New Life !

Ahhhh.......the sweet smell of spring.   All of the sudden there are green leaves sprouting on the trees and bushes.  I cannot get enough of this backyard view of bright green growing from the bottom up.

....we have dandylions!  I love them!
We survived our first winter back in the ole' US of A.  It wasn't too bad here in Middle America
 ( a.k.a Kansas) .  I am soaking up the pure JOY of warmth in the air and birdsong and new life all around us on our little acre.  Sure enough the blueberry bushes are blooming! Yippie!
The raspberries are getting green leaves when they looked like lifeless sticks a week ago. My garlic.......whoa.....  check out the difference in a couple weeks of sunshine and rain!

Suddenly I can pluck handfuls of weeds for the chickens.  Time to pull the mulch away from the fruit trees.......AND start my garden seeds !

And the real excitement that we've been waiting for.  Putting our beautiful hens to work !  Win -Win for us and them.  They get to scratch and peck to their hearts content in our garden.  We get stirred up mulch and fertilized soil prepping our veggie patch!   I love this permaculture stuff.  Feel free to google permaculture.  Or read about it here
Then check out this video I took on Easter Sunday afternoon of our beautiful gals struttin' their stuff.  And if you read a previous post about our chicken swap - note how our 2 remaining scrawny hens are plumping up in life.  Organic food, sunshine and water will do that to do a person......or a chicken.

Dust

I am a real sap when it comes to nostalgia and sentiment.  Don't you agree there are some scents that can bring back some pretty intense memories? Sigh......that was yesterday.  At the expense of a horrible fire that broke out somewhere in the area and some incredibly strong winds there was a penetrating smell of burning and dust in the air.  And THAT is the smell of Malawi, Africa.  That is the scent that hits your nose when you step off the plane and and what you breathe day in and day out - most especially in the dry season. This is in part due to the dusty roads and dusty earth - alot less pavement overall and especially created by  the cooking fires that most Malawians use for their at least twice daily meal of nsima.

 See how to make a typical Malawian meal of nsima and ndiwo in a previous post here.
I poured myself a glass of red wine, sat right down on my back steps and took deep whiffs......walked about the yard reminiscing about all things Malawi in our time there.  Then I made the kids come out and said " Take a deep sniff"........" What is that smell?".......they all said " Malawi".   After supper, I went outside once more.  I couldn't shake the memory that smell was stirring up in my mind.  I felt like weeping and jumping for joy and I felt like sleeping outside and just remembering.  Yep....pretty sentimental.  I just can't help it.  Malawi will always be one of our homes. I love the Warm heart of Africa.  And I miss it.

Chicken Swap

Well, we did indeed have 5 roosters so before they started crowing and really making a fuss in the coop we knew it was time to swap them for hens!  One doesn't really need a rooster at all if you are just wanting laying hens.  In fact you never need a rooster if you just buy chicks every couple years. Hens will lay eggs for about 2 years and then get a bit too old and at that time have become " tough old birds" so they are only good to butcher for soup stock at that point.  Thus the phrase " tough old bird".  Soup stock, however, is tremendously healthy and there are any number of great directions online on how to make you own.  Chicken feet included.  I've made stock from carcasses before but never from the feet and I cannot wait to try ! Check out this post from one of my favorite homestead bloggers.    However, if you want to brood your own chicks, well then, ya gotta have a rooster as you know that's how babies are made !
Let me tell you - it was kinda fun to buy some chicks " unsexed" and discover what we had going.  Kinda like being pregnant and not knowing until birth if its a boy or girl!  HOWEVER........then came the swapping fiasco which is where our first " learn from your mistakes" event came into play.  Sigh...... no one ever said farmin' was easy.  So a week ago my husband grabbed 4 of our roosters and we loaded 'em up in a box in the back of our car and off we went to swap with the people we had purchased them from as chicks.   In no time at all we saw our chicken friends and hopped outta the car and revealed our roosters which quickly met the shocked look of our swapping friend who exclaimed" What ya been feeding them? " "Oh  *&#$!  I hope you aren't *%$#! with me"  at which I got kinda worried and thought well how bad can it be.  Then chicken friend revealed his hens and I can only hope the feeling I had inside of me was not revealed on my face.  Whoa - Lack of nutrition and quality care clearly visible.  The  " be kind and have manners" part of both my husband and I started bumbling on about " Wow, well we'll get 'em up to speed" and " Hey, are these really from the same set of chicks, are you sure?" and chicken friend going on and on about " well, must not have enough protein in my feed"   It was all rather awkward and we handed over our robust, bright white roosters with pristine feathers and deep red combs and in turn got our scrawny , pale, pecked at in places, featherless in parts,  so very sad looking hens.   Eesh.
I spent the remainder of the day comparing them to our hens and taking tons of pictures trying to capture the vast difference.

 We were busy helping our new scrawny hens to plenty of food, sunshine and water when all the sudden one of 'em seized up and died right before our very eyes. UGH !  Fast forward a couple weeks and another one died. (seriously!!)



Can you see the difference?!?  Of course you can !








Not making this stuff up !!!!!

  I was leary to keep the remaining two with our healthy bunch of hens but we really only have the one coop so we are hoping for the best.  To chicken friends credit, he replaced the dead hens with 2 remarkably healthier looking ones.  All a bit of a chicken mystery to me......and a lesson in overall health and care for your own animals.  We want to grow 'em healthy and happy because in return we get darn good eggs.  And next time.....I'm buying the cute little chicks at the farm supply store already sexed .  One day we'll have more space to keep a rooster around to brood our own chicks.  Now that'll be the real chicken farming life I'm dreaming of.  Ya want it done right? Gotta do it yourself.
One more pic for comparison ( organic fed, free rangin vs. ?! lack o' serious protein and sunshine)