It's so hard in the spring, walking into the feed stores and the local Wilco farm store and seeing the big brooders full of cute, fuzzy, peeping chicks. So cute! So tempting! So far, I've resisted the urge to even touch the little balls of fluff, let alone purchase any, but it's like some low-level addiction. I've wanted to increase my flock again anyway...but I'm not sure I want to explain it to my husband.
Well, as is often the way, nature took care of it for me! My game hen cross, who has the not-very-matronly name of Racer X, decided last week that spring had sprung, and that meant she needed to have babies. She stopped laying, started sitting, and is now a big puffed-up ball of hissing feathers whenever I open the coop door. Poor sad little girl keeps switching nests to find the one with the biggest pile of eggs, and I keep stealing the eggs. Right now she's sitting on three golf balls and looking pretty smug about it.
I emailed the gal who gave me Racer X last year, and she brought me half a dozen fertile eggs. Tomorrow we'll reassemble the brooding pen and nest box, install Racer X, and then slip the eggs under her at night. Hopefully in three weeks we'll have a little flock of puffballs running around! The eggs are from a blue cochin father and a buff orpington mother, so I have no idea what they'll look like as chicks or as adults, but they're two of my favorite breeds, so it really doesn't matter!
Showing posts with label chickens. Show all posts
Showing posts with label chickens. Show all posts
Friday, March 5, 2010
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Eggsactly.
(Wow, time flies when you're working on Holiday things and indoor crafts instead of tending the garden! Didn't mean for two months to slip by without an update!)
This holiday season, I did as I always do: I baked and cooked myself into a complete frenzy. Every year I throw a big party for friends and family, and as part of it, I cook good food and confections and baked goods and feed everyone until they waddle out the door, and then some. And this year, I had my girls to provide fresh eggs for absolutely everything I did! And oh, do they make a difference. Between those and my discovery this year of King Arthur Flours, I think I did about as well as I've ever done at most of my goodies, especially the divinity...which is just egg whites and sugar to begin with!
But if you don't have ready access to hard-working chickens in your own back yard, how do you ensure you have the freshest, healthiest, best eggs possible? With all the choices on the market today, it's something of a mystery to most shoppers. Some of the labels you might think actually meant something, like "cage-free", don't really amount to much.
Where Eggs Come From
First, you should know how the majority of large-scale egg farmers operate. In general, large-scale farms (like those that produce your basic, uninteresting dozen eggs you'd pick up at a store) use battery cages. This means the birds are stuffed in wire cages, inside a building with no fresh air or sunshine, up to 8 hens in a single cage. They have no room to lay down, stretch their wings, nest, or perch. They have a mere 67 square inches (smaller than a single sheet of letter-size paper) per bird. And that's how they live, day in, day out. In addition, many producers cut off the beaks of their hens to prevent the pecking that would likely result from these cramped conditions. Some also regulate egg production by forcing the birds to molt on the farmer's schedule, by withholding food. This weakens the birds' immune systems, and actually causes some to starve to death.
Sounds great, doesn't it?
And what happens to the male chicks that hatch out of the system? Given that about half a clutch of eggs will result in male chickens, that's a lot of boys. Boys don't lay eggs. Where do they go? You might think they're raised to adulthood for meat, but it isn't so. In general, they are gassed to death, which although sad, seems to me to be at least painless. One of the more gruesome practices is the newer technique of pitching the baby males into a large grinder, which results in (theoretically) instantaneous death. Death by garbage disposal. Neat.
Note: While most males in the egg producing farms are killed, about 2/3 of females in the meat producing farms are also killed, so they don't get off the hook either.
So. If you decide as I did that those conditions are deplorable, and decide to support a more humane way of getting your eggs, what do you do? Of course some of us decide to raise our own birds, but not everyone has the space, time, money, or inclination to do so, and that's fine. Where do you go to buy eggs, then? How do you decipher the Egg Lingo? This guide isn't all-inclusive, but maybe it'll help some:
Age of Eggs
Most eggs will keep 5-7 weeks, even when purchased from the grocery store. Commercially produced eggs are usually washed, which removes their protective bloom and can in some cases drive bacteria into the eggs themselves. However, they're also usually sanitized, which farm eggs are typically not. Mother Earth News did a study in the 70's on unwashed farm eggs, and showed that they last in the refrigerator for literally months. Problem is...how old are the eggs that reach you at the store? Look at the carton. USDA graded eggs are marked with the Julian Date, which is the day of the year on which they were packed. It'll be the last three numbers of a serial code which may include a code for the packing facility. 001 is January 1st, and 365 is December 31st. So if you buy a carton of eggs on February 3rd, and the number on the carton is 003, you know your eggs are about 1 month old before they reached you. If the eggs also have a "Sell By" date, the date will be within 45 days of the pack date, by regulation. After that, you still have 3-5 weeks even by conservative government safety measures to use your eggs.
Me, I rarely have eggs more than a couple of weeks old total in my fridge.
Omega-3 or Enriched Eggs
Changes in the nutritional content of eggs is generally brought about by a change in the feed. Hens with access to their own forage and the ability to eat bugs, weeds, and tidbits of their own choosing have recently been shown to have higher nutritional content in their eggs than hens fed strictly a commercially-produced diet. And claims from egg producers about the nutritional content of their eggs should be viewed rather skeptically. In general, asking the person selling the product for proof is not the best course of action; find third-party testing sources, like consumer advocates, as they don't have a vested interest in the results.
By the way, the color of the egg is determined solely by the breed of the chicken. In the US, most commercial egglaying hens are of a breed that produces white eggs. White eggs are not bleached or altered to achieve that color, and they are no more or less healthy than brown eggs laid by hens raised under the same conditions. I do personally find them to be much less interesting than the rainbow of browns and blues produced by my girls, but that's just aesthetics.
"Other" Living Conditions For Hens
Cage-Free Eggs
So after reading about the cramped battery cages, "cage-free" is better, right? Well, marginally. The hens can probably walk around and stretch their wings, maybe lay down, and interact with more birds. However, they are usually kept in giant warehouses with no access to outside and no fresh air or sunshine, and no population cap. They can be fed pretty much anything including antibiotics, pesticides, drugs, or unhealthy animal byproducts. The cutting of beaks and the forced molting are still allowed. Worst, there's no regulatory agency checking to insure eggs marked "cage-free" actually come from uncaged hens.
