Making Flock Block Substitute

As I said in my post over the weekend, I am doing everything I can think of to get ready for Winter.  One of my Winter concerns is having nutritious treats for the girls.  It seems like we have lots of tomatoes and cucumbers and grapes during the Summer to give the girls but Winter will be a different story.

A few weeks ago I made the Peeps Pumpkin Pie recipe from The Chicken Chick.  Those are tucked safely away in the freezer for using this Winter.  Today I decided to make some Flock Block Substitute also from a recipe from The Chicken Chick.

One recipe made 4 pie tins of flock block.  They are still baking in the oven and smell FANTASTIC!

You can find the recipe that I used from The Chicken Chick at her blog here.

I made just a few changes...

1. I decided to bake mine in pie tins rather than 8 x 8 pans just because I had plenty of pie tins to bake 4 at once. 

2. I used 1 cup of Calf Manna rather than Omega Egg since that is what I have on hand.

3. I used 2 cups of water rather than 3 cups.  The humidity will affect this greatly so my advice is to add water slowly until you get the consistency that Kathy describes in her recipe.

Hopefully these flock blocks will not only be a wonderful healthy treat but will also be a bit of a boredom buster this Winter.  It will be nice to have treat options on hand for the days when the weather isn't so nice.

Do you make treats for your chickens?  I would love to hear about them.

Warm Breakfast

I guess it is the Mom in me.  I just feel better when my family has a nice warm meal.  Especially when it is cold outside.  And my chickens are "like" family to me.  :)  So it makes sense that I would feel better when they have a warm meal on a cold morning.  

This morning didn't seem nearly as cold as yesterday.  But after reading a post from Penland's Peeps on Facebook about how they give their poultry a warm breakfast I thought I had to try it for our little flock.  They LOVED it!

I put a dish out in the run area with some of our chicken feed mix (I still haven't shared the recipe we are using.  I will do that soon) and then I added about the same amount of hot water.  Of course it cools down quickly by the time I get it to the run and pour it over the food.  So it is just warm by the time the chickens get it.  Note to self....mix half as much next time.  I think the girls will continue to work on it for awhile this morning, but I mixed entirely too much for the 7 girls we currently have.

Over and over again I saw them picking at each others beaks to help clean off the extra food.  Not in an aggressive manner, but very gently.  Chickens are so interesting.

Gwhen and Oprah Orpington help Hazel clean her beak a bit.  

Gwhen and Layla seem less than pleased that the Herb Planter has been moved out of the run.  Sorry girls, it just looked so picked over and scraggly.  I thought you were done with it.  :) 

I know lots of you give warm oatmeal to your chickens on cold mornings.  And I may add some oats to their next warm breakfast.  I would love to hear about the foods you give your chickens on cold mornings.

I could sit and watch for hours

There is something so entertaining about the chickens.  They have such personalities and they seem to always be doing something.  I really could sit and watch them for hours.  And shhhh....don't tell anyone...but I think my husband could sit and watch them for hours too.  He will never admit it.  :)  But we find ourselves out by the run just standing there and watching them.  I want a bench for the run so much!

On Sunday afternoon I decided to give the girls my herb planter.  We have had two nights with frost so it won't last much longer now that cold weather is getting here.  And to be honest my plan all along was to let them enjoy it.  They really seemed to enjoy getting in and around the planter.  They found lots of little treasures.

I love the look Oprah has.  (I think that is Oprah, at little hard to tell from that angle.)

There is something so beautiful and fluffy butts.  :)  And I love how Gwhen's tail feathers have formed.  So pretty.

 

Gilda (left) and Oprah (right) enjoyed watching the gulls flying around.  I could almost hear them wishing they could soar and fly like the gulls were.

After exploring the herb planter Oprah decided to do more exploring.  Not sure if she spotted a bug up in the run roof or not.  But something was sure interesting.

It is hard to even put into words how much I am enjoying these chickens.  I can't imagine how much more we will enjoy them when we start getting some eggs.  Oh!  And our 5 new girls should be arriving next week!  We are expecting 5 cuckoo marans pullets.  

Our first Fall!

I sometimes forget that our girls are only 20 or so weeks old.  There are things that they have never seen or experienced.  And that became so clear today when I took a piece of pumpkin out to them.

They looked at it like it was some alien life form.

 They stretched their necks out as far as possible in an effort to check it out.

 "Stop being such CHICKENS!!!" Ok, actually I want them to be more like chickens and start laying us some eggs.  :)

 And then they attacked!  It was a little like Chicken Week! (Our version of Shark Week) :)

 Just sharing this picture of Gilda to show how beautifully she has feathered out.  The girls have been on the new mix of feed for 5 days and I think I already see a difference in their feathers and their size.

 All at once the girls acted like they heard something and they scattered!  Poof!  It is a bit unsettling to be out with them and realize that they sense something that I can't see.  I still don't know what made them go into hiding, but I trust their instincts.

 And what do you do after a delicious snack?  Find your favorite napping spot of course!  The girls love being under the coop.

I walked back into the house after a fun visit with the girls and immediately panicked!  YIKES!!!!  I forgot that I had Banana Bread in the oven.  Thankfully the bread wasn't burned.