Losing and Adding Chickens

Last week was a sad week on our little homestead. We had a lot of wind early in the week and a board fell over on one of the chickens. It didn't make it. That night, we forgot to close the door to the coop and a cat or two attacked the flock. I heard the noise a little after 3 am and went running.
When we got out there, everyone had scattered. The ducks and 2 of the chickens were running around like crazy, one of the girls was stuck on top of the fence, and two of the the others were hiding in different spots. I did see what I thought was a chicken in our neighbor's yard, but by the time I got the girl that had been on the fence out of the alley, I couldn't find it. David walked the block in case someone had just run away, but couldn't find anyone. We felt awful. How we could be so stupid as to forget to close the coop when we know there are lots of stray cats in the neighborhood is beyond me. It happened, I cried, I had horrible dreams, I cried a little more, and I moved on.

You may remember that we had a lot more chickens earlier this summer, but we had our share of problems and learning experiences. We learned that a straight run of chickens is likely to have a lot more boys in it and if you don't want a bunch of boys, spend the extra for just girls. We also learned that there are some preventative treatments you should give chickens that we were never told about. I read a book and talked to lots of people, but no one ever mentioned the need to deworm at regular intervals when they are young. Lesson learned and between those two learning experiences we were down to 8 chickens before the wind blew and the cats attacked.

After a short grieving period we decided to look for some new friends to join the flock. (Craigslist is great for this sort of thing) We found a farm about 15 minutes from our house that has all purebred Buff Orpingtons and they were selling some of their birds. Even though I suggested three to five new hens, David came home with eight. Sigh. The good news is that they are already laying, but are still in their first year of life, so we should get at least a couple good years with them. I've been so excited to check on everyone each day and gather the new eggs. If you follow me on instagram, you've probably seen several egg posts and those have all been from the new ladies. I am excitedly waiting for our sex-link Allison to start laying. Seriously, it could be any day now!

How fresh are your eggs?

Pictures from the Backyard Homestead August 2014

Do you like Claire's photobomb?

Harvesting Onions and Carrots 2014

One thing I loved about my garden this year was having onions and carrots at the ready for anything I needed. We had a big problem with weeds this year, so we were forced to pick everything a little early. Even so, we did pretty well. This was my first year for onions and my second for carrots.

 I wanted to leave the onions in longer, because some of them aren't very big, but I don't think they would've made it.

 Onions need to be cured for long-term storage. Basically you just let them dry out a to develop the outer layer, and then you can store them like you would onions from the grocery store. For more details check out this post from Common Sense Homesteading.
Our carrots were all good sizes, but some of them sure do look funny.

 Since we didn't grow enough carrots to last us all year, we just washed them off with the hose, trimmed the greens, and tossed them in the fridge.

All the sources I've read, say that if you want to store them long term, you should do it in a bucket or tote of moist sand. For more details on storing carrots and other vegetables for winter, check out this post from The 104 Homestead.

What do you (or would you) do with fresh onions or carrots from your garden?

Homestead Cooking with Carol: blog tour, review, and giveaway!

I received a ebook copy of this book to facilitate this reveiw. All opinions are my own.

I recently joined the Homestead Bloggers Network and have been floored by the wealth of knowledge and experience of the other members. One such member is Carol J. Alexander.
Carol is a homesteader, homemaker, and homeschooler. She released her book Homestead Cooking with Carol: Bountiful Make-Ahead Meals in January, but it was only available in ebook form. Now, she has released her book in print.

I love that this book is straight and to the point. She gives all sorts of tips and advice to make the most of your time in the kitchen. She knows what it's like to work hard on her homestead all day while still homeschooling her kids and then need to get healthy food on the table for everyone. She says that if she can do it and still have enough time leftover to tell you about it, then you can do it too.

She shares recipes, but the focus of the book is how to make them easy to get to the table. Some of her recipes are more ideas than precise measurements for each ingredient, so I tried one of those called power patties. She said these were key to getting her younger son to eat more vegetables, so I thought they'd help my kids too. They definitely have potential and I totally believe that they could help kids like vegetables. They taste a lot like a hash brown, especially when you add a little ketchup. Unfortunately, my kids are a little peculiar and don't actually like hash browns. I don't get it, because they like french fries, but put it in patty form and no way! I still think we could make the idea work for us, but I'll have to tinker with it, so it doesn't make them think of a hash brown.

