Nevadans?

[sherylreno]

Also, here's a good example regarding our eggs as well.

I have a co-worker whom I know will be buying eggs from me in the near future. He asked me what's the difference between your eggs and the ones in the store? What a good question he asked. He's very smart and is always asking questions and did I mention - HE LOVES FOOD!

So I told him this - Well, you only eat freshly grated Parmesan cheese because of the taste, texture and smell. You don't mind paying more money for it instead of the can on the shelf. My eggs are the same too. You can go ahead and buy those tasteless, non-texture, sick looking eggs from the store or you can buy them from people who have chickens and get the quality you crave.

 

[aubreynoramarie]

you guys HAVE GOT to help me! I am out of control!
My stockton chicken count is as such-
two silkies (you know, because theyre SOOOOO FLUFFY!!!)
two olive eggers (you know, because i cant rely on only ONE to fill my egg basket)
one blue birchin marans (you know, because one dark layer isnt cutting it)
two mille fleur leghorns (you know, cuz i wanted a large white layer but they "had to" g together..."

geeze, i drive a freaking ford focus, what am i doing?!?! where the heck am i gonna crate all these birds, hahahahaha

 

[sherylreno]

It's hopeless Aubrey, there's nothing we can do to cure you. Now if you ever need to get rid of a marans or OE perhaps I can help you at a later time?

 

[aubreynoramarie]

*sigh* plus all these eggs im a-savn'!

 

[americanvalkyrie]

Also, here's a good example regarding our eggs as well.

I have a co-worker whom I know will be buying eggs from me in the near future. He asked me what's the difference between your eggs and the ones in the store? What a good question he asked. He's very smart and is always asking questions and did I mention - HE LOVES FOOD!

So I told him this - Well, you only eat freshly grated Parmesan cheese because of the taste, texture and smell. You don't mind paying more money for it instead of the can on the shelf. My eggs are the same too. You can go ahead and buy those tasteless, non-texture, sick looking eggs from the store or you can buy them from people who have chickens and get the quality you crave.

I love how you mentioned cheese! This year, DH and I changed our attitude about cheese. We started spending more for fine cheeses like goat gouda, because you get twice the flavor in half the amount. It was nice to give ourselves permission to enjoy food, and we ended up spending less and taking another step toward health because just a sprinkle was all we needed to feel satisfied. And we felt kind of fancy doing it.

I did notice something, though. I've been eating eggs from my own flock, a Delaware and 3 faverolles for so long. After Aubrey shared her extra eggs with me, the first thing I noticed is that they taste different. Still good, just different. I guess it just didn't occur to me how much they would. Environment, food, breed... whatever. It was really cool.


Quote:

you guys HAVE GOT to help me! I am out of control!
My stockton chicken count is as such-
two silkies (you know, because theyre SOOOOO FLUFFY!!!)
two olive eggers (you know, because i cant rely on only ONE to fill my egg basket)
one blue birchin marans (you know, because one dark layer isnt cutting it)
two mille fleur leghorns (you know, cuz i wanted a large white layer but they "had to" g together..."

geeze, i drive a freaking ford focus, what am i doing?!?! where the heck am i gonna crate all these birds, hahahahaha

Haha for a week I've been fighting the urge to ask someone if they would be willing to bring me back an olive egger. But no... I have plenty of birds coming, more than I need. I also want to visit many foreign countries and buy a Kitchenaid blender, but those can be dreams as well. Lol.


Quote:

It's hopeless Aubrey, there's nothing we can do to cure you. Now if you ever need to get rid of a marans or OE perhaps I can help you at a later time?

Sheryl, if Aubrey needs to get rid of a marans or OE and you can't take them, perhaps I can help you at a later time?

 

[aubreynoramarie]

missy my girls have a more artificial diet then yours probably. I have no foliage in my yard so they get feed, treats, and sometimes kitchen scraps only. Yours have nice plants and things to munch on so theres a huge dietary difference. My poor girls in their baron wasteland, hahaha

 

[americanvalkyrie]

missy my girls have a more artificial diet then yours probably. I have no foliage in my yard so they get feed, treats, and sometimes kitchen scraps only. Yours have nice plants and things to munch on so theres a huge dietary difference. My poor girls in their baron wasteland, hahaha

If you're interested, I can share my bucket planters website with you, and some kale and chard seeds in the spring. The chickens would love that, and you could grow it on your deck.

 

[aubreynoramarie]

If you're interested, I can share my bucket planters website with you, and some kale and chard seeds in the spring. The chickens would love that, and you could grow it on your deck.

that would be cool! Do you think the chickens would get into the buckets and destroy it? (they free range) or is it something that can be wrapped in chicken wire and stuff?

 

[americanvalkyrie]

Aubrey, they would eat it if you let them. But there are tons of places you can set these, and you can take a 4-ft-tall piece of chicken wire and wrap it around the bucket to make something like a tomato cage with uber-protection. This would also be good in July and August, if you needed to pin some shade cloth over the wire to cool the plant down a little.

Other ideas that I don't have pictures of... front patio, if it faces eastwardly. All along the walkway to your house. On top of an old desk, table, bbq grill, with something like netting to discourage the birds from jumping up and eating them. Put the most tasty foods (green leafy stuff) totally out of the chickens' reach, and the stuff they're less likely to eat in places where they might have to share. For instance, I have a heavy rolling cart, like the grocery store people use to bring in 12-packs of beer. I can put my potato buckets on the bottom, and the kale/chard way up top.

I have a few pics of places that we've been successful growing. The first was the driveway, which was built for 2 cars but we have 1. It was used for the first stand of potatoes, and for all my tomato and pepper seedlings as they waited to find homes in warmer weather. We replaced the baskets with buckets of squash. Those smaller buckets have basil, lettuce, and chard in them. By the end of September, we had gotten about 40lbs of deep purple and Yukon gold potatoes off of this driveway.



There's space along the side of the pond, where this year I will wrap chicken wire around buckets and tack it to the fence. It would make that corner less ugly.



This is where we're planning to build the new coop. But if I don't end up incorporating those little rock walls into the run, I could always set more bucket planters there, and wrap a tube of chicken wire around them. I could hang a few sturdy hooks from that toprail, and dangle a few buckets off of it, putting the plants about 5 feet up.



I see space here... see those horizontal slats on the back fence? Perfect for a long, rectangular planter for lettuce, spinach, or chard. The top one would be safe. The bottom might need protection. But you could tack a poultry net to the top and wrap the bottom around a 2x4 or something else heavy, to keep nosy birds out.



This one shows how much more space we could have planted last year, but didn't. Maybe this year the whole wall will be lined with food.



This is the back client entrance, with potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, squash, shallots, and cucumbers. Outside of the yard, so safe from the animals, and I was able to make use of the rock wall for 2 planting tiers. As the plants grew, I tacked shadecloth along the top of the fence, which kept the tomatoes cooler and kept the wild birds from eating the cherry tomatoes.

 

[americanvalkyrie]

If you want to give it a try, start collecting buckets before all of the other gardeners get excited. If you go to the north entrance of Whole Foods, by the coffee bar, you might see a stack of white plastic buckets beside the green shopping baskets. These are free to take. Sometimes I ask the barista anyway, just to be sure. You will need 2 matching buckets per planter, so keep collecting even if you think you have enough.

I keep bugging my husband to do his Whole Foods runs, since he works a couple of blocks from there. In April or May, all the other gardeners will key in to the free source, and you might have a hard time finding some.