Candleing Eggs

 Thought I would share how I candle eggs. After my eggs have been in the incubator about 10 days or so I candle them. You could do it before but It is hard for me to decide weather something is in them or not at about 10 days there is no mistake.  All you need is a flashlight, roll of toilet paper, a dark room and an egg.

Hold the flashlight between your knees put the roll of toilet paper on the light and the egg on it.  That's all there is to it. If the egg is clear like this one nothing is in it, but if your egg has a dark blob in it, it has a chicken in it. The roll of toilet paper funnels the light and the opening in the roll is just the right size for the chicken egg.  A dark room helps but the toilet paper roll reflects the flash so I had to take this picture during the day

Nancy and Yoda

Nancy had a little billy on Thursday. The kids named him Yoda because of his small head and large ears. They were taken and penned in the barn because of our little coyote problems. I watched them extra carefully since Maisey let her baby die. Nancy seems to be a real good momma. Yoda is growing real good and is always busy jumping around and exploring.

Other news, our little bantam hen just hatched out 10 biddies. One died ,I think it hatched before the others and for some reason she kicked it out the nest. If my hens will hatch their eggs I let them. I prefer they take care of the biddies and not me. I do still have some in the incubator from the big hens. They haven't tried to sit on their eggs yet. Yesterday I had one quail hatch out, about 3 days early. Nothing else has hatched I'm not sure why this one did. I have him in the house in a box with a light waiting on the others.

Two of our beagles are missing.  They went hunting rabbits on Wednesday and haven't been home. Not sure if they just got lost, caught by coyotes, or shot. We miss them very much.

 Got some seed started indoors. I actually find that it doesn't save me much time as far as getting things to harvest faster. Seeds that I sow directly in the garden will usually be ready about the same time as the plants I started in the house but I just have to start planting, I just cannot wait so I start them in the house. This year I did buy a grow light and hung in under my kitchen cabinets so we will see if the plants grow better. I usually just put them in a sunny window and turn them once a day. The plants are usually tall and week and when I put them in the garden they just kinda stay that way for a while before they finally decide to grow.  I have great hopes for this year. I hope I didn't just waste $24.99 on a light.
  My oldest daughter wanted in on the action. She saved all the cantaloupe seeds from last year. I didn't actually plant them last year but some how the seeds got to the garden (I'm not naming names Abigail). Casey loved the cantaloupe so much that she wanted to plant some this year. I let her plant her seeds, I don't know if any will come up but she has planted them. I told her with that many plants she will be able to sell her cantaloupe. I hope her plants do well.

 Got my husband to disc the garden under. I planted winter wheat for the first time at the end of last season as a cover crop and for organic matter in the soil. Of course my hens went to work right away ridding the garden of any grub worm. Whatever my husband didn't get turned under my hens certainly will.

 My new pregnant nanny Maisey wasn't happy in the field with the others.  She is very far along so I put her in the  pen with the pig we decided to fatten out. All his brothers and sister were just sold and he was lonely and scared. They seem to really enjoy each other. The nanny will not let anything close to the little pig and the pig lays with the goat and they eat hay together.


UPDATE: Maisey had one nanny on Friday while still in the pen with the pig. She would nurse the pig but not her baby so I pen them separte in the barn. While I was out there she would nurse the baby but if I wasn't there she would not. I didn't realize she wasn't taking care of it until to late and she died on sunday night after I stayed up most the night trying to bottle feed it and keep it warm.  Maisey was turned back out to the feild where she sits by the hog pen with the baby pig.

Coming soon...March 10, 2012

Got the incubator full of eggs, Chicken and Quail. I don't hatch any during the winter because winters here can sometimes be harsh and I am not going to take care of biddies all winter long.  I am also excited that I have a new broody hen. She is sitting on ten. We haven't had a broody hen since the first year we moved here.  We had always had free range hens at the other place so I didn't have them in a pen and when they went to sit something would get them. So we built the pens for their protection but I had already lost my good broody hens.

Spring is in the air

 My young hens have started laying again and needed nest boxes. I am not good at building so I had to improvise. I had an old box step out of a trailer sitting in the yard so I took it and nailed two nails in each end of the step. I also put a nail at the top of the chickens lean to spaced apart the same length as the step. using a chain, I hung and secured the step at the same height as our other nest box. I nailed a board across the front and put three creats inside that I filled with shredded paper and leaves. The chickens love it and I am rewarded with 3 big brown eggs a day

 I haven't been able to till the garden yet due to rain, but we couldn't wait any longer to get started. Last year my husband built our son a small raised garden bed. He planted tomatoes in it last year but they didn't do very well. This year He is going to try his had at carrots. He planted the seeds then covered with a light layer of leaves to keep the wind from drying them out.

We also transplanted our garlic to a raised bed so the rest of the garden can be tilled to get ready for spring planting.

These are images from last year's garden. After breaking my arm nothing else got done.

 Here is my chicken compost. It was nice of them to make it for me without me having to lift a single pitch fork.

 Our okra had a rough start because rabbits liked to eat the top out while they were small.

It was not a good year for tomatoes either. Most people around here didn't get any. I did but they were late in the season.

Since Valentine's day is coming up I decided to share how to make this valentine box.

Materials: 1 cracker box
                5 toilet paper rolls
                10 baby food jar lids
                2 pencils
                2 film canisters
                2 Popsicle sticks
                1 Velveeta cheese box
                paint
                miscellaneous cardboard

Cut 1/3 of Velveeta box . Cut a strip of cardboard as wide as the Velveeta box and as long as the 1/3 box laid horizontally and the 2/3 part vertically and the cracker box with the open end of the cracker box at the end and opening out to the sides like the doors of a semi. Hot glue the boxes on the cardboard strip. This makes the cab and trailer.
   Next glue the baby food lids on each side of the toilet paper rolls. These are the wheels. Paint then black then glue them under the cab and trailer. The film canister are glued under the cab. The Popsicle sticks are glued to the inside of the doors on the trailerto add stability to the doors. The pencils are glued behind the cab for smoke stacks.
   Paint the truck any color you want. I think red and white would be the best color but my son didn't want anything girly. Paint on detail such as the window, windshield, doors, handles,the front grill, and headlights.  This trucks name was Wind Breaker and it delivers for Valentine's Express.
  My son continued to play with this Truck long after Valentine's day until his big sister say on it and it was finally beyond repair.

OK so I haven't been on here in a while.  A lot has happened to us since my last post. I will not try to fill you in on everything but will let you know what we have been up to lately. After breaking my arm in October I haven't done much I am just now able to crochet again. So I found this pattern online for a ruffled scarf and decided to try it. Although slow even I am impressed. Here is the link to the pattern I used http://littlesliceoflife.wordpress.com/free-patterns/cascade-scarf/. I changed to a slightly thicker yarn for the single crochets on the last row which gave it a little more body a the difference in color adds interest. I also used a 6mm hook instead of a 10mm.