So, despite my lack of posts in August, we actually were pretty busy. We froze some green beans, made relish, baked Challah bread to use up some eggs,grilled tons more of those scalloped summer squash, and brought in our biggest crop of carrots yet (we've never really been great at growing carrots). So why no word of these things? Ummmm...they're coming. I promise!
In the meantime, how about some more pictures of our lovely laying hens dust bathing? :-)
....and of course, Roscoe the rooster.
Posted in:
august,
baking,
chickens,
food,
garden,
homestead,
kitchen,
lazy
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Over the past 3 or so weeks we have lost two chickens (first time in almost a year since we first got them). In both cases, it happened between about 2pm and 6pm---there was a pile of feathers left, and a short trail of feathers back into the woods. For the first instance (two weeks earlier than the second) we were able to find a print.....and it looks an awful lot like a coyote print. Here's hoping it goes away or rears its head for us to shoot it....because now we're down to 4 laying hens. The chicks should start laying in august or september though. Only thing is, now it takes us 3 or more (laying has decreased very slightly) days to get a dozen eggs. Arg.
Posted in:
chickens,
coyote,
homestead,
predator
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Spring has sprung....
and Happy Easter!
We picked these chicks up from TSC yesterday. 6 pullets and 2 straight runs
(are hoping for one rooster so he'll keep the flock from ranging quite so far...)
Posted in:
chickens,
chicks,
early spring,
easter,
homestead
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I took this photo many, many days ago...before the entire region was pummeled with snow..details on that to follow....
Posted in:
chickens,
homestead,
photos
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...what exactly these chickens are doing???
I think maybe this one (above) was trying to fly back up to the chicken coop (note the marks that its wings made in the snow) but landed and realized, much to its chagrin, that its feet didn't reach the ground!
This one (above)...I have no idea. Perhaps it liked the view up there?
I was worried that they'd get too cold stuck in the snow like that so I picked them up and put 'em back in the coop (I'm a softie like that).
Posted in:
chickens,
homestead,
snow,
winter
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When we opened the chicken door on the coop on Saturday morning, this was the initial reaction.
"About time you let us out of here...WAAAA.... What's all of this cold white stuff all over everything?!?!"
Posted in:
chickens,
ducks,
first snow,
homestead,
snow
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Today we finally put a litter board on the chicken door. That'll keep the litter in the coop from coming out of the door when it's open (all day long), so we don't have to push it back in every night when we close the door. Yay. :-)
Posted in:
chicken coop,
chickens,
homestead
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The other day I was taking some photos of the chrysanthemums on our deck:
When I started getting that creepy-crawly feeling.
You know...like I was being watched:
I swear, this chicken thinks it's human:
I think it was starting to vogue!
Stop following me!
:-)
Posted in:
chickens,
flowers,
homestead,
photos
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Today we brought in our thirteenth egg from the chickens. What's really cool, is that this one is
bigger than the storebought eggs....and doesn't look like a double-yolker, either. It's just big. They've been getting gradually bigger and I think this one has finally topped out.
Left to right, the biggest egg that we had gotten before today, today's egg is in the middle, and that storebought comparison egg is on the far right.
Posted in:
chickens,
egg,
egg size,
homestead
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So here's the story (other then the awesome and obvious fact that we've got one coat of paint on the chicken coop...) when Ruby duck disappeared (and both Dorian and Napoleon began exhibiting curled tails) we thought we definitely had an issue. You see, after looking into it, we learned that optimal female to male ratio for ducks is 3 to one (or so the experts say) otherwise they could be more likely to fight. Since we thought we had2 males and onefemale...this was an issue. (Of course, since then, it looks like Dorian's curled tail may have just been a new feather coming in weird...it's um...kind of...gone. Napoleon there's no question about, however.) Beyond that, we'd like our garage back :-) and we're pretty worn out from building things so we thought we'd cheat....that little orange (for now....) building is a purchased dog house.
It needs modification, but that shouldn't be too hard. We need to put a locking door on it (note the plywood blocking the doorway right now...there was a chicken that apparently wandered in and spent the night in solitary confinement the day we got it...so the blockade is necessary) and a few vents. Also, I'm thinking a window for a vent like the chickens have---it might get too warm in there for them otherwise. It looks like it could hold maybe up to 6 ducks. (Popular knowledge recommends 3 square feet per duck...but since they range all day long and apparently all ducks ignore that measurement rule...this is probably ok... we just need to make sure they don't get too warm in the summer.)
Posted in:
chicken coop,
chickens,
duck house,
ducks,
homestead
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On Friday we got our seventh egg from the chickens (then, this afternoon we got an eighth).
