Waste Not, Want Not: Part 3

I've said it before and I'll say it again: I LOVE using every part of the produce, ingredients and other items I work with. I've written on it before with cherries, vanilla beans and re-purposing old objects. This time I just have to share with you how this can be done with corn. Yes, corn can be used beyond cutting or eating it off the cob!  How? You ask... Well, let me tell you!

Over the weekend, we picked up 5 dozen ears of corn from the farm stand, which amounts to 65 ears. My math is correct... they offer a farmer's dozen of 13 ears! Our first goal was to can the corn for winter use. This meant husking and cleaning the silk from all 65 ears, then cutting the corn off each and every ear. There was just one ear that wasn't fulling developed (partial pollination likely to blame), so it went straight to a chicken that's been ill and in isolation for a few days. Not bad for a big batch of corn, 1 in 65 right? The rest were beautiful and full of sweet and tasty kernels.

A trip to Ohio leads to healthy meals

April 30, the chicks I ordered were hatching, so Mom and I made a day trip out of picking them up. The hatchery we ordered from was located in Polk, Ohio. I ordered 25 Cornish x Rocks for meat, 12 laying pullet chicks and Mom chose 8 layers to begin her backyard flock. Our route would take us near Milan, Ohio, so we made it a point to stop there along the way to get a few pictures and drop off my first travel bug in a geocache.

The town was adorable, quaint and even smaller than our Milan, Michigan. We wandered around, looking for a "hitchhiker" for the travel bug. I assumed that since Milan, Ohio is Thomas Edison's birthplace, there would be keychains or something with the name of the town on it available. 

Which Nightshade should I eat?

As is evidenced by my ramblings in Family Resemblance, I am a bit of nerd when it comes the garden, plants and preserving things.  When I see something I don't know about, I photograph it and/or research it until my heart is content with gobs of information swimming in my brain.

Poison Berry Blossoms

Plants of the "nightshade" family range from edible to extremely poisonous. They include plants such as potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, tomatillos, eggplant, tobacco, petunias, datura and many more.  The botanical family name is Solanaceae, with the most common garden varieties falling into two genus's: Solanum and Physalis.  I was inspired to learn more about these plants as I noticed the similarities in blossoms during yet another walk through my garden and surrounding property.  I have a plant growing in the compost (needing to be pulled) and near the creek that my grandmother always referred to as "Deadly Nightshade."  In looking into the science side of this interesting family of plants, I discovered that this is not the accepted (although commonly used) name of the particular plant that grows in  my yard.  In fact, it is actually called poisonberry, bittersweet (much to my surprise), felonwood, and a host of other common names.  Its scientific name is Solanum dulcamara.

Life rarely goes as planned

As always, life has a way of not moving along as we anticipate it will.  Raising chicks this Spring has been a lesson in exactly that.  A few weeks ago, I brought home six chicks to add to the flock.  My hens are aging and I am worried for egg production.  I decided to add six pullets to the mix so that by next Spring, I will have lots of birds ready to lay eggs for me regularly. (They will begin laying late summer and into autumn, but will slow for the winter and not really come into full lay for me until the weather warms next year.)

We went to our local farm supply store and purchased 6 Isa Brown Pullets.  They were labelled as pullets and I consequently paid more for them.  Isa Browns are super reliable layers, generally putting out an egg a day when they are in lay.  In fact, they are the bird commercial egg producers use for the brown eggs you see in the grocery store.  They were not my first choice in breeds though, but as the store informed me that this was the last shipment they were to receive this season, I decided to go ahead and get them since I would likely not have a chance at any other breeds.  Given that they were already sexed (I knew they were all female, as opposed to buying chicks from a "straight run" that could be male or female), I felt it was a good idea to pick up six.  We raised them for a few weeks and started to notice significant differences in their coloring.  Isa Browns can range a bit in color so I didn't think much of it.  I simply enjoyed having my babies to look after and watching them grow was fun! Looking at this picture (above) from the day I brought them home, I see the color variations, but I attributed it then to the variation found in Isas.

