Homestead mailing list

[Viking <erthnsky AT bellsouth.net>]

clhw wrote:
> Not knowing which Lynn Bev is talking to....

Well, I had Lynn Wigglesworth in mind, but I am awfully glad everyone is
chiming in, especially you!

> We have about 30 adult birds and nearly 30 chicks maturing now. There
> are some roosters overdue for butchering and some getting there...

I have 7 adult hens, including a barred rock that has 7 chicks, 24
pullet hens that are now 4 months old, and a big turken rooster.  Four
of my seven chicks are turkens. :)  I love them!


> At the moment, we are not getting many eggs because of the number of 
> setting hens, eating snakes, and lazy daughter....

Ouch!
Most days I get 4 eggs, which is pretty good since of the 6 hens 'in
production', two are trying to go broody, and one is about 5 years old.
 One day, I actually got 5 eggs, and about once a week, I get 3 eggs.
If egg production drops off, I know there is a snake around.  Also, I
keep the barn raked and or swept, so I can tell what lurks along the
ground.  Haven't had a snake in the barn in a while, so I've been lucky.


> We usually separate the hens and chicks in a couple of weeks; sooner
> if the hen is not protective and is not covering the chicks at night;
> generally being a bad mother.

My barred rock has been an excellent mother, and is still covering the
chicks at night.  During the day, however, she appears to just want to
get away.  I can understand that....lol..... Since the chicks are 4
weeks old now, I think I'll put the mother hen back into the big coop
with the others and leave the chicks in the chicken tractor.  For
whatever reason, these chicks seem smaller at 4 weeks than hatchery born
chicks, but they are starting to feather out and look like mini chickens
now.


 Like the other Lynn, predators are a big problem so we
> have the chicks moved, with their mother, to a brood box as soon as
> they are discovered. The brood box is in an enclosed house snakes
> don't get into.


How in the world do you snake proof anything?


> Then we move them to a cage with small mesh. Generally before then,
> the hen is tired of being cooped up and we turn her loose. The next
> step is the chicken run which has large mesh wire, and they are
> closed into the chicken house every night and a trap set in the
> chicken doorway. After they are size enough to discourage hawks, they
> are let loose with the flock to free range. I'd like a chicken
> tractor!

Ours is small, about 4x7, I think, but it works great.  It's on skids,
and it's heavy to move, but I do it.  I used to move it with the
tractor, but once a chick got towards the back and I squashed him, so
now I move it by hand.  We built it just for meat chicks and turkey
poults, but I use it for various things now.

> Some of the hens take a while to recover but probably within a week
> of being released, they are laying again. I haven't tracked a hen to
> know if that is always true or not.

Does it hurt her or stress her out if she doesn't start laying again and
goes broody again to sit on another clutch of eggs?


> I've never made egg noodles. I've helped a Mennonite lady make them
> and I decided it wasn't worth my time and I didn't notice that they
> were any better than the others.

I triple a standard recipe, using the bread machine to mix the dough.  I
have a pasta maker that I can crank out the dough instead of rolling it
with a rolling pin.  When I get it to the right thickness, I flour it
good, and roll it up and then slice it to width.  I have a wooden
clothes drying rack that I use to dry the noodles.  Sometimes, if time
is short, I'll take a couple of balls of dough and freeze them and make
noodles later.  Beware-if you have house dogs, you might want to crate
them while the noodles are drying....lol....yup, it happened.

> I've used extra eggs in egg nog; angel food cakes; heavy pound cakes;
> hard boiled eggs for salads; and I've sold extras. This year, we
> haven't been selling any.

I make potato salad, egg salad, pound cakes, casseroles, breads, and
noodles.  Ron will use 4 to make an omelet, and of course, my favorite
thing to do is to make a batch of French toast and freeze that.  I'm not
much of a morning person, so having French toast ready to microwave for
the kids' breakfast when they were little really helped.

Bev



--
erthnsky AT bellsouth.net  BevanRon of EarthNSky Farm      NW Georgia USDA Zone 7
34.498N 85.076W