Free-Range/Roaming Eggs
These girls are a step up again. They can walk and stretch, lay down, and interact with one another. They usually have some access to outside. But like the cage-free girls, there's no regulatory agency ensuring these standards are met, and there is no actual requirement for access to the outdoors. Still no feed restrictions, and beak cutting and forced molting are still allowed.
Certified Organic Eggs
This label is actually regulated and earned from third-party auditors (not the farmer, and not the government.) They are required to be uncaged with access to the outdoors, and to be fed an organic vegetarian feed free of antibiotics, drugs, pesticides, and animal byproducts. However, the amount and duration of the outdoor access isn't regulated...a small door accessing a tiny yard far too small for even a fraction of the flock is acceptable. There are no regulations capping population density, though because they're not allowed to use antibiotics, the farmers usually keep the density much lower than for situations where they can use antibiotics. Beak cutting and forced molting? Still okey-dokey.
Certified Humane Eggs
Here the girls must be uncaged, but may or may not have outdoor access. They must have enough room to perform their normal, natural functions such as stretching, preening, roosting, and dust bathing. There is actually a population density cap on these, and the farm is also required to have a certain number of nest boxes and perches. As with organic their feed must be vegetarian and free of antibiotics, hormones, and animal byproducts. Forced molting? Not allowed. Beak cutting, however, is still allowed. Wilcox Farms and Stiebrs Farms both comply with this label. Certified by a third party.
Animal Welfare Approved Eggs
Hens must be uncaged and have continuous access to the outdoors. There are standards for population density, perch availability and nest boxes. Diet as in Organic and Certified Humane eggs. Forced molting and beak cutting are finally a no-no with this label. Bad news? There are no participating producers that currently sell to supermarkets, so you're probably looking for farmer's markets or direct from the farmers on these eggs.
United Egg Producers Certified Eggs
Most egg producers in the US comply with this program, where forced molting is actually disallowed. Certified by third party vendors. No forced molting is about the only difference between this and "regular" eggs, though, as they can still be kept stacked in cages with only 67 square inches of personal space, and have their beaks removed.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again: I'm not a vegetarian, nor an activist, and I don't have any particular agenda. That said, I do think people should be aware of where their food comes from and the effects that result from choices they make at the grocery store. Some people choose to forego eggs altogether, seeing it as a violation of the chickens' animal welfare, and that's fine. I'm not one of them. Some people choose to raise their own chickens. Some will learn to carefully read labels and weigh factors before choosing eggs. Some will support local farmers or neighbors with chickens. And of course many people will continue to purchase the mass-produced eggs that have become a cheap source of nutrition and protein, and that's also fine. Some folks have neither the economic luxury nor the geographic ability to find anything else, either, and they shouldn't be vilified for their limited choices. But that's really the key: knowing your choices, knowing the economic and biological reality, and just thinking about the world around you instead of blindly consuming.
This holiday season, I did as I always do: I baked and cooked myself into a complete frenzy. Every year I throw a big party for friends and family, and as part of it, I cook good food and confections and baked goods and feed everyone until they waddle out the door, and then some. And this year, I had my girls to provide fresh eggs for absolutely everything I did! And oh, do they make a difference. Between those and my discovery this year of King Arthur Flours, I think I did about as well as I've ever done at most of my goodies, especially the divinity...which is just egg whites and sugar to begin with!
But if you don't have ready access to hard-working chickens in your own back yard, how do you ensure you have the freshest, healthiest, best eggs possible? With all the choices on the market today, it's something of a mystery to most shoppers. Some of the labels you might think actually meant something, like "cage-free", don't really amount to much.
Where Eggs Come From
First, you should know how the majority of large-scale egg farmers operate. In general, large-scale farms (like those that produce your basic, uninteresting dozen eggs you'd pick up at a store) use battery cages. This means the birds are stuffed in wire cages, inside a building with no fresh air or sunshine, up to 8 hens in a single cage. They have no room to lay down, stretch their wings, nest, or perch. They have a mere 67 square inches (smaller than a single sheet of letter-size paper) per bird. And that's how they live, day in, day out. In addition, many producers cut off the beaks of their hens to prevent the pecking that would likely result from these cramped conditions. Some also regulate egg production by forcing the birds to molt on the farmer's schedule, by withholding food. This weakens the birds' immune systems, and actually causes some to starve to death.
Sounds great, doesn't it?
And what happens to the male chicks that hatch out of the system? Given that about half a clutch of eggs will result in male chickens, that's a lot of boys. Boys don't lay eggs. Where do they go? You might think they're raised to adulthood for meat, but it isn't so. In general, they are gassed to death, which although sad, seems to me to be at least painless. One of the more gruesome practices is the newer technique of pitching the baby males into a large grinder, which results in (theoretically) instantaneous death. Death by garbage disposal. Neat.
Note: While most males in the egg producing farms are killed, about 2/3 of females in the meat producing farms are also killed, so they don't get off the hook either.
So. If you decide as I did that those conditions are deplorable, and decide to support a more humane way of getting your eggs, what do you do? Of course some of us decide to raise our own birds, but not everyone has the space, time, money, or inclination to do so, and that's fine. Where do you go to buy eggs, then? How do you decipher the Egg Lingo? This guide isn't all-inclusive, but maybe it'll help some:
Age of Eggs
Most eggs will keep 5-7 weeks, even when purchased from the grocery store. Commercially produced eggs are usually washed, which removes their protective bloom and can in some cases drive bacteria into the eggs themselves. However, they're also usually sanitized, which farm eggs are typically not. Mother Earth News did a study in the 70's on unwashed farm eggs, and showed that they last in the refrigerator for literally months. Problem is...how old are the eggs that reach you at the store? Look at the carton. USDA graded eggs are marked with the Julian Date, which is the day of the year on which they were packed. It'll be the last three numbers of a serial code which may include a code for the packing facility. 001 is January 1st, and 365 is December 31st. So if you buy a carton of eggs on February 3rd, and the number on the carton is 003, you know your eggs are about 1 month old before they reached you. If the eggs also have a "Sell By" date, the date will be within 45 days of the pack date, by regulation. After that, you still have 3-5 weeks even by conservative government safety measures to use your eggs.
