California - Northern

[ronott1]

I am finally over my cold. It freakin' lingered! Then, after a couple of healthier days, my fibromyalgia decided to act up. Oh well.

I am getting 2, sometimes 3 eggs a day from the home flock of twenty-some hens and laying pullets, and 4 eggs a day from the six girls at The Ranch - two of those six girls are not yet laying. Two Cayuga ducks (out of ummmmmmm ten? Girls) are laying regularly. Finally found a couple of duck egg customers.

The Next door neighbor with my phone number and a hatred for rooster crowing had grandkids over the past week, so we conversed over the fence when he was letting them feed my flock through the fence. They were fascinated by Nigel Narragansett and Sarge Midget White, so I picked Sarge up and took him to the fence so little people could touch his feathers and neck stuff. Neighbor thanked me for the reduction in crowing.... Yeah, fifteen fewer cockerels does make it quieter around here.

The Thistle Dew Ranch is immediately adjacent to a vineyard owned by by one of The Pub owner/partners; his house is in the middle of 28 acres so he says he never hears my roosters unless he is working outside at the edge of his property. He does know the story of my Ranch land purchase, so he almost ALWAYS ends partings with "Keep those /&$!!@&-ing roosters quiet." (Pronounced like the family name in Meet The Fockers - he is British.). He tells the most ribald jokes, now that he knows I am a "regular" person, not stuffy.

My close friends treated me to a movie and then Thanksgiving Dinner at The Diamond Hotel (in Diamond Springs.) I believe I just may eat there again- all those customers all day long and the ONLY discernible "not-scratch" item was the crust for the pumpkin pie! The filling was not store-bought, nor were the gravy, mashed potatoes, OR the cranberry sauce. Turkey meat was excellent. Just, sadly, no leftovers.

What's a good West Coast price to charge for fresh duck eggs? Is $8.00 too high for a dozen? I charge $3.00 for a dozen chicken eggs.

Thanks for the update!

I have pullets that are laying and lights in one coop and of course the breeders have light. I am getting 30 to 40% of them to lay each day.

Whole Foods in Davis sells Duck eggs for $10.00 per dozen. You should be able to get 5 or 6 per dozen easily.

 

[ronott1]

everyone watch the forecast ( I use national weather service sacramento ) you can get a point forecast with summary and a forecast description.

They are calling for a nasty storm with snow possibly sticking in Redding , red bluff Chico Folsom
and massive amounts now in the foothills.
18" here

Intellicast says it is 35 in Woodland today. The forecast is predicting 23 to 25 for the next week for lows.

That is a cold period for us.

 

[Happy Chooks]

Can I just say how much I love having chickens? Why did I not get them years ago?!

I love the fact that we hardly ever waste food now. I hate being wasteful, hate it. Before we had chickens we would just throw away old food. Now, when we have something that nobody has eaten or is going to go bad(say, stale bread or an old pie - we don't give them rotten food or anything that could harm them) we just give it to the hens. We had a carrot cake leftover from a party that nobody wanted to eat, so the hens got it. Ate the entire thing over the course of a few days, they LOVED it! We've also started putting all of our uneaten food from our dinner plates into a pie pan and giving it to the hens the next morning. They eat as much as they want. Spoiled chickens are happy chickens!

Yes, pigs with feathers! We love their recycling ability as well. I don't feed anything moldy, but I can tell you they go crazy over sour milk. I clean out my fridge once a week and they get any leftover goat milk (it only lasts a week as it's raw) plus the ends of the bread and anything else in the fridge that didn't get eaten. (usually pasta or rice) They love the drippings from the crock pot and any bacon grease too.

Just be careful with the sugary stuff.

 

[Happy Chooks]

26 here this morning at 6am. I'm waiting another 15 minutes before I heat up my tea pot and go defrost the waterers.

Looks like snow will be down to 1,000 feet Friday night.

 

[Ali707]

Intellicast says it is 35 in Woodland today. The forecast is predicting 23 to 25 for the next week for lows.

That is a cold period for us.

It was 30 last night at my house in Penryn. I don't know what is cold for here but it is a pretty mild cold. You know 30 isn't too bad, but add a bit of wind and holy cow it becomes painful.

I have a wire roof on my otherwise fully enclosed coop (before the move it had a different cover), and the wind was blowing in through the top and I thought it might just be too cold, so I went and grabbed some old towels to cover the top and diffuse the wind. I know it probably didn't do anything but made me feel better. It is under a car port so they won't get wet, but the wind was blowing through. I was freezing so I felt sorry for them. Old towels was the only thing I could find that I could do by myself without an extra set of hands.

I added a whole bag of shavings to the coop too as I had been using sand. Shavings have more of an insulating effect I think. So this morning when the birds woke up they didn't want to get off the roost because of the shavings! Goofy birds.

Yes, pigs with feathers! We love their recycling ability as well. I don't feed anything moldy, but I can tell you they go crazy over sour milk. I clean out my fridge once a week and they get any leftover goat milk (it only lasts a week as it's raw) plus the ends of the bread and anything else in the fridge that didn't get eaten. (usually pasta or rice) They love the drippings from the crock pot and any bacon grease too.

Just be careful with the sugary stuff.

Good to know. I never thought about giving them cooked leftovers.....?

26 here this morning at 6am. I'm waiting another 15 minutes before I heat up my tea pot and go defrost the waterers.

Looks like snow will be down to 1,000 feet Friday night.

Ack! I need to check and see the elevation of Penryn. I am sure I am below 1000..........there is just a tiny incline to my house out of Roseville. Still gonna be nippy.


Gryeyes I think your British neighbor sounds like he could be fun to have around. As far as neighbors go.

 

[chicksnthestiks]

I'm prepping for the 14/19° they are calling for tonight and colder tomorrow night, the scary part is the freezing rain possibly coming through tonight and tomorrow. I really don't want to find out how the new car handles in it!

Hope you made it home safe.

 

[OR4-hmom]

We got lucky, it only dropped to 24° last night and it was dry so no freezing fog. I'm guessing the wind was about 5 mph. We aren't done with the nastiness yet, Friday looks to be the worst.

 

[ronott1]

We got lucky, it only dropped to 24° last night and it was dry so no freezing fog. I'm guessing the wind was about 5 mph. We aren't done with the nastiness yet, Friday looks to be the worst.

Same here for the worst day but we will not go as low as you will.

NOAH Predicts a dry winter for us this year.

 

[AmyPaperlady]

I'm glad none of that weather seems to be be moving to this side of the coast range. It's been unusually cold here, but "unusually cold" only equals having to scrape the windshield at 8am. My older daughter, of course, is wanting snow so badly, but at 10, she knows that we just don't get snow.

 

[lawatt]

so here's a seasonal question: i wasn't able to get home last night before dark, and then was away all day today -- so just collected eggs from both yesterday and today, and i'm sure the ones laid yesterday froze solid overnight -- can they still be used?