Hen Party

The three hens enjoyed an uncharacteristically warm afternoon yesterday. They are each laying an egg a day, but they took some time out to talk to me in the chicken yard.  Here they come. . .

Here's Pearl!

Henrietta Hen, come on
down!

Flora's in the yard!

The hens are very curious and love to talk - to each other and anyone who will listen.

Enough chit-chat,
back to the eggs

An egg a day

Henrietta produces brown eggs. Flora and Pearl are responsible for the light blue eggs.  They all look the same in the frying pan.

Sunny Side Up for a Sunny Day.

Devilishly Good Eggs

The chickens have been laying eggs regularly. As you can see the blue/green eggs are about half the size of store-bought white eggs and Henrietta's brown egg is a little bit bigger than the blue/green eggs, but still smaller than those from the grocer.

Pete fixed some eggs with his hamburger the other day and didn't think they tasted any better or worse than store-bought. Well, the chickens are just beginners. I'm sure they will soon be producing eggs that will be sought out by gourmands around the world. In the meantime, we had enough to make a nice egg dish for us.

After some consideration, I decided deviled eggs would be a perfect dish for Halloween. I looked for a festive recipe online and was delighted by a site devoted to deviled eggs called The Deviled Egg Gourmet.  There are some great tips and tricks on preparing deviled eggs on this site.

I started cooking the eggs at the Savory Centre (the name of our stove) and perused the website for an interesting take on deviled eggs. There is a really good step-by-step guide for the best way to boil eggs on The Deviled Egg Gourmet as well.

In the end, I decided to combine a few recipes to make the egg yolks a little bit colorful with a slight bite.  I used pimento in hopes that the yellow would turn orange - that didn't happen. I added horseradish to spice up the taste - that was good. The spider tops are made from kalamata olives.

Henrietta's Halloween Deviled Eggs

6 hard boiled egg yolks

2 T mayonnaise

2 T finely chopped onion

2 T roasted red peppers

2 t horseradish

salt and pepper to taste

Mix ingredients and pipe or spoon into hard boiled egg whites. Top with slices of black olives.

Eggcellent!

Pete found an egg in the chicken house on Thursday - the chickens' first egg!  Well, one of the chickens first egg. We're not sure which one.

Was it . . .

Pearl?

Or, what about . . .

Flora?

How about. . .

Henrietta?

We know it wasn't Henrietta. She is a Red Star chicken and should lay brown eggs. What's more, she seems to be having a hard time getting the idea of what her laying box is for. I think she believes it is a litter box.
Pearl and Flora are both Araucana chickens. Araucanas lay bluish green eggs - just like the one Pete found.

The egg was inside the hen house, but all the chickens were in the yard and none of them were doing a victory dance.

It's a mystery and as of today there are two!

Sunny Sunday

Flora

It was a beautiful morning and everyone wanted to get outside.  We've had two weeks of rainy, overcast weather, but yesterday and today were warm and sunny.  The chickens were out first thing. In another 2 weeks we may have eggs.

Henrietta

Pearl

The girls love their greens.

Twenty, or so, potatoes,

I had some time to inspect the garden a bit and pull everything up and out before the frost comes.  You may have noticed that I haven't said much about the vegetable gardens this summer - If you can't say something nice, it's better to say nothing at all.

only one little red tomato,

quite a few purple beans,

three dozen stunted carrots and

lots of pretty nasturtiums.

The dogs and I walked around the yard picking up sticks to chip. I noticed we had two nice apples ready to pick.

Honeycrisp apple

 We went near and far in search of twigs, sticks and branches to chip. Once we got a nice pile I started my favorite piece of lawn equipment, Chipper, and together we turned the wood into a nice little cover for one of the aisles between my raised beds. One aisle down, one to go.  As a reward I went down to Payment Lake with the dogs and enjoyed a half hour in the sun.

Maddie Jo

Gracie

Asher's butt

The girls and I relaxed on the shoreline and quietly took in the colors, the lake and the sun.  Then, SPLISH, SPLASH, SPLISH, SPLASH, Asher went in the water to track the critters in hiding.

 Back at the house, Pete was exchanging the screens for storm windows.  The girls positioned themselves to watch.

Smiling Maddie Jo.

Gracie, ready to help.

Wagging tail.

Asher kept his eyes on the water.










It was a wonderful morning and a great afternoon, but as 3:00 approached we started to move inside. Brats needed to be grilled, sauerkraut heated up, chips put into a bowl and doggie bandanas had to be tied on - It's PACKER TIME - everyone inside!

Chicken Feed

Pearl, Henrietta and Flora are getting bigger and starting to learn how to get into their laying boxes.  Pete was out bright and early this morning cleaning the coop and feeding the hens.

Dressed for Success

The chickens watch
Pete carefully

Cleaning and Feeding

The girls enjoy getting out of their house after a long night. The sun feels good as they patiently wait for their breakfast.

Pearl walked down the ramp for a stroll in the chicken yard

The girls look for food leftover from yesterday.

Greens for breakfast - their favorite.

Asher is not allowed to go outside during the cleaning and feeding of the chickens, but he watches the process carefully from the living room.

"I'll clean those chickens!"

Meet the Girls

The girls are almost eight weeks old now. Unfortunately, two of the original five didn't make it this far. One had a genetic defect resulting in a crossed beak and she couldn't eat. Another had a run-in with Asher and didn't make it.

We started with five,

and then there were three.

fenced chicken coop with gardens

We learned some lessons and reinforced the chicken compound with a finer wire around the base of the coop, chain-link fencing around the structure and gardens bordering the fencing.
Asher has also started a new training program.

In the doghouse.

The hens love their home. They especially like to hunt and peck in their yard. When a bug flies in they lap their wings and seen to levitate in an attempt to capture the prey.

Flora (front)
Henrietta (middle)
Pearl (back)

We celebrated their upgraded home and their approaching adulthood by naming them.  May I present Pearl, Flora and Henrietta.

Henrietta (front)
Pearl (middle)
Flora (back)

 These girls are tough and we're going to do our best to keep them healthy and safe.

Stay tuned for the Adventures of the Three Little Hens in the Northwoods.