Category Archives: Eggs

Planting Potatoes and Happy Chickens

Chickens, Eggs, Planting, potatoes, Reflections,

We planted potatoes on Tuesday. It was a beautiful spring day.

The chickens love the freshly worked soil. Lots of bugs, grubs and worms. Yum!

My husband tilled the area then measured, marked and dug the furrows. Then I placed the potatoes in the rows. He came back later and covered the potatoes with soil. Before leaving we fenced in the area so the chickens couldn’t scratch up the seedlings. There are plenty of other things around to keep the chickens happy. We planted about 160 row feet of potatoes.

Chickens don’t spend all of their time scratching and pecking. They also like to dust bathe as these girls were doing. Dust baths are actually how chickens clean themselves. It sounds counterproductive but it works for them.

Rex is our only rooster – I think that makes him happy.

Chickens, chickens everywhere!

Made From Scratch 🙂

Happy chickens give the best eggs. We are getting about 15 -17 eggs a day right now – that makes me happy.

Thanks for visiting.

Shifting Gears -2025 Update

Chickens, Eggs, Health, Reflections, spring

Hello and welcome!

Vehicle Shopping

In a recent post I told you all that we were car shopping, wanting find a reliable, used vehicle to replace our minivan. After countless hours of searching online, researching different types of vehicles, test driving a few vehicles, and not finding what we are looking for we have decided that having some repairs done on our minivan with the hopes that it will continue to serve us for another year, or more, is the best thing to do.

So, we have suspended our car shopping and are moving on to other things. Forgive me, but I am going to repeat that in hopes that the internet will hear/ see or detect it and stop bombarding me with vehicle advertisements. We are no longer shopping for a vehicle. I doubt that will help but worth a try. 🙂

Spring

There is not much to be done at the farm as we wait for spring to truly get here but we’ve observed a couple of the earliest signs of spring, the buds on the trees are swelling which means the sap is flowing. This is something I learned to watch for several years ago when we were collecting sap and making maple syrup. We haven’t done that in a few years since we no longer have a source of inexpensive wood to burn for boiling the sap into syrup. The process uses a lot of wood and can be quite expensive. 🙂

The other sign is that our hens are laying eggs again. It was back when we were tapping maple trees that I noticed that the chickens begin laying eggs again around the same time that the sap begins flowing. In the past two weeks we have gone from getting one or two eggs every couple of days to getting as many as 13 eggs a day. I am grateful that I was able to get eggs from my sister throughout the winter while our hens were resting. Her flock are first year layers who didn’t take a break. I am even more grateful that our hens are laying again.

Projects

There are projects that need to be done in the house, however. One that we have tackled this past week is painting our kitchen. I had planned on doing this in November, but those plans changed when my dad got sick. It feels good to finally be back on track.

My husband also changed the wax seal in the toilet this week. I love that he is able and willing to do this job, so we don’t have to pay a professional to have it done.

Health

Last year I got into a routine of exercising at least 30 minutes almost every day. Exercise is said to be the best thing a person with Parkison’s Disease can do. I also altered my eating habits, so I was eating less and including more fresh fruits and vegetables in my diet. I ate few desserts and limited them to just a few bites when I did indulge. As a result, I lost 30 pounds and felt good.

In November and December, when I was busy taking care of my dad’s affairs, I had slacked off on my exercise routine and got off track with my diet plan. I gained about 3 pounds back. In January I got back on track with my exercise and I am again to doing at least 30 minutes a day on either the recumbent bike or the stationary bike. I do feel better on the days that I exercise than if I miss a day. I am also working on getting back on track with eating right. If only I didn’t like sweets so much.

Crafting

I completed a few craft projects since the beginning of the year. I’ve made three more of the reusable shopping bags like I had made for my daughters for Christmas. I also made two hoodie style shirts. One for my sister and one for myself. The picture below is the one I made for me. The one I made for my sister went together well and she loved it when I gave it to her. When making mine I apparently wasn’t paying attention when I sewed the hood on backwards. After realizing what I had done I said “OH NO!” shook my head and decided to take a break because it wasn’t worth getting upset over.

I vacuumed the house and after lunch and a nap spent about two hours using a seam ripper to remove all of the stitches that held the hood in place. The next day I pinned the hood in place and held up the shirt to make sure it was right before sewing it on. Believe it or not I again had the hood backwards. Thankful that I checked, I unpinned the hood and repinned it the right way. Lesson learned!

I am also in the process of crocheting a baby afghan. I expect to have that finished in the next few days.

Last week my husband took me to Joann Fabrics to do some shopping. They are in the process of closing their stores and liquidating their stock. It was early in the process, so the sale prices were not great, but I wanted to get some things before they were sold out. We still have two other craft stores in the area that sell fabric and yarn, but their selections are not as good as Joann Fabric. It is sad that they are closing. We will certainly miss shopping there.

Looking Forward

Our weather forecast for the upcoming week shows a dry week with temperatures in the 50’s Fahrenheit most days, so I am looking forward to getting outdoors. I expect to see daffodils and garlic poking up through the ground and that robins and red winged blackbirds have returned to the area. Perhaps I will even hear frogs singing. Just a few of the things I love about spring.

