chicken chores

It never seems to fail. I go for a week and can't think of a single thing to say, then all of the sudden the damn breaks and I'll post 3 or 4 posts in a single day.

I went out this morning to gather the eggs. While I was out there, I decided that the nests needed fresh hay, at least some of them did. So, I put fresh hay out, then I decided that the duck tubs (they're not big enough to be called ponds and the ducks refuse to swim in the kiddie pool) needed cleaned out. So, I did that, but while I was at the faucet I discovered that the horse trough needed filled. After my unfortunate water hose/ tractor incident, the auto waterer is temporarily out of order. So, after I filled the ducks up, I filled the horses' trough up.
While I was standing there waiting on the water, I thought of some frugal homesteading tips.....

1. Instead of buying ceramic eggs, Granny used to use Carmex jars. She turned the white part up instead of the yellow lid. The snakes seemed to prefer them because they were the ones that disappeared out of the nest first.
2. If you have ducks, but you or your customers don't like duck eggs, you can boil the the duck eggs, cut them up and feed the eggs, shells and all, back to your chickens and ducks. It increases their protein, but the cooking part doesn't promote egg breaking. I feed ours leftover scrambled eggs too.
3. Mom uses duck eggs for baking. She says it doesn't affect the flavor. I haven't tried them yet because I can't get past the smell of the egg. YUCK!
4. A little honey on the bit will get the most stubborn horse to take a bit easier.

That's all I can think of for the moment. I'm also thinking about reprinting some of the tips I've picked up out of some old Organic Gardening magazines that my Mom gave me. The first tip I'm going to try this year is to plant Cosmos flowers with my tomatoes and corn plants. Apparently the ear worm that attacks corn is the same as a tomato worm and neither like the Cosmos flower. I saw that tip a couple of times in that magazine, so I'm going to try it because I lost quite a few ears of corn last year to worms.

Pepper Seeds

I planted my pepper seeds today. I planted 36 bell peppers and 6 jalapeno peppers. Some of the tomato plants have their second sets of leaves coming in.

The hubby went and got hay today, also. He bought a round bale and 13 square bales, so I helped him put the square bales away in the barn, after he fixed a water pipe that froze a couple of days ago.

Here's a picture of our "chicken tree". Some of our chickens insist on roosting in a tree we have in our yard. It was a funny sight last winter when we had an ice storm and the branches were iced over. The chickens flew up there, but couldn't get any traction on the ice.

New Yard For the Chickens

I guess I should've kept my big mouth shut when I said there aren't many chores to do this time of year. ;o) Right after I said that, the hubby came along with a list.

1. fix the water trough---done


2. take down the old fence behind the house so we can brush hog this weekend--done


3. brush hog this weekend (including the path to the back)


4. start the new chicken fence--done


5. start the tomato seeds (Ok I added that one.)--done

So, he welded the water trough up. We took down the old fence, and I 'm going to put it around my small beds in the front to keep the dogs out of my lettuce seeds. We started the new chicken fence, well, it's partly finished. We used wire and posts that we already had. We were so close to having enough hardware cloth, but we didn't want to buy anything we didn't have to so we used what we had. We're going to put sturdier wire on the "patch" when we take another part of the old fence down. That's the barn in the background. I'd like to paint it, but paint is kinda frivolous, so it stays how it is for now. The open part of the barn in the chicken fence is actually the chicken house (Its the black hole the other side of that tree.) It's where I have their laying boxes which is actually a set of old gym lockers that my dad gave me.

We're going to top the whole thing so the chickens can't get out as much. They are something else on my tomatoes! ;o) If you were standing at the fence looking at the chickens, my garden would be behind you. We are moving the chickens to a whole new spot, so the old spot is going to be part of my garden. Can we say wonderful fertilizer? ;o) Part of this whole plan is to cultivate as much grass in the front as possible for the horses to mow. I had part of my garden up there last year, but it doesn't get as much sun and it cuts into the grazing.

