Hatching your own chicken eggs

There is something about hatching your own chickens that keeps me doing it year after year. My husband is the best at it. We have a small styrofoam incubator that we bought many years ago for about $40. (I believe they are $60 now.) I have never been very diligent in keeping track of the temperature and humidity, but have still managed to hatch out a few chicks.

  

 This year, Jim and I decided to go for it. He took over the task of watching the temperature and humidity. We put a total of 36 eggs in and hatched out 28. Here is a picture of the same one we have that Stromberg's is selling:

http://www.strombergschickens.com/product/1602-School-Observation-Incubator-Hovabator/basic-incubators

We also bought a small thermometer/hygrometer that sits inside with the eggs. It takes about 28 days for the eggs to hatch.
The temperature to hatch out chicks needs to be about 99.5* from day 1 - 18. And the humidity should be 50%. The eggs need to be turned, as if the mother hen was adjusting herself on the nest. Jim would simply roll his hands over the top of the eggs and move them slightly.
From day 19 - 21 you no longer have to roll the eggs around. The temperature should be 99.5* but the humidity should be at 70 - 80%. Sometimes a spray bottle with warm water works. This helps keep the chick moist and not dry out as it is hatching.

It was so much fun watching the first egg start to crack open.

After they hatched out, we placed them in a bin with food and a heat lamp. You can find out what the next step is by checking out my blog on it http://wwwhighlonesomeranch.blogspot.com/2012/04/getting-started-with-new-chicks.html

Before you start with the next batch of eggs, thoroughly wash and sanitize the incubator. 

We had so much fun with this, that we now have turkey and chick eggs in the small incubator. We also own 2 large cabinet style GQF incubators/hatchers (www.gqfmfg.com/) and have duck and quail eggs in one, and emu eggs in the other! 

Feeding Your Chickens on a Budget

Most of the time, during the Spring Summer and Fall, feeding chickens will be minimal to non-existent if they are free-range. They are wonderfully equipped to find their own food - bugs, seeds, greens.

When you start with chicks, you can feed them a commercial diet, phase them into a homemade diet, or go homemade all the way.
Adding fresh chopped greens to their diet from day 4 on, is a good way to start them on their way to a home-grown diet. Start adding in some grains- about 2 parts ground wheat, oats and corn (easy on the corn) and one part protein: fish meal, small portion of canned cat food, chopped hard boiled or scrambled eggs. yogurt, cottage cheese, worms grubs and bugs. My children used to love hunting for the worms and bugs for the chicks. Then add 1 part greens - lettuce, dandilion, clover, spinach, weeds finely chopped. Add some ground eggshells for their grit. Save your egg shells and dry them in the oven. Pulverize and crush them. This makes fine grit for chicks.
After about 4 weeks, chicks can eat the grain whole.


If your chickens are confined, they still would love to eat greens. Hang a cabbage head in a wire basket, or old onion bag and watch them peck at it. You can also  get heads of cabbage and push a long bolt through one, put a washer and nut on the end and hang the bolt from a hook. The cabbage is good in antioxidants and other things in addition to being cheap entertainment for the
chickens and you as you watch them swing it back and forth.

The greens are what makes the eggs so nutritious and that beautiful orange color yolk.

Adult chickens are wonderful at eating your kitchen scraps. Peelings, sweet or sour milk, pickles, meat scraps. All the vegetables, banana peels, french fries and stuff from your refrigerator is also relished.  They don't particularly like onions or citrus. (Don't feel them anything moldy). I bring doggie bags home for my critters.

Chicks- feed, shelter, necessities

Once the chicks are fully feathered, they will be about 4 -5 weeks of age. 

You will be feeding them the "starter" feed until about this time and can then begin feeding "starter/grower" 

You can can feed their chicks scraps, or worms and other bugs from the garden... Small amounts of vegetable/dairy  also bugs and worms should be fine for the chicks (and they'll love it!).Just remember that starter feeds contain everything chicks need to survive and thrive, and filling them up with too much of the "other stuff" can throw off their nutritional balance.

