Hatching Eggs / Paypal CHAT Thread

[Hollowoakfarm]

ok, Once I get enough English BBS orps established, my amer bbs are going. Those are beautiful filumene!

No Susan....you just need more pens!

 

[kraftyladies]

No Susan....you just need more pens!

Ok, so the people come and get the puppy. I was rounding up chickens for the auction. DH gave them the tour. The lady said wow, this is your full time job? I said no, this is a hobby. She said no, that's got to be your job, too much for a hobby. I told her I have a full time job over an hr away, so that means I have 2 full time jobs. No wonder I am exhausted!

 

[Ray_n_Debi]

Mmmmm nice warm, rosemary herb kefir bread fresh out of the oven.

 

[KYTinpusher]

Mmmmm nice warm, rosemary herb kefir bread fresh out of the oven.

That sound delicious! Care to share the recipe? And it reminds me, I have to go strain my kefir.

 

[mzstre]

Hehehe It's going to be our fall poultry swap in Corvallis, Oregon

That sounds awesome! Does it get a really large turnout? I sure wish we had something like that here. We have small monthly swaps, but only local people attend. They certainly don't draw enough of a crowd to have a raffle. AND you have a beer fest. I'm jealous!

Hollowoakfarm, Here are some pictures. Sorry, not the best. The weather has been awful and they are not really in the mood to go out and show off(That is snow on the cockeral in the first picture). They will be a year in June. They are quite large now and still growing.

Your birds are beautiful, filumene!

Ok, so the people come and get the puppy. I was rounding up chickens for the auction. DH gave them the tour. The lady said wow, this is your full time job? I said no, this is a hobby. She said no, that's got to be your job, too much for a hobby. I told her I have a full time job over an hr away, so that means I have 2 full time jobs. No wonder I am exhausted!

Sounds like you need a vacation!

 

[Ray_n_Debi]

This makes a tart sough dough bread

1 1/2 cups kefir
mix in 3 -4 cups of Bread Flour
!/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
Knead lightly to make an elastic dough (less then 5 mins)
Place in an oiled pan, oil the top of the dough and cover loosely with plastic wrap or a damp towel.

Let sit on your counter overnight until doubled in size. If it is very cold I put it in my oven with the light on.
Bake at 350 degrees for approx. 30 min.

for herb bread add 1 tsp. onion powder, rosemary, basil and oregano.
I don’t use garlic because it has anti-bacterial properties, and I am afraid it will affect the rising of the bread

You can't mess this up. Just add enough flour so the dough is not wet. I knead just so it comes together. ​

 

[Hollowoakfarm]

The garlic won't bother the yeast. I make garlic bread with no worries.

 

[kraftyladies]

so how does one have kefir? I think I have heard y'all mention starter for kefir?? i am opening myself up for another project aren't I?? LOL I need to feed the chickens...

 

[KYTinpusher]

so how does one have kefir? I think I have heard y'all mention starter for kefir?? i am opening myself up for another project aren't I?? LOL I need to feed the chickens...

Kefir is very easy to do. You start with grains from a friend.

You grow them in a jar of milk on the counter, out of direct sunlight. No special temps needed. I use, and recommend, real milk straight from the cow, unpasteurized and unhomogonized, but any milk will do if you don't have access to the real stuff. It is an excellent probiotic drink for you and all the animals. It is similar to yogurt, but contains beneficial yeasts as well as bacterias. Where some of the best yogurts contain 5-6 different probiotics cultures, kefir can have 35-40 or more.

An excellent website for all the info you want to know and much, much more: http://users.chariot.net.au/~dna/Makekefir.html

 

[Hurley]

DH left out the ladder and they both climbed up so of course I had to snap a picture before I yelled...sigh

Awww, brings back memories. I was the kid forever up on the roof/in the tree/in the barn/at the top of the corn crib/up in the silo/out in the feedlots playing with the cattle. Gave my folks more than one heart attack, from what they've told me. Sweet photo. So dreading the having my childhood stress to my parents back in spades over the next few years. The boys are 2 and 3 and already doing handsprings off the couch and landing on their feet...


Update on the bator situation, miraculously everything has stabilized back to original values. Sigh, don't know what aberration hit the bators, but now they're sitting their staring innocently at me like, "Wut?" 99.5 to 100.0. Sigh, temperamental things.

Anyway, candled my BHEP eggs today and looks like the temp jump didn't hurt anything much, only a couple quitters, all started, and looking good.
Got my Madam eggies today, finally (

USPS) and boy, did the PO put those air cells through the ringer. Beautifully packaged eggs, no cracks or damage otherwise, but all but 3 aircells are detached. Darn USPS. Have them resting currently, will give them some time, then will be hand babying the eggs to see if I can pull some through.

It is an absolute winter wonderland outside. Rebedded down the winter coop with nice deep shavings, hauled out a whole bucket of greens/watermelon/veggies/bread ends to the girls and chiseled out a walkway for them to get to the heated water without having to plant their tootsies into deep snow. Hauled water out to the growout shed and refilled feeders, the babies are getting big and are ripping through the food right now. Chicken chores done, now off to work on the Iowa Blue Chicken Club website, lots of new historical info has been compiled, want to get some of the info up in an archives section.