INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[SallyinIndiana]

A few pages back someone asked about freezing eggs, so I thought I'd share my experience.

I tried the ice cube tray method, and there were three problems.

First, the eggs I used were grocery store white graded large, and each egg does is significantly larger than an ice cube. so, depending on the size of your eggs, you could end up freezing mostly yolks and have a lot of whites left over.

second, the texture of the eggs was radically different after freezing. The whites were stringier, I don't know how else to describe it. the yolks took on a grainy, granular chunkiness that no amount of beating Could cure. I found them difficult to use even for baking, and the only thing they were good for was scrambling. I too have a lot of experience with wedding and special occasion cakes, and the frozen eggs didn't blend well in o the fine-grained batter of a light cake.

third, a freezer bag full of egg cubes contains a lot of air, which equals a lot of freezer burn. eggs that stayed frozen for more than three or four weeks I had to throw out.

I never tried other methods, so I don't know if there another, more successful way. but those are my results. Your milage may vary.

on a more positive note, ask me some time about making your own vanilla extract. higher quality and 500 (not a typo) times cheaperthan store bought.

I have family that insists you can freeze milk, but store bought milk has never frozen well for me.

Now the vanilla, I would enjoy reading how you make it, where you buy your ingredients and such too.

 

[SallyinIndiana]

@LonelyPageTurne
The ee was supposed to be a girl as I paid for pullets. Should you decide it is a boy, I'll take it back and use it to show you how to process a chicken. I know you had mentioned wanting to learn more about processing. Or you can pick out another EE as a trade.
I'm really hoping it is a girl. It just attached itself to you so fast and was even making the chicken purring sound.

 

[LonelyPageTurne]

@LonelyPageTurne


The ee was supposed to be a girl as I paid for pullets.  Should you decide it is a boy, I'll take it back and use it to show you how to process a chicken.  I know you had mentioned wanting to learn more about processing.  Or you can pick out another EE as a trade. 

I'm really hoping it is a girl.  It just attached itself to you so fast and was even making the chicken purring sound.

I know I really really like it. We hang out lol. I don't think I could process it even if it's a roo. I've gotten a lot of mixed answers and I've seem similar looking birds that are roos and hens. So it's obviously not clear cut. And since it's 11 weeks old I think it becomes more likely to be a pullet as I think it would be more obviously a roo at this point. Fingers are crossed so hard they may fall off.

 

[LonelyPageTurne]

Unless those shoulders get redder, I would say pullet. Although the comb is red, it is small. I think it's body type looks pretty girly also. If you part the feathers on its back right before the tail, at this age you should be seeing pointy shiny feathers starting to come in if its a boy. CCCChickens knows more than I do, but that was just my experience with my boys. By 8 weeks or so they had definite hackles and saddles coming in.

She's been picked on quite a bit so she's just got pin feathers basically above her tail. I'm hoping it wasn't my birds that did it but I kind of think it is they're really ready to go into the coop at this point so I think that may be why.

I think I'm gonna put most of them in the tractor tonight with the big girls.


On a side note I got everything I think I'm gonna need to convert the shed. I think I'm gonna work on it throughout the week. Tim is coming in on Monday with a nest box for me and I think he might help me put up the run too.

 

[LonelyPageTurne]

I might be interested in some too if you have any pullets, I have way too many Roosters, and I think you wanted a Roo from me I also have a SLW Roo and a Lt. Brahma Roo that needs to go. Plus the possible BR Roo that I'm still not sure of and A ISA Brown Roo, A Welsummer Roo and a possible BJG Roo. Way too many...  Pullet bin my butt... lol  I got at least 1 Roo in every breed and some I got 2 Roo's Not a good things, my neighbors will have a fit... lol 

Welcome in advance... lol 

Parents are great... it really makes the coop look great, the finishing touch. GREAT JOB 

Well it turns out they're white not buff. And they're straight run so your guess is as good as mine lol.

I think someone is interested in them, but I'd honestly like them to go asap as I've got the birds I've been waiting for excitedly coming. So if she doesn't get them this weekend you can have them.

