The Red Devils are trying to do away with me!

March 1, 2011

I've said it before and I'll say it again... If April 1st is April Fool's Day... can March 1st be mandated as Yell At A Fool Day?

Good Hen

  



What crazy weather we've been having! I have even felt a bit like Dorothy the last couple of weeks...but instead of flying monkeys I have flying chickens. It is not often I get angry with my chickens but I can honestly say I got angry yesterday. In all fairness though, it is not all the chickens I'm angry at... just the Red Devils. They really do go out of their way to think up ideas to torture me. This week it is the square hay baler. Yep... they are now conspiring with farm machinery to see how much I can take.

You wouldn't think they could be very smart to look at them. They really do have small heads so they must have a small brain. Which leaves me to wonder how much of their brain do they actually reserve for their diabolical thoughts?

I want to start off by saying we (me, Paul & Uncle Wayne) built them a lovely coop inside the barn so they could be safe, warm and dry. It is quite nice and for the first month everything seemed to be working out just perfect! I believe they have tried their hardest to express how much they really do love their new home. But... the Red Devils must have gotten bored and decided to stir things up a bit.

Bad Red Devil

We have kept the square hay baler in the barn over the winter. One night one of the Red Devils didn't make it into the barn. I just could not find her. It was my fault for going outside to "put them to bed" after dark. After doing a bit of searching with the flashlight I glimpsed a movement from inside the baler. Sure enough the hen was tucked inside the baler in a nice pile of hay. I picked her up and put her in the coop with the others. I really thought that would be the end of it.

It wasn't.

She clearly decided she liked the spot and would commit it to memory. At some point over the past few weeks she decided to lay her eggs there as well. She neglected to tell me this and to make matters worse she decided to share the spot with some of her BFF's.

What tipped me off is that over the past few weeks when all the snow melted they all decided it was safe to go back to free ranging all day long. Normally when they do this they produce more eggs. Like me they suffer from SAD in the winter months. We are kindred spirits me and the girls. When they are suffering from SAD they just don't lay very many eggs. So when I went out to collect eggs yesterday at the end of the day... I expected to have at least 5-6 eggs waiting for me. There was two. Two, teeney weeney banty teaspoon size eggs. 

Where on earth were my full size eggs? And so the great egg hunt began. After about 20 minutes I discovered over a dozen eggs tucked away inside the baler. Hmmmm... well how in the heck am I supposed to get myself inside there to get them out??? I stretched myself across the baler and over the row of "nails" to get my arm inside to get them. When I told my friend Jonathan about it he said he wouldn't have been able to do it for fear it would turn into a Steven King movie. Indeed... if ever there was a moment for the Red Devils to band together and collectively wish me ill, that was the moment!

As I am still able to type you will have surmised that I narrowly escaped with my arm intact. Not so much my jeans however which did suffer a slight mishap.

They jump out of the hay loft!

I put up a plank of wood to block off their new nest and I thought myself so clever. And this afternoon I was proven wrong again. My ability to be clever in no way nears their ability to think up new ways to vex me. They are masters at it!  So today I also had to go on another great egg hunt around the barn. The rotten hens were leaving them EVERYWHERE!  I literally had to climb into the loft and through all of the hay bails to pull out their secreted stash.

Might I mention I got a huge fright when one of the Red Devils decided to fly out of the loft hatch to avoid capture? I thought for sure she would be a flattened pile of feathers on the ground but nope... these things are worse than cats for lives!





A good Red Devil





Tomorrow is a new day and I must come up with a new plan to out smart my free range Red Devils.

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Lesson Learned... 'Nough Said

February 23, 2011

Lessons learned.

This week I learned a hard but important lesson. I learned that if I wanted to order a rare chicken breed I better get an earlier start than waiting until the end of February. 

In August last year I came across The Chicken Whisperer on the Tractor Supply’s website. I started listening to his show because it was only luck that someone gave me three bantam chicks. I had no idea how to care for them or what to look for in case I thought something was wrong. http://www.blogtalkradio.com/backyardpoultry      

(I will try very hard to list correct photo credits for these pictures in captions.)

