Posts Tagged ‘Hens’
Hens eating their eggs? There is a reason.
One of the worst habits a hen can develop is eating eggs, whether your flock is for egg sales or just supplying your family. And, when she gets the taste of eggs it’s hard to stop her without persistence. But, don’t panic because it’s not always necessary to cull the offending egg eater.
Egg eating usually starts by accident, when a hen steps on or accidently cracks an egg. She pokes around, tasting something yummy inside and then goes hog wild breaking and eating eggs as soon as they’re laid. Many times the whole flock joins in the feast, leaving few whole eggs for family or farm.
The reasons behind eating eggs:
- Not Enough Calcium. When hens don’t get enough calcium their shells are not strong enough to withstand everyday life in the coop. Even minor bumps or knocks can cause an egg to crack. Commercial poultry feed don’t always give your girls enough of the mineral to produce a strong shell. Supplementing with crushed oyster shells or ground egg shells can help increase the calcium level. That’s right! Eggshells for the egg eater. But, make sure they are crushed or chopped fine so the hens won’t make the connection.
- Shallow Bedding. To give hens and eggs a good soft place to land make sure there is about 2” to 3” of bedding material, like shavings or straw, in each nesting box. Less bedding means hens are laying eggs on a hard surface, which can cause cracking. I have used both for years and prefer straw in the warmer months because it doesn’t pack down as much. But, in the winter I use a layer of shavings with straw on top, giving the girls added warmth in each box. Be sure to save or compost when you clean your boxes. All that dry matter and manure makes great compost material or side dressing for nitrogen loving plants.
- Not Enough Nesting Boxes. Your coop should have one nesting box for every four or five hens. They won’t hang a shingle out claiming a specific box as their own and you may find that they use a few of the same boxes, but more boxes gives them room spread out and can cut down on the skirmishes.
- Broody Hens. When a hen is broody or setting eggs she will stand her ground, trying to keep other hens off the nest. These tussles can cause broken eggs.
- Egg Collecting Times. Leaving eggs in the nest long after they are laid is an invitation to an egg eater. Eggs should be collected shortly after they are laid, if possible. This has always been a challenge on our farm because by the time hens lay we are off at work or school, leaving collecting until evening.
- Protein Deficient. Chickens require a high percentage of protein in their diet either from feed or other sources, and the lack of it can cause hens to crave eggs. So…give them what they want! Strange I know, but one source of protein can be eggs. That’s right, eggs. Adding a bit of scrambled eggs to their feed can help fill the protein gap.
- Lack of Privacy. Or, in this case “out of sight, out of mind”. If hens can’t see the eggs they are less likely to explore the nest. Draping the front of the nesting boxes can help.
A few other reasons hens will eat eggs is boredom and a lack of things to do. Give your hens a place to roost outside where they can watch the world, piles of leaves to scratch in provide hours of amusement, and hanging treats in a tree to occupy them.
Playing tricks on your hens can also help stop existing egg eaters.
Replace eggs with “fake” eggs like plastic, wood or ceramic, golf balls, or ping pong balls; anything small and round. When your hens go to peck these “eggs” they won’t break, nor will they find anything tasty inside.
Blow out a real chicken egg and refill it with something that won’t taste good like mustard or hot sauce. They’ll get the message that eggs are not good.
Hang curtains in front of nesting boxes to block the egg eater’s view. If they can’t see the eggs they won’t eat the eggs.
With a little creativity and trickery you can work your hens out of eating eggs instead of culling them.
Newest Arrivals
Our flock of chickens grew this week. Four new arrivals, 2 Welsummer and 2 Blue Wyandotte pullets were added to the coop. I hadn’t really planned on adding more hens this early, but when I realized some of my girls were getting on in years, slowing down their egg production, and my friend and chicken breeder Larry had 3-month old’s in the breeds I was thinking about, the plan sped up by a few months.
