Category Archives: Chickens

Five Things Friday

Posted on by
Reply

  1. The weather has been all over the place. On Monday, Zach and Kendall were out of school due to a high threat of tornadoes.  Tuesday and Wednesday the temperatures stay in the 40s. Today on Friday we had a high of 74. We are expecting a very nice weekend with highs in the 80s. Next Tuesday we swing again into the 50’s and 60’s.
  2. Zach has been working really hard last week he got all the mulch put out for the year. Today, he was able to get our garden bed repaired and filled with paper and dirt.  Next up on his list is to get some pellets and wood shavings in the chicken coop.
  3. The chickens continue to range between 5 and 9 eggs per day. I have been water glassing some eggs for future use. But this week, I have not been able to add to them due to the dirt that is currently covering all our eggs. I am hoping to finish at least two or more gallons this spring. We should have a full solid year of good egg production but next fall/winter may be a slow period again. I have no plans at all to add ANY chickens to the flock this entire year. I may consider .add in 2027 depending on the amount of eggs we have at that time.
  4. I am very hopefully that we can get the heat set up in the greenhouse so that we can move both the peppers and tomatoes to the greenhouse this weekend. I plan to keep the greenhouse going until the first week of May. When after checking the weather, I can transplant out to start growing.
  5. I am going to declare that the white Honda we purchased in January, is officially fixed. It has been running just fine after using that initial tank of gas along with new spark plugs and wires. We are hopefully to get Zach’s truck fixed and running so that it can go up for sale very soon!

5 Things Friday

Posted on by
Reply

  1. I feel like I can finally exhale.  We are officially six weeks into foster care, have had two court dates, several medical appointments, and a dental appointment.  The last appointment is an eye appointment which is not for another couple of weeks.  We have started the process of becoming licensed.  We also have had multiple visits from the caseworker.  I feel like we are finally able to get into a routine and not everything is new and needs a plan.
  2. Our chickens have started to lay again!  We are currently getting between 6 and 9 eggs a day.  I am trying to make all the things I can think of to eat currently as well as I do plan to water glass several half gallons of eggs.  I am even debating going ahead and water glassing an entire 5 gallon bucket of eggs. We did actually use some water glassed eggs in brownies and for baking just to make sure we could use them.
  3. This weekend will be very different around here. Kendall and Matt are headed to Greensboro College for an honor’s college day on Saturday.  Greensboro is one of her top two choices.  Kendall has already received 44.000 a year in scholarships from Catawba which is her other top choice.
  4.  Lily is working and also baby sitting this weekend.  That leaves me, Zach and E at home on Saturday. Braxton has a ballgame at noon, I need to go to Dollar General to get some sodas and I want to start working on gardening projects. But we will see.
  5.  We are continuing to work on figuring out what is actually wrong with the Honda Civic that we purchased six weeks ago.   It stales and stops when it is raining or just after a rain.

Saving on Saturday

Posted on by
Reply

One of the most important things to remember is every $1 saved is an accomplishment.  With the huge financial expense of the new HVAC system, I am going to focus more on the little things for saving. The reason is we already do alot of things to save money and in reality, I can’t find much more that way. So now it is back to the basics of saving in every way possible.

I mentioned yesterday that I had not been out to eat breakfast. That is the first way we are saving money!

Another way we are saving money is by using items in our pantry. For us as a family this means that we need convenient foods that are easy to make and filling. Breakfast is one of the hardest meals for me because I don’t have much time to get out the door.  I spend ALOT of time in the Summer preparing food ahead but I also need to add to this during the year. Last night for dinner we had sausage balls and French toast.  I decided to go ahead and make a HUGE batch.  We have been getting six eggs a day so this was a good way also to use up the eggs. I purchased three loaves of French bread at Walmart for $1.47 each ($4.50), used sugar, milk, vanilla and cinnamon. I am going to estimate the entire cost to be $10.  Matt used the Blackstone to fry up the bread. We ended up with our dinner and around 60 additional slices of French toast.  Currently one meal of French toast for one person is $10 so for the same cost we probably have at least 5 meals for our family of five.

The final way we saved money this week is by building shelves out of pallets that we got for free last year. We have used this wood to complete the front part of the new building as well.  I did use part of my Christmas money to purchase the brackets. The total cost for his was around $30 but we have lots more space and I definitely like  organization.

Taking a Vacation with Animals

Posted on by
Reply

Homesteading/ having a garden and/or animals is hard work.   I have known this fact for a long time. I was raised with animals and growing things.  It takes lots of effort and constant work. The part that I have yet to see on You Tube or any reality tv show is the the fact that you can’t just take a vacation or break. It takes planning and effort.

Paul, the kids’ dog was able to go and stay at Fort Wilderness during out recent trip. However it still required effort and planning.  Most mornings I was the one that let him out of the camper and made sure he had food and used the bathroom before we left for the day. Lily ended up back early on several days just to give him a break.

