Morgan Doing Guard Duty In Her Raincoat

    Rain! We were only supposed to have a 30% chance of rain, but it has rained pretty much night and day with a few breaks. This morning it looked like it was clearing up so I let Morgan and the chickens out for the day. Oops! The rain started up again and the chickens all went under the house. Morgan was getting soaked, but I couldn't bring her inside. She has to stay on the job and keep the chickens safe.

   I remembered I had a raincoat stored away that would fit Morgan. I have wanted to let her wear the raincoat before, but Kristine always said no... ah... but Kristine is at class. So, I dressed Morgan up in the raincoat and she is still out in the rain watching the dumb chickens.

   Why! Why won't they go back in the coop instead of under the house. Sigh! I took treats out to the coop and called them, but only half of them showed up. Stupid chickens! Oh, dear... I know they aren't stupid. It was my fault. I shouldn't have let them out. Edit: Morgan later dried out in front of the wood stove and is dry and toasty warm. The chickens are in their coop.

   I went searching around for information about chicken and rain. I sure didn't find much. I wanted to find out if chickens have some kind of water repellent oil on their feathers like duck feathers that would enable the chickens to tolerate spending time out in the rain. All I came up with were opinions. I was looking for some factual information, but had to settle for this page as the best of the lot. 

   The neat police (Diane) are going to be checking today to make sure I cleared all the mess off my sewing table. I did neaten up the mess and sorted the stuff into groups that needed to live together. Now some of the mess is messing up the dining room.

   Most of it was painting supplies or cookbooks. The cookbooks are now on shelves and the painting stuff is back out on the window seat with the rest of the building stuff. I can't finish painting until I can leave the windows open, because of Kristine's asthma. We have started tree asthma season, so she is dealing with that now.

   I made chickens soup and biscuits on the wood stove in case the power goes out. Photo of the biscuits tomorrow. 

Peak at the Past

(February 20, 2009)
"Red Tag" means the house is unlivable.
We lived on the next mountain side over from the earthquake
epicenter at Loma Prieta mountain.
Our house flew up in the air and split the foundation.
I remember feeling at the time that San Francisco was
stealing our earthquake.

[2 eggs today]

I wonder if the chickens are going to lay their eggs under the house?

There were two in the coop before I let them out.
Kristine, I promise, if it looks at all possible it might rain
I won't let Morgan and the chickens out.

Ok?

~:>

Smiles

Hen Roo Front And Center

Over time comments have been made about the size of the text in the blog being small and hard to read and comments questioning how to use some of the blog edit tools. Instead of me making the size of my blog larger I think it would be neat for people to learn how easy it is for them to enlarge any web page or word processor text. Take a look at this video, here. Personally I have the zoom out and zoom in tool on my tool bar, but the way I usually enlarge a page is by using the keystrokes at the end of the video.

If you would like to learn how to make a link to a URL like I just did with the "here" in paragraph above then take a look at this video, here. If you are using blogger in draft the edit tool bar will look a little different, but the link tool will say "Link" which makes it easy to find. If you are interested in learning lots more about blogger, you could try out these videos starting, here, or others on YouTube. Or click on Help up at the top of the page next to Sign out. Have fun!

I have been playing around with the edit pages and adding some pages under my header photo. This is kinda fun. I'll have to wait and see how it turns out. I wish I could change the white text to dark green. I'm trying out some of the color changes available, but I haven't found the right one yet. Edit: I just noticed! The titles of the pages turned from white to green! Yay!

Hen Roo has grown a beautiful comb and wattle and wants to be in pictures. She stepped right up and stuck her head in front of the camera. I thought she was going to peck at the camera lens but she just stared and then clucked at me and walked away. I doubt that she lays eggs but she is cute.

Kristine took this photo of Morgan last night. When I saw it I thought the slider was open and she had laid down in the doorway, but Kristine says the slider is closed. Morgan has scooted herself up against the window with her feet in the air. The wheelbarrow is full of wood for the stove. And yes, our Christmas tree is still up because we were going to keep all the Christmas decoration up until Kathleen and family came for a visit. The visit has been postponed, so we will have to pack the decorations away.

