Category: Hobbies

The Chicken Chronicles

Posted by Steve On January 6, 2015

Whoa! Tonight and tomorrow night are going to be interesting nights around the homestead with regards to the chickens. It is supposed to get down to the low temperature so far for the season, a bitter cold 6 degrees F. WHOA! I have read and read and read on this, and the experts say to not worry about the chickens. If they have a draft free coop, they will be fine. Furthermore, the experts mostly advise against heating the coop, which I have already done once this year, as it is a tremendous fire hazard. I would be lying if I told you I wasn’t a little bit worried. Two things I have read give me comfort though. First, the wild birds make it without the conveniences these birds have. Second, each one of these birds basically carries a down filled coat at all times. I guess I feel better about 16 degrees F after the last couple of bitter cold spells, and after this one I will feel better about single digits.

There are several changes coming up with the chicken pen. The next one, which might happen in as little as two weeks, is an extension on one side of the run. This will serve a couple of purposes. First, it will give the chickens more area to move around, but more importantly, it will allow me to attach a chicken tunnel to the run. A chicken tunnel, or a chunnel, is basically a small semi-circle that runs wherever you wish it to run in your yard, allowing the chickens easy space to stretch their legs and beat boredom. It also gets them out into the grass more, which allows them to supplement their diet with more bugs and greenery, both of which are important for healthy eggs.

Speaking of eggs, I am so ready for the days to lengthen where the Easter Eggers will start laying regularly again. They are producing almost nothing at all, and the four Rhode Island Reds are having trouble keeping up with the egg demands of this house. 😀

Oh, speaking of eggs, I thought I would give an overview of the laying for 2014:

Easter Eggers (6): 313/2.07 a day/3.28 eggs per week, per bird
Rhode Island Reds (4): 425/2.81 a day/4.92 eggs per week, per bird

So basically our flock of ten produced 61.5 dozen eggs since August 3, when they started laying. Not bad.

Happenings Around the Homestead

Posted by Steve On January 5, 2015

Whew, this has been a busy week around here, even though I have been on vacation from work. In fact, I think I have worked more this week than normal, and I can sure tell it. I need a vacation!

Before I get to the accomplishments of the week, let me share a few pictures I have taken of some seed I was sent a week or so ago:

Dutch Brown (Bean) Cross

Harmony Flour Corn

Joseph’s Popcorn 2014

Glass Gem Corn

Unnamed Popcorn from Roadside Stand

All of this except the last picture came from Joseph Lofthouse, who I consider to be one of the premier Landracing Proponents right now. The last popcorn came from another gardener in Indiana who happened to pick the popcorn cobb up from a roadside stand in Kentucky.

The big activity regarding homesteading this week has been the 2014 popcorn trials. Yes, I know it is 2015, but I was doing popping trials on my 2014 popcorn. I am almost done now, and there will be a post later this week or next week telling all about it; however, the most important part is I am happy how well things are popping.

You may be wondering why I am doing the popcorn trials. There will be more details, I am sure, in an upcoming post, but basically I am trying to find which of the corn cobbs pop the best for selectively saving seed. The point being to improve the crop year over year, ultimately getting to the point I am growing a great popping corn that tastes much better than what you might get in the store.

The other big homesteading activity of the week has been garden planning. Our garden is many times larger this year than it was last year, which is going to allow me to do a number of things, not the least of which is have a more viable population for seed saving. I still have a little work to do on my garden plan for the year, but I should be able to share how it looks in a week or two.

Speaking of gardening, can you believe it will be time to start growing some cold weather crops like peas in just a couple of months! Wow, how time flies! More to come on that too.

The Chicken Chronicles

Posted by Steve On December 30, 2014

The little lady layers are ready for winter to be over! It has been shocking to me to see the tremendous difference in their egg production now and just a few months ago. There were days we were getting eight or nine eggs a day back when it was warmer, and now we consider ourselves fortunate if we get four in a day, and those are almost exclusively eggs from the Rhode Island Reds. It is somewhat rare to get an egg from the Easter Eggers right now, and it is very rare for more than one to show up. This is the reason we added the Rhode Island Reds to the flock though – they are egg laying machines.

One of the issues the Easter Eggers are having is that some of them are molting. It may be that all of them are molting, but two of them are showing it more. In fact, one reminds me of a little Indian boy with one tall feather sticking up from its tail. We have added some more protein and fat to their diet, which is a good idea in winter anyhow, but it also seems that it helps hens through the molting process.