The chickens required lots of extra planning and preparation.  We ended up purchasing a new feeder several weeks prior to going. The new feeder was not cheap $50 and probably a whole afternoon (several hours) reading, looking, considering all options and trying to make sure the chickens would not run out of feed while we were gone. . This feeder worked out well for several reasons. First it does not sit on the ground and it requires the chickens to stick their heads inside to eat. This SIGNIFICANTLY reduces the amount of waste and extends the time we can be away.  We also noticed a leak with our waterer that required a quick repair as well. I also purchased a mineral block for the chicken just to supplement the feeder in case it failed.   The hardest part with the chicken was making sure they were safe. I was outside 3-5 times a week for a month before we left trying to make sure all the chicken went up in the coop before the automatic door closed.  Unfortunately for me this did not seem to matter as I realized that at least half missed the door on one night. Luckily they all survived and the next night and for the remainder of our trip they have all made it up in the coop. Just prior to leaving the four new chickens started to lay.  We came home to almost 60 eggs!

Just because our vacation is over the work did not end. Yesterday, Saturday, Zach with a little help from Matt did a good chicken coop clean out. He moved at least 11 five gallon buckets of “chicken dirty” from the run into our garden beds. The hope is this will add some much needed nutrients to each of the beds.  We are also going to add the remains of burning and our new fire pit.

 

5 Things Friday

Posted on by
Reply

  1. This is the first week in the entire school year that I feel like I am finally able to balance work and life.  Work is still super busy and next week is going to be wrong and even today I have more to do than i am able but I feel like I can handle it or rather God is going to provide peace and security for me.
  2. The Central Davidson varsity football team are the conference champions, first time since 1946.  Zach has started on JV most of the season. And he was pulled up to varsity for the play offs. There is a slim chance that he will actually get to play but we are all going to the game just in case it happens. Kendall is likely going to watch another player but so is life.
  3. My snow village and the new “Disney” village have both been completed this week. I am planning to make a full blog post on them for next week
  4. We are headed to Florida for Thanksgiving!  I am not responsible for any cooking! On black Friday, we are all headed to Disney. David and Haley and the kids are coming up with us. Lily and Braxton are flying in as well!  The kids and I will miss an extra week of school. I am super excited!
  5. I am going to assume that probably 2 of the 4 new chickens we purchased at the end of the summer have started laying. We went the entire month of October without a single egg. I actually purchased 6 dozen eggs from a coworker. This past week we started getting 1 and 2 large brown eggs!   Even more exciting is the fact that we also got 1 green egg this week which means at least one of the older chickens probably the white one is laying as well.

5 Things Friday

Posted on by
Reply

This first week back at school has been extremely busy, but not in the overwhelming busy way but as in productive busy.
1.We started working on  and almost finished adding pickets to the fence that our neighbor placed on the property line.  We ended up finishing this project on Wednesday evening. I am hoping to post pictures and more of the explanation on Saturday.
2.The chickens have taken more time than normal. On Friday and Saturday, we left the dog cage open and closed it at night. On Saturday night instead of closing the door we moved the new chickens into the coop. The new chickens have responded beautifully, they go up in the coop every night.  HOWEVER, two of our oldest chickens have decided that they do not want to go in the coop.   For the first three nights we moved these stubborn chickens but we have decided to let them be. The coop is secure but they need to learn.
3.On Wednesday, I noticed that my favorite farm stand had corn on sale for fifty cent an ear when you bought 5 dozen.   I purchased these along with several other good things. I was able to vacuum seal these into our family size portions.  Zach also worked on his truck most of the evening.
4.Both Zach and Kendall have been schedule to work every day this week. We did not complain as this is the last week before they head back to school. Zach has had football practice everyday along with a game on Thursday.
5. I want to end on a positive note, I have continued/restarted listing to my Bible reading in the afternoons coming home from work this has given me back a good half an hour.

5 Things Friday

Posted on by
Reply
1. I have been struggling with our chickens integration this week.  After spending around an hour each day watching the chickens, yesterday I left the chickens for a couple of hours. Today we are leaving the door open all day. So far so good, at least everyone is alive.
2. The weather continues to be very strange, we have had rain, rain and more rain. The temperatures have remained below average for about two weeks now.
3. I have completed my first two days of the school year. I am happy to report that I feel good and have been productive by completing continuing education!
4. My attempt at expanding our menu has failed 3 of the 4 new recipes that I tried this week are a no go. Zach has even asked that we return to normal food.
5. I am very hopeful that we will finish installing the pickets on the fence tomorrow, We actually started and got several sections completed one evening.

Chicken Adventures

Posted on by
Reply

Every good chicken adventures begins with Chicken Math or in this case the timeline of chickens. We purchased 6 week old chickens from Tractor Supply the beginning of August 2022. Unfortunately, we lost one within a week or two so that leave 5 chickens.

These 5 chickens have never been good layers. We have never had an abundance of eggs. After doing some internet research this is a common problem with chicks from Tractor Supply.

