The Chicken Chronicles
Posted by Steve On August 20, 2014
While I was out of town last week, I began to get really excited. It seemed the egg production was increasing after two days in a row with five eggs each. Since then it has been relatively quiet though. I think we had three eggs on Friday, one on Saturday, two on Sunday, and two on Monday.
Speaking of eggs, we have had two oddities lately. The first is a spotted egg. Apparently one of the Rhode Island Reds is feeling some pressure to match the Easter Eggers for their unique eggs. Look what she laid:
Spotted Egg
That has not been our only oddity though. We have also had a shell-less egg laid:
Shell-less Egg
Shell-less Egg
Saturday I was sure we were going to have several eggs. I was out roasting coffee and heard that egg laying clucking going on all morning. Come to find out, I think it was a first time layer. When we checked for eggs later, there was only one there, and it was smaller than what we’ve been getting.
The ladies sure are getting brave. When we let them out to run in the yard, they used to all stay together, but now they just go off on their own exploring. That is fine unless we see a neighbor dog coming around. Even so, we have yet to have an issue. Yesterday, though, the chickens nearly went to the front yard, which is the furthest I have seen them go. Brave ladies they are!
I am using the deep litter method in the coop, and yesterday I was noticing how well this seems to be coming along. Basically by keeping a deep layer of litter in the coop, the smell is minimal and fantastic garden compost is being created. Charity and I have neither one smelled the coop much. Charity’s nose is ultra sensitive, so I think that is a good sign. I think after the leaves fall for the year, I will clean out the coop and move this fantasic compost to one of the garden beds for next year, and restock the coop for the winter with fresh litter (oak leaves).
I am curiously awaiting the slow down of egg production for the year. I don’t know when that happens for my area yet, though there are some reports that it slows down when the sunlight becomes less than 14 hours a day. We are already less than that, so it may be soon. Perhaps that is why they seem to be laying slower than I had hoped right now. Even so, the Rhode Island Reds are supposedly winter layers. Hopefully that means we will see a steady flow of eggs from those four ladies all winter long.
Happenings Around the Homestead
Posted by Steve On August 18, 2014
It is Sunday morning as I write this, and there is the most terrific claps of thunder going on outside. Though I enjoy being able to go walk in the garden as soon as the sun is up, a great thunderstorm is very high on my list. Oh, I just checked, the rain is falling hard now too – wonderful! My garden will so appreciate it!
Speaking of the garden, I decided to harvest as much of my popcorn and flour corn as I could yesterday. I don’t have very large patches of each, so I need to do what I can to prevent spoilage, and though neither was totally ready to be picked, I was afraid this rain might cause some mold or mildew issues. Here is the harvest so far:
First Corn Harvest of 2014
I was not surprised, but yet a little disappointed to see the cross-pollination in the Cherokee White Flour Corn. Some of the kernels are purple and yellow, which is no doubt from my popcorn. I was frustrated to find them both maturing at the same time, which happened to be at a point I was unable to bag them to prevent the cross over. With the Cherokee White Flour Corn, this is almost irrelevant. I can easily see what is crossed, and I will eliminate that from my seed stock — wait, that is not true. I will save some of the purple kernels for a special project next year — to see if I can get a purple flour corn, but that will be very carefully monitored.
The challenge I have is the popcorn though. With it being much shorter than the Cherokee White Flour Corn, I am confident there is much cross pollination there, which may mean I lose most of my popcorn for seed from this year. That sure is frustrating, but I will chalk it up to learning.
I did harvest one ear of Cherokee Gourdseed Corn as well, but it was definitely not ready. The ear had evidently been hit by something and was broken off though, so I felt it was better to go ahead and harvest it. It’s now drying with the rest of them.
Regarding the Gourdseed Corn – these are the oddest cobs and kernels! The husks are so tightly wrapped on the cobs that it is a real chore to pull them off, though I suspect that will change some with time. The kernels look like old man teeth though! Even so, it is supposed to be a great flour corn as well. I don’t have a good picture of one yet, but I will be sure to share one later.
I harvested the largest crop of the year of tomatoes yesterday, which happened to be about half a bushel. Most all of them were Chocolate Stripe Tomatoes, which have become one of my favorite for taste — right up there with Cherokee Purple Tomatoes. They also make a beautiful tomato juice. Look at this beautiful basketful!