A messy table? This photo is here as an incentive for me to get the table cleared off. The plan is for me to be able to post a photo tomorrow of the table all cleared off with my sewing things nicely arranged. So I can sew on the quilt! No wonder I don't sew... I can't even see the sewing machine!

Peek at the Past

(February 19, 2009)
We have weather coming from the North
but I don't think it will be cold enough for snow.
Phooey!

[5 nice clean eggs today]
Rain... everything tucked away dry.

PS:

This is a gardening link about Hugelkultur. It is a neat way to make raised beds using wood, compost, paper, etc. Everybody probably knows about this but me. I just thought it was such a neat idea. I'm going to make some of these beds. I will post about this when I get some of my own photos.

~:>

Smiles

Chickens In The Pen

   The photos in this post will not enlarge because I am trying out using the Thumbs in IPhoto. The Thumbs will take up much less space in Blogspot and will hopefully allow me to post longer without running out of space. For example 40 KB vs 2.1 MB and they upload much faster.

   I have this stupid ear ache that kept me in the house and away from working on the nest boxes. In the first photo the chickens are busily searching around for the pieces of apple, broccoli and lettuce I tossed around in the pen. It was late today when I went out to the coop and added more bedding to the nest boxes and put out treats. The chickens were very noisy today and kept up a constant chatter.

   Then I finished clearing the leaves and debris off the pen roof so the sun can shine in the coop freely and also shine in the pen and dry it out. I shook the plastic bag and called the hens and they all came except for two. The ditzy Dark Brahma and the skittish Wyandotte both didn't have a clue as to where they had left the entrance to the coop. I guess the only way they get home at night is to follow the other chickens. Morgan and I herded the two hens toward the door where I picked them up and put them in the pen. Then I counted up the chickens and kept coming up one short. Sixteen! I finally thought to look in the nest boxes and found this white brahma. Ok! Seventeen!

   All is well. I knew there weren't any eggs in there earlier because I had just put in more shavings. I wondered if she was getting ready for bed or laying an egg? Morgan and I went back to the house for about a half hour.    Surprise! The Light Brahma really did lay an egg. It was almost 5 pm. I knew some of the hens laid in the afternoon, but I didn't realize they laid them so late.

   Success! I found chicken tracks in the wood ash in the tub. I haven't seen them dusting, so I don't know if they just walked around in it or actually had a bath?

Peek at the Past

(February 18, 2009)
Birthday?

[4 eggs today]

~:>
Smiles

Ladder Roost

Ladder roosts for the hens. One project finished today and the start of another accomplished. I do so love it when I actually get something to turn out pretty much the way I imagined it would. The chubby Light Brahma came back in the pen to check and see if I was putting treats down and stuck around for a snack.

   Unfortunately, for the photo she didn't hop up on one of the ladder roosts so I could take a picture. I looked in the tub and checked the wood ash and alas it was still smooth. Phooey! I was hoping to see a bunch of chicken footprints. There were a lot of chicken footprints in the ashes just inside the glass door. So, at least some of the hens are walking on the ash. The eggs were all lovely and clean today. So nice!

   As far as the partitions for the nest boxes go, I managed to crawl around and measure and write down the sizes I need to cut out of the scrap plywood. Tomorrow, I can start by marking up the wood and cutting out the pieces. I found some wooden stakes that I'm going to use to support the partitions. Using the ten+ year old stakes up will save me having to find and cut more wood.

   Since it would be very, very difficult to attach partitions in the middle nest box, I am going to let it remain a communal nest box. Six small nest boxes along with the big one should be more than enough boxes for seventeen hens.

   While I was working out by the coop, I heard what sounded at first like some chickens having a squable up in the trees. But, then I realized that it was the geese on their migration overhead. I got my camera out and tried to get a photo, but they fly at about the same altitude as the airplanes, and I couldn't see them. I tried to upload the video for the sound, but it failed. Whatever that means?

   I saw them here one year. That year it was hot and I was watering, when I heard the geese. I started calling to them and they actually started circling for a short time before they continued on their way. I don't know if they were checking out the water or me making honking noises. I'm pretty sure those are geese up there, but I'm open to other ideas. I searched for a California goose migration map but the closest information I could find for California and geese is this. I did find some hunting sites, but I didn't like all the dead bird photos. And I did find mention of people hunting geese in the San Joaquin Valley, but no mention of geese in February. Maybe these guys are late bloomers.

