Spa Day

A small band of intrepid chickens, lead by the smaller Ameraucana rooster, has taken to wandering down alongside the grass arena all the way to the end of the pastures.  It is now part of their daily morning routine, they weave in and out of the rockrose shrubs, scratching all the landscape bark out of the borders, stop in at the horses' paddocks that get oats in their feed (horses digestive tracts are not very efficient: they poop out half the oats we feed them and the chickens have a ball picking them out of the manure).
On their way back from their wanderings, after a busy morning scavenging grain, bugs, and worms, they stop in at the covered arena for a well deserved sand bath.  For those of you who haven't seen a chicken dust bathe: they contort into funny positions, mostly pancaked into the sand, scratching sprays of dirt into their feathers, twisting their neck, wiggling themselves further into the sand.  It's hilarious.  Watch the spray below:

Almost a Chicken...

 

Daredevil

Photo by Scott Stanley

Actually, Nana, the big dog, really only wants to play with the chickens.  She pounces in front of them, head down butt in the air, and wishes they would just engage a little more.  Ollie, the little one, when we are not watching tries to mount the chickens...

Hmmm, Mini Chocolate Soufflés?

I found this recipe on the internet on one of my favorite food blogs.  I want to share with you.  The recipe itself is very simple and the ingredients are straight forward, the only downside is that you will dirty 2 pans and 3 bowls.  But it involves chocolate so who cares, it's just more opportunities for bowl licking...

These look like little cupcakes but are really flowerless soufflés, so they are light and wonderful.  The girls' eggs beat up really well, of course.

From Smitten Kitchen:

Chocolate Soufflé Cupcakes
6 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
Heaping 1/4 teaspoon espresso or instant coffee powder (optional)
3 large eggs, separated
6 tablespoons sugar, divided
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

White Chocolate Mint Cream
2 ounces (56 grams) white chocolate, finely chopped
3 ounces heavy whipping cream
1/8 teaspoon peppermint extract

Get the white chocolate mint cream ready for later: Place the white chocolate in a small bowl. Bring the cream to a simmer, pour it over the chocolate and let it sit for a minute to melt the chocolate. Whisk well. Add the peppermint extract and whisk again. Lay a piece of plastic wrap on the surface of the cream. Chill until very cold, about two hours.

Make cupcakes:
Preheat oven to 350°F.
 Line 9 standard-size (3-ounce) muffin cups with paper liners.
Stir chocolate, butter and espresso powder together in heavy medium saucepan over low heat until mostly melted, then remove from the heat and whisk until it is fully melted and smooth. (put the butter underneath the chocolate in the pan, so that it protects the chocolate from the direct heat.) Cool to lukewarm, stirring occasionally.
Using electric mixer beat egg yolks and 3 tablespoons sugar in medium bowl until mixture is very thick and pale, about 2 minutes. Briefly beat lukewarm chocolate mixture, then vanilla extract, into yolk mixture.
Using clean dry beaters, beat egg whites in another medium bowl until soft peaks form. Gradually add remaining 3 tablespoons sugar and all of the salt, beating until medium-firm peaks form.
Fold whites into chocolate mixture in 3 additions. Divide batter among prepared cups, filling each three-fourths of the way.
Bake cakes until tops are puffed and dry to the touch (some may crack) and a tester inserted into the centers comes out with some moist crumbs attached, about 15 to 20 minutes. Cool in pan on a cooling rack, where the cupcakes will almost immediately start to fall. It will be all the better to put your mint cream on them.
Finish your masterpiece: Beat mint white chocolate cream with electric beaters until soft peaks form. Remove cupcakes from pan, arrange on a platter. Fill each sunken top with a healthy dollop of white chocolate mint cream.

