Scraps for Chicks

Our chickens really enjoy escaping from the chicken castle every chance they get. They love spending as much time as possible foraging in the yard, overturning rocks, looking for bugs, and picking at leaves and other left over garden veggies. The really interesting thing that we noticed is that when they "escape" they do it in the same order every time. This must have to do with the pecking order in the flock but it's kind of cute.

Today they got a real treat, apple scraps left from an apple crisp. Our apples have been dropping from the tree and I have to keep them picked up before the chickens get them, so when I put a big bowl of peels and cores they all began consuming them with zest! Between the chickens that the compost our garbage can is pretty empty these days, unfortunately the garbage bill does not go down just because the can has only one or two bags in it. I does go up though if it's too heavy. Oh well, we're certainly doing our part for the planet and our family...

Two Eggs Per Day

Two of our hens are earning their keep now and we are getting two eggs almost every day now. I finally figured out which of the other hens started laying last weekend. It turned out to be our barred rock hen Phoebe! So now both of our dark colored hens is laying and it looks like our golden sex-link hen "Goldie" should be next. She is the second oldest of the five hens and her comb is starting to get a little redder.

Our Dominique hen Sadie is laying pretty brown eggs, and today's egg was the biggest yet. Phoebe's eggs are still pretty small and a lighter color brown with some mottling. Yesterday we gave our son a dozen eggs and we have a dozen in the refrigerator after todays collection. We used up the last of the store bought white eggs this week so not it's self sufficiency time for us. At least as far as eggs go.

Harvest Time

This time of year when the season changes from summer to autumn, there are many things to do around the house and yard. This morning for example I got a semi early start and headed out to pick huckleberries from the other variety we have in the garden. These berries are more oval in shape compared to the other bush we have which resemble a small blueberry. I like this variety because the berries are a little bigger and they taste great! I picked for about two hours and got almost all the ripe berries from one of the two bushes. I will have to get out again tomorrow and pick the other one.

The thing about huckleberries is that they don't all ripen at the same time, so you have to keep going out to pick the ripe ones about once a week until they are all picked. This makes for many hours of tedious picking; it's no wonder that they are so expensive in the stores.

After I finished with the berries I decided to check on the chickens to see if they had laid any eggs, and I was happy to see that there was one egg waiting to be plucked from the box. I also noticed that a pear had fallen so I picked it up and added it to my collection. We are going to have a bunch of apples and some more pears to pick soon. I might have to make an apple pie or a pear crisp soon. The rhubarb is also about ready to pick again. I didn't get to the first picking in time, so I don't want to miss this one.


After lunch I packed up our rooster Junior so I could take him to a person that wanted a rooster. He has been increasingly noisy and it was time for him to go. So we are down to five hens now. After I got home I headed out to work in the yard some more and noticed all the girls clucking more than usual. I think they miss their man chicken.

Later on I decided to pick the squash since the vines are all covered with mildew. The squash was grown from some seeds I saved a couple of years ago, and I had no idea they would even grow. To my surprise, every seed sprouted and we have enough squash for several meals. I like the cooked with butter and salt and pepper, Terri prefers butter and brown sugar on hers.

Well that's my Saturday for now. Happy Autumn everyone.

Egg Update

Eleven days ago one of the hens started laying. The eggs started out really small and got a little bigger each day. We got an egg Sunday and Monday, then she took a break for two days before starting again. The next two days the eggs were bigger and one even had two yolks! Saturday morning Terri scrambled up the first four eggs for breakfast, so good.

After laying late on Saturday, Sadie took Sunday off and then has given us an egg the past three days in a row. The last two days the eggs are about the same size as the last store bought eggs.

So eight eggs in the first eleven days of laying is pretty good. It's time for some of the others to get with the program. Last week I started to mix the starter feed fifty-fifty with Purina layer pellets and I also put some oyster shells in a dish in the run.

Our First Egg

Today, when I went to feed and water the chicks I peeked into the coop and noticed that the nesting boxes both had big depressions indicating that they had gotten some use, so I decided it was time to put a wooden egg into each box so they really got the idea that both boxes should be used.  When I went in the house one of our hens was making some louder then usual clucking sounds and when I went to put the eggs in the boxes, Sadie our Dominique hen was in one of the boxes so put an egg in the unused box and a few minutes later when she got out Terri noticed that she had laid her first egg.

That's me below holding the cute little brown egg that was still warm, I went right inside an put it in the refrigerator. To the left is a picture of our first egg before we plucked it from the box and replaced it with the wooden version.

Sadie is the oldest of the hens, I think she was about 3 weeks old when I picked her from the brooder full of chicks. Goldie was about two weeks old when I brought her home so maybe she will be next. We are so excited right now, and happy that these hens are finally "earning their keep."

Man versus Mole

In our area, moles in the lawn and garden are pretty common. Each year we get visits from these subterranean pests and each year we set traps and hope they find them. We usually get only one a year to poke his little snout into the jaws of death. This year, we started out with the same tactic without any success, so one night in mid August, we noticed a new mound in our front yard and decided to try something new for us. We had heard of others using a garden hose to encourage the mole to show his snout, so we thought we would give it a try.

We turned on the hose and shoved it into the newest mound and the water started backing up out of the hole, so we tried the next one and the water kept flooding into the hole. After a few minutes I notices the grass moving and sent Terri to fetch the pitchfork. While she was gone I kept the water going and watched as the unwanted visitor tried to escape the flow. When Terri returned with the pitchfork I stabbed the ground where the movement was and finally out of the ground on the end of the fork was a fat little mole. I poked him a few more times to ensure he would actually die and left him in a bucket overnight to be sure.

This morning, we again noticed some new mounds in the yard and thought we would try again. This time I came prepared with hose and fork. After alternating between the two newest holes with no luck, I tried a smaller one and it took water well and in a few minutes the mole showed himself in the first hole we tried to flood and I quickly stabbed him with the pitchfork and lifted him out of the hole.

Hopefully these are the last two for the year, they really make a mess of the grass and garden areas.

Harvest Time

In our little yard, we have raspberries, rhubarb, blueberries, huckleberries, apples and pears as permanent plants. Sadly the blueberries are all gone, but it's time to pick huckleberries! Last year the neighborhood peacocks ate every last berry, so this year I bought a roll of chicken wire and put a fence around the three bushes and that's keeping them away. Last weekend I picked about a pound of the dark little orbs and today there are more ready to pick. Later this month or in early October the other two plants should be ready to pick and then we'll have more huckleberries than we can shake a stick at.

Some of our apples are beginning to ripen too and we took a small bag of them to our daughter and son-in-law yesterday. They look pretty nice this year, probably due to the warmer than usual temps this summer.

Finally, we planted Quinault strawberries this spring and they are just starting to produce some small to medium sized red berries. Interestingly, the runners sent out by the plants also have berries on them. I don't recall that ever happening before.