This is a photo of The Roo:
He’s the one with white feathers - the tall one. He is always surrounded by a bevy of hens now. One morning, I went into my cousin’s house and said, “The Roo must’ve really perfected the art of Rooster Love - his harem follows him wherever he goes.”
Jan said, “They’re not following him. He’s following them.”
She explained that following them around all day is part of his protective behavior. If a predator were to attack one of the hens, he’d fight them off. This explains why he’s always the first out of the coop in the morning, and often the last in at night.
Anyway, this shot is by the water pump for the milkers. This is often the first spot the hens check out when they’ve been liberated in the morning. They dig in the soil for grubs there.
Later in the day we find them out by this mound of dirt - they take turns being on the very top. The hen coming down from there was on top seconds before I snapped this photo.
Our preparations for kidding season continue. Now both Lulou and Maria are getting special grain in the morning. This is a photo of Lulou on the milking stand. Her left side sticking out is her rumen, her right side is her babies.
Oh, man - I know this is not technically farm stuff, but I really wanted to share this photo of Coco.
She adores her toys. She brings them into the living room every morning. She likes having her stuff around her. I did NOT arrange this photo! She did. She just wanted all her stuff right there where she can see it. She is a very busy dog. She has opinions about everything, and knows how many toys she has, and where they are.
Yesterday Jan bought her a toy garbage can that has three raccoons you can stuff inside. When the three raccoons are inside the garbage can, Coco is crazy to get them out. It’s as if her genes are calling to her. As if she’s squirming into a hole to pull out a rodent. The first time we gave her this toy (I did arrange this photo) it took her forever to get all three raccoons out, but she kept at it till she had all three of them. And she knew where all three raccoons were at all times. Now, when we stuff them back into the garbage can she can get them out pretty quickly. She still loves to do it.
We are now getting 15 eggs every day. In the new chicken coop, we have two fake eggs that we put in the nesting boxes so that the new hens would know where to lay their eggs.
Every day when I go out to collect eggs, the hens have thrown the fake eggs out of the nesting boxes, and replaced them with their own eggs. Every day I put the fake eggs back in when I collect the real eggs. They never throw the real eggs out. The fake eggs look so real, if they weren’t white I would probably collect them and clean them along with the real eggs. But the chickens can tell they’re fake. Which makes me wonder why they work in the first place. I guess I'll finally take those eggs out, clean them, and store them until the next time we build a new coop and need to teach new hens where to lay eggs. Our hens don't need the fake eggs any more.
We’re getting enough eggs that I thought I ought to look into farmers’ markets in our area - to see if I could maybe sell some. I thought, it might be nice - I could sell my soap, too.
I found one that I liked, in Albuquerque, and I read the rules and prices. I discovered that they don’t allow anyone to sell soap that contains palm oil.
I have been marginally aware of the palm oil controversy. Palm oil can be found in nearly half the products we find in our grocery stores. Cookies, crackers, all sorts of products. Because of its usefulness in food, and its potential as bio-fuel, farmers have been cutting down rain forests in order to grow palm oil on increasingly larger plots of land. This deforestation has devastated wild animal populations. The World Wildlife Fund estimates that over 100,000 orangutans have been killed due to irresponsible palm oil farming.
But, this is a farming practice we know about. I wasn’t convinced that any other oils were harvested any more responsibly. I resolved to investigate.
I learned that palm oil is an incredibly efficient oil - it makes ten times the amount of oil per acre as soybeans, grapeseeds, or sunflowers. My sister discovered the Round Table on Sustainable Palm Oil.
The RSPO was founded in 2004, and had some fairly dramatic missteps in the beginning. But, working together with the World Wildlife Foundation, they have improved dramatically. By 2017, their certification of palm oil had become very reliable.
So, I’ve located a supplier of RSPO certified palm oil! I am so excited! I am now sourcing palm oil exclusively from sustainably grown operations.
Check out my website:
https://www.serenasoaps.com/
One more photo before I end today’s post. This is sunrise over the Manzanos. We watch this every day, because the sunrise is what cues us to liberate the chickens from their coops for the day. I adore this view.