Tripplets

My goat Coco finally gave birth to triplets today.  Mother and babies are doing well.  She had two doelings and one buck (buckling, bucklet?).  We had been watching her like hawks because we thought she might have quadruplets (or more!) in that enormous belly, but instead, she had only 3 really big kids in there.  It would have been better to have more smaller sized kids, than fewer large ones.  In fact, the birth was very traumatic.  I have it all on video, and as soon as I figure out how to download it, you will all be able to see Coco screaming giving birth to the first doe.  After that, it all got difficult and more tense and I had to stop videoing, put on gloves and help pull out the enormous buck that almost didn't make it through the birth canal. 
Katie, my goat guru, almost gave up.  She thought of loading the goat into the truck to take her to UC Davis to get a c-scction.  But together, between her experience with 7 seasons of kiddings, and my 3 seasons of foaling, we didn't panic, gave mother a rest, and worked at it until we had the enourmous buck out.  Katie ended up having to pull him out by his lower jay.  After that, we were able to get the last doeling out easily. 
The fist doe is adorable, she looks like her pa, Galapagos, but has small ears, Katie says.  She was up and about fast and sucked down lots of colotrum from the bottle with gusto.  The buck (soon to be a wether) is huge and handsome.  He is as large as the two kids that are already 2 weeks old, poor Coco.  For all you mothers out there, imagine giving birth to a 13 lb baby.... anyway, in dairy show goats there is not much use for male goats, unless they are of amazig quality and are sold as breeding bucks, so this one will eventually be sold at auction, or we are considering taking him to have him for meat.  I don't know if I will be able to do it though, after bottle feeding him...
The third doe kid out is brown, like her momma, but unfortunately, has a pretty severe under bite.  She also had the most strenuous birth of them all and was very tired.  We had to tube her to give her colostrum as her sucking reflex has not yet developed. We'll see how she does at ther next feeding.

Just got a text from Katie (10:45 pm): "Babies ate well, everyone is happy!"

In the picture is the handsome buck, about 1/2 hour old, being bottle fed in my lap.

Pastured Chicken

Farm Chores

Calling the girls to feed them their evening treat plus all leftover/compost from our kitchen.

I do feel like the pied piper of chickens....

This is one of my favorite farm chores, I really like feeding all animals: part is that I am Italian and I just plain like to feed, animals or people; part is that I like being at the center of the attention....

Walking with 80 chickens underfoot you have to be careful where you step... and because they are afraid of nothing, they will step right in front of you, all excited about their daily treat.

After giving them our leftovers, I always throw them some scratch, it keeps them busy while I collect eggs and finish chores.

Filling the feeders with a mixture of whole grains (corn, barley, oats, wheat, flax, and soybean)

Spreading shavings inside the coop, collecting eggs from the "special" nesting boxes...

Changing out the bedding in the standard laying boxes..

Collecting eggs

the day's bootie...

Goats Anyone?

Today we went to visit our goats.  Yes, goats.  Cocoberry, our goat, is about to give birth.  Look at her here, large as a house, looking in the distance.  You can't hear it in the picture, but she is groaning, she is so big.  According to Katie, our neighbor who is entrusting us with these goats, Cocoberry is larger than she was when she gave birth to quadruplets last time.  So we are thinking quintuplets at least or maybe even sextuplets.  Coco will give birth to her kids here at Katie's, then, after the kids are weaned, at about 2 to 3 months, she will come home with us where we will continue milking her for out own milk and cheese supply.  

In this picture you can see the other goat that is going home with us: Coconut.  She is in the background, black and white, watching these other kids playing.  Coconut is daughter to Cocoberry and is due at about the same time.  She is a first freshener, which means that this is the first time she is giving birth and the first time that she will be milked.  So we get one experienced goat and one newbie goat, possibly more if it were up to Katie.  I feel that 2 for starters will be plenty, she sees that she will be milking 16 goats by the time they have all given birth, and wants us to take more.  

In the foreground are Gleam and Glimmer, Katie's first kids for the season, they are Bling's daughters, twin doelings.  Today we got to play with them and I even gave Glimmer her bottle.  Watching kids play is what we call "Livestock TV," you could watch them all day long.  

Our friend Kat Gritt, our photographer, is going to submit some of these pictures to Cute Overload.  I am posting them to make your head 'splode, and to keep you updated on our farm adventures. 