Peek at the Past

(February 17, 2009)

[8 eggs today!]

One egg was broken.

Clumsy chicken or snack?

~:>

Smiles

Wood Ash In The Chicken Pen

   There are two old screen doors that are kept around the place in case I need to cannibalize a piece of screening or for use as covers for small enclosures I make for chicks or to isolate chickens.

   Instead of building a frame and attaching screening I thought why not just plunk the screen down on top of the container. It all worked out great... the ash went through the screen with a bit of smooshing around and I put all the wood coals, nails and debris in the blue bucket and dumped them nails and all in my little green garden.

   I thought this would be a rather boring photo so I sprinkled some corn on the leaves and called the chickens and Morgan to come decorate the picture. Morgan wants to be up and moving instead of on a down stay.

   I'm not sure what the original use was that the container was made for... water trough? I dug a shallow hole for the tub so it fits snugly and won't tip over when the chickens roost on the edge. Kristine doesn't think the chickens will hop in there and dust bathe. Maybe, yes, no? 

   The wooden frame I nailed together to hold more wood ash is located so the chickens have to step in it on the way to the nest boxes and the roosts. Of course, they may just hop over the ashes. Or maybe use it for more dust bathing? Next time Tom empties the wood stove I will add more ashes.

   

   Everything takes more time than I think it will. I still have to cut the partitions for the nest boxes. I found some roosts that I had stored away and decided to attach them to an old wooden ladder. I got the idea from a photo at, Garden With Chickens, here. I'll cut them shorter to fit the ladder. It would be neat if I got the partitions and the ladder fixed up tomorrow. I hope I get at least one project finished.

Peek at the Past

(February 16, 2009)

The quilt is haunting me...

[5 eggs today]

Morgan ate chicken feed and got a tummy ache last night.

~:>

Smiles

Sun Through The Trees

   Sunshine! The sun was very welcome around here today. I even got myself outside for a bit and worked in the coop cleaning out the nest boxes and making plans. I decided I'm going to close up the tall nest boxes after I divide up the communal boxes. That will give me nine nest boxes and allowing for two chickens per box that should be enough for the seventeen hens.

   I scrounged up scrap wood and nailed together the boards to hold some wood ashes in front of the nest boxes. The hens will have to walk through the ashes to go in and out of the coop. I was going to put ashes down, but Tom had added fresh ashes today and I didn't want to worry about any stray coals starting a fire in the straw.  I am also considering making a screen so I can sift the ashes. That would eliminate the stray hot coal problem.

   Knatolee, Knatolee's World, here and Missy, Little Messy Missy, here made great suggestions in the comments yesterday. Why build a dust box when I already have a large plastic container. We bought it originally to hold our first batch of chicks years ago and it has been sitting out in the shed gathering dust. I hauled the tub over to the coop so it would be at hand tomorrow.

   I did clean out the nest boxes and put in new straw. I put the old straw and wood chips out in the pen over the muddy pine. The pine branches worked as a covering until the chickens scratched the mud up on top of the pine and made a muddy piney mess. Photos tomorrow.

   The photo is of the driveway by the gate and I took the picture because a cloud moved away from the sun and everything lit up for awhile. The sun has been playing peek-a-boo.

   I find neat things when I'm searching around and this is an interesting way to make nest boxes. I wouldn't want to buy this set up, but if I had it around it would be neat to convert to a new use. Or if I found it at a garage sale? Nah, I already have my boxes, but for the future? I remember finding this site before once when I was looking at coop designs and someone had used Ikea stuff to make a coop.

Peek at the Past

(February 15, 2009)

Quilt? Snow?

I want snow!

[6 eggs today]

The chickens got strawberry tops for treats today.

~:>

Smiles

Spinach On The Porch

   Today the chickens enjoyed a bunch of spinach from the large bag of outdated greens that Tom picked up at the grocery store yesterday. By the time I got the camera ready for action the chickens had gobbled up most of the leaves. The brown plastic is covering wood for the wood stove.

