2018 Newbie Chat!

[llombardo]

Thank you! My sourdough starter is active and I cant wait to make a loaf! I'm ordering a cast iron Dutch oven from Amazon to make the round loaves. I'm so excited to try it.

I was looking at bread recipes. I think between the eggs, making bread and having a garden is a great way to save money and eat better. I'm looking into canning to so it carries into the winter.

 

[No More Empty Nest]

It was a beautiful sunny 8 degrees out today, lol. But at least it wasn't windy! Chickens were outside in the run when I went out to them. I thought I'd leave the door open just in case they wanted to go out. After quite a few minutes, Diamond ventured out onto the path my husband had cleared to the coop for me. Suddenly the others took off flying out the door which prompted Diamond to take off too. They circled around as the were losing altitude...you could almost feel the panic, "Where do I land???"
Diamond and Pearl ended up in the snow on the ground. Jade found the table that only had snow on half of it. Opal was on a small bush. Silence...not a muscle moved. Diamond looked around and tentatively took a couple steps on her snowshoe feet. She made it to the path and walked indignantly into the run. The others? Silence, not moving.
Then Jade started moving on the table and Pearl looked around. Opal, still not moving. I picked up my can of scratch. Here chickies! Nope, won't even come for scratch. I thought well, I better go get Opal cause she might be in shock or something. I went over and picked her up without any trouble at all. Now, Opal has never let me pick her up, so this was highly unusual. I carried her to the run ad set her down. She was fine, scrambled away like nothing happened. While I was carrying her, Jade took off and flew to the run, Pearl managed to make it air bound too and flew into the run.
I imagine it would be quite strange to wake up one morning and your nice green grass is gone and replaced with cold white stuff. I'm hoping Opal will think better of me since i rescued her, lol.
The cold doesn't seem to bother them one bit. In fact they were all sitting up on the outside perch in line like they were going to roost for the night out there! This was right before they usually go in the coop for the night too. I honestly thought I might have to go out and move them after dark because I wasn't home at when I saw them on the camera. Couldn't just shoo them inside.

 

[Anna Ranieri]

It was a beautiful sunny 8 degrees out today, lol. But at least it wasn't windy! Chickens were outside in the run when I went out to them. I thought I'd leave the door open just in case they wanted to go out. After quite a few minutes, Diamond ventured out onto the path my husband had cleared to the coop for me. Suddenly the others took off flying out the door which prompted Diamond to take off too. They circled around as the were losing altitude...you could almost feel the panic, "Where do I land???"
Diamond and Pearl ended up in the snow on the ground. Jade found the table that only had snow on half of it. Opal was on a small bush. Silence...not a muscle moved. Diamond looked around and tentatively took a couple steps on her snowshoe feet. She made it to the path and walked indignantly into the run. The others? Silence, not moving.
Then Jade started moving on the table and Pearl looked around. Opal, still not moving. I picked up my can of scratch. Here chickies! Nope, won't even come for scratch. I thought well, I better go get Opal cause she might be in shock or something. I went over and picked her up without any trouble at all. Now, Opal has never let me pick her up, so this was highly unusual. I carried her to the run ad set her down. She was fine, scrambled away like nothing happened. While I was carrying her, Jade took off and flew to the run, Pearl managed to make it air bound too and flew into the run.
I imagine it would be quite strange to wake up one morning and your nice green grass is gone and replaced with cold white stuff. I'm hoping Opal will think better of me since i rescued her, lol.
The cold doesn't seem to bother them one bit. In fact they were all sitting up on the outside perch in line like they were going to roost for the night out there! This was right before they usually go in the coop for the night too. I honestly thought I might have to go out and move them after dark because I wasn't home at when I saw them on the camera. Couldn't just shoo them inside.

love this! Great story.
Must have been a real shock to them lol
We havent had snow so far just very heavy frosts and loads of ice. We are in the minuses at present, last night was -3°C we are now at -1°C and it's 8:00 am so hopefully this means it will warm up over the period of the day. I've just done removing all ice out of pools, water bowls and dispensers and I've lain a duvet on the lawn and covered it with a blanket for extra warmth, my ducks will use this until it warms up some more. My girls dont seem effected by the cold much, they went in to bed an hour earlier than usual last night, but other than that it's business as usual.
It's harder on my drakes because Runner ducks are not hardy and don't do well in cold conditions, yesterday was colder and they were shivering a lot until I put out the duvet and blanket, that seemed to work really well for them. I have the run covered in wood chips which helps but I'm finding harder to keep the backyard safe from all the ice now that all my grass is gone. I have put several boards out and made walk ways using cardboard but that only works if they walk on them, most of the time they don't and there's been a lot is slipping over, so far no injuries
Had an awful experience yesterday, when refilling the ducks pools some water sprayed out, I hadn't realised Roo had gotten splashed until much later when I noticed she was very quiet and hunched up and her back and tail sparkling - she was covered in frost! Poor girl had been this way for o
ver and hour as I hadnt realised Got her indoors promptly, didn't take long for her to dry and thankfully she is unscathed, no injuries and doing just fine. I'm not sure I would have gotten away with that had she have not been a Buff Orp.

