A Few Cluck-worthy Additions

As our daily egg yield has continued to decrease, we have decided it is time to add a few feathery friends to our aging flock.  Instead of opting to raise day old chicks this year (they are a ton of work and boy, do they stink!), we are experimenting with a more cost effective (and much less time consuming) alternative - ready-to-lay hens.  We purchased a dozen 20 week old Lohmann Brown hens from a farmer on Kijiji and it is time to pick them up!  These hens are the most common type of chicken used for commercial egg production laying farms in Europe.  Luckily ours will have a much nicer life here on Gael Glen Farm than their poor European cousins.

Our new ladies are big enough to be incorporated directly into the main coop with our existing flock.  Ian picked them up last night and in the dark of night we introduced them into the coop.  Doing the hen amalgamation at night reduces the chances that the new birds will be harassed by the older, bigger hens.  Everyone just goes to sleep and in the morning it is like they have always been there.

Most of the new hens have not yet ventured outside.  They were raised exclusively inside and so this is the first time they have the opportunity to free range - they are working up the courage to experience the great outdoors.  

Lohmanns begin to lay at about 18 weeks, laying about 1 egg per day and up to 300 eggs a year.  We picked up a lot of cute little brown eggs off the coop floor today.  The new girls are relatively inexperienced layers and many have not yet managed to find the nesting boxes.  I am sure this will come with time.  

Lohmann hens are known to be very friendly and are good chickens to keep as pets for children - an added bonus for sure.  Welcome little brownies to your new home at Gael Glen Farm, we are happy to have you!

We're Back!

 It is great to go on an adventure to visit far off places but it is always nice to come home again.  After an exciting few weeks in Bergen, Norway and a whirlwind weekend in Copenhagen, Denmark - Ian, Liam and I are happy to be back on the farm.  We missed Charlotte, Emily, Avery and everyone else.  We'll get back to the happenings on the farm with tomorrow's post but for today I thought I would share some photos from our adventures away.

Liam was ready for a grand adventure.
Whether Mama and Papa were ready is another story entirely.

Our trip had a bit of a rocky start.  This is best illustrated in an excerpt from an email we sent to our families upon arrival in Norway:

"They misplaced Liam's airplane dinner but we brought lots of food so it was okay.    He slept for about an hour on the plane so we were thankful for that.

Things began to go downhill after that. There was a miscommunication between the Air Canada and Scandinavian Airlines ticketing systems that resulted in Liam not being issued a boarding pass for the second and third legs of our journey. We had to stand in line at the service counter in Frankfurt for over an hour while the airlines sorted it out.

We celebrated getting everything sorted with a Bavarian soft pretzel. We gave a piece to Liam who partially choked on it and subsequently vomited (copiously) all over himself and his stroller.  After clean up (disgusting) we gave him a sippy cup of water to rinse his mouth which he proceeded to sip and then spat (repeatedly) all down the front of his clean, dry sleeper.

He slept soundly all the way to Copenhagen where we exited the plane to a mysterious smell (never good). Liam had explosive pooped which had leaked all in his third sleeper of the day. About a hundred wipes later we arrived at the check in counter only to realize that the carry on bag that they checked at the gate at the last minute in Frankfurt because there was no room in the overhead bins for it contained our boarding passes for the Copenhagen to Bergen leg.  It was a huge fiasco to get new boarding passes because apparently even our old boarding passes (in our checked suitcase) were incorrect and didn't indicate that we had an infant traveling with us. Even though Liam was given a boarding pass; apparently the confirmation number on the pass was invalid.

It took forever (at least 40 iterations of The Bear Went Over the Mountain and lots of wailing and sad baby tears) for the airlines to sort everything out. We were the last people to board the plane and had to sit separately.

We arrived to pouring rain in Bergen and the revelation that my suitcase had been lost in transit..."

However things improved after a good night sleep and some very, very, very expensive Norwegian food.

Liam got lots of practice eating in a restaurant like a civilized human.
Here he is carefully assessing his meal options.

Liam: "I love Norwegian cuisine!"  His favourite item was peppered mackerel.  Seriously.

Liam practicing his snuffleupagus snort at breakfast.

Not a picky eater. Yum - shrimp!

We saw lots of cool stuff...

Mama and Liam in Bergen city center.

Mama and Liam at the top of Mount Ulriken.

Papa and Liam at the top of Mount Ulriken.

Liam savouring the amazing view
(aka trying to climb over the guard rail and down the mountain).

Papa and Liam saw even more cool stuff while Mama was working.

Liam at the top of the Fløyen Mountain.

Liam "hiking" with Papa on the mountain top.

Liam on the ferry heading out to the fjords.

Papa, Liam and the Norwegian fjords.

A Liam and Papa selfie.

Too much fjord excitement.

Liam getting his exercise up the hotel staircase.

Mama and Liam at a castle in Copenhagen.

Papa and Liam in Copenhagen.

Mama and the biggest cotton candy EVER at Tivoli amusement park in Copenhagen.
This is just before it started to pour sheets and sheets of rain.  Wet cotton candy is not good.

On the whole an excellent trip but I'm still glad to be home!

Plum Pie

"Little Jack Horner
Sat in the corner,
Eating a Christmas pie;
He put in his thumb,
And pulled out a plum,
And said 'What a good boy am I!"

Liam anticipating his plum pie?

Well, there is no pie yet, actually there are not even any plums...but now we have plum trees!  Two of them to be exact.  In the hopes of one day having enough plums to make a Christmas pie for Liam.  The odds are good that it will not be by Christmas 2014 but maybe by 2020?  Here's to hoping!

Our new plum trees

Canada Goose Jerky

Dehydrating goose breasts into jerky is one of the smelliest things we do here on Gael Glen Farm.  Luckily for me, I was off globe trotting this year when Ian decided to undertake this task.  Perhaps it was because I was out of town that he did it.  He even made the jerky in the house, which would never normally be permitted.

I am glad to report that the stench had dissipated by the time I returned home.  Phew!

Chickens Love Snacks

The chickens and ducks love it when Grandma comes to visit.  She almost always brings kitchen scraps for them.  It is said that the way to a man's heart is through his stomach - well, I think this might be true for poultry too.  They go wild for their snacks from Grandma!

Chickens: "We love Grandma!"

Ducks: "We love Grandma too!"

A Perfect Little Nest

Our ducks lay eggs.  They are bigger than chicken eggs, the shells are very hard and the eggs are bluish white.

Our ducks cannot fly or jump into the nesting boxes like the hens do, so they lay their eggs on the floor of the coop.  They make a cute little nest each morning and take turns laying their eggs.  We have five ducks and average three eggs per day.

The location of the nest changes every few weeks.  Right now it is near the coop door.  I like this location.  Their last nest spot was under the roosts which was not so convenient since this was directly under where the hens poop at night and to collect the duck eggs I had to crouch under the chickens' bums - a risky venture at the best of times.

An Expensive Mouse Snack

I have always stored my bee suit and gloves in the garage in between hive visits.  Apparently that is a mistake.  My gloves must have had some residual sugar syrup on the finger tips and a ravenous mouse must live in our garage.  Now my gloves are no longer bee proof and since I am not ready to try glove-less bee keeping, I am in the market for new gloves.