Egg-actly!

"The wildflowers are erupting in flowery celebration and if you listen you can almost hear the reveling in their colors: soft pinks coo, softer lavenders whisper, scarlets and sapphires howl happily with their bold red neighbors, yellows and azures warble a harmonious duet, burning desert orange- the fat Viking warrior in this dramatic opera-nails the climatic high note. It's sunsets and treasure chests and rainbows on the roadside. The names of the flowers spoken aloud is almost enough to put me in a trance: prairie paintbrush, Indian blanket, bluebonnet, goat-foot morning glory and golden-eye phlox."
WanderAndrew, who is walking his way across the United States

TODAY'S SEEDS OF WISDOM

• JUST BLOOMED TODAY
• GARDEN UPDATE
• EGG-ACTLY!
• FAUNA
• GARDEN GIGGLE
• GARDEN GOODIES~SHARE OUR GARDEN RECIPE #0070 HAPPY EGG CUPS
• FEEDBACK

JUST BLOOMED TODAY

Johnny Jump Ups and Alyssum

GARDEN UPDATE
BRRRRRR! It may be sunny but it's cold! Wind advisory today and that wind cut right through you. Covered up my plants early and gave them a chance to rest from the wind.

All my lettuces and spinach are doing great outside. I cannot believe how well the rhubarb is doing and am looking forward to cooking with it.
EGG-ACTLY!
Once you have eggs, you will be enjoying all the ways you can use them! Here are some interesting facts about eggs:

 

• To test an egg for freshness, put it in a bowl full of water. If it sinks, it's fresh; if it stands on its nose, it is about 2-3 weeks old; if it bobs to the top, throw it out.
• Can't remember if an egg is fresh or hard-boiled? Just spin the egg. If it wobbles, it's raw. If it spins easily, it's hard-boiled.
• Eggs contain all the essential protein, minerals and vitamins, except Vitamin C.
• Egg yolks are one of the few foods that naturally contain Vitamin D.
• Eggs contain choline, which is necessary for healthy cell membranes in the body. Choline stimulates brain development and function, and helps in preserving memory.
• Eggs contain lutein which helps prevent age-related cataracts. Eggs contain more lutein than spinach and other green vegetables. 
• An egg shell has as many as 17,000 pores over its surface.
• There are about 70 calories in an uncooked egg and 77 calories in a cooked egg
• In the U.S. about 280 million hens produce more than 65 billion eggs per year.

GARDEN GIGGLE

How do baby chickens dance?

Chick to chick!

How do monsters like their eggs?

Terri-fried!

How did the egg get up the mountain?

It scrambled up!

How many eggs does it take to screw in a light bulb?

None. Eggs don't have hands

FAUNA

GARDEN GOODIES~SHARE OUR GARDEN RECIPE #0070 HAPPY EGG CUPS
Happy Egg Cups

These are great for dinner and heat up well in the micro as left overs!
Butter muffin tin.
Butter piece of bread or hamburger bun and smush into muffin tin, making an indentation in the middle.
Fill the middle with cheese, veggies, mushrooms, etc. Leave a little room.
Crack an egg into the top. Top with parmesan cheese and herbs.
Cook at 350 for 15-20 minutes.

Serving Suggestion: Serve with a fresh salad and sliced tomatoes.

FEEDBACK

 

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Cute Coops

" She reminds me of Paul Revere's ride- a little light in the belfry" FOGHORN LEGHORN

TODAY'S SEEDS OF WISDOM

• JUST BLOOMED TODAY
• GARDEN UPDATE
• CUTE COOPS
• GARDEN GIGGLE
• FAUNA
• GARDEN GAMES
• FEEDBACK

JUST BLOOMED TODAY

Johnny Jump Up

Alyssum

 GARDEN UPDATE

Starting to get HOT. Worked a bit on my rhubarb patch, trying to make it squirrel proof. They have left it alone in past years but I'm NOT taking any chances.

Planted my alyssum and johnny jump ups, as well as the new geranium. Gave manure tea to all the guys in the greenhouse, and of course, it was PARTY TIME.

CUTE COOPS

Now that we have learned about feed, types of chickens and what kind of eggs they lay, it's time to concentrate on where they will live. Chickens need a safe place to roost, lay eggs, hang out and sleep. They are pretty understanding of whatever you give them to stay in. We have used old drawers in the past for their nesting boxes.

