Posted on 12/25/2020 1:36:58 PM PST by Diana in Wisconsin
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I was on animal-sitting duty yesterday & today. This morning, when I checked the chickens, something had knocked over the trash can where my SIL keeps the food ... nothing was left. Sigh. ALL of the water was frozen & the chickens were unhappy (chicken ‘cursing’ - you can tell!). Fortunately, I found some rubber feed pans, so I got everybody watered & back to ‘regular’ clucking. I found two large slugs, partially frozen, & those made two hens extremely happy ... a meaty treat.
I did go to the feed store & get another bag of feed, plus a bag of cracked corn for the bird feeder. We have 3 pairs of doves that hang out under the feeders. I have some whole corn, but it’s really too big for them (works for squirrels). They are the fattest doves I’ve ever seen - waddle around, surprised they can fly! They will love the cracked corn in addition to whatever black oil sunflower seeds get dropped out of the feeders.
So, back to the animals - went to walk the dogs tonight & ran into two different groups of deer. The first group was near the dog pen & the collie took off into the woods barking ... the old dog (almost blind/deaf) didn’t even notice. Once I got her called back, we walked out into the main field & she took off again - two deer down in the corner. Both jumped the fence ... dog attitude: “curses, foiled again!” After the deer excitement, we had a nice, calm walk.
My brother got home from his trip in time to get on his deer stand in the back - saw a huge coyote “almost as big as the collie” twice - first time passing the stand & the second time, running a deer. I heard a pack howling a couple of weeks ago, so they’re back in the area.
Overall, a nice Christmas & weekend. We had some family time, some good meals, and seeing the sun for 3 days was nice, even if all the water dishes, bird bath, etc. were frozen! Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!
Thanks for the reminder: I should start our hot peppers soon. I waited too long last year...
My daughter’s, well, “our” chickens are all doing well. Almost too well - we have not “lost” any for several months, and now we have too many chickens and almost too many eggs.
Not including a rooster we cooked, the 8 hens and the two roosters we had @ this time last year are still with us. Those birds are all at least 3 years old, but 4 of the hens are still fairly productive, and the others pop out an egg once in a while. (I suspect the 2 Easter Eggers are unfortunately just about at the end of their use as egg layers. We’ll see what happens come Spring — they may become dinners.) One of the latter 4 is a Bantam-Black Australorp mix and is a GREAT “Mom” — very handy to have on hand. Our one true Ameraucana is our oldest hen but still lays a couple very pretty blue eggs a week. She’s 1/2 the genetics of our most handsome rooster, too. ;-)
Chicks group 1 from Rural King early this spring lost 3 of the 8 chicks, but all the others are doing well and laying. Some surprises: One, we mistakenly were sold a Sapphire Egger. Well, I think that’s what she is, but she lays medium size medium brown, almost slightly pink color eggs. 2nd, the one black sex link (which may have trampled the 3 chicks we lost) is HUGE, and lays jumbo eggs, about 4-5 a week. She’s “slow”, almost clumsy, but the roosters don’t give her much trouble, maybe because of her size. She’s a gentle hen toward humans, tho’. The 2 white leghorns in this group are “braver” than most leghorns & being good flyers will knock a plate of scraps headed toward the coops right out of my hands.
Chicks group 2 from Rural King are 6 ISA Browns and were 99 cent specials: All are doing well and now all laying medium (mostly) size dark brown (very pretty!) eggs. These hens pretty much stick together more than our others, and are very friendly, calm birds. If the egg size comes up a bit these will be favorites. They seem to be very prolific layers even in winter without extra light, and with only moderate heat. (The night it got down to a windy 14 deg. F that henhouse was about 50 deg. F. inside.) Interestingly enough, the ISA’s are quite capable of flying out of the fenced in area around their coop, and love to go out in the yard if left out, but they don’t fly out on their own. They will often fly IN on their own in the evening. It’s a very handy trait.
Chicks group 3 from Rural King are the 6 Buckeyes I had so much trouble acquiring. They are still pullets, 5 are doing well and one somehow got a bum leg (a twisted knee) but so far is also healthy. I can’t see taking it to a vet - guess we’ll see how it does. It took a while but these are finally associating most scraps I bring them as food. They are just about big enough to go to the coops (except maybe the one gimpy one - she may need 2-4 extra weeks in the brooder.) I sure do hope these Buckeyes live up to their reputation as mousers around the coops!!! These birds seem very curious now, and friendly, but do not tolerate being picked up as well as the ISA’s do. The inquisitiveness seemed to be very slow developing, but it’s definitely coming along
We also have an “extra” Amberlink or mostly Amberlink rooster who one of our broody hens hatched out about the same time I bought group 1. He’s a nice, big bird, good around people and relatively mellow once picked up and under control, but, he’s trouble out in the yard (too many roosters), so, tomorrow he goes in the pot. I’d rather “process” our old (and somewhat aggressive toward humans) Amberlink rooster, but being our oldest bird, my daughter won’t allow it!
Last, our Bantam-Black Australorp hen is raising a chick that must be a product of her and the Bantam Rooster. It looks like it’s Dad, and looks like it won’t be any bigger than him. If it’s a roo’, I guess it’s stew too: Even tho’ “Dad” would be the more logical choice, again, my daughter is partial to the older birds. (Shoulder shrug.)
I sort of regret the attempt to get Black Maran’s falling through, but, the ISA’s lay eggs almost as dark brown and may eventually compete with the Marans on egg size. The ISA’s have lovely personalities: It’s a gas to watch them run around in a group within the larger flock. If I’d acquired Black Marans I likely would not have bought the ISA’s, and maybe ditto for the Buckeyes (tho’ getting good mousers for the coops IS a big deal.)
