I often use Facebook as a place to put up quick picks of the animals that don’t make it onto my blog. This one went up this morning, and it is so ridiculously cute that I didn’t want my regular blog readers, who don’t do FB, to miss it. Because, really, even those of us who don’t consider ourselves little dog people, can’t help but smile at this small dog.
If you are on FaceBook, but don’t yet follow my site, please do. You don’t want to miss another Scooter photograph. Find me here.
I know that you’re all curious about the second ramp that you see on the HenCam.
This is what is around the corner.
It’s a rabbit hutch.
On paper, my coop and pen fit the space requirements for the flock. With the passing of the two old hens, you’d think that there would be even more room. However, the weather has been awful, so they’re spending more time inside. And, the group dynamics has changed now that Buffy and Twinkydink are gone. Betsy can no longer hide from the Ladies by squeezing behind the old girls. (Do not read into this that the old hens protected Betsy on purpose. They did not. However, Betsy is a smart little bird and she knew that if she hid behind Buffy or Twinkydink, that the Ladies wouldn’t chase her there. The Old Girls didn’t like the Ladies in their personal space, and pecked at them if they came too close, but they were used to ignoring Besty.) Betsy, now in need of some other sort of buffer from the Ladies, joined Phoebe under the nesting boxes. Phoebe, being a mild-mannered little bunny, turned her back to Betsy, but found still found her presence annoying. Unlike the late, great Candy, Phoebe does not imperiously hold her own with the hens. She needed a new quiet spot. So, I put the hutch into the pen, thinking that Phoebe would appreciate a new haven, and that I’d alleviate some of the social pressure.
It’s nice and cozy. I put rabbit food, fresh hay and shavings inside.
Of course, the animals do not follow my script. Phoebe does like the hutch – to sit under. Once in awhile she goes inside for a snack, but she doesn’t want to stay in there. Twiggy does like the hutch – to lay her eggs in the hay. Nancy Drew has laid an egg in the shavings. And Betsy? She continues to annoy everyone. They peck at her, but it’s not serious. No one actually takes a pull of any of her pristine white feathers. She skitters here and there. If the flock truly bothered her, she’d be hiding in the nesting box. So far she hasn’t taken a step inside.
I had wanted to wait to write this post until I had better photographs, but knew that I had to assuage your curiosity (I believe my readers are also suffering from mid-winter doldrums!) At best, I took this one of Twiggy going down the ramp. You’ll have to imagine the rest.
This small addition has improved everyone’s mood. Chickens are curious animals that like to investigate new things. It doesn’t take much to improve their surroundings by adding a shelf, a perch, or a nesting box in a new place. Think about what you can do for your animals during these mid-winter doldrums. Ideas? Tell me here.
I don’t have any interest in competing my birds at poultry shows, but I do like going. I’m fortunate to live less than two hours from one of the largest poultry shows in the country, The Northeastern Poultry Congress. Have you ever been to a flower show in the dead of winter? For which a dark and dreary convention hall is transformed with blooms, and where gardeners go to dream and plan for the growing season? Well, a poultry show is like a flower show for chicken people. This weekend, at the Congress, there will be thousands of birds to look at, a huge raffle to enter, and booths to peruse.
I’ll be there! Look for me to the side of the hall, where I’ll have copies of my books for sale. Special for the Poultry Congress, I’ll have my books of vintage photographs on sale for Half Off at $10 each. (Saturday only, and only at the show.) I’m going to bring a couple of extra chairs so that you can stop by and chat for awhile. Let me know if you’re coming. I hope to see you there!
If you are coming to this, or any poultry show, it’s important to take precautions to protect your own flock. Chickens can look perfectly healthy, they could even be ribbon winners, but still be carriers of disease. Poultry carry both viruses and bacteria in their droppings, their dander and in their breath. I’ve seen chickens with obvious cases of fowl pox (a virus that causes spots and lesions on combs) in the show cages. Use common sense. Do not wear the same shoes to the show that you wear out to your coops. Do not wear your barn coat. When you get home, wash your clothes. This is basic biosecurity. It’s a lot easier to do these days, what with our large wardrobes of clothes that can go right into the washing machine. Imagine how hard it was back in the early twentieth century, when poultry shows were at the height of their popularity. (Of course, in those days, they didn’t know about biosecurity and those coats might have been washed once a year. Maybe.)
I hope to see you at the Poultry Congress on Saturday, January 18! (I’ll be wearing a new, black winter coat, that I never wear to the barns.) For a link to the Poultry Congress site, with directions, go to my Events page.
Buy Tonka a bag of carrots!
Last summer, for the first time, I grew Black Turtle Beans. The plants looked just like climbing green beans. It took willpower to let the pods dry out on the vines, but after the leaves shriveled, there was something beautiful about the muted colors and spotted husks.
It was a chore to shell the beans, but they they felt wonderfully silky in my hands, and the plink-plink as the beans dropped into the bowl rewarded my efforts. They were the most beautiful beans I had ever seen.
The harvest from an entire tower of bean plants filled only half of a quart jar.
I put them into the pantry, waiting for the right day in the winter to make soup. Certainly, this week of polar freeze, ice and snow qualified! I didn’t need much: onion, garlic, carrots, parsley, broth, spices and one smoked ham hock. I’ve yet to find a local source for the hock, so I bought a Wellshire Farms product at Whole Foods because Wellshire Farms has decent animal husbandry standards, and besides, their ham hock is delicious. Since the ham hock is the predominant flavor in this soup, it does make a difference to buy the best one that you can.
Although dried beans look like they last forever, the truth is that age takes its toll. Older beans take longer to cook and have a grittier texture. Dried beans usually require and overnight soaking, but since my black beans were only four months from harvest, I didn’t bother. I pulled out my slow cooker; the beans would be just right after a day in the crockpot. You don’t need a fancy slow cooker. An inexpensive model works fine.
I started the soup by pouring oil into the crockpot so that it covered the bottom by a thin layer. I added chopped onions and covered the pot. This cooked on high, and developed flavor, while I prepped the remaining ingredients. Next in were diced carrots and a few garlic cloves, minced.
Beans bought from the supermarket are harvested using huge machines. Dirt and rocks get scooped up. Threshing, also by machine, separates the beans from the husks, and sifts out dirt, but not all pebbles are found and discarded before packaging. So dried bean recipes call for giving them a good washing and look over. Because I plucked my beans off of the vines, I knew that no rocks were lurking. However, I did immerse the beans in a bowl of water. Bad beans, and bits of husk, floated to the surface, which I skimmed off. I then gave the beans a quick drain in a colander and tossed them into the slow cooker. I poured in two boxes of organic chicken broth, stirred in two teaspoons of ground cumin and a touch of a hot pepper flakes (grown by my friends at Sweet Autumn Farm) and tucked in the ham hock. I didn’t add salt because I didn’t know how salty the hock was. As it turned out, no additional salt was needed. I covered the slow cooker and walked away.
Six hours later, I had soup, and it was very, very good.
I ladled it into a bowl, added some bits of meat cut off of the hock, dolloped on some sour cream, and generously garnished with minced fresh flat leaf parsley.
When I woke up this morning it was 15°F. I know what I’m having for lunch.
