The Guardians of the Flock

    

 "Chester" a Golden Laced Wyandotte

 "Mr Copper" a Black Copper Maran

   "Mr Lavender" a Lavender Orphington

  

   "Henry" our White Leghorn, he may be the old man around here but he is still the boss!

Often roosters get a bad rap for their crowing, the roughness with the hens and often just being awnry! However they do their jobs well. They work hard to protect their girls and often will give their own lives to save a hen. I have seen a rooster fight off a hawk by leaping in the air with his spurs out and I have seen one stand down a fox. This is ingrained in their DNA and is their very purpose in life. Our boys protect about 50 hens here and they do a great job. They will sound an alarm if there is danger and Autumn and I will come running. I just don't know what I would do with out them around here! 

Sleeping Bees

We have had some warmer temperatures here in Connecticut over the past week. I took the opportunity to run up to the hives and peek in to see how they were fairing. I was able to get this shot of a cluster that by the look of the frames are out of food but are not moving up to the other boxes that are loaded with food. I had some pollen patties and stuffed those down there with some of the candy boards that are on top of the hives. Sadly this is how hives starve through the winter. They just don't have the sense to move the cluster to the food! I replaced some of the frames quickly with food packed ones and hope they get to them. 

 Pollen patties are a good food source although eating honey and the candy boards would be better this time of year but I will get into them what I can at this point. Here's fingers crossed that they make it through the winter!

There's no Eggcuse!!!

It's here once again, eggs here and there from our 50 chickens and being forced to purchase eggs at the store. As I stood there and looked at what they were selling I was just shocked. The marketing to get you to think that a brown egg taste better than a white one had me shaking my head. I purchased this 18 pack of white large eggs for $1.99. As I looked the same pack of eggs that were brown were twice that much. Have you ever asked yourself why? It's because the food industry has convinced you that they taste better, but they don't. There is absolutely no difference in the taste or quality of the eggs, just the color of the shell! Another thing that got me was the cost of what they referred to as "free range" chickens. "Battery Hens" which are chickens kept in cages they can barely move around in, the "free range" chicken is housed with thousand of other birds who are in a huge enclosure, never see the sun and breathe dust all day. The eggs from these chickens can sit in warehouse for over a month before getting to the store.

The difference is inside the egg! We are getting an egg here and there from our girls. This mornings breakfast was eggs. I broke one store bought egg (on top) and one from our chickens (on the bottom) to show the color. The one on top is paler in color compared to the one on the bottom. Each egg was a large egg but the quantity of the egg itself inside the egg was dwarfed in comparison to our egg.

 I repeated my little experiment once again with the exact same results! 

The reason for my post, please don't fall for what they are selling, there is no difference in the taste, just the cost and lack of quality! 

A Triple Ringer!

 Recently while grooming one of our September baby buns, I realized he has three rings of color! I have never seen this before. Usually you will get one, maybe two rings of color but three?! He is quite the wooler too! It is almost like it goes in a swirl pattern, starting from the center and working out in the pattern. This will be some interesting wool to spin with a lot of color too! This boy is also molting at a rate I can barely keep up with. After this picture I finally had to shear him because he would pill faster than I could brush and comb him out!