Tag: chickens

Garden Update

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, gardening

The garden is looking about as well as expected for early November. I still have carrots in the ground that I haven’t had time to pull. I have snapped off some of the greens from them to feed to the chickens who LOVE them, but otherwise, that’s it. The carrot portion is still laying on the ground next to the bed from which it was pulled by me and then abandoned, left forgotten as I ran off to work/yoga/food shop/(fill in the blank). Shame on me.

What I figured out this year is that as much as I love having a garden, and as much as I love choosing what we’ll plant and where, and as much as I love going to Agway to load up on the seedlings in late May with my husband…it was just too much for me this year.

I had the proverbial “Eyes are bigger than my stomach” attack–I have so much garden and so little time…

So, my husband and I talked and for next year, I am going to really, really keep it small(er). I’ve decided to continue with (and expand) the asparagus and the potato beds. Lettuce. Spinach. Sugar Snap Peas. String Beans. Red bell peppers. Eggplant. Tomatoes: only Romas and a couple of cherry tomato varieties and one heirloom variety. Oh, and strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, cherries, and blueberries…

Wow. My stripped down list still looks very large, doesn’t it?

ADDENDUM: OH! And my sister-in-law Andrea just reminded me about Zucchini! And of course, Yellow Squash. Thank you! 🙂

Vacation week (continued, day 3)

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food

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Sunday (Day 3) started off great. Got up early but for a good reason: to meet friends for brunch. We were on the road by 8AM headed for Cape Elizabeth’s The Good Table. We are forging a tradition with our friends of semi-annual Sunday brunches at this lovely place. Our timing was perfect and for the first time, the place wasn’t already packed before we got there. Plenty of table choices; we chose the screened porch but the tweens were cold (sweaters in the car) so we moved inside, next to a sunny window with views of wildflowers.

Izzy was adventurous and tried the Blueberry Crepes, and I (a creature of habit, apparently, as well as a Lover of All Things Italian) ordered The Italian Villa. Appetizers were in order: one big-as-your-head cinnamon bun, which my daughter and I split (and we still had some left over to bring home!).

Dropped our friends off at home, then stopped off at Spiller’s Farm Store for a box of K-cups and a quart of their delicious peaches. Next, I buckled down to work on my Legal Nurse Consulting class, lesson 10 of 12. Sort of. (Actually, that is what I should be doing now instead of writing this…:) )

Talk amongst yourselves…be back in a little bit. 🙂

Finished the class and the quiz (but not the assignment, oh well) at 2:00pm and decided to get outside to see what was going on in the garden. Fast forward to 4:00PM: I have tomatoes (and the chickens got to eat their fair share while I was picking them…happy chickens!), string beans, eggplants, a few blackberries, blueberries…and found 3 strawberries! Yay!

I briefly debated watering before I came in but my daughter was asking for supper to be started (we ate the big brunch and skipped lunch) so I came in and we ate…and then the thunder rolled in. Glad that I didn’t waste time (and water!) watering.

A bird in the hand

by Karen, posted in chicks, good grief, no fear, raising chickens
The Big Chickens (including Pidge)

One of my roles is Farmer (well, Wife of Farmer, to be more accurate). As such, I have a morning (and evening) routine when the primary farmer is away.

  1. Get coffee. (Get coffee is always Rule Number One, no matter what). 🙂
  2. Feed the Teenager Chickens in the transitional coop; refill their water as needed.
  3. Feed the Big Chickens; they are now on a very efficient self watering system that my husband designed and set up (this totally rocks!).
  4. Gather up any eggs.
  5. Evening: repeat.

I do most chores that are part of chicken rearing without any problem, but have heretofore drawn the line with a couple of things: I don’t check the vents for egg bound chickens and I don’t remove the dead bodies from the general population. Those jobs belong to Farmer #1 (or my son does it by default when my husband is not available). In short, Man’s Work.

Well, last evening as I entered the coop with the feed scoop held aloft, the Big Chickens ran toward me in one giant chicken wave as always…except one. There was Pidge, laying on her side, legs out behind her, lifeless. Poor Pidge (short for Pigeon, so named because of her coloring and size) had not been herself for a week or so, but in the two days prior seemed to be recovering well and we thought she was going to make it. Just that morning she had flown up to meet me when I brought the morning feed out to them. I took a closer look at her.

Dead dead dead.

The cartoon-like caricature of death flashed into my mind, complete with “X”‘s where the eyes should be and I superimposed the image on Pidge. (The eyes really did look blank like that!).

As an RN, I automatically reviewed the procedure for the pronouncement of death and had a moment of black humor as I envisioned checking the apical pulse and blood pressure on the little hen. I reviewed my options: Husband and son both at work and neither would be home for hours. I couldn’t in good conscience leave the corpse in the coop with the general population for that long.

I was going to have to Man Up.

