Decisions, Decisions...

I maybe should have titled this post “Farming 101”

We are certainly looking forward to a few dry days so we can make a few changes concerning the chickens. We have the upcoming and less desirable chores of owning poultry, scrubbing the hen house and raking/scraping the chicken yard and putting a few birds in the freezer. Right now, the chicken yards are a mucky mess with all the dampness we have had through the winter. This time of the year makes me think about the good old days, when we just bought our eggs and chicken from the store like most folks do. 

We have been thinking lately, we have too many chickens for the amount of eggs we are using. We have lots of eggs to share and we do but short of throwing them at folks on their way home, to get them to take them, I don't know what to do with all these eggs. We are constantly bugging family and friends to take eggs. I have learned too, most people just do not eat so many eggs. I do think that I will be checking down at our local Ronald McDonald house to see if it would be OK to take some there from time to time.

So, here are our numbers. We still have two Reds from our first clutch that Doodlebug and I started during her home school days. One of the gals, still gives us an egg almost daily. She is the smallest hen we have and gives the biggest eggs out of all the hens.  I am being truly honest in saying, she is my favorite gal. I've named her "Little Red." The other Red well, she has taken to eating her eggs. She is well nourished but she had one egg to break one day and that was the start of it. Now she breaks every egg she lays and it is time to put her in the freezer as a stewing hen.  Then we have eleven of the Lace Barred Rock hens and two Barred Rock roosters and one Phoenix rooster. You can see in the photo below, our Phoenix. He was a freebie/exotic when we ordered our last straight run.

Most of us learn as we go and we certainly have. We have decided, owning roosters are just not worth the trouble. When we ordered our second group back last summer, we ordered a straight run. We wound up with several roosters which many wound up in the freezer. A few have made awesome pots of soup and dumplings. We are down to three roosters. For what they eat, verses the cost of buying more baby chicks when needed, we have decided to take down our last three roosters. We have weighed the benefits for having them, thinking they would be wonderful protection if we free range our gals but that would raise another expense for us. If we were to free range, we will have to spend quiet a lot of money buying a fencing mesh to wrap around our garden to protect it from the hens.  So, now I guess you can see why I thought the title for this post should have been “Farming 101.” We all learn as we go and the big conclusion for us is, we can live without roosters. They eat more and take food from the gals. Maybe the hens will be able to plump up more. They may even lay even larger eggs when the roosters are no longer a factor in their daily ability to feed. The roosters are rough on the gals and several have the bare patches on their backs and we all know why.

So, I guess it is safe to say, we are just going to be hen owners from now on. We have weighed all the options for us and it just seem like the more practical thing to do. So, you won’t have to guess what will be for dinner this week at our house. I just hope we have a few days without rain, so we can get our chores done.

Many blessings to you all! 

It Doesn't Get Any Fresher...

Last night, Papaw took down two of our Barred Rock roosters. We wound up with six out of the clutch of chicks we got back at the beginning of last summer. We had already put two of them in the freezer a while back. So, we are down to two roosters now. We are pretty sure this should be about all we need for eleven hens. I guess we shall see.

We had been waiting to see which ones were more dominate and which ones we may wish to keep. We may regret this but we took out two of our feistiest roosters. They were being too aggressive we felt. They were pulling feathers from our hens and just had a general bad disposition. Papaw just wasn't going to put up with their abuse towards him either. He had been attacked a few times in going into the hen house and to feed. He said he understood their need to protect but they were just overzealous. He too wanted to see how one of those fellows would taste as a chicken noodle soup with dumplings. So, that is what we had for dinner last night.

After Papaw got off from work, he started the water boiling out there in the barn and got busy. He always takes care of our birds and I do not have to witness any of the the carnage. He gave me a call and told me to bring my soup pot and come to the barn. I walked in the door toting my big kettle. He put up hand and stopped me from coming too far into the barn. He didn't want me to see any of the mess. I held out my pot, turned my head and he placed this bird in my pot. It was kind of funny. I stewed up that big old boy and made this.

It truly was amazing and delicious. I have always heard folks say, nothing beats a fresh bird and they are right. I didn't have any frozen peas but I had soybean peas so, I used those instead. I had quiet a lot of it left over and I think I am going to freeze it in smaller package for using to make pot pies.

Happy Fall

Finally, I am updating my blog. I hope everyone has enjoyed this beautiful harvest season. We have had a beautiful fall here. The colors have been bright and varied. My heart goes out to all the folks along the coast that had their fall season cut short by hurricane Sandy. I do hope your lives and day to day routines are restored quickly.




