And than there were three

We started out with 4 hens, well pullets really.  They were 3 months old and we waited with what patience we could muster for the next 3 months for our first egg.  When they started laying we were so happy.  Having chickens turned out to be even more fun than I had imagined, so of course I wanted more.  About 6 months after getting the first 4 we added two more Cochin to our flock.  These fluffy, feathered legged little girls were a great addition.  Adding new chickens to your flock is a serious project as chickens hate change and can be really brutal to each other.  An established flock can kill a new chicken if the process isn't handled appropriately.  So we took our time and allowed for the old girls to live next to the new girls for quite some time before we allowed the new pullets to roam free with the big girls.  To read more about how to add new birds to your flock click here.

Soon our beloved Cochins, Flower and Elizabeth began laying.  Shortly after beginning to lay eggs Flower became broody, she wanted to have babies.  I wanted to get Cochins for several reasons.  First because I love their fluffy rumps and feathered legs, second because I knew they had a tendency towards going broody and I was very excited to have some baby chicks.  So I found some fertile eggs from two different farms and placed them under Flower and three weeks later we had babies!  It was a lovely experience, read more about that here.

Well we had to keep two of the babies.  Tiger and Blueberry stayed and joined our flock.  Now we had 8 hens in our little back yard.  Than Elizabeth, the other Cochin went broody.  She was not as good of a mother and only one baby hatched.  He turned out to be a cockerel, growing quickly into a rooster.  We didn't name him and we knew his life was going to be short.  When he started to crow he would become dinner. (Another post will follow soon to discuss his fate)  So now we had 9.  9 chickens in our little back yard.  It is winter and everyone is molting and there are no eggs being laid and we had 9 chickens.  I also know that Flower would go broody in the Spring and I have stumbled upon the world of truly original chickens.   I want to get some new breeds of fertile eggs, some really special breeds and have Flower raise them in her competent motherly way and of course I would like to keep a few.  So I was at an impasse.  If I had land I would just keep letting my flock grow and enjoy it.  But I don't.  So I checked in with my wonderful sister-in-law Shea.  She lives on 3 acres and has 5 or so chickens who are getting up there in age - maybe 6 years old.  "Do you want some more chickens?" I ask.  "Yes, yes, yes!"  she replies.  It would seem I have stumbled upon a symbiotic chicken relationship and what a lovely home for the girls.  Ranging on an acre with some sheep - a chicken's dream.

So off go Yoko, Boulder, Minnow, Blueberry and Cookie to their new home.  I am a little sad, I give a little sniffle - I will miss those girls.  But, they are happy and now we have room.  Less than a week after they go, it is time to 'harvest' the rooster.  For those of you that don't know harvest is the new PC word for slaughter.  I new this was his path, but it was still a long trip to the farm where his final moments would take place.  More on that later.

So now we have three girls left.

Flower the white Cochin and best mother in the world (who is still coming out of molt).

Elizabeth the partridge Cochin

And Tiger our Americana/Jersey Giant cross

Here are the girls wondering if it is worth challenging the cat for some left over eggs.

So now we wait, as patiently as we can for our little Flower to go broody.   I have never been so excited for Spring!

Another poop story

My son walks out of the bathroom with wet hands and no pants on . . . "mom I dropped a quarter in the toilet" 

"you did?" 

"Yes, and there is a bunch of toilet paper in there as well. I thought the more toilet paper I put in the better as it might suck up the quarter" 

"hmmmm, well I will go take a look" 

From behind me, as I walk toward the bathroom, comes his sweet little voice "oh yeah, and there is poop in there as well. I pooped before I dropped the quarter in." They don't tell you these stories in the baby books :)

Growing babies

It is amazing how quickly these chicks are growing.  I love watching these little fluff balls take dust baths in the sun.  They are already beginning to get feisty with each other over table scraps.  It seems that mac and cheese is a favorite of theirs as well as my children.  They have already grown feathers on their wings and some of them have pretty substantial tail feathers, I am thinking they may be the roosters.  I have one rooster and three hens going to a friend.  The principal from Gage's school is taking at least one rooster, maybe two.  I hope to find homes for them all, I really don't want to leave them at Western Farm Center.  I truly don't mind the roosters going to the dinner table, but I would like them to live a good life on pasture until their lives are over.  That being said anyone in Sonoma County ready to have some chickens, let me know!

