Old Fashioned Popcorn Garland

Hi all! Christmas is already upon us! It doesn't even seem possible. At any rate, I decided to make some old fashioned popcorn garland for our lovely tree. Here's how I did it:

Materials:
•   bulk white popcorn
•   dental floss
•   whole fresh cranberries (optional)
•   needle

1. Cook your popcorn. I chose white because of its nice bright color. I cooked about a whole cup which was 3 batches.
2. Allow the popcorn to cool completely in an airy spot. Pick a spot where it won't be disturbed. It will need to stay there for 8-24 hours to "stale up". Stale popcorn threads easier. I poured mine out on wax paper on the table.
3. Dry your cranberries.
4. Cut 9 foot lengths of dental floss to work with. My tree is pretty large, so it look about 7 strands.
5. Tie a knot (I do a cluster of knots) on one end of the floss. Thread the opposite end onto the needle. Be sure to leave tails on both ends for tying the stands together.
6. Pick a nice comfy spot on the couch, and find a good movie to watch. Older kids can help with this project if you trust them with a needle. Begin stringing your popcorn and cranberries. I strung in a pattern of 10 popcorn, 3 cranberries.
7. Once you are finished filling up the strand, tie some knots at the end. Go ahead and put the strand on the tree to see how much you'll need. As you progress, tie the strands together to make one large strand. 

It will be a bit delicate at first. The cranberries look like pretty little red beads. Enjoy your garland!

Thanks for reading!

Fodder Experiment Flop

Hi all. Just a quick update on my fodder experiment. Just to let you know, it isn't going well. :'( I'm going to start everything over again soon, but for now I'm giving it up. I had some mold growth early on and very little sprouting. I'm going to evaluate my procedure and set-up and start over!

Thanks for reading!

Sprouting Fodder Grains: Day 0

Hi all! It is the beginning of my fodder system experiment and I'm very excited! If you haven't checked out my other blog posts about this, you can find them here:

What The Fudge Is Fodder?

My DIY Fodder System Set-Up
                                                 
The first thing you have to do before you even begin sprouting the grains is to soak them. Like many other seeds, soaking helps the grains germinate so that they will sprout and grow.

First, you must decide how much barley (or whatever you are using) you will need. The sources I have used both suggest that when sprouting you want about a half inch depth in your container. Now, to achieve that depth after soaking, you actually want to pour in enough in the pan to measure 1/2 inch then cut that in half. Once again, soak half of what you think you need. The barley will plump up during soaking and will be twice the size of the original grain. I use a plastic tumbler to scoop mine out of the grain sack, as it is the perfect amount once it has been soaked.

Soak the grains in a clean container. I use a large plastic deli container. You really can use pretty much anything. Pour the grains into the container and cover completely with water. I like to use about twice as much water, so the water to barley ratio is 2:1. I like to use lukewarm water.

Finally, you just want to allow the grains to soak for 12-18 hours in a room where it won't be bothered and that is 50-70º (which is most ideal for germination). They don't require sun.

That's it until tomorrow! Thanks for reading!

My DIY Fodder System Set-Up

Hi all! In my last post, What The Fudge Is Fodder?, I talked about what fodder is and why you would want to use it for animal feed. Remember that when I say fodder, I'm actually referring to sprouted fodder, or sprouted grains.

This time I want to share some information about getting started with a homemade, small-scale fodder system. Most fodder systems currently available for purchase usually produce a minimum of 50-60lb of fodder daily, and cost upwards of $1000. That's a bit much for the homestead farm, but don't despair. A homemade fodder system is easy to put together and comes at a small price.

I first became interested in fodder systems while following my favorite YouTube Channel, Michigansnowpony. I've talked about this channel in other posts. This channel has been a driving force of inspiration for my homestead endeavors, so why should fodder be any different? I followed her source links to Sarah Cuthill's YouTube channel and blog (which are also phenomenal). I will be putting their links at the bottom of this post. If you're truly interested in pursuing or learning about these DIY fodder systems, I would check them out.