Our coops are divided in four sections, so we have a 'hospital' area for sick, problem or weak chickens that are being bullied by others; Then we have three runs, so we could have more than one rooster. They have an outside area and an inside area. There is a light and a heater as well. The outside area is completely enclosed, so they cannot fly out and somebody else come in.

We have searched online and found some really great chicken coops that are very innovative. My favorite is the one that can towed around the yard so that it fertilizes the yard!

Combination henhouse and goat house

This design can be moved around the yard, and the house can be towed by a truck to other locations.  

  

A recycled clothes dryer!

Your baby chicks should start laying around 4-6 months old. You will need a rooster to have eggs that are fertilized, or will be able to hatch. 

There is more to learn but you will learn as you grow along with your baby chicks! In the meantime you will be able to recycle your kitchen scraps, have great manure to make your plants blossom and your own wonderful eggs that are pesticide and hormone-free!

GARDEN GIGGLE

FAUNA

 

GARDEN GAMES

CHICKEN FACTS

• Alektorophobia-fear of chickens
• The closest living relative of the T-Rex is the chicken
• There are more chickens than people in the world
• The chicken can travel up to 9 miles per hour
• The largest chicken egg on record was nearly 12 oz, measuring 12 1/4 " around
• The greatest number of yolks in one egg is nine
• Colonel Sanders was the second most recognized public figure in the world in 1979.
• Most eggs you buy in the grocery store are 4-6 weeks old 
• One punishment for an adulterous wife in medieval France was to make her chase a chicken through town naked. It does not state whether it was the chicken or the wife who was naked.  

FEEDBACK

 

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Choosing Wisely

  "God made mud, God made dirt, God made guys so girls could flirt!"

TODAY'S SEEDS OF WISDOM

• JUST BLOOMED TODAY
• GARDEN UPDATE
• GARDEN GIGGLE
• FAUNA  
• FEEDBACK

JUST BLOOMED TODAY

Narcissus and Muscari

 GARDEN UPDATE

Kind of overcast today, but the sun is hanging in there. Noticed the apricots are forming, and the pear tree is in full bloom and keeping the bees busy.


Our baby chicks are growing like weeds! They love to play freeze frame...they hear me and freeze in place, until...I reach in to change their feed and they come alive! Scurrying, scurrying...


CHOOSING WISELY
So, now what we know what to feed our baby chicks, we need to choose what breed will fit our purpose the best. When I first got chickens, I thought they just came in different colors. I didn't know that there were different breeds of chickens. Here are some of the more popular ones:

Buff Orpington

ORPINGTON: These are one of our most favorite chickens. They are sweet, get along with every other breed and are good layers. They are very pretty and the Buff Orpingtons are golden and love to be petted and cuddled. They lay a pinkish egg. 


The original Orpington, the Black, was developed in England in 1886 and brought to the U.S. in 1890. Today Buff, White, Black and Blue Orpingtons are recognized color varieties. 

Barred Plymouth Rock

BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCK: You could probably find these in every chicken coop. The Plymouth Rock originated in New England  in the 19th century and was first recognized as a breed in 1869. Great bird due to hardiness, egg laying, & broodiness (sitting on eggs). Lays a light brown to pink egg.

Australorp

 AUSTRALORP: Another favorite chicken of ours because the one we have is an extraordinary mother and loves to "go broody" or want to sit on eggs. The Australorp breed was developed in Australia at the end of the 19th century by crossing a Black Orpington with Rhode Island Red, White Leghorn, Langshan and Minorca breeds. The purpose of this breed was high egg production. It was originally known as the Black Utility Orpington. The breed was standardized after WWI, and renamed Australorp in 1929. Historically, australorps have been egg-laying champions. An australorp hen once laid 364 eggs in 365 days ( she must have been a rooster favorite!)  They are exceptionally beautiful bird with black glossy feathers that have a green sheen. They lay a brown egg.

Large Fowl Rhode Island Red

 LARGE FOWL RHODE ISLAND REDS: This is one of the oldest breeds of chicken and was first bred in Little Compton, Rhode Island in the mid-1840's. It is the state bird of Rhode Island. The breed was developed to withstand the harsh winters of New England and be a hardy bird who produced excellent large egg yields. They lay a brown egg.

