Settling in

DumDum & DeeDee have settled into their new home wonderfully.

So much so, that DumDum has started crowing.  At first he sounded absolutely pathetic, but he has worked on it, and now spends much of his day chatting crowing backwards and forwards with our neighbour's rooster.

DumDum just after
a crowing session ;)
He gets so excited
that he stands on
tip-toes to crow lol

I wonder what they discuss...?

DumDum and DeeDee have taken
 to coming right up to the kitchen
door every afternoon - when they
think  it is suppertime...!  It
doesn't take them long to learn
my routine, does it?
Cheeky blighters!

And, even bigger, more exciting news - DeeDee has started laying eggs.

On Monday late afternoon, RMan went to get the alpacas their lucerne from the ½ water tank in which we store it - away from the field mice.

Can you spot what RMan saw...?

As he bent down to grab an armful, he spotted something in the far right corner - her first egg.

DeeDee cleared a spot to lay her very first egg.

How she got in there - and what made her go in there specifically, I have no idea.  Our neighbour, who gave us the chickens, said he didn't expect them to start laying for another couple of months.  Because of that, I hadn't prepared a nesting spot for her.  So, she found her own.

A recycled, "opened" quad bike tyre makes a perfect
high sided nesting box.

We went to town the next day and got a 2nd hand used quadbike tyre from a tyre shop - they are soft enough to open up the sides and it is more than fit for it's purpose - she immediately began laying an egg in it from the day we installed it inside the coop.

Various feeding possibilities have been tried, but invariably DumDum knocked them over.

Googling, there are plenty of ideas, but all involved purchasing something.  I wanted to use what we already had.

So, I came up with this idea...

The chickens feed (and water) gutter bowl

I took a small (30cms / 1') section of rain gutter, PVC welded the end caps on, and it has been fixed to the side of the water tank frame chicken coop.  The front has not been snapped into the gutter supports, so it is easy to remove and clean - when necessary.

I've done the same with their water gutter bowl - although the supports are more securely cable-tied to the frame.  I need to move the water bowl to the left hand side of the coop though, because DumDum literally gets beside himself with excitement when he sees me arriving in the morning to let them out and climbs right onto / inside it.

The feed gutter is working well - the sides are high enough that, when they eat,  the feed doesn't land on the floor thereby attracting field mice - not that they leave a scrap in it.  Their rations of sunflower seeds, mealies (corn) lentils, pearl barley and oat seed gets polished off in 15 minutes.  The rest of the time - well, they need to forage for their food - can't have any slackers here lol.

Talking about that, my herb tower has been struggling, so RMan and I tipped the contents out onto the driveway today.  I lost count of how many cutworm they found,and devoured...  No wonder the herb tower was struggling!  That will have to be refilled with fresh soil mixed with alpaca and chicken poo :D

So, now that the feathered family is happy and content, I had to decide what to do with the very first egg.

And decided on this recipe :)

4 ingredient sweetcorn bread

 4 Ingredient Mealie Bread (sweetcorn bread)

500gm self-raising flour
1 X 415gm (14gm)tin of creamed sweetcorn
1 X 385gm (13oz) tin condensed milk (less the 2 tablesspoons that RMan and I licked off a spoon - talk about childhood memories...!)
1 X egg - beaten

Soft, slightly sweet and definitely delicious
Mealie bread

Sift the flour.  Add the sweetcorn and beaten egg to the flour.  Mix well then add the tin of condensed milk.  Ensure that it is all well mixed then put into your loaf tin (I made it in the bread-making machine - set on "bake" only and cooked it for 1½ hours (but you can also make it in the oven pre-heated to 180°C / 360°F for 40 - 50 minutes.)  Prick the loaf with a skewer to ensure that it is cooked through at 40 minutes.  Then remove from the bread machine, and then the loaf tin and allow to cool before digging in - if you can wait that long...?

Quite.  Deliciously.  Yummy.

Toasted mealie bread with grated cheese for breakfast anyone?

And, toasted, and topped with some grated cheese left over from spag bol, and a cup of tea - it makes the perfect start to a busy day.

Be warned.  It is definitely more-ish... :)