Part of what I'm doing for Mother Earth is that I don't have a lawnmower, not even a push mower, or weed eater. We have 3 ecological friendly ones who take turn mowing and weeding. We don't have to buy gas for them, and their "emissions" fertilize the grass they're mowing.

I put the tomato seeds under the grow light last night. It doesn't look like much now, but I planted three varieties of tomatoes. I planted Ace (a large tomato), cherry tomatoes and Roma tomatoes. I've never tried them from seeds before, and I've never tried the Ace or Roma varieties, even from a plant. There is a lady who lives in our neighborhood who is having some hard times. I planted enough seed to share plants with her. (Remember when I said that I was living my grandmother's life? ;o) That's exactly something that she would (and has) do.) I'm going to add pepper seeds, also but I still have to get them.

A Bit of a Break

I took some time off this weekend. The hubby was going to be gone this week, so I wanted to spend some time with him before he left. Then, after he left, I went to go a visit a dear friend and distant cousin who will be 95 this year. All I can say is that I hope I'm half as sharp and spry as she is if I live that long. She lives about 3 hours away, so I spent the night. At my cousin's house, the neighborhood feeds the deer, mostly to keep them from eating all of their flowers. I had this amazing experience of being about 3 feet from about 5 or 6 deer.







My cousin lives on a lake that is absolutely incredible! Her house is on a pretty steep hill, so they use this trolley system to go down to the water.

I saw this the next morning as I was leaving. There was this fog rolling across the lake and it was so beautiful that I had to stop and take a picture.



On the way back, I stopped at an incredible state park. I only spent an hour there, but I took some great shots.





So, back to the farm. Not much happens around here this time of year. Seed catalogs have started to arrive in the mail, but, my favorite catalog is the chicken catalog. (My nickname from the kids is the Chicken Lady.) The hubs and I want to update the flock this spring. We never seem to have enough eggs to meet demand, so we're going to go with some production reds this year. I also need to start getting my potato bed ready. My pops always said that bare root roses and potatoes need to be in the ground by Valentine's Day (at least in our area). The few potatoes I planted last year did so well, the hubs and I want to plant a lot more.


This spring I also want to plant some fruit trees and pecan trees. I might buy a couple of trees, to get a head start on the fruit, but I want to plant some from seed to see if I can do it.

So, the final thing is that I've opened a site on Etsy. I was trying to think of crafts to sell, and I might do that eventually, but something that I have now is photos. So, I'm going to see how that does. The address is http://www.shutterbugs.etsy.com/ I'd really appreciate you looking at it and telling me what you think.

All God's Creatures, Great and Small

Our latest adventure on the farm is a sick chicken. My youngest and my mother-in-law discovered her lying in the chicken pen. The other chickens were attacking her. My mother-in-law (the self-professed "city girl") rushes in to protect her until I can get there. It didn't look good for the poor soul, but the looks on the two hero's faces sets me to action. I ask Mom if she can hand her out to me, as the poor hen was in a difficult spot. Mom gives me this "you've got to be kidding" look, but with sheer determination, picks her up and hands her to me over the fence.

I took the poor thing into the kitchen where I mix up some antibiotic water and literally spoon feed the mixture to the hen. I've never force fed a chicken before, nor have I seen it done, but we managed just the same. I added a little sugar to the mixture, and in short time she's a little perkier. My youngest heats some left-over mashed potatoes in the microwave and the hen really perks up. She manages to stand and eat most of the potatoes. Mom and the youngest were on chicken guard duty while I went and prepared a cage.

We set her up in isolation in our mud room in a wire cage with table scraps and medicated water. She did ok for a couple of days, when back down she goes. By this time all of the extended family had gone back home. I sit most of the day yesterday with her wrapped in a towel in my lap, spoon feeding her sugar/ medicated water. She is now living in the kitchen in our make-shift brooder with a small space heater, table scraps and medicated sugar water. She's standing on her own two feet, has managed to eat a bit and is very interested in the water.

I'll keep you updated on her progress.