I had someone ask a week or two ago if it was normal for a hen to molt in the winter. I didn’t know the answer, and it seemed illogical to me, but after researching it I found that it is not unusual at all. I am supposing they stay closer to their sisters during this time to keep a little warmer.

One other thing we have learned is the importance of an insulated coop. Just this morning I noticed a container of water outside the coop was frozen, but one inside the run, just under the coop was not. The run is not even really insulated, but it does have wind breakers on two sides. It seems that those wind breakers made enough of a difference that it was able to keep the water from freezing. Amazing, really.

One thing we are finding is commonly recommended for the hens in the winter is black oil sunflower seeds (BOSS). I have added this to my list of things to grow next year, as I sure would love to be able to feed the chickens as much as possible from the garden. That reminds me, I am also growing a considerable amount more greens (kale, lettuce, chard), brassicas (broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage), squash and beets to help feed the ladies more from the garden.

Happenings Around the Homestead

Posted by Steve On December 29, 2014

Wow! I logged in today and noticed it has been nearly a month without a post! Needless to say, the last month has been very close to chaotic continually, and what little time I have had has been spent on living, not writing about living. 🙂

Despite the chaos, I have had a pretty productive month or so around the homestead, mostly in planning for the upcoming gardening year. By next week I should be able to share the plans for my garden for 2015, which will be a very different garden than any I have planted before. You have already read of the Back-to-Eden style gardening change that has been made, but I am also planning on a much wider use of companion planting this year in order to get the most out of the garden. More to come on this soon.

I was pleased this Christmas to get a few new yard tools that I have been wanting, including a pole pruner, a pruning saw, and pruning shears. The pole pruner is the only one of the three I have used yet, and it did great. We have a couple of pecan trees on our property, and one of those has branches that stick out above the power lines coming into our house. Twice since we have lived here those branches have caused and issue with our power after a winter storm and both times cost a considerable amount of money to fix. I was able to safely trim the branches back for the most part where they didn’t extend over the power lines. There is still one troublesome branch that is just a bit too high for me, but I may try to trim it back using a ladder on a warmer day.

The other pruning tools have a more interesting purpose. I plan on pruning back my three fruit trees this year: two apple trees and a cherry tree. I have been learning quite a bit about pruning, and I think I am ready to give it a shot. More to come on this as well.

Finally, I have been blessed to already receive numerous seeds for the next growing cycle. Today I am hoping to take some macro photographs of the seeds to share their amazing beauty with you. Who would have thought a seed could be beautiful? Just wait and see!

Oh, did I already say finally? Hmm – I have one more thing. 😀 First, let me begin by thanking those who saved babyfood/small jars for me. They have come in so handy. Several of you have asked what I am using them for. I grow popcorn, and I selectively save the seed from the popcorn in order to grow better popcorn next year. In order to do this faster and better, I need a controlled environment for the popcorn so that I can ensure all the corn has the same moisture ratio. Moisture is a key component of popcorn’s popping ability, and if I am going to truly save the best each year, I need to be sure the moisture is the same during the popping trials, which commence soon. So, here is a picture of the filled jars:

Popcorn Jars

Even though I have enough of these for this year, I still need about 300 more jars, so if you or someone you know is feeding a baby babyfood, I would love to have the jars. Even better are pimento jars or any other jar that holds about 4-6 ounces. Bigger or smaller also work, but I don’t want anything larger than a half-pint.

The Chicken Chronicles

Posted by Steve On December 2, 2014

After yesterday’s post on the BIG weekend, I am sure you know the chickens had an eventful weekend too. The poor ladies started out pretty scared of all the work that was going on, even staying upstairs in the coop for a while. After they got used to the front-end loader, they began venturing downstairs, and were as exuberant as ever to get out and run around. They curiously watched to try to figure out what was going on, but in the end, all they cared about was finding treats amount the wood chips. 😀

The laying is still slow, as I am sure it will be until the days start getting longer, though the Rhode Island Reds are real troopers. The four of them laid 24 eggs this week, whereas the six Easter Eggers only laid 8 eggs. This was the whole reason added the Rhode Island Reds to the flock though, as they should continue laying most all winter.