I popped into another location of the very same farm supply store to pick up feed for my adult hens last week and, lo and behold, they had pullets from the breed I was looking for.  I asked the man for three of those and headed home with them.  The public is not allowed to select the birds or handle them anymore, as we used to be able to do, since folks haven't been smart enough to wash their hands after handling the chicks and some have gotten sick as a result.  It isn't super common, but chicks can pass salmonella along, so it is a good idea to AT LEAST use hand sanitizer after handling the babies.

Consequently, I was not really able to choose my chicks as I would have liked to.  In the past, I was allowed to pick up the birds, to evaluate them by feel and appearance for health and vigor before taking them home.  This is no longer the case, as there is a new policy in place from their corporate office, so I hoped for the best.  I purchased three of what were labelled as Black Sex Link Pullets.  As you can see, one is not like the others.

When I brought the new babies home, I took a look into the brooder with the first batch of chicks and noticed something startling.  A Cockerel!  That's right, a young rooster staring back at me.  I have apparently been in such a rush, primarily checking food and water and overall health when I look in on the babies, I hadn't noticed one of my "pullets" developing a comb and waddle.  This is a problem, as I am not allowed to have a rooster where I live.  Secondly, I paid more to get sexed females.

As I have been watching them feather out, I have also noticed that I was not sold 6 Isa Browns.  Rather, it appears that I have 3 Isa Brown Pullets, 2 Buff Orpington Pullets and 1 Buff Orpington Cockerel. Looking at my new babies, it appears I have 2 Black Sexlinks and perhaps either 1 Araucana or 1 Black Star.  Black Stars are, I believe, a sex linked breed, so that isn't too far off.  Sex linked breeds are those that gender can be determined at hatching based on the color of the chick.  Cockerels are one color, pullets another.  It makes sexing very simple.  SO!  The chick plan is not happening as originally intended.  To be truthful, it seems to be working out for the best though.  I was a little stressed about adding 6 birds to the flock that looked the same as many of my other hens.  This way, I am adding 3 Isas, 2 Buffs and 3 dark birds.  This will make for a much more diverse flock and that makes me very happy.  I just love the look of a really mixed and colorful flock scratching around.  (It also really helps in telling them apart) :-)

That brings me back to Houston (as in "Houston, we have a problem).  Mom dubbed him with this moniker and I agree with it.  I can  not keep a rooster.  The township is very fussy about me keeping birds in the first place.  There is a minimum requirement of five acres of land to have any animals considered to be livestock.  Shockingly, this even includes rabbits.  Since I do not have five acres, I have an exception to have my flock. Given that the township supervisor lives directly across the street from me, I choose not to rock the boat with a rooster.  He could complain and revoke my right to have the girls.  That would be cause for me to move, likely.  I would not stand for that.  So, what to do with Houston?  When I ended up with Sterling, my rooster from last year, I knew someone who could and would take him.  Houston, however, is not so lucky.  Do we grow him out and have him in a stew when he gets to be of age? No.  Of course not.  Mom has been kicking around the idea of having a small flock of chickens or guineas for some time now.  This has given her the motivation to get looking for a suitable coop.  She will likely then acquire a couple pullets for him to grow up with and keep as his own.  She grew up on a farm and has, for some time, had a longing to keep a few birds of her own.

As I said, no part of this has gone as planned, but it really seems to be working out for the best.  I will continue to watch my babies speed along through their development and enjoy having them small and cuddly while it lasts.  Then they will move to their new coop area and learn the adult ways of chickenhood from the rest of the flock.  Before I know it, they will be repaying me with nutritious and delicious eggs!

I am so behind! (Or am I?)

I have been feeling like the garden is never going to get planted lately.  I get this sense of urgency every year, each time feeling as though I will fail to get crops in the ground in time to make anything of them.  It isn't just a feeling this year though, the weather truly has been slow to warm.

