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Tweetie is our other red chicken- the alpha to Sweetie’s beta. She’s the biggest chicken out of the bunch, but despite her physical size, she’s at the bottom of the pecking order…and usually the hungriest… looking for Tweetie? Usually you’ll find her in the middle of the tomatoes- eating away… When Tweetie was a mere ball of fluff, she was always the one that would stay awake the longest- and would begin “tweeting” loudly, upon finding herself the only one awake. She’s always active, and definitely a go-getter – especially after tasty morsels! She loves to follow us around when she thinks we might have something delicious hidden up our sleeves- constantly asking us for a little bite- “bok-bok-bok! bok-bok- BOK! “ She’s also the strongest flier we have- and able to make quite a few leaps/jumps – between her powerful wings and strong legs and haunches, she’s managed to land on my back when I’m bent over, or on my shoulder when I’m standing straight. (Granted, I’m only 5′-2″, so its not as though she’s landing on the moon…) But you should the height she’ll go for a grape!
She’s also very fond of “helping” us refill her feeder- she’ll jump up on the bench next to me, and will “help” pour the chicken feed pellets- basically using her beak to kick them out of the measuring cup, in order to get to the bottom, where are the tasty little crumbles are hidden. It reminds me of when I used to eat sugary cereal – I’d always try to dig down to the bottom of the box- and either pour those tasty sugary bits into my milk to turn it pink, or, when no one was looking, tip them straight into my mouth…
Tweetie is also one of our best layers- consistently producing big, light-to-medium brown eggs, that are also sometimes speckled. She’s very fond of looking at what she’s laid- she’ll stand up in the nest box, and use her beak to tuck her egg underneath her, moving it this way and that. Once, she was trying to move it so far beneath her that she actually lost her balance, and ended up on her back! I panicked and quickly turned her right-side-up, but she was unfazed- still busy looking at her accomplishment!
ready to eat right now:
arugula
beets, bull’s blood
beets, chiggoia
beets, dutch baby balls
beets, early wonder
beets, yellow
broccoli – last bits
carrots, scarlet nantes
celery
escarole
fava beans
kale, tuscan
leeks
lettuce, frisee
lettuce, red oak
mizuna
onions, red
peas, english wonder
scallions
snow peas
snap peas
spinach
strawberries
swiss chard, rainbow
turnips
herbs: basil (italian sweet), bay (laurel), burnet, chives, garlic chives, cilantro, dill, english thyme, espazote, garlic chives, lemon thyme, marjoram, mint (spearamint), oregano (greek), parsley (italian flat-leaf), rosemary (barbeque), sage (purple), tarragon (french), lemongrass
growing, but not ready to be eaten yet:
asparagus
beans, lima
carrots, kuroda
cucumbers, armenian
cucumbers, english
cucumbers, pickling
eggplant, japanese (ichiban)
figs, genoa
figs, kudota
figs, mission
grapes, red flame
grapes, thompson seedless
horseradish
melon, charentais
melon, canteloupe
melon, eden green
melon, minnesota midget
onions, red
onions, cioppolini
peppers,chocolate bell
peppers, red bell
peppers, jalapeno
squash, butternut (winter)
squash, zucchini (summer)
tomatoes, black krim
tomatoes, red grape
tomatoes, red zebra
tomatoes, stupice (heirloom)
tomatoes, early girl
tomatoes, yellow pear (heirloom)
tomatoes, black krim
tomatoes, crimson carmello
tomatoes, costuolo