Me, I rarely have eggs more than a couple of weeks old total in my fridge.
Omega-3 or Enriched Eggs
Changes in the nutritional content of eggs is generally brought about by a change in the feed. Hens with access to their own forage and the ability to eat bugs, weeds, and tidbits of their own choosing have recently been shown to have higher nutritional content in their eggs than hens fed strictly a commercially-produced diet. And claims from egg producers about the nutritional content of their eggs should be viewed rather skeptically. In general, asking the person selling the product for proof is not the best course of action; find third-party testing sources, like consumer advocates, as they don't have a vested interest in the results.
By the way, the color of the egg is determined solely by the breed of the chicken. In the US, most commercial egglaying hens are of a breed that produces white eggs. White eggs are not bleached or altered to achieve that color, and they are no more or less healthy than brown eggs laid by hens raised under the same conditions. I do personally find them to be much less interesting than the rainbow of browns and blues produced by my girls, but that's just aesthetics.
"Other" Living Conditions For Hens
Cage-Free Eggs
So after reading about the cramped battery cages, "cage-free" is better, right? Well, marginally. The hens can probably walk around and stretch their wings, maybe lay down, and interact with more birds. However, they are usually kept in giant warehouses with no access to outside and no fresh air or sunshine, and no population cap. They can be fed pretty much anything including antibiotics, pesticides, drugs, or unhealthy animal byproducts. The cutting of beaks and the forced molting are still allowed. Worst, there's no regulatory agency checking to insure eggs marked "cage-free" actually come from uncaged hens.
Free-Range/Roaming Eggs
These girls are a step up again. They can walk and stretch, lay down, and interact with one another. They usually have some access to outside. But like the cage-free girls, there's no regulatory agency ensuring these standards are met, and there is no actual requirement for access to the outdoors. Still no feed restrictions, and beak cutting and forced molting are still allowed.
Certified Organic Eggs
This label is actually regulated and earned from third-party auditors (not the farmer, and not the government.) They are required to be uncaged with access to the outdoors, and to be fed an organic vegetarian feed free of antibiotics, drugs, pesticides, and animal byproducts. However, the amount and duration of the outdoor access isn't regulated...a small door accessing a tiny yard far too small for even a fraction of the flock is acceptable. There are no regulations capping population density, though because they're not allowed to use antibiotics, the farmers usually keep the density much lower than for situations where they can use antibiotics. Beak cutting and forced molting? Still okey-dokey.
Certified Humane Eggs
Here the girls must be uncaged, but may or may not have outdoor access. They must have enough room to perform their normal, natural functions such as stretching, preening, roosting, and dust bathing. There is actually a population density cap on these, and the farm is also required to have a certain number of nest boxes and perches. As with organic their feed must be vegetarian and free of antibiotics, hormones, and animal byproducts. Forced molting? Not allowed. Beak cutting, however, is still allowed. Wilcox Farms and Stiebrs Farms both comply with this label. Certified by a third party.
Animal Welfare Approved Eggs
Hens must be uncaged and have continuous access to the outdoors. There are standards for population density, perch availability and nest boxes. Diet as in Organic and Certified Humane eggs. Forced molting and beak cutting are finally a no-no with this label. Bad news? There are no participating producers that currently sell to supermarkets, so you're probably looking for farmer's markets or direct from the farmers on these eggs.
United Egg Producers Certified Eggs
Most egg producers in the US comply with this program, where forced molting is actually disallowed. Certified by third party vendors. No forced molting is about the only difference between this and "regular" eggs, though, as they can still be kept stacked in cages with only 67 square inches of personal space, and have their beaks removed.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again: I'm not a vegetarian, nor an activist, and I don't have any particular agenda. That said, I do think people should be aware of where their food comes from and the effects that result from choices they make at the grocery store. Some people choose to forego eggs altogether, seeing it as a violation of the chickens' animal welfare, and that's fine. I'm not one of them. Some people choose to raise their own chickens. Some will learn to carefully read labels and weigh factors before choosing eggs. Some will support local farmers or neighbors with chickens. And of course many people will continue to purchase the mass-produced eggs that have become a cheap source of nutrition and protein, and that's also fine. Some folks have neither the economic luxury nor the geographic ability to find anything else, either, and they shouldn't be vilified for their limited choices. But that's really the key: knowing your choices, knowing the economic and biological reality, and just thinking about the world around you instead of blindly consuming.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
New Digs for the Chicks!
Since we had a hen go broody several months ago, we've been planning the expansion of the chicken coop. We started with five girls last year, and after acquiring three new girls from a neighbor and having 4 babies hatch from our broody hen's clutch, we now have a total of 12 chickens. The coop that was more than adequate for 5 girls was just a little snug for 12, both in the "bedroom" and the outdoor run. Never fear, husband to the rescue!First, he laid a new, dug-in foundation of cinderblocks to prevent any pests from digging into the coop easily. Given the hardness of our all-clay soil, I'd be surprised if anything could dig under the coop in one night even without the blocks in the way, but doesn't hurt to be safe. Then we moved the entire coop, chickens and all, using a hand truck and a lot of heaving and cussing. Fortunately, we only had to slide it over by the length of the coop.
After the coop was moved, Todd built a new run for the outside. He left the original coop roofed over, and the new run has a roof made of sturdy galvanized chicken wire. It more than doubled the fenced-in run space the girls have. Since we leave them in the run more often than not, we wanted to be sure they had adequate space to get away from one another and roam, and a place for me to throw treats and entertainment (it's amazing what an entire uprooted cauliflower plant does for the activity level of the girls!)
Then he started in on the "bedroom". Our original design was nice, with the nest boxes and roosts enclosed up above an open area on one side of the coop. It left more floor space "outside" that way, but it had a couple of inherent flaws. First, the girls' exit door into the run flipped up instead of to the side. Being short, that presented a problem to me, given that it was over halfway up from the floor and I sometimes had a hard time latching it open at the top. And since it was up high, we had to have a ramp in the coop for the girls to climb up to their "bedroom", which took up space and presented a lovely platform for poo-collecting. However, the biggest problem was cleaning the inside area; in order to clean the floor of the roosting area, we had to flip open the entire back of the coop, remove the nest boxes and roosts, and shovel it out. Big disruption to the girls, and not quick or easy for the humans.
