One in the Nest

  This is one of our golden hens. I think she is half Barred Plymouth Rock and I know she is at least half Buff Orpington. Last year we got an incubator and hatched two batches at the beginning of the year. She was one of the ones in the second group.
 She is now very broody. Broody means she has stopped laying, is not eating or drinking as much, and is spending most of her time sitting in a nest.

  Her name is Mohawk. I called her that because she hatched with a black stripe running down the middle of her head and down her neck. (I'm not good at names, but that doesn't stop me from trying.) She still has little dots of black on her neck feathers and the tip of her tail, but the mohawk is gone. She has really grown into the name. She wing danced the rooster when we brought him in. (Wing dancing is where a chicken sidles around something with one wing down, hitting that wing with their toe nails, making a scraping sound. It's a dominance thing. Usually it's a rooster doing it to his hens.) If you hear a loud scream from South-East Texas that's me. I got too close. And now I'm blind.

    She gave us a scare yesterday when she left the nest for about an hour. Over the years we've had hens change their minds about motherhood part of the way though. Sometimes another will take over and bring the eggs to term, sometimes not. There had been a hen that had been taking over for her, but she seems to have changed her mind about the whole thing. So if Mohawk hadn't gotten back on when she did I would have had to set the incubator up.

   When she is off the nest she is usually fluffed up and clucking to imaginary chicks. I have never seen a chicken behave like this. She might have fallen on her head, but I wouldn't say that where she could hear me. She is very irritable now. Sometimes she will attack the other chickens and the rooster. Maybe they said 'What are you talking about? I don't see any chicks.' or maybe they just looked at her the wrong way. I don't really know.

  She has eight eggs under her. It'll be so great if they hatch. I will keep you updated.

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Blue Aquarius mermaid choker necklace

I got the idea for this when I made a tank top out of Sensations Rainbow Boucle yarn (which I really love) and realized it looked a bit like waves.
 Boucle is a type of yarn made by wrapping one of the strands looser than the others thus creating loops.  It can be a little difficult to work with at first, the loops have a tendency to catch on the needles and you have to work somewhat loosely at the beginning because the loops will pull out near where you cut it, thereby losing the boucle part of the yarn. But once you get used to it it's fine.

Variegated yarn is yarn that has been dyed with more than one color giving you the look of color working without the effort. And with a lot more randomness.
   Something I learned making this; if you knit a choker length wise and then sew a metal pendent on it, it will stretch out, horribly. So I make my knitted chokers from the bottom up.
 
   It is 14" long and 1 1/16" wide , not stretched, with an almost 1" silver plated mermaid pendant. The clasps is a hook and eye. Yarn is 88% acrylic and 12% nylon.
Can be made longer or shorter. Available in light blue, first two pictured, dark blue, not shown, and a mix, last picture. (Mix may not look exactly as pictured, because it is made by using variegated yarn.)
  I think it is perfect for that special someone born between Jan. 20 and Feb.18. I also thing it would be a great something blue, especially for an Aquarius or someone with a beach theme wedding.
 Use coupon code MOTHERSDAY for 5% off your purchase. Does not include shipping. Expires 5/12/13
Buy one at: https://www.etsy.com/listing/115749396/blue-aquarius-mermaid-choker-necklace

   Thank you for reading Bats Bizarre's official blog. Have a Bat-tastic day!

Foxglove, an update

   I ended up having to stake my fox glove. We had a horrible storm a few weeks ago, some places got hail, I'm not sure if we did or not but those rain drops sure sounded loud. I didn't even think to pull the Foxglove under the eves. The poor thing didn't stand a chance. The next day it was bent double with the top of the flower stalk trying valiantly to grow upwards. I moved it to a bigger pot (which was good because the thing was root bond) and as I was doing that I noticed a little Foxglove growing on the side of it that is growing another flower stalk. I didn't have the nerve to try to separate them.

  I also didn't have a long enough stick and now it's growing in a weird corkscrew shape. I wonder if the local Humming Birds can get any nectar out of it like this?


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Blue Eggs

   It's funny, I never realized how much I missed getting blue eggs until the new Ameraucana girls started laying. They are surprisingly good layers so far. We have two and have been getting two light blue eggs almost every day.  We used to have some 'Araucana' hens (that's what they were called at the feed store, but after the research I've been doing I'm beginning to think they were Easter Eggers) who laid large olive green eggs, one white hen that came with the house that laid blue, and some mixes from those girls that laid blue or green eggs. Green or blue eggs have the same nutritional value and amount of cholesterol as brown or white eggs. The only difference is the color of the shell.

   I would like to get more Easter Egger hens that lay olive green eggs. I miss them. But for now I will be content with the blue eggs. They look nice in the carton nestled in the with the different shades of brown eggs.       
 
  We have thirteen hens, at the time I am writing this: four yellow Buff orpingtons and Buff -Barred Plymouth Rock mixes (not sure which are which), three black with yellow necked buff-and-what-I-think-were-Black-Sex-link chicken mixes, two Black Australope hens, two Barred Plymouth Rocks, and the two earlier mentioned Ameraucana hens. Oh, and a Ameraucana Rooster, my uncle's daughter gave us after a hawk killed our old one. (she had an extra rooster)  
 All of our hens are under two years old and right now I'm picking close to a dozen eggs a day. (about nine or ten, sometimes eleven, a day) and thinking we need to start looking for more people to buy our yard eggs. Right now we only have my Aunt and a woman she knows. Mom's talking about making and wearing a shirt that reads: 'Ask me about yard eggs'. That should prove interesting. She'll do it, too you know.

                           Thank you for reading Bats Bizarre's official blog.  Have a bat-tastic day!