Category: Homesteading / Farming

I’m The Livestock Guardian Animal

~ Carrie

Ducks Looking At Something In The DistanceWe live in an area that is rife with predators, and have shared stories of losses to owls, foxes, and hawks. We’ve had close calls with loose dogs, too. This is what seems to be the most challenging time of year for protecting our free ranging poultry, so we have to stay on our toes.

Since our property is largely rolling topography, we can only see part of it from indoors (plus an outbuilding partially obscures the view). We keep a couple of sets of binoculars handy to scan the trees for aerial predators, and make a mad dash outside as soon as a hawk is spotted. There have also been strange dogs on our property from time to time; our house dogs alert to the presence of the interlopers and nearly go through the window. Just opening a door has been enough to send the dogs running away. Continue reading “I’m The Livestock Guardian Animal” →

Making Scrambled Egg In A Pocket

~ Carrie

Egg_Break_Pocket

No, this is not a recipe; unfortunately, it’s what happens when you know you shouldn’t put a freshly-laid egg in your pocket (temporarily, because you forgot to bring the egg basket with you) and the egg meets its demise in the confines of your coat pocket.

It all began with six eggs the girls had laid in their nest boxes. I put them carefully in my pocket, even though I’d had an egg incident last year under similar circumstances. I knew I’d just be going right from the coop to the house, where the egg basket waited. I walked carefully back to the house and started transferring the eggs from the pocket to the egg basket. No eggs were fumbled, none hit the floor. Once finished, I hung my coat back up – it’s a heavy insulated duck cloth coat with a pair of leather work gloves in the pocket, so it bounced off the wall when I hung it on the peg. Continue reading “Making Scrambled Egg In A Pocket” →

Cleaning Out The Duck Coops

~ Carrie

Cleaning The Duck CoopYou probably know that ducks are very, very messy.  One reason is that they love water, and will splash it everywhere.  Another is that they have very wet poop, and they do a lot of it.

The Runner/Pekin family (mom and 9 ducklings) have been spending their nights in the larger coop that looks like a bit like a jumbo doghouse. It’s made of an eco-friendly plastic material*, so it can be hosed out when needed…invaluable when you’re housing ducks. With 10 ducks in there all night, it gets messy in there fast. To keep abreast of the rapidly-generated waste, we’ve been using the “deep litter” method, basically adding clean bedding atop the dirty.  At some point, it all comes out and you start over.  It was time to redo it all. Continue reading “Cleaning Out The Duck Coops” →

Goodbye, 2016…Hello, 2017!

~ Carrie

2016 Photo CollageIt’s that time again – this year is coming to its end. We like to look back at the year because you can forget how much you learned and during that period. We also like to recognize our accomplishments, as well as identify needed improvements. We characterize 2016 as our year of learning on the farm.

Chickens

2016 started on a sour note, with about half of our small flock of layers lost to predators. We implemented deterrents and learned about the importance of having a vigilant rooster (or two) to keep watch over the flock. We hatched 4 groups of chicks and learned about integrating new chickens into an existing flock. We processed roosters, treated injuries, and let a (surprise) broody hen hatch some eggs.

Ducks

We started with a small group of Muscovies going into 2016, due to some predator losses. We were thrilled when the ducks began laying, and wanted to expand our flock. Continue reading “Goodbye, 2016…Hello, 2017!” →

Today’s Entertainment: SCOBY Decimation

~ Carrie ~ 2 Comments

Pecked SCOBYIf you’ve read earlier posts, you know that I make (lots of) kombucha tea. With each batch, a new cellulose pellicle is formed, starting as a thin, cloudy-looking film and growing bigger and thicker with each successive batch. The Symbiotic Colony of Bacteria and Yeast (SCOBY) isn’t strictly necessary to properly culture a batch, if sufficiently strong tea from a previous batch is added to “inoculate” the brew…but it looks really cool in a jar (scare your friends!).

A few huge discs had formed in my 2.5 gallon kombucha vinegar jar and were taking up too much space, so I pulled the thickest ones out and put them in the refrigerator. They sat in a big bowl for a few days until I remembered them and tossed them out for the chickens and ducks. These things are meaty, rubbery mats, but the chickens will peck them apart without much effort. Sometimes the ducks even get in on the action. Continue reading “Today’s Entertainment: SCOBY Decimation” →

A Duck’s Christmas Eve Dream: Mud Everywhere!

~ Carrie

Mud_DucksWell, there won’t be a white Christmas here this year (again).  The temperatures have risen and it rained last night, so everything that was previously frozen is thawed and soggy. The ducks, of course, are happy…they love mud and it’s warm enough for their pools to be out.  Some of them couldn’t even wait for the pools to fill before they jumped in this morning. Others were more interested in dabbling in the holes that had filled with rainwater runoff and making them even bigger.

The Runner/Pekin group is still as cohesive as ever, though mom (Joséphine) seems to have moved into more of a group member rather than group leader role. Continue reading “A Duck’s Christmas Eve Dream: Mud Everywhere!” →