April 2023 we added three new chicks from a friend. Unfortunately, one of these turned out to be a rooster and after he was a little too rough with the girls he was re-homed in June 2024. This left our chicken count at 7. At this point we were averaging 3 eggs a day which was not a lot but still not horrible for “pets that produce”

Things started going down hill from here as well, first we lost a chicken to a racoon in October 2024. Then another died from natural causes in November. We lost a third from the original 5 in February.  In March we were down to 4 total hens. Our egg production was so low that an egg a day was exciting.

At the end of March 2025, Zach brought home two four week old hens that had been hatched and raised at his school. Unfortunately we are still at an average of 1 egg a day with a total of 6 chickens.  I have stated before the introduction of these two to the flock was quick and simple.

Neither Zach nor I really liked the idea of raising small chicks again as they require a lot of work. I have been on the hunt for some additional hens since then. So now begins our current chicken adventure.

Last Saturday, we purchased 4 “golden comet” pullets from a local feed store.  I was very hopefully that would be easy to integrate.   Well they may be easy but not as quick as I had hoped. These new chickens are in a dog cage in the run. I am going out at least once a day and sometimes twice a day to let them out of the cage. We currently are dealing with chickens pulling feathers and I am managing with a stick.  They do have a water dish in the cage and we allow to eat to they stop when we open the door. I am hoping that by next Saturday they can at least stay out for a whole day without constant supervision. The next step will be moving to the coop at night and teaching to go up in the coop as well.

But I do have good news, the chicks we got in April are starting to produce. Since Sunday we have been averaging 3 to 4 eggs a day!  That is exciting and would mean we should be getting 7-9 eggs per day. I will be happy with 7 a day!  Stay tuned for more chicken adventures!

 

5 Things Friday- 5 Days of the Week

Posted on by
Reply

I anticipated that this week would be fairly busy as it is between two vacations. The garden has produced as well.  What I did not anticipate was that I would drive to Mocksville to pick up a haul from the local farm stand. See below for details.  I am also listing things I did for “Every bits Challenge” as well. This is typical for the month of August but I return to work so that limits my abilities to do some things everyday. I will use these two weeks as the two final weeks of August. This is different but I hope it is helpful.

Monday- We arrived home, picked about 5 gallons of tomatoes and I spent a good couple of hours outside pruning and working on the tomato plants.  I was exhausted!

Tuesday- I decided to work on stocking prepared meals. I made 4 taco pastas and froze 3 for future use. I made the first double batch of Salsa, so excited to use all the ingredients that we already had.

Wednesday- Braxton and I harvested another pint of blueberries and several tomatoes. I also pulled some weeds. We planted some corns in our new planter box and also harvested potatoes. This was a disappointment as we harvest around 5 pounds of potatoes. I also made sourdough bread.

Thursday- After looking at what produce we had, I called and ordered 50 pounds of tomatoes. Braxton and I drove and we purchased a $10 box of cucumbers as well as peaches, green peppers and a watermelon. After picking up this produce, I have been very busy getting things in jars. Another loaf of sour dough bread.

Friday- working on canning and preparation all day. See the final list below. I attempted to make sub buns for meatball subs. They needed to be a bit smaller.

Every Bit Counts Challenge
Salsa 10 quarts and 17 pints
Pickles – 10 quarts of Spears and 12 pints of chips. Spears are a bit salty on first taste, hopefully this improves with time.
Spaghetti sauce -5 quarts and dinner on Friday

Prepared food
4 Taco pastas
4 Million dollar Spaghetti.

5 Things Friday “How I Spent my Day”

Posted on by
Reply

  1. We have been under a extreme heat warning all week. This means that the heat index is at least 101*  The only way that I am able to keep up with the garden is by waking up super early aka 6:30am and spending at least an hour in the garden. This morning I ended up around an hour and half. I was able to get a second planting of crops done. Pumpkins in the bed in front of the office, cucumbers to replace the ones that did not survive and cantaloupe in place of the bush green beans.  I also finished the chore of wedding all the beds, collecting a 5 gallon bucket for the chickens.  I dead headed our white rose bush, collected the small harvest and heavily watered the beds.
  2. 2 loads of towels were washed, dried, folded and put away.  With everyone enjoying the pool and working, it is not uncommon for most of use to take 2 showers a day.
  3. I have got the third load in the dishwasher, I am working on getting rid of any food that has gone bad. I also packed up everything in lunch containers, made desert and have started working on sour dough bread for the weekend. I have no doubt this third load will be ran tonight.
  4.  In my effort to use the food we have I ended up chopping up 4 items for a Big Mac Salad for dinner, lettuce, red onion, cucumbers and tomatoes.  I found a recipe for Big Mac sauce and then cooked a pound of ground beef in steak seasoning to use.
  5. I was able to pressure can 5 quarts of chicken broth that I made from the chicken thighs that were processed yesterday.

No wonder I am tired~