Thanks for visiting.

What are you enjoying about spring?

If I Were A Bird

Birds, Buff Orpingtons, Chickens, Chicks, Eggs, Killdeer, Nature, Reflections

A few weeks ago I gave my sister a pot of pansies. She has had it on her porch on a table between the chairs that she and her husband sit in to enjoy the outdoors. Last weekend she sent a picture of the nest a robin had built in the pot of pansies. I told her “If I were a robin I would build my nest there.” She wasn’t sure if the robin would lay eggs and raise babies there because she and her husband sit there often. Apparently, the robin is undeterred. 🙂 When I last talked to her there were two eggs in the nest.

If I were a bird I would not want to be a kildeer. On Thursday my husband and I witnessed a pair of kildeer with their three young babies. If you are not familiar with kildeer you can learn more about them here. I didn’t have my camera with me, but I doubt if I would have gotten any good photos as they were always in motion. The babies, which are up and running around within hours of hatching, are so cute, but boy do those parents have their wings full keeping track of the babies. It’s a good thing that both parents raise the young together as they usually have 3-5 babies (running every which way) and while the babies feed themselves, they are unable to fly until they are about 25 days old, thus they need protection from predators.

If I were a bird, I would likely be a chicken – in fact I’m sure I was called a mother hen more than once when my ‘chicks’ were young. 🙂 Much like kildeer, baby chickens are up and out of the nest very quickly. They also eat and drink on their own but rely on their mother (or humans) for warmth and protection. The rooster does not help raise chicks, but mother hens are generally very attentive and protective of their chicks.

We currently have several hens that are broody. If Buff Orpingtons have any fault, it’s their tendency to go broody. About two weeks ago we gave 10 eggs to one of the hens, the Buff Orpington in the corner of the picture below. Since then one of our Jersey Giants (the black hen pictured below) decided to share the parenting responsibilities.

Most of the time when the buff was on the nest the jersey would nestle up beside her. Sometimes the jersey would sneak a couple of the eggs and put them under herself. If the buff would leave the nest the jersey would take over. We did mark the original 10 eggs because sometimes we find an extra egg or two in the nest. Saturday my husband split the eggs giving each hen 5 eggs and so far the hens seem content that they each have their own clutch. We don’t know how long that will last.

We have about a week to wait until the babies are due to hatch. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out. I would love to have some little chicks running around and watch momma(s) raising them. I’ll keep you posted.

If you were a bird what kind of bird would you be? What kind of bird would you not want to be?

A February Walk at the Farm

Chickens, Dogs, Eggs, garlic, Horses, Pond, Reflections, The Farm

Hello and welcome.

We been having some nice weather this week so I thought maybe you might join me for a walk at the farm.

One of the first things you might notice is that our neighbor to the east, who has horses, extended their corral. The fence that my husband put up last spring is their barrier to the west, so they come right up to our property line. For the first couple of weeks Ruby and ranger would go over and bark at them, probably thinking they were doing something they shouldn’t. But Ruby and Ranger have since gotten use to them being so close and while Ruby and Bernard might touch noses through the fence, she no longer has an issue with them being there.

Ruby greets Bernard and Colby Jack

My husband said that every morning when he goes to open up the chicken coop Bernard and Colby Jack greet him at the fence. He likes to have a couple of carrots or other treats for them.

Bernard

They are very friendly horses, especially when there are treats to be had.

Colby Jack

The chickens out enjoying the nice weather. The hens started laying more eggs this week. For several weeks we have only been getting between zero and two eggs a day, but in the last four days we have collected 18 eggs.

Rex, our rooster, is one of the chicks that we got last spring. Unlike roosters we have had in the past he not aggressive toward people or the dogs. It’s nice not to worry about turning my back on him.

Garlic Sprouts

They are a bit difficult to make out in the above picture, but the garlic is about 4 or 5 inches high. I spotted daffodils, lilies and irises sprouting as well.

While things have started to dry out a bit this week the pond is still running over its bank. This is the highest we have ever seen the pond this time of year.

Most of our beach is under water.

As I walked down the west property line I loved this view of the barn.

The thin layer of ice that covered much of the pond early this week has since melted since temperatures reached up into the 50’s and 60’s F on Thursday and Friday.

There is still plenty of time for winter weather to return but we will certainly appreciate these nice days while we have them.

Thanks for joining me.

How’s the weather in your part of the world?

First Egg

Chickens, Eggs, Reflections

Our young hens (the chicks that arrived back in March) have started laying. They turned 20 weeks old on Monday. On Tuesday my sister called and told me she had found 3 small eggs in her coop that day. Three of the 6 hens we gave her had started laying! Since we hadn’t seen any small eggs, which is evidence that a young hen is laying, I started giving our girls pep talks. “What are you all doing hanging out here? You should be in the coop giving me an egg and earning your keep.” Today my husband found our first small egg. In the photo below the egg in the center is from a young hen. It’s about 1/2 the size of the other eggs.

It’s hard to say how many of these small eggs a hen will lay before their eggs become normal size, but as more of the girls begin laying I’m sure we will see more eggs like this.

Thanks for visiting!