 

[chick rookie]

We have a terrible time keeping the dogs out of our raised bed. They LOVE tomatoes. Ripe, unripe, rotten, they don't care. We had a raised bed in a corner of our backyard, and the dogs kept tearing up the fencing to get to those tomatoes. Crazy canines.
Let's see them tear up THIS one!
Now, we're ready for those tomato eating machines to try their fence climbing and wrecking skills this summer!

that looks great, very neat and pretty too.

My chicken run didn't stand up to all the snow we had in Indy this winter. The weight of the snow on top has pulled the top down, and the sides are leaning in. It WAS almost 5 feet tall, but now it's barely 3 feet tall on the inside. I was hoping it would spring back a little by tightening the tension wires, but it's not. It's made from T-posts and chicken wire (buried 6 inches). It was a real nightmare to do that chicken wire on the top of the run, but it worked well at keeping out predators. The only thing that got in was a little featherless baby cardinal (RIP) that fell from his nest.
I'm planning the chicken run re-do. I'm going to use chain link this time, which seems to be a do-it-yourself-friendly project. I'm hoping that the design I'm planning with the chain link will be a little easier to install than the chicken wire was. It will be my project this summer, wish me luck!

I'm so glad we don't have to look at these scenes any more at least for a very long while, hoping next winter is better.

I was able to get 6 ft. dog kennel panels on craigslist. I keep an eye open for them and pick them up when they're cheap.

It saves a lot of time in building something or trying to handle the weight of the chain link myself...easy to work with and the panels can be moved or added onto easily. Someone just gave us 4 more 10 x 6 panels and 2 6 x 6 ft. panels - one with gate. We never turn down kennel panels whenever they become available.

You can bolt them to the side of your coop easily with the hardware they have at any Lowes, Menards, etc.

Only thing with chain link is that preds can still reach through it - and chicks can walk through it. I put some bird netting (very lightweight) to keep out starlings/robins, etc...that doesn't have to be expensive or heavy and just zipped tied it on. If I wanted it to be night predator proof I'd line it with something more secure but mine are locked in the coop at night so that's not an issue unless I want them to be able to sleep outside.

I did line the bottom with the small plastic poultry fencing so that the chicks couldn't go right through the chain link.


The shade piece is an old swimming pool cover we cut last hear to give them some shade in the afternoon if they're stuck in there.
Front:


Side



Back







The chick lining:

I would love dog panels, but by the time I see any they are all ready gone...

love yours.

 

[hoosiercheetah]

I have family that insists you can freeze milk, but store bought milk has never frozen well for me. 


Now the vanilla, I would enjoy reading how you make it, where you buy your ingredients and such too.

We freeze store milk, so we can buy large qtys when the price is down. The secret to it, we figured out after years of trial and error, is to thaw it fast in a sink full of hot water. Let the faucet run over the handle while the sink is filling. As its getting close to thaw, pick the carton up by the handle and shake it back and forth in a rotating motion, like its hanging on a string and twisting in the wind. You should feel the chunk of ice in the middle break up and the whole thing will start to sound like a slushy. Put it back in the sink and let it sit until its totally thawed, shaking it now and again. The faster and more violently you thaw the milk, the better the solids will reincorporate.
Just watch out for damaged milk jugs, they've been getting cheaper and thinner over the years.

http://www.vanillaproductsusa.com/servlet/StoreFront

This where I get my vanilla beans. I've been buying from them for years. You want the grade b, aka extract grade beans:

http://www.vanillaproductsusa.com/servlet/the-241/"vanilla-beans"-"bourbon-vanilla/Detail

Their grade b are better than the grade a from a lot of other sellers. I usually buy 1 lb at a time, and that will make three 1/2 gal. batches.

Once you have the beans, the rest is easy. Buy a 1.75 liter plastic bottle of vodka. Dark Eyes is my favorite, its a good balance between being cheap, but not too skanky. Pour about a pint of vodka into a clean jar and set it aside. Feel free to sample it if that's your thing.