I’ve never really been interested in the plain production breeds like Leghorns, Barred Rocks or Rhode Island Reds. I want hens that are colorful, not only in their feathers, but also in their eggs. I already have Americana’s that lay blue-green eggs, and Black Cochin’s and New Hampshire’s that lay light brown eggs. The only thing missing was a breed that lays the dark chocolate brown eggs, like those Cadbury chocolates wrapped in shiny gold paper.
There are only two breeds that lay such dark brown eggs—Marans and Welsummer’s. Marans tend to be a little pricey for egg layers and relatively hard to come by, but Welsummer’s are more common. They are a Dutch breed…a combination of several breeds really. But, over time they have been refined and standardized by poultry breeders who took a fancy to them as soon as they were imported. Through selective breeding they have become a nice temperate addition to farm flocks, and the dark brown eggs they lay are an added bonus.
(Welsummer hens)
The Blue Wyandotte is a variety of the Wyandotte breed, meaning they are a “color” of the breed. Wyandotte’s come in a several different colors from golden and silver laced, to white, black and buff. There are even Columbian, partridge and silver penciled giving any poultry lover a wide range of colors and feather patterns to choose from.
Wyandotte’s are an American breed used for both egg production and meat. Although I like them for their solid medium brown eggs, I also think they are just what a chicken should be…plump, fluffy and fun to watch scratching in the garden.
(Blue Wyandotte Hen)
Right now they are housed in six foot long wire caged that was used when we raised meat rabbits. The cage will keep them safe at this young age, away from circling hawks and feral cats, and allow the other chickens to get use to new additions. Although I don’t think Sophia (our goose) is to keen on the idea of more chickens in the coop.
So…in a few months the flock will add a wonderful dark brown color to my daily collection of farm fresh eggs.
Breakfast can’t get any better than that!
Little Bits, Big Meal
Little bits of anything are often forgotten about or viewed as not useful. But at our house little bits mean we not only use up food that might go to waste in other homes, but we also put a wonderfully satisfying meal on the table. Take the quiche and peach popover above. It was made with two slices of bacon, two mushrooms, a 1/4 of onion thinly sliced, left over half and half cut with some milk to make the needed amount, eggs from our hens and a pie crust. The extra pie dough was rolled out big enough to hold 1/2 a peach sliced and tossed in sugar and spices. The rest of the peach was eventually chopped and sprinkled over the vanilla ice cream that accompanied the popover. The whole meal used small amounts of many things to make one deliciously filling meal after a long day of work on the farm.
So…the next time you are tempted to toss those little bits, don’t. Find a way to use them. Little bits of meat and veggies can be sliced and tossed over a salad. Or, if you can’t find a way to use them now, freeze them to be used in hearty soups chalk full of veggies and meat, or put them in stews and create a belly filling supper perfect for the coming cold weather months.
Winter Meat Birds
Five weeks ago our winter batch of meat birds arrived, a replacement batch for the ill-fated group that ended up being a nice meal for a mama opossum and her babies instead of us. Fortunately this batch has been uneventful, just growing big and doing what meat birds do—eat, drink and poop…lots of poop.
We usually raise two batches each year, but now that Brianne is off at college I’m figuring out how to live, cook and farm as a single person. If I raise them up to about 6 pounds I can cut them in half, which will give me 30 meals. But, if I quarter them or cut them into parts I can make those 15 birds go even farther.
Raising fall birds is a nice option in our area. The weather is warm enough that the chicks only need a heat lamp at night, and since we don’t have the searing heat of summer the chicks grow easily without any stress from the heat. We do have to pay closer attention to the weather though. A sudden cold snap makes it necessary to keep chicks warm all day long until they are feathered out.
With the festivities and cooking of Thanksgiving over I concentrated on some needed farm chores. Gates were moved and fixed. The barn was cleaned. And, the chicks were moved out of the garage and into the barn where they will stay until butchering time. Fence panels that will contain the birds were put up, straw laid down, automatic waterers installed, feeders set up and finally, two at a time, the chicks were moved.
The 8-foot by 8-foot pen will allow the chicks more room to move around, but will also protect them from the elements.
