Illinois...

[Faraday40]

Happy to see those tail feather shafts! He'll be handsome again soon.






BTW_ I just heard a couple peeps from the incubator. Perhaps I'll have something fluffy in there by tomorrow night.


Other good news: The CCL is doing well and one of her serama siblings is confirmed silkied. They are pure seramas with the silkied gene. Both carry it, but one expresses it.

 

[Faraday40]

Going to be a busy day (school registration, gardening, DS's school recital, and usual household stuff) BUT I wanted to share that we already have 8 pipped bantam eggs.

 

[BReeder!]

@Faraday40 pips!

That does sound like a busy day. It beats sitting in a cubicle, giving a 2 hour presentation, and spending 3 hours of round trip commuting.
I would much rather be out in my garden, playing with my little guy and the ducklings and discussing baby names with DW.

 

[cavemanrich]

discussing baby names with DW.

Do you already know gender??? or will it be a surprise at birth.
DS and spouse decided they wanted theirs to be a surprise. DD which has 3 knew ahead of time. Between DW and I we are split opinion. She wants to know,,,, and I prefer SURPRISES.

 

[BReeder!]

Do you already know gender??? or will it be a surprise at birth.
DS and spouse decided they wanted theirs to be a surprise. DD which has 3 knew ahead of time. Between DW and I we are split opinion. She wants to know,,,, and I prefer SURPRISES.

We should find out Friday.

 

[Faraday40]

We should find out Friday.

How fun!!!!
I remember when DD was in preschool we made pink & blue sugar cookies the night before the ultrasound. The day of the ultrasound, I told her when I returned to pick her up from preschool, I'd bring the pink cookies for girl & the blue if boy. We also had a special dinner that night to tell my parents about their new grandson.

Note of warning: The blue sprinkles on cookies were fine, but the blue bread dough looked green after baking and no one touched the blue milk. It was especially hard to eat that night between the color & morning sickness.

 

[Faraday40]

Speaking of babies....
I now have 3 silkiexseramas, 1 serama, and a lot of pipped eggs.

None of the orp eggs are pipped yet. The bantams tend to hatch first.

 

[chickendreams24]

No recipe link but here you go:
Egg Foo Young
- 6 large eggs, scrambled
- 1/2 onion or 1 small onion, diced
- 2-3 green onions, sliced thin (bulb and all)
- 1 sweet pepper, diced (I have "ancient sweet peppers" but a bell pepper would work too)
- 1 carrot, shaved or julianned
- Handful of mushrooms, diced (I used oyster mushrooms, but any well do. Even a can of mushrooms would suffice)
- Chopped meat of your choice, 1-1.5 cup, optional (chicken, BBQ pork, and shrimp are all very common at Chinese restaurants. I used left over pork shoulder we smoked on Monday.)

Sautee all the vegetables and meat. Set aside in a bowl to cool a bit (in refrigerator if necessary).
Beat eggs and fold into the cooled sauteed vegetables and meat. They need to be cool enough to not cook the eggs. The resukting mixture should be heavy with vegetables/meat, more so than a typical omelette.
Ladel the mixture onto a hot skillet over medium heat. The goal is to make pancake-sized (not jumbo pancake) omelettes.

Egg Foo Young Gravy
2 cups of stock (homemade chicken or turkey stock are my go-to)
2 Tbsp corn starch
1/2 cup soy sauce (it's the only salt you need to add to the entire meal so just use the real stuff)

Combine ingredients and slowly bring to a boil over a medium heat. Once boiling torn off heat and remove from burner to let cool. It should thicken a bit. It will still be rather thin for "gravy". It's not country gravy though. It should just be tick enough to stick to the egg foo young.

To serve, the are two methods.
First method:
Pour the gravy right over the egg foo young in a dish or pan and set out on the table. Use a spatula to plate.
Second method:
Plate the egg foo young dry and pour/ladle gravy on top.

This sounds great and I'll have to try it! A pizza may be required for DH2B though. LoL

So far 24 poults of various ages, all have feets... 6 more eggs under a broody turkey to go... and mama turkey is laying again.. i do not need any more turkeys.. other peoples adds on FB selling poults are not selling

So funny you're having problems selling. I sold out so fast I couldn't hatch enough! I'm down to one line poult after a bad hatch courtesy of the predator that ate all the eggs under my calico jenny(guessing skunk or possum) and the eggs from the blue slate jenny(that were on top of the compost pile) went bad in the incubator although they didn't explode I believe the bacteria spread killing and infecting most of the eggs. The calico jenny is okay but no longer broody. I'm hoping she'll begin to lay again.

The slate girl has been laying but is hiding them as is the nari. I may have to separate them after all.

Anyway if you end up with too many we would love some more. At this rate we may not have any to eat on our own this year! We even sold one of our blue slate jakes to a family as a pet to live with their goats until their two poults grow up. Made a good bit of money off him but it was hard to say goodbye. Couldn't have let him go but he was clearly going to be a pet.

