afraid I am becoming one of those weird chicken people who keep amassing chicken after chicken. I swore to myself I wouldn't become a chicken hoarder. Too late. 


When Bridget went broody I wanted to be annoyed, but secretly I was ecstatic. After spending time with my grandmother a few weeks ago and seeing her hen raising some little ones, I really wanted to see one of my girls become a mother. When I noticed Bridget sitting in the nest box more than she should, I knew it was my chance to let her hatch a few. I started my search on the Austin Poultry Meetup Group and found a few people who had some fertilized eggs for sell. I have to tell you, finding eggs in the city is tough. A 45 minute trip north and two country roads later, I am the proud owner of six new eggs that hopefully in 21 days will be chirping. 

Silkies, Frizzles, and a Black Copper Maran (rare)

I also picked up 5 more eggs today from a friend. We aren't sure if all of them are fertilized so  I will candle them in the future days to find out.  
I am going to let Bridget raise them if she wants and not brood them in the laundry room like the last broody disaster. I can (and I bet all of ya'll can too) already hear Claire jumping with joy. Because I won't brood them in the laundry room I need a place for them to live and grow away from the bigger girls STAT. I already started cutting and laying out the lumber for the new chicken coop. Hopefully tomorrow I can get a ton done on it, since I'm rotting in the box the next 5 days. Ugh. 

Back Off

Found these on my Zucchini. 

Red aphids. Not good. I just read somewhere one can produce 80 offspring in a week. Good lord. They can also easily destroy a garden in no time.
To kill them, I pretty much picked most of them off and squished them. I'm going to do a good dose of NEEM oil in the morning. Something else is having a little snack on my blackberry plants and my chard. I haven't seen the offender so I'm just going to give everything a good spray. 


Other than that, everything is looking pretty good. 

Zucchini as big as your face

Tomato Jungle

Finally

Well, on a high note, I finally grew something worth eating other than chard. 

Been Frustrated Lately. 
I have a couple projects that have really gotten me down in the shitter. It's like the harder I work, the crappier the project gets. Case in point, the stock tank pool. If it weren't so heavy, I would have rolled that rusty pile of crap down the driveway and put it out on the street for bulk pick up. I drained it at the end of the summer and as I let the water out, it rusted like the undercarriage of a 1950 chevy. No Biggie I thought. Nothing a little replacement pool liner can't replace right? Two days of caulking like an olympic champion and two pool liners later I suffered a huge let down that even a Lamictal haze couldn't fix. The tank is still leaking and my next plan of attack has yet to be determined. So, heads up friends. If you are thinking about doing a stock tank pool, don't use a saltwater pump system. No matter how well you balance the pH, the salt will make it rust faster. I wish I would have seen this article prior to running the saltwater pump. Sigh. 

First Chard Experience

We are Rockin' and Rollin' in the garden so far this spring. The Swiss Chard took off and is growing like a weed. Its easy to grow and adds great color to the garden space. To be honest, I love it just for it's appearance. Since it was getting as tall as me, I figured it was time to harvest a little and cook some up. I actually have never even eaten chard, much less prepared it, so I did have to do a little google search. I got so many results for sauteed chard, but I really wanted to use something that incorporated eggs since we have a surplus of them. I found a recipe for a quiche, tweaked it a little and cooked up something halfway edible. The hardest part of the whole experience was resetting the oven every time we opened it to take a peek.  For some reason it turns off every time we open it and we have to move the fridge to reset the breaker. I guess it shows how much we care to get a new oven since we don't even use it that much. Embarrassing. 

Potato Crusted Swiss Chard Quiche 

Ingredients

5-6 small-medium red potatoes
2 tsp of olive oil
3/4 cup of onions 
Garlic to taste
4 eggs
10 egg whites (1-1/4 cup)
½ cup 2% milk
Cheddar Cheese 
A pinch of nutmeg
Cooking spray
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Pre-heat oven to 375.
Heat olive oil in a large non-stick sauté pan over medium heat.  Saute onions and garlic.
Stir in the Swiss chard and sauté another two to three minutes or until the chard is just wilted.  Season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg and allow the greens to cool for a few minutes. 
In a large bowl whisk together eggs, egg whites, and milk.  Season with salt and pepper and set aside.
Spray a 9-inch pie pan with cooking spray and layer thin slices of potato all over the sides and bottom of pans, making sure to overlap them.
Once the greens have cooled, combine them with the egg mixture and pour everything into the potato lined pie crust. Scatter shredded Cheddar Cheese over the top and then pop into the oven for 30-40 minutes or until the eggs are good and done. 

The following recipe was taken and adapted from the website:  http://cleananddelicious.com/2010/07/08/potato_crusted_swiss_chard_qui/

The Finished Product

The recipe also says you can change up the cheeses and use feta or goat cheese. I used cheddar cheese because I can't stand goat cheese. It literally tastes like my goat Billy I owned as a kid smelled. Gross. Can't do it. Play with it each time and you can have a different quiche every time. 

Bridget's gone Rogue

Ugh......


Bridget one of my young girls(salmon favorelle) has been showing some broody tendencies. Hell, I am not even sure if she is laying yet. I am only getting four eggs a day and have five girls now, so I am not sure who isn't laying. I had my suspicions it was her earlier this month and now she has been spending way too much time in the nesting box which makes me think she is broody. Great. I have been through this once before  and I am so not in the mood to relive that nightmare again. She gets super upset when you even open the door to hen house which makes me 98% sure she is trying to hatch the other girls eggs.


Sigh. 


This time I am going to go on the poultry forum and get some fertilized Silkie  eggs. I know, seriously, how cute are they? Last time the heat killed the two eggs I had slipped under Little Shit, but now with a relatively normal spring here in Austin, I have a feeling Bridget can pull this off. Fingers crossed that it works this time.

Do I look old enough to be a grandparent?

Did I mention we are grandparents?


I didn't? 


Well, we are! Remember my Sonny boy? He's been thriving at my Dad's house and has been bow chicka wow wowing all over the place. So much so that one of the hens laid and hatched  his first offspring a few weeks ago. My maw maw(grandmother) is taking great care of them and even tried to get me to take two of them home to add to our girls. Unfortunately, I wasn't able too because they aren't sexed and I don't  want to end up with rooster's again. Nevertheless, I'm super excited to watch them grow up.