The hens and goose were not quite sure about their new roomies, but by later afternoon everyone had gotten use to each other and the meat birds had settled in nicely.
By the time Christmas rolls around I’ll have a freezer full of chicken.
The late afternoon was spent cooking down the turkey carcass to make batches of meat and broth, the beginnings of soup, casseroles or pot pies. The remains of the breast meat was cut away and saved for sandwiches and salads, while two large stock pots bubbled on the stove full of bones, herbs, veggies and broth. When the pots had simmered for more than 30-minutes the carcass parts were placed on a cutting board to cool before the meat was stripped away. Once cleaned, the carcass had yielded more than six cups of meat. Stored in 3-cup freezer containers the turkey and broth will be the perfect amount for small-batch cooking.
It always amazes me how much meat can be cleaned for those simmered down bones.
Simple Wealth and Winter Preps
September is here, folks! I can hardly believe it is just one month until my beloved October. The thought of it makes my heart swell.
This long Labor Day weekend started early with a steel gray glimmer of morning and a breeze that glided over me, soft and cool; the first gentle kiss of autumn. It was still in the 50’s when I ventured outside in my sweatshirt and muck boots, watering and feeding chickens and rabbits. There are no leaves falling yet, but the world is changing, moving ever so slightly from one season to another. You can feel it in the sunrise. You can feel it in the change from our blistering August heat wave. You see it in the evening as the sun sets farther to the south and the rising moon throws a golden cast over the farm.
We are picking tomatoes and zucchini almost daily, little shards of insurance for a small family. A pint-sized mason jar filled with fresh herbs sits on the windowsill sending a wave of fragrance through the house. My lone sunflower is beginning to bloom, tall and big and yellow; the last survivor from marauding birds and scavenging chickens, and a few apples hang on the tree growing fat and juice, until they are plucked off and put into a pie or cobbler or spice bread. Some of the older hens that were beyond being good layers and a rooster were taken to the feed store to be given away. I’ll hold on to the few good layers I have until spring then think about increasing the flock. Production is a big deal on our little farm and those who can’t pull their weight in stocking the kitchen don’t stay around to waste precious feed. Sounds harsh I know, but that’s the reality of farm life.
Winter preps are still at the forefront of my mind. I feel an urgency about getting this farm settled for a long winter, maybe even more so than in past years. The agricultural meteorologist, the one all the farmers listen to for weather forecasts, is calling for an El Nino winter; and that can mean only one thing — RAIN — and lots of it. Making sure the farm is set to handle such storms drives my actions.
The new batch of meat birds is slatted to arrive next week and now that the opossum family has been caught and relocated I am more excited than ever to get some meat in the freezer. I still have a few half chickens left. There are also packages of lamb, the ducks we raised in spring and containers of soup base and cooked down chicken carcasses that can be made into casseroles and potpies. The pantry is pretty well stocked with dry goods like beans, lentil, rice, barley and pasta; all the makings for a hearty and warm winter meal; and with Brianne off to college even the smallest amount of meat and veggies seem to go farther. Even with all this, I’ll make a stock up trip to fill in and take advantage of prices before we see increases caused by this summers’ drought.
The greenhouse now has a roof, a barrier from the wind and rain. The plan is to finish the walls this weekend. With any luck the whole thing will be done in a week or so and I can begin planting root veggies and salad greens in the fall garden. Maybe I’ll even try a few potted veggies that can stay in the greenhouse over winter. One of the nice things about living in an area where you can garden 365-days is that we do not have the pressure to “get seeds in the ground” like other areas of the country.
I still have firewood to bring in and the house to switch over from summer to winter. My list is made and it’s thrilling to cross things off. By the time wood smoke circles the farm we’ll be ready, mark my words. This will be a warm and comfy farm house, glowing and smelling of winter.
I am smiling, folks, for these are all small banks of insurance. Money may be nice, but it can’t beat a warm stew fresh from the farm. Now that’s simple wealth!