My DIY Fodder System Set-Up

Materials Needed:
    * Wire shelving
    * 7-9 Sturdy plastic containers
    * A drip pan/catcher
    * Soldering iron or nail & pliers or meat fork
   
1. Starting out, you need some wire or mesh shelving to hold your fodder containers. You can use anything as long as it fits your containers, has enough shelves and can drain water from shelf to shelf.  I've seen people use cooling racks, industrial shelving, garage shelving and more. I'm using the greenhouse shelving we bought earlier this spring with the greenhouse plastic taken off.

2. The next thing you'll need is sturdy plastic containers to hold and sprout your grains in. You can use basically anything. The preference seems to lie with square/rectangular containers, but if you have success using something round (like a butter bowl) I'd love to hear about it. I'm using some plastic casserole containers I bought at Wal-Mart.

3. Now, you need to poke some holes in one end of each container. (The woman at Wal-Mart balked when she found out what we were doing with the containers. She thought I was making some large meal for a get-together. Hehe. Well it is for a meal of sorts.) I started out using a nail that I held inside a pair of pliers. I only had a small nail on hand and was not terribly impressed with the size of the hole that it made. You want your holes to be large enough to drain water without being so large that the grains will slip through. You're looking for a happy medium. I ended up ditching the nail in favor of my kitchen meat fork. I have a cheap one that I rarely use and it was perfect. At any rate, you need to heat up the tool you use, whether it is a nail or a meat fork. I performed the operation next to my stove and it went along quickly. 

     Some Tips
       * be sure to heat up your tool completely. I heated mine for about 20-30 seconds and I was able to puncture 2-3 rows of holes.
       * the meat fork worked perfectly because I was able to poke two evenly spaced holes at a time.
       * don't force down on the plastic too hard. If it doesn't slide through like butter, it needs to be reheated. Trust me on this one. If your tool is too cold and you force it, you will crack your plastic. (Voice of experience!)
       * I made 5 closely spaced rows on mine. I'd say you want anywhere from 3-5 rows depending on the spacing. They don't have to cover half the container.

The picture on the bottom right is my original hole poked with a nail. 

4. On the opposite end of the holes you need to add something to keep the containers at an angle. It seems that 10º is suggested, but as Mitch points out, 10º is barely measurable. I think that as long as you don't have some drastic angle and everything is consistent, then any slight angle will do.  Michigansnowpony used shims for her set-up (awesome idea). Since I forgot to buy some and I was eager to get started I just used some glue sticks I had handy. I will be changing this very soon though.

5. You want to place your containers in a zig-zag like pattern on the shelving. This will aid in proper draining of the system.

For example:
The first container on the first shelf has its holes facing forward. The container directly below that will have its holes facing to the rear. The container below that one will have its holes facing front and so on.

6. The last shelf or the bottom of the shelving should have some kind of drip pan/catch basin for all of the water that will be draining off. I have a long shallow container that fits I under my shelving.

So, that's it. That is your basic set-up. To learn more you can check out the links below!  Thanks for reading.

Michigansnowpony

Sarah Cuthill

Sarah Cuthill's page and blog

What The Fudge is Fodder?

Hi all. I have developed an intetest (obsession) in fodder feeding systems for the livestock animals on our farm. I'm itching to try it out and I feel the need to share the enthusiasm. Some of you may be wondering, "What the fudge is fodder?" I hope to answer that question and more with this post.

What is fodder?
Fodder is defined as food for domestic livestock. The technical term for the object of my obsession is actually sprouted fodder. But, for the sake of simplification I (and most everyone else) simply say fodder. I just don't want to confuse anyone because in my own experience, researching fodder has oftentimes been misleading and contradictory. I think this is mostly because it is an old concept that is gaining new popularity and praise.

Fodder is a sprouted grain (usually barley, but can also be wheat, oats, or legumes) that's been grown and sprouted to form a grassy mat anywhere from 1-10 days. It is fed as a substitute/supplement for grain feed in livestock diets. It is said to contain a higher percentage of nutrients than plain (unsprouted) grains. It is also said to have a higher rate of ingestability.

Fodder is grown to form a grassy root mat that is cut apart and fed whole. Most feeding instructions/suggestions say to feed at a rate of 2% of an animal's weight. So a 100lb animal would recieve a daily ration of 2lbs of sprouted fodder. This means each animal has its own individual feeding needs.

