TeaChick's Chicks

[TeaChick]

I just wanted to share

I'm thinking about making this my avatar. What do you think?

Sorry about that. I can't even see the image.

 

[TeaChick]

I've been wanting to share some of the recipes my family uses, b/c they're so good. I didn't want to congest someone else's thread with them, so I thought I'd share them here.
Let me know what you think!!!

We made this for dessert last week. We make dessert for Friday nights; sometimes we make more than one dessert and other times a dessert lasts us a few days to a week.
This one made almost three desserts for us. We couldn't get the sherbet to firm up until we took the lids off the bowls in the freezer (I'll edit that into the recipe), so we served it as drinks in martini glasses the first night. The colors stayed separate much better than I thought, and the chocolate chips sank to the bottom. I poured the sherbet liquids down the side of the glass and the last color ended up on the bottom, so if you do it as a drink, you'll probably want to put the chocolate chips in first and then pour the watermelon last. Also, wiping the glass would be nice for presentation.

Watermelon Roll
Sherbet
Based on the Friendly's Wattamelon Roll and some sherbet recipes I found on Food Network
Watermelon:

1 ½ c sugar
1 t lemon extract
¼ t salt
2 cups fresh watermelon (processed and then measured)
1 t vanilla extract
1 ½ cups very cold 2% milk

Lemon:

1 c sugar
1 T lemon extract
1/8 t salt
1 c lemon juice
½ t vanilla extract
¾ cups very cold 2% milk

Lime:

1 c sugar
1/8 t lemon extract
1/8 t salt
1 c lime juice
½ t vanilla extract
¾ c very cold 2% milk

Directions

In the bowl of a food processor combine all of the ingredients except the milk and process until the sugar is dissolved, approximately 1 minute. Transfer the mixture to a mixing bowl and whisk in the milk. Cover the bowl and place in the refrigerator until the mixture reaches 40 degrees F or below, approximately 1 hour.

Pour the mixture into an ice cream maker and process until it is the consistency of soft serve ice cream. You may serve now or transfer to a lidded container and place in freezer until firm, approximately 3 hours.


Our Version:
For the watermelon sherbet:
Process watermelon in a blender to make 2 c liquid watermelon (a little more to accommodate for air that will have been added by processing). Add all the other ingredients for the watermelon sherbet and process until sugar is dissolved, approximately 1 minute. Transfer to a large bowl and whisk in milk. Transfer to a bowl which will accommodate the resulting liquid with room to stir. Place in freezer. Do not cover these bowls!!!

For the lemon and lime sherbets:
Rinse the large bowl and the blender cup. Process all ingredients for lemon sherbet until sugar is dissolved, approximately 1 minute. Transfer the mixture to a mixing bowl and whisk in milk. Transfer to a bowl large enough to accommodate the liquid with room to stir and place in freezer.
Stir the watermelon sherbet mixture. Set a timer and stir all three sherbets every 30 minutes until set.
As soon as the watermelon sherbet is set enough to support them, add 1 c semi-sweet chocolate morsels (preferably mini, but any seed like pieces of chocolate will do).

After at least an hour in the freezer, the watermelon sherbet should be set enough to form into a log. Spoon sherbet along a long piece of plastic wrap and roll up to make a sausage link shaped log. Place the watermelon sherbet log in the freezer, stir the other sherbets, and freeze all three for 30 minutes.

By that time, the lemon sherbet should be firm enough to work with. Lay out a long sheet of plastic wrap. Unwrap the watermelon sherbet log. Spread the lemon sherbet on the new sheet of plastic wrap (leave it slightly higher along the middle). Lay the watermelon sherbet log on the lemon sherbet and wrap in plastic wrap. This will form the next layer of the log.
Stir the lime sherbet and place the log in the freezer for 30 minutes.

Use the same method to add the lime as the outermost layer of the watermelon roll. Freeze until firm. Slice to serve.

Note: Green food coloring can be added to the lime sherbet to give a more watermelon-y appearance to the roll. We add five drops, but it is still a creamy green color, not the dark Kelly green that watermelon rind is naturally.




I hope everyone enjoys trying out this delicious summer treat!!! Let me know how it turns out. Also, I"ll try to post pics of how ours turn out in the future.

 

[TeaChick]

Hi, there!