Chop the vanilla beans into one inch chunks. Some sources say to split the beans lengthwise, which is much more messy and time consuming and has no benefit I've been able to detect. You'll have to pry off the white plastic pouring cap from the vodka bottle, but don't destroy it, you'll want to put it back at the end. So put all the bean bits in the vodka, then top it up with the pint you poured off earlier. You'll end up with a cup or so left over. Make a pitcher of Bloody Marys and have a great day!

Date the cap with a sharpie. Shake it every couple of days. I think I let mine sit about six weeks before I use it, but I make it when the old batch is half gone, so sometimes its several months. You can't go too long, because it reaches a maximum saturation at some point. It stores indefinitely.

For a 1/2 gallon (that's the 1.75 L) bottle of vodka, I use 6 oz of vanilla beans. It makes a pretty stout extract, and you could probably go as low as five ounces, but I wouldn't go lower. For a 750 mL bottle of vodka, which is your standard 1/5 gallon size, use 2.5 to 3 oz. of beans. Anything else you can divide off the 1/2 gal. size - 3 oz beans for 1 quart booze, etc. All these are approximate, as long as you're within an ounce of beans per half gallon, the extract will be fine, and you can adjust to your liking as you go along.

One other note - don't try to sub other kinds of booze. Rum does not make good extract. Gin already is extract, of juniper berries and other sundry herbs and spices. Whiskey is right out. Vodka is best and pretty much the only thing that will give you a good result.

One other other note - you don't need to adjust quantities of vanilla in your recipes. The extract you make will be a bit stronger than what you buy in the store, however, baking experts the world over agree that the biggest sin of the modern cookbook library is that they universally and without exception call for too little vanilla.

that's about it!

 

[pginsber]

Jchny2000: how do you freeze eggs? Did you have the same experience as HoosierCheetah?

-------------
Stuck a week old silkie chick under our broody hen yesterday. The hen seemed to have no idea we stuck one under her, and the chick took to her new mom straightaway.

Went out to the coop several times and the broody hen had changed nests--leaving the poor chick alone in a vacant nest. If she saw the chick, she would peck her. Grrr!

Had to bring the chick in last night, which is NOT want I wanted to do.

We had her in our arms as we watched TV. She's quite social and a snuggler.

Made her a baby area from a Rubbermaid tote, heated, with stuffed animals she snuggles under for a mom. When we put her in bed (in her tote nest) she chirped for about 5 mins and then fell asleep.

She seems to prefer to be petted and or talked to all the time. Good thing DW is retired...I think she's adopted a lap chicken.

We had 5 or 6 little girls today at Easter and not sure who love holding the chick more--the girls or the chick. I'm not sure this chick knows she's a chick. She acts like a lap dog.

We don't really want a lap chicken. We wanted a solution to our broody hen situation.

Interested in others' experiences of putting chicks with broody hens, please.

 

[LonelyPageTurne]

Jchny2000: how do you freeze eggs? Did you have the same experience as HoosierCheetah?

-------------
Stuck a week old silkie chick under our broody hen yesterday. The hen seemed to have no idea we stuck one under her, and the chick took to her new mom straightaway.

Went out to the coop several times and the broody hen had changed nests--leaving the poor chick alone in a vacant nest. If she saw the chick, she would peck her. Grrr!

Had to bring the chick in last night, which is NOT want I wanted to do.

We had her in our arms as we watched TV. She's quite social and a snuggler.

Made her a baby area from a Rubbermaid tote, heated, with stuffed animals she snuggles under for a mom. When we put her in bed (in her tote nest) she chirped for about 5 mins and then fell asleep.

She seems to prefer to be petted and or talked to all the time. Good thing DW is retired...I think she's adopted a lap chicken.

We had 5 or 6 little girls today at Easter and not sure who love holding the chick more--the girls or the chick. I'm not sure this chick knows she's a chick. She acts like a lap dog.

We don't really want a lap chicken. We wanted a solution to our broody hen situation.

Interested in others' experiences of putting chicks with broody hens, please.

Awwww. I'm sorry it didn't work but it sounds like that chick has really taken a shine to you guys lol. You can take another if you think 2 might work better lolol

 

[LonelyPageTurne]

Lol here's my eggplant sign. I am gonna paint the shed purple .