From most of the sources I've used to gather info, it seems that the weight of the sprouted grain yields are 4-6x higher than the plain unsprouted grain. Put more simply, 1lb of dry grains typically develop into 4-6lb of sprouted grain. Theoretically, one could get 200-300lb of sprouted grain from a 50lb bag of dry grain. Pretty incredible, right?

Fodder as a complete feed?
Many people ponder whether fodder is suitable to be fed as a complete feed. This is actually not really advocated, even by people selling commercial grade/scale fodder systems (and they would stand to gain the most by such a claim). The main suggestion is to feed at a rate of  2% of the weight for the grain ration. Then, supplement this with 1% of the weight in roughage (hay) for fiber (particularly in rabbits and ruminants-horses, goats, cows). This ratio may be the complete diet you are searching for, but as one source put it "Variety is the spice of life." It is ok (probably better) if you keep a ration of grain as back-up and/or the occasional supplemental feeding. Treats, too, are acceptable. 

All of this is important to me because I want to introduce sprouted fodder into our animals' diets. I hope to elaborate more on the topic later. I will be beginning a sprouted fodder experiment of my own, right here on Edgington Farm. Stay tuned for updates and info!

Thanks for reading. Hopefully I didn't bore ya too much being too wordy or too jargon-y. Below is a link to a commercial fodder system from Farm-Tek. I wanted to include this link with my introduction because it can help you "get your feet wet" so to say, in regards to learning about fodder systems and how they work.

http://www.foddersystems.com/

All images were gathered from Google images.

Reusing Fall/Halloween Decorations for The Farm

Hi all! It is November now and time for us to begin taking down some of our fall/Halloween decorations. I decided it was time to move our straw bales out of the front yard since 2 out of 3 were beginning to grow grass. Eeeek! Not so cute when that happens. Our jack o'lanterns were sunken in and rotten and our scarecrow had a moldy butt. Time to go!

I decided that we could use the rotten pumpkins in the compost pile, so in they went. I got a twisted sort of glee tossing them in and watching them splatter. Probably good for relieving stress! Just keep your mouth closed to avoid yucky pumpkin gloop.

The 2 grassy straw bales presented a bit of a problem since the twine had rotted and split immediately upon use. So, unfortunately I had the task of picking them up in 2-3 large (wet, stinky) clumps. I toted them to the garden where I split them up into flakes (where they naturally divide into sections upon splitting apart) and tossed them in all around. These will (and already have begun to be) split up further by our curious, yard roaming flock of chickens. This will break down somewhat during winter and will be tilled into the soil in the spring. Hopefully helping to create a straw "mulch" that will slowly breakdown in the soil, keeping things moist and amending it little by little. *Fingers crossed*

Some straw in the garden before and after the chickens flattened it out.

The bale of straw that was still wet, but not rotten was used in the chicken run. It was too wet to be used in the confinement of the coop, but I thought it would provide some entertainment, bedding, bugs, and grains for them. I split it up into flakes and tossed it sporadically throughout the run and left the rest up to the birds. Within no time their curiosity was piqued and they had it spread out beautifully.

One more chore marked off our winter prep to-do list. I'd love to hear how you reuse/recycle your fall/Halloween decorations! Good luck with your winter prep. I know we need the luck!

Thanks for reading!

Stocked Up On Hay

Hi all! Fall is upon us. Our trees here in Southern Ohio are covered in beautiful shades of red, orange, yellow, green, and brown. It is quite a sight to behold, and fall is my favorite season. I love the way the leaves smell and the smell in the air. I love the "crunch" of dry leaves under foot. I love the fanfare of Halloween. I love apple cider, hooded sweatshirts, pumpkin flavored food and drinks, Indian corn, fall foliage, and the sound of leaves rustling in trees during a light breeze. Ahhhh... I told you it was my favorite!

Unfortunately, we all know that fall is also the harbinger of winter. We all know that once the splendor of fall is over, Jack Frost will be nipping at our noses. For procrastinators like me, fall also means that you're quickly running out of time to make those oh so important winter preparations.

I'm also the type that tends to put the cart before the horse. It doesn't make sense and it usually results in hurried preparation (I do not recommend this behavior, but I'm thinking it's more of a disease for me! :D ), but all the same it is what it is. This "illness" caused me to buy some very cute little goats without much forethought into winter prep. Heck it was spring when we brought these guys home, so winter was quickly becoming a bad dream. Well, uh-hmm, it's a reality now. And as vampires say, reality bites.

