More Eggs!

I had an earlier post about the egg drought being over and oh, boy is it!  This is yesterday's take and the number of eggs grows daily.  Hurray!

I love that this group of freshly washed eggs is a visual feast as well as an edible one.  

Did you know?

Eggs were fertility symbols, German farmers in ancient times smeared eggs on their plows to ensure fertile fields.  Colored eggs are considered powerful and are tossed into the laps of women who want to become pregnant.  Some feel that this idea of colored eggs is how painting eggs as Easter began.   

Source

Winter Eggs

I did so great this year, I planned ahead for the slack laying period during the winter and froze lots of eggs for baking.  I took the eggs a dozen at a time, cracked them into a bowl, mixed them up, and then froze them in ice cube trays.  Two cubes equaled one egg.

I've read that in France there are different recipes for summer eggs and winter eggs.  I was prepared to change my way of cooking - no more fried eggs in the morning.  Maybe I could have them scrambled, but I've found that, although much better than any store-bought egg, winter eggs don't quite have the richness of summer eggs of chickens who forage every day.  These frozen cubes of egg would be reserved to be thawed and mixed into recipes for cooking and baking.  

Strangely, over the summer we had a period of very little egg laying.  It occurred during Farmer's Market season when people asked for them - which was frustrating. We went on vacation just before the egg dearth and I've wondered if the change in care affected their egg-laying?  Maybe the hens were just mad at me!  I've always read, and our chicken's history has been, that egg production is dependent upon the length of day.  We don't put lights on our chickens in the winter.   I prefer to go with their natural (or in this case unnatural) cycles.  I feel like its a little easier on the chicken to get a "rest."    

Do the frozen eggs work well in recipes?  I don't know because I haven't cooked with them yet.  My chickens haven't stopped laying!  We're getting roughly six eggs a day.  To be sure I'm very happy about it.  Fresh eggs have got to taste better than the frozen eggs I haven't tasted.  I don't know what's causing the continued egg-laying.  I've been feeding them a bit more to get through the cold weather.  But, in any case, having eggs at this time of year feels very unusual for us! 

Organic Egg Fraud

Organic produce seems the best way to go.  But has the word "organic" been overused by industry to get you to buy those more expensive foods?  Are those organic eggs really all that organic or free-range? 

Watch this.

Look around.  Ask around.  Find someone that's raising chickens and selling eggs.  Maybe go to that place and watch those chickens forage (I had a friend tell me that watching chickens forage was like watching fish swim around a fish tank.  It's so restful).  Know from where your eggs come.  It's more work - but the payoff is really, really worth it!

  

My Chickens' Eggs vs. Store Bought Eggs

I got down to the very last of my own chickens' eggs and had to break down and buy store eggs.  

There's a bit of a difference!

Chickens Are Fenced

If finally came... I had to break down and fence in the chickens.  The other day Heather was walking out by the back forest and said, "There's and egg here!"  I've been having a diminishing egg count lately, so Heather and I looked around and found a big pile of eggs!  The chickens weren't laying in the nest boxes anymore.  

We had no idea how old these eggs were - and I would never think of giving them to my customers - so they ended up being fed to the very happy pigs.    

I put a fence around the chickens and boom!  The egg count went right back up.   

There are a few miscreant chickens who have been flying over the fence, but I caught some of them the next morning and clipped one of their wings... no more flying.  

To clip their wings, I grab a chicken, extend it's wing out, and use heavy duty scissors to clip the feather tips as close to the body part of the wing as I can.  The feather shaft is like fingernails and it doesn't hurt the chicken.  

I've lost quite a few chickens to predators over the years and I hope them not being able to go back into the edge of the forest to hang out will cut down on their losses.  

There are a few other reasons why I decided to fence in the chickens....

.. shredded hostas.  I can't begin to say how many times I have planted landscaping around my house to have the chickens come up and dig it up or crush it.

... holes for their dust baths everywhere.  This particular picture is an area where John and I had spent the day planting pole beans and the chickens came in and dug everything up while making dust baths for themselves.  

... and chicken pooh everywhere.  This batch is on the walk behind my house.  They pooh all over the yard and I've even had them pooh when they come into the garage to eat dog food!

  

The chickens will be let out of their fence in the evening for an hour or two of eating green stuff and catching bugs before they go to roost at night.   That way they'll still give good healthy eggs but will hopefully not have time to get into trouble!

Digging Ditches

Yesterday evening, I said to a friend, "I feel like I've been digging ditches, oh wait, I have!"  And while I haven't exactly digging ditches, I've been preparing the high tunnel, finally, for planting.

