Maine

[Eggsitter]

If you can't get it friends, at night hang a towel with a clothespin for it to snuggle under like a wing. Take a heating pad and curl it over top and let the chick snuggle in under and over it. I raised a chick in my sleeve for 3 weeks. Takes a lot of effort, and the chick was never really happy.

 

[Eggsitter]

Spent two days trying to find some bantams in Southern Maine. So far nothing. Anyone have any clean-legged bantam chicks now they could sell me? I am hoping for some young hens. We have a neighborhood here who is ok with 1/4 sticks of dynamite at midnight, but a rooster is not ok. SMH.

I have one very lonely hen.

Thanks.

 

[lazy gardener]

So sorry for everyone's losses.

My girls have discovered a new treat: escargot! They go ape over the multiple land snails that we have here. I can just imagine how tasty they are...crunchy on the outside with a soft gooey filling on the inside. Can't wait till fall (not that I'm wishing the summer and the garden bounty to pass) when I can let them range the garden to clean up the pests. My winter squash are setting real nice. Have Red Kuri and a saved seed from a neighbor who grows10# buttercup. Will be interesting to see what his seed produces. Have more honey bees in my yard than I've ever seen. Some one near by must have a hive. Have been mulling that idea around in my head for a couple of years. It'd be fun to have the wax to play with, not to mention the honey. Making soap is also on my bucket list. I don't know if honey/wax would fit in with that endeavor. My 6 y.o. has very sensitive skin. So a home made soap might help her out.

 

[buckabucka]

Soap is not hard to make once you've done it. It's the reading and figuring out what you are doing that takes a while. We do not like making soap, so we make a big batch that will last a year. We make it in the kitchen-aid mixer, otherwise your arm will fall off from stirring.

 

[lazy gardener]

I do have kitchen aid. How smelly is the process? Both myself and G-dtr have asthma. I have a niece who makes soap, I may ask her to give me a lesson. Do you find that your soap is easier on the skin than store bought stuff? I'd love to make some that would have some skin healing properties, perhaps with Aloe and any herbs that are reported to be skin gentle. Does your soap have glycerin in it? Some of the recipes that I've read have lye ie: draino in them. not sure how gentle that stuff would be! And how easy on the pocket book is it to get started, and do you find that it actually saves you any money??

 

[bwockbwock]

I do have kitchen aid. How smelly is the process? Both myself and G-dtr have asthma. I have a niece who makes soap, I may ask her to give me a lesson. Do you find that your soap is easier on the skin than store bought stuff? I'd love to make some that would have some skin healing properties, perhaps with Aloe and any herbs that are reported to be skin gentle. Does your soap have glycerin in it? Some of the recipes that I've read have lye ie: draino in them. not sure how gentle that stuff would be! And how easy on the pocket book is it to get started, and do you find that it actually saves you any money??

Weighing in on the soap making. I make it with a hand held immersion blender, short bursts, gentle stir in between. It is a fascinating process to take lye and oil and wait for all the molecules to find each other, bond, and make something new.
Find a good book or online site, follow directions to the T. Go for something basic first before you start adding anything else.
Yes it is more gentle than commercial soap as it has it's glycerine still, they strip that out of the commercial soap process to use elsewhere to increase profit. The hard thing to do is wait for the batch to cure, it takes 4-6 weeks, also not peeking when it is curing the first several hours, it gets hot, and you need to keep it insulated so it foes not cool too quickly. Saran wrap and an old towel or two can take care of that. Get a good scale to weigh your ingredients. I have some equipment dedicated to just soap making, immersion blender, bowls, stirring spoons.... You can make a mold out of most anything.
Be careful with your lye, if you purchase it at a hardware store make sure it does not have any added ingredients, you can also buy it online. I have found mine at Lowes. Buy only one container for two reasons, it will make quite a bit of soap, and I guess lye is used in the manufacturing process for a street drug so if you get a few containers you may come under scrutiny.
I would start with a small batch the first few times, that way, if you screw something up you won't have lost a bunch of materials.
Use caution about adding essential oils, make sure they are OK to use on skin.
If you have your own septic, washing the utensils off is hard on the septic system.
Honey and beeswax is heavenly in soap.
Find an online calculator, About.com has some good soap resources.
It is not really difficult, you just have to follow instructions carefully, and ALWAYS wear eye protection and rubber gloves.
I take my lye and oil outside to mix together and stir for a few minutes to let most of the fumes die down.
If you want some links PM me. It is fun!

 

[lazy gardener]

Thanks for the info and encouragement re: soap making. I'm not planning to try it any time soon, but it's on my must try before I die list!!

On the chicken front... if one counts egg yolks, yesterday, I had 160% productivity. 5/5 with one-two of those double yolkers, and 2 rubber eggs. I do wish that BSL would get her system calmed down!

 

[dowgirl71]

Thanks for the info and encouragement re: soap making. I'm not planning to try it any time soon, but it's on my must try before I die list!!

On the chicken front... if one counts egg yolks, yesterday, I had 160% productivity. 5/5 with one-two of those double yolkers, and 2 rubber eggs. I do wish that BSL would get her system calmed down!

So, I've heard the "egg call" for the past couple weeks. Most likely my EE, who is about 18 wks and she started squatting, today.

 

[TAMMACLEAN]

Does anyone know when white leghorns start laying? And what size eggs do they lay?

 

[echosrevenge]

Lazygardener, im not sure where you are, but there is a farm here in midcoast that does soap making classes a few times a year - they had one in June and one around the holidays, they advertise them on Craigslist. I haven't gone yet, but I nearly did last year (couldn't work the transportation with my husbands work schedule) but I talked to the lady quite a bit and she was very knowledgeable! It seemed like it would be a great class.

I stuck the lone chick under one of my hens that's been brooding on nothing for close on a month and shut them in a nest box together with some food and water. She's letting it under her and hasn't killed it yet, so hopefully they'll bond over the next few days and I can let them in to the general population. This little guy is a survivor! I caught him away from the hen he hatched under with two gaping wounds on either side of his neck from being pecked (on Saturday when he hatched) put some iodine and sulfur ointment on them, and stuck him under a different with the remaining unhatched eggs from that clutch. That evening, I couldn't find him and the rest of the eggs had hatched & died, so I thought he'd been offed by one of the hens. Next morning, he turned up huddled in the creep feeder with the 6-week-olds I integrated into the coop recently. So I stuck him in my pocket and he was pocket chick for Sunday, then I stuck him under ANOTHER broody (I have several) last night and shut them in the nest box with food and water. She hasn't killed him yet and is letting him crawl under her, so hopefully it'll work out and they'll have bonded in another few days. At the very least, hopefully she'll do warming duty until he can hop up to the rim of the feeder in the creep area and eat on his own - its warm enough and the rest of the chicks are mellow enough that they will let him huddle under them for warmth. I have two 12-week old cockerels that will tuck cold younger chicks under their wings at night, so once he's big enough to reach the feeder I think hell be all right. He's definitely fixed on me as a good-thing-provider, though - when he sees me in the coop he starts peeping until I come snuggle him, but he settles down when I'm out of view. I'm building fences and felling fairly dangerous trees right now to clear fence lines, so he can't be pocket chicken during the day (Sunday was my husbands day off so we could pass him back & forth, but that's only one day a week...) I think he'll make it, he seems to be a scrapper so far! I have three of this same mix from an earlier hatch, they are really pretty little birds so hopefully this little bug will come through.