Among the many activities we must partake in to prepare for winter, is buying and storing hay for our goats. Like most ruminants, the goat requires daily hay in its diet. This is partly for nutrition, but mostly for fiber/roughage to aid in digestion.

Our two goats consume roughly one bale of hay every 2 weeks. Sometimes they will eat one in one week. Keep in mind my goats are small. At any rate, it is an essential part of their diet and it is important to try to stock up on hay when feeding any hay eating animal during cold weather months. For this time around we purchased 20 bales of hay.  It is a timothy, clover, orchard grass mix. It smells so nice and it still has plenty of nice green pieces in it. We are hoping this will get us through until people begin cutting hay again next year. We may buy 5-10 more in December based on our useage rate of our current stockpile. This hay is a bit loosely baled compared to what we normally get, which may mean we will go through it faster.

We have it stored in our garage right now (which is less than ideal because hay is messy!), but we are hoping to get it better situated once we complete a barn. (Ha ha)

At any rate, wish us luck this winter! We'll do the same for you! Thanks for reading!

Pallet Goat Stand

Hi all! We're not as busy here on the farm as we were during growing/hatching season, but that doesn't mean work is at a standstill. In fact, the cooler weather means fewer hours at Mitch's job. He prefers to work on our projects during these months. Since he's our primary project builder, (let's face it, I scare myself with power tools!) it is game on during the fall and winter.

It is time to be preparing our home, barn and garage, and animals for winter. One of the tasks on our list is hoof trimming for our goats. I may elaborate on this maintenance chore in another post, but for now suffice it to say it is something we must do. This chore is made easier with the use of a goat stand with a head latch. While varieties of stands are available for purchase, we chose a simple DIY construction project. We chose this option due to cost and efficiency. Our goats are dwarf size and most options available are for standard sized animals.

We began with a few pallets Mitch can get free from work and a couple of 2"x4" boards we had leftover from a previous project. A couple of screws, nuts, bolts, and a screen door latch made the project complete.

The base of the stand is a skid cut down to approximately 3' wide and 4' long (standard pallet length). Mitch pryed boards from a separate pallet to fill in the gaps. This was done with a pry bar, a claw hammer, and patience. You have to be careful when ripping off the boards since they are prone to breaking and splitting.

Mitch managed to hammer the nails in the reverse direction so that he could reuse most of them. This is also a delicate procedure as the nails like to bend. But, it helped us use less materials because recycling is fun!

We cut a 2x4 down to about 18" for legs. (Make 4) This makes the stand low enough for the goats to hop up and down to get on and off, but still high enough to adequately allow me to milk and perform maintenance duties on the goats. Since the stand was still pretty wobbly at this point, Mitch added a brace to each long (4') side. He accomplished this by prying up 2 more skid boards and screwing them into the legs. You wouldn't believe the difference it made. The front of the stand has additional braces to stabilize the head latch. These connect the front legs to the body under the stand.

The head latch is a frame made of 3 2x4 boards screwed to the base in a rectangular formation. Additional 2x4s are sandwiched in the frame to form the latch. This is done with 1x1 boards and 2x4s. The frame is also braced with 2x4s on each side, securing it further to the base.

One of the 2x4s sandwiched in the frame moves somewhat freely to open and close the latch. This is made to secure the goat's head to keep it steady.  We still have to add something in the front to attach a feeder to so the goats can happily munch while we work on them. Mitch added a bolt to the top of the moving latch board as a handle.

If everything goes as planned, our doe will be successfully bred by this winter and we'll be having a goat kid next spring. This stand will come in pretty handy when I'm using it everyday to milk with.

The goats can't wait to see the new stand. 

If anyone would like to know specific stand dimensions or has any questions, please feel free to ask. I'll do my best to answer them. 

Thanks for reading!

2013 Growing Season Summary

Hi all! I know it's been a long time. I'll be the first to admit I'm not so great at long term consistency, but I'm trying! I tend to tire of things quickly, but seeing as how this journey is important and dear to my heart, I want to try to continue documenting it. Try to be patient with me as I usually make all my posts with nothing more than my cell phone!

