First Chocolate Egg!!

My 20 week old Blue Copper Marans "Bleu" just laid the first egg in the "juvie" pen. Here it is next to a Buff Orp egg, It is very small (a starter egg), but awesomely dark and beautiful. The Marans breed originated in France and is fairly rare in the states. There is a mystique surounding these chocolate colored eggs that is fasinating. Martha Stewart apparently imported Marans chickens for eggs to use in her baking, and in one of his novels Ian Fleming says that the picky James Bond ("shaken, not stirred") prefers Marans eggs. Personally, I think that chicken egg flavor is more dependant on diet than breed, but I'll let you know if I discover otherwise.

My Pets Make Me Lunch

Now that you have visions of hens in aprons stirring pots on the stove, I'll post my recipe for Spinach Quiche. I usually use those already pie crusts in the box that you unfold; for less mess and bother, but homemade crust is always the best.

Spinach Quiche

6 slices of bacon

1/2 c. finely chopped onion

2 c. fresh chopped spinach

2 T butter

4 large eggs

1 1/4 c. half 'n half

1 c. shredded cheddar cheese

1 1/2 c. shredded swiss cheese

1/4 teasp. nutmeg

1/2 teasp. salt

1/2 teasp. pepper

Cook bacon. (I microwave mine between layers of paper towels for a bit less than a min. per slice-time will vary per microwave, start with 4 min for 6 slices and adjust).

Saute onions in butter until clear. Add spinach and cook 5 min. stirring often. Turn off heat.

You can substitute frozen spinach, but squeeze all the water out of it.

Beat 4 farm fresh free range eggs (well, any eggs will do, but the orange yolks and stand up whites of naturally raised chicken eggs give this dish excellent color and consistency).

Add half and half, cheese, spinach/onion mixture, crumbled bacon and seasonings. Pour into a 9" unbaked pie shell (pricked slightly with a fork). Flute edges (I loosely cover these with foil strips to prevent over-browning).

Bake at 375 for 35-40 min. until center is set. I pull off foil for the last 5 minutes to brown crust edges.

Although I may make this sound complicated, this is a 15 minute recipe, (minus cooking time).

If you can't find free range eggs, I should have several dozen a week available in a couple of months, for pickup in Gainesville for 3.00 a dozen. I'll be taking orders in early spring-email me LD1324@aol.com for availability starting February.

All my Buff Orps are back laying after maternity leave and some of the "babies" are getting close to laying age.

Together Again...(almost)

Five of the original six, reunited after raising their kids. This is their favorite spot for waiting out the rain.

About a month ago I decided it was time to put Phoebe back with her flock. Her chicks were 9 weeks old and she was getting a little testy with some of the larger cockerels. I made the mistake of just setting her out of the pen and thought she would happily scamper off with her former flock who would welcome her back. Wrong....! Rudy immediately began to chase her and she ran shrieking as though a terrifying predator was after her. Now you have to understand that in Rudy's mind, he was rounding up one of his hens. One of a roosters jobs is to keep the flock together and safe. When the hens wander back to the coop to lay eggs while freeranging he comes running when he hears the "egg song" and escorts them back to wherever the rest of the girls are. Here at last was one of his sweeties...gone for over three months.... Well Phoebe was just back from maternity leave, had been cooped up with 11 babies that were becoming brats and here comes this huge mass of testosterone rushing to turn her back into a baby machine. I caught up with Rudy and put him in the coop for time out. I held Phoebe for awhile until she calmed down and her little heart stopped beating so fast. I put her down with the two girls who remained with Rudy when the other three went broody and went off to raise families. I thought she'd be welcomed and embraced...sisterhood, right? Wrong! Sadie, who assumed head hen position while Phoebe explored motherhood, walked over and pecked her on the head. Phoebe cowered! I've never seen Phoebe be submissive in any way, she used to throw Rudy off her back and one certain look from her was enough to send the other hens running. I decided that she and I had had enough drama and trauma and put her back in the pen with her kids.

I decided on a plan. I'd devote the whole next weekend to re-uniting Phoebe with her former flockmates. The plan was to introduce both Phoebe and Izzie back at the same time. Even though Izzie was not showing the signs of restlessness that Phoebe was, and was still attached and attentive to her 8 week olds, I felt that there was safety and solidarity in numbers. I kept Rudy penned and threw out some corn. I let all four girls scratch and eat for a while. They were together yet separate, Izzie kept running back to her babies until I threw out yet more corn. After about an hour with no confrontation, I picked up Rudy and held him for another hour as we watched the girls. He struggled mightily at first (he so wants to be in charge) but after a while he grew calm and when I turned him loose he was a gentleman and just chortled that there was food to be found. I hung around the rest of the day to supervise. I didn't want to interfere with them too much as this would prolong the re-establishment of pecking order, but I wanted to be sure no blood was shed in the process. At one point Rudy decided to get reacquainted with Izzie and I had to crawl under my truck and peel her off my muffler where she was hiding. By nightfall Sadie took forever to join the others on the roost...Phoebes is BACK....

Four weeks later. They all hang as a flock, but the dynamics are subtly different. They all get along, Phoebe is less domineering, and Izzie is still very timid. We all are changed and affected by our life experiences I guess.

Soon it will be time to integrate Ellie as well, then the original six will be back together again...the same yet changed.

Growing and Crowing

Ameraucanas: Wheaten Ranger with Sophie and Ophelia (Opie) @ 15 weeks.

Blue Wheaten Mia @ 10 weeks. She is just perfect....

Marans: Toby, the best Black Copper cockerel @ 12 weeks.

Marans: Bleu, Blue Copper pullet @ 17 weeks.

Welsummer: Jax, Welsummer cockerel @ 12 weeks. Jax escaped his pen today and when I caught him and picked him up his eyes rolled back in his head and he fainted for a minute. The chicks raised by the broodies are not used to being handled like the ones I've hatched in the bator. Don't worry Jax, you are my only roo for seven Welsummer ladies... I call you stud...not supper!

Welsummer: pullet @ 16 weeks. She is either Josie, Jessie, Jaci, Juno, Jenna ...you see where I'm going...

The Wellie girls are all J's. I need to band them so I can tell them apart. They all look alike, which is where we want to get to with the Marans and the W/BW/S Ameraucanas.

These are the chicks hatched in August and September. I'm concentrating on 4 breeds: Buff Orpingtons (friendly and sweet, they lay a pinkish brown egg). Welsummers (beautiful partridge coloring, they lay a dark terra-cotta egg). Blue/Black Copper Marans (known for their dark, almost chocolate colored egg). Wheaten/Blue Wheaten Ameraucana (awesomely friendly, they lay a sky blue egg).

I'm enjoying watching them grow tremendously. The Marans and Ameraucanas are in the developmental stage, so I'll be selectively breeding them for color and conformation, as well as egg color.

Meanwhile, the original Buff Orp's continue to be the best pets ever...they follow me around, "help" with the gardening, and continue to provide us with much joy and amusement.