I still listen to the show regularly as even though I feel pretty confident now that I’ve had my chickens for almost a year the show offers more than just chicken info. Twice a month they have Christine Heinrichs, historian for the Society for Preservation of Poultry Antiquities. From her I have learned of so many breeds that I have never heard of. She did a segment once on French breeds and I learned of the Black Copper Maran. I was fascinated by the thought of a chicken that could lay dark brown nearly chocolate colored eggs. How beautiful they are!  http://albc-usa.org/    



Should be obvious but Maran eggs from FeatherSite.com



They are a very rare breed here in the US and the blood lines continue to be thinned because the lack of fresh bloodlines coming from France. The USDA does not ban fertilized eggs from entering the US but they do make it difficult which has contributed greatly to their scarcity.




Ameraucana eggs from http://www.mypetchicken.com/

  My goal is to have a true rainbow carton of eggs to sell. Can you imagine waking up to beautiful colors for breakfast? Such a small thing but I promise you when you see them there really is an Ohhh Ahhh factor!

The other problem I’m finding is the Speckled Sussex Paul wanted me to get. He has shown virtually no interest in the chickens until he picked up a hatchery brochure and discovered English breeds. It only makes sense since he is after all, English. So he asked me to order them for him. He said he would want to spend time with them as long as I was still going to be the one to care for them. I was able to easily get the rooster but if I wanted to get the Maran & Sussex hens I would have to wait until May. That simply will not due! As it is, I will have to wait until fall until I start getting eggs from the new chickens that I did get.

 This is going to force me to get creative and research much more on breeding. Since I was able to only get a Black Copper Maran rooster I decided to order two Welsummer hens to try and breed with. I don’t know as of yet if it will work in carrying the dark brown color gene. The Welsummer also has a dark brown egg shell color, just not as dark as the Maran. http://www.zooeasy.com/en/



Welsummer eggs from FeatherSite.com



I decided to order 2 white egg laying hens (Ancona) and 2 Ameraucana hens in addition to the Speckled Sussex & Maran Roosters & Welsummer hens. It’s my first ever “chicken order”.  http://www.meyerhatchery.com/       



Last Friday I went to Southern States & Lowe’s to start buying seeds and starter trays for the garden. It felt so wonderful to get my hands in dirt again! In another life I worked on weekends at a nursery close by my home, The Greenhouse in Glen Allen, VA. I did it to learn about plants and so that the money I earned there I could justify spending on plants. Very rarely did I ever bring home an actual paycheck.



One of the things I loved most about the place was going there in the winter months when everything was brown and dull. Just walking around in the greenhouses smelling the soil and living plants was very therapeutic. I could get over the worst day in just a few minutes walking around in there.



One of my favorite rites of spring was the Maymont Flower and Garden Show. That would be the final sign that winter really was over and I could finally start to plant again. I never had a big vegetable garden, just a small raised bed with lettuces, tomatoes etc… but I would buy plants for the outside of the house and inside. I planted wisteria on both ends of my front porch that slowly but surely climbed up the lattice fence, over the railing and made it across the roof. How lovely it was to see it come to life once again each spring.  http://www.maymont.org/Page.aspx?pid=419       



There are bulb flower greens peeping up out of the dirt around the house and I look forward to seeing them all bloom. I bought a bag of shady grass seed for the front of the house where the huge Maple tree shades the front. I have dusted off my planters and washed them out ready for new flowers. If I do all of this do you suppose I will force spring to come sooner?



What you eat & how you vote.

It's not like me to go on the war path and openly declare my distaste for political issues but I am genuinely confused by the seeming disconnect between political parties in what they say and what they actually do. To be honest, I had great reservations about voicing my concern in this forum as it is really meant to be a light hearted look at this new chapter in my life. I have in fact gone back and changed it from my initial rant that I wrote at 2am. I have tried to remove some of my cutting sarcasm. I have not done this because I am backing down or realize the error of my ways but more to make some corrections and try to better connect the point of what we eat and how it affects our politics.

