Watermelon

This is a photo of me with Ginger on my shoulder and I'm holding the hollow hull of a watermelon.  See my previous post (http://the-spice-girls.blogspot.com/2011/01/watermelon-is-yummo.html) for the full photo montage of the watermelon.

I remember being a little girl and my mother coming home from her weekly trip to the grocery store; the back of the station wagon filled with groceries.  She was determined to make us each pull our weight around the house so she went in and banged on the door to my brother's cave (aka - his room) and demanded that he come out immediately to help carry in the groceries.

Grumpy from being disturbed and forced to set foot out into the daylight, my brother grumbled from his room and out to the car to begin retrieving bags.  Determined to get this over as quickly as possible, he gathered up as many bags as he possibly could and stacked the watermelon on top.  Well, as you can imagine, he got about half way up the driveway before the watermelon rolled off the bags and obliterated itself all over the driveway.

The chickens and goose were on it immediately.  They chattered and pecked and pecked and chattered and it didn't take them too long before there was nothing left but a few bits of rind.  The red was gone.  The white was gone and every seed had been gobbled up.  Except for the sticky spot on the driveway and the irate scowl on my mother's face, there was no trace that watermelon ever existed.

So I thought I'd see if my girls liked watermelon as much as my pet chickens did back when I was younger.  And indeed, watermelon is good eats.  My husband and I ate most of the melon at breakfast.  But I did leave a bit more of the red on the rind than I would have normally.  I also filled the rind with some hard boiled egg so they girls would get some protein in addition to the sweet treat.  And as you can see from the photo above, there is little left but the outer most rind.

Watermelon is YUMMO!





 We enjoyed this watermelon for breakfast and decided to let the girls have what was left over.

I thought the girls should have some protein for breakfast so I filled the hulled out melon with a hard boiled egg.

And this is what was left six hours later when I went to say good night to the girls.  Yummo!

Update on Carrots

Carrots may look like fingers but they are not a hit at all.  When I went out this morning, all the carrots were lying on the ground pulled out of the treat bowl so they could more readily access the other treats there.

Carrots and Fingers do look similar to a Chicken

I found a few baby carrots in the back of the fridge last night and thought that the chickens would like those.  They are still kind of intimidated by things that are not chicken bite sized so I steamed them in a little water in the microwave for a minute to make them soft.

This morning I took them out to the girls who studied them intently and quietly discussed this new treat in the bowl.  Their conversation was pretty much the same as the one they had over the weekend when I emptied a bag full of crickets into their run.  Minus the part about them moving of course.  See "No More Baby Food" posting:
http://the-spice-girls.blogspot.com/2011/01/no-more-baby-food.html

Pumpkin actually took the first taste this time but quickly dropped the carrot and ran off.  I swear she's scared of her own shadow.  So I picked it up and held it out to the girls who continued to study it.  I feel like I should be giving them an English lesson when they stare like that.  "CARROT."  "THIS-IS-A-CARROT."  "IT'S FOOD."

Then Poppy took a big bite.  She's definitely figured out that she can use her beak as a weapon and will harpoon just about anything in front of her.  I had to break off a few smaller bites for Ginger and Coco.

I went to leave them with the rest of their carrots and head off to work when I noticed Poppy was following me.  Poppy really doesn't like to be picked up and doesn't follow me around so I was intrigued.  I stopped and bent down to look at her and she just stared back up at me.  So I put my hand out to try and tickle her tummy and she bit me.  She didn't peck me.  She bit my finger like she was trying to eat it.  And she looked really disappointed when it didn't come off in her beak.

I probably woke up the neighbors when I yelled OUCH!!!  Honestly, the birds hardly make any noise at all but their Flock Mistress (aka - me) could take on a rooster my constant laughing and the occasional AAAOOOWWWWW when I get pecked or Ginger gets her toes nails digging into my shoulder.

It's a Learning Experience

I got ahead of myself switching the girls feed over the weekend.  I thought the girls were suppose to go from baby chick food to layer rations and that grower/finisher feed was for meat birds.  But after a fellow backyard chicken friend mentioned hers were on grower/finisher feed, I did some research and indeed, this is what they need to be eating.

Layer rations is so high in calcium that they really shouldn't be on this feed until they are actually processing that calcium into egg shells.  And thankfully, the feed store was open on Monday so I buzzed down there and picked up a bag.  I felt like such a bad chicken mama letting them eat the layer rations for the day.  But one day shouldn't hurt them at all.

I've also been on the look out for some sort of seat to put in the girls run so I have something to sit on when I go out to feed and visit them.  But I've struggled because anything I put out there, they will poop all over making it, well, not something I'll want to sit on.  Out on a walk yesterday with my husband we saw this woman working in her garden and using a kneeler and my husband says to me, that's it!  That's what you need for the girls run.

It's both a bench and a kneeler.  I can leave it in the kneeler position (pictured above) out in their run and if they want to sit on it and poop on it, it's fine.  Because when I go out to visit, I'll flip it over to the bench position and this way, it will always be clean and ready for me.  YEA!