What did you do in the garden today?

[Sally PB]

My second thought was to crush up the eggshells and feed them to the chickens, either mixed in with their main commercial feed in the hanging 5 gallon PVC bucket feeder, or by itself in my smaller grit and calcium feeders.

That's what I do. My girls like them better than oyster shell.

 

[Sueby]

The wildfires in Nova Scotia are sending a lot of smoke here today. The sky has been red and hazy all morning so far and very little breeze.

It's awful out there today! Be careful! It smells so bad of melted plastic & the visibility is horrible. I'm limiting my time outside. & I can't wait to see your new garden space!

What should I do with empty eggshells? I have a whole bread bag full of them.

My first thought was to crush up the eggshells and put them into the compost. But I have been reading that eggshells don't decompose and release all that calcium into the soil for something like 100 years.

My second thought was to crush up the eggshells and feed them to the chickens, either mixed in with their main commercial feed in the hanging 5 gallon PVC bucket feeder, or by itself in my smaller grit and calcium feeders.

Any suggestions? Thanks.

I do both - feed them the the girls & put them in the compost. They break down pretty quickly, there are no remains when I use the compost the next year. But no idea on the calcium availability. I would not suggest mixing it in with the feed though, offer it separately, let them regulate what they want/need.

I watered everything, hoping that would bring the rain. DH weeded the garden for me! I saw him with handfuls of my cosmos heading to the chickens. I suppose beggars can't be choosers.

 

[LifeSimpleAndSweet]

What should I do with empty eggshells? I have a whole bread bag full of them.

My first thought was to crush up the eggshells and put them into the compost. But I have been reading that eggshells don't decompose and release all that calcium into the soil for something like 100 years.

My second thought was to crush up the eggshells and feed them to the chickens, either mixed in with their main commercial feed in the hanging 5 gallon PVC bucket feeder, or by itself in my smaller grit and calcium feeders.

Any suggestions? Thanks.

Grind into powder in a processor if you want more calcium released sooner.

Feed to chickens and sprinkle over garden soil. It's a fabulous long-term calcium additive that will benefit for years to come for such a small amount of work.

 

[LifeSimpleAndSweet]

Just had a young family out to visit. Had a lot of fun with the kids outdoors.

I was cleaning off my porch before they arrived and pulled the papasan cushion off of the lower cushion on the frame. I was too busy to stop and take photos, but as I pulled this very large and heavy cushion off, a bird nest with 4 eggs rolled across. I have no idea how birds snuck between the base cushion and the top cushion, built a nest, and laid four eggs.

Knowing the parents would never return to such destruction and relocation of their nest, I set it aside to show the children. I suspect it was a house wren nest. Tiny little tan eggs with lots of brown speckles and splotches. They looked like these:

We cracked one open to see if it was fresh or if it had a baby bird in it. It was freshly laid. So I cracked the last three and made a tiny dish of scrambled eggs and bacon with cheese on the top. They said it was the best scrambled eggs they'd ever tasted.

Not surprising. In my experience, the smaller the egg, the better it tastes. An interesting and unexpected event today.

 

[Wee Farmer Sarah]

I got most of the fencing attached @Sueby but I stopped for lunch. I thought the air would improve with the breeze but the wind is carrying more smoke into this area. I’ll finish it up tomorrow. I went really slow so I wouldn’t have any breathing problems but it was still pretty nasty. I have laundry to finish up anyway.

 

[Smokerbill]

I just finished giving the garden a deep watering. It's going be sunny and hit 86 degrees today, 89 tomorrow then 80 on Friday. After that back down to highs of low 70s up to around 80 degrees.

As I was watering, I lost all water pressure. Checked the well house and there was zero pressure. My pump switch has a safety feature that shuts it off if the pressure falls below 20psi. Supposed to provide protection from catastrophic failure, ie a big leak in the house.

I reset the switch, then checked around the house looking into the crawlspace to see if there were any leaks. There were none. I shut everything off and waited, and there was no drop in pressure, so there doesn't seem to be any leakage.

I guess the pump couldn't keep up with the flow coming out of the garden hose. I'll just have to water slower. I hope the pump isn't giving out on me. Submersible pumps (quality ones) are expensive! I have no doubt that I could replace it myself, but I'd rather not have to do it.

Only two winter squash seeds sprouted, out of 24 planted. I don't know if the seeds were bad, if I need to wait longer, or if voles/ground rodents eat the seeds. Oh well. Should've started them in pots.