   The hens and Morgan got to spend some time outside for half a day today. I spent my day thinking and planning what I'm going to change in the chicken coop when I finally get well enough to get out there and do something. At first I wanted to move the nest boxes around and put them against the wall and put up new roosts.

   Well, I finally decided I really didn't need to to all that. I was getting carried away. So, I calmed down and thought about how I could build partitions in the communal nest boxes and how I could build some frames to hold wood ashes, from the wood stove, inside the entrance to the nest area. I read about putting something for the hens to step in that would dry off their muddy feet as they are on the way to lay their eggs. Now I have some plans running around in my head. All subject to change.

   I did find a neat site here (A Dust Box For The Chicken House - w w w. The Modern Homestead . U S) with photos that show how to build a dust box for chickens. This is pretty fancy and may be beyond my capabilities, but I can make a good try and come up with something. I think the reason the dust boxes I made in the past didn't work was because I didn't make the sides high enough.

   So, here is a list of to-do's:

1. Make partitions in the nest boxes.
2. Make a dusting box.
3. Make a frame by the entrance to hold wood ashes for the chickens to step in.
4. Make the entrance smaller.

   Maybe I can at least get the tools and wood together tomorrow. Getting everything ready is half the battle. I've got the plans in my head, if I get the supplies and tools ready all I'll need is to get me out there on the ground.

  I did find this site here (http: //urban garden project .wordpress .com/ 2009/ 03/ 26/ 6 -uses-for -wood -ash/) that has lots of good ways to use wood ashes. We have just been dumping them out in the woods. I never knew there were so many uses.


   I have been searching around trying to find out if there are any negative side effect to letting the chickens dust with wood ashes and I haven't found any yet, but there may be some.  ??? 

   

Peek at the Past

(February 14, 2009)

Gee, I didn't even notice it was

Vatentine's Day last year what with all the snow.

I want more snow!

(5 eggs today)

One icky floor egg.

~:>

Smiles

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day!

   These are really my Anniversary flowers

doing a pretty good stand in for

Valentine flowers.

Hope everyone has a wonderful day!

[6 eggs today]

~:>

Smiles 

 Peek at the Past

(February 13, 2009)

This post is really for the 14th because I post late in the day it is still the 13th. All my posts are a day late. It usually doesn't matter because the post is supposed to be about what happened that day. But once in a while I like to post about something before it happens. I slept most of the day and my sore throat is gone at least for now. Tomorrow I want to work in the chicken coop making some partitions in the nest boxes. 

Chickens Dusting Under The Flatbed Trailer

   Morgan and I found the chickens under the trailer bed again dusting in the relatively dry dirt. Well, at least it was dryer than the surrounding ground. Some chickens tried laying out in the sun which didn't work out all that well because of the clouds passing in front of the sun blocking the rays. (That Dark Brahma really doesn't look happy.) The hens are not happy staying inside because things are finally getting wet and messy. The pine I put down in the pen is muddy and needs changing as soon as it stops raining for a long spell. Maybe Saturday I can rake it out?

   Some of the hens are sleeping in the nest boxes and leaving chicken poo presents. I read that you should cover the boxes after they lay and you shouldn't let your chickens sleep in the nest boxes because then they poo and it can get on the eggs. Well, I wanted the chickens to sleep in the nest boxes when it got cold and snowy so they could keep warm. So, what to do? Well, I could get myself together in the morning and out to the coop and clean out the nest boxes before they lay. Yep! I think that's what I'm going to need to do.

   While looking around for information about nest boxes, instead I found chicken and feed housing information here (Range Poultry Housing - pdf) and here (Pastured Poultry - pdf.)

   Ah, Ha! Nest Box info Here I finally found some good information about nest boxes. I'm going to have to remodel the inside of the coop and move and rebuild the communal nest boxes I built last year. This all sounds much better. Then maybe the hens will not poo in the boxes anymore?

   Morgan went to the groomer this week and still looks white and clean even though she has been running around in the muddy leaves. I think she licks herself clean like a cat at night. I know she licks her paws.

   Missy at Little Messy Missy has passed on an award to Chickens On The Porch. Thank you Missy and I really  appreciate you thinking of my blog. Instead of me picking out blogs that I read to pass the award to, what I would like to do is ask those bloggers who would like to accept the award to hop on over to Missy's blog here and pick up the award. All the blogs I read are certainly worthy!

