Two Yees and Tin the Egg Bound

 Willie and his eldest daughter Jennifer came to visit for the weekend. Even though we were supposed to have showers of snow and/or rain, it held off so the sightseeeing wasn't too bad. And, to our surprise, Chilmark Chocolates was open so everyone was delighted. The served the Swordfish Escabeche (see recipe below) on Saturday and roast beef/yorkshire pudding on Sunday. 

Jennifer is a grad student in astronomy at Ohio State. 

 While she was here I taught her how to knit a sock from the toe-up (she knew how to do top-down already) and how to drop spin. I don't think I've ever taught anyone who learns faster than she did. Incredible manual dexterity! She may be back to visit in May, we certainly hope so!

Then last night I went out to get eggs and shut the chicken coops and found a hen in distress. She was huddled on the floor of the coop, instead of up on a perch, and had her head tucked under her wing. That in a young hen is a sure sign of trouble. I brought her in and indeed she was in bad shape. An egg had gotten stuck sideways and she couldn't expel it.  This is called egg binding and is a common cause of death in laying hens. Even with lots of olive oil, the egg wouldn't budge so we carefully cracked it and emptied out the contents and then very carefully removed the shell. The danger is that broken shell will puncture something and make the whole situation much worse. She was prolapsed a bit but I tucked stuff back in and we hoped for the best. She (her name is Tin and she is a one year old Dark Brahma) was not eating or drinking so we squirted some water and olive oil down her. This morning she was still very lethargic and not much interested in eating. However by this afternoon she has perked up. We had roast beef sandwiches for lunch and she was very interested in beef scraps and mealworms and finch food and water. Tin is not out of the woods yet - droppings are almost non-existant which is bad but there isn't much else we can do but keep her inside and try to tempt her with easy to digest semi-soft food. I wish we had gotten photos of the egg binding, but there was just no time.