Human Access Door
The door into the run/coop from the outside. The girls know I'm going to open it soon!
The new setup has less "outdoor" space, since the area under the nest boxes and roosts has been enclosed, but they can walk in and out of it all day as they like, so they're not really out any floor space. Since it's siding over chicken wire, the back and sides of the bottom enclosed area can be opened up during the day in the summer for ventilation and closed up again at night to provide added protection from weather and predators. And since the floor of the space is now at the same level as the rest of the coop's floor, and there's a human-sized door to access the area, I can just rake out the floor. Yay! We're also working on a small storage area inside above one of the nest boxes, to store small containers of grit, oyster shell, and scratch.
The "Bedroom"
Two roost bars are natural tree branches from an old lilac of ours, and two are squared wooden rods, so they can choose whichever they like. There are now four nest boxes, the rightmost being the brood box the four little ones standing on it were hatched in. Above that box will be a new storage cupboard. The bottom left, back, and right panels can be removed for ventilation as there is also sturdy chicken wire in place.
The girls have gone from 3 nest boxes, two very short roosts and one longer one to four full-length roosts and 4 nest boxes. When we put them inside it last night, they sat and gabbled loudly, just as if one of them had just laid an egg. Complete confusion! We apparently upset their long-established roosting order, and everyone had to call dibs on a new bit of roost. Two even went back to their old habit of trying to roost in the nest boxes. The four little ones decided they'd be safest up on top of the only flat-topped nest box, and we didn't discourage them last night. Soon that's where the storage area will be, so it'll be a moot point.
The New Wall
The entire roost/nest box area used to only take from the center bar upward. Instead, we've moved the chicken access to the lower left floor, removing the need for a ramp, and we've installed a human-access door to make cleaning easier. Everything can be locked if necessary, but we usually just latch it.
Poor little ones spent all day inside the roosting area, since they're new to the flock and smaller than the other girls. I gave them their old feeder full of adult (high protein, all organic) feed and their old waterer full of clean water. Once they assimilate a little better into the pecking order in a week or two, I'll remove the extra feeder and waterer, but for now I'd rather they not be starving and dehydrated as well as stressed out!
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
The sky is falling!
Seems appropriate...wasn't that an apple falling on Chicken Little's head which set the whole thing off? Two things I have a lot of around here right now: chickens and apples.
The three new chickens are still skittish, but getting settled. The one missing a large patch of her back feathers will launch herself at me when I come into the coop, but not to be mean. No, she wants to sit on whatever bowl of food I've brought out so she can gobble her fair share without any of the others picking on her. The other buff orpington will come out and let me hand feed her and pet her, but she doesn't yet go down and join "my girls". The little game hen, now dubbed Racer X, is speedy, flighty, nervous, and the low girl on the totem pole. I did manage to catch her tonight with little effort, and held her and cooed at her for a while until she calmed down. They'll get there eventually, I'm sure. Meanwhile, one of my original girls has a big owie on the back of her comb, presumably where the other girls were picking on her. Turns out that one likes to sit on my lap and cluck to herself and have her wings scritched. I'm sure my neighbor thinks I'm insane; he used to raise chickens by the hundreds, in a very "factory" mindset, and here I am petting mine.
As for apples, well, we have a lot. There's a tree in the front yard which is obviously old, and had a few sad apples stuck on it last fall when we were moving. It's dropped a ton so far, filling a big cardboard moving box with soft-fleshed yellow apples with a bit of surface scabbing but no sign of anything major. Once peeled, they are perfectly acceptable apples. I made some into a pie last weekend, and though I objected to them on the basis that they are soft and don't hold up well after baking, they did have a nice flavor. They're destined to be applesauce though.
We have even more apples than that, though, because we went over to our old house and raided the Emerald Spire columnar apple tree in the back yard. (My parents now own the house, so it's not as weird as it sounds.) We planted the tree three or four years ago, and it's a beautifully compact tree less than 4 feet wide but about 12 feet tall. The apples are big and green, and those that hadn't fallen yet were also smooth skinned and relatively free of anything resembling scab or insect damage. I did find a few with a worm parked right at the stem end, but they appeared to be doing nothing beyond sitting there in a little webby bit. After bringing them home, I slated them for apple pies and apple cheesecake, because I know they are wonderfully firm and have a nice tart flavor that holds up well in baking. I still have a few left, but I canned a batch of yummy apple pie filling today!
Apple Pie Filling
* 6 quarts blanched apple slices
* 5 1/2 cups sugar
* 1 1/2 cups Clear Jel (a food starch, available at WilCo Farm Stores and some baking stores)
* 1 Tbls cinnamon
* 1 tsp nutmeg
* 2 1/2 cups cold water
* 5 cups apple juice
* 3/4 cup bottled lemon juice
* Ascorbic acid powder, or commercial anti-darkening powder for fruit
* At least one 6+ quart saucepot, two very large bowls, and a strainer or sieve
* Quart jars and lids
Prepare your jars and lids for canning, leave the sterile jars hot and leave the lids in the hot water from scalding. Fill your water canner and set on to heat.
Wash, peel, and core your apples. (If you do this a lot, let me recommend a hand-crank apple peeler-corer. I've had mine a couple of years now, and I love it. LOVE it.) Cut apples into 1/2 inch wide slices, place in a large bowl with anti-darkening solution of 1 tsp ascorbic acid to 1 gallon of water, or solution made according to the directions on the bottle.
Remove slices from the solution, drain well. Bring a large pot of water to boil on the stove. Blanch fruit by placing 6 cups of slices in the water, then return it to boiling. Boil each batch for 1 minute after it returns to a boil, then remove the fruit from the water, drain well, and place in a large bowl. Cover the bowl to keep warm.
After all fruit is blanched, drain the pot of water. In the large pot, combine sugar, Clear Jel, cinnamon, nutmeg, water, and applesauce. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens and begins to bubble.
Add the lemon juice, stir in well, and boil one more minute, stirring constantly.
Remove from heat, immediately fold in the hot blanched apple slices. Fill hot jars with the pie filling, leaving 1 inch head space. Remove air bubbles with a non-metal spatula, wipe jar rims, adjust the lids. Process in a water bath canner for 25 minutes (pints and quarts.) Makes 5-7 quarts depending on how much your apples shrink during blanching.
