With the warmer weather here in force, I decided it was time to move my chooks out of their winter coop and into the summer one, today. The chooks were turned out into the yard for free range early this morning and I got to work after breakfast.

Until today, the chooks were housed in the coop at the top end of the sheds, where you see the wheelbarrow in this shot. I took 5 barrowloads of litter and old, composted manure out of this coop. There was no terrible smell, either. I just love the deep litter system. Everything falls through the straw and hay onto the sandy floor, leaving the coops smelling fresh and barny while the poop decomposes underneath.  It wasn't too hard to clean out, either as the bedding was dry and quite light to handle. It all went onto the compost heap up the back.

The winter coop after all the litter was raked and shovelled out. Tomorrow or the next day, I will wash the perches down and then spray the wooden areas with a permethrin solution to kill off any lice and mites that might be still hiding in there and then the coop and roost will be rested over Summer while the chooks move into their cooler runs for the duration.

The summer coop is a lot more open and has wire sides to allow better airflow so that the chooks won't suffer so much from the heat of our summer. There's even wire next to the nesting box, so anyone who is laying can get a cool breeze while she does her hard work. The greenery you see in the top right of the photo is sprouted wild bird mix which we have been growing to make the transition to the new run less painful for the girls. It is in a run that has a wire roof and will be lovely for them to get some sunshine and fresh air, while still being able to find shade in the other half of the coop which has an enclosed iron roof. I think they should be pretty happy in there!

Three of my chooks, Rosie (ISA) Boss (Australorp) and Wynona (GLW) decided that there simply is not enough excitement in my life, this afternoon, and set out to bring more thrills, spills and chills into my day. I swear when I checked on them, they were happily browsing among the undergrowth in our yard, at the back, underneath the mango tree...

I was inside, pottering about doing this and that, not thinking of the chooks again until the sun started to get a bit low in the sky and I remembered I had planned to dig a pot of sprouted grain into the floor in Bertha's (our broody hen) pen. It was when we headed up to the chook sheds with the pot of sprouts that I began to suspect all was not right, but I shook it off and kept on with getting the sprouts bedded in for Bertha, and then refreshed her water bucket. Then I decided that since the sun was going down, I should get the others in for the night...except...

They were GONE!

I searched the entire yard for them. No sign!

I looked up in the trees, I went into their coop, I called and called and called for them... nothing.

I kept looking over the back fence in the forlorn hope that somehow, they'd gotten over into the pineapple fields behind our property, but I couldn't see any evidence that they had. At one point, Sandra attempted to climb the fence into the pineapple paddock. Not a good idea, she fell and now has a nasty cut on her leg from the barbed wire, has ruined a pair of slacks, and has a sprained ankle for her efforts.

The longer we looked for them, the more my heart sank. I was beginning to think they had A. Been stolen, or B (perish the thought!) A fox had got them.

Finally, we resorted to going into neighbours yards asking if anyone had seen our wayward fowl. No one had, but everyone was very helpful, offering to call us if they saw anything. One neighbour went out in his car looking for them. Another walked up and down the street with his two kids, looking for them as well.

I met one lady who has 8 chooks of her own, and was very sympathetic, telling me she knows how attached we get to chooks...ah a kindred spirit!

I was getting tired, and Sandra was limping heavily on her injured foot so we decided it was time to get the car out and go looking.

We'd only driven about two doors from home (large semi rural blocks) when I spotted my three rogues on a neighbours front lawn!

We pulled the car up at the side of the road, and I climbed out while Sandra did a U turn and came back and parked the car.

Then we had to catch the silly hens! Fortunately Boss and Rosie curtsey for us and are easy to capture because of that, but Wynona is a bit more flighty and gave us a bit of a chase before she finally let me grab her.

All three were carried home in our arms, with Boss and Wynona being lectured all the way by one very relieved but also quite cross 'chookie mum' (me).

They are sooo grounded!

We have had a busy week in our garden again this week. Spring break for Sandra, means she has wanted to get a few things done, both indoors and outdoors while she has some time off from attending classes. She has tidied her study and now it puts mine to shame! *blush*

In the garden, Sandra dug a new garden bed, but sadly, the place where it is located has very poor soil, so that has been a bit of a wasted effort. I don't know if we will just let it grow over with grass again, or try and build up the soil. We used the chickens to help with the work of digging, by setting up a temporary tractor for them using garden stakes and some netting we bought cheap from the reject shop. We draped an old piece of shadecloth over it. The end result was makeshift, but was sufficient just to keep them pnned there for the day while they scratched over the ground.

