There's a Boy in the Hen House!

Remember my "no roosters allowed" clause?  Yeah, well....it's being put to the test.  One of the mail order chicks from MyPetChicken.com turned out to be a boy.  He is such a nice chicken.  He's strong, vibrant, beautiful and friendly.  He's quite tame; he'll let you pet him and he even tolerates being held.  Now, if he were a mean, ugly rooster, I'd have no problem eating him.  But, because he's so nice, it's hard to think of butchering him.  Every other chicken owner I've ever met tells me that chickens aren't pets and I shouldn't treat them like pets.  Sorry.  I can't help it.  They are my flock and I love them as pets.  And they love me.  (Okay, they love all of the food I bring them.)  But they do run to me for protection, affection and treats.  I view that as love.  (Heck, sometimes that's more than my own children come to me for!)  :0)  So...the dilemma is....what to do with this crowing boy.  Hmmm.....

Buffy, our New Hampshire Red rooster.  When "she" was a baby we thought "she" was a female, Buff Orpinging chick; hence the name, Buffy.  Now that's "she's" all grown up, we realize that HE has a girly name, therefore it is now Mr. Buffy.  :0)

New Eggs

We are now up to four laying hens in our coop.  Trudy, the White Leghorn, has been laying white eggs since late September.  Shortly after she started laying, our first Easter Egger started laying light brown/pinkinsh color eggs.  This past Sunday we came home from church to find our first ever green egg!  We are pretty sure it came from Zoey, because she has been showing some of the same signs as the other two layers (bright red comb, talking & squatting a lot, etc.).  Just yesterday we found a fourth color egg in the coop; this one laying on the ground.  We are not sure who layed it, but are considering that it might be from Dixie, our Barred Rock chick.  It was a light, creamy beige color.  Here is a photo of the green egg next to Fluffy's latest treasure.  I think it is the biggest egg I have ever seen!

Crochet Critters

Here's a quick post for you crafters out there.  Last week at Michaels I found this cute little leaflet book from Vanna White's yarn line called "Vanna's Choice".  It has the patterns to make ten different crochet animals.  So far, I have made a hippo, an elephant and a monkey.  The hippo is my favorite.  Which is yours?

Our First EGG!

So, I haven't posted in a while and while I've been "away" from my blog, we have been blessed with about a dozen little treasures from The Chick Inn!  Our first little egg came on September 22nd.  It was from our White Leghorn girl, Trudy.  Trudy is from our second batch of babies and was just barely four months old when she gave us her first egg.  Since then, she has laid about one egg every other day.  White Leghorms produce the most popular eggs in America.  They are pure white and are what you would normally buy at the grocery store.  They will give almost one egg every day, which is why they are so popular with commercial egg producers.

Here is Trudy's egg (on the left) next to a store bought, grade A large egg (on the right):

Not bad for a first egg!

The one difference I just can't get over is the color of the yolk!  The other day I made pumpkin bread and needed four eggs.  I had three from our coop and one store bought egg.  I have a habit of cracking my eggs into a clean bowl before adding them to a recipe just in case there are any blood spots or - gasp! - developing chicks inside.  (It's just a precautionary thing I do.)  When I saw all four eggs in a cereal bowl I just couldn't believe the difference in the light yellow yolk of the store bought egg and the almost orange looking yolk from our homegrown eggs!  I wish I had sanpped a photo of the four eggs...I will the next time I make something that requires more than one egg.

Here is a photo of the inside of our first egg:

And here it is scrambled.  We split it into seven bites.  :0)

Cream Puffs

Okay, so it's been a couple of months since I last posted.  For those of you who randomly check my blog for updates, I do apologize.  It's been a busy end-of-summer around here and I will fill you in on all the details over the next couple of weeks. 

First, I wanted to share a recipe with you for cream puffs.  We had a church potluck dinner last Sunday and someone brought homemade cream puffs.  Did you hear me?  HOMEMADE cream puffs!  I got to thinking - especially since my husband LOVES cream puffs - that I wanted to learn how to make them.  Well, I got to searching this morning and found a recipe at Allrecipes.com.  (You can find it here.)  I was very pleased with the first batch and will make more.  They are so good!  And, when you mix the pudding you use heavy cream & milk, rather than just milk, and let me tell ya...that is the way to make pudding!  :0)  YUM!