The three new chickens are still skittish, but getting settled. The one missing a large patch of her back feathers will launch herself at me when I come into the coop, but not to be mean. No, she wants to sit on whatever bowl of food I've brought out so she can gobble her fair share without any of the others picking on her. The other buff orpington will come out and let me hand feed her and pet her, but she doesn't yet go down and join "my girls". The little game hen, now dubbed Racer X, is speedy, flighty, nervous, and the low girl on the totem pole. I did manage to catch her tonight with little effort, and held her and cooed at her for a while until she calmed down. They'll get there eventually, I'm sure. Meanwhile, one of my original girls has a big owie on the back of her comb, presumably where the other girls were picking on her. Turns out that one likes to sit on my lap and cluck to herself and have her wings scritched. I'm sure my neighbor thinks I'm insane; he used to raise chickens by the hundreds, in a very "factory" mindset, and here I am petting mine.
As for apples, well, we have a lot. There's a tree in the front yard which is obviously old, and had a few sad apples stuck on it last fall when we were moving. It's dropped a ton so far, filling a big cardboard moving box with soft-fleshed yellow apples with a bit of surface scabbing but no sign of anything major. Once peeled, they are perfectly acceptable apples. I made some into a pie last weekend, and though I objected to them on the basis that they are soft and don't hold up well after baking, they did have a nice flavor. They're destined to be applesauce though.
We have even more apples than that, though, because we went over to our old house and raided the Emerald Spire columnar apple tree in the back yard. (My parents now own the house, so it's not as weird as it sounds.) We planted the tree three or four years ago, and it's a beautifully compact tree less than 4 feet wide but about 12 feet tall. The apples are big and green, and those that hadn't fallen yet were also smooth skinned and relatively free of anything resembling scab or insect damage. I did find a few with a worm parked right at the stem end, but they appeared to be doing nothing beyond sitting there in a little webby bit. After bringing them home, I slated them for apple pies and apple cheesecake, because I know they are wonderfully firm and have a nice tart flavor that holds up well in baking. I still have a few left, but I canned a batch of yummy apple pie filling today!
Apple Pie Filling
* 6 quarts blanched apple slices
* 5 1/2 cups sugar
* 1 1/2 cups Clear Jel (a food starch, available at WilCo Farm Stores and some baking stores)
* 1 Tbls cinnamon
* 1 tsp nutmeg
* 2 1/2 cups cold water
* 5 cups apple juice
* 3/4 cup bottled lemon juice
* Ascorbic acid powder, or commercial anti-darkening powder for fruit
* At least one 6+ quart saucepot, two very large bowls, and a strainer or sieve
* Quart jars and lids
Prepare your jars and lids for canning, leave the sterile jars hot and leave the lids in the hot water from scalding. Fill your water canner and set on to heat.
Wash, peel, and core your apples. (If you do this a lot, let me recommend a hand-crank apple peeler-corer. I've had mine a couple of years now, and I love it. LOVE it.) Cut apples into 1/2 inch wide slices, place in a large bowl with anti-darkening solution of 1 tsp ascorbic acid to 1 gallon of water, or solution made according to the directions on the bottle.
Remove slices from the solution, drain well. Bring a large pot of water to boil on the stove. Blanch fruit by placing 6 cups of slices in the water, then return it to boiling. Boil each batch for 1 minute after it returns to a boil, then remove the fruit from the water, drain well, and place in a large bowl. Cover the bowl to keep warm.
After all fruit is blanched, drain the pot of water. In the large pot, combine sugar, Clear Jel, cinnamon, nutmeg, water, and applesauce. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens and begins to bubble.
Add the lemon juice, stir in well, and boil one more minute, stirring constantly.
Remove from heat, immediately fold in the hot blanched apple slices. Fill hot jars with the pie filling, leaving 1 inch head space. Remove air bubbles with a non-metal spatula, wipe jar rims, adjust the lids. Process in a water bath canner for 25 minutes (pints and quarts.) Makes 5-7 quarts depending on how much your apples shrink during blanching.
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Birdies Birdies Everywhere
Today was apparently the Day of the Birds around here!
Last week, a gal posted on PDXBackyardChix that she had three "escape artist" hens she needed to rehome. She got an offer in Oregon City, but she lives not too far from me, and that's a long ways from where we are. I happened to see the post then, and offered to take the girls to enhance my flock. They were delivered today; two Buff Orpington girls and a little game hen which apparently lays bluish eggs. They will be added to my three Buff Orpingtons and one Rhode Island Red tonight after dark. (Mama and the four chicks are still sequestered, but they will be integrated eventually as well.)
While I was chatting with the gal and her husband, I happened to glance over and saw a flailing thing in the potted fuschia. I thought at first it was a mouse, but it turned out to be one of the baby House Sparrows which had fallen out of the nest. Its eyes were not yet open, it was not feathered at all, and it was chilled. I picked it up, and with the help of the chicken folks, tried to put it back in the nest. I got it back inside, but after the folks left I watched the Mama Sparrow try to figure out how to get past the baby and into the nest, so I decided to work on it some more.
I got up onto a ladder (NOT my first choice in any event) and took down the nest. I didn't think the lid came off, but the little neighbor girl suggested undoing the main screw on the front, and lo and behold, the lid does come off. The nest box was literally stuffed to the rafters with dry grasses, moss, and feathers. Turns out it was a good thing I opened it up; the actual nest cavity was in the very back of the house, with a little tunnel leading to it. The baby would never have made it back that far, and I'm not entirely certain how it got out. I pulled some of the nesting out, picked up the little escapee, and snuggled it back into the nest with its siblings. I got Todd to rehang it, and I've seen Mama bird coming in and out of the nest, probably trying to figure out how all her babies got upside down and why the house is such a mess. Hopefully all is well inside the nest tonight!
Last week, a gal posted on PDXBackyardChix that she had three "escape artist" hens she needed to rehome. She got an offer in Oregon City, but she lives not too far from me, and that's a long ways from where we are. I happened to see the post then, and offered to take the girls to enhance my flock. They were delivered today; two Buff Orpington girls and a little game hen which apparently lays bluish eggs. They will be added to my three Buff Orpingtons and one Rhode Island Red tonight after dark. (Mama and the four chicks are still sequestered, but they will be integrated eventually as well.)