Here are the first 7 eggs. (That's still that same store-bought egg in the lower left) So we decided to have fried eggs for breakfast...
(and yes, that very first egg was a double-yolk)
This is the first egg we found...a double-yolkThey're still on the small side since the hens just started laying, and we noticed a few things right away. The yolks are dark orange, nothing like the eggs from the grocery store. The yolks were on the small side, too, but very round and they seemed to sit up higher in the whites. The shells were all thicker than the standard grocery store fare, too.
Here they are in the pan. These are our first 3 eggs (4 yolks due to the double)
--there's some butter in that pan, too.
And here's breakfast...They were absolutely delicious...I've never tasted an egg so good before (not that I'm biased or anything) :-) They were really rich and almost yolky....hard to describe, but I thought they tasted healthier. And they should, since our chickens have free range of the yard (and munch on greens all day) and get scratch grains (mostly corn and oats) every morning.
Posted in:
chickens,
egg,
food,
homestead,
kitchen
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On Monday we found another egg in the nestboxes. It's from one of the Red Stars. That's a half dozen so far, and much earlier than I thought we would get that many....but I do wish the White Rocks would keep up! :-)
Our 6 eggs -- the other row has a store-bought egg for size comparison.Oh--and a gratuitous duck picture...aren't they getting big? Napoleon is getting a little curled feather on his tail...so he might be a male. No other tail curls so far...
Left to right, it's Dorian (wandering out of the picture), Napoleon, Ruby, and Neptune.
Posted in:
chickens,
ducks,
egg,
homestead
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Yesterday we made ice cream. Why? Well, why not? You see, we have this water filter owing to our well water. Part of it is a water softener and uses salt pellets (they're big when you put them in, the size of 2 peanuts next to each other). When the salt gets used up, and it's time to add more, it looks like rock salt.
Used up salt from water filter
Doesn't that just beg for an ice cream maker? What could be more perfect than a supply of rock salt in your basement?
We didn't want to go get cream or half and half or any of that, so we used a simple milk-sugar-vanilla recipe. That means it isn't as creamy as some recipes, or as the custard-based ones (although the third Red Star laid its first egg, so now we have 4 of our own eggs that we could have used for that...hmmm...)
First you mix your ingredients together in the canister of your ice cream maker.
Ingredients, mixed in canister.
The recipe claims to make 1 gallon, which is just how much our ice cream maker says it can hold. Then you just put your ice cream maker together, add salt and ice, and let 'er rip. (This is when we moved it outside, just in case it got messy...)
Ice cream maker, assembled and loaded up with ice and rock salt
Done churning, about the consistency of light whipped potatoes--and fluffy. Feel free to taste :-)
Once it's done churning, it'll need to harden up in the freezer for another hour or so, then--voila.
Easy 4-ingredient Vanilla Ice Cream
8 cups milk (we used whole milk)
2 cups white sugar
1 tbsp vanilla extract
Combine ingredients in the canister of your ice cream maker and stir. Then just follow the directions for your individual ice cream maker to freeze/churn, since they're all different. We assembled the canister into the center of our mixer, and added layers of ice and "rock" salt until it reached the top of the canister. Then we just turned it on to churn for the specified time in the manual (in this case 20-40 minutes). After that, we took the lid off to check on consistency. It had thickened nicely, so we just removed the canister and stuck it in the freezer to harden for another few hours. Yum.
Notes: Next time we'll add double the vanilla flavor--and while delicious, I'm sure it would have been creamier had we used some cream.
Posted in:
chickens,
egg,
food,
freezer,
ice cream,
kitchen
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Saturday morning when we were letting the chickens out of their coop for the morning, I noticed one acting strangely. One of them was sitting in a nest box (not unusual since some of them still insist on roosting there for the night) looking down at the bottom of the nestbox. I went inside to look--it was looking at an egg. Our first egg! Amazingly, for such a young chicken, it had an intact shell. Actually, the shell felt rather thick, and the egg was an even oval shape, not tapered at one end like the ones you get in the grocery store.
Our chickens' first egg (laid by one of the White Rocks)
I stuck it in the fridge, intending to crack it open to take a look at it later in the week.
Our egg is on the right, a grocery store egg (also brown) is on the left.
Then, later in the day, we found this in the garage.
Egg that we found on the floor of the garage.