AMERAUCANA: The ameraucana was developed in the 1970's by those trying to standardize the Araucana breed, The ameraucana is easier to breed as there are no complications due to lethal genes. They lay a lovely green-blue large egg. 

Araucana

ARAUCANA: This is a very rare breed with much controversy and a lot of challenges. Hatcheries add to this confusion by representing their 'mongrel' Easter Eggers as Araucana and Ameraucana chickens. While Araucanas and Ameraucanas are recognized breeds, Easter Eggers are not a recognized breed because they are a cross of different breeds to produce various plumage colors and eggshell colors. The origin of the Araucana is still murky, however many believe that they came to America from South America sometime during the 1920's or 30's. The primary reason for breeding Araucanas was their ability to lay blue eggs. The araucana have two distinguishing characteristics that set them apart from other breeds. They are rumpless (have no tail and the complete absence of a tailbone) and they have tufts (often called earrings) which grow from a protuberance called a peduncle around the ear lobes or neck area. This tufted trait is a lethal gene on araucanas, which makes it difficult to breed. Two copies of the tuft gene are fatal and results in chicks dead in the shell, typically around 18-21 days in incubation. Even a single copy of the gene has been known to reduce hatchability.

Leghorn

LEGHORN:  Leghorn, Italy had its own native common chicken for hundreds of years which were very good layers and came in black, white, brown or gray with white earlobes and yellow legs. Some of these were taken to America in 1828 and bred with other birds to make their body size larger and to produce more colors. They lay a large white egg. They are the number one breed used for large-scale commercial egg production in the United States. 

They are many, many more chicken breeds, and you can research them online. We just gave you a few to think about and start with. These are the ones you would probably come across in a feed store in the United States. You international readers probably see a whole different kind!

Tomorrow we will explore chicken coops! 

GARDEN GIGGLE

Why did the cow cross the road? To get to the udder side !

Why did the chewing gum cross the road ?Because it was stuck to the chicken !

Why did the chicken cross the "net" ?It wanted to get to the other site !

What do you call a rooster who wakes you up at the same time every morning ?An alarm cluck !

Why does a chicken coop have two doors ?Because if had four doors it would be a chicken sedan!

How long do chickens work ? Around the cluck !

Why did the chicken end up in the soup ?Because it ran out of cluck !

Why did the cow cross the road ? To go to the moooooovies !

FAUNA

FEEDBACK

 

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More Chick Stuff

"Let me guess, dearie. You're looking for a husband." Foghorn Leghorn
"Y-Y-Yes!" Miss Prissy
"Well, you're going about it the wrong way, sister. You don't bat 'em on the bean with a rolling pin. That comes later." Foghorn Leghorn
from Lovelorn Leghorn 1951

TODAY'S SEEDS OF WISDOM

• JUST BLOOMED TODAY
• GARDEN UPDATE
• MORE CHICK STUFF
• GARDEN GIGGLE
• FAUNA
• GARDEN GAMES
• FEEDBACK

JUST BLOOMED TODAY

STOCK

GARDEN UPDATE
Lovely weather today but still a bit nippy in the mornings and early afternoons.


Bought some lovely geraniums, white with a red ribbon running thru them, along with some johnny-jump-ups and some pony packs of alyssum. Love the little sweet faces of the johnny-jump-ups.


The apples are starting to form and the apricot tree is in full sweet-smelling bloom. Life is good.




MORE CHICK STUFF
Yesterday we started our chicken school on all things chicken. We chatted about baby chicks and types of feeders, and touched a bit on types of feed for chicks. One thing I didn't mention is that once the chicks are old enough to be in the coop by themselves (usually by the time they have lost their baby fur and grown a bit with feathers), you will be switching them to adult chicken feed. There is lay feed, which is designed for chickens who will be laying eggs. There is also quick-gro feed, designed mainly for chickens who will need to be fattened up before slaughter. Since we do not eat our pets, we will be concentrating on the laying chickens.