While I was chatting with the gal and her husband, I happened to glance over and saw a flailing thing in the potted fuschia. I thought at first it was a mouse, but it turned out to be one of the baby House Sparrows which had fallen out of the nest. Its eyes were not yet open, it was not feathered at all, and it was chilled. I picked it up, and with the help of the chicken folks, tried to put it back in the nest. I got it back inside, but after the folks left I watched the Mama Sparrow try to figure out how to get past the baby and into the nest, so I decided to work on it some more.
I got up onto a ladder (NOT my first choice in any event) and took down the nest. I didn't think the lid came off, but the little neighbor girl suggested undoing the main screw on the front, and lo and behold, the lid does come off. The nest box was literally stuffed to the rafters with dry grasses, moss, and feathers. Turns out it was a good thing I opened it up; the actual nest cavity was in the very back of the house, with a little tunnel leading to it. The baby would never have made it back that far, and I'm not entirely certain how it got out. I pulled some of the nesting out, picked up the little escapee, and snuggled it back into the nest with its siblings. I got Todd to rehang it, and I've seen Mama bird coming in and out of the nest, probably trying to figure out how all her babies got upside down and why the house is such a mess. Hopefully all is well inside the nest tonight!
Friday, July 31, 2009
Final Chick Tally
Of the original dozen eggs we put under the broody hen, we have four survivors. To my untrained eye, they appear to be three Rhode Island Reds and a Silver Laced Wyandotte. The only reason I can even guess that closely is that I know I only got RIR and SLW eggs, plus one Aracauna which was easily identified because it was a blue egg, and it didn't hatch.
We had four eggs that simply didn't hatch. No idea why. Mama sat on them religiously, turned them, and protected them. They might have gotten too warm in this week's heat spell. We also had three chicks that almost made it, but didn't quite. Two were apparently stepped on by Mama when they were in the middle of hatching, and one just looks like it didn't quite have the energy to pip all the way around the shell. One egg was crushed on the first night by the klutzy Mama.
All four babies and proud Mama hen are in their own mini enclosure out right next to the main chicken coop. They have their own food and water, their own nest, and a little ramp for getting into the nest. The ramp proved necessary after I went out to check on them last night and found the littlest chick sitting forlornly outside the nest box, peeping and unable to climb into the nest to join its foster Mama and foster siblings. I put the chick under Mama for the night, and we took care of the problem today with the ramp.
Now we have to see if Mama does a good job of raising them, and wait to see whether they're hens or roosters! (Crossing my finger that the SLW is a hen, because I'd like to have one!)
We had four eggs that simply didn't hatch. No idea why. Mama sat on them religiously, turned them, and protected them. They might have gotten too warm in this week's heat spell. We also had three chicks that almost made it, but didn't quite. Two were apparently stepped on by Mama when they were in the middle of hatching, and one just looks like it didn't quite have the energy to pip all the way around the shell. One egg was crushed on the first night by the klutzy Mama.
All four babies and proud Mama hen are in their own mini enclosure out right next to the main chicken coop. They have their own food and water, their own nest, and a little ramp for getting into the nest. The ramp proved necessary after I went out to check on them last night and found the littlest chick sitting forlornly outside the nest box, peeping and unable to climb into the nest to join its foster Mama and foster siblings. I put the chick under Mama for the night, and we took care of the problem today with the ramp.
Now we have to see if Mama does a good job of raising them, and wait to see whether they're hens or roosters! (Crossing my finger that the SLW is a hen, because I'd like to have one!)
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Broody Hen Update
I've had chickens for a little over a year now, from chicks through to full grown hens. When I first acquired my five "sexed" chicks, I hoped all five would be female. With an 80-90% accuracy rate, I knew it was a risk one wouldn't be. I didn't have any idea how to tell if one was a rooster, though. "How do you know?" There's a lot of learning that goes on in raising any animals, and the "Well, how do you know?" is a question I keep running across and then answering.
Early on, I had one chicken that was bigger than the rest, who developed a comb and wattles early, and who, sadly, was the friendliest of the bunch. I harbored suspicions that it was a rooster, though I was hoping it wasn't. My friend Tonya, who has dozens of chickens and is quite an expert, took one look at the photo I sent her and said, "That's a MAN, baby." Sigh. You "know" because of those signs, plus the fact that his legs were thicker early on and had little spots where his spurs would eventually grow. That, and he eventually did crow. Luckily, I found a woman north of me who wanted a Buff Orpington rooster to go with her hens, and who had a Rhode Island Red hen to trade. Sweet! Drove to Woodland, made a clandestine poultry swap in the parking lot of the Safeway feeling like a cop was going to bust me at any moment, and went home with "Eeyore", as my then-three-year-old dubbed the hen.
Fast forward to now. I've heard of hens going broody, and I knew what it meant technically, but I didn't know how to tell if my hens were doing it. Going "broody" means that the hen has decided she has a clutch of eggs she must hatch. For many, it's a bad thing as it means she will stop laying eggs and do nothing but sit about on her nest all day, pecking and making noise at any intruders. I knew you could break a hen of being broody by giving her a bath, or forcing her to stay in a wire cage for several days without a nest to sit on. But I still didn't really know what it LOOKED like.
Then I noticed that every time I opened the egg door on our coop, there was a hen on a nest. And when I reached under her to see if she had eggs there, she pecked at me and hissed. That was new. The next two days, I noticed we only had four hens in the run, and the fifth was sitting determinedly on her golf balls, trying to hatch them. Well. That's broody.
As I mentioned in a previous post, I went in search of fertile eggs for her. Without a rooster, my girls only lay dud eggs. I found a gal through the local Chicken List (http://groups.yahoo.com/PDXbackyardchix) who had fertile eggs and came highly recommended. I'd hoped for some Buff Orpington and maybe some likely frizzle eggs, but no dice. I just had her send me a dozen basically random eggs. Didn't know this, but apparently you can gather the eggs and not have a hen on them for days or even a week, and then incubate them and they'll be fine. That means she can mail them to folks, and she mailed them to me. They showed up all individually wrapped in bubble wrap and packed in styrofoam peanuts, and all were safe and sound and took about 24 hours in transit because she is only 30 or so miles south of me. Getting them under the hen was a little interesting, but once she understood that I was putting something BACK, she seemed perfectly content, even happy about it.