I have bundled up a few different issues and I'm finding it very difficult to make it a coherent thought.

Among all of my rantings below I have a few key points:

1. The meat packing industry paid about $18.00 per hour to Americans plus benefits in the '80's.

2. The meat packing companies started consolidating like many business today in order to control their market, this led to the opportunity to bust up unions and hire cheaper labor.

3. The meat packing industry along with many other "American" companies started hiring illegal immigrants to work for less money which led to Americans loosing jobs.

4. Illegal immigrants are forced to work in conditions that are on equal to third world countries right here in the good old USA.

5. Illegal immigrants have to steal or buy fake & real Social Security numbers to work which leads to identity and job theft.

6. The unsafe practices forced on the illegals are also making us sick!

Where is the outrage over large American companies who actually advertise in Mexican newspapers to recruit workers? For years our government has turned a blind eye. As long as the companies help the INS "capture" 15 illegal immigrants a month they can avoid having their plants raided. Nearly 80% of all the meat processed in this country is done through four plants. Since they hire so many illegal aliens they can save more money by cutting back on safety. That also affects the handling of your food. They keep the line moving so fast that feces gets on the meat we eat and this is how we get E.coli. Over 76 million Americans are stricken by foodborne illnesses each year in large part due to these money saving practices.

Illegal immigrants are not "undocumented", they buy Social Security numbers and pay taxes into the system. The Social Security Department is fully aware of this problem. States with high levels of illegal immigrants also have proportionately higher than normal job and identity theft. Job theft is when an illegal immigrant (or anyone) uses your social security number to get a job . Then if you tried to apply for the same job you would be denied being hired because that social security number has already been hired.

Here is a bit of generic background on the meatpacking industry in regards to my issues. If I am incorrect or missing key elements please let me know:

You see at one time the meat packing industry was dominated by unions. Meat Packing jobs were well paying jobs with good benefits for Americans. But once the large companies realized they could bust up the unions and import bus loads of illegal immigrants the doors were opened. It is now one of the most dangerous jobs in this country. You won't see Mike Rowe doing it! The companies cut back on safety and push the workers not to file workers compensation claims. That of course saves the company money so they could afford to keep you in your job. That leads to satisfied share holders. My own husband was asked to not go to the doctor when he sustained an injury on the job because that would harm their "days without an incident". There really is no end to corporate greed.

Much of the money the illegal immigrants earn gets sent back to their home countries. In the month of October 2008 over 2 billion US Dollars were sent to Mexico instead of being fed back into our economy. So not only are we trying to support our own economy we are helping to support the economy of other countries.

 I know for a fact that the INS calls ahead to companies and advises of them when they will be giving audits. Large companies deny good paying jobs to Americans so they can hire cheaper illegal immigrants. The either directly hire illegals with falsified documents or... they hire "temp" workers so that the legal burden is not theirs. Either way Americans are now being "outsourced" in their own country. When will we wake up and realize what is going on? I saw this first hand when I lived in Minnesota. There was a temp agency in my local shopping center that was notorious for hiring illegals. They photo copied what ever social security card you brought in and sent you of to work.

 One of the things I find appalling is that in the 2008 elections the meat packing industry contributed 70% of it's funds to Republicans who are supposed to be anti-illegal immigrant and are all about Americans working in American jobs. In fact, 3/4 of the 10 million of it's contributions made since the 1990 election cycle have been to the GOP. According to Opensecrets.org. This is what I find so confusing. Maybe someone could help me better to understand this. On a side note that year the single largest contribution went to a Democrat.

I am also confused with the desire to have less government when time and time again we are shown that companies simply can not and will not actively police themselves. The USDA came out with a new law to help protect us after so many millions become ill and about 5000 die annually . The Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point laws allow much of the safety testing to be done by the plants themselves. Do we really trust them to over see the safety of our children and our selves when they knowingly break the law every day?