Lay feed comes in different forms, such as scratch, which people toss on the ground and the chickens "scratch" at it to eat it; It has the consistency of corn meal. Then there is lay kracketts which we prefer. Lay Kracketts are like a freeze-dried form of feed, and they come in tiny clumps that look like grape-nuts cereal. We prefer this because there is way less mess, as the feed is put into feeders and the chickens don't toss it around and waste. The lay kracketts also act like grit, which helps the chickens move food down their gullet, or throat. We also feed a supplementary oyster shell grit which helps them not only by breaking up food in their throats but also with the minerals they need. It is made to simply be sprinkled on their food or in their feeders.


Chickens also love your kitchen food extras, such as fruit peels, bottom of the bag potato chips, cereal, or windfall fruit. They especially LOVE bread. We have a cute painted bucket on our kitchen counter that is the 'chicken bucket'. We simply took a new, sterilized plastic bucket with handle, spray painted it with FUSION (because I wanted it red to match my kitchen). FUSION is a spray paint that will adhere to plastic. It fuses with the surface to become permanent. Then I attached a cute ceramic chicken hanger and used an old pot lid. Finished it off with some contact paper in black and white check. 

Tomorrow we will get into the different kinds of chickens you can choose and also some innovative chicken coops from around the globe.

GARDEN GIGGLE

FAUNA

RamboChick

GARDEN GAMES

FEEDBACK

 

As always, we would love to hear from you! Please share here; Or find us on Facebook!

What came first, the chicken or the egg?

" Henny Penny, The sky is falling!"
Chicken Little

 

TODAY'S SEEDS OF WISDOM

• JUST BLOOMED TODAY
• WHAT CAME FIRST, THE CHICKEN OR THE EGG?
• GARDEN GIGGLE
• FAUNA
• FEEDBACK

JUST BLOOMED TODAY

 

GARDEN UPDATE
Planted my two pony packs of lettuces and crossed fingers that these will take. Last year we had such great and wonderful lettuce I would truly miss it if I didn't have any this year.


Also, the weeding karma must be in the air, as both my sister Betty and I have been weeding. As she always says, "There is always something to do in the garden!" 
WHAT CAME FIRST, THE CHICKEN OR THE EGG?
Although this age-old question is fascinating, I'm not going to address it, other than to say, in our case, the chicks came first.


We have enjoyed sooo much having chickens these past years. Of course, we are self-taught and learned along the way, but they really teach you all you probably need to know.


We just added to our flock this week with the addition of nine new chicks. This is the time to get chicks at your local feed store. You can also order them online but usually they come in a minimum order of 100 so unless you can go in with someone else, this might not be the best option for you.

Baby chicks are fairly inexpensive, and vary from store to store. Most have an assortment for you to choose from and it helps to know your breeds, rather than "the cute black one" when you are choosing new chickens.

 

When I choose a chick, I look for an alert baby who can walk and run. One that is not shaking, trembling or off by itself in a corner. I pick it up and turn it upside down and look at the 'vent' or the hole on their behind. It should be nice and pink and not crusted over. The feed store will have boxes for you to take your chick home in, but you will need to buy chick starter feed for a while until they get big enough to eat regular food. You can buy chick starter in bulk weights (25, 50 or 100lbs) but most feed stores will sell a smaller amount bag that will do just fine until you are ready for more. Lots easier to store as well! 


You will also need a watering bottle. We utilize one that holds a gallon and meters out the water to them a bit at a time. This is great to minimize water waste and overflow. You will also need a chick feeder. Of course, you can start with just bowls for water and food but you will find they will become quickly dirty. A chick feeder usually has several feeding stations and it, too will help minimize waste.

Chick Feeder

 

  

Water Bottle

Before you bring those new babies home, you will need a place for them to live! Some people advocate free-range birds, which means you are allowing your chickens to roam freely. We do not believe in this method because of the predatory birds we have around here which could spread their bird flu germs to our birds. As well, there are wolves, coyotes and snakes that would love to have a chicken dinner. So our coops have both an inside run as well as an outside run. They are equipped with a light and a heat lamp, along with places to nest and sleep or laze away the day. At night we close up their doors so the rooster-boy doesn't wake our neighbors too early.

Tomorrow we will continue with how to choose the right breed of chicken for you, and other things you always wanted to know but were afraid to ask!

GARDEN GIGGLE

FAUNA

FEEDBACK

 

As always, we would love to hear from you! Please share here; Or find us on Facebook!