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Got Recipes?

The chickens are coming this weekend and my idea of preparation is to raid the recipe box.  So I am lining up the chicken recipes that I already know are yummy like whole roasted chicken and several more I want to try such as pretzel coated fried chicken and spatchcock chicken.  The roasted chicken recipe is the recipe that turned me on to whole chicken in the first place and it will be handed out on processing day.  If you have any that you would like to pass along I would like to hear from you.  Please send them my way and I will post them on the website (once I figure out how!).

Death is a Bummer

We lost a chicken this morning.  Jonathan was moving the pen at dawn and one of them got caught under the edge as he slowly moved the pen to fresh grass.  My husband felt the accident keenly.  That is one of the many things I love about my husband.

When discussing the processing procedure with someone last week they said, “Jonathan does not seem like the type to enjoy that sort of thing.”  To which I replied, “He doesn’t.  He likes to eat.”

Have we gotten so far removed from our food that we forget that death is involved?  Some people do not want their meat to even remotely resemble an animal.  Maybe that is why the demand for boneless, skinless chicken breasts lead to the type of chicken whose legs will not support it once it reaches the optimum weight for processing.

I confess that meat is not one of my favorite things to prepare and I get a little grossed out by the blood.  However, I like the fact that our grass-fed cow smells clean – not like traditional meat from the store.  I like that we knew that this cow had a good life until his one very bad day.  I am looking forward to chicken whose history is known to me and am so grateful that we live in a land of plenty so there is chicken to share.

Death is my least favorite part of the pasture to table process but I am learning the difficult truth that death is as much a part of life as living.  Thankfully nothing is wasted in God’s economy.

Fresh Air, Sunshine and Free Range

I love fresh air and sunshine.  I guess that is one of the reasons I love to ride in my convertible.  The feel of the breeze on my skin, the wind ruffling my hair and the warmth of the sun are some of the many reasons it is fun to me as well as therapeutic if my attitude needs adjusting.

I think that is also why I really like the pen Jonathan built for the chicks. Three fourths of it is covered so that they can get in out of the rain but one fourth of it is open to the sun.  This morning they played in the sunshine but now during the heat of the day most of them are content to stay in the shade.  The sides are also open to the cross breeze in half of the pen so they can enjoy fresh air or move to the other side if the wind becomes too much for them.

I have heard that sunshine keeps germs at bay and helps animals stay healthy without antibiotics.  It seems like I’ve also heard it stimulates the pituitary gland that helps the chicks grow.  Sounds reasonable to me since the Lord created the sun and makes reference to keeping things in the light.

“But what about allowing them to free range?” some of you may ask.  Free range sounds great in theory but my friend Angie says it best.  “Free range seems to say ‘Come and get me’ to every hawk, owl, fox and weasel around that likes chicken.”  I like chicken, too, so the pen serves as their protection.  Some of the chicks had other ideas this morning while they were escaping from a small hole on the side.  I immediately looked outside to determine the location of our cat, Lucy.  She also likes chicken and birds and mice so I was relieved when Jonathan came home to place them back in safety.

It makes me smile when I look out the kitchen window and know that these chickens have the opportunity to be chickens in safety and peace.  And when the day comes for us to enjoy them in a different state we will know that they enjoyed a good life in the fresh air and sunshine.

the pen

So we’re getting some cornish rock cross chicks at the end of this month… In preparation for that, we’re building a pen in which to keep them. The idea is that the pen moves each day to a new patch of grass for hygiene and food supplementation. My dad has helped me build the pen and a dolly that acts as portable wheels for the pen to make it easier to move. Pictures (and chickens) coming soon!

Broodiness

Well, Buffy (our Buff Orpington) went broody on us a couple of weeks ago. Broody is when the chicken wants to sit eggs to hatch them. We don’t have a rooster, so the eggs are never going to hatch, but she was sitting on them anyway. We started kicking her out of the nest and closing off the nest box and after a couple of days she got over it and started acting normal again. She didn’t lay an egg for a little over two weeks. I had a talk with her about those who don’t work end up in the slow-cooker and she seemed to straighten up and is now back in production 🙂

New Hives

We started three new hives on March 27th of this year! The location has changed due to the possibility of construction traffic and the placement actually lines up with what our landscape architect had drafted on the plan. Since we started with drawn comb from last year, the bees are off to a great start. We did a full inspection yesterday and found brood of all stages in two of the hives, and one hive is just a wee bit behind, but coming on strong. All hives have put up quite a bit of nectar and we added a second box to each hive yesterday. The box that was added to each hive had drawn comb, somewhat ratty, but drawn none the less, so it shouldn’t take the ladies long to get it ship-shape and nectar and brood added. I think we’ll add another box on Thursday since I won’t be in them for over a week after that.

Disaster.

Well, all had been going fine and seemed great the last time I checked on the bees a few weeks ago, just before the really cold snap.  Apparently I did not do a good enough job inspecting and keeping a good feel for what was going on because yesterday when I checked on them there was no buzzing or noise of any kind and no response when I rapped gently on the hive.  Talk about a sickening feeling.  I started taking it apart and discovered that all the bees, save for about 10, were dead.  Looking at how many bees there were it seemed like an awful lot.  I think I could have filled 3 or 4 shipping packages to the brim with dead ones.  They were lots of bees buried in the cells with the little tails sticking out, a classic sign of starvation.  After taking it all apart and inventorying what was left there is still a box and a third full of honey, but it wasn’t close enough to the bees for them to eat it without breaking cluster.  It is VERY disappointing, dishearting and downright depressing, but I’m going to take it as a lesson and hope for a better year this year.

On a positive note, I’ll have 6 boxes with drawn wax to get the new packages started on this year, so hopefully if the weather is a bit more cooperative this year, we should produce a decent amount of honey.  Unfortunately, Matt Taylor is not selling maple syrup or the organic scrap sugar this year, so I’ll have to locate another source.  I think I’ll just purchase standard sugar instead of the organic this time due to cost and the fact that there is no food product being made directly from that sugar.  Here’s to hoping that the packages coming at the end of March are more successful than the last!

Chickens!

We started off the new year with new animals!  I worked a deal with CJ Sentell of Ecotone Farm and purchased four laying hens.  We now have two Barred Rocks (not Domineckers), one Rhode Island Red and one Buff Orpington.  They are providing us with eggs and we’re all learning each other, chickens learning us and us learning the chickens.  I got the coop built at the end of last year and now it is finally occupied.  There will be some modificaitions coming to make things a bit easier, but it all works well for now.  Hopefully we’ll have pictures up soon.

The Owl

Last night we mowed the driveway path with the finish mower and it looks great.  It was about dusk when the tractor was put up we decided to drive the path and on the way to the where our house will be Judith grabbed my arm and was stammering to get out “STOP!”  She was looking at a huge bird on the last fence post driveway marker.  She thought it was an owl, but I thought it looked like a hawk.  We watched it for a couple of minutes and discussed its size, somewhere between 18 and 24 inches tall we decided.  We moved closer in the truck to get a better look and as we eased up, probably still 30 yards away his head swiveled what seemed like 180° and he looked right at us!  We froze!  We could see his dark eye sockets when his head swiveled, and his coloring was brown with just a tinge of red in it.  We watched him for about 2 minutes, but it seemed like forever as he sat there with his head spinning around, then he looked like he tried to grab something off the ground, then lit in a tree on the side of the field.  We watched him for a few more minutes and then left, not wanting to harass him anymore.  After we got home we looked it up in the Peterson’s Field Guide and determined it was a great horned owl.  So we have owls at the farm!  Now just to hang out one night and be able to listen to them!