I have to say I have a few favorites.  Here is one of them.

She/he is an unknown.  Hatched from one of the eggs I got from Three Graces Farm, the only one with feathered legs from her.  When I asked her what chickens she had with feathered legs, she told me she had a brahma that was eaten by a raccoon a while ago, perhaps we had her last egg?  I hope it is, as I LOVE brahmas.  But I really can't add to my flock.  My chickens are in my back yard and I can only have so many.  My coop will only hold so many.  But, maybe, just maybe I could add another?  Or maybe two?  Hmmmm

Here are my two Black Copper Marans.   It appears that at least one is a rooster.

Flower is still doing a wonderful job of mothering the chicks.  She doesn't eat until they are full and she is always available for a warm up under her belly.  Ever time I pick up the chicks their crops are stuffed full, theses babies eat constantly.  I suppose you would have to consume a lot of calories to maintain their growth rate.

We continue to have so much fun and enjoyment from these babies.  I am looking forward to doing this again!  :)

8 Little Babies

Of our 9 eggs, 8 little baby chicks have hatched and they are amazing!  Flower is being a wonderful mother and continues to demonstrate that she does know what she is doing when I question her mothering ability or decision making.  She sat for 3 days on those eggs as they hatched, never getting up to eat or drink or go to the bathroom.  The first little one hatched on Wednesday and was running around mom in the nest the next day.  A very frisky baby.  Here he is with one of his siblings poking out from under Flower.

The two nights of hatching were some of the worst nights for weather we have had all year.  Heavy rain with thunderstorms and I admit to waking up and worrying about Flower out there in her coop 'giving birth' in that weather.  But everyone did fine.   It is an amazing thing watching these little baby chicks working away, working so hard to get out of their shells.  I could tell by the first day which eggs were going to hatch, leaving one that would not.  Because out of all of those perfect little eggs, with no holes yet came the very busy chirping of little chicks.  I could pick them up and hold them up to my ears and hear the babies chirping away.  Mom would cluck, cluck, cluck back to them to encourage them on their lengthy endeavor.  For some of the chicks it took 12 hours from the first hole in the shell to being completely out and free.  They would lay there in an exhausted heap, sides heaving under Flower for a while recovering from birth.  Then they were fluffy, teeny little chicks that stayed mostly under mom, sticking their heads out once in a while, but mostly resting for the first day of their lives.

Early Friday morning the last chick hatched and we have 8 new baby chicks.  Only one egg did not hatch.  Upon looking at it I found a chick in there that had died early on in its incubation, a miscarriage of sorts.

Friday was another rainy day, so the babies and mama stayed in their coop.  I providing the with food and water that everyone could get to and the babies would run out eat and drink and then scoot back under mama.  Flower seemed very happy to be eating and drinking as well.  Imogen and I dug up a bunch of worms from the compost and added it to their food bowl.  Both mama and babies enjoyed the treat.

On Saturday a warm, sunny Spring day Flower brought her babies out.  What fun it was to see these little tiny babies out romping with Flower, scratching at the dirt the way she did looking for little, tiny buys that might fit into their mouth.   Flower, the wonderful mother that she is would chew the worms into little pieces and leave them on the ground for her babies.

I began to be concerned that some of the babies might get too cold, so I put them back in the coop and shut the door.  Somehow thinking I was a better mother than Flower.  Later as it got warmer I let everyone out again.  I kept checking to see how everyone was doing and started to get worried again that they had been out too long, so I wandered back to chase everyone back in and found the lovely Flower warming her babies as they needed it, when they needed it.

 The chicks would come out when they wanted and scoot back under when they were ready.  It was so fun to see.  Some would just stick their heads out and peak, staying nice and cozy under their mama.  Why did I believe for a second that I would know better than Flower?

The auntie hens watch on the other side of the fence and seem to be taking it all in pretty well.  No one has tried to kill the little ones through the fence.  Although I will keep them separated for quite some time yet.

Now that Flower is incognito as a pet while she takes care of her brood.  Imogen has claimed Elizabeth to be her new favorite chicken.  I am not sure if that is a blessing or a curse for Elizabeth :).