Charity noticed a problem below the coop though. It seems the ladies are thinking the insulation foamboard I put there is for their dining pleasure. SIGH. I don’t think I will work on that today, but sometime I will have to cut it out where it is not within their reach.

One of the next big projects I have it to get a portable chicken run built, so I can actually let them stay out in the yard for extended periods of time without someone watching them. Ideally, this would allow me to let the work the unplanted garden areas as well, with the chickens aerating and fertilizing the soil while they have fun. I am thinking of building something out of cattle panels, but I need to work on this more.

There’s never a shortage of things to do, is there?

Happenings Around the Homestead – A BIG Week!

Posted by Steve On December 1, 2014

Wow! What a week this has been around the homestead! We finally began the project of spreading the woodchips for Project Eden, our Back to Eden garden. What a project this has been too! Let me start with a little history:

Sometime between 12-18 months ago I first encountered the Back to Eden film.
Being unable to find woodchips in time for this past year’s garden, I covered in oak leaves.
Though the garden did well, I didn’t fertilize, and it showed. This seems to be essential for good production on year #1.
This year I wanted to expand the garden, and began making plans to do so.
We encountered a company doing a lot of wood cutting and chipping around power lines in our area. After approaching them about two months ago, they began dumping chips in our yard.
We arranged to have a mini front-end-loader to be delivered for our use over Thanksgiving weekend.
We finally received enough chips to do our garden the day before Thanksgiving.
We marked out the garden space, a 84 foot x 65 foot garden, which is about 10 foot shorter than I had expected, but still a respectable garden area.
We spread a very thick layer of oak leaves over most of the garden, a commodity we have in abundance.
We started spreading the chips and covered about half of the garden on the day after Thanksgiving.
We spread the rest of the chips on the Saturday after Thanksgiving.

I thought a few pictures and even a couple of timelapse videos might be nice to document the process better. Here are some pictures of all the wood chips. Crazy, isn’t it?

Some of our woodchips

Some of our woodchips.

And here are a couple of time lapse videos showing our work:

So, even though we are just a few days into this, I already have a few lessons learned:

A 5400 square foot garden is HUGE. 😀 Don’t expect the laying of those chips to go fast, even with a machine.
The laying of newspaper on the base layer may be essential, but don’t think you are going to do this with even a slight breeze. Three of us totally failed at this.
Wood chips begin decomposing faster than you think. Our two most fresh piles look considerably different than the one from even a couple of weeks ago.

We also expected to dig out a stump in the middle of the garden area, and were quickly reminded how strong the stump that came from a mature oak tree is. Wow! Seriously, we couldn’t even budge this thing.

I want to give a special shout out to a couple of my friends, one who loaned the front-end loader and one who delivered it. Thanks guys! I also want to say how thankful I am for my two youngest sons who worked tirelessly helping me on this project for two days. I couldn’t have done this without them.

Happenings Around the Homestead

Posted by Steve On November 24, 2014

It has been another quiet week outside of the chickens, which has been quite busy. I’m not going to spoil it though – check back tomorrow for more on that.

The cold snap has come and gone, but it is raining buckets of water as I write this on Sunday evening. We are planning on starting the Back to Eden project this upcoming Friday, pending the mini-front-end-loader/backhoe arrives as expected. There is way too much to spread in one weekend by hand, but with some machine assistance, we can get it done.

The end goal of this new garden area is an 80 ft. x 80 ft. garden with four inches of woodchips on top of some leaves. I had hoped to get some manure for the bottom layer, and actually had two offers for some, but my work schedule has not cooperated at all. Perhaps 20 cubic yards of it will appear in my yard before Friday. Dear manure donor, if you read this and decide to help, please dump it in the already gardened area – it will make it much easier to spread. 😀

Unfortunately, without the compost under the woodchips as I had hoped for, the first year of this garden style is likely going to be less than stellar. The compost speeds up the process of getting the soil ready for the first year, as the wood chips will not have decomposed much yet, but even without the manure, the garden should be better than it has been. I think I will supplement the decomposition process with blood meal, which should help heat the chips up enough to begin breaking them down some.

Again, a slow week this week, but next Monday there should be some exciting updates, with pictures!

Happenings Around the Homestead

Posted by Steve On November 17, 2014

It has been another slow week around the homestead. I’ve been wresting with a cough for a couple of weeks now, so I dare not get out and work in the cold. And cold it is! It has already reached the mid-teens. For some, that may not be that cold, but it is quite early in the year for us to experience that in western Kentucky.