Chocolate Stripe Tomatoes
One other interesting tomato I have this year is from seeds saved from a tomato purchased at Whole Foods. The tomato was advertised as a Cocoa Tomato, a variety I cannot find anywhere, so I presume it is a marketing name only. Anyhow, it was a great tasting tomato with great color. Those I am growing are very similar in size and color, but they are much less juicy than the one I purchased, which suits me fine. These tomatoes will make excellent tomato sauce tomatoes or drying tomatoes, which is a nice addition to the garden.
Speaking of all this seed, I am an avid collecter of seeds with history. Even though I landrace some vegetables, I also do what I can to preserve heritage crops too, and I would really appreciate leads to any rare or known Native American plant seeds, especially those with ties to the Chickasaw or Choctaw Indian tribes. Most lists, such as this list of Seed Varieties for Native American Gardens have limited selection, though I know that is due to limited information.
I so enjoy the fall weather, but as the days start to shorten, a part of me gets a little sad knowing the gardening for the year is slowing down. There is still plenty of time left, but in another two months it will be time for the ground to rest for a while and for me to start planning for next year.
Who Deserves All the Praise and Glory?
Posted by Steve On August 14, 2014
Who deserves all the praise and glory? God, right? Do we deserve any of it? NO! Why is it that we feel we do then? Why do we always seek to claim praise and glory? Aside from our sinful nature, it is because we are comparing ourselves to other humans, and in that instant we might have done something in our lives better than another human.
Now, let me ask: Have you ever felt really good about how something turned out, only to later find you totally messed it up? What happened? All too often we aren’t good enough to understand what good is. It reminded me of these three examples:
- A friend of mine had a son who was the best in the state of Kentucky at one point for his discipline of martial arts. He told us once that when someone gets to black belt, they begin to realize that they have only started to understand karate. What? Black belts are experts, right? NO! They are people who finally have enough knowledge to see how little they know.
- When I first took up photography, I really thought I had a natural eye. I thought that even though I wasn’t as good as the great photographers, I could compete. As a means of seeking affirmation of my greatness, I posted some pictures on a photography forum full of professionals. The resounding sound I heard was something like, “You aren’t even to the point we can help you yet. You need to learn the basics.” This infuriated me. After all, I could plainly see that I was taking high-quality shots! It is only now, years and years later, that I see how poor my work was then.
- I have played chess much of my life, but it was only after I was an adult that I really took it up. A friend of mine at that time, a guy I worked with, purchased a dedicated handheld chess machine. We would play this on the highest level, because obviously we were that good. Of course, the machine would beat us terribly! The funny thing was we thought the machine was cheating! Why? Because we weren’t even good enough to understand how the machine was checkmating us! It was only sometime later that we realized how foolish we had been.
So how does this apply to us? If we think we have done something good or praiseworthy, it is only because we have yet to gain the maturity to understand how far from good we are. There is only one example of good – that is God. If we think we have done something good, it is because we are only comparing ourselves to other broken, imperfect humans. Once we gain that maturity, it is then that we see the only one who deserves our praise and glory is God, and we would be best if we humbly avoided praise for our good deeds, for they are nothing in comparison to what He did for us.
Playing the Blues
Posted by Steve On August 12, 2014
This may come to a surprise to those who know me: I have a real appreciation for blues music. The truth is, I like all kinds of music, from classical to country, pop to rap, blues to jazz, and everything inbetween. However, blues is a music style that I really enjoy, and I have long had a fascination with blues harmonica. In fact, about ten years ago I began teaching myself blues harmonica, and though I was never very good, I sure did enjoy it. I have recently decided to pick this hobby back up, and am in the midst of teaching myself once again.
Lee Oskar Harmonica
When I first started playing harmonica, I did considerable research into the instrument, and I finally decided Lee Oskar was the best brand for what I wanted. The thing I liked most is that their instruments are easily repairable. I still laugh a little at this decision, because I have yet to have a need to repair one, but it is nice to know they can be repaired if necessary.