Since her focus isn't the actual recipes, it is easy to take the knowledge and suggestion and adapt them to your cooking style -whether or not you are a homesteader. She doesn't use any off-the-wall ingredients I've never heard of or seen, but there are a few that can be difficult to find. She does give suggestions on where to look though, which is more than many authors do.

The only things I wish were added to this book are pictures, but for less than $13, it's not surprising. The information is valuable enough

To purchase a hard back copy, check out Carol's site or The Book Patch.

Or, you can take your chances in the giveaway. Carol is generously giving away 3 copies of her book for readers of this book tour.

The giveaway has ended. Thank you to everyone that participated.
The winners are:

Betty Horn

Hillary Moore

Heather Luth

Please check your e-mail, Carol will be contacting you shortly. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Growing Green Beans: what I've learned so far

I love green beans! I eat them year round, but nothing compares to the fresh taste and satisfaction I get from my garden green beans. This is my third year growing them and I've tried them 3 different ways.
The first year, I grew several bushes. My harvest was fairly small and I was about 9 months pregnant so bending over to pick the beans was not the most comfortable thing.

Last year, I planted pole beans with our corn. I must have done something wrong though, because the beans choked out the corn. The beans still did well, but I didn't get any corn.
This year, I tried pole beans again and made bean teepees. I know pole beans can grow pretty tall, but David only found 6 ft poles for me, so that's what we used. The following picture was taken just after I planted everything a little less than 3 months ago.

 The next picture was taken last night.

 As you can see, they look rather top heavy. Part of that is because the chickens kept sitting on and eating the plants when they were new and they still like to munch on the lower parts. The main reason for the top heaviness is because the teepees are a few feet too short! My longest vine is at least 8 if not 9 feet in length.
I do have lots of green beans ready to be harvested and many more that will be ready sometime this next week, so I'll be adding to garden fresh green beans to next week's meal plan.


Have you ever grown green beans? If so, what kind and how did it go? If not, do you think you'll ever give it a try?

Slate Run Living Historical Farm: Summer 2014

One of the kids' favorite places to visit is Slate Run Living Historical Farm. The farm is located in my hometown, Canal Winchester, Ohio. Going to the farm is like stepping back in time to the 1880s and seeing what farm life was like back then. Even the breeds of animals are specific to the time period. One of my favorite things about the farm is that you can go season after season, year after year and still see new things.

The farm provides a variety of activities to do and see. When you walk along the path from the parking lot up to the house and barns, you'll pass by a few fields full of heirloom garden favorites. As you near the house, there are period toys and games that want to be played with and are appropriate for a variety of ages.

 According to the Metro Parks website, the farmhouse is a gothic revival built in 1856 and later restored. This visit was actually the first that I can recall going inside and it's certainly worth the detour, but I'm already on picture overload, so I'll have to share the inside with you another day. It wouldn't be a summer post though if I didn't show you the summer kitchen. No joke, a summer kitchen is on my dream house wishlist. The summer kitchen is separated from the rest of the house and is in the back.

Merino Sheep

 Of course, my kids would not consider it a farm if it didn't have animals. They have your standard farm animals, but the breeds are all heirloom and at least part of them are fairly rare these days. The thing my kids love the most about the animals, is that you can pet them. I don't recommend trying to pet the geese or turkeys, but the sheep, cows, pigs, and horses love the attention and some will even come over as you walk up.

Poland China Hog

If you've never been to a historical farm, I highly recommend you find one locally to visit, or if you're in central Ohio, you should definitely hit up Slate Run. Their hours are:  
April and May: Tue-Sat 9am-4pm, Sun 11am-4pm (Memorial Day, noon-6pm) 
June to Aug: Tue-Thu 9am-4pm, Fri-Sat 9am-6pm, Sun 11am-6pm  (July 4, 9am-6pm)
Sept to Oct: Tue-Sat 9am-4pm, Sun 11am-4pm (Labor Day, noon-6pm)
Nov to March: Wed-Sat 9am-4pm, Sun 11am-4pm

Note: The Farm is closed on Mondays, and is also closed on Tuesdays from November to March. The Farm is closed also on Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day and New Year's Day

What's your favorite thing to see or do at a farm?

