Today, we had our first significant frost. There may have been a little in the last few days, but today’s frost was undeniable. Chokecherries get noticeably sweeter as the days get cooler. The trees convert starch into sugar to use in cellular respiration. So, it is best to harvest the chokecherries after the first frost. […]
Harvesting Chokecherries Read More »
Normally, we don’t retire all our hens at once. Typically, we keep a hen for two years and replace about half of the flock with new birds each year. The advantage of that practice is that there are always young birds laying eggs in greater numbers while the older birds lay fewer eggs of better
Today, we harvested the last chickens for the year. It was a pleasure to cross that off my to-do list. This group consisted of retiring hens and one accidental rooster from the pullet pen. The hens were all close to done with laying eggs. One gave us an unlaid egg when we cleaned her carcass.
Chicken Harvest Completed Read More »
The hatching eggs were supposed to arrive between September 11 and 13. Hatching eggs, like live chicks, are held at the local post office for pickup. This shipment was greatly delayed. It sat in the Ohio post office for 6 days before being sent along. The rest of the trip was made at a normal
Unfortunately, the experiment was only a partial success. The addition of the humidifier seems to have been a positive. There is every indication that the humidity stayed within the appropriate range the whole time the eggs were in the incubator. On the negative side, none of the eggs hatched. I always do an autopsy
The Incubator Experiment Results Read More »
We use wood shavings from a local sawmill to cover the floor in the chicken coop. Our trailer has a 4’x8’ bed with 3.5’ walls and rear gate. The sawmill sells the shavings by volume. So, to make things easy, I marked the walls with stripes at 1’ and 2’ heights. Now, when I fill