And give them as much feed as they want. They will eat as much as they need, and come back later for more. They are good at self-regulating their feed, unlike a dog is.

Chickens do not have "teeth" so they need grit. When they free range, they will find their grit. If they are contained, you will need to provide the grit.  For baby chicks, sand, parakeet gravel or canary gravel, available at your local pet store or grocery store pet aisle.

 When the weather is warm enough, and sunny, they can venture outside. Put them in a wire cage or erect some other temporary housing and place it in the sun, making sure they have access to water and shade if they need it. They'll absolutely love digging around in the grass. But don't leave them unattended! At this age they're good at flying and very susceptible to predators. Also, if it's windy they'll get cold - they'll let you know they're unhappy with their loud chirping.

 By the time they are full grown, they will come when they are called, and stay pretty close to where you have their shelter and food.  Make sure they have access to water at all times. 

 They don't really need much in the way of comforts. It is always nice to provide a chicken coop or they will lay their eggs anywhere they find a nice hiding spot. This type of chicken coop holds about 12 free-range chickens. They lay their eggs in the nest box and you don't even have to go inside to collect them. If you want to keep them contained with a small outdoor run, this coop will take care of about 6 chickens. Interested in starting a small flock? In general, you can have 3 hens (no rooster or crowing involved) and get 14 eggs a week! That's 2 eggs a day! 

Our first set of chickens didn't have a coop the first year. They would roost in the trees. When we had a snow, the following morning, they would shake the snow off and fly out of the trees to the ground. The weather didn't phase them. This is our chicken coop now, you can see that they aren't afraid of a little snow!  

                                      

Of course, during the winter you will have to provide food. They will scrounge around in the snow looking for tidbits - especially under bird feeders, but they need something of their own to keep their metabolism up and keep them warm. Your local feed store will have feed available for the winter.

Chickens will stick together. If you have a rooster, he will call to his hens to come and eat something special he might have found. 

Sunday Drives

It used to be that people would take Sunday drives. They would drive around, look at the countryside, stop to chat with friends. Sometimes chatting with friends would happen in the middle of the road! One going in one direction, another going the opposite way. The people would finally move when someone happened to come up behind them.

For years Jim and I have taken drives just to ride around the countryside. When we first met, we spent a lot of time in a jeep he had repaired... re-building the engine and then painting it. We would take the back roads of WV and be gone for hours, never really knowing where we would end up. 

 When we lived in Summers County, WV and school was called off for snow on the 11:00 news, we would head to the jeep and drive around aimlessly - just to be the first tracks in the snow. 

Driving around as much as we have over the years gave us a perfect opportunity to discuss everything of importance to us... our plans, dreams, fears. It has always been our way of re-connecting with each other.  I guess you would call this our hobby! I don't know that we passed this hobby on the kids. lol

We went for a short drive today... I suddenly felt the need to decompress and just breath in the Spring air.Unfortunately we won't be driving around as much as we used to with the gas prices. The inexpensive hobby has somehow become very close to being out of our financial reach!! :-/

Emu Eggs for sale

3 Beautiful Unique Shells for Crafts, Carving, Painting, & Etching! The emu egg makes beautiful jewelry 

EMU EGGS create wonderful works of art. 

The eggs have three layers. Outside-emerald green, middle-teal green, and inside-white.  

The eggs are approximately 13 1/2" end to end  and   10 3/4" around the middle

They have a small hole at one end. The hole is 3/16 inch. (very small)

These eggs are laid by our own  hen.

These eggs may have one or more of he following: blemishes, such as scratches, white oval stains,

natural blemishes, simply due to the hen. These will get covered up by painting, carving, cut-out work, or decoupaging.

All shells are blown, cleaned, & sanitized.  Colors, textures, & shape will vary.

They are not cracked or broken when shipped; but they are insured, if breakage should occur during shipping! 

For more information go to: Emu Eggs where you can order them!