27- Days to Change the Way We Eat
I once read that it takes 27 days to change a habit, either good or bad. 27-days to stop smoking, start a diet and stick to it, or make exercise part of your daily routine. In 27 days the “new” habit has formed in the brain and becomes second nature, you do it without thinking.
So why am I telling you all this?
Because today is Day One of a 27-day family challenge to eat more locally, buy locally and consume locally. It’s a personal challenge I know, but one I hope many of our readers will champion as well. If we stop and look (or research) what is available in our county I think we would all be surprised at how many of the ingredients needed to make a meal can be found in close proximity to where we live. I have to admit that even I sometimes forget what can be found just a few miles from my home.
The challenge will mean a lot of cooking at home, eating harvested animals, shopping in the pantry (or the garden), at farm stands and Farmer’s Markets, and much more. What it doesn’t mean though is giving up on condiments, spices, tea and staples I already have on hand like flour, sugar, olive oil, rice, beans and pasta. I’ll document our progress, and be honest about the pit falls: added work of making bread on a Tuesday after work, the challenge of gardening with a full-time job and a kid in school and the sabbatical my hens sometimes go on, leaving us with no eggs for days.
It will also mean a few sacrifices (swearing off Dr. Pepper and Mint Chip ice cream for starters, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.). We’ll be eating within 60 miles of our home (the size of our county) and sometimes 60 feet from our own back door for the next 27 days; and not for the reasons you may be thinking of – supporting the local farm economy, increase in transportation costs of goods, factory farms, high intensity animal feedlots…that kind of thing. Nope, none of that.
We’re doing this for a lot of reasons, but mostly because we want to make a permanent change to the way we think about our food. We want to jumpstart our dedication to growing even more of our own food and buying what we don’t as locally as possible. I want to know how much effort it will take and how much cheaper (or expensive) it is to truly eat where we live. So, for the next several weeks I’ll be writing about all the gory details and shining triumphs, along with some of the recipes I used just to entice all of you to jump on board.
Here are a few of our ground rules:
- Shop at home first (freezer, larder, pantry, garden, barn).
- When needed, shop local farm stands and farmers markets.
- Buy, barter or trade for local meat we don’t raise ourselves.
- Bake from scratch (wheat is a CA crop, but not farmed locally. It comes from 100 miles away, but is milled into flour 50 miles away. Works for me).
- Source relatively local dairy products.
- Cold turkey on candy, chips, sodas, fast foods, etc. (although these are not big items at our home, just the idea of it may kill Brianne).
- Eat three square meals a day, plus snacks.
- Staples, condiments, oils, spices and seasonings already on hand are allowed.
- Drink at least ½ gallon of water a day.
- Walk at least 3 miles day.
Sound like a plan? Stay tuned to see how we faire.
A Sad Mid-Week Discovery
We’ve had a busy week so far and tonight was the first time it seemed like we could relax a bit while going about the nightly chores. It was nice outside. We’ve had a strange winter of fluctuating temperatures, rain and wind storms. One day its cold and winter like, the next the thermometer shoots up to 70 and somewhere in between the winds from the east start to howl. My poor fruit trees don’t know whether to flower or go dormant and a few bulbs are already pushing their heads up out of the ground.
But tonight, it was temperate with just a hint that colder weather wanted to push in.
With a cup of tea in my glove clad hand I made my rounds from coop to hutch to pen and through the garden, checking on feed, replacing water, collecting eggs, making plans. It was during this stroll that I realized I hadn’t seen my four little Old English hens or our old black Cochin. I looked in all their favorite hiding places and places where they go to rest and lay eggs, but none were there. I thought that maybe they had flown over into my neighbor’s yard so I headed to the fence and took a peak over. Nope. Read the rest of the story »
City Farmers under Attack – Again!
I recently found this article “Are “DIY Slaughter Hobbyists” Destroying Your City?” in an Oakland, CA newspaper and wanted to share it with you.