Mother Nature has been cruel this spring, presenting us with a warm day followed by a reminder that spring has not yet taken hold.  Either a cold spell, lots of rain, or snowfall reminds us we are not in control.   This is clearly evidenced by the trees and bushes.  My blueberries are JUST beginning to leaf out and the trees have yet to start.  As I walked around the yard yesterday, I noticed that the lilacs are budded with leaves, but nothing more.  Mother's Day is in two short weeks.  In most years, the lilacs are in full bloom and nearly spent by the time Mother's Day rolls around.  They appear easily two weeks or more behind schedule.

We have yet to be able to till anything due to the extremely wet soil from all the rain we have received.  We were contemplating expanding the raspberries (which was in the plan last year but never came to fruition), and the garden has not been worked even once.  There are plants that must be moved before they get too far into the growing season (strawberries, blackberries, horseradish, and rhubarb), and we have not been able to dig around them.  Walking through the garden to assess the situation yielded only disappointment and mud caked shoes.  It has rained nearly every day for what seems like weeks.  The cool weather and all this moisture have made for poor gardening conditions.

We have, however, made progress in a couple areas.  First, Shane was able to mow the yard Saturday (4/23)  for the first time.  We had one sunny, warm day and we took advantage of it!  It took some prep work though, as one tire on the mower was flat, it was nearly out of gas and mice nested in the seat over the winter, so some clean up was necessary.
There was a terrible mess of seat cushion shredded below the seat.  Thankfully, they went in through the bottom, so you can't really tell from looking at it normally.

Second, I began my straw bale garden experiment. I have read about gardening in straw bales, and decided to try it since we have several lying around already soaked and beginning to break down that were used to shelter a bit of the chicken yard for the flock over the winter.

They have been set upright (cut straw ends up) and I added some potting soil to the top.  I won't use new soil for this experiment (as I am trying to be as resourceful and frugal as possible) so I used old soil from pots that I dumped and refreshed in years past.  I typically save this soil and mix fresh soil with it to fill new containers each year.


I watered the soil in to allow it to settle a little, then planted some pole sugar snap peas, some shelling sweet peas and spinach in the bales.  They are situated next to the chicken yard, so the plants can climb the fence as their trellis/support and will be out of reach of the snacking hens.  Additionally, the bales are serving to cover a couple areas where the fence (purchased used) is bent up and/or pulling away from the frame (creating small openings along the ground).  Multi-purposing is always great!

We have done a fair amount of clean up as well.  This weekend, we worked to get some junk that was sitting around organized and rearranged so that it isn't so ugly out next to the garage and near the shed.  Two weeks ago, we took advantage of another odd warm day and cleaned up flower beds, fallen limbs and even moved a few plants so we can eliminate former beds and reclaim lawn.

The third item of business we took care of this weekend was adding to the laying flock.  I have been debating about doing so, as I do not want to draw the wrath of my township (there are extreme restrictions on the number of animals we may have AND I live across the street from the township supervisor). However, my flock is aging fast, and having lost another hen this week, we were down to 14 hens.  Adding to that, we are only getting 4-6 eggs a day.  When I discovered I had reached the last week I could pick up chicks at the farm supply store, I pulled the trigger on the idea and brought home 6 Isa Brown pullets.  They are a few days old and just adorable.  It will be months before they begin to lay, and I expect to lose more hens when the weather gets hot.  Some of my oldest hens are more than 4 years old.  Replacing them with laying birds is important to me in order to continue the supply of healthy, fresh eggs we have become accustomed to.  I believed that I was much later in picking up chicks that last year, until I looked back at old blog posts and discovered that I purchased them on precisely the same date, 4/23.  I guess I am right on schedule with them after all!