Maybe the lack of digging and scratching by the hens should have alerted us that this soil was pretty lacklustre. Oh well, live and learn.

So, now we need to find an alternate location to plant some more veges and try to build up this area's soil as our ultimate aim is to have the vege garden close to the house so that it is easy to get fresh produce for the kitchen.

Sandra also created a compost bin from one of the plastic garbage cans we bought from Bunnings with the gift vouchers I received for my birthday in August. She cut the bottom out of the bin so we could then turn it upside down to use as a compost bin. and the lid now sits nicely on the 'top' (what used to be the bottom) of the inverted bin. There are some grass clippings in here already and next time the Bokashi is full, I will put the contents into this bin with some soil so that it can break down into compost.

The chair standing behind the compost bin is to protect newly planted choko vines which we have put in here to train them over the chicken coops for shade for the hens in summer.

Of course, this compost bin may end up being a smelly, slimy failure so we have a backup plan in case that happens.

This is your common, garden variety compost heap just grass clippings at the moment, but I will soon be adding deep litter from our chicken coops to this as I am about to clean out the roost and run and replace the litter with fresh litter for the warmer months. I use a deep litter system as it only requires cleaning about twice yearly. In between clean outs I just add new litter on the top whenever the pens start to get a bit smelly. The chickens keep it turned over with their scratching around in the run. They can be encouraged to scratch more by tossing some grain down on the floor once a week.

On Wednesday afternoon, a courier delivered a dozen fertile eggs which I had ordered for our broody hen, Bertha. I had been anxiously awaiting their arrival and keeping close to the house whilst Sandra worked on compost bins, heaps, and garden beds. We eagerly opened to package to find that, sadly, two of the eggs got broken in transit. They were quite crushed, but the other ten were in good condition. We placed them in the bathroom on the counter to rest for twenty-four hours before putting them under our hen.

I put the fertile eggs under her about 6:30 last night. She is such a patient hen and didn't fuss about me slipping 10 eggs under her. She just soflty clucked: "buk-book-buk buk-book-buk?" as though gently welcoming each new egg. She's such a good chookie, I really hope these eggs hatch for her.

to be broody, it seems! My light sussex hen, Bertha is all grim determination to have chicks even with being flogged off the nest three times by her coopmates who wanted to lay their eggs, today. She would just wait by the nest hopping from one foot to the other, making her little bok-buk-bok-buk noises until the hen laying was finished, then back in she would go.

I've been chatting online with some of my chicken breeding friends and they're encouraging me to try setting her with some eggs as Sussex are usually reliable brooders which, once they're settled don't break until the eggs hatch. One suggestion is to let her sit for a week or two on fake eggs and then go in at night and swap the 'eggs' out for day old chicks, which she should happily mother without too much fuss as she will think they are her own. This is tempting as I really would love to get some Australorp chicks to raise for next season and gradaully switch to breeding just Australorps and maybe having Wyandottes for color and variety in the coops.

 So tempted am I, indeed, that I have emailed a breeder of Australorps already about getting some fertile eggs. 

In the springtime, it seems a young hen's fancy turns lightly to raising chicks!

Much as I would adore some little hatchlings trotting around after their mumma hen, I am not set up as yet for raising chicks, or for brooding them myself should the hen go off the set. I wish I could let her have some chicks, but I simply don't know enough and it would probably be unfair to her, and the babies.

I have heard that it is possible for eggs to hatch if you put them down your shirt/bra, but I am not keen to find out if that's true! Besides which, I don't even have fertile eggs as I have no rooster. I guess, clucky as Bertha and I may be, it will be the sin bin for her tomorrow if she is still setting.

Yesterday, Sandra and I attended the Sunshine Coast Real Food Festival. This kind of thing is one of the reasons that I really love living on the Sunshine Coast! A lot of people in the region are very much into sustainability, self-sufficiency and alternative therapies, health and all of that sort of thing. Since living here, I have become increasingly aware of the environment and carbon footprints and such. I've been doing my best of late to reduce, reuse and recycle as well as to lead a more self-sufficient lifestyle, so this festival was right up my alley!