           I can't believe I let most of the summer go by without posting a blog or two. I have to just be honest, I guess I was suffering from blogger's block. Even though, I was busy enough with the garden and canning and would have had content to share, I just had no desire what so ever to blog. I guess I just didn't have a desire to share my days. I think I am still suffering from a lack of words but felt I should at the very least, post something. Who knows, maybe my blogging spirit will return this winter.

Our new garden spot was a success this year. We did a lot of canning and putting produce in the freezer. I know we will be feeling blessed this winter. In the garden now, we still have kale, collards, turnip greens, spinach and sugar snap peas. All of those things like the cooler weather. We have really been enjoying our collard greens and the chickens have enjoyed them too.

Our chickens have really grown. From our clutch that we ordered in the late spring, we wound up with 11 roosters and 9 hens. We still have 2 red pullets from the past group but those gals are slowing down production. In the next couple of weeks, we will be pulling some of the roosters and putting them into the freezer. We are amazed at how much feed we are going through with the numbers we have right now. We are going to pick out two of the most aggressive males and keep them. We were in hopes we could free range them but we are not sure how Buddy will behave with them. I guess before we let go of any of the roosters, we will give them a shot. Buddy may just need to be taught a few manners and that many roosters surly can get him in line. We are also surprised at how much Barred Rocks want to hang out in the hen house even on a pretty day. As you can imagine, it sure makes it necessary to clean their house more often.

Doodlebug has been finding things to love about the cooler weather and the beautiful fall days. She has loved doing her laundry and using the clothesline. As you can tell from the photo, she is still very much so into bright colors. I am still having a hard time with how much she has grown. She is now 9 years old. Wow, do I feel old.

Well, my words are few but my heart is full. I wish you all the very best and maybe, just maybe, I'll be in a blogging mood again before long.

Blessings!

A Perfect Boiled Fresh Egg

I can't tell you how thrilled I am to solve this mystery of a perfect boiled egg from our fresh eggs. 

One of our biggest problems since we have had our chickens has been, to figure out how to get a perfect boiled egg. When Papaw would pick the eggs up every day out of the nests, he would take them into the barn, wash them and put them in cartons and put them in refrigerator. We thought putting then in them frig would preserve them and keep them fresh and it does. 

When holidays would roll around and we wanted to make deviled eggs, our eggs would never boil up and peel perfectly. When we would peel them, half of the white would go with the shell. We tried using aged eggs that sat for a few weeks in the refrigerator but that still didn’t help our fresh eggs when it came time to boil them up.

When getting the perfectly peeled boiled egg from the grocery store eggs was possible, it left me with questions. I thought age had to be the answer so, that is why we tried aging our eggs in the refrigerator. Aging them in the fridge never really seemed to be the answer either. We tried them at two weeks, at three weeks and then again at four weeks. They never, ever peeled very well. The fridge must help hold in the moisture. After spending weeks eggperimenting with our egg, it sure left me wondering, how old those supermarket eggs had to be to peel well when I boiled them up.

I always noticed when frying a fresh egg, the moisture content was very high in our fresh eggs. It is easy to see when you crack one of those beauties open on a hot skillet and see a watery substance running out past the whites, when they hit the heat. Letting the eggs sit on the counter, helps to reduce the moisture content. In reducing the moisture content, it allows the membranes to tighten when the egg is boiled. When it comes time to peel the egg, the tightened membrane sticks to the shell and releases the firm egg whites.

In doing reading and learning more about how to store eggs, I learned that refrigeration for fresh farm eggs isn’t really needed, unless you really need to store them for long periods. Back in the old days, eggs would be kept in a basket or bowl on the counter and used as needed. I decided to give keeping my eggs in a bowl on the counter a try.  I have been using eggs from the bowl on the counter as needed for the last few weeks and never have had an egg go bad yet. From what I have read, I will surly know if an egg I crack open is bad just based on the smell.

Tonight, Papaw came in from the gym and wanted some boiled eggs and tuna. I boiled up a few eggs that he brought up from the barn at the end of last week and I placed them in a bowl on the counter. Lo and behold, they boiled up perfectly and they were beautiful. 

I used a heavy bottom sauce pan to boil them up in. I put them in tap water and put them on the stove on medium heat and waited until they came to a rolling boil. I then pulled them off the heat and let them set for 7 minutes. I thought that may be too short of a time but, they turned out perfect and I do mean perfect.  So much for the old saying that, “Fresh eggs are for frying.” I know these eggs may have been a week old on my counter but the ones that come from the stores have to be many weeks old before they make it to market in the fridge to boil up and peel perfectly. 