The babies are here!

We have baby chicks!  This morning Flower was much more concerned about me poking around under her to check on the eggs.  So I took her message and left her alone for a bit.  I was however too intrigued to leave her alone for long.  On my next check I reached under her and a little, perfect, beautiful chick popped her or his little head out.  Imogen and I were so excited and she desperately wanted to hold the baby chick.  We did however respect Flower's nervousness and tucked the baby under her wing again and left her alone.   She appears to be a strict mother as she tucked that little baby tightly under her wing and fluffed herself back out to cover everyone.  There are a lot of eggs left, so we have just begun our hatching endeavor.  Will write soon to let you know how many of the 9 hatched and how things are going with the new mama.

Broody hen

Our beloved Flower, Imogen's favorite chicken, has gone broody.  Which means she wants to have babies.

A broody hen is extrodinarily dedicated to her task.  In fact if you google the topic you will find many,  many people discussing it.  Most of them are debating the best way to break a hen of her broodiness.  Some theorize you break them with kindness.  Simply let them into areas they don't normally go, let them explore farther and they will forget about their baby making frenzy.  Others opt for cruelty.  Encouraging you to put the chicken in her own coop with no bedding to places to have her eggs or make a next.  Keep her as uncomfortable and dissatisfied with her situation that she eventually gives up and drops her broody desires.

I dismissed both of these options and decided to help our little mother have some babies.  We are so excited the babies are due on the 10th of April.  Only a few more days to wait.

As we do not have a rooster, none of our eggs are fertile.  So I set about to search for some fertile eggs and stumbled upon www.bootjackfarm.com and purchased some Olive Egger Eggs and French Black Copper Marans.  Which means we will have dark brown eggs and greenish/blue eggs.  We also went for a wonderful farm tour at a Three Graces Farm and picked up a few more fertile eggs.  Her rooster is a White Jersey Giant and she has a mix of hens, so that groups will bet the barnyard mix.

Needless to say there have been a few hiccup along the way.  I didn't realize I needed to separate her to from the other hens.  After realizing this and trying to separate her, she would have none of it.  Even with her eggs under her in the new nest she tried frantically to get back to her original nest.  So she stays in her current nest with the other girls sometimes stepping all over her trying to lay in the same box.  I have to watch her closely when she comes out once a day to eat, drink and take a dust bath.  Because she will saunter back into the coop and lay on whatever nest of eggs is closest, often not in her nest, the only nest with fertile eggs.  Interesting that she won't let me move her to a new nest, but has no problem moving her self.

So we wait and hope that the babies are growing well in their eggs.  Our little Flower has been a good mother so far we look forward to seeing her mother her babies.

Spring Flowers

Yes, it is Spring here in Northern California.  The beginning of Spring at least.  I wandered out into my back yard to take a look at a few things and found beautiful white blooms on my pluot trees.  This exquisite find encouraged me to gather my camera and take a few shots of the first Spring flowers.

Some of the many beautiful flowers I found in my back yard were pink nectarine flowers:

And many lovely blooms on the magnolia tree:

The under rated calendula flower.  A medicinal herb we should all have in our back yard.  The plant has amazing healing power for your skin and will self seed, reproducing the lovely flowers in your garden year after year.

Pluot, pluot and more pluot blooms.  My first blooming fruit tree of the season, always ready to announce Spring well before the other trees.

 

And the lovely camelia, always blooming long and early.  A wonderful evergreen bush with amazing flowers. I often have my first camelia blooms in January, but they last through June.  I love these flowers.

My final shots were a of a little purple plant.  I don't know what this plant it is, but it lights up the garden in little blue and green shoots in early Spring.  Please leave a note if you know what kind of plant this is.

All the while I wander about the yard taking photos my children are building heffalump traps and the chickens are as chatty as ever.

So we enjoy our Spring, spending as much time as possible outside.   Enjoying our flowers that will soon become fruit and the flowers that are only there to look pretty.   Building traps, watching chickens and beginning to unravel the puzzle that is the vegetable garden every year.  We know that soon Summer will be sneaking in, to both our enjoyment and our wonder.  So for now we enjoy our Spring.