We've put the garden to bed for the year and it is time for me to write up a summary of our attempts. To summarize our first real attempt at growing a garden, I want to begin by saying that it was a real pleasure. Despite our joy, there were some things we weren't too impressed with, but we're sure we can improve with time and practice.

Good Garden Turnouts
1. Most of our plants grew very well and produced nicely.
2. Our sweet corn was stellar and we even had crossing of our two corn varieties, resulting in a lovely bi-color corn.
3. Our green beans were so productive, we were begging people to come and pick some for themselves!
4. Our peppers really put out the fruit at the end of the season, something we did not anticipate at all.
5. Our first attempt at growing potatoes was very pleasing with small, but plentiful and delicious potatoes. 
6. I realized how truly hardy brassicas can be!
7. We were so impressed with how the compost improved our soil and our plants.

Some Things We Wish To Improve
1. Weeding was so tedious and occupied much of our time early on. We will be trying a few new things next year to improve this.
2. Our corn rows were spaced too far apart to provide ample protection and support from winds and rains.
3. We didn't plant enough of anything (except beans!) to allow me to can or pickle properly.
4. Our biggest mistake was not planting early enough. Hopefully with having the established beds and our knowledge gained this year, we will be getting things out to follow the Farmer's Almanac.
5. We may have over fertilized some of our plants. Too much of a good thing and all.
6. We're going to improve our seed starting capabilities so that we can save money, have a better growing season, and have more heirloom plants.
7. We are going to try to save more seed of our own next year.
8. We are going to support our plants with better techniques and more attentiveness.
9. I'm waging war on cabbage moths next year. Dedpite the hardiness of our brassicas, I know they did not reach their full potential because of the cabbage moths/worms.
10. I want to be more prepared for the fruit and veggie harvests next year with more canning/freezing supplies on hand.

These are our main gripes for our first year. I'm positive we'll always have something to learn, but I'm hopeful the list won't be so dramatic and long in the coming years. In January of 2014 I want to compile a list of goals for our 2014 homestead endeavors. I've got a long list, but I think any homesteader will tell you there's always work to be done on the farm.

Thanks for reading!

Garden Update July/August

This was a few weeks ago when we treated our garden to a top dressing of compost.

Hi all! The weather here has been awesome the past week and we are just loving it. With summer beginning to wane, I figured I'd better do an update on the garden. The garden has come along very nicely, especially considering last summer our gardens were patches of lawn. I'm just going to share some pictures with a few notes on what you're looking at.

Thanks for reading!

This is our first muskmelon. We planted 3 varieties.

Our popcorn is beginning to get tassels (flowering part of corn stalk), so we'll be getting popcorn soon!

A nice slicing cucumber is growing. We haven't had much luck with our cukes this year.

We Have A Broody Hen!

Hi all! In one of my previous posts I discussed Nesting Etiquette and I briefly mentioned a broody hen. Today I want to elaborate on that a bit.

What is a broody hen? A broody hen is a hen that sets her own eggs and hatches them and even rears them without the help of humans, heat lamps, incubators, brooders, etc. It is a hen's natural desire and urge to become a mama. Nowadays, broody hens aren't always so commonplace. This is due to hatcheries breeding this desire out of their flocks. In a commercial hatchery, hens hatching out their own young is cost prohibitive. A hen can hatch 12-18 eggs, but must sit on them for 21 days and then will raise them for 4+ weeks. The big problem for a hatchery here? During all that time of waiting and rearing, the hen doesn't usually lay a single egg.

Why have a broody hen? Broodies hatch and raise their babies the natural way. It's something to behold to see nature at work. While there are plenty of merits in hatching chicks in an incubator, I'm told everyone should try to hatch with a broody at least once. No stressing about incubator troubles, no worrying about power outages, no major concern about the welfare of the chicks.

Currently, our hen is on day 10 of sitting on her eggs. She is halfway through the 21 day incubation period! We are really excited about our first time hatching eggs here on the farm, especially with a broody hen! I actually chose a couple of my breeds because of the tendency to go broody. For our first time we are just using eggs that have been fertilized by our mix of hens and roosters. Next time I will buy special eggs since I now know she has (so far) had the tenacity to stick it out. So, who knows what kind of funny hybrids we will end up with!