Studmuffin

I hope you like Rhode Island reds...  A few days ago I finally ordered chicks to add to our chicken flock.  I got 100 "Rhodies", 50 Ameraucanas, 25 Delawares, 25 White Leghorns, 25 Welsummers, 25 Minorcas and 50 Penedensecas.  These last ones were a "straight run," meaning I will get both pullets and male chicks, so we will be eating the 25 males at 5 months or so. 
In addition to the layers, I have ordered 100 red broilers (meat birds).  These are bred to grow fast.  In 12 weeks they will get to broiler size and develop a large breast, which the layer birds never get, though they have a more intense chicken flavor. 
This is our trial run for meat birds, but we ordered more than we need for our own use, so we will take advance orderes.  The birds will arrive on April 7th.  I promise to make a photo documentary of the little chicks from day on.  The meat birds will be ready to harvest the first week in July, the Penedensecas in early September.  By then we should start seeing the first eggs from the new flock.  By October we will be able to add more egg subscriptions to our usual routes.

Ameraucana Rooster

Just a Pretty Picture

Fractalbutt

Think Outside the Fence (with recipe)

Crustless Quiche - we call it "Kitchen Sink Quiche"
(especially good if you need to get rid of some leftovers)

This is an idea more than a recipe, but it's a healthy meal that I serve with some salad

Preheat oven to 350
In a cast iron pan...
1) sautée an onion or leak in some olive oil.  Add what is in your refrigerator:
2) meaty goodness: bits of leftover meat, sausage, bacon, cubed salami, bits of ham
3) vegetables: diced carrots, celery, wilted chard or kale, broccoli, sliced turnips, spinach, bok choi...(just beware of veggies that will release too much water)
4) add something starchy: leftover rice or quinoa, leftover pasta, cooked sliced potatoes, cooked cubed squash....
5) keep sautéeing until it is the consistency you want, season with salt and pepper
6) flatten it down into your pan and sprinkle with a generous amount of grated or sliced cheese, whatever is in your refrigerator will do, I have used parmiggiano, pecorino, jack, cheddar, cotija, even brie
5) Pour eggs beaten with some milk all over the mixed goodness: (depending on pan size and how much stuff is already in the pan I have used between 5 and 12 eggs, between 1/2 and 1.5 cups of milk)
6) cover the pan with aluminum foil and bake about 1/2 hour, more or less.  You want the egg mixture to be set and not runny in the center.  You can take the foil off for the last little bit so the top can brown.
7) let set for a few minutes before cutting.

Maran

Top Ten Places to Lay an Egg: #9

Dude, where've you been?

Runway Chicken (and Lemon Curd Recipe)

Lemon Curd (for Corinne)
very easy and extremely decadent

You can eat this lemon curd on toast or scones, or you can use it as the filling of a fruit pie. You can make it with Mayer Lemons instead of Eureka and the product will be sweeter.
• ⅔ cup lemon juice
• 4 teaspoons lemon zest
• 5 eggs
• ½ cup butter, salted, melted
• 1 cup sugar
In the container of a blender, combine 4 teaspoons grated lemon peel, 2/3 cup lemon juice, 5 eggs, and 1 cup of sugar.

Whirl until smooth. With the motor at lowest speed, gradually add 1/2 cup melted butter (or margarine if you are like that), pouring in a steady stream. Whirl until just blended.

Transfer mixture to a small heavy pan an cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, about 5 minutes, or until it begins to bubble and thickens. Remove from heat.

Cool, cover and refrigerate or freeze. It keeps in the refrigerator for a few weeks or in the freezer for several months. (I have never tried freezing it)

Makes 3 cups.

(To process lemon curd, place 3 half-pint canning jars in boiling water to cover for 10 minutes. Scald bands and lids in boiling water. Invert jars to drain thoroughly. Ladle hot lemon curd into hot sterilized jars to within 1/8 inch of rims. Wipe rims clean with a damp cloth, top with lids and screw on bands. Cool well away from drafts, on several layers of cloth toweling.)

Barnyard

Dust-bathing in the middle of the driveway....

Scratch that Itch

Hard at Work

Break in the storm

I don't, I say, I don't think that boy has all his marbles (Foghorn J. Leghorn 1951)

Old Reliable

Rainy Day

Top Ten Places to Lay an Egg

Let's see, where else could I hide my egg?

24 karat golden chicken droppings

...and when I squawk you will remember nothing about our conversation!

I'm back!

Da Man

I am out of town, but Your Daily Chicken must go on!! So please, stop by the ranch, bring your fancy camera or your crummy phone camera and take pictures of the chickens for me. Then you can send them to me and I will post them to the list. Teri's the first one:

Hot Young Chicks (from the archive)

Snack

Meow...

Scarlet