The Front Porch Swing

[LindaB220]

We got an e-egg, we got an e-egg! Very first one. It was still warm when I found it in the nest box. I'm so excited! It's not very big, as you can see in the picture of it next to the wooden egg we put in to encourage using the boxes, but it's our firstest one ever!!

Woohoo!!!!!

I'm so looking forward to mine.

 

[LindaB220]

Mmm! Both of my grandmas showed me how to drink buttermilk. We had a tall, cold glass with salt sprinkled in. Then they would crisp up some corn tortillas, roll them up, and we'd eat them with the buttermilk. Delicious!

Everyone thinks it is fire ants, but it wasn't at all! I thought so too until I saw the black ants. They were bigger than normal, though. We haven't had issues with fire ants in the backyard in ages, there is too much greenery. No, these were big black ants that I've seen around here before. My entire foot was swollen several weeks back when about 3 of these ants bit me. I don't know what they are exactly, but they are a menace.

Yeah, I had about 15 bites on my ankle a few days ago. Looked like the plague. Black ants. Weird. I thought red was worse. We have both of course.

 

[rrrmamma]

We got an e-egg, we got an e-egg! Very first one. It was still warm when I found it in the nest box. I'm so excited! It's not very big, as you can see in the picture of it next to the wooden egg we put in to encourage using the boxes, but it's our firstest one ever!!

Congrats. I remember how excited I was with the very first egg. We didn't want to eat it. The rest of the girls came on line in just a few days so we finally had enough for breakfast.

 

[Tomtommom]

TT, have you ever looked into the Scottish Rite Learning Center clinics? They are excellent, and totally free.....just a thought. Ken's in Scottish Rite. They focus on speech, but most kids with speech issues also have hearing problems, some have behavior problems as a result of communication difficulties, and so they work with the entire child, not just body parts. We (actually Ken) had a little guy he sponsored a few years ago. Nash was fitted with cochlear implants. He is now in high school, has been active in sports, and is currently on a summer trip with his class to Europe, which would have been virtually impossible without help. When we first met Nash he was 4 years old and the family was all learning to sign. Now there is no way to tell he ever had any hearing loss, let alone loss that required hearing aides in both ears and then the cochlear implant. Ken's not here, so I can't ask him if SR did the implants or if they were done somewhere else. I can find out for you when he gets home if you like.

It looks like there are at least 6 Scottish Rite Learning Centers in Alabama - in Birmingham, Montgomery, Mobile, Huntsville, Dothan, and Florence. Are any of those places near you? The central phone number is 205-947-2424 and you can find them on the web by Googling Alabama Scottish Rite Foundation. I don't know if this fills a need or a gap for you or not, but I'll never know if I don't bring it up, right? Hope I'm not interfering but I've seen over and over again what the Scottish Rite and Shriners have done for kids without charge to families.

I have not looked at them. Will take a peek. Driving to Birmingham is a bit of an issue. We can get free speech therapy at the hear center in Birmingham but it's too far for Thomas. These folks may not be downtown though, so worth looking into.

Who knows, hear center may work when he's older, he just tires so quickly now anything that's a long drive is a no go.

We got an e-egg, we got an e-egg! Very first one. It was still warm when I found it in the nest box. I'm so excited! It's not very big, as you can see in the picture of it next to the wooden egg we put in to encourage using the boxes, but it's our firstest one ever!!

Congrats!

Oh my no.... I like Knudson.... though. I have never had homemade would love to try it. Its created in the the butter churning process. Its very good for you low in fat its down to 2 percent once the butter fat is extracted.

My Grandpa Dixon was a Share cropper and at one point they had about twenty dairy cows. So they made their own cheese and butter milk. When i was about thirteen Dad bought some Heavy cream and showed me how to make butter in a mason jar. By just agitating the jar in his hand.

OH MY Goodness. it took for ever in my mind... Had to be very very cold for the process to work so he would periodically chill the jar back down in a bowl of ice with salt sprinkled on it.

I have since found out you can do it with a stand mixer and a bowl sitting in an ice bath.

Back to buttermilk. My Dad and his sisters all drank their buttermilk with Salt and pepper sprinkled on top.... Not mixed in... just sprinkled every other sip or two.... Oh Yumm.

deb

My mom drank buttermilk with every meal. I hated it as a kid... haven't tried it since, but my disgust with it is so edged in my memory I am afraid to.

Apparently you can drink whey just like buttermilk....

I'm dying to do just that, but I promised Katie that I'd call her as soon as we got the first one. Wouldn't you know it? She's at day camp until three today. So I just set it aside until she gets home so she can see it. In the meantime I have to head to Powell....not using layer food yet because out of the 22 chickens one tiny little egg doesn't justify it, but I am going to pick up some calcium/oyster shells. I still have over half a bag of grower that I need to use up yet. BTW, Ida (my little laying queen) is 18 weeks old, so that's pretty good!

You can start layer before they lay. No harm in it.

 

[ducksanddoxies]

We got an e-egg, we got an e-egg! Very first one. It was still warm when I found it in the nest box. I'm so excited! It's not very big, as you can see in the picture of it next to the wooden egg we put in to encourage using the boxes, but it's our firstest one ever!!

Woo hoo!!!

 

[ducksanddoxies]

Just had to share this.

My youngest son Nic and Bumblebee.

