Posted in Chickens
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Over on a blog site that I have been following Down To Earth there is something new and you might just like to join in. The Biggest Kitchen Table - keeping chickens. An internet kitchen table to sit around and share and learn from each other all around the world. What a cool idea. This week the table talk is Chickens, one of my favorite homestead subjects. So today was chicken day for me. The weather was perfect , Hen Den needed cleaning, I needed some vitamin D, sunshine , chickens needed to look for bugs and goodies and the garden always needs composted chicken manure. Let me share first that I have been around chickens for a very long time, gosh on my 10 th birthday my folks got me 100 baby chicks. We would raise chickens off and on living in the country and even in the city we would buy chickens to butcher. One time living in the city Dad bought at least a 100 chickens , we took all day , Dad , Mom Sis and I to dress them all out just to find out that our freeser was not working ,Oh that was a job. So off to all our neighbors passing out fresh chickens all dress out and ready to cook. We always checked our freezers after that when butchering time came. Yes its been many years raising chickens. This last spring I got 100+ chicks, Plymouth Barred Rock , my favorite . A straight run which turned out like I hoped, 50 pullets and 50 roosters. Butchered out most of the roosters already with just a few left and waiting to find out which one will be the best rooster to keep. So far all have been showing good measure and being nice to each other. Heres one of the big boys keeping a lookout for his girls and looking smart about it.
This guy is looking in on the eggs, but today one of the roos jump in the nest and sat down,
Wow is it fun to gather eggs, and each day we keep getting more. Up to 32 eggs yesterday and down 27 today. I might find an egg or two under the White Pine trees tomorrow. An early Easter egg hunt.
The eggs get a little dirty from the hens feet from coming outside but on the dry days the eggs are so clean they don't need to be clean but I like to wipe them down anyway. With around 60+ chickens the Hen Den gets pretty messy and needs cleaning often. I use straw and even bagged up leaves from the curbside for the flooring. I put straw in their nest but they like to fuss around their nest boxes and scratch out the nice nesting material. I hope there will be a couple of hens that will go into brooding this spring and summer and hatch out a mess of chicks. This will be so much easier for them to care for then doing the job myself. Alto I do like to raise chicks. But seeing a hen coming out from under an old farm house crawl space with a flock of chicks is something to see. Oh how the mother hen takes care of her young. Crawling under an old farmhouse to gather eggs that were spent is not fun and horrible when they break on you I really like the Booted Bantum breed as well and they make very good mothers. I might get 25 of those this spring. They are easy to raise , less on feed and wonderful in the gardens. Many times I have rasied the Cornish Cross. Oh my are they eaters, messy to , very fast growers. But man oh, man are they good eatin. So if you thought about chickens for your homestead and want to learn some great info or would like to share about your flock head on over to the Biggest Kitchen Table ever. It looks like room for all and I think the host Rhonda has a cup of tea for ya. Check out the other posts on that site and all the different followers. The knowledge that is share is of great value and will come in handy for us all. Plan to stay a long time on her site , it is packed with good wisdom. Artisan Bread: Oh I hope they have a table talk on breadmaking. This last week I have been making Artisan bread. That 5 minute bread that has been buzzing around the net. I made it and I like it. Its very easy to make and the recipe and how to is found in the Mother Earth magazine. I put a bit to much flour on top, it brushed off easy . It felt like old world making this type of bread, flicked the raised bread into a very hot oven on a cooking stone and let it cook.
Weekend plans are just stayin at home and keeping warm. Our beautiful warm day was wonderful but alas winter is back. Oh I like the snow but if its not going to snow then might as well bring the spring on. It was temping to sleep out in my Outpost tonight but the wind in rough and maybe a storm. But if we get a nice snow I just got to have a campout . I'll keep you posted on my snow camping : ) Thanks for stoppin by, have a super great weekend. Blessings linda
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I have not introduced myself so after this post I'm heading over to the table and do some chatting/clucking : )
, humm he might have to go in the pot.
. I would rather be hit by a skunk :P
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Posted by rhonda jean
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