My three hens are enjoying thier freedom again. One has stopped laying due to age and a second very rarely lays. The third bird (found wandering in my back access lane and never claimed) lays pale Blue eggs on a nearly daily basis. If you've never experienced a truly fresh egg, you don't know what you're missing.
I have 12 ranging chickens here in Raro. I don't get eggs, I just get more chickens. It does my 75 year old heart heart good to see a New Mum showing off her 8 stripey day-olds.
Chaperoned attentively by Kimbal the golden and red rooster. No, he doesn't wear a stetson but is a most considerate suitor.
I feed Jim Wonderdog at 11.30 every day. He gets his fresh, frozen, chicken thigh, chopped up on the high-altar tree stump by Dad, with his glittering machete. The two cats, Elon and her young son Alan attend, awaiting their flying morsels too as Jim gets into it. Of course the hens and their chicks gather as it's extra high protein suplement, after grassgrubs, seeds and scraps and Alans dead rats.
Yesterday I saw Kimbal bringing his girls around and taking chook-chivalry to a new zenith.
He grabs a large piece of thrown thigh and proffers it to Speckledy, a very striking girl, new to his entourage from up the road. He lovingly lays it down before her and she siezes it. He quickly hops on and has his way with her, with the treat firmly grasped in her beak like an apple.
I don't have chickens but I do have Jackdaws. Any supermarket eggs that have gone well past their use by date I usually throw out onto the lawn. I once saw a Jackdaw dig a small hole and roll the egg into the hole, carefully take the top off and slurp the contents. Hardly any was wasted! Jackdaws are way too smart, between them and AI we are fucked.
Well done for finding an answer. Darn those pigeons. I’m using small bird friendly feeders and they still find a way to knock them down and open 😣
I loved feeding the birds when we lived in the US. In Sheboygan, we'd get all the native species - chickadees, northern cardinals, dark-eyed juncos and various native sparrows. In Cleveland, as soon as I put food out, a gang of about 50 (I tried to count one time!) invasive European sparrows arrived and cleaned out the entire feeder in less than half an hour. Every time it was the same. The poor native birds didn't get a look in. Then I started feeding the from a hanging bowl, and for some reason the sparrows didn't like that so much. Though then you'd end up with the back garden squirrel treating it as an all-you-can-eat buffet. Here in Reading, only the pigeons and the magpies have worked out there's food in the hanging bowl. I do hope the others catch on soon!
My three hens are enjoying thier freedom again. One has stopped laying due to age and a second very rarely lays. The third bird (found wandering in my back access lane and never claimed) lays pale Blue eggs on a nearly daily basis. If you've never experienced a truly fresh egg, you don't know what you're missing.
I have 12 ranging chickens here in Raro. I don't get eggs, I just get more chickens. It does my 75 year old heart heart good to see a New Mum showing off her 8 stripey day-olds.
Chaperoned attentively by Kimbal the golden and red rooster. No, he doesn't wear a stetson but is a most considerate suitor.
I feed Jim Wonderdog at 11.30 every day. He gets his fresh, frozen, chicken thigh, chopped up on the high-altar tree stump by Dad, with his glittering machete. The two cats, Elon and her young son Alan attend, awaiting their flying morsels too as Jim gets into it. Of course the hens and their chicks gather as it's extra high protein suplement, after grassgrubs, seeds and scraps and Alans dead rats.
Yesterday I saw Kimbal bringing his girls around and taking chook-chivalry to a new zenith.
He grabs a large piece of thrown thigh and proffers it to Speckledy, a very striking girl, new to his entourage from up the road. He lovingly lays it down before her and she siezes it. He quickly hops on and has his way with her, with the treat firmly grasped in her beak like an apple.
With this daily entertainment, who needs eggs?
I buy mine from the supermarket.
Solar Bob, Rarotonga
But they taste better laid fresh. Try one 😊
I don't have chickens but I do have Jackdaws. Any supermarket eggs that have gone well past their use by date I usually throw out onto the lawn. I once saw a Jackdaw dig a small hole and roll the egg into the hole, carefully take the top off and slurp the contents. Hardly any was wasted! Jackdaws are way too smart, between them and AI we are fucked.
Well done for finding an answer. Darn those pigeons. I’m using small bird friendly feeders and they still find a way to knock them down and open 😣
I loved feeding the birds when we lived in the US. In Sheboygan, we'd get all the native species - chickadees, northern cardinals, dark-eyed juncos and various native sparrows. In Cleveland, as soon as I put food out, a gang of about 50 (I tried to count one time!) invasive European sparrows arrived and cleaned out the entire feeder in less than half an hour. Every time it was the same. The poor native birds didn't get a look in. Then I started feeding the from a hanging bowl, and for some reason the sparrows didn't like that so much. Though then you'd end up with the back garden squirrel treating it as an all-you-can-eat buffet. Here in Reading, only the pigeons and the magpies have worked out there's food in the hanging bowl. I do hope the others catch on soon!