That worked for a day, but on the second morning she went out to get some food and water with the rest of the hens, and then apparently didn't beat one of the other hens back to the full nest. Stupid other hen laid a 13th egg in the full nest, AND made the broody hen sit on the wrong nest. Ack! This resulted in my husband having to pull out the table saw and nail gun and build an Emergency BroodyBox. It's merely a 3'x4' wood frame with no bottom and a wood frame lid, all screened in with chicken wire except the back, where there's a sliding wood panel I can use to access the back of the nest to see how things are progressing. The lid is hinged with some old salvaged door hinges and held shut by a very attractive and high-tech C clamp. The reason it has no bottom is that we put it on our concrete patio and lined it with straw. Nothing can dig through concrete, and it's too heavy for a raccoon to lift. Inside that she has her own water and food (though she of course won't eat or drink much) and she has her own nest box located back against the wood back and sufficiently far away from wire on all sides to prevent raccoons from reaching in.
So far so good with the BroodyBox. Only hitch has been that somehow she managed to actually squash one of the eggs; I reached under her today to check it out and discovered a squashed up shell stuck in her feathers, and the other half of the squashed up shell in the nest. I'm hoping it was the one Stupid Hen laid as the 13th egg, as their shells seem to have been running on the thin side lately anyway, and it would have been an infertile egg. I won't know for sure until 2 1/2 more weeks pass!
Early on, I had one chicken that was bigger than the rest, who developed a comb and wattles early, and who, sadly, was the friendliest of the bunch. I harbored suspicions that it was a rooster, though I was hoping it wasn't. My friend Tonya, who has dozens of chickens and is quite an expert, took one look at the photo I sent her and said, "That's a MAN, baby." Sigh. You "know" because of those signs, plus the fact that his legs were thicker early on and had little spots where his spurs would eventually grow. That, and he eventually did crow. Luckily, I found a woman north of me who wanted a Buff Orpington rooster to go with her hens, and who had a Rhode Island Red hen to trade. Sweet! Drove to Woodland, made a clandestine poultry swap in the parking lot of the Safeway feeling like a cop was going to bust me at any moment, and went home with "Eeyore", as my then-three-year-old dubbed the hen.
Fast forward to now. I've heard of hens going broody, and I knew what it meant technically, but I didn't know how to tell if my hens were doing it. Going "broody" means that the hen has decided she has a clutch of eggs she must hatch. For many, it's a bad thing as it means she will stop laying eggs and do nothing but sit about on her nest all day, pecking and making noise at any intruders. I knew you could break a hen of being broody by giving her a bath, or forcing her to stay in a wire cage for several days without a nest to sit on. But I still didn't really know what it LOOKED like.
Then I noticed that every time I opened the egg door on our coop, there was a hen on a nest. And when I reached under her to see if she had eggs there, she pecked at me and hissed. That was new. The next two days, I noticed we only had four hens in the run, and the fifth was sitting determinedly on her golf balls, trying to hatch them. Well. That's broody.
As I mentioned in a previous post, I went in search of fertile eggs for her. Without a rooster, my girls only lay dud eggs. I found a gal through the local Chicken List (http://groups.yahoo.com/PDXbackyardchix) who had fertile eggs and came highly recommended. I'd hoped for some Buff Orpington and maybe some likely frizzle eggs, but no dice. I just had her send me a dozen basically random eggs. Didn't know this, but apparently you can gather the eggs and not have a hen on them for days or even a week, and then incubate them and they'll be fine. That means she can mail them to folks, and she mailed them to me. They showed up all individually wrapped in bubble wrap and packed in styrofoam peanuts, and all were safe and sound and took about 24 hours in transit because she is only 30 or so miles south of me. Getting them under the hen was a little interesting, but once she understood that I was putting something BACK, she seemed perfectly content, even happy about it.
That worked for a day, but on the second morning she went out to get some food and water with the rest of the hens, and then apparently didn't beat one of the other hens back to the full nest. Stupid other hen laid a 13th egg in the full nest, AND made the broody hen sit on the wrong nest. Ack! This resulted in my husband having to pull out the table saw and nail gun and build an Emergency BroodyBox. It's merely a 3'x4' wood frame with no bottom and a wood frame lid, all screened in with chicken wire except the back, where there's a sliding wood panel I can use to access the back of the nest to see how things are progressing. The lid is hinged with some old salvaged door hinges and held shut by a very attractive and high-tech C clamp. The reason it has no bottom is that we put it on our concrete patio and lined it with straw. Nothing can dig through concrete, and it's too heavy for a raccoon to lift. Inside that she has her own water and food (though she of course won't eat or drink much) and she has her own nest box located back against the wood back and sufficiently far away from wire on all sides to prevent raccoons from reaching in.
So far so good with the BroodyBox. Only hitch has been that somehow she managed to actually squash one of the eggs; I reached under her today to check it out and discovered a squashed up shell stuck in her feathers, and the other half of the squashed up shell in the nest. I'm hoping it was the one Stupid Hen laid as the 13th egg, as their shells seem to have been running on the thin side lately anyway, and it would have been an infertile egg. I won't know for sure until 2 1/2 more weeks pass!
Monday, July 6, 2009
The Random Report
There's a local radio station that plays something called the "Random Report". And it is random, as is their musical selection. Probably explains why I like the station. Anyway, I'm often given to making random reports as well...and they look something like this:
Mint Ice Cream
Verdict - Not very much like storebought mint ice cream, not even like the "All Natural" storebought mint ice cream. It is green, even without additional coloring. I liked it, though I found it took a bit of adjustment. It tastes like a mint plant. Not like mint extract, not like mint candy, but like a mint plant. It's good, but chlorophyll-esque, which might put off some folks. It was soundly rejected by my four year old. Husband liked it, except he spit out the chocolate I added. Best friend tasted it, and proceeded to finish off the remainder of the container, so I assume she also approved. She did comment that the texture was good and smooth. Yay for first ice cream efforts! Next up...fresh strawberry ice cream made with my own strawberries! And then perhaps some rosemary lemon sorbet.
