Sunday, December 8, 2019

poultry report

Lovely organic eggs, collected this morning.
The first thing I do when I come in from morning chores is remove my gloves, earwarmer, and the two eggs in my pocket. In that order.


And here are the Providers of Eggs: Agatha and Eloise.

Photograph taken mid-November.
When we could still see the ground.

I haven't been doing much cooking lately but most days I have a fried egg in some form –  usually omelette-ish, with broccoli or cheese. A new discovery: a little leftover cooked sweet potato makes a lovely addition. It adds a richness of taste without overwhelming the eggs, and a slight density of texture, and just a hint of sweetness.

Agatha


Eloise

You may remember that the hens came here as pullets back in August, because Captain Hastings had become the only chicken on the place and needed company. Very sadly, only a few weeks after Agatha and Eloise arrived, Captain Hastings was killed - perhaps by a hawk. As soon as I realized he had not crowed at 4:20 that morning, I knew something was very wrong, and began looking for him. I found his remains not long after.

A sad and unexpected ending, but I'm so glad Captain Hastings' last weeks of life were very happy ones, spent busily keeping an eye on his little flock.


~~~~~

9 comments:

  1. Oh no, poor guy. He sure was a handsome rooster.

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  2. A rooster is happiest when he has his hens. One year we were without a rooster and one of the extras from next door would come and sweet talk our hens from the other side of the chicken yard fence. We might have adopted him, except we really didn't want a rooster at the time. The next door neighbors had too many and didn't care. But something killed him and that was that.

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    1. I've had roosters in hopes of one or more of my hens raising chicks, because I really don't like buying day-olds from massive hatcheries and no one local sells chicks. I may look for a rooster next Spring, if I can find a nice one looking for a home.

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  3. Beautiful chickens, clear clean faces with lots of personality.

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  4. Hastings was handsome! How nice to have fresh eggs. Your hens are so pretty.

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    1. It is nice :) It's a bit ironic that I had decided not to start another flock when the aged hens passed away and only reluctantly bought these hens to keep Captain Hastings happy. It's the same bit of a fuss to have just a couple of birds instead of a dozen, but now I'm happy to have them.

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  5. Awww - I don't think I'd heard about Captain Hastings demise - so sad.

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