We went to three different presentations on nutrition and health, and gleaned a lot from them. Some of the stuff that people said was contradictory, but that was because one of them was into whole food, which also allows for cooked foods, while another was into raw foods, so it is necessary to sort out what works for us from those opposing views and go with that. There was so much to see and do, we spent hours just browsing around, looking at exhibits, flicking through books, chatting to exhibitors, watching demonstrations, and of course, sampling some of the fine food and produce on offer!

As always, I carried my trusty iPhone with it's camera with me, and snapped a few pics.

A litter of cute little piglets. They had just had some sunblock put on as they were getting a little bit sunburned.

A leghorn hen with her beautiful, fashionable hat. Just the thing for a sunny outing in the country!

This is an Australorp hen. My favourite breed! There is something about the eyes of these chickens that I find intriguing.
I call them 'Spanish eyes' Don't know why they strike me as particularly Spanish, though.

The delicious woodfired pizza we had for lunch!

It was a wonderful day, and we brought home lots of new ideas, and information about food, nutrition and health.

Well, I finally bit the bullet. After researching several colleges that offer Homeopathy courses, I have decided on one and asked them to send me an enrolment pack. I should receive it early next week, and then I have an appointment on Thursday to go over the enrolment papers with my enrolment advisor and get it all set in motion. I will be taking a couple of bridging classes before the commencement of semester 1 next February, just to bring me up to speed with the Chemistry, Math, Biology and statistics I will need for the degree.

I'm a little bit nervous, but also excited. I've decided that once I am enrolled for this course I am 100% committed. No dropouts! I will just have to find a tutor if the going gets tough! There are some BIG subjects in this degree, including human anatomy and physiology, biology, microbiology, chemistry and biochemistry, clinical medicine along with the homeopathic medicine, history of healing, counselling, prescriptive process, clinical examination etc. It will take me a long time to complete the degree, but at the end of it, I will have a Bachelor of Health Sciences (Homeopathy) and be qualified to either open my own practice, or work in a multi-disciplinary medical practice.

The degree program is government accredited, so it is not just some fly by night fancy degree that is not worth the paper it is printed on. I will also qualify for a student loan, which will defray the costs until such time as I am earning enough money to pay it back.

This college also offers an Advanced Diploma in Animal Homeopathy, which I may look at doing later on down the track as well.

So. Here I go. *nervous smile*

Image via justdumbproductions.com

The past few weeks, I have been conducting highly classified, secret business! I didn't say anything about it until now, because this was the first time I had tried this recipe and I didn't want to embarrass myself if I created a horrendous zombiefied lactobacilli based monster and unleashed horror upon the world.

Yes, I was trying to culture lactobacillus, amongst other organisms for my bokashi bucket. Being on a pension, I try to do everything as frugally as I can, and am slowly teaching myself never to buy what I can make for myself, so, following THIS RECIPE I decided to try and make my own EM (Effective Microorganism) innoculant for bokashi composting. I was a bit worried that all I would end up with, would be a sour, stinking mess, but nothing ventured, nothing gained.

A couple of weeks ago, when we were going to eat rice for dinner, I washed my rice and reserved the water, setting it in a large jar in a dark cupboard for 7 days.

It came out, looking something like this

Image via Hawaii Healing Tree.

So, first part, successful! Now I had to add 10 parts milk, to 1 part rice water. I measured out 100ml of the water, to which I added 1 litre of milk, and back into the cupboard it went for another week.

That part came out looking like this:

Not the most appealing looking stuff!

I admit, I expected this to smell revolting, even though the recipe said that it should just smell like yoghurt, and I was surprised when I took the lid off, to discover it did actually smell just like, well, yoghurt! So that was looking good! I then strained out the solids from the liquid and put the liquid into another bottle which I added half a teaspoon full of molasses to.

There was a little fluid left over after filling the new bottle, so I poured that onto some potted plants as it is meant to be good for the soil.

It looks a lot nicer in this, final state, and it should keep for about 6-12 months under refrigeration. It smelled sweet because of the molasses and if it ever smells sour, it will mean that it has gone rancid and should be discarded.

Oh, as for the milk curds?

The chooks got to enjoy those!

Poor Bertha, she still doesn't understand about food and fences!