 

[LBejaran]

Ibejaran - I wonder if you could build a "Roll-away" nest box to keep the dog from eating the eggs. Essentially, the floor of the nest box is sloped towards the back just enough for the eggs to roll back. The back wall doesn't go all the way to the bottom, so the egg will roll out of the nest box. If you had a box with a lid that the eggs rolled into, then the dog couldn't get at them.

I actually thought about making a nesting box a foot off the ground, but instead of using wood to make a ramp for the birds to get up into, I'll use one of the many gate panels we have in our backyard. I can't imagine the dogs would willingly attempt to climb up into the nest if their feet fall through the holes of the gate panel. I've seen the ducks and chickens walk on them just fine, but obviously that is only because of the way their toes/webbing is so spread out. I'd make a couple ridges just for a bit more of a grip on it, but I would probably just leave it as is to make sure the dogs can't get it. I'm more concerned about the ducks using these nests than the chickens. The chickens could lay eggs in the trees if they truly wanted to, but the ducks are limited to the ground (or in the case of Indie the Muscovy, the height to which she can jump).

Having two muscovy ducks is only good if your hen can go broody without losing all her eggs to a dog. I would prefer to let her raise them, anyway, because of how great muscovy hens can be at motherhood. It would be wonderful to have Indie go broody with her clutch. Unfortunately, she hasn't laid lately because there isn't a safe place for her to lay her eggs. She quite after a couple clutches of eggs disappeared. I guess we can blame Kimchi for that.

 

[Loc20chick]

We got an e-egg, we got an e-egg! Very first one. It was still warm when I found it in the nest box. I'm so excited! It's not very big, as you can see in the picture of it next to the wooden egg we put in to encourage using the boxes, but it's our firstest one ever!!

wohoo!!!! congrats

Mmm! Both of my grandmas showed me how to drink buttermilk. We had a tall, cold glass with salt sprinkled in. Then they would crisp up some corn tortillas, roll them up, and we'd eat them with the buttermilk. Delicious!

I love buttermilk, Dad taught us how to make it from cow milk and I still think its the best, We used sugar in it have not tried salt

 

[Blooie]

Good to know on the Layer feed.....some threads had me scared to death that I'd go out and find all of my chickens dead from one feeding of it! So far the oyster shell is a bigger hit with the boys than with the girls, but they are like that - anything new and edible (or not) in the run and they are knocking the stuffing out of the others to get to it first. Oh, well. I guess this evening I have to figure out how to separate the boys from the girls, since tomorrow is D-day for them. I read somewhere (I think it was one of my chicken-raising books) not to feed the chickens being processed so their crops wouldn't be full, but I don't want the ladies to go without. Fact or fiction? And we still haven't decided pluck or skin, but leaning toward pluck. I liked the idea of trying both to see which we preferred, but Ken says one way for all or the other way for all - he's not standing out there all day dinking around with it.

Guess this is where "picking your battles" comes into play. In the overall scheme of things, is it worth an argument? Nope. So whatever he decides we'll do.

Broke open my egg after Katie got to see it. ("Oh, Gramma, it's just the right size for Kendra!") It was perfect! One tiny little blood spot on the yolk, but was that egg ever small! The picture makes it look bigger, but that's a small little berry bowl, not a cereal sized bowl. What really surprised me was how deep golden the yolk is and how firm the white is. I'm pumped!

I can't wait until tomorrow to see if there are any more eggies. Oh, I know, sometimes they are erratic with laying at first, but a girl can dream, can't she?

IB, my nest box slopes so the eggs roll out, and it would have worked today except I had put wooden slat at the back of it to keep the artificial eggs from rolling out of the nests before they served their purpose. It's gonna work very well, making it much easier for Katie and Evan to gather eggs without having to go into the coop if Ken and I are out of town. If you look at the picture of the nest, you can see a white board at the back - that was the barrier to keep the dummy eggs in. I had moved the real egg before I thought to run in and grab my camera, but when I first saw it it was flush up against that retainer, so it would have rolled all the way into the outer access area. You're so smart! I wouldn't have thought of using gate panels as a ladder into the nests. I'll remember that little trick for sure!

 

[LindaB220]

Hey Everyone, got some good news. Two things, actually. The most important to me is Aimee found little Tinker. A 6 lb Yorkie that has squeezed thru a tiny hole to escape from the boarding part of her business. Ten days she has been in the woods. Thankfully for the rain and bugs and stuff. The first seven days, they had plenty of calls spotting. Aimee even saw her at 5am the other morning but the stinker ran like crazy. A neighbor and customer called and said I'm looking right at her. Aimee tore over there and of course she ran. Aimee is so beat up, clothes torn, legs scratched. But she outran her. Or rather got her cornered in the woods. I've just spent 45 min holding her after her bath while Aimee pulled ticks off. I quit counting after about 40. The first thing I did was walk in with my bottle of Nutri Drench and squirted a squirt in her mouth. She has had water and a small gourmet dinner. Now she's et and gonna sleep good. By the way, Aimee was so thrilled that when they got to the car, she called to tell the owner. And you know what? It's not convenient for her to pick her up today. She did say that Tinker was the childrens dog, but jeez.
The other thing I was going to tell you was one the Basque eggs that I left in the incubator hatched, I guess the other two are duds. I didn't really expect that , it just seemed a little different. Tom has promised to send me some more in Sept. just for shipping. Nice of him. My other 11 little tiny whirlwinds are having a good time. Swarm the fermented feed. Yes, a good day.