broody chooks are driving me crazy!

i have seven chooks. five of them are layers.
four of my layers are currently broody! ARRRGH!
one- my buff sussex a.k.a 'harry the buddah' has been broody ever six weeks since mid july. it is driving me crazy!  does anyone else have this problem with their chooks?
harry, or 'the buddah' as she is affectionately known, spends three & a half weeks plonked in her nest, refusing to move followed by around two-ish weeks whereby she'll lay three eggs every four days, before transforming back into 'broody mode' once more.

presently i am scoring one egg every two days. good thing it is too hot to bake, otherwise...well, i shudder to think! :)

around the house today

chooks love watermelon!

what is going on with these chillies? they have morphed into little red berries

hooray! one strawberry is nearly ready!

Happy Friday! :)

no need for dipping sauce when you have a runny poached egg!

missing chicken...

having five chooks has its moments! it is never a dull, or quiet day in my household. (the poor neighbours!) i suspect i have also become a rather lame conversationalist as all my chatter revolves around my feathered pets! i've given up watching telly as the chickens are far more interesting and they lay eggs ( most of the time) which is always an added bonus!

as you can imagine, the discovery that one of the five had potentially 'flown the coop' (pardon the pun...har har har) struck fear through the house this afternoon. perhaps this was the catalyst for all my  misshapen baking?...

anyway, amidst hysterical cries of 'call the fire brigade', 'BUUCIRKKK!'  and '*sob* now i'm gonna have to get another replacement chookie', i attempted to conduct a relatively calm search through the backyard.

how she discovered the gap in the boards, behind all the ivy & random bushiness i will never know, but thank God there was nothing else UNDER the house that discovered her! bloody bantams! whose idea was it to get such little chooks anyway?!?!..probably mine as they are so darn cute! :)

the rest of the afternoon was spent trying to jam rogue planks of timber & big rocks into any other potential black holes and chowing down on wonky bread!

stuck on the couch

well here i am. on the couch, trying hard not to move too much.
there are so many things i should be doing- paperwork, attacking my massive pile of washing, cleaning... forcing myself to sit still is a bit of a novelty. i'm trying to blog while simultaneously teaching myself to crochet. it is kinda working. it helps that it is raining outside so i'm not tempted to run around doing random things in the garden.

my foot jammed inside the wine cooler thingie

massive washing pile!!!

at the beginning of the year i posted a bit of stuff about my chooks. they haven't had much attention in cyberspace of late. surprising really as they are possibly  my main, if not only topic of conversation since they moved in! :)

for those of you who haven't heard about my chookies or are desperate for more tales of their mishaps & adventures please read on...

googie eggs from eggsey (our first ever layer), bluey & then a double yoker from harry! wonder how it feels, as a hen, when your first ever egg is a whoppin' double yoker?

what to make with loads of eggs? how 'bout an egg & leek pie. there are TEN eggs in there!

harry the buddah is broody again!

while exploring in the garden, pulled back some weeds & discovered a stockpile of eggs just nestled together in the dirt against the fence.

baked a sponge with eggs that were hours old. guess there is such a thing as too fresh! :)

scrambled eggs- the first meal we ever cooked as proud owners of laying hens! :)

mmmm....my mayonnaise with scrambled eggs on sourdough!

tiny, you were ace!

pancakes- bright yellow & a non traditional shape!

nah mumma, not a fan of baked eggs! i just wanna eat the soldiers!

eggsey was our first ever layer. she popped out an egg on my birthday!

 total chook tally- as of today we now have 5 laying hens, but 3 of them are broody and 2 eight week old bantam chicks. as a result of the current era of broody-ness we are collecting only 2 eggs each day....but 2 eggs & 7 chooks are better than no eggs & no chookies! :)

so much can be achieved by 8.30am!

i am often amazed at how little i manage to achieve in a day! to paraphrase a quote  from a fellow 'mummy blogger'- before i had children i had a five year plan. once the babies arrived that became a five minute plan, but alas even that it is not always achievable!

today, while still clad in my pj's, i set out to document everything that was completed in my household before 8.30am. as i type, i am surrounded by leggo (the beginnings of a pirate ship), Kinder paperwork & the ever increasing pile of easer egg wrappers. there is literally no evidence left of my house being tidy before i went to bed last night! however, i am on a high as i reflect on this morning's accomplishments. even if nothing else is done today at least i know that part of my morning was productive!

fed the chookies

why do they drink from every source other than their drink container?

harry, when are you going to lay an egg?

so many turds, but still no eggs!

it is nearly time to whip up a batch of lemon butter!

no eggs in there!

eating porridge while talking like a pirate- ARR