While I've been waiting for the temperature to stabilize enough for my delicate tomatoes, peppers, melons, and eggplants; the weeds have been growing lush and tall.  There's been so much moisture (ie. rain!) that the ground under the high tunnel must be wet enough for great weed growth.  So I'm pulling  and digging up all the weeds I can and putting down four feet wide lengths of black plastic as part of my back saving weed control plan.  In a few years,  as I get the weeds eradicated from the high tunnels (ha ha), I plan to use more natural mulches, such as chopped leaves.

The chickens are happily (I imagine) laying lots of eggs.  I brought in 19 eggs yesterday. Free range eggs are very different from store-bought eggs.  The egg yolks are a richer yellow, the white stands up nicely, and the shells are much thicker.

Speaking of eggs, I hope to check the bees today and look for bee eggs.  If the queen is doing her job I should see what looks like a tiny grain of rice stuck into the bottom of each cell.  

Note:  I won't be checking bees today.  The forecast is 45-degrees and rainy.  Tomorrow's forecast is 65-degrees and sunny.  I don't want to chill the brood (forming bees).  I'll wait until tomorrow to check them.    

Back to gardening, I don't know who said this, but I love this quote:

How do you tell if a plant is a weed or a valuable plant?  

If it pulls easily out of the ground it's a valuable plant.

Egg A Palooza!

There has been so much going on that I haven't had time to post my blogs.  I'm happy to be back!

My chickens have taken off running in the egg laying marathon.  We're getting 19 to 22 eggs each day with a record breaking 25 eggs laid on one day.

There are  only so many ways you can serve eggs before your family revolts and I would like to make the chickens pay for their own feed, so I'm happy to announce that my "eggs for sale" sign has gone back up!

I made this sign last year and regular customers began showing up.  It's a win/win situation.  I make a little bit of money with my eggs and they get phenomenally good eggs at a decent price!

First, the signs needed a little freshening up after spending a winter thrown in the corner.

Then I put the big sign out by the main road.  When it's open I have plenty of eggs and when it's closed I'm out - which doesn't happen too often!

Then I put a little sign by the end of my driveway.

C'mon up and ring the bell!

The Cold Continues....

We've had cold, cold, cold weather and not a drop of  maple sap for quite a few days.  A grainy, icy snow still covers the ground and the poor robins congregate at any open areas of grass in search of a meal.  The snow covers the food of the little seed-eating birds; so I've refilled the bird feeder and I swear I can almost hear them saying, "thank you!" A white-tailed deer came and looked in my den window today.  I think it wanted to sample the landscaping around the house.  You've heard the saying that "March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb."  Let's hope so!

Later this week we're hoping for above freezing days and below freezing nights - perfect maple sap weather.  Then the temperatures continue to climb and we start getting days that are above freezing and nights that are above freezing.  That will cause the leaves on the maple trees to bud and sap season ends.  When the trees bud, the sap gets a kind of "green" slimy taste to it and becomes inedible.

The chickens have turned into egg laying machines.  I'm getting about 20 eggs per day more or less and have been able to start selling some dozens.  I love that the chickens pay for their own feed!

I hope to begin planting in the high tunnel next weekend.  There may be snow on the ground outside, but the temperature in the high tunnel, with the sun shining, has climbed into the 70s and even, on occasion, the 80s!  It drops dramatically at night with some mornings having a low temperature of 11-degrees.  For the first high tunnel planting, I'll be planting cold weather vegetables - lettuces, spinach, peas, sugar snap peas, and scallions.  Then in a few weeks the less hardy vegetables will start moving into the high tunnel.

21 Eggs

My chickens laid 21 eggs yesterday!

I have 32 chickens and some of them are really, really old; so this is quite an accomplishment!  They must have loved the little bit of warm weather (although now it's gone again) and the chance to really free-range, pick through the new grass, and dig in the dirt.  During the warm days, I found them contentedly giving themselves dust baths under the pig's shelter.    

How can you not smile? 

A day is like an egg, you know
Self-contained within its shell
Filled with energy and purpose
And yet remains so very frail.

Egg Colors

A lovely palette.  These are yesterday's eggs and I didn't get any green ones.  

2011 Chicken Order

Yesterday I ordered my chickens for June delivery.  We've always had them sent earlier, but then it would be too cold to put them under the lights out in the chicken coop.  They would have to be put down in the basement until the weather eased up a bit and let me tell you, chickens are dirty.  They generate a ton of dust and it gets into every single nook and cranny!

When I get my chicks, I put them in two plastic round kiddy pools with some nice straw in the bottom (thick enough to discourage spraddled legs) and wire fencing around it so they can't fly out.  There's no corners for them to get piled up and crush one another.

When you order chickens, you can get pullets, which are females (egg layers), males, or straight run (which is a mix of male and female chicks).  I have two good-natured male roosters (trust me a good-natured rooster is hard to find!) and I'm not raising chicks, so other than my cornish rocks (who are for meat), I get all pullets.

