Search This Blog

Friday, June 10, 2011

Rhubarb curd....and birds!

This week has gone to the birds. Literally!  
We have had several starling babies fall out of the eaves of our house, as they do every year. Only this year the children are older and they are noticing it more.
I tried giving them little drops of water, for it was super hot. But they died...guess Mama was too busy to come to their rescue. 
Or maybe she was stuck in our chimney....
Last week I went out to weed a patch of one of my flower gardens. To my surprise I found a sweet little black hen under a barberry bush sitting on eggs! Since she was on the outside of the fence and the rooster was on the inside, I deemed them "bad eggs" and scooped her up and put her back in the fence. She apparently found her way back out, and while Princess #1 was playing in the bunny coop she heard the sweetest sound. Babies being born!!

 We all came out to see the commotion and got to watch several new baby chicks be welcomed into this world. We scooped up the Mama, babies and the rest of the eggs, and put them in the brooding box of our small coop. We had 8 babies hatch out so far, but only 3 survived. I am not sure what happened to them. One of them died in the middle of hatching, and when I saw that another one was having trouble, I gently pulled the remaining shell off of it with little tweezers. It died too. I was worried that the girls would be bummed, but instead we were able to use it as another life lesson, and trust that God had a plan for these babies. Princess #1 said "It's okay Mom, 3 babies are better than none." Princess #2 and 3 agreed and both thought that maybe God knew this new little hen mama couldn't handle that many. Princess #3 added "Maybe He knew she wouldn't be as great as being a mommy as our mommy is." Well that just made my day!! I just love my girls! Thinking God's plan for these babies might have been a way to encourage me through my children. ;-)
Not sure that we actually needed more chickens, for our fridge is plum full of eggs right now, but boy they are super cute. I have been looking for creative ways to use up our eggs, so when a blogger friend posted a new recipe I was stoked to be able to try it. We have rhubarb and eggs galore, and this recipe called for both! Rhubarb Curd.
 
(This is actually a picture from http://matronofhusbandry.wordpress.com/ I didn't have a chance to take one of ours. We ate it too fast! )

No comments:

Post a Comment