Animal Update

Can you spot the chicken amidst the dandelions? 

Since we've contained our goats to let the pasture grow, the dandelions have really taken off. The goats have adapted to their smaller area. 

The feeder continues to work well. Even the young birds have figured out the feeder! And I'm it has continued to need filling every other day. 

I converted the tire with the water bowl into another dust bath, this time with soil and coconut husk. I'm curious if they'll like that more than the sand. 

Jaron and I started hauling spent hay from the goat pen to the garden to make pathways/cover weeds. He loved watching the goats. 

He spotted a bunch of goat poop on the ground (their poop is a bunch of tiny pebbles) and picked one up, holding it out to me. "Ball!" he announced decisively. Why yes, Jaron, you're right, that is the shape of a ball! 😂😂😂

Garden Volunteers

Time to get the garden in hand. When the weeds are out of control, I recommend using a weed whacker. 😜 

Much better. 

Because of the weeds, I haven't planted anything yet. I really want to get them under control via cardboard and mulch before I plant. However, my garden is full of volunteer plants (plants I didn't plant but are growing anyway). 

My oregano is flourishing. I did plant that last year, and it overwintered very well. You can see the onion that accidentally overwintered in the background (top right). 

A bunch of teeny cilantro are growing. I haven't planted any this year, so they must be from seeds dropped last year. 

There's some dill popping up too. No calendula as far as I've seen, which is disappointing because I heard they are self seeding and come back easily. 

The mulch path I put down a while ago is growing pumpkin seeds all over the place. There's probably 20 seedlings popped up. I hate to pull out nice plants, but we don't need 20 mystery pumpkins. 😂 

I'll keep a few of the better looking ones. 

I forgot the straw got put on top of the big mound of decomposed pumpkins. The chickens enjoy scratching through the pile, so I should've known that seeds would've been mixed in with the straw. 

Oats or wheat? I think wheat. Must be from the mulch put on in the fall. 

I actually dug them up and transplanted them in the pasture in the hopes it will be another food source for the goats or birds. 

Along the fence line so the goats can't eat all of it...

Container Potato Update and the Bionic Boy

The other day Jaron brought his arm to me and then wore it for three hours. It didn't seem like he wanted it for a specific task, just wanted it on. The day before he held my hand a lot walking around the house and I remember making a couple comments that I needed my hand back for a moment; I needed both hands. I wonder if he felt bad that he only had one. 🤔

Back to homesteading...

I brought my container plants over to our house. Well, technically G did. The plants winter in my in-laws' garage and harden off on their patio. Finally time to get them to our place! They are hanging out in the orchard near the potato containers. 

My experiment in growing carrot and cabbage seeds continues. Looks like I'll be successful with the carrots!

I put a mesh bag over the flowers to catch the seeds. 

My poor aloe plant took a beating with the cold night temps a few weeks ago. I think it'll make it though! 

And now the potatoes. Such luscious leaves! This pot is after mounding. There'll be space for one more mound, I think. 

Baby Rescue

The good news- we had one guinea keet hatch on Sunday afternoon. 

The bad news- I don't think the other two eggs are going to hatch, so it's going to be lonely unless we buy another baby (chicken or guinea) or find a hen to adopt it. 

I counted back the days to see if I could remember when I first noticed the broody chicken (the duck was broody later). There was a possibility she could be hatching her eggs in the next day or two! 

So I went out to the shed to keep underneath her and see if there was any hatching going on. What do you know, I heard tiny peeping as I walked up to the shed. There were three baby chicks on the ground on the chicken side of the shed! Good news! 

But the broody hen didn't seem too interested in them, which made it seem like she was not their mom. I heard nervous clucking from the haymow... 

When I poked my head up there, I saw two broody hens sitting on eggs with more peeping coming from underneath their feathers! I honestly think it's the same hands that hatched chicks earlier this year. 🤦‍♀️ I decided to name them Thelma and Louise because they are always causing us trouble. 😂 

Long story short, I collected the chicks in a bucket, grabbed one hen, and brought them down to the back goat area. The other hen did not like that I was taking her chicks, and she followed us from above in the haymow and then jumped down to be with the chicks. 

Gathering the babies:

Good news- the guinea successfully adopted a hen as its mom, and the hen adopted it as her baby. One problem solved! 

But what to do about the abandoned eggs? 

Another easy solution- the incubator was still running from the guinea eggs and all 22 eggs from the abandoned nest fit inside. Two of those eggs are in the process of hatching, and one last guinea egg is hatching! 

We'll wait till it gets dark and then add the newly hatched babies to the hens. They're more likely to adopt them in the dark. 