Our success may seem small to most reading this post but for us, it is a big deal. You have no idea how many eggperiments we have done to achieve the perfect boiled egg here. In knowing what I know now, it sure makes me wonder about how old those store bought eggs really are, that will boil up and peel perfectly. Here’s to a bit of egg salad and deviled eggs come Easter!

Blessings to you all!

Field Trip Tuesday

Yesterday we attended “Down on the Farm” day at the local fair with our co-op group.  We started our day off, having Mini Mouse pancakes at our favorite local restaurant. We got up earlier than Papaw was really ready for but we didn't want to miss a thing. Papaw did get a few minutes to nap, before meeting up with the group at the fair.

Doodles was so excited and raring to go!

It was such a wonderful program. Thanks to the University of TN and all the volunteers who helped to put on that program. Our kids had a blast but I do believe, the adults had tons of fun too. Also, thanks to Amber the gal that arranged it all for our group from our co-op. We have the most amazing folks in our co-op that really goes out of their way to coordinate our outings.  

Below are a few photos from the wonderful folks who entertained and educated our group during the "Down on the Farm" day at the fair.

The fellow who opened the show with juggling.

The bug guy was so funny. The kids loved him.

He really cracked us up when he stepped out with the hat on.

The bee keepers group was of interest to Papaw and I too.

The gal doing the "Wow, that Cow" table gave us a lot to thank the cow for.

The kids got to milk a mock version of a cow.

 

The highlight for Doodles was being able to pet all the animals but the horses were at the top of her favorites list. She loved getting to pet the pony too and talk to a gal there with the horses that was a teen. She really thought that was cool.

The kids learned so much about all the grains that the farm and farmer provide. We learned that there are grains and items from the farm, in almost every thing in our homes. 

The kids got to handle soy, wheat berries and dried corn. Doodles was excited to see soy beans. She loves to munch on roasted soy beans and adds them to her salads.

After the program was presented to our group, we were free to go and check out all the other exhibits at the fair. I do think we spent the most time in the poultry house checking out all of the different breeds of chickens, geese, ducks and foul. I can’t tell you how much fun it was to see the different breeds and study their personalities. We certainly know too now, why we really don’t want a rooster. Man those guys were so loud in there yesterday calling back and forth to one another. It was so neat to hear them.  I am just glad we don't hear them here daily on a regular basis.

I know we were never this interested in chickens and birds before we raised our own. After seeing the category of the Red Pullets, we do think we may have been able to enter one of our gals and walked away with a prize winning ribbon. Not that the gals that were entered were not beauties but, we do believe a few of our gals could have brought home a ribbon or two. Even in a couple of the egg categories, I am certain that a dozen of our daily double eggs could have walked away in the largest egg category.  We measured and weighed one of our largest eggs today and it weighed 81 grams. It was 3 inches long and exactly 6 inches around. That surpasses the Jumbo category by the US Standard. I will take a couple of photos of our Extra Jumbo sized eggs and post them in a couple of days. 

Modern Sizes (USA) Size Mass per egg Jumbo Greater than 2.5 oz. or 71g Very Large or Extra Large (XL) Greater than 2.25 oz. or 64g

I have so many photos from the fair that rather than post them all here, I am going to just toss them over on my photo stream. Click here to see more photos from the fair.

There was an abundance of produce. I was surprised to see a variety of red okra. I never knew there was a red okra. I have never tried it but, would love to.  I must give kudos to some of the local growers for growing some beautiful produce. I just hope one day, we are able to grow such a wonderful variety of veggies in our own garden.  I must get to one of the seed saver community meetings before long. I would love to grow our garden from all local seed.

After the morning and afternoon at the fair, we came home for a bit of a rest and some coffee, before heading back out to Wonder Works in Pigeon Forge.


We were so beat after the morning spent at the fair, I know we were all questioning if we could find the energy to continue on. This was also the week Wonder Works was sponsoring their homeschooler week with free and discounted admission for homeschool families. So, for our schedule, Tuesday was really the only day we could go. Doodles has wanted to go there for such a long time. It was a very neat place to go and I do want to return there sometime, when we can spend more time really enjoying each activity.  I do think that Papaw and Uncle Joe Joe really enjoyed the place too. They seem to have lots of fun just playing together there too. Those boys really play together so well. While they were playing, Doodles and I were in the “Dance, Dance, Dance” booth. They were planning late 70’s and early 80’s rock music and we both found a few new moves. The boys found us in there and they had a few moves to share too. I think when Papaw picked Doodles up to spin her in the air for a big finish, they about finished off Uncle Joe Joe with Doodle’s feet. Papaw whipped her around so fast, Uncle Joe Joe barley missed getting hit. To see more photos from Wonder Works click here.