 

[Cbarr00]

I was looking at bread recipes. I think between the eggs, making bread and having a garden is a great way to save money and eat better. I'm looking into canning to so it carries into the winter.

I never thought about canning my summer produce. That's a good idea. I've contemplated getting a pressure cooker because I read in here it's good for cooking older birds and canning meat. I might even try pickling my okra or jalapenos. So many new ideas! Thanks!

I've made a couple loaves with active dry yeast and it honestly just feels so rewarding to see an actual loaf of bread that you made from a tiny little ball of dough. I've made honey wheat twice now. Oh and a monkey bread from scratch so good.

 

[Cbarr00]

love this! Great story.
Must have been a real shock to them lol
We havent had snow so far just very heavy frosts and loads of ice. We are in the minuses at present, last night was -3°C we are now at -1°C and it's 8:00 am so hopefully this means it will warm up over the period of the day. I've just done removing all ice out of pools, water bowls and dispensers and I've lain a duvet on the lawn and covered it with a blanket for extra warmth, my ducks will use this until it warms up some more. My girls dont seem effected by the cold much, they went in to bed an hour earlier than usual last night, but other than that it's business as usual.
It's harder on my drakes because Runner ducks are not hardy and don't do well in cold conditions, yesterday was colder and they were shivering a lot until I put out the duvet and blanket, that seemed to work really well for them. I have the run covered in wood chips which helps but I'm finding harder to keep the backyard safe from all the ice now that all my grass is gone. I have put several boards out and made walk ways using cardboard but that only works if they walk on them, most of the time they don't and there's been a lot is slipping over, so far no injuries
Had an awful experience yesterday, when refilling the ducks pools some water sprayed out, I hadn't realised Roo had gotten splashed until much later when I noticed she was very quiet and hunched up and her back and tail sparkling - she was covered in frost! Poor girl had been this way for o
ver and hour as I hadnt realised Got her indoors promptly, didn't take long for her to dry and thankfully she is unscathed, no injuries and doing just fine. I'm not sure I would have gotten away with that had she have not been a Buff Orp.

Oh poor girl I'm glad you saw and everything turned out all right.

 

[Anna Ranieri]

I never thought about canning my summer produce. That's a good idea. I've contemplated getting a pressure cooker because I read in here it's good for cooking older birds and canning meat. I might even try pickling my okra or jalapenos. So many new ideas! Thanks!

I've made a couple loaves with active dry yeast and it honestly just feels so rewarding to see an actual loaf of bread that you made from a tiny little ball of dough. I've made honey wheat twice now. Oh and a monkey bread from scratch so good.

Your bread sounds delicious - can't beat home made bread imo.

 

[Anna Ranieri]

Oh poor girl I'm glad you saw and everything turned out all right.

Thank you - so often stupid mistakes can end in tragedy, mine was a very stupid mistake but not one I'll ever make again. Obviously I am mega thankful all turned out well.

 

[PNW_Peepers]

Update on eggs:
No internal pips yet, waiting... not so patiently. I’ve been playing a broody hen clucking on YouTube for them every few hours. I haven’t heard any chirping yet. Keep those fingers crossed and prayers coming. Tomorrow is the official hatch day so anytime now!
I’ve picked out six Ameraucana eggs so far from the last few days, I’m being selective so I know who the moms will be. Next hatch should be equally as fun.

 

[PNW_Peepers]

Egg update:
One of the eggs has internally pipped.
I can hear a faint peep every few minutes, and the egg is rocking pretty heavily. My heart is fluttering! I woke up
DH cheering the lil peep on! It now has 24 hours to make an external pip or it will run out of air.

 

[Cbarr00]

Egg update:
One of the eggs has internally pipped.
I can hear a faint peep every few minutes, and the egg is rocking pretty heavily. My heart is fluttering! I woke up
DH cheering the lil peep on! It now has 24 hours to make an external pip or it will run out of air.

So exciting! keep us updated!