RIP Spike

Our wonderful and beloved bearded dragon died last night.   He was my son's first pet, his own dragon that he got for his birthday.  Spike was his name and he was great.   Gage could get him out of the cage and walk around with him on his shoulder.   Spike would calmly sit on Imogen's lap.   He would slowly close his eyes, with a look of pleasure when you stroked his head just right.  This was my first reptile as well and I was really surprised by how personable he was.  Unfortunately, we were just getting to know him.

Spike seemed perfectly fine yesterday, he ate and pooped and sat on Imogen's lap.  He was his usual self.

I am thankful that we took some pictures yesterday, his last day.  I am sad that he is gone.  We will miss our little Spikey as he was so lovingly called by my children.  Good bye Spikey, rest in peace.

Miracle Moment

We had a, or perhaps THE miracle moment this morning at kindergarten drop-off.  Every morning Gage would start to feel anxious and squirmy in the back seat when we were about half-way on our 10 minute drive to school.  He would look around and determine from the surroundings that we were getting close, confirming that we were going to school and he would begin to announce his hatred of school.  He had a stomach ache, he didn't want to go "I hate school" - this would continue, even accelerate as we got closer and closer to school.  Every morning felt so ominous, so hard.  I would get nervous as he did and struggled to stay positive, reminding him of all of the fun things about school.  We would finally get there, those last 5 minutes of our drive being a living hell, and make our way to the playground.  We had one final hug before I pulled his clinging arms from around my neck, picked up Imogen and walked as quickly as possible back to the car.  Both of us crying.

However, today was different.  Today was amazing!  Simply amazing.  There was no anxiety on the way to school, no internal struggle in the back seat.  We got to school and he didn't fight getting out of the car, he simply got out.  We made our way towards the playground, the drop-off area.  We got to the entrance, Gage turned to me and said "Bye mom".  Bye mom, just that, nothing else.  He said it with confidence and clarity, with no teacher around to hold him back from following me out.  Just "Good Bye Mom".  So I bent down gave him his last hug, handed over his lunch and watched my son walk into the play ground.  He never looked back once.  He moved to a couple of different friends and said hello.  He walked with confidence, he had found his place.  He was there and himself, his whole self without me and my heart was soaring.  I watched my little man do exactly what I always knew he could do.   As I observed his confidence I felt mine begin to trickle back.  All of my pondering over my decision, began to soften.  My insecurity and constant internal battle softened, began to dissolve as I watched him go.  With his confidence, mine could return as well.

Looking back I realize this shift started yesterday after school.  When Gage got into the car his demeanor was very different and he said "I had a lot of fun at school today".  I was shocked, ecstatic and hesitant to make that simple statement into too big of a deal.  Apparently it was as big of a deal as I had hoped, in a very good way.

 As well I understand that every day may not go so smoothly, but I feel good about it all.  I can be in the process now without doubt or hesitation.  I get to see my son grow up and be all who he is - how lucky I am.

New from kindergarten

Well school is going better.  Both Gage and I are shifting into this new stage of life with less and less resistance each day.  Most mornings are still a struggle, but we have found a way to just be in the struggle, to ride the wave of this monumental moment.

I am truly enjoying all of the drawings and books he is bringing home.  These little gifts make the stumbling worth while.  My favorite is the rainbow song.  I flipping' love watching him sing this song.  I thought you might enjoy it as well.

Clingy Mother?

So is this what I have become?  The clingy, needy mother.  The one who won't let go?  I say I will let go, I believe I will when he is ready.  I say over and over to all who will listen that my son needs me, that I will not stand for his mental anguish.  I am his mother and I am a grizzly bear of a mother, so I will fight in any way that he needs.  So I keep him safe, I protect him.  I raise my children in the attachment style of parenting.  We have shared beds, long term nursing and complete motherly love.  In the hopes of creating independent children I provide them with a rock that will always be there, the mother who they never have to crave.  I realize that I am partial, but this method has produced two really great kids.  So it seems that in many ways this style, these choices have been effective in raising or supporting two incredible people.