I’ve also been helping some friends of ours: The husband has respiratory issues and his wife who is maybe 45 was in the hospital with COVID for over a week. She’s back home but is having a difficult recovery. Neither should be outside in cold weather. So, I’ve been helping out with their animals. Thank heavens the big rooster is friendly. He must be over 10 lbs.! My daughter’s old Amberlink rooster is 1/2 as big but will sneak attack from the back if he thinks he has a shot. My wife and I say “cook him”, but my daughter won’t have it.
Their geese are fairly well behaved - no real problems there.
Actually, our friends’ quail are the most trouble, because they are small and elusive. I’ll leave the “video” to you all’s imagination!
Worst of the help project was Christmas Eve. I’d missed our friends’ call earlier (really busy in our yard myself), so I ended up going over @ 9 pm — several hours after our recent big cold front came through. Wind chills went down near zero. That was just no fun at all, esp. the water part, with having to thaw stuff out with tap water from the spigot on the side of the house, and stuff freezing up nearly as fast as I could deal with it. I was bundled up pretty well, so I “survived”, but after a long day anyway, it really took the stuffing out of me for the rest of that night & Christmas morning. I’m not 25 any more! Duh!
Hope you and your family had a very Merry Christmas and all the best wishes for a much better New Year in 2021.
Where there are seed catalogs there is hope. Just my humble opinion. Happy New Year!
Beautiful picture. Happy New Year!
I enjoyed hearing about your chickens. On the ‘roo subject, I could tell you some rooster stories: Brewster the Blue Rooster, Big Daddy, Freckles .....
At some point, while I get plenty of chicken ‘exposure’ & some eggs due to my SIL’s flock(s) next door, I intend to get my own chickens one of these days - I eat a lot of eggs and try to get ‘pastured’ eggs. I saw a “chicken tractor” in a video that I really like. We have foxes, coyotes, and hawks that all like a nice chicken dinner ... every night. if they could manage it. The ‘tractor’ will protect the chickens, but they can be moved around the fields to eat seeds, bugs, & add fertilizer to the ground. My niece (about 3 hours away) raises ‘meat’ chickens about once a year - I currently have several bags of chicken feet from this past summer’s pastured meat chickens - added to bone broth, they add a ton of collagen and gelatin. If it’s not something you do already, when you put your ‘roos in the pot, you could save the carcass and make bone broth from the bones & feet - it’s good stuff. If you have an Instant Pot, that makes it easy and only a couple of hours.
Chicken tractor (starts about 1:14 into video):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDZYnnbPuYg&t=357s
Something I ran into not long ago that you might like to try: an egg pudding. No joke ... it is absolutely delicious, is high in protein, and you would never guess it’s made from hard boiled eggs. It uses 10 eggs at a time, so it’s great for when the hens are laying up a storm.
https://mariamindbodyhealth.com/hard-boiled-egg-pudding/
It looks like the picture, too .... delicious. If you don’t like chocolate, she has a French Toast flavor. That recipe is in one of her books, but I believe she’s got a video on it.
No “chicken/animal duty” this morning .... and of course, since I don’t have to do the chores, it’s well above freezing today, unlike the past weekend. Sigh. :-)
Any “frost quakes” where you live?
We have been Cryoseism free! ;)
It IS fun to listen to the ice break up in the spring on Lake Michigan, though. I’ve also walked on the ice and explored the ‘ice caves’ that form in the winter along the shores of Green Bay - but I was much younger and more stupid back then, LOL!
Thanks - we might try the egg pudding. In particular sometimes now it’s hard to get my Mom to eat well, but she snacks a lot and might like the egg based chocolate pudding.
My wife has been making egg salad and macaroni salad (with plenty of egg in it) quite a bit — potato salad is on the “to make” list tomorrow so long as I prepare the potatoes... ;-)
Mr. Amberlink is now in pieces in the freezer. (Wifey is a Filipina and cooks and eats chicken feet.)
Foxes are moderately sparse here, but we have many hawks, coyotes, raccoons, and even opossums will sometimes take down a hen. Plus neighbors’ dogs — in the last several years we’ve lost more chickens to neighbors’ dogs than anything else. That has not been a problem recently though. The one time a few months ago it might have - the new neighbors across the road dog got loose, I heard our flock squawking and ran out with my well scoped .22 pellet rifle. I yelled at the dog, it ran home, and the neighbors’ teenage kid concurrently saw the “rifle” in my hands — the dog hasn’t been loose again since.
A large dog trained to guard the chickens can help a LOT, but that’s not in the cards for us just now.
Gotta call it a night - busy day tomorrow.
A tip on making the egg pudding - unless you have a very powerful blender, like Maria, cut your hard boiled eggs into pieces & feed them into the blender gradually. Really let it mix - you will get a surprisingly ‘silky’ pudding.
The pudding will be great for your mom, if she’ll eat it. Easy way to get a lot of protein & elderly folks really need it (my 87 yo mom, too). There is also a hard boiled eggnog recipe, if your mom likes eggnog - she can drink her protein. I haven’t made this recipe yet, but will probably do it for New Year’s.
https://mariamindbodyhealth.com/hard-boiled-eggnog/
Hi are you getting much snow from this storm? Looks like it’s going to hit us tonight.
2” Sunday. 1” this afternoon. All h#ll breaks loose overnight. Wild predictions. Anywhere from 6” to 15”!
I’ve got my snowshoes at the ready! :)
Yikes. We stocked up at the store - again and have wood in the house.
The good: Ordered aboutb200 bucks worth if seeds from Johnny’s
The bad: Possibly exposed to Covid, stuck at home, gotta get a test tomorrow morning.
The ugly: Cannot convince the wife that her pouring me scotch in her underwear and letting nature take the course is actually the CDC recommended protocols.
LOL! Points for creativity, though!
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