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A little while ago our second chook started moulting.  She looked terrible, feathers falling out all over the place, bare skin revealed on her underside, skin showing through around her wings and not an egg laid for weeks.  It must have been cold for her moulting during a very cold May, she started very late this year.  We fed her plenty of raw veggie scraps and soaked chick peas.  My theory on the chick peas is that they are a great source of protein which she would need if she was to produce great new feathers to replace those she was losing.

Three weeks on the chick pea dietary supplement, with lots of fresh raw organic scraps, grain pellets, shell grit and lots of water and she was back to looking healthy and happy.  Slowly and surely she has started laying again – and it was worth the wait,  I weighed a week’s worth of eggs of hers today and the smallest one weighed in at 74 grams, with the largest weighing 82 grams!  Great work chooky!

Every time I sit down to a meal of scrambled eggs, or any other meal where the eggs are such an obvious inclusion, I am so grateful for the goodness that our girls produce on such a regular basis.  It also makes a meal more enjoyable knowing that the food miles are virtually zero.  Food miles?  More like food steps.  And it is nice to know that I can make these two chookies lives just a little bit happier, more natural, with a little bit of free ranging, provide somewhere safe to peck at worms and other bugs, use up my kitchen scraps in a constructive way, as well as give them a warm and comfy place to sleep.

And in return I get lovely little parcels of tasty protein to use as a meal, in a cake or muffins, to brown a pastry or to condition my hair.  What a lovely circle of sustainability that is!