Pictures from the backyard homestead July 2014

The ducks are 7 weeks, the younger chicks are 8 weeks, the older black chickens are about 15 weeks and our oldest 2 are about 16 weeks.

Johnny (the roo in black)

Lucky

Quackers, Cheeze, and Nemo

Gladys

Crusty

Ok so these last 2 aren't from the backyard, but Zeke has been so eager to help recently, I just had to share.

He loaded almost all of the groceries into the van by himself!

  

What's on your mind?

What Kind of Duck Is This?

Our cute little duckling, Quackers, has become a small mystery to us. Quackers was sold to us a Rouen duckling, but through conversations I had with other duck owners, I learned Rouen ducklings all look the same and don't start black.

 Based on this picture I was told Quackers is a Cayuga, which is a popular black show duck.

 Looking back at this picture, I realize Quackers wasn't as black as we thought.

We really began to notice a discrepancy, when feathers started coming in and they are brown tipped like a Rouen.

My current conclusion is that we have a mixed breed. My guess is Rouen with just enough Cayuga to allow the down to be black. We don't really care, but it would've been nice to know that when we bought the ducklings, because some breed have different coloring depending on the gender.

This gender waiting game is like being pregnant again. I am overly anxious to learn the gender of my new babies so I can plan accordingly. I always tried to find out at my mid way ultrasound, Zeke was too modest to show us and it drove me nuts for the remainder of his pregnancy.

Do you try to find out the sex of your babies before they are born?

Feeding Ducks and Chickens Table Scraps

Try as I might to prevent it, we still end up with quite a bit of food waste at our house. Usually it's just me incorrectly guessing how much of something we'll actually eat, but occasionally I do something completely preventable. This past week, I did it twice.
Last week I bought a lettuce mix for use on sandwiches. When I was making up the grocery list, I forgot to check my fridge. Had I done so, I would have realized I still had plenty leftover from the previous week. This is why taking inventory is so important. After realizing my error, I decided to give the older batch to the ducks and chickens.

 The Pekin duck, Cheeze, went nuts over the kale and "power greens mix" She was gulping it down faster than the chicks could grab it. She did share, but this entire pile was gone within about 5 minutes!

 The second preventable mistake of mine was taking too much watermelon on our picnic to Dawes Arboretum and then forgetting to put it away for several hours. When I finally remembered, I wasn't sure whether or not I should stick it back in the fridge, so I decided to see how the birds liked it. Everyone was a fan, even the older chickens that haven't liked a lot of the scraps were gobbling it down.

Chickens and ducks can eat pretty much any of the same fruits and vegetables people eat. Here's a list of some ours have tried:

• strawberries (I give them the cut off tops)
• kale
• spinach
• watermelon
• basil (my garden is overflowing)
• cabbage

They also enjoy eating various greens from around the yard- especially my green bean plants. *womp womp*

I know we must be doing something right because these birds are growing up so fast! This picture was taken yesterday and the ducks are just shy of 5 weeks. The Rouen duck is sitting behind the Pekin duck so you can't really tell, but it's still much larger than the chicks too.

Any suggestions on what food I should give the ducks and chickens next?

A New Coop

Happy Independence Day! I'm spending a low key holiday at home. Strangely enough it's one of the few holidays my family doesn't have a get together. So, I'll be home enjoying my freedoms.
Because it's Friday, I have another chicken update for you.
We have integrated all of our chicks, chickens, and ducklings together in a new space. They are loving the extra room to roam around and the new shady location is perfect for them to beat the heat.

 David did all the renovations. He converted part of our old detached garage into the coop and enclosed the run with garden netting (which is very similar to the chicken wire, but half the price!)

 This awning was made from the roof of our first coop. The original coop was repurposed in several areas of this new space.

 The little pool is for the ducks and gets this dirty looking within about an hour of changing the water. The branches were conveniently cut last year and since our chainsaw was stolen, we never got around to turning them into firewood.

 Here's a view from just inside the coop. If you look closely, you can see all of the elements we added.

These 5 gallon buckets are the nesting boxes. The large pole at the bottom and the two diagonal poles are for roosting.

So far no one has spent much time on the upper level. A couple of them hang out in the far corner, but most of them pile together in the corner in front of the door. This means that part of them are sleeping on the ramp, but they don't seem to mind. Hopefully as everyone gets bigger, they'll start using the boxes and roosting sticks.

How are you spending your holiday weekend?