Chuck has been putting finishing touches to the coop area. The next task was a stairway. He really didn’t build this for the chickens, he built it for us, so we could get to the coop without killing ourselves. The slope to the coop would become really slick during rain, we couldn’t imagine what it would be like with snow and ice. Now getting up to the birds is no chore at all.

Chuck used old logs and a phone pole to make the stairs.

The chickens seem to enjoy them too.

Here is a day’s worth of eggs — three duck and three chicken. Yes, our ducks are amazing producers. They also lay amazing eggs that are perfect for poaching. The duck egg has a thicker white and yolk, which holds together well during poaching.

What a beautiful egg.

Yum.

So our chickens like their new home and are laying about three eggs a day. Hmm…13 chickens and 3 eggs. So who’s not laying?

The Domoniques are definitely the main layers here. In fact, I think they are the only layers.

The White Rock also lays brown eggs, but we have no evidence that they have contributed to our breakfast.

But we still love all our chickens. Once these chickens (Ameraucana) start laying, we will have blue/green eggs. I’m very excited to see them.

Just some pretty chicken photos.

Last weekend Chuck and I walked through one of our state parks. Here’s a little bit of fall color.

We were under and amazing canopy of maples.

I loved the contrast of these white mushrooms surrounded by the leaves.

Whoever thought we would go from this, to this:

We wish you a very Happy Birthday!

Many people having been asking about what it is like to eat duck eggs. I have not done a side by side taste test with chicken eggs, but I believe they taste pretty much the same. However, there are some physical differences.

Here is a side by side comparison to see the differences. Duck eggs are larger than our free-range chicken eggs and even larger than extra-large chicken eggs from the store. The ratio of yolk to white is higher. The other big difference is texture. They are firmer. This weekend we plan on pouching a few. I think they will hold up well in the water.

Here is one of our chicken eggs compared to a large store-bought egg. The deeper orange yellow yolk comes from our eggs. There are many explanations for this color difference.

Mother Earth News has a great article on free-range eggs. Check it out and you’ll wonder why we don’t all have chickens in our backyard.

When I walked into the lower coop, I noticed something black and round. Upon further investigation, I was thrilled to discover duck eggs.

Check this out, two black eggs and one large gray egg. It is common for poultry’s first egg to be small, but I never expected one as large as the gray egg. The Cayuga duck can lay black, blue or gray to white eggs. I have never seen a black egg before.

This is not a great photo, but I wanted to show you how large this egg really is.

The egg was really heavy and gave us double yolks. Wow, chicken eggs for breakfast, duck eggs for lunch and rooster for dinner. Life is good.

If you remember from summer time, Chuck started working on the upper condos for the chickens to have more room. The goal was get the condos ready before the laying begins.

Slowly he worked his way throw the debris.

Once all of the old wood and junk were removed, the potential for this space was obvious.

Here a ramp system where the chickens can move from the lower to the upper condos.

Here is a view of the upper condo unit. Soon there will be electricity, but once this area was open for business, the chickens started laying eggs.

Chuck built plenty of brooding boxes for the birds. They seem to love them.

When we first ordered our chickens, we ordered all pullets. But cockerels are not that well endowed, so telling males from females is not that simple. One of our White Rock chickens grew bigger than the others and developed a much larger comb and wattle. It was the final cock-a-doodle-do that confirmed his gender. Here he is, proud of the flock behind him.

We didn’t mind the crowing in the morning or all day long for that matter. In fact, I enjoyed the sound effects. It gave the farm the final touch it needed to be a farm.

Well, as you know, we’ve been enjoying our eggs in the morning. But the thought of opening a fertile egg and finding a growing chicken had me a little nervous. And the ladies didn’t seem as fond of Roger as he was fond of them. So…

Roger is now in the slow cooker, but he has good company. Tonight’s dinner will be Coq Au Vin.

Chuck has put this lovely dish together, substituting bacon with his homemade butter, pearl onions with onions from our garden. He has also used Hen of the Woods mushrooms, found earlier this Fall, and some dried Morels from our hunts this past spring. (Yes, we still have a secret stash of Morels.)

Dinner will be around 7 pm  (unless Chuck keeps opening the cover of the crock pot and saying “Santa Maria, can you smell that.” Okay, so we watched The Mark Zorro with Tyrone Power last night.) You’re all invited.

Chuck put together a Hoop Hut so we could extend our growing season. Here is the base to hold the hut and the raised beds that will provide greens into the Fall.

The assembly began in the horse barn and then we carried the completed hut to the garden.

We moved the hut to its base on a cold, but sunny October day. It is unseasonably cold for early October. We’ve had snow, serious freezes and frosts. Down in the valley it is usually 10 degrees cooler than up on the ridge. Hopefully we will get back on track with regular Fall temperatures or I’m not sure if we will be able to raise our greens even in the hoop hut.

But we are going to try. The beds are planted with three varieties of lettuce and one variety of spinach. I ordered the seeds from Seed Savers in Iowa. Hopefully I will provide an update soon as the plants grow.