Nevadans?

[NevadaRon]

The weather cooled down by 5-10 degrees and suddenly I'm getting 7 eggs a day (up from 3-4.) I have 2 chickens that are visibly in molt, and I haven't seen them on the nest at all. Right now I have 9 layers, removing my mama hen and adding in Noodle. Soup and Fried Rice are squatting for me, and they're 20 weeks and 16 weeks, so I'm not so sure about Fried Rice. In September I expect to be flooded with a bounty of eggs, apples and grapes, Indian corn and squash, and the winding down of the tomatoes before the first frost. I already told Russ not to assign me to do anything during September and October. I won't be doing boysenberry jam this year... it's so hot they've been dehydrating right on the vine. The plums might give me just enough pulp for one batch of jelly and one of chutney. And then there's eggs... When I went to pick up Pot and Pie, their previous owner showed me how to dehydrate my extra eggs into a powder that lasts 25 years. It's dried at a high heat, then stored in a sterile container, and rehydrated for cooking, so it doesn't look like bacteria will be a problem.

My dad was in the Navy during the Korean War on an aircraft carrier. He told me that a friend of his worked in the galley and the friend said they had powdered eggs that were left over from WWI - which ended in 1918. And this was in 1953!

So they were 35 years old and still using them.

BTW are you going to share the secret of dehydrating them?

 

[HighNDryFarm]

okay guys, I wasnt gonna say anything but i just cant hold it in any longer. I have a secret

(and no i am not pregnant and yes i have been asked that about 4,000 times since mark and i got engaged, hahaha)
Actually its Sunny's secret! and I am going to blab it to the world! Dont worry though, I already warned her i have a big mouth.

Sampson and Delilah are having puppies!!! awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

How exciting!!!!! But I MISSSSSSSSSSSS SUNNNNNNNY!

Can't someone help her get a better connection to the internet? Gosh, I miss her!

Quote: Wow, that is so interesting......yes, please share!

 

[2seth2]

to all the newbies

puppies

is everyone getting eggs from their ameracuanas but me? and i have 3

 

[americanvalkyrie]

My dad was in the Navy during the Korean War on an aircraft carrier. He told me that a friend of his worked in the galley and the friend said they had powdered eggs that were left over from WWI - which ended in 1918. And this was in 1953!

So they were 35 years old and still using them.

BTW are you going to share the secret of dehydrating them?

She says to take the eggs and blend them to mix the whites and yolks. Then put them on a solid tray in a food dehydrator... use a plastic picnic plate if you don't have a tray with no holes. Heat at 145 degrees for 16 hours, until totally dry. Scrape out and blend in the food processor again until it's a powder. Store in an airtight container. Rehydrate with 1 Tbsp powdered egg and 2 Tbsp water.

And Seth, only one of mine is laying. My lavender isn't laying, and neither is my BLRW from the same hatch.

 

[Peep_Show]

Sunny
CUTE!!!!! And it looks like the peachick tails are already coming in!

CARY

Glad you've found the Nevada flock. What part of Henderson are you in? I'm over by Racetrack Road and Newport near the new park that has gone in. Our HOA kind of shut down my chicken activities (well, the outdoor one, anyway. The Board would probably lay an egg if they knew how many chicks I've hatched out in my casita), so I'm just being vicarious at the moment.

- - -

With the cheap produce (fruit) at the Hispanic market and the upcoming food price increases, I've gotten into canning. I'm glad that Wal-Mart is carrying supplies (seasonal) and the jars are really reasonably priced.

Monsoon season here in Henderson. Last week our house got 1.2" in about 20 minutes. Today it's 101 and a cell popped up with more rain at our house (just add soap!) I don't mind the rain. Love the lightning. I don't mind the heat. Hatin' the humidity, though. Sometimes it's just, well, swampy.... But a good excuse to stay inside and watch the best week on TV on the Discovery Channel.

And, yes, SHARK WEEK, is addicting..... Makes me wonder why I never took Marine Biology. (Oh, yeah. Right. I went to Davis. That's why) I just love the smile on those Great Whites as they come swimming in.

Now, IF they had a Chicken Channel, I'd never leave the house.

 

[2seth2]

chicken tv the next big invention

 

[americanvalkyrie]

Sunny
CUTE!!!!! And it looks like the peachick tails are already coming in!