Most of my friends are Republicans. Maybe they can help me understand the connection of campaign contributions from large companies that take jobs away from Americans, hire illegal immigrants and make us ill. It could be that I am very misinformed and I welcome any and all opinions! I would not class myself as a bleeding heart Liberal. I am pro gun and have other conservative leanings.

If you are interested in learning more I encourage you to learn how our government turns a blind eye while Americans go without jobs. There are many more sites I can point you to if you are interested... just let me know.

http://www.foodincmovie.com/

http://www.cis.org/identitytheft

http://www.opensecrets.org/industries/indus.php?Ind=G2300&cycle=2006

http://www.vosizneias.com/76233/2011/02/14/washington-republicans-question-proposed-meatpacking-reforms
http://www.sustainabletable.org/issues/processing/
http://www.fsis.usda.gov/Regulations_&_Policies/index.asp
Ok... I am now stepping down off my soap box.

Touch your food~!

February 11, 2011

Count Down To V Day!

I'm actually counting down the hours until Paul gets home. He has had a miserable few weeks at work and it will be very good to have him home again. He will even get to be home for Valentine's day.

This last week I saw my predator friend only twice which is a blessing. It has been bitter cold and the ground covered in snow so the chickens didn't mind being cooped up. Next week things are supposed to warm up again so I need to try and figure something out before then. They love to eat the fresh grass that is starting to come up. Last time when we had a thaw I sat outside in the grass watching them eat. You could tell they were so happy. On my last post I mentioned that O'Brahma Boy was killed by the hawk. It tuns out I decided to feed him to the dogs. The hawk had put a few puncture wounds in him and I was concerned about bacteria.

I quickly learned that I didn't have any good sharp knives. That will be a must to fix before I process chickens in the fall. So I did it the old fashioned way of chopping off his head and feet with my little ax. Zoe saw the flash of yellow flying in the air and quickly chowed down on his feet. I panicked... what if she choked???  I quickly ran in and jumped online to google dogs eating chicken feet. That is when I came across a very interesting website about feeding dogs & cats raw food. http://www.rawlearning.com/  I got so excited about this I just cut up the small bantam chicken into quarters and fed him to the dogs after I cleaned out his innards. They loved every bit of it, including the bones!



A couple of days before the thaw



If you haven't touched your food that intimately before I encourage you to do so. Two summers ago we went camping on the James River with my friends small group. Paul & I had caught some fish and our friend Chris offered to clean them up for us. He turned it into a basic biology lesson for the children. They gathered round and watched with fascination when he gutted the fish and explained how they breathed and taught about their different organs. One of the kids dared him to eat a fish eye and well... next thing we knew he popped the little sucker in his mouth! Hat's off to you Chris! There were many lessons that day but the most important was to not dare Chris to eat anything.

What I'm trying to say is that it is sad that we have become so far removed from our food. I am just as guilty as I would guess anyone is from my generation. We stopped growing our own food. We stopped touching our own food. In come cases we stopped cooking our own food. This I believe has led to all sorts of health issues for us that we are only beginning to understand. I do not think there is a misconnect between our current eating habits and things such as obesity and food allergies. I believe these things to go hand in hand.

Zoe & Rocky

On the next step of raising chickens I am trying my hand at hatching eggs. I have collected 9 eggs which I hope are fertilized and placed them in my old fish aquarium. I'm using a grow bulb on the tank in addition to a desk top lamp with a 40 watt bulb. So far I have been able to maintain the temperature around 99 degrees with 65% humidity. I candled some of them today and I can see the heart! I just hope I don't goof something up and they don't hatch.

I remember as a child when my grandmother would bring home a chicken from the store and clean it up. I would then proceed to beg her to make the chicken dance. She would stick her hand back into the cavity she had cleaned out and sing a song in French and make the chicken dance around on the counter. I would laugh for ages over that. She and my grandfather grew a lovely garden one summer and in a coffee can they let me grow my own corn. They taught me how to take care of it as it grew. I remember fluffy yeast rolls raising on the stove. I also will never forget all of the clothes she lovingly made for me. Sadly, she died before she could teach me about any of those magical things she could do. My mother had these same skills but she was very busy raising two children on her own and never got around to teaching me. Now that she too is gone I have a longing to be able to do all of the things these amazing women could do.