But now my son is starting kindergarten, has started kindergarten, and it is not going well.  He is having a hard time with the detachment, separation from his ever present mother.  Many of the other children are having the same problem, all boys.  The girls just seem to handle it better, even crave it.  But when it happens to my son it is different.  And I look at him in his sadness and despair and I know that I can not do this to my baby.  That I will not force him into a situation that he is not ready for.  I, his attachment mother, will protect and save him.  Keep him in my safe circle of love and support that he has experienced since birth.  And be a good mother.  If he is not ready for school, he is simply not ready and I can wait until he is.

Than we had the meeting with his teacher and we talk and we converse and she demonstrates kindness and thoughtfulness and an appreciation for the fact that it is our decision.  Than she talks about how she thinks he is ready and how he can benefit from school and what she expects from our young son.  As she explains her classroom style and expectations I realize this is exactly what I was looking for.  I wanted it to be 3 days a week rather than 5, but this is what I wanted for Gage.  Lastly she explains that my reaction is going to create or exacerbate his.  That I have to make a decision and feel confident about the situation,  for him to feel safe and secure.  Again, as the mother it is back on me.  His extreme emotional reaction to separation has to do with my indecision about him being in kindergarten.

Motherhood seems to be a constant act of hitting the refresh button.  You have to know when to let go, when to hold on, when to protect them and when to allow them their own struggles.  To allow them to begin their path toward becoming the independent person they are.  To watch and let them suffer and/or struggle and know that it is what is best for them.  It seems to be such a contradiction.  So unnatural.

So I sit and ponder.  My two sides converse and I release again how hard it is to be a mother.  I have created an environment where I am always available for my children, always loving them and being there for them.  I believe that this is an incredible way to parent and it has worked wonderfully for me.  But I am now in the stage of letting go, of letting them experience their own struggles and joys.  I have heard many quotes about mother hood, the one that means the most to me states "motherhood is like living with your heart on the outside of your body".  At some point you have to let them strike off on their own.  For some mothers it is simply letting go of their adventurous, fearless child.  Just letting go, and hoping their parachute opens :).  For others, it takes a little more.   It takes making the immense leap from wrapping them in your warm embrace to pushing them out the door, sometimes even against their will.

It sounds so violent, so wrong.   But I watch as he almost asks for it.  He needs my permission to let go of me, to let go of our incredibly intimate, close relationship and to begin his own adventures in this world.  What I am beginning to understand is that I have to let go first, which is the hardest thing in the world to do.  Because I don't want to let go, I would love to keep our closeness and friendship the way it is now.   But that would be unfair, that would stunt him and our relationship.  I love him too much for that.

So I let go.  And in doing so I let him know he is capable and safe as himself, by himself.   And that I will still always be here.  I will hold our space, I will keep it warm forever.  This will never change.  I open myself up to a whole new place of vulnerability and insecurity as my heart begins to beat on the outside.   Because I am a mother there is something in me that can allow me to continue living and loving with that main, vital organ on the outside.

Great Granola Taste Test

It all began with a conversation about granola.  My friend Crystal and I were discussing how much we loved granola and how expensive it is.  The major ingredient in granola is oatmeal and plain old bulk oatmeal is about $.80 a pound.  You can buy it buy the bushel for next to nothing.  But if you want to buy granola, it is incredibly expensive.  You are looking at prices that range from $10 to $20 a pound.  After this discussion, Crystal and I both began to rave about our current granola recipes that we make at home.   So hmmm maybe we should have a taste test, a taste off of sorts between our recipes.

The great granola taste off was born between two bloggers with a passion for granola.  Here is Crystal's blog post http://thekitchenmba.com/diy-granola-taste-off/ and her recipe Frog Hollow granola recipe.  Here is my granola recipe easy does it granola.

Crystal and I than handed off samples of our granola to a few friends to taste and give their comments on our blogs.  Stay tuned to see what they say.