CARY

Glad you've found the Nevada flock. What part of Henderson are you in? I'm over by Racetrack Road and Newport near the new park that has gone in. Our HOA kind of shut down my chicken activities (well, the outdoor one, anyway. The Board would probably lay an egg if they knew how many chicks I've hatched out in my casita), so I'm just being vicarious at the moment.

- - -

With the cheap produce (fruit) at the Hispanic market and the upcoming food price increases, I've gotten into canning. I'm glad that Wal-Mart is carrying supplies (seasonal) and the jars are really reasonably priced.

Monsoon season here in Henderson. Last week our house got 1.2" in about 20 minutes. Today it's 101 and a cell popped up with more rain at our house (just add soap!) I don't mind the rain. Love the lightning. I don't mind the heat. Hatin' the humidity, though. Sometimes it's just, well, swampy.... But a good excuse to stay inside and watch the best week on TV on the Discovery Channel.

And, yes, SHARK WEEK, is addicting..... Makes me wonder why I never took Marine Biology. (Oh, yeah. Right. I went to Davis. That's why) I just love the smile on those Great Whites as they come swimming in.

Now, IF they had a Chicken Channel, I'd never leave the house.

I've been canning for the past couple of weeks. Yesterday, between the last of the summer activities for the kids, I squeezed in a very rushed 2 hours to turn some fallen green tomatoes into salsa. It was a little nerve-wracking, but I got 8 jars of salsa out of it. Walmart is the very cheapest place I've found for canning supplies. They even have their own brand of jars now, but I've discovered that I don't save money by buying them, since they're thinner and cheaper. I've found several chipped ones, right out of the box. Ball and Kerr can last through about everything but skeet shooting.

(Which my husband admitted to doing when he was a teenager. If you've ever gone skeet shooting with your mom's old jars of home canning, you might be a redneck.)

I've never seen Shark Week, but I've heard it's pretty awesome. We haven't even had TV for 3.5 years. No political ads, no Olympics, no Real Housewives of Anywhere, no crazy commercials to tell my kids they must have specific toys for Christmas. Of course, we have been accused of living in a cave... or in the previous century. Nonsense! Until I can start burning extra pallets to heat my house, I'm still trapped in this one. *sigh*

This week I've been dealing with SQUASH BUGS!!!

The good thing is they're supposedly one of the easiest to control organically. And most of my pumpkins are getting orange. But this is Garden #2, where I can't just turn the chickens out all day. Tomorrow I'm going out with my full arsenal of spinosad, DE, homemade soap spray, and my bug-squashing boots. So far the garden is still organic. We'll see how long that can last.

 

[Lacy Blues]

Can't you put on a pair of rubber gloves, catch the squash bugs and drop them into a bucket and then feed them to your chickens? It's free food. Unless they wouldn't be good for them for some reason?

 

[StevieNay]

Aww, Missy, DEATH TO SQUASH BUGS!!! I had to go out and patrol for bugs and eggs. It took about a week (maybe 10 days), but I think we managed to round up and kill the ones we had here. They nearly killed one plant, though. I'll admit it: I tore the leaf off where any eggs were deposited and put it in my garbage disposal. I didn't want to chance that those bad boys might hatch out in my soil/compost. I also sprinkled D.E. on the base of my plants and found two adults that had died within a couple days (the other adults were done in with a paring knife).

Awesome on the green tomato salsa, it sounds tasty. We're going to have tomatillo salsa verde coming out our ears here, soon. My plants have lots of fruits developing.

We don't have cable at our house, either. Sometimes I miss cooking shows, but I hardly have time to read much so I don't often notice we're missing it.

Do chickens molt every year? What kind of oddities are associated with that process? I've been getting 6 eggs from 6 chickens almost every day for a week now. However, all but one took yesterday off, I think the heat and humidity are running them down.

Peep_Show---doesn't Davis have a research station at Bodega Bay? But, I hear Marine Biology is a really depressing field... And in Davis they really do love cows more.

 

[HighNDryFarm]

I have some good chicken TV going on, two of my three broodies each have a chick! They hatched in the last couple of hour, right on schedule.

Missy, I'm so envious of your getting to can. I have just enough tomatoes to can now but that's it. My cucumbers never got more then a foot tall, so no pickles this year! This heat and the smoke from the last two weeks was all the garden could take. At least I've got chicks growing!