I hope to get a few more posts up about our broody hen before she hatches so,  wish us luck! Thanks for reading!

Nesting Etiquette

Hi all. As you know, our hens have begun to lay. I'm thinking we've already got a broody hen on our hands. That just means we've got a hen who thinks she wants to hatch some eggs out herself. While I'm willing to try to accomodate her, I thought it would be a good idea to write a post about nesting etiquette in general.

Chickens look for a few key things when looking for a spot to lay that all-important egg in. They tend to look for privacy, protection, darkness, and comfort. If you provide these things, your chickens can happily lay their eggs there. 

First, I want to discuss the nests themselves. You really can use just about anything for a nest. You can build some or use household items. Some good examples of useable household items include:

*   Litterbox-covered ones work especially well
*   Small pet carrier
*   5 gallon bucket
*   Crates
*   Dog house

Our nests are handmade and items from the house. I have a set of 3 stacked crates turned on its side and then Mitch's handmade nests on top of those. You can elevate the nests or have them on the ground. We covered our nests after the pictures were taken to prevent roosting in the boxes. Many people put curtains on the boxes for added beauty and privacy.

The next thing I want to discuss is bedding in the nests. You can use whatever you use in the rest of the coop, which is what I do, or you can use something else. Some suitable bedding options are straw, pine needles, or wood shavings (not cedar). This will add protection for the delicate eggs and comfort for the hens. Other items can be added to the bedding for additional benefit. One example of this is herbs like mint. You can read more about this at The Fresh Eggs Daily Blog.

I like to add golf balls or fake eggs to my nests. Chickens will feel more confident laying eggs in a nest where there are already some eggs. This means that that is a safe spot. This will help prevent chickens from laying eggs in oddball places. It is really helpful for new laying hens.

These are the main things to keep a hen happy when laying eggs. Wish me luck with my broody!

Thanks for reading!

Found A Baby Bird

Hi all! I was outside the other day feeding the goats, and wouldn't you know, I spotted a little baby bird in a pile of hay on the ground. We had found one just the day before, a few feet further out. That poor little thing didn't survive.

I thought for sure that this little bird would be dead too. Much to my surprise it was alive! The nest, that I'm sure it fell out of, is pretty high up. I put the little bird in a plastic tote without a lid, some straw for bedding, and an ice tray half full of water and half full of chicken feed. I put him on top of our tallest pile of straw near the nest.

It has been about 3 days now and the little thing is still alive. I'm pretty surprised. I don't know if its mama is caring for it in the mornings or evenings, but it is alive and thriving. The little guy is trying to learn to fly.

Does anyone know what kind of bird he is? Here is a picture of what I suspect to be its mama:

I'll just keep caring for him and hoping for the best!

Thanks for reading!

Staying Cool on the Farm

Hi all! We are expected to get some 80-90 degree weather this week! Whew! During hot 

days, most people tend to gravitate toward A/C chilled rooms and staying cool by the pool. 

So, what do we do to cool down our animals? Animals exposed to high temperatures are exposed to fatigue, loss of appetite, dehydration, loss of weight, decrease in productivity, illness, and even death. Keeping your animals cool and hydrated is the key to safely bringing them through those high temperatures. What follows is how we do things here on Edgington Farm.

For all of our animals we monitor how much they eat and drink. I water our animals 2-3 times a day on very hot and nasty days. One of the things we made sure of when building our coops and enclosures was to have both sun and shade. If your animals seem to be particularly fatigued, they may benefit from a dose of electrolytes in their water. Make sure your shelters are well ventilated and have circulation. We use a window and small fan in our chicken coop.  

Egg laying production can be completely halted on very hot days, especially if the hens are dehydrated or thirsty. I use 2 waterers in the coop on very hot days and I put extra water out in the yard if they are free ranging. Cold melons can be a very refreshing and hydrating treat for the chickens. Other special treats can be made like this ice wreath from the Fresh Eggs Daily blog. I've made it before in cake pans with equal success.

Pigs are notorious for being mucky and stinky. And that they are. But, slopping in mud serves a very special purpose. A pig's skin is tender. Lighter colored pigs are as susceptible to sunburn as people are! It is important for a pig to have access to mud and water so that it can coat itself in a protective layer. Our pot belly Bacon has already wallowed out is own favorite spots. I like to fill them up with water so he can take a refrshing dunk. They say mud baths are good for our skin too...