I am baking a fresh loaf of bread for when Paul comes home. I am learning day by day... article by article, blog by blog.

Lastly, with help from Jonathan Jones (Thank You!) I was able to get a logo for my travel business. I feel that things are coming together very well indeed! Now I can finally start doing some advertising. After 20 years in the travel industry I can't believe I've finally gone out on my own. Yeahhhhhhhhhh me!

I plucked my first chicken today!

It was beautiful here today. It was the kind of winter day that lets you know spring is nearly here if you can hold on just a little longer. I had to let the chickens out. Really. When I opened the door to the coop they all came piling out! It was so lovely and sunny I decided to sit outside with them for ages. Eventually my head started hurting and since I hadn't seen or heard the hawk I let them stay outside.

 

My Uncle Wayne came over to borrow the truck and when he left I went outside to check and see if I had any eggs yet. That is when I saw the flash of wings flying near the barn. Dang it... I ran to the barn and sure enough the hawk had killed the Buff Brahma Bantam rooster I have. He must have just killed it as the neck was broken and just a couple of claw punctures. The days of free ranging are over unless I can make him hate hunting over here. But how do I do that with l these lovely chickens running around? As I always say it is my responsibility to protect my chickens. Lesson learned.

 

So I decided to turn it into a positive. I went online and looked up how to process a chicken. I checked on the other chickens to make sure they were ok and they were really quite traumatized! They were squawking up a storm in the shrubbery, but they were none the worse for wear.

 

Dare I admit to "borrowing" my husbands stainless steel pot that he uses to brew his beer? Well it was the only pot I had that was large enough to dunk the whole chicken into. I got he water very hot and dunked the poor rooster into the boiling water a few times. I took him outside and plucked his feathers out in front of his friends. At first they came running thinking I was dropping treats for them on the ground. They quickly realized it as feathers. I wonder if they knew?

 

So I have him plucked just in time for me to leave the house. I had to run the mail from Mt. Nebo into Summersville today so I put him in a plastic bag and set him in the fridge. Since he is only a bantam size rooster I will see about making a pot of chicken & dumplings with him.

 

My Uncle Wayne and Paul said they didn't think I could handle processing a chicken then eating it. While I didn't personally deliver he death blow so to speak I was perfectly fine doing the rest. Maybe I should keep the hawk around after all? hehe Then I wouldn't have to get the chicken cones and slit their necks. I could just put out the chicken I was ready to eat and wait until the hawk did the rest for me. He also seemed very adept at plucking so maybe I could let him do that part for me too? While we are at it maybe I could teach him how to cook?

 

I did look up online that they are protected birds but that you can take yearlings and train them for falconry. That was a surprise to me. I guess I hadn't thought that people still did that.

 

Tomorrow Paul will finally come home for a few hours after being on the road for nearly two weeks. Along with the chicken n dumplins I think I will bake some bread. Mother Earth News had a great article about simple bread recipes. I've made the crusty white round bread a few times and it is very easy to make. Tomorrow for the first time I will try their sandwich bread recipe.

 

Hopefully my ear & sinus infection will clear up soon. I feel so run down... I think a little chicken soup is just what I need.

 

R.I.P. Blue Weiner Thingey

Blue Weiner Thingey... RIP

You can tell when a pet discovers a favorite toy. They spend far more time interacting with it than any others. Blue Weiner Thingey was Zoe’s favorite toy. She could grab one end and get Lucky to grab the other and they would walk around growling attached to each end of the toy.

I have to confess that the funniest thing to watch was Zoe jumping on Lucky’s back while he would lay down. She would have the toy in her mouth and she would try to “get busy” with his neck. He hated it! He would growl and bark at her but when she was feeling in the mood it was hard to stop her… the key component was having Blue Weiner Thingey in her mouth squeeking it while making love to Lucky’s back.