Even though the weather is making it nearly impossible to imagine getting the garden in on time, as we assess how much we have accomplished thus far this season (especially considering how few work days we have had) we are actually in pretty good shape.  Most of our clean up is finished, the chicken yard has tripled in size, the garden just needs tilled to be planted and the animals are ready for the season.  Now, if Mother Nature would catch up with her end of the work, we would be ready to kick off another awesome season playing in the dirt!

The cycle of life

As I let the hens out of the coop for the day, I noticed one of my girls, Goldie Hahn (Hahn is German for rooster), was lying under the nest boxes in the straw on her side.  She has been my sweetest, most friendly bird and one of my prettiest (an Aracauna that once laid green eggs).  Her legs outstretched, she wasn't willing to stand.  I quickly readied an isolation cage and scooped her up.  I know her end is near.  She isn't opening her eyes all the way and her breathing is irregular.  I carried her to the garage and opened the door so she could lie in the warm sun of this spring day in peace and pass without hassle from the rest of the flock.  She made a mess of my clothes as I carried her and I can tell she is in some sort of pain.  It is heart wrenching.

Goldie had trouble last fall.  She was egg bound (had one stuck) and was very lethargic.  I brought her into the house to hold her while I waited for my mom to bring me a cage to isolate her in.  The dog, Bitsy, laid beside me while I held her, as did Maggie, one of my two cats. Neither bothered her, as if they knew she wasn't well.  Animals can be so intuitive.  After some snuggle time being kept warm in the house, she let her egg go and rejoined the flock after a day or two of isolation and rest.

I know that as my flock ages, I will lose them one by one.  Somehow, it never gets easier.  I lost Donna earlier this winter.  She was a nice hen as well, although rough looking.  She came from a farm that had a rooster and had been picked mostly bald by him, as she was one of his favorite ladies.  She was in lay so long that she never really put any energy into refeathering.  Last summer, she molted, but not entirely.  She got some new feathers, although as they came in, they curled.  It was like her new feathers had a perm in them.  She never did completely feather out and the feathers she got did not lay right against her body. I worried for her over the winter as I knew they would not insulate her properly.  She had survived previous winters with less feathers however.  One morning when I went to let the girls out to play and scratch, she was gone, also lying near the nest boxes in the bedding.

I understand that this is the way things happen.  Old birds die and eventually must be replaced with young birds to keep the flock laying.  I enjoy raising the chicks (I had my first 6 last spring) and admit that it would be nice to have more this year.  I can not yet justify adding to the flock as I already have too many birds for the space they have in the coop.

Today, as I am losing a sweet hen, I am also looking forward to the new families of wild birds that will be raised in the yard this summer.  I cleaned out old nests and put out suet cages filled with nesting materials for the birds as they scout locations for their nests and begin gathering the materials they will need to construct them.

The robins are a perennial favorite of mine.  Our state bird, they are a joy to watch as they rear their young.  They gather worms diligently in the yard and protect their nests fiercely.  I usually have a nest on the electric meter box each year and one over at least one outdoor light fixture.  I used to try to fight the nests and prevent them.  I have learned that the robins are more determined than I am and I now embrace their presence.  I clean their nests out about every other year to promote cleaner nests (free from parasites) and because I thoroughly enjoy watching them build them.  I have a barn wood bird feeder that has an overhang and I am really hoping if I hang it on the barn that houses the hens, the robins will use it as a nesting platform instead.

And so goes the cycle of life.  As older birds take their leave of this world, younger ones are preparing to expand their families.  Spring is full of reminders of the renewal of our planet.  Some plants made it through the winter and will soon be bursting forth with life and new growth, others will need replanting.  Some animals made it though the winter, others did not, and still others are preparing to bring more life into the world.

UPDATE:  Goldie pulled through yet again!  I really didn't think she would this time.... If I hadn't found her when I did, I am certain she would have passed in the coop.  She was again egg bound and with some forced water and then food, she relaxed, laid her egg and recovered.  I let her rest in isolation for a few days to allow her to recouperate and to make sure I was confident that she was indeed on her way to wellness.  My little miracle bird, again!