RD & Gwyn's In-Town Homestead

[Gwynmael]

8 eggs today. No more evidence of egg eating and still don't have a clue which one it might have been.

The first 6 I gathered around 11, were all in one box. I restocked the empty box with nesting material. When C and I went out to do his "chores" there was 1 egg each in the two lower boxes. They haven't used the upper boxes for a couple of weeks now, probably due to the heat we've had would make those much warmer than the lower ones. Who knows, chickens can be strange.


Update - two of the hens were apparently on a later schedule today. Got two more eggs, so total of 10 today. Yay!

[kickstand]

Two notes :

1) Although it would appear that you don't have a snake, don't be too surprised if you get one in the future . When our egg production first dropped off , I found a bull snake coiled up right under the nesting box. About skeert the crap outta me. He was about 5 to six feet long, and was about two feet away from me. If you've never been around a bull snake, they look and act like a rattler, but are non-venomous .

2) As I read through what all they get and don't get, it struck me as funny. They don't get onion, garlic, peppers, etc so as not to change the flavor , but then we promptly cook them up with those exact same ingredients to make a good omelet . Maybe you could try feeding them some bacon and have a pre-made omelet ?

[Gwynmael]

LOL on #2 kick.

Only had 6 eggs yesterday, but it did rain off and on Thursday. We got a LOT of rain yesterday, so we'll see if it affects their production today. They spent most of the last two days all huddled under the coop. We have three feeders, two are turned to the underside of the coop so they can be open while it's raining without the feed getting wet. I'll make a point of getting a pic of that today.

I know in the winter it's suggested to add a light to give them more "daylight" hours. I wonder if it's the actual light that helps or is it that they're awake longer. Hmmm.


Snakes - any egg eating snake will be promptly chopped up and fed to the chickens. ~shudder~ No, check that --- ANY snake found in the run or coop will suffer that end.

[Dode]

I've been busy and I come back to find such interesting chicken information. Yeah, snakes can be found in the most unheard of places. Such as, in the shed, at the top of the wall where the roof meets it. How do they get up there? One day I watched one crawl up my neighbor's brick wall... I doubt a cleated ramp would be a problem. If they can taste food in the air, they'll find a way to get to it, even though they are blind.

[reddawnspokane]

Great work so far Gwyn and RD.

[Gwynmael]

Sorry for the delay folks, we had two computers croak last week; including the garage one (that I typically use) from the heat/humidity. What I'm using now won't handle working with the photos.
Hopefully RD will be able to figure out why the replacement won't power up and I'll be able to post tomorrow.

[Gena.KY]

I really enjoy reading about your chickens and gardens Gwyn but I am pretty steamed about you giving that cheesecake to them.

I have praised that cheesecake every since I got that little bite of it at Tex's place. I have complimented it over & over. I told you it was the best cheesecake in the whole wide world. To see you give some to those damn chickens about killed me. Sure they give you eggs but they do not appreciate it like I did. Now I am mad at you. JK, well, not really. Yeah, I'm mad.

[Gwynmael]

Don't fret Gena - everyone here at their shot at it first! Then it sat in the cooler for two weeks and dried out. It was not yummy by that point.

[Gena.KY]

That does not make me feel better at all. Next time, give them 2 days MAX and then package it up and send me the leftovers. What kind of dummies would not eat that all up in the first day?

[RD]

That does not make me feel better at all. Next time, give them 2 days MAX and then package it up and send me the leftovers. What kind of dummies would not eat that all up in the first day?

Gena- I would eat it all but I can only eat so much, work isn't going to pay me for the week I would spend in the outhouse.

RD

[nichevo]

RD,

Are you saying that Gwyn's cheesecake gives you the runs? You better start running!

[Dode]

Oh, that's too dang rich! Run, RD! RUN!!!

[Gwynmael]

LOL. That's why you're only supposed to eat a small slice of it at a time. But it's difficult to do as it's so dang good.

[Gwynmael]

Hoo boy, been way too long since I've posted here.

Not much been going in our garden beds for this year & last except bindweed That stuff is the devil's own plant!
I was able to process a harvest from my elderberry plant this year and my grapevine produced.
Basically the stuff I want only grew if I left it alone and the stuff I don't want grew no matter how much time and effort I put into eradicating it. LOL

I still have laying hens, down to 7 due to losses from predators (hawks) and sudden chicken death (likely egg bound).

We're up to FOUR Dobermans now, newest is 10 month old Ruby Mae (another red).

And I'm still trying to finish the rehab of W's old bedroom that we discovered two active termite colonies in after he moved out last summer (2017).

I'll get various pics and recipes & stuff posted hopefully by this weekend.

[Gwynmael]

Going to start with a success - harvesting/processing my elderberry bush. I only have a pic of the end result, as it's messy and time consuming. But I did actually use my head this time for more than a place to hang my hair. lol

I wore disposable gloves to help prevent skin staining and water logged fingers during both de-stemming the berries and squishing them to extract juice. I was going to see if I could get some reusable jelly bags locally (a fine mesh bag used to squeeze & strain fruit for juice for jelly making), but no joy. Then a light bulb went off! Went over to the laundry aisle and picked up a various sized 3 pack of fine mesh lingerie/sweater bags. They worked great! I could've used an old pillowcase or even cheesecloth, but wasn't willing to lose the juice that would've soaked into either of those materials. Elderberries are small and a lot of work for the results. Worth it, but the loss of a couple of tablespoons of juice is a big deal with the batch size I was working with.

A steam juicer has been added to my list of equipment wants.

Link to the recipe I used -- https://gwens-nest.com/elderberry-recipes/ I did use raw unfiltered honey ($$OUCH!) and added dried rose hips and astralgus root. I used my fresh berries, so used 4 cups of berries. I also did it all on the stove and as my berries were fresh I did not soak over night. I ended up with 3 16-oz bottles and some to freeze.

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