Chickens

Chickens are one of the first animals people want to get when they are starting their homestead. They are  very easy to keep and raise. They eat very little if they are free ranging. They are great for bug control. In return they provide eggs, meat and feathers for fishing tackle. They are amusing to watch, a little violent in their breeding (for you first timers) and it is fun to hear the rooster crow and the girls talk. The rooster will call his girls over when he finds a tasty morsel. He will crow in the morning just to announce his domain. 

The girls gossip and chat to each other and will brag when they lay their eggs.

When the chicks are fully feathered and grown, you will see the "ear lobes" on the side of their head. The ones with the red ones will lay brown eggs, and the ones with the white will lay white eggs. After the first couple of eggs come, if you are observant, you will be able to tell which egg belongs to which hen as each egg is distinctive to that hen.

Each chicken will have their own personality. I have had a chicken that would always run to me and make her soft clucking sounds as if asking for a handout. She was always the first one to spot me coming out of the house.

    Interested in starting a small flock? In general, you can have 3 hens (no rooster or crowing involved) and easily get 14 eggs a week! That's 2 eggs a day! 

We have 15 hens and have eggs out the ears in the summer. What can you do with the eggs? You can have deviled eggs, quiche, custards,. You can pickle them, freeze them, add extras to cakes and other mixes. Have breakfast for supper at least once a week, and of course, sell them or give them to friends.

Advantages to chickens besides eggs: Chickens will eat ticks, fleas, mosquitoes, slugs, beetles, ants, maggots, grubs, caterpillars, grasshoppers, beetles, and even mice. This year I have heard the bugs may be overwhelming because the winter was so mild.

  

  

My favorite chickens are the Americana chickens - not to be confused with Araucanas. Americanas sold by hatcheries are  also called the Easter Egg Fowl. Most of the so-called Americanas in the US are mixes that carry some of the original genes and lay variously colored eggs: blue, green, or pinkish. These birds are sometimes (and more honestly) sold as Easter Egg chickens. The American Poultry Association recognizes a bird called the Ameraucana, which lays colored eggs and has muffs and a beard, not ear tufts, and comes in standardized color varieties, with slate colored shanks.

Easter Egger come in white  and vary  in a wide assortment of colors and types, black, buff, cinnamon, brown, red and white– along with various combinations of these colors. Some may have top knots, some have whiskers, and others have bunches of feathers growing from each side of the head near the ear region. They are good layers, with eggs medium to large in size. The colors vary in shade from pale to deep blue, green, pink, plus a few olive drab and an occasional antique gold. The Easter Egger is a hardy, vigorous fowl, resistant to disease and easy to raise. They seem to do well in all types of climate. A calm chicken, they are very easily tamed to become pets.


I'm sure my flock is a combination of the Easter Eggers and Ameracaunas. I also have White and Brown leghorns in the mix. And I'm excited to say I ordered Auracana eggs and will hopefully hatch out chickens with the ear tufts and blue eggs!

  

Brown eggs, blue eggs, white eggs and even some pink eggs are some of the fun of raising your chickens.

Here is an excellent page of a chicken breed chart to help get you started on choosing the chicken for you! click here

                       

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Emu Egg Quiche

I made an emu egg quiche tonight. I have used our emu eggs in scrambled eggs before, but with left over ham from Easter, and swiss cheese, I had to make a quiche. It was very delicious. The emu egg was rich and light. 


The easiest way to blow an emu egg came from Jim Glick at Backachers Emu Ranch.  http://www.weduemu.com/
Into the small end of the egg, make a 1/8" hole with a drill. Using an air canister (such as the kind you get to blow the dust out of the keyboard of your computer) and giving short bursts of air, blow into the egg. 

 

The yolk will come out in a beautiful stream

One egg will equal about 10 - 12 chicken eggs. 

Blend the egg completely. I add a bit of milk to it (about 2/3) and get it frothy. Then I use a favorite quiche recipe. 


First I cheat with a store bought pie crust. If you get the regular, this quiche will make 2 pies. If you use the deep dish, it will make 1 pie.
Heat the oven to 375*, prick the pie crust and place it in the oven to brown the bottom a bit. 



