Happy Hen-oween!

Hello, all!

I'm afraid to say that our beloved Bobbie has passed away, but she will forever remain in our hearts. Such a sweet old hen she was.

On another sad note, I have bad news about our special, courageous rooster Sweetie, who has also passed. Sweetie was a truly special rooster, and it's going to be a sad, empty place without him. He lived for quite awhile, after going fully blind, but in the end something neurological went wrong and he died peacefully in his sleep that night. 

However, the coop lives on. Sunshine and Ginger have moved in with the big hens, and are fitting in well. We are currently working on wintering up the coop to get ready for the colder days.

We also have a new edition to the barn--

Conturnix Quail. We got 3, one male and two females. The male is Button, and the two females are named Banbury and Alice.

They are a bit more tricky to winter, as we are still working on their coop, but it's coming along. Plus, it's rather rewarding to be able to carry 2-3 gorgeously brown splotched eggs back into the house each day.

Oh, and though it's a bit late, Happy Halloween! This year was quite good, and we just took down the decorations this morning. We'll be putting up Christmas lights soon.

Meanwhile, enjoy some pictures!

Some pumpkins we carved for Halloween.

A rather handsome-looking chicken statue we received from a friend.

 

A curious duo watching me take pictures intently. Ginger hasn't been enjoying the colder weather and tends to fluff up he feathers and stay still more often.

Embroidery enjoying a dustbath.

Stumblefoot keeps a close eye on me by the fence, while Blu picks about and tries to gain Stumblefoot's attention.

Button the quail in his cage,

And last but not least, Banbury and Alice in their cage. The picture doesn't have very good qaulity because the two wouldn't stay still. Alice is the white one in the back and Banbury brown one in the front.

~Cream

Tiny Chickens and Tiny Eggs

Hello! Haven't been on much, have I? Well, not much has happened since I was on last. For example:

Sunshine and Ginger are now at a normal, starter layer hen age. Even though, they are still very small of course. 

Ginger here enjoys perching on my hand. She has very good balance, you know.

And she sure is gorgeous. 

Blu is very jealous that Sweetie gets to be in the pen with her, but Sweetie wouldn't know that. He is half blind, of course.

Sunshine is very nice and fluffy, practically round if I say so myself. 

All the other chickens are fine. Other than Noah... Our poor Noah unfortunately died. She was a sweet hen. Very special. 

She got some disease, we're not really sure what. Perhaps Mareks. Suddenly she just stopped walking, and started to get very ill. She was fine for awhile, not suffering. But then she just passed away... 

Oh well. We won't forget you, Noah.

On the brighter side of things, all our other hens are happy. They are very hot, of course, with all this heat. 

Best of all, we discovered this in Sunshine, Sweetie and Ginger's pen. 

Two tiny eggs.

From a tiny chicken.

~Cream

Chicks and Ravens and Goats, Oh My!

Hello! Sorry I haven't posted in so long!

So, I'm not sure I mentioned Buffy's death- caused by Wry Neck, but anyhow, we decided to get some chicks. We got two; 

First, we have Sunshine the Buff Silkie,

Then, we have Ginger the BB Red Bantam hen.

Right now they are living with Sweetie in a small enclosure. 

Speaking of enclosures, I haven't spoken of the Ravens yet. 

The Ravens are horrible creatures. Well, the ones that live around here, at least. Next door, our neighbour has chickens. The Ravens came and killed a couple. There's two ravens, and they seem to know how to work together. That's how they get the chickens. They heard them into the corners, then pick them off. It's horrifying - gruesome. A few weeks ago, one of the Ravens dared come after our chickens. Well, I sure put him on the run, but if I hadn't been there, there's no way he wouldn't have killed one of them. He was already hopping towards Henrietta when I saw him. 

So, to end this problem, we covered our entire chicken coop with fencing. It's usually used for berries and crops, but it's specifically for keeping ravens out, so I think it will do. 

And it seems to have. I have once seen one of the Ravens fly up into a tree above our coop, look at the chickens below the fencing, then fly away noisily. I was pretty happy. The chickens love it, too. Because of which they can be in the big pen, now. Before, they had to live in the smaller pen of Blu's, because there was nothing covering our big pen. So now they're free, and the run is green again. One of the best parts includes that we used an old swing set to hold the fencing up, and now there are bars for the chickens to sit on - and swings for me to sit on. It's quite wonderful anyway. 

So, that's about all that happened. Oh, did I mention the goats? They are gone now. We decided to give them back because they were too much work, and because they would be healthier if they got bred. So now the chickens can free range through their back pen, and in the barn. 

