Winner, winner, chicken dinner

They don't ever tell you about the downside of free-range chickens. For us, it's all about finding that elusive secret stash of eggs. Most chickens are compliant and lay their eggs in the nesting boxes we provide.  But others.... well let's just say they are the rebel chicks.  There's always gotta be that one stray hen. So when we do find a pile like this they all go in the trash because we don't know how old they are or how long they've been here.  And by trash I mean the dogs and cats get to eat them. Food safety is important and we only sell eggs that we can guarantee have been picked up the day they are laid. "Farm fresh" is a real deal around here. Besides, my farmer husband doesn't like sitting down on a pile of scrambled eggs!  As for this chicken...she's has decided laying in the skidloader might not be the best choice so she's back in good standing. For now...

Angels making cake - Part I

When you have a few of these....

You are sure to have too many of these....

So you need one of these to do this.....

And one of these to do this.... 

And a few people to do A LOT of this.... 

 To come up with this....

Which turns into this...

And that is how you use your angels to make angel cake!

Farm Fresh Eggs!

 Remember these guys I told you about a few months ago?? Well, they are all grown up into big girls now!  We are happy to announce that the dogs are being remarkably good with their new free range friends and nearly all are still accounted for!!  You might also recall that we carefully studied the requirements and worked really hard to get a nesting box all ready for them so they had a nice quiet place to lay eggs...

Who wouldn't want to start laying eggs in this beauty?!?!?!  But chickens are apparently independent thinkers... who knew??  Here's where this guy comes into the picture...

They found one of these to make their own nest and lay their eggs!  If you aren't familiar with these, they are protein tubs that you put out for cattle.  The empty ones can be used for all sorts of jobs around the farm.  We happen to be using a couple out by the chicken pen to hold some extra grass hay to bed the rabbits.  You guessed it... that is where Miss Hen decided she would start laying her eggs.  Once she did, the others followed suit and now that seems to be the nest of choice.  So when the book said they need a nice, quiet, private, dark place to lay their eggs... it was lying.  When the book said it didn't have to be anything fancy... it was right on!

For the record, this isn't my picture.  We only get one or two eggs a day so far but we have great expectations for more!!

And my friend Lyndi was right about the math lessons... so far we have gathered 6 eggs.  Nate has broken 2 of them.  How many have we gotten to eat?  Ally says 4.  Isn't she smart??