You may be wondering what blues harmonica sounds like. I thought you might ask this, so I have rounded up a few links for you to check out:
http://photomuserh.wordpress.com/2009/10/06/10-blues-harp-masters-1-learning-the-secrets-of-the-blues-harmonica/
http://www.modernbluesharmonica.com/blues_harp_gods.html
http://jazzharmonica.org/learn-how-to-play-improvise-jazz-harmonica/essential-listening-guide-jazz/
On of the links above comes from www.modernbluesharmonica.com, which happens to be the site I am using for my lessons. So far I am liking his style better than the books and CDs I listened to years ago when I first picked up a harmonica with the intent to learn it. Now to simply follow through with this and learn to play something more than simple tunes. 🙂
The Chicken Chronicles, August 11, 2014
Posted by Steve On August 11, 2014
I am traveling for work today, and I will probably schedule this post to go live sometime while I am in the air. It is Sunday morning as I write this, and I am thinking ahead to my week, realizing I am not going to be able to check each day while I am gone for eggs. My wife doesn’t quite get the same excitement from this that I do, but I will have to bribe her to be sure and let me know the egg update each day while I am gone. 🙂
Sometime during the day on Saturday, perhaps after I collected the eggs for the day, I decided I probably needed to weigh the eggs to help me better determine how they are growing in size. I had a total of seven uneaten eggs in the kitchen from our birds, so I took some weights. Here are the results:
Rhode Island Red Eggs: Average of 1.47 oz (4.4 oz/3 eggs)
Easter Egger Eggs: Average of 1.35 oz (5.4 oz/4 eggs)
Store Bought Large Egg: 2.2 oz
So, as you can see, right now our eggs are less than half the weight of a store bought large egg. This is a little smaller than I had estimated, but nothing that worries me. I understand that their eggs will get larger over time.
The disappointment so far has been the number of eggs that have been laid. The best I can figure, we have a minimum of four birds laying: two Easter Eggers and two Rhode Island Reds. I come to this conclusion because there have been days where two eggs from each type of bird have been in the nesting boxes. There could be more than this, but this is the minimum. On average, we are getting two eggs a day now. I had wrongly assumed that they would become egg-laying machines as soon as they started laying, but it seems their bodies need to gear up for this some too.
I had to chuckle some on Saturday when I went down to check the eggs. I always peek in the window first to see if there is a bird in the nesting box, and there was. There were also two others peeking their heads up through the chicken ladder hole in the floor as if they needed to see what was going on. 😀 Blondie is still the only one I can for sure identify that has been laying eggs.
Blondie
I haven’t seen another Easter Egger yet, though there has to be one, and I can’t tell the Rhode Island Reds apart.
I have also been intrigued by the ladies’ choice of food. I thought chickens would eat anything, but ours have not been that way so far. Even so, there are some scraps they absolutely love. One of those being tomatoes, and the other being watermelon. Last night when I went down to check on the ladies I noticed they had cleaned a watermelon rind down to the thinnest green sliver. It almost looked like leather it was so thin. They also love most other kitchen scraps, but they aren’t fond of peppers and onions at all, that I can tell. I suppose this is good, since I can’t imagine this has a good impact on egg taste.
Landrace Gardening
Posted by Steve On August 8, 2014
I have long had an interest in gardening, which has only grown more intense as I age. I can recall early on only being interested in growing the biggest, tallest, most productive plants possible. That meant excessive fertilization. I then slightly altered that with black-plastic gardening. Finally, I became interested in organic gardening. About that time I began to have a real interest in heirloom vegetables and trying to keep these historic strains alive and well. However, changes are underway in my gardening maturity, my way of thinking, one of which is landrace gardening.
Let’s step back a bit and talk about heirlooms. My interest in heirlooms wasn’t just about preserving the historic strains, but it was also about avoiding genetically modified crops, or GMOs. Both of those things are still important to me. However, I have begun to realize that I was confusing myself. I thought heirloom vegetables were the only right way and that all hybrids were bad. In other words, I was equating hybrids to GMOs.
I heard all the hype about hybrids: that saved seeds do not produce true to their parent, the plant is modified in some fashion by humans, and that these are somehow created plants. The truth is, I believed the hype, but I didn’t use my head. If I may be candid, however, I still avoid store-bought hybrids, but hybrids themselves are not bad.
I don’t want to spend this post getting into the topic of GMOs except to say there is a difference. GMOs are plants that have been modified genetically in some fashion that could likely never occur in nature. That, my friends, is something I have no interest in.
A few years ago while perusing gardening sites, I ran across a gentleman named Joseph Lofthouse at a site called Homegrown Goodness. I don’t remember what my initial thoughts were, but it there must have been things he said that I liked, and it wasn’t long until I began to really appreciate the projects he was working on. You see, Joseph gardens in a unique climate that cannot handle many plants grown in other places, but due to his selective seed saving and landrace gardening, Joseph has produced landrace vegetables that grow well in his climate. His story of growing open-pollinated cantalope is amazing, even though it is just one of his success stories. In short, Joseph’s plants are in a battle of the Survival of the Fittest. The seeds of the winners each year go on to live another year.
