Consolidated Kansas

[KsKingBee]

Back in the eighties I used to either dry, freeze, or can everything that came out of the garden, then life got in the way. We will be going back to those times now we are in a better situation here in the middle of nowhere.

 

[zigzag45]

Hello - Just had what I think is a Cooper's Hawk sitting on my back fence. All the girls were scared, some were in the coop in nesting boxes, some were hiding behind the shed under some old fencing. No injuries that I could tell, but it's wet out so I didn't get a good look at them.

Do I just trust that they can keep their eyes out and stay away from it should it return? From the reading I've been doing, Cooper's will happily kill a chicken that is larger than it and they have a good memory on where food is.

And, since I'm in the city, no roosters here.

BTW-Thank you for the worming advice. I just did three days of ivermectin (was going to do two or three, but with the rain it ended up being three). I think I'll quit at that and not follow with Safeguard. Gave them yogurt this morning, will do keifer tomorrow. I saw someone talk about buttermilk being good as well, might try that. Thanks for the help!

 

[Trish44]

I can't remember if I posted about the new wormer I'm trying or not. It's the one by Rooster Booster & it comes in a pellet form that you mix in the food. I just mixed mine in with the FF because it's one scoop per pound of food or you can mix the whole container with 50 lbs of food. I wanted to make sure all of my birds got some though, so knowing how many pounds of feed I use in my FF I was able to mix in enough for all of my birds for yesterday evening. They gobbled it down like usual, so there was no problem getting it down them. I may follow up later with something else, but for this round I'm done.

This rain sure has made a mess, I don't think we got as much as you Danz, but we did get a big storm last night that came up from Oklahoma so I'm not sure how much we got from that. It sure is a muddy mess out there though. I can empathize with you on the clay soil, I had to deal with that for 23 years when I lived outside Derby. It took me quite awhile to get my garden amended there to grow well. You just have to keep adding organic matter to it to break down the clay.

zigzag, I would think the hawk would return once they know food is there. I would be on the lookout for it if i were you.

I used to can a bunch when I was younger, but I haven't really wanted to do it since then. I usually just freeze most things I want to keep. I have tried dehydrating at one time too, but haven't done it in a long time. I salute all of you that are doing all the canning & such, good for you!

 

[22qZoo]

I like the dried fruit , but the dried vegis never really caught on . The texture always felt too chewy. One year my mom dehydrated onions, good grief! I thought she was trying to kill us, even with the dryer out on the front porch it still stunk up the house and made our eyes water.
Any one ever harvest and put up black walnuts ? We have a ton of them . My MIL wanted to help us put some away, how's that go, take the green outer shell off, let them dry for a while before we shell them?
Any tips?
On another note, about 4 or 5 weeks ago the girls that hadn't been laying ( molting,summer heat, being divas in general ) started laying . For about two weeks we were getting about 7 or 8 eggs a day, now they quit again . We're back to 2 a day if we are lucky . Is it because the days are getting shorter with less daylight ,or are they just riding the gravy train . They are only a year and a half old and seem to be in good health .
Happy Halloween ! Everyone .

 

[chicken danz]

It's the shorter days 22qzoo. If you give them a little rest, you can put a light on a timer to get them to lay again. Be sure to set the timer for the light to come on early in the morning.. like maybe 4 AM or so and then have it shut off by 9:00 AM. Let it dark naturally at night. If I need layers to lay I usually start after the winter soltace. Sometimes I just use a red heat lamp in the winter rather than a normal light bulb. It is always coldest right before dawn so it kind of warms the coop and helps dry out some humidity that has built up over night, plus it helps them start to lay again. I do like to make sure they have completed molting and built their health up again before I do that. I also increase protein and fat for them to condition them before that. BOSS and additonal chopped corn will do that for you.
I laughed at your dehydrated onions. I tried that once myself. The house smelled like onions for two weeks after that!
I lost 10 baby chicks. I had a heat lamp on in the old garage where I put the red star chicks. Apparently the roof leaked and shorted out the lamp. So all the youngest chicks got chilled and died. I'm glad these are experimental chicks and not birds of high value.
I only had one other bird down in the mud but I don't know how some of them are going to fair. They are covered in mud and there's no way to get out of it and get dry. I even had to shovel out one house that was just soaking wet today. My pens that don't have a coop floor are the worst. I wish I had a bunch more dog kennel panels. I would just set them up in the barn and keep the birds in there while things dried out. I hope they don't all end up sick because of this.
DH went to get straw right before dark so tomorrow maybe at least I can get some dry bedding down for some of them. Even the south side of my new turkey pen is flooded. I think we have gotten between 8 and 9 inches of rain the last two days.

 

[22qZoo]

Wow, 8 or 9 inches ! There was about 3 1/2 to 4 in the horses grain buckets this morning , and I thought that was a lot .

 

[HEChicken]

Trish, thanks for the update on the Rooster Booster wormer - keep us posted on if you think it has worked as far as a wormer goes.

Danz, sorry for the lost chicks. We've had too much rain too and our ground became water-logged. As I understand it, it is supposed to be dry now through early next week and then the next bout of rain will start. Is it safe to say the drought is over???