 

[WthrLady]

mowed on the giant mower for 3.5 hours.
It was mostly to mow down the tall weeds and sweet clover before it all goes to seed. The lawn is dead. The pasture is dead and almost gone.
The hayfield is short and thin.
The biting flies are insane.
I watered the garden via the underground drip lines, but that's it.
Over 90 again for week 2.
3 years of drought. This has GOT to stop.
Something got the butternut squash at the ground, so it's gone.

 

[gtaus]

Thanks for all the responses I received on my question about what to do with a bread bag full of empty eggshells.

I've added eggshells to my compost for years. They do break down, not sure about how much calcium is released.

That's what I was doing, but I read an article that although those darn eggshells might "disappear" into the soil, they actually don't release any calcium for many, many years. Basically, the author was saying that added cracked eggshells into your compost is adding no value.

That's what I do. My girls like them better than oyster shell.

Yeah, I've got a bag of powered calcium that I have been using in my calcium feeder.

I do both - feed them the the girls & put them in the compost. They break down pretty quickly, there are no remains when I use the compost the next year. But no idea on the calcium availability. I would not suggest mixing it in with the feed though, offer it separately, let them regulate what they want/need.

All my chickens are egg laying hens, but I, too, was thinking that adding additional egg shells to their main feed might be overloading their system.

Grind into powder in a processor if you want more calcium released sooner.

Feed to chickens and sprinkle over garden soil. It's a fabulous long-term calcium additive that will benefit for years to come for such a small amount of work.

I bought a food processor from the thrift store for just such a job. However, in the article that I was reading, it said that it did not matter if you crushed or processed your eggshells into powder, the calcium would not be released in the compost in your lifetime.

I saw a YouTube video where they were soaking the eggshells in some kind of vinegar solution. In that process, they stated that the calcium was released from the eggshell in a chemical process. Looked like a lot of complicated work to me.

I'm wondering, if the chickens eat some powered eggshells, would their digestive tract extract the calcium, which would later get passed in their poo, and thereby released into the compost?

Anyways, here is YouTube link on the eggshell situation and that composting eggshells does not really add anything of value to the mix. It was new information to me, but there is a lot of stuff I don't know about.

 

[Smokerbill]

Thanks for all the responses I received on my question about what to do with a bread bag full of empty eggshells.



That's what I was doing, but I read an article that although those darn eggshells might "disappear" into the soil, they actually don't release any calcium for many, many years. Basically, the author was saying that added cracked eggshells into your compost is adding no value.



Yeah, I've got a bag of powered calcium that I have been using in my calcium feeder.



All my chickens are egg laying hens, but I, too, was thinking that adding additional egg shells to their main feed might be overloading their system.



I bought a food processor from the thrift store for just such a job. However, in the article that I was reading, it said that it did not matter if you crushed or processed your eggshells into powder, the calcium would not be released in the compost in your lifetime.

I saw a YouTube video where they were soaking the eggshells in some kind of vinegar solution. In that process, they stated that the calcium was released from the eggshell in a chemical process. Looked like a lot of complicated work to me.

I'm wondering, if the chickens eat some powered eggshells, would their digestive tract extract the calcium, which would later get passed in their poo, and thereby released into the compost?

Anyways, here is YouTube link on the eggshell situation and that composting eggshells does not really add anything of value to the mix. It was new information to me, but there is a lot of stuff I don't know about.

I didn't watch the video you posted, but following direction from another video, I made a vinegar/eggshell calcium solution. It was pretty easy.

I crushed a few dry eggshells by hand and put them in a stainless steel skillet. I gently toasted them while continuing to crush them into smaller bits with the bottom of a small bowl

When they started browning I took the pan outside and blew all the dried chaff away (the eggshell membrane).

I added the toasted shells to a small jar, then added apple cider vinegar, approximately 10 parts vinegar to 1 part eggshell. It began bubbling immediately.

You can strain the vinegar from the shells after 10 days, but longer is ok. The calcium in the solution is supposed to be readily available for plants to use. And I guess it's pretty potent because according to the video, you mix the solution with water at a ratio of 1 part to 1000 parts. I think that's a little less than a teaspoon of calcium solution per gallon of water.

Here's a link to a PDF that explains the process and its use.

https://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/oc/freepubs/pdf/SA-10.pdf

 

[Smokerbill]

I went out to the garden a little while ago and picked a bunch of fresh pea pods from the vines. They hadn't filled out yet, but There are still plenty on the vine. Cleaned 'em up and munched on them raw, dipped in bleu cheese salad dressing, as a side dish to a cold fried chicken thigh. I'm ready to go outside and work a little more now.

Going to rake up a pile of dried grass my mower piled up and add to the growing pile of grass that's in my composting area. Not sure what I'll do with it, but I grew it, so I'm going to use it!