Now for my own input.  Both granolas are fantastic and there are aspects of each that I really like.  The Frog Hollow recipe is made with oil and honey, that mixture makes for much chunkier granola, which I love!  I love big chucks of granola that you eat with your hand.  This granola also had less dried fruit and nuts, making it mostly honey/oil soaked oatmeal toasted to perfection.  Yummy.  My granola is made from butter and honey.  Two of the greatest things on earth.  Basically you can not go wrong when you melt some butter add a little honey - combine this to anything and it will be fantastic!  That being said I am still stuck on the flavor of my honey and butter mixture, but it lacked the chunkiness that I so desire.  I like the added dried fruit and nuts, but also missed the simple granola with less additives.  My granola is better as a cereal, eat it with milk in the morning. Crystal's granola is a yummy snack to have around and eat by the handfuls.  I will be making both in the near future.  Maybe I will try the Frog Hollow recipe, but use butter instead of the oil.  Hmmm, now that is an idea.

Try them both yourself, they are both relatively easy to make and spread some samples around to your friends to do a taste test of your own.

Garden Harvest

We are having a spectacular summer here in Sonoma County.  We have stretches of hot weather to help our gardens along, intermixed with days of coastal fog in the morning following by 78 degree sunny afternoons.  The summer coasts along, or shall I say flies along and we are beginning to enjoy the bounty of our garden.

In our back yard we have two pluot trees, a white nectarine tree, two cherry trees, a pomegranate tree, an apple tree, blackberry vines, a raspberry patch, strawberries, rhubarb and blueberry bushes.  As well as a large seasonal vegetable garden.  This year we have tomatoes, beets, potatoes, sweet potatoes, celery, summer and winter squash galore, cucumbers, egg plant and peppers.

I love to watch my children wander through the yard, picking whatever appeals to them, often unripe fruit seems suitable.  They are covered in blackberry, strawberry and tomato juice daily.

My daughter prefers to gather her harvest, pull up her chair and sit back and enjoy her bounty.  Sometimes she follows up her garden snack with a little yoga.

All of the blooming vegetable plants have attracted  many humming birds to our yard.  They perch upon the tomato cages and flick out their long tongues.  I love to watch the humming birds and I am enjoying how comfortable they are with us this year.  The vegetable garden is surrounded with flowering herbs, my favorite is Bee Balm.

For a moment we get to sit back and enjoy the beginnings of harvest.  We have forgotten all the work we did in Spring to make it happen and we have not yet begun to experience the craziness of full harvest.  Canning, drying, freezing.  We are in between some busy stages and enjoying it.

Success

I have finally put all of my chickens together and everyone is getting along.  We have a fairly large space, so that makes living together easier.  The chicks, well more like pullets, get chased a little.  But over all every one seems to be getting along.  Whenever I look out at the chicken yard I see my big 4 girls hanging out together and the pullets a safe distance away, in the periphery.

We took baby steps, with our introductions.  My first introduction attempts invoked a ghastly sound of bloody murder from Minnow the lead hen.  She wanted to kill those chicks badly.  Luckily I was smart enough to introduce the chicks safely behind a fence, so the desired killing did not occur.  I kept the babies in their own pen away from view of the big girls for about 3 weeks. They seemed safest there.

I kept taking time to introduce them over and over to the big girls through the fence.  Minnow's bloody scream diminished into an angry, aggressive cackle, wew.  I really did not want to hear the killing scream again, it was rather disturbing.  At one point during these minnie social events it became clear the two lower hens Bolder and Cookie had no issue with the chicks. So I stuck the chicks in with them and pulled out Yoko and Minnow and all was good.  Baby steps.

Second, I built a pen for the chicks inside the chicken run.  So the big and little girls could get used to each other on a daily basis.  The chicks were coming closer to being pullets daily, they seemed big enough to get picked on and avoid death.  The big girls were initially up in arms, making a raucous and running around like crazy. Changing their territory caused a lot of excitement and perhaps a bit of stress.  At least it eliminated the boredom factor from their simple chicken lives for a couple of days.

Of course I had a lot of help from my backyard barnyard children.

Lastly we have a comfortable, content flock with two new additions.

No blood, or dead chickens as can happen when you make additions.  No severe stress to my current flock or the young birds.  Everyone is OK.  Of course there may be some bickering that will happen when the chicks, Elizabeth and Flower get older and feel the need to establish themselves into a higher position in the flock.  I will deal with that as it comes.

Baby steps and giving the chickens time to adapt to the change.  Change is hard for chickens and adding new members even harder.  A little time and patience made for a mild and painless change.