I had a first today - I butchered a turkey. I wound up with three toms at the end of the season and since I had promised DH (when he watched me pull batch after batch of chicks, ducks and poults out of incubators this past spring) that I was producing meat for our family, I decided it was time to do just that. I was really nervous as he was a brooder baby and I didn't want him to suffer needlessly but it went very smoothly and he is now cooking in the oven at a very low temperature in one of those oven bags. There was absolutely no way he was going to fit in the crock-pot. He may be a heritage bird but he turned out to be a very LARGE bird. I can credit our incredible grasshopper population with a lot of that growth - the turkeys spent a good deal of their summer out hunting bugs so it is nice to know this meat will be truly "pasture raised".

I feel like I've been running all day today, starting with the turkey first thing (he spent the night in a dog crate on the back porch so his crop would be empty come processing time) and then going, going, going all day long. The next few days will be similar.

I know there were other things I read that I was going to comment on but now I don't remember specifically. To those preserving - kudos! I also have been doing a lot of canning and freezing. It feels good to know that we have food put away for the family to be able to continue to eat well over the winter.

 

[cherwill]

I guess your quote didn't come through. I always feel like I've accomplished something big, too, when I preserve my harvests. I've only been at this for a few years, but I love it. It soothes the little girl in me who wanted to live in the Little House on the Prairie.

Cherwill, I envy you. My sweet potatoes were pretty much a bust. They were all too small. I wish I could have scored some nice big ones this year. Next summer if it is going to be cool again I may add some black fabric around the plants to keep the soil warmer for them. Year before last I had tons of huge sweet potatoes. My garden is totally empty now. I didn't get it tilled as planned before the rain. Not sure I'll have an opportunity now before the ground freezes. It's going to take a month to dry out. I meant to buy some garlic last night and forgot. I want to plant some now. I may have to go to town and see what I can find in there.

We haven't planted potatoes or sweet potatoes because they take up so much space, so it was a very nice bonus to find those.

I have been drying our golden delicious apples, the only ones better are the gala or fugi. Slice thin with the skins on, dip in a sauce of one honey- one water- one half brown sugar-and cinnamon. put in dehydrator until dried. Makes a nice snack and healthy too!

That's a great idea for the golden delicious. They're not my favorite to eat, but I'll bet they're very good dried. I didn't get any apples this year. The neighbor of my in-laws who used to have us come over and harvest her tree got rid of that tree this year.

She didn't want to mess with the mess any more.

I like the dried fruit , but the dried vegis never really caught on . The texture always felt too chewy. One year my mom dehydrated onions, good grief! I thought she was trying to kill us, even with the dryer out on the front porch it still stunk up the house and made our eyes water.
Any one ever harvest and put up black walnuts ? We have a ton of them . My MIL wanted to help us put some away, how's that go, take the green outer shell off, let them dry for a while before we shell them?
Any tips?
On another note, about 4 or 5 weeks ago the girls that hadn't been laying ( molting,summer heat, being divas in general ) started laying . For about two weeks we were getting about 7 or 8 eggs a day, now they quit again . We're back to 2 a day if we are lucky . Is it because the days are getting shorter with less daylight ,or are they just riding the gravy train . They are only a year and a half old and seem to be in good health .
Happy Halloween ! Everyone .

Onions! Oh my. I think that might be something better off frozen than dehydrated.

We used to have a black walnut tree, but I never did anything with them because they all seemed to have worms in them. Ick.

Your hens are probably reacting to the lack of enough light like mine were. They molted and just never started laying again. Then we were reminded that the days had gotten shorter. Since we put the light in about a week ago, we're starting to get more eggs. This morning I actually got three eggs, in the same day! I can't even remember the last time that happened. I think DH has the light coming on at 3 AM.

It's the shorter days 22qzoo. If you give them a little rest, you can put a light on a timer to get them to lay again. Be sure to set the timer for the light to come on early in the morning.. like maybe 4 AM or so and then have it shut off by 9:00 AM. Let it dark naturally at night. If I need layers to lay I usually start after the winter soltace. Sometimes I just use a red heat lamp in the winter rather than a normal light bulb. It is always coldest right before dawn so it kind of warms the coop and helps dry out some humidity that has built up over night, plus it helps them start to lay again. I do like to make sure they have completed molting and built their health up again before I do that. I also increase protein and fat for them to condition them before that. BOSS and additonal chopped corn will do that for you.
I laughed at your dehydrated onions. I tried that once myself. The house smelled like onions for two weeks after that!
I lost 10 baby chicks. I had a heat lamp on in the old garage where I put the red star chicks. Apparently the roof leaked and shorted out the lamp. So all the youngest chicks got chilled and died. I'm glad these are experimental chicks and not birds of high value.
I only had one other bird down in the mud but I don't know how some of them are going to fair. They are covered in mud and there's no way to get out of it and get dry. I even had to shovel out one house that was just soaking wet today. My pens that don't have a coop floor are the worst. I wish I had a bunch more dog kennel panels. I would just set them up in the barn and keep the birds in there while things dried out. I hope they don't all end up sick because of this.
DH went to get straw right before dark so tomorrow maybe at least I can get some dry bedding down for some of them. Even the south side of my new turkey pen is flooded. I think we have gotten between 8 and 9 inches of rain the last two days.