I recalled a female friend who raised chickens telling me that the worst part (of disposing of the dead chickens) for her was handling them. Her work-around method for avoiding this was to put on a pair of work gloves then get a shovel to pick up the dead bird and remove it from the coop.

I got my (husband’s) gloves. I got my shovel. I got up my nerve and I entered the coop. I focused my gaze just to the right of Pidge, picked her up with the shovel, and took her to her final resting place.

The lesson here? Don’t name your chickens.

Footnote: I just named a chicken last week: Coconut. I am ever hopeful I guess.

Coconut

Spring chicks update, week 5: Teens in transition

by Karen, posted in chicks, family, friends, raising chickens, tweens

The peeps have graduated!!!  They are “teenagers” now…each week in a chicken’s life roughly corresponding to 3 to 4 years in an adult’s life (in my non-expert opinion).

They are big enough to move to the transitional coop where they can see the big chickens and the big chickens can see them. This gives both populations a chance to get used to being together while allowing the teenagers to get a little bigger, enabling them to hold their own when they are assimilated into the larger population in the main coop.

We usually start this transitioning when the chicks get to be about 5-6 weeks old, but how big they’ve gotten, how strong they seem, how (awful) the weather is…all these things are considered when we are timing the move.

They are currently eating up a storm. Bright and active, they are still somewhat skittish as they adjust to their new digs. My son commented that he thought that his batch of chicks was friendlier overall than prior ones; they tolerated our picking them up without much fuss. This comes in handy when friends come to visit and want to hold a chick.

We have about 19 teenagers at the moment (well, 20 counting my son, who will not be one for much longer either, come to think of it), and as they get older we are learning that the breeds may turn out not to be what we ordered. Determining the sex of a chick is not an exact science, and some vendors are better at it than others. The White Leghorns  (might be White Rocks) and the Light Orpingtons (might be Buff Orpingtons) are in question at the moment, but as is true with most things, time will tell.

They should be off the heat lamp by next week. For now, they are adjusting well to their Brave New World.

🙂

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Peeps update: week 2

by Karen, posted in chicks, family, raising chickens

So, week two with the peeps and life is good. Losses have been  minimal (despite the frigid temperatures after the balmy ones and a malfunctioning heat lamp). In about 5 months, our egg production should be through the roof. We’re gathering about 30 (or more!) eggs per day now and the peeps are eating and drinking twice as much.

We got about a dozen chicks from Tractor Supply Company, half Comets and half Barred Rocks. A few days later we got about 2 dozen more from Longhorn. This second batch was a mix of White Leghorns, Gold and Silver Lace Wyandottes, Rhode Island Reds, and a couple of Buff Brahmas (with the feathered feet!). The majority of these breeds are brown egg layers. We’ll get the white and the blue/green egg layers in June~none were available in February.

In June we will also have a first. Our first Italian chickens! My husband’s nod to my love of All Things Italian: Anconas. I can’t wait! I wonder if Ancona eggs will make better frittatas? 🙂

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Expanding the flock~(revised)

by Karen, posted in chicks, family, local fun, raising chickens

…is proving to be no easy task this spring. My husband anxiously anticipated the arrival of the chick catalogues, nad contacted some new (to us) hatcheries for their catalogues, and planned to get some chicks from New Mexico in March and from Texas in June. At the end of February they wouldn’t accept the March order; they wanted to send them the next day, but we learned last year (the hard way) that February in Maine is too early to get the chicks. When he called back in March (two weeks later), there were no chicks to be had…until June. He made some more calls to other vendors and was given the same verdict.

Bummer.

This is the first time this has ever happened since we first started raising chicks in 2006. Next, my husband hit the road to see what the stores in our area were offering.

We were hopeful as we entered Tractor Supply Company in Sanford…but alas, the only “peeps” they had on Monday were the marshmallow kind, just to the right of the door as you enter the store, and the stuffed kind (the ones that actually “peep” when you press on their stomachs~too cute!). On the plus side, this gave me a nudge to get going with my Easter Basket planning. Note to self: go back to Tractor Supply alone (read: without husband who doesn’t get the whole “Easter Basket” concept) to shop for the baskets.

Longhorn? They’ll have them on Monday. Tractor Supply? Has some now, but not any that we want.

The idea of hatching our own is starting to look more appealing…

Anyway, the stage is set (warming lights on, tiny waterers at the ready) in our home-made brooder (which is a 4×4 wooden box). If and when the chicks arrive, we are ready!

Winter bounty

by Karen, posted in chicks, raising chickens

Lately we’ve been getting so many eggs because we’ve (well, full disclosure: it’s mostly been my husband) been working on the timing of new chicks. . . the September 1st chicks have now begun laying brown eggs. In the spring, we will refresh the white and green egg layers.

We used to only get new chicks in the spring; now we get new chicks in the fall as well.

Eggs, ready for bagging

The girls have been working overtime producing up to two dozen eggs per day, depending on variables, some known (like availability of water, food, and light, the presence of predators nearby),  and some we can only imagine (“She’s touching me! Make her stop touching me!”).