We all know that the practice of farming in the city, homesteading a suburban lot, growing your own food on a condo balcony, is not everyone’s cup-of-tea, but to promote the practice as harmful and elitist is nothing short of ludicrous. I’m sure many people have had run-ins with uneducated neighbors, people who are ignorant about where their food comes from and how it is produced, and wish to remain that way. But, exactly how does raising animals qualify as harmful? And, when exactly did growing your own food, for food safety sake become an elitist activity that separates us from the less fortunate people in our neighborhoods. It begs the question.
Up until WWII it was commonplace for city dwellers with any amount of property to have a small flock of hens for eggs and meat, a garden for fruits and vegetables, all the while making soap and candles in their backyards to boot. The practice was even encouraged by city fathers as a way for people to eat better and more regularly without impacting or over burdening the food supply.
But now commonsense and self-reliance has left most people. And what has filled the void is dependence on others to feed us, ignorance about where food comes from and how it gets to us, but most of all, complete laziness about taking care of one’s self. Most people would rather put the responsibility of care for their family on other people – farmers to grow the food, processors to make into something that can be thrown in a microwave because people no longer cook, trucking companies to get the food within a few miles of them and a government to give it away for free when people no longer feel like fending for themselves.
Backyard farming is not a practice that should be run out of our neighborhoods, but one that should be encouraged and supported, not only by our fellow neighbors, but by city governments as well. There is so much good, besides good food that can come out of backyard farming, like education and the interconnectedness of man and animals and plants, connection with the natural world, healthy exercise, and an understanding of how our small farm fits into the bigger picture of world agriculture.
Fortunately for me my neighbors are kind, understanding and often times curious about what we do and why we do it, which has led to many great conversations and even a few new flocks of chickens on the street. Even so — I think I’ll give them a carton of eggs just to be safe.
Uncle Sam Wants YOU to Raise Chickens!
Or at least he did during WWI.
That’s right folks; the government encouraged every American to keep chickens for eggs and meat. Backyard chicken raising was touted as a patriotic duty as well as a business venture that would help bring back high quality small flocks.
In the early part of the last century poultry magazines were as popular as today’s tabloid trash. Our population was closer to its agricultural roots than they are today and poultry magazines offered readers an array of photos, stories, how-to and ads geared for the large poultry raising audience.
The premise was… Read the rest of the story »
The Future of Food Safety
Looking Into Not-Too-Distant Future, Joel Salatin Sees the Spectre of Animal Rights Haunting Small Farms
Dear SH.com Readers, I found this piece, based on an article from Good Housekeeping, on another website and wanted to share it with you. I don’t know what your experiences have been or what your thoughts might be concerning this issue. Agree or Disagree. But, it certainly is food for thought – pardon the pun – and something we may very well have to deal with in the future.
Believe it or not, there’s a food issue lurking out there beyond food rights and food safety. Joel Salatin, the Virginia farmer-author-activist is worried that that next issue is animal rights. He’s already seeing evidence of it at Polyface Farm, his own farm in the Shenandoah foothills. During a tour of his farm Saturday for 150 attendees as part of a fundraiser for the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund, Salatin said he’s been reported to his local animal control officials by area residents who have had concerns about the treatment of his cattle.
In one case, someone reported him because one of his steers was limping. In another case, he was reported because his cattle were “mobbing”–hanging out close to each other as a herd in a new pasture. In each instance, “We had to spend two days with local vets explaining what we do”…and he was off the hook.
His view of animal rights as an emerging issue for owners of sustainable farms rates a chapter in his upcoming book, Folks, This Ain’t Normal: A Farmer’s Advice for Happier Hens, Healthier People, and a Better World. It’s due out in early October.
During the Saturday farm tour, Salatin wondered aloud what other problems the animal rights people might find at his farm. He pointed out how, during recent heavy rains, the chickens (who stay outside in mobile structures) got pretty wet, which isn’t unusual. “We have days when our chickens are out here in the rain and cold and shivering. I know there are people who would like to go out and buy them L.L. Bean dog pillows.” Read the rest of the story »
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