[6 eggs today]

The hens laid 5 early and 1 in the afternoon.

Peek at the Past

(February 12, 2009)
Wow! I remember those trees where sooo pretty.

~:>

Smiles

Valentine Chicken

   This is a pink Valentine Chicken. Just thought I would say in case there is any question. The origami paper had a yellow spot in the center which just happened to turn out to be the part that was cut off and ended up as the egg. Sweet!

   Valentine's Day brings back lots of fun and not so fun memories of giving and not always getting Valentine's Day cards at school. In the 1940's we would each decorate a shoe box or paper bag in class with a Valentines theme and take it home, fill it with valentine cards, bring it back to school and then hand out and collect cards. There was this counting thing that happened: "How many cards did you get?" "Did you get one from, Salley?" Oh, boy! I got one from, Billy." Yuk! I remember using white school paste (I love the smell of that stuff) and making cards out of paper doilies, glitter, construction paper, candy, fuzzy pipe cleaners, ribbon, lace, crayons, paint, and other stuff that I can't recall. Mostly I remember buying bunches of Valentine cards at the store and spending lots of time writing down names and little messages.

   Lately I have happened upon a few bloggers who are busy churning out Valentine Day gifts to share with friends and family. All that industry has made me feel bleh and that I ought to do something too... but what? I was looking around on the web for some chicken foil pants (that's another post) and spotted this cute little chicken. Ah! Ha! I can do that and it kinda looks like a Valentine chicken. Kinda...  I had a very hard time figuring out the folds for this little hen. Kristine even tried to help me, but she wasn't feeling very well. I shouldn't have asked her to help anyway, because I was going to use the chicken on a card for her. So, I kept at the folding and watching the origami chicken video and finally figured it out!

   It seems that I don't so much celebrate holidays for their sake anymore as just view the days as an excuse to have some time off. I guess it's just old age. Well, at least I have a few days left to pull together some cards.

   Note to myself: I need to make another deal with myself about this blog and go back to posting everyday because I don't really like this hit or miss kind of blogging. Besides my egg count is getting off.

(Peek at the Past)

February 11, 2009

   [5 eggs today]

Rain tomorrow, poor girls.

~:>

Smiles

Poaching Eggs Experiment

   Poached eggs are one of my favorite ways of eating eggs. However, poaching eggs is not a favorite way of preparing them because I have trouble keeping the whites and yellow from flying apart when they are cooking in the hot water. I was very careful this time when heating the water and lowered the heat when bubbles showed up on the side of the pan.

   Since these eggs were laid today and the whites should want to hold together,  I thought I would try not adding vinegar or salt to the water and see what happened. I don't like the taste vinegar adds to poached eggs.

   I liked the idea of dipping the egg in the poaching water before letting it loose to continue cooking. The measuring cup seemed a good choice for this job because it had a handle to hold and I didn't have to worry so much about the hot water scalding me or having the cup crack.

   I discovered that letting the water enter the cup slowly and surround the egg worked out much better than just dunking the measuring cup in the water. If I let the water flow around the egg too fast it would cause the whites to fly apart. Slow is good. And I held the cup in the water for half a minute or so until the white started getting solid around the edges. Next time I do this I will add some vinegar and see if it holds the whites together and makes enough of a difference to justify putting up with the vinegar taste.

   Hello! This is neat! I just had an old fuzzy 1940's "memory picture" surface that has my Great Aunt Bertha or Great Grandmother Callie holding a ladle filled with an egg, first with the bottom of the ladle in the hot water and then letting the hot water slowly into the ladle with the egg before tipping the egg out into the poaching water. I wonder if she oiled or buttered the ladle first? I've got to try this out! They were farm folk and I know they didn't have any fancy kitchen stuff, so it had to have been a ladle or a very large cooking spoon.

   There are a gazillion poached egg pages on the internet. I found this kinda funny page here (http://www.b3ta.com/ features/ howtopoachanegg/) while searching around for the old ladle method of poaching an egg. The last method seems to work well, but I wonder if you get melted plastic along with the egg? And I gave up searching after I found this site (http://smittenkitchen.com /2008/08/ how-to-poach-an-egg -smitten-kitchen-style/) that has great photos. However, I must say that I had much more white on my poached eggs and they even looked better. Yey for me! I think using a ladle could result in an even better shaped egg. In the '70's I used to make poached eggs in a metal poaching pan, but those were really steamed eggs and I hated cleaning the pan.