I finally named the pullet who started laying at the end of July. She's gray, she looks like a while Leghorn who's been rolling around in ash, so I named her Ashley.
The brown and white pullet is my DH's favorite, and brownies are his favorite dessert, so I named her Brownie.

The kids named the Cochin Bantams, so I figured I'd make that official: They are Fuzzy (black pullet), Chatterbox (barred pullet), and Phil (rooster).

In other news, I received my 25 chicks on Tuesday. They all seem to have done well withstanding the stress of traveling here.
Today is their last day in the brooder. I've got a screen slider, that's covered with 1/2" welded wire and two window screens; I'll put those together and top it with an 8' sheet of aluminum roofing. That will go inside the coop where the older chicks already live. That way, I can open the area and put in food and water, but with the sheet metal on it, the bigger chicks won't be able to harass the babies. I'll put them in there this evening and start treating them for the cocci that I know lives in the soil of our property. Hopefully, I don't lose any this time!!!
And I made this for them:



I try hard not to keep an exact count (I didn't used to have to try so hard, IDK what happened), but I have 50 chicks and chickens. =)

More later.

 

[TeaChick]

Had to process Gregor today. He was the jr. roo; I guess that bumps Lavender the LF Cochin cockerel up to jr. roo now.
Down to 49.

I found some images I wanted to share:

And this is how I feel:

Looking forward to hearing from all of you. =)

Oh, I've been letting the big chicks out (the ten that are 5 weeks old). They're super cute!!! And they come running up to me when I go round to that side of the house. lol They were screaming this morning for me to let them out.
I created a little space for the 25 little chicks with some door and window screens. They get along well with the big chicks, but I want to keep them separated until the little ones have finished their course of Corid. Tomorrow's the last day of the first dosage, so after that, I'll start mixing it at the lower dosage. I guess I can give it to all of them; that way the big chicks get a little redose. I'll have to think about that. What do you think?

Well, gotta get going. I have school work to do.

 

[TeaChick]

It's been a while, but I'm not worried about that, b/c I'm pretty sure that no one really keeps up with my thread anymore.
Maybe this will be of benefit to future chicken keepers one day. Who knows?

Anyway, I have some updates.
Eddie and the big girls are doing alright. They all went through a molt about a month ago and stopped laying. But they're back to laying almost full strength, I think I'm getting an average of about four eggs a week per hen.
Of the little girls, Ashley started back to laying not long after the big girls got going again. She lays like a Leghorn, pretty much every day, and they're getting a little bigger.
Brownie just started laying yesterday (and this is my big news)...She lays green eggs!!!!! I'm so egg-cited!!!! Here's a picture of some of the eggs I get. I'll take a picture tonight of an egg from each hen and post that tonight or tomorrow.

From top left around clockwise, that's Sandy's egg (it's speckled, but you can't see that in the picture), Caramel's is the pink/mauve one. The green one is Brownie's very first egg!!! The dark one is Goldie's; I'm still amazed that my lightest Comet lays me the darkest eggs and my darkest Comet (Chocolate) lays me the lightest Comet eggs.
Georgette had better get to laying pretty soon. I can't afford to feed her through the winter unless I'm getting something out of her. Who knows? Maybe she'll lay blue eggs. lol (I don't think that's possible, but one can wish, right?)
The little girls are fully incorporated into Eddie's flock, so I'll just call them Eddie and the girls from now on.

I still have that one LF Cochin cockerel. He's 32 weeks old, he hasn't crowed, and he's not laying. I checked his pelvic bones last night, b/c I've been hoping that he is actually a she and will start laying, but his bones are closer together than the Bantam pullet's. I'd really rather get him some hens than to send him to freezer camp, but either way, I can't afford to feed a chicken through winter unless they're serving a purpose. Oh, well, so much for hoping that he's a she.

The Bantam pair are doing alright. It looks like the pullet might start laying sometime soon. We'll see. She's missing right now, and she didn't come to eat, which is super unusual for her. If anyone is not going to be "late for dinner," it's Fuzzy. I hope she's been laying and she's gone broody and we're going to be able to find her and the nest and move her to the brooder. Otherwise, maybe she's started laying and maybe we'll be able to move her egg and teach her to lay somewhere safe, like in her coop. IDK.

