Washingtonians Come Together! Washington Peeps

[ValerieJ]

Homemade pasta to go with beef for dinner! First time making it this way. I usually roll it out by machine. Wanted them a bit heartier this time.

 

[pennyJo1960]

@ValerieJ Pasta looks great!

 

[Smokerbill]

My diet is similar, noon and dinner, small portions. Have lost 40 lbs!!! 10 or 20 to go!!!

Stopped spending 3 hours going to the gym and bought equipment for the garage. Now it's 20 minutes. But that's not part of weight loss. At 71, I need the strength building too, especially in my legs. Old family trait to lose use of legs. That is not happening here!!!

Way to go on the weight loss. I'm down 8 or so in three weeks. My exercise is working in the garden. I'm taking a break now from digging up part of the yard where I'll plant my okra. It's a 25 foot long, 1 foot wide row.

I'm having to triple turn it. Dug once to take the sod off the top and layed it to one side. Dug out another layer of dirt and layed it to the other side. I just finished putting the first dig back in the trench, grass side down. Then I walked over it to compress it. Now I'm drinking water and resting.

When I get back to it I'm going to dump a layer of chicken compost in the trench, then put the second dig dirt back on top of it. I'll break it up with a shovel to loosen it up and it should be ready for planting the okra seeds.

The reason I'm putting the okra in that area is that it get full sun all day long, and okra loves heat. I don't need no stinkin' gym! LOL.

ETA:
I finished the okra row, all except for planting the seeds. I have the okra seeds soaking in water now and I'll plant them tomorrow.



And I got my dill planted today. I dug out a small bed at the edge of my woodchip pile and got the dill seeds planted and watered in. This spot will get sunshine until around 1PM, then will be shaded during the hot afternoon. I think the dill will appreciate that.

 

[ValerieJ]

That sounds like a lot of work @Smokerbill ! But good for you! I think it will make a great garden bed! And congrats on the weight loss!!! It's coming off slowly for me. Been dieting since last August. But what matters it? The 9 mos would have passed whether I dieted or not.

@pennyJo1960, the dinner turned out great. Pasta was a little bigger than I wanted, so I'll make it thinner next time. It's a learning curve on technique. The flavor and texture of homemade pasta is so much better than anything I can find in the store, so it's worth working on.

 

[ValerieJ]

When I checked for eggs this morning I learned that I have an egg eater. I caught her in the act so I chased her off the nest and scolded her. If I catch her doing that again I just might turn her into fried chicken.

I've been thinking about your little egg eater. I have noticed over these 8 years that all chickens will eat a raw egg if it is broken. Are you sure she actually broke it? That I haven't seen any of my hens do. For one reason or another, an egg gets broken and then they cannot resist eating it. This can happen with shells that are a bit thin and brittle, or an egg dropped too far or too close to another egg. Who knows all the ways an egg gets broken. But it does happen.

When it happens in my flock, and a hen is eating it, I just let her have it. It is so good for her. She'll eat the shell and everything. Sometimes there is more than one hen eating it. It may only happen every 6 mos or year here, but I don't have a lot of issues with soft or brittle shells here. I haven't had a hen then go after an unbroken egg because she discovered it was good.

Maybe other people have had a different experience. But, unless you have dual purpose chickens because it is your intent to put them in the freezer when their laying slows down, I wouldn't rush to cull her. You have 7 good hens who generally lay 7 eggs, and apparently are easily herded back into the coop when you allow them to free range. That's a treasure right there.

 

[Smokerbill]

I've been thinking about your little egg eater. I have noticed over these 8 years that all chickens will eat a raw egg if it is broken. Are you sure she actually broke it? That I haven't seen any of my hens do. For one reason or another, an egg gets broken and then they cannot resist eating it. This can happen with shells that are a bit thin and brittle, or an egg dropped too far or too close to another egg. Who knows all the ways an egg gets broken. But it does happen.

When it happens in my flock, and a hen is eating it, I just let her have it. It is so good for her. She'll eat the shell and everything. Sometimes there is more than one hen eating it. It may only happen every 6 mos or year here, but I don't have a lot of issues with soft or brittle shells here. I haven't had a hen then go after an unbroken egg because she discovered it was good.

Maybe other people have had a different experience. But, unless you have dual purpose chickens because it is your intent to put them in the freezer when their laying slows down, I wouldn't rush to cull her. You have 7 good hens who generally lay 7 eggs, and apparently are easily herded back into the coop when you allow them to free range. That's a treasure right there.

That's a good point, @ValerieJ . Some of the girls do lay eggs with weak shells in spite of being fed layer pellets and having access to both eggshells and oyster crumbles. So it's a possiblilty that only broken eggs are being eaten.

But over the last week or so there have been a few times I've seen a single piece of eggshell that looked like it was from a freshly broken egg. There was no wet spot at all in the nest, so I was hoping it was just a piece of shell dredged up from a previously broken egg.

I've seen a couple eggs from the nest that had a hole through the shell but the membrane was still intact. The shell at the edges of the holes was pushed inward and couldn't have happened from dropping on another egg.

And the holes seemed to be the size of a chicken beak, as if the hen pecked it and didn't continue because with the membrane intact she didn't reach the goodies inside.

They all move the eggs around with their beaks when they're in the nest laying, so that could be when the damage occurs. So maybe it's not a case of being "egg eaters", but rather that an accidently damaged egg presents an opportunity for a feast. LOL

And you're right about the fact that there are a lot of 7 egg days where none are eaten, so I'll just keep monitoring the situation. Thanks for your input!

And yeah, they're dual purpose chickens and I plan to process some of them eventually, ideally around the time they would be close to starting their second molt. They're around 14 months old now and haven't even had their first molt, so it'll probably be next year, late summer or fall when the second molt will happen.

 

[pennyJo1960]

The early molt you may not even have seen it.
I seem to have one eating soft eggs ya if I can catch who it is
will be soup.
Yesterday the egg had not been soft.

 

[Hinotori]

I toss broken eggs where mine can get them. They fight over them but never touch eggs in the nest unless one breaks. Never had signs of one becoming an actual egg eater. Friend of my Mom's did and taught the rest of the flock to do so. I suggested trying some extra protein first but that didn't help because they were too into the habit by then. So she had to cull the whole flock.

Because everyone gets 20% feed I've had less issues than others. Learned that lesson early on when my EEs started plucking and eating each others feathers on 16% layer. Flockraiser fixed the issue. Someone told me the plucking was a sign of protein deficiency and that some breeds need more than other breeds developed to need less.

 

[Smokerbill]

Okra is planted. I direct-seeded in the row I dug out yesterday and have 17 solo cups with okra seeds in them for backup.

 

[pennyJo1960]

Never been a fan of okra, would could put young leaves in salad to try.
I use swiss chard in salads so why not.