Some credit must be given to the boys, too.  We have a few roosters, one dominant, and a few lesser that know to stay out of his way. Right now, they have a good balance of boys to girls, so everyone is getting along. Harmony in the flock is most certainly conducive to good egg production.

Basically, chickens are happy campers. They eat, sleep, lay eggs, and peck the ground and each other. If they have thoughts, our consensus is that this it is one, shared, universal thought. Here it is:

“I’m a chicken! I’m a chicken! I’m a chicken!”

For all of the people who wonder why we bag the eggs: it’s for health reasons. It just seems more hygienic than reusing the egg cartons. Also, it keeps costs down.

:>)

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The Chicken Whisperer

by Karen, posted in family, raising chickens
Anthony with new chick

This morning, as I was rushing around the coop, trying to let the chickens out in their run, feed them, and give them a treat before I left for work, one of the smaller ones slipped past me and got out into the garage. I wasn’t too concerned at first, hoping that she would hear the feed rattling around in the plastic scoop and just come right back in.

She didn’t.

I finished feeding the others, then I approached her but she started a combination run-fly thing and headed to the area of the garage with nooks and crannies…into which she could fit but I could not.

Let the stress begin! The closer I got to her, the closer she got to wedging herself into a small space. If chickens had thumbs, she would have been using it to thumb her beak at me. I backed off.

Happy that I had my cell phone in my pocket, I called the house phone and asked my son to help.

He walked into the garage a few minutes later where I was still standing, rooted to the spot, afraid to take my eyes off the little offender in case she hid somewhere while I wasn’t looking. I explained the situation to him, and as I did, he just walked over to her, scooped her up, and was stroking her back while I just stood there with my mouth open.

He had done in one second what I had been trying to do for five minutes, but every time I “invaded her personal (chicken-al?) space”, she moved further away from me.

I’ve decided not to take it personally. I think she let him catch her because she bonded with him a couple of days after her birth. He was the one who picked her up out of the cardboard box upon her arrival from the post office, offered her a drink, and started her on her life’s path while I stood nearby, taking pictures of it all, as moms so often do.

She has now rejoined the flock. But I’m gonna be keeping my eye on her….

Eggstra special breakfast

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, raising chickens, tweens
A double yoked egg!

I decided to cook a big breakfast last Sunday morning, so my daughter and I headed to the kitchen to strategize.

Me: Pumpkin Pancakes?
Izzy: No.
Me: Waffles?
Iz: No.
Me: Bacon and eggs?
Iz: Yes! And sausage!
Well, no surprise there; that’s almost always her breakfast of choice (we do raise chickens, after all!).
I headed to the cupboard for a pan; she headed to the fridge for the eggs.
She brought two eggs over to me for inspection, one of which was a very large egg with a network of funky ridges on it surface.
Now, I had been watching that egg for a few days…often when a young hen first starts laying, she will produce eggs of interesting sizes, shapes, and … textures.
I made Izzy her “tween omelet”:  egg scrambled with the mushrooms cooked separately and served on the side.
Then I bit the bullet and cracked the unusual egg into the bowl…and it had two yolks! Now, this wasn’t our first chicken egg that contained two yolks, but it was the first one that I’d ever personally cracked that did.
I was absurdly pleased by this.
One great thing about this egg was how bright and beautiful the yolks were. What was also great was that it was big enough to make an entire omelet from just the one egg!
Note: I put my mushrooms (and spinach!) in the actual omelet, as opposed to the “tween” version with them on the side. 🙂

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Garden update: November

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, fitness, gardening, raising chickens, tweens
Pumpkins gone wild!

Remember the (multiple) posts I’ve written about how much chickens love pumpkins? Well my husband did a wild and crazy thing: he bartered with the local Walmart and struck a world-class deal to help rid them of all of their end of season pumpkins. (After all, as soon as Halloween is over they have to make room for those Christmas decorations! 🙂 )

He came home with is 4-Runner stuffed to the gills with pumpkins of every size, shape, color, and some even with painted features (one had a frog!). The chickens are now in pumpkin heaven, and as a side benefit, our yard is very extravagantly decorated for fall. 🙂

Since we were having a warm day in November, I decided that would be relatively painless to check out what was left of the garden. I was thinking I’d harvest the dregs of the carrots and beets and check on the lettuce.

Well, the lettuce is not growing very much yet; maybe we got it into the ground a couple of weeks later than we should have (totally my fault). Hopefully there will be some that is harvestable and edible before the snow comes. The carrots were a big surprise though. Since I wasn’t having much luck pulling them up by the green above-ground fronds, I gave up and started to harvest them like potatoes: I dug into the ground under them and pushed them up through the soil. I couldn’t believe how many of them were lurking under there, just minding their own business. Had I not gone in after them, regardless of the presence of waving fronds, I would have missed at least half of them.

Up for next weekend: carrot soup.

P.S. Chickens also love carrot tops and beet greens.

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