Primrose, rest in peace.

Another sad event has occurred at the farm.  Primrose is missing, Magnolia's sister in breed and our only remaining black polish hen.  Earlier this week, we came home at dusk and all the chickens were in the coop, with the exception of our beloved Prim. We looked and looked for her with no success. We were hoping to find her the next morning, huddled and cold near our mudroom door, but she was not there.  We don't know what has happened to her.  She was likely either hit by a car (we were often finding her in the road or heard vehicles honking at her to keep her in her yard) or taken by a predator.  Either way, I thought we would see some evidence of what happened to her but there is none. I'm sure she is in 'chicken heaven' but am hoping she just found her way into our neighbors field or farm.  Regardless, we miss seeing her and the boys miss giving her love.   What we have learned is the Black Polish hen looks fun and different but is not a hardy breed for a free range chicken farm.  

Our remaining "babies" (i.e., hens) are producing many lovely eggs for us.  Today, they laid eight eggs, a record high.  They vary in color and size.  We have one extremely large egg (likely a double yolk) and a few very small eggs (from our Bantam hens.)  The colors range from blue to green to brown to tan to an almost mauve/purple.  Some are speckled and some are not.  Just the other day, I went into the coop to check for eggs and a Buff Orpington was laying on a nest.  As the brave new farm wife I am, I reached right under her and pulled out five warm eggs.  She didn't seem pleased with me but, at the same time, didn't seem to bothered either.  For most of my life, I have associated eggs with being white and cold.  It's so refreshing to have a colorful group of warm eggs nestled in my protective hands.  We had not broken an egg until today.  Farmer J, forgetting he had fresh eggs in his jacket pocket, knelt down in the yard.  Seconds later, a bit of a mess.  One last note on the eggs but first some chicken anatomy.  The chicken pees, poops and lays her egg all out of the some hole.  So... when the eggs are found in the nest, they can be a tiny bit messy.  We wait to wash the eggs as the eggs can remain 'room temperature' until they have been cleaned.  As we are getting more and more eggs by the day, it's nice to not have dozens of eggs in our fridge.  When we do want to use an egg, we gently wash it in warm, soapy water.  The eggs clean easily and I love seeing the colors come alive under the warm running water.  When cracking the egg, they are more durable and the membrane is tougher than conventional eggs.  And of course, the yolks are much closer to orange than yellow!

On another food note, Farmer J is still harvesting food from the garden and we have started eating our frozen vegetables that he packaged and put away in the late summer.  Tonight, we had fresh broccoli (in a lovely Balsamic sauce), canned sweet corn and some of J's famous "Veggie Chili."  The garden is still producing beets, lettuce, broccoli, and carrots.  For a garden that looks way past it's glory days, I'm surprised with the fresh goodies J continues to bring into the house.  

The above pictures were actually from Early October but show off Farmer J's hard work in prolonging our growing season.  With the strong fall winds, the hoop house was difficult to keep up.  It is now down but we are still reaping the benefits of some extra warmth from earlier in the season.