Field trip Tuesday was a lot of fun. My feelings about getting out and enjoying the fall with a few field trips here and there, is a thing we must do. We will be home all winter long, without so many opportunities for field trips. We are just going to go for it and enjoy the fall as much as possible.

Doodlebug still had a full day of school work today. She had a math test, which she scored a 96 on and also, a math lesson that she only missed one question. She had a spelling quiz that she did very well on too. This afternoon, when she went for her piano lesson, she was very tired. Even her piano teacher noted that she seemed a bit more tired this afternoon. I wonder why?  I am sure she will rest well tonight, I know I will.

Many heartfelt blessing to you all!

More Eggcitement

Breaking news from the hen house: We have just discovered that indeed we do have 2 chickens laying a double yoke egg on an almost daily basis. We noticed that we had an extra large egg daily. Then just today, Papaw said, two of the gals are laying the extremely large double eggs. We cracked a few of those open over the weekend and they always have double yokes. Yeah! Now when a recipe calls for two eggs, I'll just use one of our daily doubles.

 

A Hen House Moment

While in the hen house this weekend re-stuffing nesting boxes with straw, a hen laid an egg on the floor right beside my foot. As you can see in the video clip, the gal wasn't happy. I knew she was ready to lay and couldn't get comfy in the nesting boxes because there was very little straw in them. I went to get the box of straw to get busy re-stuffing but couldn't get it done quick enough. She just backed up in the corner on the floor and dropped her egg in the pine flakes. It was kind of neat. All of the gals seem to be doing well and we are now getting seven eggs a day. That still means, one or two are still not laying daily or they are rotating who gets a day off.

While at the produce stand over the weekend, talking to a couple of old farmers, one was wondering if we would want a breeding pair of quail. We have no idea what raising quail would be like but are going to look into it. If you have any input to the pros or cons of raising quail, please let me know. Comment here or send me an email. I sure would appreciate it.

Blessings to you all!

So much Eggcitement!

Doodlesbug couldn't wait to pop out to the hen house this morning to check for eggs. She was so eggcited so, I thought I would share just a couple of photos. So far, I guess we have one hen on a roll. She has laid 3 days in a row. Can't wait till the others get on board. I would love to start using some of the eggs and do a bit of baking.


As soon as robbing the 1 nest was over, I jumped on the tractor and cut the grass. Wow, the grass had really grown with all the rain we have had. I noticed that the little garden spot needs weeding and the flower beds as well. I think I will try and get some of that done first thing in the morning, if it doesn't rain. The rain has been good for folk's gardens around here for sure. I am amazed to see how tall some of the neighbor's corn crops are. I think we'll be seeing a bumper crop of corn in the area if the rains keep up as they have.


I am looking forward to making some fried green tomatoes too very soon. Yum!!!

Many blessings to you all!

What Luck?

I know we have been a bit crazy lately and all caught up with our chickens so, let me apologize and say, I am sorry if we have seemed a bit obsessed the last few days. I know the eggcitement will die down soon. {grin} I did want to share this with you though. Can you believe the very first egg our chicken laid was a double yoked egg? I am sure it is a maturity thing but I did research what the odds were of getting double yokes. The stats say, only one in every 1,000 eggs produced in this country is double-yolked.

So, you maybe asking yourself the same thing we did, what about egg number two? Believe it or not, it too was a double yoked egg. They were small yokes but we were impressed with her first attempts and giving us doubles. If I played the lottery, I would be buying a ticket tomorrow.


Now we are laughing it up and wondering how many doubles in a row could this gal lay? We'll let you know.

Doodles got back this evening and we had to fry them up and make egg sandwiches. They were delicious too. She had her's over easy and I scrambled mine up. Papaw said he would try a bite but let us gals have the first two eggs. Tomorrow's egg is all his. We are looking forward to the other gals getting busy here very soon too. Who knows, maybe tomorrow there will be more than one egg in the nesting boxes.










Doodles wants to raise goats and rabbits next. She really wants to turn this place into a "real farm" as she calls it. It has been a wonderful teaching opportunity raising the chicks with her and she felt a real sense of accomplishment while eating her egg sandwich.

Now I promise, no more mention of our chickens again for a while unless...they do something eggtraordinary.

Hope you all have a great week!
Many blessings!!!

