April 2009 Archives

Rain.  Rain.  Rain.
We have had a very wet spring. So wet, that the mud is about 4 inches deep around the henhouse, coop, keetergarten and barn.

It's too wet to shear the goats, as cutting wet mohair is just icky.

I've put 30 bags of cypress mulch down around the muddy bits of the chicken area.  It helps a lot, and certainly looks nicer.

I have another 10 bags to distribute tonight.  Oh. Fun.

The Farmers' Market starts Saturday morning - I have to be there by 6:00 am with all my goods, and the cash register, etc., because it opens at 7:00 am.

This week, I'll only have eggs.  I hope to have eggless pasta (made with semolina flour and olive oil) by next Wednesday to sell, and next Saturday, I hope to have home-made cinnamon rolls to sell also - only reason I don't have them this Saturday is that I have to purchase the proper containers for the rolls to be in first.  And I have to make labels of the ingredients, etc.

I'm hoping that selling some baked goods might help me make a bit of  money this year.  I will also be able to sell the goats' mohair - raw, cleaned, spun, however I like, but I have to wait until the sunshines enough for their coats to dry out so I can shear them first!!

And it is too wet to plant veggies yet. 

Rain rain, go away!  At least long enough for me to get stuff done!

Chickens are not vegetarians. Chickens are omnivores. They eat bugs and snakes and worms and grass and weeds. I have a small flock of chickens (around 40). When the sun comes up, I let them out of their hen houses and they wander about our farm (they mostly keep to just 2 or 3 acres closest to our house of the 80 available)eating bugs (especially ticks, chiggers, other nasty things)and green stuff.

At night, they all go back into their hen houses and I close the doors to keep them safe from Owls, coyotes, and wildcats.

They lay wonderful eggs, and several times a day, I go outside to collect the eggs. I sell them at the farmer’s market, maybe just a couple of dozen a week, the rest I use to make custard ice creams, creme brulee, breads, egg noodles, etc.

You always want to examine your eggs carefully to be sure there are no cracks in the shells - candling (holding them up to a very bright light) is the best way to do that. If there are no cracks, and you clean the egg, you should not have any problem with salmonella. Most of the food-borne illnesses occur because of poor preparation, not how the critters are raised.

But mostly, chickens are not vegetarians. No birds are vegetarians.