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! 

Breaking Ground

We are so happy! Don't let the photo mislead you. These two clowns are giving me their version of Gary Wood's famous American Gothic painting. They think I should paint them. Don't you just love it? I love Papaw's shirt too.

This week has been a great week for getting so much accomplished around here. I was so grateful to Home Depot for their sale on Cyprus mulch. Yipee! I say that now, as my back and knee throb and ache. My flower beds around the house are weeded and almost finished. We have a bit of landscaping to do along the front of the house. Also, a bed used for a retaining wall out back needs to be cleared and something done to it, before I can truly declare that job is truly finished. We have several bushes that have to be moved. I am turning our front flower bed into a salad bed. I think it will be the perfect spot to do that. We have some very big bushes that really need to be taken away from the house so, it will be perfect time to give the salad bed a try.

I am overly joyed to report that we have our very first real garden spot tilled and the soil amended! Papaw, Doodles and Joe Joe worked on that project Tuesday and Wednesday and it is done. We will be dropping our first seeds in the ground this afternoon. Below are a few photos of the big event. And believe me, it was a very big deal for us to reach this milestone. Our grounds here are very hard and full of clay. It is almost impossible to get a shovel in the ground. We had tried with a small tiller, several times to till a little spot over the years but it was impossible. We saved and finally bought Papaw, that well needed tractor he had been dreaming of. Heck, who am I kidding? It was my dream too, to see him on that big tractor. I am already thinking about what I will like to can and preserve for fall and winter.

Meet the boss of this job, or so she thinks. This is Doodles and she loves gardening. Who am I kidding, this kid just loves dirt, no matter what she may be wearing. You'll see what I mean in the next few photos.

Yep, that's her out there in her new Sunday skirt that I just made her, giving careful thought to Papaw's chore at hand.

She starts helping him line up his tractor to move around some of the composting material. Since he was new at all of this, she really thought he could use the help. *grin*

 

She may think she is the boss of this project but she still don't mind jumping right in there and getting a bit dirty, IN THAT NEW SKIRT and flip-flops.

She did quickly realize, with a bit of suggestion, that she really needed to take that skirt off. Lucky for  us, she had a pair of shorts on underneath and just stepped right out of it in the middle of the garden.

 

Yep, that Papaw is wearing a John Deer hat on his Massey Ferguson tractor. He said he didn't want to get his good hat, (his Massey Ferguson hat) dirty. 

Papaw and Doodles work and play well together. He spent so much time teaching her about the tractor and even letting her help turn the composting material under. She thought it was the coolest thing ever. She really loves the new beginnings of our farming days.

 

Isn't this a thing of beauty?

Job well done, you two!

After all that work, they had to do a bit of cleaning. First of themselves.

Then they cleaned their tools and tractor.

 

I knew this would quickly go down hill if Papaw got his hands on that garden hose.

 

 And I was right. It was all out war or at least until...

she got her hands back on that hose.

 I do think she lost. That big guy can be scary when he points his finger at you.

Mean old Papaw!

Blessings 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!