   Things are very quiet around here because Kristine has some kind of sinus headache thing (I'm trying to get her to breath steam out of a bowl) and I'm fighting off the sore throat. The gloomy weather doesn't help. Good excuse for me to spend time reading. (Elizabeth Moon, Once A Hero. It would be neat to live on a space ship. I would need a special compartment for the space chickens. Ha!)  

Wow!

[7 eggs today]

Amazing what a bit more sunshine can do.

Back to overcast and storms tomorrow.

Peek at the Past

(February 8, 2009)

What? I have a sore throat again!

~:>

Smiles

Get Along Little Chickies!

Morgan doesn't really chase the chickens, what she does do at times is run around them and through them and break up their little gatherings. In this photo she does kinda look like she is herding the hens. I wish I had trained her to do this and herd the chickens into their coop.

Morgan has a built in automatic response to herding that translates to her always staying on the opposite side from me with the chickens in the middle. When I am trying to get the chickens in the coop, this means that Morgan is standing in front of the door. My plan is to work with Morgan on a long 25' lead. That way I will be able to correct her and have some control instead of yelling at her, which doesn't work at all. Me: "No! Stop! Sit! Arrgh! Oh, for petes sake, No!" Morgan: "Huh? What? What do you want?"

I found out a way to get rid of the annoying underlines that show up under the text in the Blogger editor sometimes when I'm moving photos and text around. The undo arrows didn't work and I couldn't find anything in the edit HTML to change, and I didn't want to retype everything, so I copied the text and pasted it into TextEdit to try and remove the underlines there. When I clicked on the underlined text in TextEdit, up popped a new blank browser window. Ah, ha! The underlines were really a link gone wrong. So, I went back to the blog editor, highlighted all the goofy underlined text, and then clicked on the Link icon as if I was going to make the underlined text a link to a web page. When the box showed up I typed some x's in the URL space and clicked on test this link. Naturally, it didn't work, so then I clicked on cancel and the underlines went away. Phew! There must be other ways that work, but this is the only way that works for me so far.

Well, back to chickens and eggs... while searching around for information on chicken feed I ran across this page, about Beneficial Farm, that I thought was kind of interesting. The article is about a farm that decided to try and raise and adapt some chickens to their harsh environment and feed local feed from local farmers. It is a long piece, so I don't recommend anyone read it unless they have some time to become engaged. I especially liked the chicken facts at the end. I like to learn about stuff like this. I wish there was a farm like this near me. Maybe?

The weather is weird. The rain is coming back around from Nevada. It is supposed to go East, not West. I wonder if the big storm in the East is bumping the weather back this way?

Thank you for sharing the way you handle eggs from your chickens. Very interesting! I appreciate it!

[4 eggs today]

The hens and Morgan got out for half a day.

Peek at the Past
(February 7, 2009)
I need to rake up the leaves again
and the solar fountain didn't happen yet.
The quilt is still calling to me.
But, I'm fighting off a sore throat.
It's raining... that's my excuse.

Smiles

~:>

Wash Eggs Or Don't Wash Eggs?

   Morgan is looking at that molting Australorp as if to say, "What are you doing, you goofy hen?" I'm a bit worried too; the hen could get sick because of the damp cold weather. Or not? I hope the feathers she still has will keep her warm enough. Molting should mean she is not laying, but some hens continue to lay eggs during molt. 

   I have been in a quandary over when, if, or how to wash eggs ever since we started raising chickens. In the beginning it seemed natural to wash the eggs in an organic detergent using hot water, scrub with a veggie brush, rinse them well and dry them before refrigerating. I did a lot of searching around on the internet to try to find out the best method of egg handling.

   People have many ways of handling eggs from their chickens. Some methods are new, some here  and here have been handed down through generations. I was soon confused. Some people bring the eggs in from the coop and keep them in a basket on the counter. In Europe and other countries, eggs are not refrigerated and are sold off the shelf. Some eggs even came with little feathers still stuck to them according to one site I read.