QUICHE FILLING:


Emu Egg, fresh, or 10 large chicken eggs
Swiss Cheese, 2 cup, shredded 
Mushrooms, canned, .25 cup 
Cured Ham, 1  1/2 cup 
Onions,1/2  cup, chopped 
  2/3 - 3/4 cup milk


Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.


Heat 2 tbsp of olive oil in a pan and add onions, sauté until they begin to brown and caramelize.
 Remove onions from pan,  Heat mushrooms in same pan until water is released. .
Turn oven down to 350 degrees.
Sprinkle crust with 1 cup cheese, onions and mushrooms, then add whisked eggs.
 Cover with remaining 1 cup of cheese and bake for 30-40 minutes until center is set and top is golden brown.

I didn't have a brick of cheese, just sliced swiss cheese, so I cut it into strips and added it. 

Comfort foods for cold days

It is finally winter here in WV. It hasn't really felt like winter in quite a while... I think that has been the way all over the place. We have been experiencing record highs - in the 50's for most of the past few months. This weekend we had 10 inches of snow and the temps are in the teens. So it is a wonderful weekend to make some of my favorite comfort foods.

We have had beans, (first we had tacos) then the beans were transformed into chili, transformed into spaghetti sauce this past week. One slow cooker filled with beans can be transformed into a variety of dishes that will last a week and cost next to nothing.

Today I am filling the slow cooker with my famous Sauerkraut and Kielbasa! This is wonderful for those of you that do not like the sour-ness of sauerkraut. It takes the tang out. You also do not have to put in sausage. You can add ham, or just not any meat at all. It is a wonderful vegetable.
Being from New York, I have always had sauerkraut on my hotdogs! But I have found, I enjoy this milder version even more.

Start with 2 cans of sauerkraut., rinsed in water then covered in the pot (you can cover it with chicken broth or just water) To save money, I just cover it with water.Add to that 1 tbls of brown sugar and 1 grated apple and 1 grated potato and cook on low for about 4 hours. I then get kielbasa (I like Hillshire the best) you can get the turkey sausage, turkey kielbasa, polish sausage or which ever you enjoy. Cut the link in half and then cut chunks. Place it in the slowcooker, covering and mixing it with the sauerkraut. Cook for another 2 hours and there is dinner!!

Food Waste

I just watched the show "The Big Waste" on Food network. The show had 4 chefs, (two teams) find food that was being wasted (either from supermarkets, or farms) - the kind of food no one would buy because it might have a blemish, the wind had blown the crop down, they rummaged through a container of produce, bruising the fruit. Or ordered and then cancelled the order. Scouring grocery aisles, produce farms, orchard lines and garbage piles on the streets of New York City, the chefs were astounded at the things people discarded.

I was amazed. Over 40% of our food is wasted...27 million tons

This makes no sense to me. There are commercials on TV talking about not letting any child go hungry, yet there is a 40% waste of food in this country.

This has nothing to do with how the food is produced... it has to do with Americans having to have the best...

It also has to do with the food regulations which, although keep us safe, they also go overboard.

One person interviewed called himself a "freegan". He has a house, a car and a job. Yet he gets all his food free by checking out the waste that the markets put out to go to the landfill. He got fresh vegetables, quinoa salad and more - enough to fill 2 "suitcases". All free, all good!

The other thing that bothers me is reading about the different foods that come from countries that do not have the regulations. Orange Juice was found to have fungicide not allowed in the US but is allowed in Brazil. About 16.8 percent of the food that Americans eat is imported from other countries, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, up from 11.3 percent two decades ago. Some fish and seafood comes from other countries - a whopping 86%.

Raw milk is unavailable to a lot of us because of unclean production in the 1800's. The

Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund (FTCLDF) protects your right to provide and obtain raw milk

Makes you think... what can I do about this in my small way.

Well, first off, I think if I grow my own food, or as much of it as I can I can control the waste. Simply by feeding the waste to the animals I have will save me money and feed the animals in a much healthier way.