Here was my order from Ideal Poultry (the pictures are borrowed from their website).  I just hope the pictures stay and I don't end up with the question mark thing:

5 - Americauna pullets (Easter eggers - green or blue tinted eggs)



5 - Speckled Sussex pullets (so darn pretty, and lay a speckled egg)



5- Rhode Island Red pullets (good layers, brown eggs)



25 - Cornish Rock straight run (meat birds)



10 - Buff Orpington pullets (a really nice temperament, good laying chicken, brown eggs)



5 - Golden Lakenvelder pullets (white eggs, hardy, rare, and they're Pittsburgh Steeler colors!)



5 - Welsummer pullets (fairly rare, hardy, lay a dark, terra-cotta brown egg)



The Welsummers are back ordered and, if they're not available in June, I'll get 10 of the Golden Lakenvelders instead.

This seems like a large order, but you generally lose a few of the chicks due to the stress of shipping, and because my chickens free-range, I have some loss to predators.  I have a number of old chickens in the coop this year who are not laying and a couple of meat chickens from last year that are about the size of small ostriches who will all be culled.  It's time to move in some fresh layers!

Araucanas

My araucana chickens (also know as the "Easter eggers) are getting pretty old and at the end of their laying lives.  But the other day they surprised me....

I had put fresh hay in the laying boxes and I guess in the process of getting the hay fluffed they way they wanted it they pushed an egg down to the bottom.

I was so excited to finally see a green-blue egg...

But then I turned it over and found it had been out too long in the well below freezing temperatures and it had frozen solid and the shell had split.  It went into the compost.

Happily, the next day they treated me to another!

We have been hit by the big storm that's rolling through the Northeast.  I spent the night listening to ice click against the windows.  Luckily, we've kept our power so far!  The ice is thick enough that the little dogs can walk right on top of it and it makes the best sled riding surface.  The kids are outside playing as I write.  This morning, as I tended to the chickens, the ice started to fall again and now we have more snow coming down.  

Eggs: Free Range? Cage Free? Organic? Which is Best? You Decide.

Although it's much better to buy organic eggs or cage free eggs, etc. than conventional eggs (those egg factories are terrible), you're often not getting what you think you're paying for!

Here's a chart that let's you know what those different certifications mean.



Some chickens are "required" to have 6 inches of space per bird?  The USDA Organic certification does not require any minimum amount of space but at least the chickens are required to get some sunlight- though I'm not sure if that means five minutes or five hours!

If it's at all possible, your best bet is to find a farm where you can talk to the people about how they raise their chickens and sometimes even see how they're raised.

My chickens live a life of running loose around the yard, eating bugs, and dust bathing when they want. They go into a comfortable coop with roosts every night.  They are never de-beaked (why?) and they have all the daylight exposure they could want!

And they lay the BEST eggs ever!

Farmer's Market Before and After

As the season progresses we find we have less to bring to the Farmer's Market. We are working hard to keep vegetables available through the first weekend in October. I have a dream of having a small clientele that will buy leafy vegetables from me through October and November.

It's been a learning experience. I thought fresh basil would be a huge seller and I planted a lot. Surprisingly people don't buy it so much - and I sell it in huge bunches so that there's enough to make a nice pesto! Beets and acorn squash are very popular right now and I didn't plant as much as I should have.

Next year I'll plant less basil and more beets and acorn squash.



Farmer's Market Table Before:






Farmer's Market Table After:






By the way, Heather did some research and found out her bunny, Clover, is MR. Clover.



The chickens are still averaging about 5 or 6 eggs a day with an occasional 7 egg day and a very occasional 3 or 4 egg day.

Farmer's Market Prep

Due to a sick child I wasn't able to make the pickles as I intended. I spent plenty of time today getting prepared for the Farmer's Market which myself and a few other folks will be attending. I put together my vegetable price list and will be picking vegetables VERY early tomorrow morning.

Here are my prices for locally grown, chemical pesticide and fertilizer free, vegetables.

Beans:
Green $2.50/qt.
Yellow $2.25/qt.
Basil $3.00/bunch
Dill $2.00/bunch
Mixed Summer Squashes $.50 each or 3 for $1.00
Chives $2.00/bunch
Baby beets $1.50/bunch (about 8)
Cukes 2 for $1.00
Mint $2.00/bunch

Wish me luck!

Did you know that vinegar is a natural weed killer?
I can attest to this as I have brown patches in my lawn where John created baking soda and vinegar "volcanoes" in a bottle and it overflowed onto the grass. Pour white vinegar in a spray bottle and use it in place of chemical weed killers. It doesn't persist in the environment like the chemicals do.

6 eggs - better

7 Eggs Today!

Don't you just LOVE the colors!?! Especially the dark brown? When the new chickens get laying we'll have even more variety!