I like to provide our duck with a cool and shallow pool for him to swim in. I will be going to a larger pool soon so he can dive. The shallow one is fine though while he is still maturing.

Besides needing plenty of water and shade, our goats don't really need much special care. We water our plants in the mornings or evenings during dry spells to prevent them drying out and withering.

I also taught our two legged animal how to drink from the hose. I can promise that NOTHING tastes like water from the hose. It is wonderful!

Thanks for reading! Stay cool and hydrated on those hot days!

Gary The Snail-Keeping A Garden Snail for a Pet

Hi all! The weather here is fickle. Beautiful one day and raining the next.  We had about 2 weeks of rain, and then we were teased with a few nice and sunny days.  Despite my displeasure over the weather, it has been treating our garden pretty well. Our garden beds are thriving!

One of the things you may be dealing with is garden pests. Among the many annoyances one encounters in a garden is a snail. If a snail population is not kept down, they can wipe out leafy green plants like lettuce. Some people suggest squishing a snail if you find one in your garden. We got a little creative instead.

Snails are actually kind of cute if you don't mind the slime. A garden snail can be a fun little pet to teach your kids about. We keep our own little snail for our son Toby to watch. A typical garden snail can be kept comfortably in a large jar or small aquarium. Sprinkle a layer of soil on the bottom for the snail to dig in and lay eggs. Collect a few small twigs, rocks, etc. to create hiding places for the shy snails. Remember to keep the soil damp and moist. Dry conditions will dry a snail out very quickly. I use a squirt gun, sippy cup, or turkey baster to moisten ours a few days a week.

Snails enjoy leafy greens to eat. You can use lettuce, salad mixes, or other edible plants. You can also feed them veggie peels. I change our snail's food every other day to prevent it from rotting. Snails need calcium to keep their shells strong. You can use a cuttlebone for birds or use eggshells. I just use eggshells since I already crush them for our chickens. The snails won't need much. You can find my tutorial here. Be sure to wipe the interior of the jar occasionally to get rid of unsightly droppings.

There is no need to worry about male or female snails as snails are hermaphrodites. They can lay fertile eggs without mates. I hope to see some tiny snails in ours soon.

Thanks for reading.

Edgington Farm Is Now On Facebook

Hi all! I just wanted to let you all know that Edgington Farm is now on Facebook. You can like our facebook page for even more updates and photos!!

http://www.facebook.com/edgingtonfarm

Don't miss a single post by subscribing to emails by following us here and selecting "LIKE" on our Facebook page!

Thanks for reading!

Crush Eggshells for Your Chickens

Hi all! Some may be surprised at the idea of feeding crushed eggshells back to the chickens. But, this is neither a new nor a novel idea. Eggshells are full of calcium to keep them hard and protected. If a chicken does not acquire enough in its daily diet it will result in thin shelled eggs.

Thin shelled eggs are fixed by feeding crushed oyster shell or crushed eggshells to the hens. Below is a quick tutorial on serving up a bowl of crushed eggs to the backyard flock.

Crushed Eggshells
1. You will need eggshells, I like to collect at least 6 before I even bother. Store bought eggs are not generally advised, along with any other eggs from other chicken flocks. This is just an extra security measure to prevent the spread of diseases. Save those shells for your compost pile.

2. Bake at 350 for about 10 minutes (the microwave can alternatively be used for about 1-2 minutes) or until all remaining egg whites are dried out. Allow to cool completely.

3. Crush eggs with a mortar and pestle, food processor, blender, or (if you prefer simplicity like myself) use a heavy drinking glass. They do not have to be crushed to dust. You just want them to be in manageable pieces and to not look like eggs anymore. This will prevent the girls learning those eggs actually taste pretty good.

4. Serve to hens as you would oyster shell.

Chicken Processing Part 2-2013

Hi all! We were a little past due on processing our meat birds. In effect, we spent more on feed and got a slightly lower quality meat. :( We have promised ourselves not to let this happen next time. The meat is still good, but it is a bit tougher.