As I was going down to work on the chicken coop Saturday (more on that tomorrow), I noticed how healthy and vibrant the horehound and catnip are. It is such a joy to see plants growing and thriving in the bitter cold like this. That is one reason I enjoy the mints so much, the thrive all winter long.

We have also received our first snow worth mentioning this morning, with the ground and the roads barely covered. I thought we might get more snow that we did, but honestly, I am indifferent about it as long as I can safely drive. My boys, however, love the snow. I don’t, however, like the bitter cold, which is what we have going on right now.

I guess the last think worth noting for the week is that the wood chippers seems to have moved on, and I am two loads short of what I need. I do have enough to move forward with my Back to Eden garden though, and I will begin working on it as soon as this cough subsides.

The Chicken Chronicles

Posted by Steve On November 11, 2014

The shorter days seem to finally be making a difference in the egg production here at the homestead. Even so, we still had 38 eggs layed this week. The Rhode Island Reds are showing their winter laying ability though, with twenty two eggs for the week, or 5.5 eggs per hen. The Easter Eggers are really beginning to drop off, as they only laid 16 eggs, or 2.7 eggs per hen for the week.

Speaking of the Easter Eggers, Snow White didn’t suffer from being eggboung this week, but one or more of the Easter Eggers have decided laying eggs in the chicken run sounds like fun. Grrr.

We are expecting the coldest weather of the season this week, getting into the mid-twenties by Thursday. I am not worried at all about the birds at that temperature, but I am thinking ahead to when it gets down in the teens later in the year and what I will be doing to help protect them.

If you have never owned chickens, you might find it hard to believe how entertaining they can be. Yesterday Charity put some leftover spaghetti in the run, and one of the ladies ran in there and starting eating it. Charity said she was eating it like she would a worm. She would pick it up, swing her head around with it in her mouth, then eat it. I am supposing she either thought it was a worm, or she thought it was fun to pretend it was a worm. Silly hen.

Speaking of personality – when Charity let the hens out yesterday, one of our cats decided to go check out the chicken run. Charity laughed as she told the story because the cat didn’t stay in there long at all. It is funny because this cat is a bird killer, but she won’t touch these chickens. I sometimes wonder if she is thinking God might be punishing her for killing all those birds throughout the years by surrounding her with ten large birds that are bigger than she is. 😀

Happenings Around the Homestead

Posted by Steve On November 10, 2014

It has been another slow week around the homestead, though we did receive two more loads of woodchips for the big garden project this year. Now that I type that, I am not sure I have mentioned it on here before. It is a unique way of gardening that people have been made aware of through a film titled Back to Eden. Basically, the premise of it all is that you provide a ground covering, preferably wood chips. The wood chips keep the ground moist and fertile. While that is the elevator pitch about Back to Eden gardening, it is well worth watching the film, which is well put together and held my interest, which says a lot.

Regarding that, I am still trying to find good, composted manure to put as a base layer for the garden. The problem is threefold: finding it, getting it here, and having enough. That reminds me, I need to call a friend this week, as he may have a source for horse manure, though I am not sure how composted it might be.

The garlic I planted a few weeks ago is starting to sprout, though it is tiny still. The chickens are my big challenge though, as they seem to think it looks like fun to pull on those green garlic leaves. Hopefully they will get tired of it before long, or at least long enough for them to get rooted well.

I have also been posting on Facebook about my need for small jars. This is for an ongoing popcorn experiment. I am growing landrace popcorn. As part of this ongoing experiment, I need to save the best seeds from year to year, which means I have to test pop all the popcorn. The seeds that are saved are those which are the best popping corn, though I strongly take the ease of shucking and the appearance into consideration. The reason I need the jars is to ensure the water content of all the popcorn remains the same. Yes, it sure is a lot of work, but it keeps my interest. Regarding the jars, I am making progress. I have already received a small number of babyfood jars, and my mom had some other small jars she gave. I then had a friend let me know she is saving her jars for me, so it looks like I am on my way to having enough jars. Thanks to everyone for the jars!

I think that is all for the week. It will likely be slow for a few weeks until I start spreading the woodchips, then it will pick up again for a short stint before the winter slows things down until March or so.

365 Days of Me