Soft Boiled Eggs a la Compost, Anyone?

The compost was hot enough to start cooking the egg.  Soft-boiled?

 Why, oh why would we through a whole egg in the compost you might ask?  Because on Saturday I noticed these...

FYI- the next three photos are gross.  Why I even looked at the bird poo close enough to notice the white bits moving is beyond understanding even for me.  Although I guess it makes me a good momma hen for catching what could have become a big problem.

See the white bits?

See how they move?

Yuck.

So after I realized my eyes weren't playing tricks on me I ran inside and hopped onto some of our favorite chicken sites to see if anyone had posted questions or comments about something similar.  And they had, though there was disagreement over whether it was round worm or tape worm given it's very un-wormlike appearance in the poo.

 Either way, I had to get to the feed store to see if they had anything since they'd be closed the next day and I wasn't going to just let it go until Monday, 'cause ewww!  We gave them the medicine Sunday, and frankly I'm not sure how it's doing since I took the above photos today and the bits are still moving.

As for the eggs, we're not supposed to eat them for two weeks.  It's such a waste.  I feel like the chickens are watching my every move as I collect their eggs and head to the compost.

You put them WHERE?!?!

How could you?

Huh?

Chickens

We did the chicken cook-off.  A young chicken from the store vs Roo.  Roo won, hands down.  We started to wonder as we were grilling them, if adding the salt and pepper and the glaze would mask the flavor of the chickens themselves, but we really could taste a difference.  The store one dried up faster, and Roo just had a richer flavor.  It definitely reinforced the idea that we will be doing this again.  We'll work out the merging of the flocks first, then we will talk about how many we can do (we are in the middle of a neighborhood of 1/4 acres after all), if we want a different breed, yadda yadda...


And on a sad note, we lost Freckles this weekend.  A few days ago I noticed she was wheezing.  The next day we could see it was work for her to breathe.  She just wanted to sit in one of the boxes.  Of course it was the favorite box that everyone wants to lay their egg in, so they were all squawking at her to get out.  The next morning, Hubby pulled her out of the group.  It was pretty obvious she wasn't doing better and while we discussed whether to put her out of her misery, she died.  We're sad for her loss.

Another Loss

I'm sad today.  We awoke to find another of the chickens dead in the coop.  There were no signs of illness, no signs of trauma.  But it's left me wondering if we can handle taking care of them.

We pulled the bedding out and pulled the floorboards out and in doing so we found a black widow.  We don't know for sure, but suspect that may have been the culprit.

It's frustrating, the two that died were close to finally laying some eggs.  We were watching them because we thought the time was getting close, so I think we would have seen a change if they were sick.

I'm back to feeling like we don't know enough for this.  I was resistant to getting chickens for years because I didn't know anything about birds.  I was feeling pretty good about them and our ability to take care of them, even after we found the first one.  Good enough to get baby chicks.  But two in one week has really put me in a funk.

I'm sad.  Sad that there are only two out there.  Wondering what to do if it becomes one in case it wasn't the spider.  Did we do something wrong?  Did we forget to do something crucial?  Is it normal, and that's why most places won't let you buy less than three?  So many questions, and such vague answers.

High and Low in One Day

This morning our daughter and I went out to release the chickens from the coop.  We opened the door and three came running out.  I glanced in to check on the fourth and found her laying in the corner, not moving.  Not good.

I went back into the house to trade the kiddo for the hubby and we went back out and found that she was indeed dead.  We don't know why.  They had all acted fine yesterday and last evening as they headed into the coop.  All of them were up on their roost when I closed the door.  It was very upsetting.

After lunch I went out to trade the laundry on the line.  I saw Hermoine (the one we suspected of being closest to popping out an egg) headed into the coop.  I thought, "how sad.  She's looking for Cotton (the one that died)."  So I went up to check on her and opened the big doors on the coop.  There she was digging a nest in the bedding right where we found Cotton.  I watched as she did little circles, moved the wood chips piece by piece with her beak, scooched down and got comfy.  I was wondering if she was really about to lay an egg right where the other bird died.  And as much as I wanted to let her have her first egg laying experience in peace, I thought that was just too creepy.

So I poked and prodded her into the nesting box, where she settled in and lay down.  It was all I could do not to open the lid every few seconds.

I finished hanging the clothes, talked to my hubby on the phone, did a little watering for the plants that looked a little limp from the heat.  As I was finishing, Hermoine came out of the coop looking kinda chipper.  I went to see if she left us a little present.  And she did...

We are still very sad about Cotton, but we are very excited about our first egg.  What a day this turned out to be.