Egg Thieves

In May, the Golden Girls lived in the turnout pens of the kennel building.  John and his boys built a fabulous chicken condo for them, complete with nesting boxes and windows. The Girls ignored it, except for Rose who layed her egg neatly in one corner inside.  Dorothy and Blanche preferred to lay their eggs in a large plastic dog crate inside the kennel building. At night, rather than going inside either the kennel building or the deluxe chicken condo, they huddled up against the fence, regardless of weather.  There were several nights when it was raining and blowing hard and I went out in my waterproof jacket to carry soaked hens inside the building.

They just like what they like.

About six weeks ago, there were more than just 2 eggs in the dog crate. The eggs were inside a very satisfied snake, looking like a cartoon character with 2 big lumps in his middle. I considered leaving him alone, but then it kind of annoyed me that he felt like he was at McDonald's.  I dragged the crate outside the door, grabbed a shovel and killed the snake.

In June, I moved the Girls down to a long dog run with a nice big white dog house and a large pecan tree for shade. They enjoyed it a lot, catching new bugs and roaming the grass. They laid their 3 eggs daily, right inside the dog house on a bed of cedar shavings, always nice and clean, like a present to me. After a week, production slowed down to 2 eggs a day, then one, then none for a couple days in a row.

I ususally picked up the eggs when I got home from work. Then, on a Saturday morning, I went to gather up the eggs and, you are right, inside the dog house was a large, fat snake just coming out the entrance. He slithered away as I stood there, watching him leave with my breakfast. The kennel snake had family.

He stayed away for a few days and I moved the Girls to a run at the other end that had a giant red dog house, big enough for me to get inside if I crouched. Like clockwork, 3 eggs appeared in the corner every morning.  Then 2.  Then none.

Last Saturday I gathered eggs early, as the 34 new chickens are starting to produce about 9 eggs daily. Sure enough, inside the Girls' house was another snake.  This time I had a shovel by the fence, and that was that.

On Sunday, 3 eggs.  Monday, 3 eggs.  Tuesday, no eggs.  Wednesday, no eggs.

I now have an official snake shovel and I know what I will be doing this weekend.

Adventures in Mowing

The grass and weeds are starting up again from the rain we had a week ago, so last evening I decided to mow the 34 chicken run, thinking that if the grass were shorter the chickens might find more bugs to eat. While mowing, I spotted 6 little brown eggs in a neat pile in the grass. Production has started!

The eggs were very small. I am hoping they are just demo eggs, otherwise they will be selling as two-fers. I gave them to Janet the GP (Great Pyrenees) and she thought they were fine snacks.

This morning my goal was mowing the front and back yard, which is always an adventure. The word yard is generous, it is actually just pasture with a fence around it. Last year I bought several bags of Weed & Feed to help the grass along; the unopened bags are still in the kennel building. As usual, I am very good at planning and poor on execution.

After I finished mowing the front yard, I went to open the gate to the back and found one of God's creatures making a home on the gate. She posed for her picture, above. I don't know what kind of spider she is, but I get them every year. They get absolutely huge, lay a sac of eggs and leave it in a corner of the web in late summer, then deconstruct the web and disappear.

Lots of grasshoppers out this year; also some pretty neat double-decker winged dragon flies that look like bi-planes.

Eggs

Was looking at a website, http://www.vitalfarms.com/ about eggs. These guys were written up in the weekly little agricultural paper I pick up; they raise pasture chickens and sell all the eggs to Whole Foods. They contract with some small farms and I was curious about that.


My chickens now number 37. Just the 3 golden girls, Dorothy, Blanche and Rose (the ones in the far background) lay eggs. The other 34 are about another month before they start laying. I have no idea what I am going to do with 37 eggs everyday. I heard there was a Farmers Market at the Heart of Texas fairgrounds in Waco. I will go check it out this Saturday. Maybe I will get a booth there for a couple hours each week.


I was thinking rather than egg cartons I could get some little wire baskets from China to sell the eggs. I am totally fascinated with http://www.alibaba.com/ and all the stuff you can buy from China. Wish there was a way I could ship eggs, I could have a nice internet business. Once a person starts eating "yard eggs" the ones you buy at the store are pretty bland. Discovered that eggs have to be 5 days old before they should be hard boiled. A really fresh egg just doesn't set up right when it is hard boiled right away and is impossible to peel. That probably explains why sometimes a grocery store egg doesn't peel well. And I mean sometimes, because the eggs at the store get pretty old.


Am curious about storage. From what Jennifer says, eggs are stored at room temperature in France. When they are laid, eggs have a light wax coating that protects them. Once they are washed, however, they lose that protection so have to be refrigerated. I can't seem to find the answer on how quickly they need to be cooled. Sometimes I don't get the eggs picked up until late afternoon, and with the Texas heat I started to wonder, but went ahead and refrigerated some anyway; ate them a few days later and didn't get sick, so maybe France is onto something.


The USDA has a lot of requirements when you get into a lot of egg production to sell, but I won't get that big. Plus, I have happy chickens that roam around, not in cages, and my chickens really have a lot of personality. When I drive down to the barn late afternoon, they hear my truck and come running up to the fence. They can really move. I give them some feed and check their water and they do a soft sort of cluck when I feed them.


Dorothy, Blanche and Rose squat down when I walk in their area, they like me to pet them. Before I moved them to the big area they live in now, I would carry them each day from their small pen to a larger one, and they got used to being carried around. I had one of them in my arms the other day when the UPS guy drove in and I went up to get my package. He was polite and didn't ask why I was walking around with a chicken. The 34 chickens are pretty wild yet, I haven't handled them much, except for the couple that somehow get out of their area every day. I catch them and put them back in. I am glad no one sees me chasing chickens. Something to be said for living "in the middle of nowhere" as Trent tells me.


Anyway, once the 34 girls start laying eggs, it might be a good idea to sell some. Right now I crack any extra eggs on the ground for the sheep dogs, Jack, Janet and Buddy, which they look forward to. They follow me to the chicken pens every evening. My kennel building has a 3 compartment sink with hot water so I can wash the eggs, and also a refrigerator for storage. Then once a week I can take my 21 dozen or so up to the Farmers Market. I will try it, anyway. Have to figure out some refrigeration at my potential booth so it doesn't scare everybody with eggs sitting out. People are pretty cautious these days with all the food safety stuff.

Read the other day that there is no nutritional difference between white eggs and brown eggs. Probably not, it is just that different breeds lay different colors. But I do believe that happy chickens lay eggs with more life force. Wonder how you could measure that.


I need to build some nesting boxes in the giant dog house in chicken area that they sleep in pretty soon; otherwise I will be picking up eggs all over the place, like an Easter Egg hunt every day. Not so much fun when a person is 59.


This has absolutely nothing to do with the search for my grandfather's history. It has more to do with my father's side of the family since they were farmers. Although Granny (the Polish one) had chickens in her backyard. So I guess I am "chickened up" on both sides of the family.


It is almost 5:45 and time for coffee.

Grand Mad Farm

I didn't want to mix apples and oranges, so set up this farm blog to separate it from my Russian family research blog, www.myrussianroots.blogspot.com

I chose the name Grandma D's farm, and interestingly enough, just noticed that the website is grandmadfarm, which seems appropriate.