By the time I got back out to the shed with feed and water, Thelma and Louise had safely gathered all the babies under their wings. 

Whew!

But wait, this means my chicken count is off. I didn't account for two hens in the haymow. I also spied the missing Leghorn (with the other Leghorn, so I know we have both). That brings our bird total up to 57. Oh wait, I didn't include the chicks in that...

Quest: Banana Muffin #5

This next recipe is a keeper. My recipe/cookbook sharing friend sent it to me, a non typical banana muffin because of the hemp hearts. 

G isn't normally a fan of hemp hearts. He said he used to eat them on salads all the time, but if he eats too many they make his heart race. 

This recipe doesn't call for many, so I think it'll be fine. Honey and bananas are the only sweeteners. 

I had some bananas in the freezer from before our Chicago trip and since I've been on the muffin kick, I thought I better capitalize on my enthusiasm. 

They came together pretty quickly. Dry ingredients together, wet ingredients together, then mix. It's only supposed to make 12 muffins, but I got 24 minis and 6 full sized. I was thinking a mini is half a full size, but maybe it's less than half. 🤔

The muffins look good and taste good! 

Build a Better Chicken Feeder

Our chickens are free-range on pasture, but we still supplement them with feed. G has been feeding them on the ground in little containers, but they waste so much by scratching I wanted a better solution. 

A quick Google search later turned up this PVC pipe feeder. Inexpensive, easy to find supplies, quick to make and tested/adjusted by a guy with a flock of chickens. Sounds good to me! 

 

So Jaron and I bought supplies at Menards. 

They were out of end caps, which go on the tops of the feeders to keep rodents and rain out. I figured I could buy some later, or come up with an alternative solution. 

Step one was to glue a plug in the bottom of a Y piece. This keeps the feed close to the chickens so it doesn't sit down in the bottom of the feeder not getting eaten. (You'll see in a picture below). 

Then using a saw, I cut off a three inch section to go on the end of the Y to extend it and prevent the birds from wasting feed. The other side of the Y gets a long piece to hold the feed.

 Like so: 

I put two feeders in the shed, attached to the wall with twine and staples. That staple gun G got for Christmas is really coming in handy. 😉

I set it on a block to make it a better height for the birds to reach. 

Here's the other inside feeder.

This was my solution to keep rain out of the outside feeder (facing south/as far into the fence as possible). 

I made one double Y feeder and chose to have it outside since that was where G fed them before. 

I wondered how long it would take the birds to figure out how to eat out of these feeders since it's different than they've eaten from before. In anticipation of that, I mixed some flock armor powder (which has a very strong scent) with their regular feed so it would draw them in. 

My genius plan is working! 

It didn't take long for them to figure it out. 

We have been burning through so much chicken feed, it's ridiculous. G was doubtful the birds were wasting that much. We have so many, he thought it was normal for the amount of birds we have. I counted all the chickens and ducks... We have 54 with more to come- two mamas are sitting on nests. So yes, we do have a lot. 

However, I was NOT doubtful that they were wasting feed. Even with so many, we shouldn't be going through bags so fast. 

So, I did an experiment. 

Fill all three feeders to the tops and note the time. Come back out the next day at the same time and see how full the feeders are.  If they were eating as much as G said (and not wasting any the way he fed them), the feeders should be empty (based on how much he fed them each day vs how much fits in the new feeders). 

The next day I checked them at the appointed time. The outside feeder was about half full. One inside feeder was the same level and the other was down maybe four inches. 

So. Now we know. 

One argument he could make is that not all the birds knew about the feeder so they weren't all eating from it. I'll keep checking and see if the rate changes, but I don't think it'll ever catch up to the prefeeder rate. 😜

Quest: Banana Muffins #2, #3, #4

We rarely have bananas far enough gone for banana bread. Both G and I like our bananas a little spotty, so we have a pretty high tolerance for ripeness. My mom on the other hand loves green bananas, so she has plenty of bananas for baking in the freezer. 

I cleaned out her frozen banana stash this weekend. 😅 There were enough to make one whole and two half recipes.

Recipe #2 is from Kristine's Kitchen. 

Recipe #3 is from Cookie + Kate.

Recipe #4 is from iFoodReal.

Here are my notes from the experiment.

I tried not to veer off recipe. 😅 I did pretty good too! The biggest change was in #4 when I accidentally swapped the amounts for baking soda and baking powder. I don't think it made an impact on the taste. 

My parents agreed, recipe #2 was our favorite followed by #3. My brother N actually liked #3 the best. None of us loved #4. I think it was too banana-y. So, for now I'll save the Kristine's Kitchen recipe! 

I still have three banana bread recipes to go... 😜