Henstory

Yesterday was an eventful day. One of our chickens laid the first viable egg. On the 23^rd, Papaw came in after closing up the chickens for the night and he was thrilled. He found a leathery soft little egg under the roost in the chicken house. It was the first sign our gals were ready to start laying eggs. We were surprised because, they are a bit ahead of schedule. We didn’t expect to get our first egg until mid to late August. We have no idea which gal did all the hard work first. We sure wished we knew exactly which one was the first hen to lay but we have no way of knowing at this point.

I guess I should have been blogging a bit of our adventures of the beginnings days of raising our chicks. Honestly, when we brought our little gals home in March, we were so busy with homeschooling activities, I didn’t slow down much to post photos for the family to see or to blog about the chicks. I have decided to try to do a bit of henstory here in this blog entry. I have tons of photos to share and I do hope I don’t overwhelm you with them all. We have just enjoyed raising these chicks with our granddaughter and the feeling of satisfaction that we all feel by the evidence of a job well done with this first egg is a momentous occasion for our family.

We started our chicken house a couple of years ago. Papaw built it and Doodlebug helped some. After the house was built, we had a few vacations planned and knew that getting chicks that first year was not a good idea.

This past spring on March 10^th, we took Doodles to the Tractor Supply store to pick out our very first chicks. She was so excited. We had spent weeks of reading and planning through the winter and getting ready for this day.

We brought our little ones home and put them in Doodlebug’s bathroom with a warming lamp and she was so excited. We had no idea what we were in for. We had so much fun every day caring for them and watching them grow.

The chicks grew very fast. We were swapping brooder boxes weekly, to my surprise. I can’t say that I was glad when during that time, our water heater went out but we sure needed the box that it came in to make a brooder for the chicks for their last week or two in the house.

Doodlebug picked out her very favorite chick right away and named her Sassy. She would hold her chick and sing to her. It was quiet precious. We read so many books about what to expect week by week and how to care for our chicks. It was so sweet to watch Doodles develop such a nurturing attitude with her chicks over the few weeks they were in the house.

By the time mid March came, our gals were beginning to look more like miniature chickens and the weather was warming up a bit. On March 15^th, we had our very first day of mid 70 degree days. We took the girls out for their very first outing. They loved the sunshine, warmth and the feel of the grass. We sat close to them and we all sunned together. Doodlebug loved having her little gals out in the yard. It was a big mile stone for us. All of our gals had done very well and we didn’t have a single chick to die from the beginning. I will say though, next spring when we go to get a few more baby chicks, I will maybe think about getting them a couple of weeks later than what we did for these gals. I had no idea that they would grow so quickly and really need to go to their house outside long before the weather was warm enough to really move them. Two weeks would have made a huge difference in the care and comfort factor of raising chicks in one of our bathrooms in the house.

By mid April, we started taking our gals out to get acquainted with their new home. We did have to bring them back into the house to the old brooder box a night or two until we finally got the break in the weather and the nights were no longer getting below 60. They loved the space and quickly got use to being outside. I was so very happy to get them out of our house and into their own house.

Over the past few months, we have been saving all veggie and bread scraps for them. We have been feeding them kale and lots of greens. They love greens. Doodles and I have been growing flats of wheat grass for them too. It has taken me a bit to get use to saving all little veggie trimmings like the tops from strawberries, apple and pear cores. They love cabbage leaves, carrot peelings and many other scrap that I use to just toss or compost.

Yesterday morning I went out to let the gals out. I did a quick glance in the nesting boxes but they were all empty and I let the gals out into the yard for the day. I didn’t think much about the girls gathered around the door of the hen house looking in a bit later and I even noted to myself that one of the gals was making sounds like our neighbor’s hens when they were in production mode. I guess I was still thinking it was too soon. An hour or so later, Papaw went out to walk to dog and stopped in to check on the gals. He came back to the house beaming with smiles and carefully holding our very first egg. It is small and speckled but the shell is fairly firm and we will be cracking it open as soon as Doodlebug is here to see the egg and we cook it together. I never knew that such satisfaction could come with this first egg. Before long we will be getting 8 eggs a day if all goes well. We have been saving egg cartons now for weeks and getting ready. I will post photos as soon as all the gals get busy and Doodlebug goes to collect the eggs for the first time.

Here are a few little photos we snapped of the gals yesterday afternoon.


Papaw bring flowers to his gals.





OK, so I can't close without showing you our very first egg. Though it is small, we are so please. We are looking forward to many wonderful fresh eggs soon.



Hope you all are having a wonderful, blessed summer!