In the Chicken Coop

I know that egg production will go down when the summer heat sets in. Right now I'm collecting an average of four eggs daily, three brown and one green. I have three brown egg layers and two hens that lay green eggs. The "Easter eggers" are the oldest hens in the coop, and they don't lay every day. I don't know if one is laying almost every day, or if they are both laying occasionally, but I've gathered two green eggs in the same day only once or twice this year. Judging by the size, shape and color, my guess is that only one of the hens is laying most of the time.

Samson the rooster, and Flower

Last week I found a tiny green egg among the brown ones. These are often called "wind eggs". The first egg that young pullets lay are often small like this, but this was from one of my oldest hens. I found some info about these little eggs on the Granny Miller blog.

One hen is laying large brown eggs that are darker than the others, a rich golden brown. The eggs are so big that they don't fit well into the cardboard egg cartons I use. I thought these might belong to the one-and-only cuckoo marans, which are supposed to lay very dark brown eggs, almost chocolate colored, but I know that she is laying the rosy-brown eggs. How do I know that? I practically caught one as it was dropped in the nest the other day.

Another is laying brown eggs with speckles on them.

My Easter egger hens (I call them "my green hens") are almost eight years old. I've wondered how long chickens live, something that isn't easy to find out since most hens are butchered when their production slows down. Other than a few references that say hens can "live for years", I finally found a post on the My Pet Chicken site that states "it's common for a hen in a backyard setting to live 8-10 years, but we've also heard reports of chickens living as many as 20 years."

Nemo

Flower and Nemo, my green hens, have sure had a long and good life, with hopefully many more years ahead of them. They were hatched when our granddaughter visited us for the first time here, shortly after we moved to Oak Hill, when she was two years old. Nemo is "her" hen. Nemo and Flower will live out their days in chicken comfort in my henhouse.


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A Slice of My Life

Mimosa tree at dawn

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Plains Prickly Pear

"A weed is simply a plant that you don't know what to do with."

Author Unknown

As a child I spent my summers at my grandparents' house. They had one acre in a horsey suburb of Los Angeles, which they lovingly called their "ranchette". I spent my days on the back of my horse, but there were plenty of other things to do as well. 

I read a lot of books on hot summer afternoons. My younger brother and I went lizard hunting in the vacant lots that we called "the desert". We'd walk down the street to the corner store to buy candy. Once we took a pony in the house while our grandparents weren't home. Yes, we did. I know now how lucky we were that the pony didn't decide to relieve herself indoors on the carpeting. That would have been fun to explain. My grandmother would have rolled her eyes, said tsk, tsk, and cleaned it up, but my grandfather had a temper and we probably would have gotten a well-deserved beating for it.

One afternoon my grandmother took me on a hike through "the desert" in search of prickly pear fruit so she could make jelly. I don't remember much about that afternoon other than the huge piece of cactus with really long spines that got stuck in my foot, because I was wisely wearing flip-flops to hike through "the desert". 

Anyway, we have plains prickly pear cactus (Opuntia Polyacantha) here on Oak Hill. We used to have more, but over the years it has disappeared little by little. Do goats eat cactus? Maybe they just stepped on that clump next to the fenceline so many times that they killed it. The only clump I know of now is the one growing next to the Dragon Rock.

I rarely see cactus bloom, but this year, surely due to all the rain, it is blooming profusely along the roadsides.  There will be an abundance of prickly pear fruits this summer, and I might have to make some prickly pear jelly.

A "hand" of cactus

I found references that "old-timers" used this cactus in many ways, including eating the "cactus raspberries", eating the leaf pads, and using the sudsy juice of the cactus as shampoo. The juice is also used to cool sunburns and soothe insect bites.

Remember, before using this or any herb, please research it fully.  You are responsible for your own health. 



Shared at: Homestead Barn Hop Backyard Farming Connection
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Silver Sunday

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;
 in all your ways submit to Him, and He will make your paths straight. 

Proverbs 3:5-6 (NIV)

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Friday Follow-Up

This week:

-- We won't have any plums or nectarines this year; those late freezes that hit while the trees were blooming nipped the fruit in the bud, so to speak. Only one apple tree and one peach tree have fruit. Since we had constant rain during the week the blackberries were blooming, I'm not counting on many of those either. Blackberries set fruit best in hot, dry weather.

-- I stopped on my way up the hill from the horse barn one morning to watch a ruby-throated hummingbird sip from the arrowhead clover blossoms. I haven't seen one in years.

-- I'm working little by little on clipping Juliet's coat. She looks like the StayPuffed Marshmallow man and she'll be too hot very soon. I started with scissors, doing as much as she'll let me do each day.

This photo is from autumn last year. Try to imagine her with TWICE as much hair!

-- Folks are baling hay, and thankfully the yield is plentiful. It dried out just in time and for just long enough. Yesterday we took our trailer over to our friend's house to be loaded up with square bales; she'll call me when it's loaded and ready to bring home. Our rain chances start again next week; it would be wonderful to have enough rain for a late cutting this year. Driving past full ponds and fields full of round bales of hay is a wonderful thing, for which I am very thankful!

-- One evening we found this outside:

We sometimes see one tarantula a year - but we've seen more snakes, scorpions, and other wildlife this year - so I'm curious to see if we'll see more of these as well. When full-grown, these Oklahoma Brown spiders can be more than three inches long, the size of this one. Female tarantulas can live up to 35 years; males live 7-12 years. They eat lots of bugs, which makes them ok in my book!

-- Also in the yard this week: an armadillo, a garter snake, tiny toads, and the smell of a skunk.

-- From Granny Miller, a blog of agrarian life and skills, some worthwhile info about the hardest part of homesteading: Small Animal & Livestock Euthanasia on the Homestead – What You Need To Know


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Thankful Thursday

I am thankful to the Lord, my God, for:

- butterflies flitting back and forth across the yard and the pasture: yellow ones, white ones, orange and black ones, swallowtails, monarchs, and a tiny little orange one that landed on my finger
- the loud buzz of a myriad of bees as I walk past the clover patch on the way to the horse barn
- daylilies in bloom on the road to town
- neighbors baling hay during this dry week: making hay while the sun shines
- being surprised by a hummingbird, and watching it as it sipped from the clover blossoms, then flew off

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How to Make Molasses Horse Treats

Back when our youngest daughter was a 4-H member, she and a good friend wanted to participate in the cooking demonstration at our 4-H speech contests.

They both loved horses, and came up with the idea to make horse treats as their "dish". They demonstrated how to make these at both our county and district speech contests, as well as for our horse club.

I'm sorry, I just couldn't resist that photo! Make these and you'll have happy horses and goats.

This is an easy recipe and would be fun to make with children. Our goats like to eat them as much as the horses do, and even our steer Chuck liked them. They are all-natural and contain no preservatives.

Horse Treats

1 cup flour

1 cup rolled oats

1/2 cup shredded carrot (about 1 medium carrot)

1/3 cup molasses

NOTE: my carrots were small so I used two. It just so happened they were Bunny Luv carrots, quite appropriate, I thought.

Preheat oven to 375º. Spray cookie sheet with non-stick cooking spray.

In a large bowl mix the ingredients together thoroughly. The mixture shouldn’t be too wet and should stick together. If necessary, add more flour.

Drop teaspoon-sized balls on cookie sheet about an inch apart. Bake about 10 minutes, until hardened. Their appearance doesn't change when done (below), but they are hard when touched.

Store in an airtight container. Makes approximately 18-24 treats.

Shared at:
Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways
Home Acre Hop
From the  Farm Blog Hop
Homestead Barn Hop
Backyard Farming Connection

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