My two sets of chicks are getting along. They're all so cute!!! I've lost a lot of them; coccidiosis, fowl pox, and who knows what else. I have less than half of what I ordered in the first place. I'm sold on using medicated chick feed from now on, at least while I live on property that has cocci in the soil. The older chicks are beginning to chirp instead of peeping. It's so cute!!!

A friend of mine sent me 8 eggs. One arrived cracked and I cracked it more a few days after I set them, while I was hand turning them. I've been candling every few days in hopes of avoiding any explosions. Last night was the most recent candling. I had two obvious clears and three obvious quitters; two were alive and kicking. I've never had a hatch without questionable eggs in it, even at this point. They've been in the incubator for eleven days, but their development looks like about six days along. I'll candle again next Friday to see when I think it'll be time to lock them down. One of the eggs is blue (LB) and one is green (IBxLB mix). I hope they both hatch; I hope they're both girls; and I hope they lay the same color eggs as they came from. The green isn't the same kahki green as Brownie's laying.

Well, that's my update on the chickens.
As far as coops go, we're just about finished securing the newly rebuilt coop (on the same spot as the deconstructed original coop/pen). We've got to get longer screws to finish securing the floor. Also, there's a space at the top of the north side that needs to be secured with chicken wire, so nothing can get in that way.
Our next project is most likely going to be a chicken tractor for the Bantams. Hopefully, that will be soon.
Another project we're going to have to do is building a coop in a different location for Eddie and the girls. Then we'll take apart the pallet coop and move it to a different location too. Different, here, means "safer". Right now, we can't see the pallet coop from the house at all, which is nice at 4am when Eddie starts crowing, but it's terrible when we need to be able to see and we can't. I just had a great idea. I might use it as a nesting/brooding coop. Maybe I'll use it to see if hens want to go broody or when hens do go broody. We'll see.
Future plans include another coop for the zillions of chicks we're going to get at the beginning of next year (we might wait until spring). We'll brood that set inside and feed them medicated chick starter grower. Hopefully, we'll be able to avoid the losses we've suffered this year.

Well, anyone who reads this, please feel free to let me know what's going on with you, with your chickens, or just come chat with me on here.
Take care of yourselves, and each other!!!

 

[TheBeardie]

You have nice eggs

 

[TeaChick]

You have nice eggs

Thanks.
How are you?

 

[TeaChick]

Okay.
It's been a looooooooooooooooooonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnngggggggggggggggggggggggggggg time again, since my last update.
I'm sorry about that (not that anyone's really keeping up, but I figure this thread might help somebody eventually, maybe...)
Anyway...

I set some eggs that a friend of mine sent me. I lost 3 of them at about a week, then another 3 at about two weeks, and one was questionable then, so...
I set some of my own eggs so that one that actually looked pretty good could have a flock.
A week later, neither one of the two I had left hatched.
Two and a half weeks after that (Wed. about 8pm), only one of my own eggs made it. Of course I want it to be a girl!!! It hatched out of one of Goldie's eggs, so I named her (hopefully) Golden Nugget. Here are some pics:
See the comb is so small?

It's light, but the stripe goes from its back up onto the back of its head. Apparently, on wild-type, striped chicks, that indicates female.

She thinks the therMOMeter is her mother. lol

This is right after she kicked free of the shell.

This is right at the beginning of her really trying to get out of the shell.
I ended up having to assist a little bit, hence the wet paper towel under her and the shell.

 

[TeaChick]

Because only one hatched out of my eggs, now I have to set more eggs, so that this one has a flock....

So, I set one egg from each of my hens, which is 8.
Which brings up some news: Georgette started laying....in the woods!!! So, I confined her in the brooder (on the back porch) until she laid me three eggs. Thursday was her first day out, and she didn't lay (which was no surprise, b/c she laid on Wed and most of the hens aren't laying two days in a row much right now; it's been overcast in addition to the shorter daylight hours). The first place she went on Fri am when I let her out was...the brooder!!! Victory for this chicken keeper; she's learned to lay where I want her to lay! =)

Here's a pic of the eggs I set:




The four brown ones are from my Golden Comets, Cottontail is my WL, and Georgette, Brownie, and Ashley are my second generation hens (all from WL eggs, but I've lost all by Cottontail since that hatch).

So, I'm hoping that at least one of these hatches. Okay, I'm hoping that all of them hatch; I guess I'm counting on at least one of them hatching.

 

[Scott H]

I'm still subscribed.