   So... what to do. In this country we are very aware of germs and the importance of keeping things clean. I found many sites that stated they and their families never refrigerated eggs or washed eggs until they used them. I decided I like the idea of leaving the bloom on the eggs to protect them. These people here (don't wash their eggs either.

   So, at first I found it a bit strange to just collect the eggs and put them in the refrigerator without washing them. Usually, the eggs are very clean and look as though they have been already washed. My plastic egg container in the fridge has a lid. I toss eggs if they are too dirty or were laid on the ground. I wash and use any eggs that day that need washing.

   I wash eggs with water just before I am going to cook them. The latest change I have made is to now use hot water instead of cold. I read somewhere a while back that cold water was the best, but it turns out that was not true, at least according to the latest information I have found here (North Carolina Cooperative Extension) and here (The Poultry Site - Egg Handling.)

   It seems that the hot water causes the egg inside to expand pushing against any bad stuff trying to get in through the shell. I think that's how it works. 

   Disclaimer: I am not advocating my way or any way of handling eggs. Maybe I should use a sanitizer? I wonder how people handle eggs? Refrigerate or wash them? How? When? Freeze?

[5 eggs today]

Peek at the Past

February 3, 2009

~:>

Smiles

Happy Anniversary to Me.

42 years! 

Molting, Broody or ? - How To Identify A Laying Chicken

We are not  going to be culling any of our chickens that are not laying eggs. They are pets and even if they don't lay they do clear the property of insects, they fertilize and turn over the leaves, look good and are fun to watch. So, they all stay. However, I'm curious.

   I wanted to know which hens were laying eggs and why some of them weren't, why and when some molted, and how the broody business affected egg laying, etc. So... I went on a Google search and I found a site here (University of Kentucky) that not only explains a few things and it also has photos!

   There are photos of a good layer and poor layer, vents and fat deposits, and more. I'm going to read this over a few times and then maybe check my hens at night when they are on their roosts.

   Not all of our hens have yellow skin so I would need to use the other methods to check for layers. At least now I know how to identify which chickens are laying. I think it is interesting how the hen uses up the yellow pigment and then goes off laying and replaces the pigment and then starts up the laying process again.

   These photos show the chickens yelling at me yesterday to let them out of the pen, the hens squeezing between the slats, and then running off to the woods. Do they stop to say hi or thanks? A few stick around for a little bit. I think they are the smart ones who want to find out if I have treats.

   This is, Shorty, the short legged Buff Brahma that wasn't expected to survive because she was half the size of the other chicks  and in such bad shape the feed store added her to the box of chicks for free because they didn't think she would live if left with the other chicks. So she was a freebie.           

   When Kristine went down to the feed store to get the second batch of chicks (actually we'd already gotten 4, but they seemed to need a few more buddies before they'd stop peeping all night long) she  was given two buff brahma chicks, when she'd originally only asked for two. The girl who was getting the chicks said,"Oh. We're going to give you this one for free. We don't think its going to make it."


And indeed, the freebie chick was half the size of the other chicks, and crouched, and weaving slightly, and none too bright of eye. Yep. It was probably a goner. But she took the miserable little thing home anyway, and tossed it in with the all the others, bringing the total number to 7.  3 dark brahmas, 3 buff brahmas, and 1 lone cochin.


They dog piled that night with Death-bait, right in the middle. The next morning, DB was up, eating, and actually frisky... Kristine came to the conclusion that although it was undersized, it just needed less crowded conditions to do well. Today she's sort of short in the leg, but otherwise quite alive and perky. (This paragraph was written by, Kristine. I always get this tale mixed up, so she volunteered to set the story straight.)


   Shorty and the photo of the Wyandotte yesterday both have yellow beaks and yellow feet. So, I think this means that they are getting tanked up on yellow pigment and ready to lay soon?  When we start getting more daylight?


PS:
Here are two more sites I found. I still think the Kentucky one is the best, but these have additional information. Florida Poultry Judging Manual and the Mississippi State University Extension Service.

[3 eggs yesterday]

[2 eggs today]

Peek at the Past

February 1, 2009

~:>

Smiles