Deer Repellent
The repellent seems to have been a success. Whether it was the "100% Dried Blood" stakes or the spray, there's been no new damage this week. I will re-spray the plants weekly and hope to simply encourage the deer to eat elsewhere. Our neighbor says his garden is pretty much decimated, so while I feel badly about that, it does kind of let me know that I am making the deer pick tastier salad bars. Oh, and the whole idea that the concoction gets better upon ripening in the sun? If by "better" they mean "smells like something ate it, threw it up, rolled in it and then died", that'd be accurate.
Broody Hen
I have a hen who has decided she's going to be a Momma. Without my intervention, this is an impossibility for a couple of reasons. First, we have no rooster, so we have only infertile eggs which will never, ever hatch no matter how long the hen sits on them. And second, she's actually sitting on a couple of golf balls.
Okay, for those of you who don't know chickens, that might need some explanation. Yes, hens do lay eggs without having a rooster present. That's all hens are built for: eating, sleeping, pooping, and laying eggs. Good layers lay approximately one egg per day for several years. Poor layers lay a few a week for several years. They are not smart critters, though...the golf balls are there as a prompt to let them know where to lay their eggs.
Having a rooster present does several things for a flock of chickens including providing some protection from predators, but primarily it's how the eggs become fertile and available for hatching. However, most chickens have been bred to NOT sit on their eggs, so they wouldn't hatch out without help from humans anyway. Every once in a while, though, a hen goes "broody" like mine. She thinks she's building up a pile of eggs to sit on, and she pecks me when I open the egg door to gather the eggs, and refuses to get off the nest. What to do with a broody hen? You can give them a bath and remove them from the coop for a few days, and that usually breaks the broody cycle. You can wait it out, though while they are broody they aren't laying, so if you miss the eggs you'll want to choose another option. Or you can do as I'm attempting to do: give her some actual fertile eggs to sit on and see what kind of a momma she really can be. More reports on this later, if I acquire some eggs while she's still broody.
The Bees Knees
The bees continue to fascinate and amuse me. They have now managed to attach the first three combs nearest the observation window all the way down the window itself. They've got six open bars towards the back they haven't yet touched, and the rest have comb built or being built. Watching them create the comb is really something. The comb is created by young worker bees, who secrete the wax between their bodily plates on their abdomens, and then chew it before packing it into place where it needs to be. Really industrious little geometricians! So far the edges of the combs aren't full, so I can't see exactly what's going to be brood and what's nectar and honey at the moment, but shouldn't be long. I do wish I'd gotten another hive up and going this year, but next year for sure!
One thing I love watching the bees do is "sweep". They get busy on the floor of the hive and make little scooping, kicking motions with their front two legs, sweeping junk and dust out of their way. I am not entirely sure what they're actually trying to accomplish, but it looks for all the world like they're simply sweeping the floor.
Mint Ice Cream
Verdict - Not very much like storebought mint ice cream, not even like the "All Natural" storebought mint ice cream. It is green, even without additional coloring. I liked it, though I found it took a bit of adjustment. It tastes like a mint plant. Not like mint extract, not like mint candy, but like a mint plant. It's good, but chlorophyll-esque, which might put off some folks. It was soundly rejected by my four year old. Husband liked it, except he spit out the chocolate I added. Best friend tasted it, and proceeded to finish off the remainder of the container, so I assume she also approved. She did comment that the texture was good and smooth. Yay for first ice cream efforts! Next up...fresh strawberry ice cream made with my own strawberries! And then perhaps some rosemary lemon sorbet.
Deer Repellent
The repellent seems to have been a success. Whether it was the "100% Dried Blood" stakes or the spray, there's been no new damage this week. I will re-spray the plants weekly and hope to simply encourage the deer to eat elsewhere. Our neighbor says his garden is pretty much decimated, so while I feel badly about that, it does kind of let me know that I am making the deer pick tastier salad bars. Oh, and the whole idea that the concoction gets better upon ripening in the sun? If by "better" they mean "smells like something ate it, threw it up, rolled in it and then died", that'd be accurate.
Broody Hen
I have a hen who has decided she's going to be a Momma. Without my intervention, this is an impossibility for a couple of reasons. First, we have no rooster, so we have only infertile eggs which will never, ever hatch no matter how long the hen sits on them. And second, she's actually sitting on a couple of golf balls.
Okay, for those of you who don't know chickens, that might need some explanation. Yes, hens do lay eggs without having a rooster present. That's all hens are built for: eating, sleeping, pooping, and laying eggs. Good layers lay approximately one egg per day for several years. Poor layers lay a few a week for several years. They are not smart critters, though...the golf balls are there as a prompt to let them know where to lay their eggs.
Having a rooster present does several things for a flock of chickens including providing some protection from predators, but primarily it's how the eggs become fertile and available for hatching. However, most chickens have been bred to NOT sit on their eggs, so they wouldn't hatch out without help from humans anyway. Every once in a while, though, a hen goes "broody" like mine. She thinks she's building up a pile of eggs to sit on, and she pecks me when I open the egg door to gather the eggs, and refuses to get off the nest. What to do with a broody hen? You can give them a bath and remove them from the coop for a few days, and that usually breaks the broody cycle. You can wait it out, though while they are broody they aren't laying, so if you miss the eggs you'll want to choose another option. Or you can do as I'm attempting to do: give her some actual fertile eggs to sit on and see what kind of a momma she really can be. More reports on this later, if I acquire some eggs while she's still broody.
The Bees Knees
The bees continue to fascinate and amuse me. They have now managed to attach the first three combs nearest the observation window all the way down the window itself. They've got six open bars towards the back they haven't yet touched, and the rest have comb built or being built. Watching them create the comb is really something. The comb is created by young worker bees, who secrete the wax between their bodily plates on their abdomens, and then chew it before packing it into place where it needs to be. Really industrious little geometricians! So far the edges of the combs aren't full, so I can't see exactly what's going to be brood and what's nectar and honey at the moment, but shouldn't be long. I do wish I'd gotten another hive up and going this year, but next year for sure!
One thing I love watching the bees do is "sweep". They get busy on the floor of the hive and make little scooping, kicking motions with their front two legs, sweeping junk and dust out of their way. I am not entirely sure what they're actually trying to accomplish, but it looks for all the world like they're simply sweeping the floor.
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