The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[Jewelwing]

Interesting about the different species. The one that wild garden seed sells is the "common" but they claim that it is best for eating. Here's what they say:


So...I'm wondering about the flavor of the other chickweeds. Is yours one they mention? (Mouse Eared or other...)

From what I can tell by Google, it sounds like Star chickweed is not toxic, and was also used medicinally in "ancient times" as well as being eaten in salads. Most places I looked listed Common chickweed and Star chickweed as interchangeable as a food. And apparently Mouse-eared chickweed is also edible, but people recommend cooking it first because of how hairy it is. I couldn't find any comparison of taste. I wonder if the company selling the Common chickweed is exaggerating how much better Common chickweed is...

 

[Leahs Mom]

Anything is possible!

 

[delisha]

I will settle for no more snow till December..I don't think that is asking for too much

 

[armorfirelady]

I will settle for no more snow till December..I don't think that is asking for too much

I agree !!!

 

[lalaland]

I will settle for no more snow till December..I don't think that is asking for too much

I agree !!!

not to douse your hopes or mine but.......here March is the 2nd snowiest month......

 

[Leahs Mom]

We have snow in the forecast for tonight and tomorrow morning after 40F today. Not much. And supposed to be 30 at least.

 

[CoopChick719]

my first CX home bred chick

5 days old. Pretty big for 5 days!!!

WOW! Nice looking chick! Congrats!

I would not doubt it.. If it is cut too short and you don't stop the bleeding - especially on a bantam it could possibly..

So true on a bantam!

:

I think there are over 100 species of chickweed. "Common chickweed" is most common (and exotic and invasive) species and is called Stellaria media, while I was talking about "Star chickweed," which is Stellaria pubera. Star chickweed is much, much less common (probably because it's not invasive!) and is a native of some parts of the US. We have some, but not very much. I was thinking about planting some more, if I can find some seeds! It sounds like the source for seeds you found sells Common chickweed seeds, if they were warning about it taking over.

You might have Common chickweed entrenched in your gardens! Here is a site that describes how to tell the difference between these two:

http://identifythatplant.com/stellaria-chickweed-species/

Thank you for the website! I've been looking for something like that.

I will settle for no more snow till December..I don't think that is asking for too much

I will second that however NOAA says we have a 30% chance of snow Sunday into Monday night. The forecast for tomorrow is a high of 42 and mostly sunny! But we are going to plunge back down into the teens at night. I guess the good thing about the next week is it will get the sap running w/the warmer days & cold nights. The sugar houses said they're going to have to play catch up since they're a week behind in syrup making due to weather.

 

[Jewelwing]

@Leah's Mom, have you ever read the book Living Downstream by Sandra Steingraber? I think you would really like it. The author grew up in Peoria, IL, and the book is about the chemicals in our environment and what effect they have on us. She is a poet and an ecologist and an excellent writer. The descriptions of Illinois farmland are beautiful. She intersperses her own personal story (she got cancer as a young woman) with very well laid out statistics & the science involving different chemicals' effects on our health and the health of the planet as a whole. That part sounds dry, but she's such a good writer that I found it interesting instead.

To bring it back to chickens, this is the book that lead me (indirectly, because I read it many years ago) to want to raise my chickens as naturally as possible, and to not use plastic for anything involving food.

Anyway, I recommend Living Downstream to everyone who can read! I have no connection to the author or anything, I just think it's a good book. Here it is on Amazon, if you're interested:

http://www.amazon.com/Living-Downst...ironment/dp/0306818698/ref=pd_bxgy_mov_text_y

 

[HollyDuckFarmer]

Good morning! Just wanted to pop in here and ask y'all if you have ever heard that infertile eggs stay fresher longer than fertile eggs? I read this in The Homesteading Handbook by Abigail R. Gehring, and I've never heard that before.

 

[ki4got]

Good morning! Just wanted to pop in here and ask y'all if you have ever heard that infertile eggs stay fresher longer than fertile eggs? I read this in The Homesteading Handbook by Abigail R. Gehring, and I've never heard that before.

if you keep them at room temperature in the height of summer with no a/c? maybe... LOL refrigerated makes no difference, I keep all eggs room temp (65-75 depending on season) and i'll eat them anytime up to 3-4 weeks old with no noticeable differences... more than 4 weeks old, I'm probably drowning in eggs anyways so then I feed them back to the birds. LOL

been using the possibly frozen/free range hidden nest eggs and mixing with pellets and ff. (put half the meal of dry pellets, crack the eggs over, add other half of the meal as ff and stir with a bit of hot water to mix easier... let it sit for 5-10 minutes for the pellets to soak up the extra liquid and they inhale it and fight over the bits of shell. LOL