Since learning about Joseph and his gardening ideas, I have implemented this in my garden gradually. For example, I am now in my second season of growing Joseph’s Popcorn, from which I am saving the best seed each year. I am also in my second year of landracing okra. Other plants that are on my list are watermelon and Joseph’s cantaloupe.
Despite the changes in my attitude toward hybrids in a landrace project, I still have an appreciation for heirloom plants and the history some of them have. For example, I am growing two ancient corns this year that are both used for flour. I intend on continuing to save pure seeds from each of these plants using a similar “survival of the fittest” technique, even though they will remain true to their strain. Another plant I want to follow this same protocol on is Cherokee Purple Tomatoes, which happen to be my favorite tomatoes. There are some winter squash I want to also save seeds from using this protocol; however, due to the ease at which they can be controlled, I will landrace some winter squash while I am at it.
My goals have adapted over the years, but I am really liking where this is going: organic gardening using “survival of the fittest” selective seed saving from open-pollinated plants which may include heirlooms or landrace varieties. Will that goal adapt more over time? I am sure it will, but the thing that won’t change is my desire to grow tasty, healthy food that is far better than what can be bought in a store.
Doing Business Differently
Posted by Steve On August 7, 2014
One of my keen interests is learning how businesses separate themselves from the rest of the pack by doing business differently. I am sure many of you have seen this by now, but if not, do yourself a favor and watch this video now:
What I find so amazing about this is that it was not a complicated idea to think up. There is no doubt it took some work to pull this off, but the idea is simple: find a way to bless your customers. The results are fantastic. I am confident that every one of those customers, barring unforeseen circumstances, will bank with TD Bank the rest of their lives. Furthermore, they will share this experience enthusiastically with others, who may become customers of the bank. The benefits don’t stop there though. With nearly 8 million views and 27,000 likes at the time I write this, this video is now going viral all over the Internet, and TD Bank has spent some of the best marketing dollars it has probably ever spent.
I am sure this video has marketing professionals across the world scrambling to find a way to mimic the success TD Bank has had with this promotion, and the truth of the matter is that most of them will fail. Unfortunately, as simple as the idea is, it is far too difficult for most of our minds to conceive. We are so programmed to do business as we have been taught that we cannot see how to do business differently.
Original link: http://www.ijreview.com/2014/07/162163-bank-uses-atms-say-thanks-regular-customers-personalized-heartfelt-way/
Happenings Around the Homestead
Posted by Steve On August 6, 2014
This has been a slow garden year for us. First of all, spring arrived late this year, and, second of all, with my work travel schedule, I was hardly home to work on the garden. I also started a new garden spot this year which didn’t account properly for the position of the sun in the spring, and the new chicken coup is partially shading a garden. In short, we have struggled with our garden.
We have yet to harvest peppers worth speaking of, and while we have harvested some great tomatoes, the crop has been small. I have only harvested my first cucumber in the last week or so, and the summer squash, while being one of the plants which was out as early as possible, has already stopped producing. Speaking of squash, my winter squash was hit by vine borers while on the mission trip, and there is nothing left. My okra landrace project is coming along, however, it isn’t producing quite like I had hoped. Oh, and let’s not forget the sweet potatoes! The deer are having a hay day with the leaves. 🙂 I still expect a good harvest from them though. The corn has done well, I think, other than the possible cross pollination issue. Even so, the corn looks healthy and I am expecting a good harvest.
It may sound like I am whining about the gardening year, but I am not. I consider every year a learning opportunity. I have several good take-aways from this year that I will be sure to implement next year, and if the Lord so blesses me, next year this will happen on a proper homestead property.
Speaking of vegetables, last Friday we stopped off at The Farmer’s Market in Nashville, Tennessee. If you haven’ t been there, you have really missed out. This is a true joy for me. Let me share just a few pictures:
Heirloom Tomatoes
Huge Onions!
Colorful Bell Peppers
My family is really blessed though, despite the lackluster garden year. My father-in-law also gardens, and he has blessed us with an abundance of melons, peppers, tomatoes, and more.
Speaking of peppers, we have already smoked a good amount of peppers, some of which are already dried and ground. Others are in various stages of processing, but I should be able to share a picture soon.
The chickens didn’t work as hard for us yesterday, and only produced two eggs: one blue and one brown. I did eat the first of the eggs last night, and wow, were they tasty! Hopefully there will be three more today. I had to smile at my first egg issue yesterday. One of the ladies laid her egg in the run below the cage, which is not fun to get into during the day while they are playing. I could have just waited to get it, I suppose, but I was impatient.