I baked some herb bread & cinnamon rolls for the 3 graduation parties we're attending this weekend. Baking's always been "my thing" but I wanted to give the host family a little something extra. So, I brought a doz eggs as a gift. (Better than wine - IMO) The rain held off, the picnic was great, kids had fun, and we were given some left-overs to bring home for poor DH who's miserable and had to stay home. While at the party, DS's eye was beginning to look a little like pink eye. Lucky for us, the hostess is a pediatrician. She gave us some prescription eye drops so we won't have to wait until Mon to treat or use urgent care for something simple.

I came home and told DH that we traded a doz eggs and some bread for our dinner, a doctor visit, and medication. What a deal! I also gave some eggs to the boy who mowed our lawn. He asked for too little $, so the eggs were a "tip."

For what have you guys traded eggs? I'd love to know.

Herb bread.

We regularly trade with our favorite egg customer and friend. He picks us up cheese brings us veggies from other friends etc etc. We have also traded with a couple other customers. And last fall in addition to money we traded some home canned goods and a couple processed birds for a freezer full of meat.

I also like to give stuff away or make/bake things for people. It makes me feel good to brighten someone's day a little.

When @chickendreams24 & I first met it was to exchange chicks. We kept in touch and became friends. Sometimes during the 1st year, I had too many chicks and needed to rehome them. We agreed to meet somewhere and I gave her the chicks but she also gave me some fresh pork products and home-made freezer jams. What I deal! (Technically just 2 friends exchanging gifts, but I bragged to others about my terrific barter deal trading a box-full of chicks for a freezer of high quality food. LOL But seriously the best brats we ever ate! )

Lol yeah once we're in a position to start raising our own pigs we'll have to give you some more some time. In the meantime you still have been wanting to go to that butcher.

DH2B and I love giving away processed birds and home canned goods etc.

Last year we canned brats(they we're okay but lost the snap and the texture put me off sort of- we want to try again but cook them first instead of raw pack them), peaches, peas,(we've also done green beans), venison, cider, chicken meat in stock, chicken stock, salsa, cherry salsa, pickles, raspberry jam, strawberry jam, cherry jam, brandied cherries, ... I'm sure I'm forgetting something. We plan to expand all of this this year as well.

5 days together and no incidents. 5 DAYS. I come home from work to find that Jasper and Phoenix attacked the baby ducklings. View attachment 1800294 View attachment 1800296
Jasp and Phee will be spending their evenings in the cat carrier now.

Oh poor baby. That looks awful but they can heal from it I've had chickens and quail heal from injuries like those.

Oh My!

It looks bad. Believe it or not, but I've seen worse injuries heal completely. Veterycin spray &/or Blu-kote are amazing products. Hope she gets better quickly.

On another sad note: My handyman passed away last night! He's more of a family friend and my kids even call him "Uncle Dave." I'm still in shock. He's my 1st call when I need help. He's the guy who helps me process my chickens (& turkey) - while telling me all kinds of stories about growing up down south. I can't go anywhere in the backyard without seeing something he made for us. Such a wonderful man who will be greatly missed.

Again I'm so sorry for your guys' loss. We've been praying for you, the family, and Dave's family.

So i brought Jake in for a wound check. Im glad to announce, we have butt feathers!!View attachment 1801607

His wound on his back looks SOOO much better!!View attachment 1801609

Will be so glad when those feathers are fully grown in!

He looks amazing!

Do you already know gender??? or will it be a surprise at birth.
DS and spouse decided they wanted theirs to be a surprise. DD which has 3 knew ahead of time. Between DW and I we are split opinion. She wants to know,,,, and I prefer SURPRISES.

We haven't talked about it a ton but I think when the time comes DH2B and I might find out for the first and then have the next be a surprise and who knows after that. LOL

 

[homeschoolin momma]

Ok guys. My little lone surviving serama egg pipped. But it did so all the way near the bottom of the egg. No where near the air cell. The eggs are in a cardboard egg carton cell side up. What to do with this one? Suggestions? Just leave and hope for the best?

 

[Faraday40]

Ok guys. My little lone surviving serama egg pipped. But it did so all the way near the bottom of the egg. No where near the air cell. The eggs are in a cardboard egg carton cell side up. What to do with this one? Suggestions? Just leave and hope for the best?

Maybe put it on its side - pip side up - on the floor of the incubator. It may be slightly easier for it to hatch on its side. If it's malpositioned it could be OK if it doesn't pop a blood vessel or it could need help b/c of lack of space. Hard to say. I'd leave it alone until it starts to zip. I only help if it stalls during zipping & the peeping begins to fade due to exhaustion. If it popped a blood vessel when pipping, there's nothing you can do.

If you want a serama or need a companion for it, you can always take "Micro."