I think building a root cellar to store the excess will be a great way to help keep food. If I buy an abundance of carrots, potatoes, apples from the store, or from a farm, I can keep the food longer in the root cellar.

Instead of choosing only the best looking produce - if I am going to cook the produce, the taste is the same whether it has a bruise on it or not. In the past, I have stopped at a farm in Ohio and gotten tomatoes for canning. They are not pretty, but getting them canned before we eat them fresh is always a challenge,. They taste just as good as the pretty perfect ones.

If your cheese gets a hard crust, grate it and all it to a casserole. It will melt and you'll never notice the difference.

Buy the bread that is considered "day old". (Or make your own to save money)

Being frugal by nature, it annoys me to see such waste. I watch my grocery bill to keep it the lowest possible (I am writing a frugal cookbook on how I fed my family of 5 for $20 a week and how I can still do that today for $50 a week).

I catch rainwater to water my animals and do my laundry. I try to hang my laundry as much as I can to save on the electricity a dryer costs.

I re-use and re-purpose everything I can.I know this blog has sort of turned out to talk more about frugality, but I think that goes hand in hand with waste.

So... here are a few quick ideas.

You can't grow a garden anywhere? Try just a flower pot. Get some cherry tomato plant. (Sometimes you can find what is called patio plants) You can plant them in a margarine tub until they get bigger, then get a pail.

Buy the fruit or vegetables that aren't "perfect"

Get meat that is close to expiration and eat it that night.

Re-use what you have. I save tin foil and bags to re-use (unless they have touched raw meat).

So, it's time for everyone to do their part.

Veteran's Day, Morse Code and my Dad

My Dad never talked about his experience in WWII... However,  I have his photo album, and many letters he wrote to my grandparents.


This is one of my favorite stories that my mother tells...

Right after my parents were married and had moved to a new town, my mother had heard from a college friend that Phyllis and her husband were passing through. The two decided it would be great fun to go to a restaurant and meet each other's spouses and catch up. The husbands apparently went along with it, to make their wives happy.

My father was a quiet man, and my mother and her friends usually dominated the conversation, so he was prepared for another night such as that.

He was introduced to the friends husband and they sat down. Because this was 1948, the talk turned toward WWII in which both men had served. They found that they had been deployed to the same war zone.
 In the course of their discussion it came about that they had both been in Communications.

My father had been a radio telegraph operator and sent messages through Morse Code. 

Radio telegraphy using Morse code was vital during World War II, especially in carrying messages between the warships and the naval bases of the Royal Navy, the Kriegsmarine, the Imperial Japanese Navy, the Royal Canadian Navy, the Royal Australian Navy, the U.S. Navy, and the U.S. Coast Guard. Long-range ship-to-ship communications was by radio telegraphy, using encrypted messages, because the voice radio systems on ships then were quite limited in both their range, and their security. Radiotelegraphy was also extensively used by warplanes, especially by long-range patrol planes that were sent out by these navies to scout for enemy warships, cargo ships, and troop ships.

In addition, rapidly moving armies in the field could not have fought effectively without radiotelegraphy, because they moved more rapidly than telegraph and telephone lines could be erected. This was seen especially in the blitzkrieg offensives of the Nazi German Wehrmacht in Poland, Belgium, France (in 1940), the Soviet Union, and in North Africa; by the British Army in North Africa, Italy, and the Netherlands; and by the U.S. Army in France and Belgium (in 1944), and in southern Germany in 1945.

Operators skilled in Morse code can often understand ("copy") code in their heads at rates in excess of 40 wpm.


 The other man, whom they were having dinner with, was the recipient of those messages!!

The light suddenly dawned on him and he said "Double Dog??"

My Dad (initials are DD) was surprised and answered the man by calling him HIS code name. The evening took a turn as the two men felt the brotherhood that you get when you've served

For the rest of the night, my mother and her friend could hardly get a word in edgewise as these two Vets caught up on their stories.













                 

My grandmother and Dad 1939

My Dad, home on leave in 1944

  

My Dad at his 50th Wedding Anniversary Surprise party in 1998.