~ First Garden Harvest ~

I gathered our 1st garden harvest yesterday , 4 beautiful little radishes (LOL). Ms. Lame Lucy the guinea also laid her 1st egg of the season yesterday. The hens have been laying well , considering they're 2 years old now. I was planning to put the older hens in the freezer soon , but I've decided to wait. But I will be getting some new chicks soon. The leaf lettuce is also ready to harvest , looking forward to a homegrown tossed salad. What are you harvesting ?

~ Garden Blessings ~

JoyceAnn

2009 / 2010 Egg Count Total

3265 Eggs !

~ Farm Blessings ~

JoyceAnn

~ 1000 Eggs / Praying Mantis Giveaway / Zucchini Brownies ~

This past Saturday our egg count hit 1000 for 2010, that's if I counted them all. I may have missed adding a day or two , but I know it's close.

Can you see me ?

There's a giveaway going on at " Herbal Roots Zine " that I wanted to mention. Kristine is giving away a little natural wooden " Praying Mantis " made by

http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2008/12/05/toymaker/

This little Mantis would make a great gift for your Grands or other wee ones in your life. You could use the little fellow for storytelling or make a nature table. Click here for a chance at winning ...........

http://www.herbalrootszine.com/2010/07/giveaway-monday-wooden-praying-mantis/

or you can check-out her Etsy shop here ........

http://www.etsy.com/shop/mamaroots .

Then you can blop over and visit Teresa @ Eden Hills for her " Zucchini Brownies " recipe , click here if you're interested ~

http://edenhills.wordpress.com/2010/07/24/zucchini-season-is-here/

I plan to make some brownies today , so it's time to head to the kitchen.

Wishing everyone a " Wonderful " day !

~ Be Blessed ~

JoyceAnn

~ ~ ~ ~A Whole Lot of Crowing Going On ~ ~ ~ ~

Yesterday morning I found Ms. Arlene ( formally known as Jolene , Curious J kept calling her Arlene , so that name kinda stuck ) in the nesting box , she laid her first egg since molting.

Chief Little Roo has try to claim the new flock as his girls , he just kept standing there admiring them :0)


Afterwards , he had something to crow about (LOL).


( It was the first time I've saw him crowing )

Of course , then we had a crowing contest going on :0)

I was late going to shut the hens up last night , my Mom called as I was getting ready to go out to the chicken coop. After talking with her and my sister for awhile , I headed out to shut the coop for the night. I went to get the little hen from the holding pen outside and she was gone. I looked a long time for her , so long that Dh came out to see what was wrong. He thought I might have run into that bear (LOL) , I told him about the missing hen. There were no signs of a struggle , no feathers on the ground , no animal prints and the makeshift pen was intact , but the little hen was nowhere to be found. I checked inside the coop and everyone seemed fine , no ruckus or signs of anything happening. So we finally gave up the hunt , hopping she would be there this morning. I introduced the new flock to the roost Sunday night. I couldn't wait a week , they kept trying to fly up in the pen to get to the roosting area , so I decided I would let them out and see what happened. The older hens weren't exactly thrilled about them , but after a little pecking , the new girls ended up on top of the nesting boxes roosting with the roosters. Hopefully in time they'll all become one flock. Anyway , I went out as soon as it was light enough to see this morning and there was the little hen hanging out with the guinea. I was happy that she survived her night out , but now she's sequestered to the little pen in the coop until she gets a little older. I guess she flew out of the holding pen and the other hens wouldn't let her back in the coop , so she must have found a safe roosting place outside last night , she may have roosted in the trees with the guinea (LOL). Thankfully it all ended well.

Collected 5 eggs yesterday.

~ Homestead Blessings ~

JoyceAnn

~ Curious J gathers 6 eggs ~

Curious J , my oldest grandson was here for the weekend , he was in charge of gathering the eggs Saturday and Sunday.

Waiting for his chicken " Mya " to lay an egg ..................


still waiting and getting impatient , see that look on his face (LOL).


I finally talked him into doing something else , while we waited.


He collected 6 eggs , that's the most we've ever gathered in a day , so all the chickens are laying now , for sure. He was so happy , then on Sunday he gathered 6 more eggs , today I only gathered 5 , those hens must really like him ( LOL ).







The hens had been laying for 3 weeks yesterday and we've collected a total of 66 eggs ( Yay ! )



~ Many Blessings ~
JoyceAnn

~~ Around the Homestead ~~

~ Fresh Broccoli ~

~ Missy & Little Tree having Fun ~



~ Nesting Time ~





~ Fresh Eggs ~




~ Ms. Guinea ~


~ 24 Eggs on the nest ~

It's that time of the year , when things get overwhelming around here. There's so much to do and so much I want to do , the garden is starting to produce. Last week the garlic was harvested , this week the broccoli is ready to harvest. The weeds are growing faster , the sun is getting hotter and the bugs want to eat you alive , makes gardening a little less desirable. But in the end , the results are worth it. Tonight we're having chicken and fresh broccoli stir-fry over rice. Oh yeah , the organic flour mix I made took care of the worms on the broccoli , it just took a few days.

I think all of the chickens are laying , we've gathered 46 eggs since they started laying two weeks ago this past Sunday. We're getting double yolk eggs from one of the hens , they're so large they don't fit into a carton. The fresh eggs taste so much better than store bought eggs , wish I had got chickens along time ago.

Ms. Guinea has gone broody , she stayed on the nest last night. Yesterday there were 24 eggs in the nest , not sure if she laid another egg yesterday. I closed her in with the cut wood that was nearby , she was still there this morning , so she made it through one night. It takes 28 days for the eggs to hatch , so I'll be watching her closely. I hope she'll be safe , well I need to get off the computer and go check on her. If any of my readers have had success with a broody guinea , I'd love to hear about it.

~ Green Blessings ~

JoyceAnn