It looks like it splattered, but actually the white part was soft like gelatin. It does look like this one definitely had a small yolk, though---I spotted a yellow bit of the liquid (I'm sure there's a name for that). So thats more of what we expected for a first egg :-)
Posted in:
chickens,
first egg,
homestead
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Lots of things have happened so far this weekend. Unfortunately, due to my satellite internet connection
FAP-ing me, (funny, but we weren't doing anything that's mentioned on their website as being a potential issue....listening to youtube when canning shouldn't be a crime...) I've been unable to share them. Not exactly thrilled with that. Here's an overview, though. Full posts to follow:
Friday, July 31 evening we canned our Dilly Beans. All but one quart sealed (even after reprocessing that one--I think maybe there was some dill or something left on the rim of that jar that kept it froom sealing)
Saturday, August 1 morning we were letting the chickens out of their coop, when I noticed that one was in a nest box (not unusual: there are still a few that insist on roosting/sleeping there) staring at something in the box. I went over to check it out and there was an egg---the first egg from our chickens.
Saturday, August 1 evening we finally went and bought a chest freezer. Good thing too, since the kitchen freezer was pretty packed. Interestingly, when we pulled the old fridge out of the mudroom (It came with the house and must have been about 10-15 years old. It wasn't even keeping the beer cold anymore) it dropped about 10 degrees in there. Must've been running awfully hot, is all I can say.
Anyways, full posts to follow as I get my pictures in order. (Satellite internet allowing.)
Posted in:
chickens,
dilly beans,
fap
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I think they like it....
Chickens on roost
After consulting with a
message board of experts, the jury is in. Looks like we have three
white rocks and three
red stars (or red sex-linked). Thanks guys!
Posted in:
chickens,
homestead
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First:
Clockwise left to right: Ruby, Napoleon, Neptune, Dorian [Grey] (he's complicated...)
Left to right: chicken 1, chicken 2, chicken 3, chicken 4, chicken 5, ((chicken 6 not pictured)Second: we got all of the walls on and began painting the inside of the chicken coop (for ease of cleaning).
We stopped painting because we'll need a roller for the insides of the walls and the floor. All that's left to do after that is the door, the chicken door, the roosts, and to put the nest box cover on. Oh, and we're going to try roll roofing...so there's that too. And, of course, painting the outside.
Posted in:
chicken coop,
chickens,
ducks,
homestead
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You can see the roof rafters and the reframed walls here.Nest boxes mounted, roof done. It needs some shingles or something (it's just plywood so far) but that can wait--it"ll be at least temporarily habitable with a tarp tied down. The chickens are getting really big so we want to get it habitable asap. We also added another layer of plywood to the floor (just in case...we never put a tarp over it so it was getting pretty weathered..)
Things are starting to bloom in the garden (tomatoes, peppers, beans....) All of the seeds are germinating (cucumbers, squash, okra).
Oh, and here are some updated duck and chicken pics:
This is the ducks' first time out in the yard.
The chickens are enjoying some time outside.
The ducks are taking a nap after their bath.
Posted in:
chickens,
ducks,
garden,
homestead
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Our nest box for the chicken coop is done--looks good.
(Update with pic from weekend of June 13th when we mounted it) The chickens are on the next step up of feed, now: grower/finisher. They're getting really big---and growing pretty tame.
The ducks like their baby pool! They're developing feathers with medium brown scallops on the edge--very pretty. Two of them are dark in color (one has a yellow/turning white ring on it's neck and the other has one leg that wobbles...think it's ok, though.) and two of them are light grey with yellow striped faces. All of them have those scallops, but the light ones have lighter brown tummies too..
Posted in:
chickens,
ducks,
homestead
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Ok, so let's back up a bit......actually we originally just wanted ducks. For eggs, you know? Apparently they're not all that hard to keep, and are fairly winter hardy (supposedly). But well, I 'spose the lure of chickens had won us over...(have you ever visited a feed store when they get their chicks and duckling in? I mean, do you have a heart of steel?) Anyway. So we actually had some free ducklings coming all along from a friend of S. And today we picked them up. 4 instead of 3 (bonus duck) :-)
Apparently they're mallard mixes, Possibly with
Runner Ducks, and approximately 3 weeks old (picked them up on the 30th). They drink a lot. But well, they're ducks. Go figure, right? And they really liked the little bath we gave them---apparently they need gradual exposure to water to build up their waterproofing. Of course, we had to make them a brooder too....we rigged one up with a kiddie pool and some plastic fencing--they're more skittish and taller than the chickens, so it kind of suits them to have an open ceiling. They're in the garage too, of course...
The chickens are getting big. We need to switch to the next step-up of feed next weekend for them. They were trying to take dust baths in the driveway...and, one was trying to "yodel". Hmmmm could a rooster be in our midst?
Posted in:
chickens,
ducks,
homestead
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