Free range girls

After one and a half months of getting used to their new home Betty and the girls were ready to go free range this weekend.  I had been dreading this because when I first got them they escaped and it took ages and a lot of trouble to get them back into their cage.

I was assured by Alf who gave me the chickens that after a month they would have settled down and I would not have a problem getting them back into their cage.  So early on Saturday morning I released them into the wild to go foraging.

I noticed that they are no longer afraid of me and that they may even like me a bit now.  In fact they come when I call and I can get them to follow me.  I even took them to the compost heap to go scratching for worms. They followed me all in a row while I made chicken noises and scratching sounds.

Jackie the chicken whisperer 🙂

Come sundown they walked nicely into their cage for me and hopped up onto their perch.  I will be letting them out now when I am at home.  Although Cleo just watches them and has made no moves to chase them she does get very jealous when I talk to them.  I think if I leave her alone with them when I go out she may just try to show them who is boss.

Meet Betty and the girls

That’s them – I am the proud owner of my first 4 hens.  Betty is the black one, and the girls are the rest 🙂 – I am starting to see differences in the girls but not enough to give them each a name yet.  They shout a lot when I go into their coop (made out of recycled materials) and I don’t think they like me much yet.  I hope this changes.

They like sitting up on their perch like this, and looking out into the bush

and this is their home.  I have stitched shade cloth over the entire cage to keep it cool and to keep out the snakes.

Now I just have to wait and see if they start laying eggs.

An egg (ceptional) gift

I have been given an ostrich egg. It’s fresh and unfertilised.

Ostrich eggs are the largest of all eggs, On average they are 15 centimetres long, 13 centimetres wide, and weigh 1.4 kilograms, over 20 times the weight of a chicken egg. They are glossy cream-coloured, with thick shells marked by small pits.

I would like to attemp to make something different with it.  Most recipes on the internet talk about a savory type of egg scramble, or frittata’s.  Frying and boiling have been done too but that does not appeal to me. I would like to keep the shell so I will have to drain the egg and wont be able to keep the yolk whole.

Ostrich egg souffle anyone? Or quiche?

What other recipes use a lot of eggs?

images from daily mail and floeckscountry.com