So, now I'm pretty much sure I've mentioned everything. Enjoy!

~Cream

Soap

Making Soap. It's when you can be clean and messy at the same time.

Yesterday, I attempted to make soap. And I did. Using a kit, of course. But it wouldn't be too hard to not use a kit. Here are the steps for making soap below.


TO MAKE A CHUNK SOAP

You will need:

Opaque soap base
Clear soap base
Rubbing alcohol
Soap mold
Container
Popsicle stick
Dyes (optional)
Scent (optional)


1.   First you need to find a soap recipe to make an opaque soap base. Or, if you have a kit, cut the opaque soap base into 5 pieces. Put it in a container (I have used a plastic beaker and a measuring cup) and place it in the microwave for 30 seconds (if you do not have a microwave, check the internet for melting it on the oven). Take it out and stir it when it's done. If it's not completely melted, put it back in the microwave for 10 more seconds. Take it out and stir.
                                                   
                                         {In all of the photos below, I was using the clear soap base
                                           for the backdrop of the soap. I forgot to take pictures of the
                                           opaque instructions.}

2.    Now, continue mixing, and add some colour. Most soap kits come equipped with dyes, but if you don't have any, there are many natural colourants for soap. for my soap, I wanted a natural look. I chose the colours green and brown. However, I did not have any brown, so I used cocoa powder, which also gave the opaque soap a nice chocolaty scent. In the picture below, I am adding green for the base of the soap (the clear part).

3. Add scent. You don't have to add scent, but you can if you want. As I mentioned in step 2, natural colourants like cocoa add scent too, but there are lots of real soap scents.

4.    Now you want to pour the soap into a mold. Make sure it only fills the bottom. Then let it sit and harden. When it is completely hard, pop it out and cut it into chunks. You could make some shapes, too.

5. Continue the last 5 steps, only using clear soap base. Do not let it dry and harden this time though, instead, spray it with rubbing alcohol. Spray the chunks, too. Then place a few chunks into the the soap. Pour in some more of the clear soap so that it just covers the chunks. Add more chunks and spray with rubbing alcohol. Add more soap, spray, add chunks, spray again, and finish up by covering the last chunks with soap. 

6. Let sit.

7. Once it is hardened, pop it out. You have now made a Chunk Soap!

                                       
                                          Here are a few other things you can make with soap!

                                                                        ~Cream

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from Embroidery, Sweetie, Cottonball, Aurora, Borialis, Bobbie, Stumblefoot, Noah, Blu, Swallow, Quail, Henrietta, Buffy, Apple and Bunny! So far we have only had two snows here, and the chickens were NOT amused by either of them. Since it was Embroidery's first snow, I wasn't surprised by her horrified look as she flew out of the coop into the cold white stuff all over the ground. Sweetie just stood there in the snow, silly little rooster. Didn't move an inch. The older ladies had more sense when the took one look outside and turned back to the coop. Recently Buffy has gotten Wry Neck, the very same sickness that caused Bravewing to die. I am trying very hard to get her to recover.
For Christmas this year, I have decided the chickens will get their very own Edible Garland. I will use bread bits, lettuce, cranberries, whole grain Cheerios, nuts and grapes and put them on a string.
For our Christmas card this year, I put a picture of a festive Sweetie ad Embroidery on it. Check the pictures below to see them! Anyways, I wish everyone a Merry Christmas, so have a great time!

Cozy Embroidery and Santa Sweetie

Santa Sweetie

~Cream

Halloween Hens

Happy Halloween! Well, around here it seems that it's going to be a wet Halloween. But that's not going to stop anyone from having fun! Even the girls seem to have decided to put up with the weather and try to find 'fun' in this wet Halloween day.

Embroidery finds herself knee-deep in pretty fall leaves! But that's not stopping her!

Swallow, Quail and Blu take a peek through their fence (Swallow and Quail were moved into Blu's pen, and I am unhappy to announce Fay's death.)

But ends start beginnings. This is Henrietta, Buffy's new friend. The two were moved into the big pen with the older girls.

~Cream

Fay, Buffy, Swallow and Quail

So, I took a few pictures of the new girls, but of course I couldn't help taking a few of the other birds!

Aurora, Borialis, and Cottonball. 

Bobbie, Sweetie and Clover.

Noah and Stumblefoot

Hahaha!!! Embroidery

They escaped while I wasn't looking!

Buffy

Fay

And there's Swallow in the front, and Quail in the back.

And of course, Blu.

~Cream