I have to wonder, am I the only person out there who is already thinking about next year’s garden? The growing season is not even over yet, and I am sitting here dreaming this morning of what I will do different next time. Don’t worry, I am sure I will share the plans here as the days roll on.
A Few More Eggs
Posted by Steve On August 5, 2014
WOW! I can’t tell you how excited I was yesterday to find out that we had not just one more egg (see: My Surprise for the Day), but THREE MORE EGGS! Not only that, but one of the Easter Eggers, we believe it was Blondie, laid an egg!
Three New Eggs
Henry Ford, referring to the Model T, reportedly once said, “Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black.” That is much like eggs, isn’t it? Almost all of them are white, though the stores have found ways to upsell anything brown in color. The one thing that I haven’t seen in the stores yet, however, is a blue/green shade of egg. Even so, there are breeds of chickens which lay this color naturally.
You will notice four eggs in the picture, the largest of which is a store-bought, large, white egg that I placed in one of the laying boxes to encourage the chickens to lay there. The other three, however, were all from yesterday. The one at the 7:00 position in the picture looks identical to the one yesterday in color and size. The next one going clockwise, at about the 10:00 position, is the first Easter Egger egg. The next one going clockwise is perhaps a little smaller than the other ones, and it is a little more elongated. I would say all three are similar in size to a small store-bought egg.
If I understand it right, there are probably three hens laying right now, one of which has layed two days in a row. I expect all three will now start giving 5-7 eggs a week, or a total of 15-21 eggs a week. The other seven hens should start laying soon, perhaps more will even lay today.
My family thinks I am a complete dork, but I am so excited about this.
My Surprise for the Day
Posted by Steve On August 4, 2014
You will never guess what I found yesterday!
I was out in the garden making my rounds. I had just finished picking okra and cucumbers, and was on my way to the tomatoes, but I decided to make a stop off at the hen house to check on the ladies.
Lately I have made it a practice to open the nesting box door to see if there has been any interest in the nesting boxes. It is about time for the Easter Eggers to start laying, if I am lucky, and each day I wonder if it is my lucky day.
A few weeks ago I put a store bought egg out there to encourage the ladies to check the boxes out, but the activity has been minimal. Even so, sometimes the white egg appears to be gone, though it is always just buried in the leaves in the nesting box.
As I opened the nesting box door yesterday, the silly white egg was gone again. I dug around in the leaves and found it, then carefully placed it back on top of the leaves. As I was preparing to close the door, low and behold I noticed a chicken! She was laying at the opposite end of the boxes and had burrowed out a nest. I quickly closed the door and made my way to the house.
It wasn’t much longer until we heard cackling commencing! One or more of the girls sounded as if she was having a total come apart. 🙂
We went on to church, expecting we might have a little surprise when we arrived home after church. Sure enough, we did! We all eagerly went to the hen house as soon as we arrived home, me with camera in hand. 🙂 Here’s what we found:
Our First Egg
You will notice, perhaps, this is not an Easter Egger! That is right! One of the Rhode Island Reds was the first layer. Unfortunately, I can’t tell these birds apart, so it could have been any one of the four.
The Potential Winner
Here’s a couple of more shots: a better one of the egg, and a comparison shot vs. a store-bought, large, white egg.
Comparison: First Egg vs. Large Store Egg
Our First Egg – A Better View
As mentioned earlier, this was a surpise. I expected eggs any day now, but I expected them from one of the Easter Eggers. The best I can understand it, the Easter Eggers are unpredictable on when they will lay their first egg, but with six of them, I am expecting one any day now. The Rhode Island Reds are younger than the Easter Eggers though. We bought the Easter Egger chicks on March 15 of this year, and we bought the Rhode Island Reds on March 29th. Neither were more than a week old; probably just a few days old. I don’t have the calculations now, but I expected the Easter Eggers to lay sometime between the end of July and the first of October (yes, unpredictable from what I can tell), and I expected the Rhode Island Reds to begin laying at the end of August. I just checked though, and it seems the Rhode Island Reds should all start laying about right now. SIGH. How do I get so confused on this stuff??
With any luck, the Easter Eggers will be laying soon too, along with the rest of the Rhode Island Reds, and we will start having a beautiful mix of brown and blue/green eggs soon.
Those who raise chickens often say the first egg costs many hundred dollars, but those thereafter are inexpensive. I haven’t calculated the cost of this first egg, but I know why people say that. It wasn’t cheap getting to this point, but those are sunk costs. Now I just have healthy, inexpensive eggs that come from chicken who get time to free-range daily.