We processed 5 red ranger meat roosters and 2 red sex link packing peanut roosters. Our meat roosters averaged out at about 7 lbs each (YOWZA!) and our packing peanuts were about 4 lbs each. We still have a couple packing peanuts to process this year. I was stunned though!

They sure tasted good in these chicken tacos!

We barbacued 3 of them a day or 2 later. They sure were good, but I think I still could use more practice cutting up a whole chicken!

Thanks for reading!

New Bantam Breeding Pair

Hi all. We have purchased a breeding pair of Mille Fleur D'uccle bantam chickens. We already had a female bantam of this breed. The pair is a little less than a year old. I am really excited because the female was laying eggs when I picked them up. The previous owner even had some baby chicks there from the pair that he had just hatched out a week or 2 ago! They were so cute!

The hen may begin laying eggs immediately, or, due to stress, she may wait until she feels safe and adjusted to her environment. I can't wait to see how she lays, and I hope they adjust well to my flock.

I decided to name the rooster Chocolate Chip and the hen Cookie. Hehe. Come back soon to learn about how we will be integrating the newbies to the flock.

Thanks for reading!

Jumbleberry Crumble

Hi all! Summer is coming right along, and so are the yummy berries! We have managed to get a little blackberries off our fence line, and finally decided to cook up something sweet! What follows is a recipe I tweaked from a Taste of Home cookbook. Enjoy!

Jumbleberry Crumble
6 c. mixed berries (fresh or frozen)
2/3 c. granulated sugar
1 c. flour
1 c. packed brown sugar
1 c. quick cook oats
2/3 c. melted butter

1. Rinse and pat dry berries. Combine the berries in a greased baking dish and sprinkle with granulated sugar. Toss gently and allow to stand for 15 minutes.

2. Combine flour, brown sugar, and oats. Stir in melted butter until the mixture is crumbly and damp throughout.

3. Sprinkle the berries with the crumble mixture and bake at 350º for 45 minutes. Allow to cool for 10-15 minutes.

We did not take a final photo (because it was gobbled up so fast!) but I can assure you this a a yummy and very simple recipe. We used strawberries, blueberries, and blackberries.

Thanks for reading!

Thin Shelled Eggs

Hi all! Right after my last post about how many eggs we got in a week, we had another new layer drop a very odd egg into the nest box. I just want to take the opportunity to discuss the details about the egg. I'm not sure who the mystery hen was yet.

First, I just want to quickly touch on the color of the egg. Eggs have a protective layer on them called a bloom. It is there to protect the contents from bacteria. Though the bloom is a protective covering, it is a bit delicate. Washing fresh eggs removes this protective layer and allows bacteria to penetrate through small pores in the shell. If fresh eggs are stored unwashed until ready for use they will store longer under normal conditions. Before the egg exits the chicken's vent, it is "sprayed" with the bloom. Some chicken breeds have a colored bloom that can come off in your hands if the egg is very freshly layed! Sometimes, especially with newer layers, the bloom will be "sprayed" in a spotty fashion. Hence the speckled or blotchy appearance.

Secondly, and more importantly, the new egg layer is low on calcium. Her shell was so thin it cracked when she layed it and when my fingernail gently tapped it. While this is a bit of a pain, it's nothing to be alarmed about since it's easily rectified. Thin egg shells are caused by a calcium deficiency. Since egg shells are so high in calcium, a hen must receive this in her diet. While many layer feeds are enriched with calcium, sometimes you just have to provide a little extra calcium free choice. This can be crushed egg shells or crushed oyster shell. The hens will eat what they need.

I'm going to start giving the girls oyster shell tonight. In the mean time, come back soon for a tutorial on serving up crushed eggs to laying hens.

Thanks for reading!

Update: I have completed the tutorial for crushed eggshells! You can find it here.

My First Week of Eggs

Hi all. I just wanted to share my first week of eggs. We have been getting eggs from our hybrid meat hen for 7 days now, and I'm pretty excited about the outcome. First I just want to say that I am surprised that our hybrid meat hens are the first ones laying. I thought for sure it would've been one of our other breeds of chicken. At any rate, we are pleased!

Our first week started the evening of June 17 when we got our first egg, and ends today June 24. I can't wait to get more eggs from all the girls! In our first week we have been graced by a half-dozen eggs! Woohoo!

Thanks for reading!