Our chickens

We have four chickens that were hatched on February 26th 2011.

They are all different breeds: Buffy, a Buff Orpington,Trouble, an Easter Egger so named because she has been looking for trouble since the first time i saw her;, Phyllis, a White crested Black Polish, so named for her white crest that looks like Phyllis Diller, and Blacky a Black Cochin.

While having hens at times can be fun, although, nothing is fun about them making a huge racket about 7 am. I hope the neighbors don't complain but so far none has.

They started laying eggs at twenty weeks except for Blacky's, tho we suspect the egg we found this afternoon is hers, since she has started exploring the nestbox lately.

UPDATE:The egg we found was not Blacky's egg. As of 9/16, she has not layed one yet.

Making Ricotta Cheese

Well, I went shopping and believe it or not, they were out of ricotta cheese, so I decided to make my own as an ingredient in some lassagna I'm making tonight.

I heated up a gallon of milk to 185 degrees, careful to stir it occassionally so it didn't scorch, then I added 1/3 cup of apple cider vinegar, and about 1/4 t of salt, stirred for one minute, and let it sit for 2 hours before straining through cheese cloth.