Sorry about your chicks. We've had some rain, but just reasonable amounts.

I had a first today - I butchered a turkey. I wound up with three toms at the end of the season and since I had promised DH (when he watched me pull batch after batch of chicks, ducks and poults out of incubators this past spring) that I was producing meat for our family, I decided it was time to do just that. I was really nervous as he was a brooder baby and I didn't want him to suffer needlessly but it went very smoothly and he is now cooking in the oven at a very low temperature in one of those oven bags. There was absolutely no way he was going to fit in the crock-pot. He may be a heritage bird but he turned out to be a very LARGE bird. I can credit our incredible grasshopper population with a lot of that growth - the turkeys spent a good deal of their summer out hunting bugs so it is nice to know this meat will be truly "pasture raised".

I know there were other things I read that I was going to comment on but now I don't remember specifically. To those preserving - kudos! I also have been doing a lot of canning and freezing. It feels good to know that we have food put away for the family to be able to continue to eat well over the winter.

Thanksgiving turkey!

I got into gardening and canning because it was so hard to come by the kind of food I wanted to eat. Growing it and preserving it myself, I know exactly what's in it and that makes me happy. Now I get a little thrill when, in the middle of winter, I open up a jar of green beans I grew myself. I'm a doofus like that.

 

[HEChicken]

Thanksgiving turkey!

I got into gardening and canning because it was so hard to come by the kind of food I wanted to eat. Growing it and preserving it myself, I know exactly what's in it and that makes me happy. Now I get a little thrill when, in the middle of winter, I open up a jar of green beans I grew myself. I'm a doofus like that.

I know exactly what you meant! I love watching the jars of canned goods stacking up in the storage pantry, and the bags of meat stacking up in the freezer. In the past two weeks I've butchered two ducks, 3 chickens and a turkey and that adds up to quite a bit of meat already.

 

[tweetybaby2005]

Oh my... talking about rain... it is an absolute mess out there by the chicken coop! Mud every where I turn...and we only had 4" of rain total in the last 2 days! I hope those who got more than that can get the land to dry out before the next bout comes again (I think late next week or early the week after??) We are having some leaking issue on the roof. DH has called a few roofers out to see what needs fixed. It wasn't a huge leak but it's there. Lots of problems come with owning an old house.

I found a duck egg in the duck pool. Not sure how it got there but it must have been there for a little while. With the days getting cooler, I didn't have to change the water as often so when I went to dump it out for the year (no more pool water for the ducks till next Spring), I found it in the water. Strange though... never knew duck would lay an egg in the pool water??

Talking about dehydrators... I once, oh... maybe 20 years ago or so, bought a dehydrator from WM. I used it to dry apple slices and pineapples. I left it on overnight and when I went to check on the fruits the next morning, the dehydrator was dead. Won't even turn on after I unplugged and plugged it back in. I never bought another one to try since. The 1 time I made beef jerky I used the oven on the lowest setting and it took all day to make the jerky. Definitely time consuming. It is not too practical for me since I've to work during the week and only have the weekend to dry stuff so I never got back to doing it.

Canning... that's also another one I want to try. 4 years ago I planted a whole bunch of heirloom tomatoes and was giving them away weekly to school teachers, friends, neighbors, coworkers, etc. I bought the canning jars but never got to do it. I'm hoping since I'll be planting more veggies next year that I'll be able to start canning next year.

Danz, so sorry to hear that you loss some of the red star chicks. I have 2 more to hatch this weekend and that was it for the year. Quite a few of mine are at the age where they don't lay any more so I really need to replace them so we can continue to get eggs. I think I'll need to do a batch or 2 in the Spring to build up the production number. Have no idea how words got around but I've more people calling for eggs than before. Of course with the days getting shorter, the birds just don't lay as well. Oh, those eggs I got from you hatched almost 2 weeks ago. Out of 17, 11 hatched. 1 was clear and 5 didn't hatch for some reason. I think that's a pretty good number.

Speaking of pumpkins... I saw Danz said the WM by her was having pumpkin sale so when I was at the store yesterday, I went to check on the price of their pumpkins. Nope... not on sale... 3 for $12 and they were small. I'll be going to the store tomorrow again since I'm having company over ... maybe they will be on sale since Halloween is over.

Hechicken, sounds like the butchering went well. I'm sure your family will enjoy the turkey. Not sure what I'll be cooking for Thanksgiving yet. Either turkey or ham. I am sure I'll be doing something... LOL

Cherwill... I'll be thinking of you come next year when gardening season starts. You always has great inspiring story about your veggie garden. I love reading it. I'll need to start getting a list together of what I want to plant and get the seeds ordered. I need to put in seed ordering in December/January so I can get the seeds germincated in late February. I'm actually getting quite excited on next year's veggie gardening.

I really need to get back to work now. I've been busy trying to get the software out the door next week. I may or may not post much, depends on my schedule.

Stay warm...