We have had a break in the snow and the chickens are totally loving it! They are back to free ranging and eating grasses and buggies. This is what makes the eggs so healthy! I supplement with a bit of layer pellet, scratch grains and for treats they get things like black oil sun flower seeds. When it was very cold out I gave them a couple of hot morning treats of warm oatmeal and scrambled egg with scratch grains mixed in. Happy chickens make healthy eggs and healthy roasted chicken!

I won 100 vintage egg cartons from www.eggcartons.com thanks to the Chicken Whisperer radio show! Now I can sell my free range eggs in style. I’m very excited to start that new chapter.

For 2011 we are planning on getting a calf to raise for beef for us and we are also considering a goat or two if I can get them at a very good price. I have been shocked at some of the prices I’ve seen for goats! I’ve seen them running as high as $400.00. That is wayyyy more than I am looking to spend.

Rocky

My biggest goal for 2011 on the farm is to get a proper coop made for my chickens. For this I am going to need help. I need some simple coop plans and I need to continue my research for that. I also want to learn how to "process" chickens. However I have discovered that if I leave my ax on my wood chopping block they seem to be keen to try it themselves! If they could then pluck themselves and clean the insides out I will be in heaven!

My biggest goal for my business is to grow it through advertising locally and to develop a good web page. I would like to have one more large corporate account in addition to developing my leisure travel business. In spite of my blogging about my farm life which I do love… travel is my true passion in life! I have already started working with my graphic designer to come up with my own logos for my advertising and branding. He is brilliant!

My biggest goal for my personal life is to continue having a wonderful marriage to my wonderful husband, Paul! I plan on going out on the road with him in his truck this year. What is wonderful is that I can help my clients while I am on the road with him! Have laptop… will work! I just need to find someone that will come and check on the beasties every now and again.

Wanted: someone to baby my chickens as I do. Must be willing to talk gibberish and cuddle them in addition to collecting eggs. J

Hen Jacuzzi

January 3, 2011

The puppies & momma dog all went to homes three days before Christmas. Yeah! I had some help from a school friend. Ronda stood out in the cold with me and worked magic in helping them find homes.

Christmas was quiet compared to last year and bitter sweet. We were supposed to spend two weeks in England with Paul's family but his company wouldn't let him have off without forcing him to quit and rehire. He hasn't spent a Christmas with his family in 7 years. The good news was that he actually made it home for Christmas Eve. They were going to try to just have him home for about 12 hours Christmas Day but he put his foot down.

The winter routine is settling in and I'm having my typical winter bla's. When it is dark out my body says it is time for sleep. So it isn't too weird to find me having a cat nap at 7pm. Only problem with that is that I wake up at 2am and don't always get back to sleep on time. What I really need is exercise!

Life with the chickens is funny as usual. Every time I think I've "done it all" I am proven wrong. Last week I had a poorly hen. At first I thought she might be egg bound because she stopped laying and was generally acting sick. She even stopped eating & drinking. I thought for sure she was a goner! I brought her inside and started reading what to do if she was egg bound.

This was quite nice for the hen... she got a couple of Jacuzzis and saunas out of the deal. I did draw the line at blowing bubbles in the water for her!

Then it was suggested that I don a glove, lube up and "examine" her to see if I could feel an egg trapped. Well what type of lube should I use? Plain or warming?

She didn't complain when I preformed the examination bless her heart! It turns out that I couldn't feel anything so I guess she wasn't egg bound. I decided to force feed her some olive oil and then managed to get some water down her. 

The next day she seemed to perk up a bit so I thought I would reintroduce her back to the flock. That did NOT go over well. The instant she was outside Jonesey jumped her and the other hens attacked her. Chickens are the bullies of the barnyard. They are just plain mean when they sense something is off. Or... maybe they were jealous over her days at the Keeley Hen Spa??

Fergus shared a kennel with her for a couple of evenings and he had no problem with her at all. Lastnight I had her stay out all night in the big pen with her siblings. It seemed to go ok though she clearly doesn't want to hang out with them anymore.