Another Sprout Story...

So I am totally rolling with this bean sprout garden. It takes about 4-5 days from bean to sprout, and when they are done they go into the fridge until I'm ready to use them, and I restart the garden. We eat brown rice a few times a week and the sprouts are a perfect addition. We grow just enough to use without getting tired of them, and if we do have extras, lucky for me chickens love them too.

My original plan was to also sprout alfalfa seeds. We love alfalfa sprouts but they are hella expensive at the grocery store, and now there are all kinds of cootie problems with commercially grown sprouts so I'd rather to grow my own. Unfortunately I could not find alfalfa seeds at sprouts, but they did have chia seeds. Having been the proud owner of a chia pet (classic "bull" style), I knew they looked very much alike, and if Sprouts had them in the bulk seed bin, they must be for eating. I never ate my chia pet's sprouts because I was worried about chemicals & stuff being used on the seeds and/or pottery. So I took the chia seeds and the mung beans home to start sprout gardening. What worked great for the mung beans did not pan out for the chai seeds. Duh! Of course not. Chai seeds do not settle on the bottom of your jar after each rinse, waiting to sprout. As soon as you get them wet they turn into a sticky blob, which is perfect for smearing onto a terra cotta bull but not so much for a jar sprouter. They stuck to the side, bottom and mostly to the mesh screen. Fail! Oh well. I have since learned that chia seeds are extremely nutritious without sprouting. They are better for you and have a much longer shelf life than flax seeds. You can sprout them, and some day I will, but until then we can reap the benefits by just sprinkling them onto our food. Good to know.

Tiny Little Garden...

I have been wanting to try sprouting my own sprouts for a long time. Like literally 20 years. For some reason, I never tried very hard to make it happen, but this year it made it to the "List of Things To-Do" and now I wonder why I waited so long. It could not be easier to sprout mung beans into the most delicious bean sprouts I have ever tasted. Maybe I never tried it because I figured a bean sprout is a bean sprout, and I don't buy them that often so why even go through the trouble. I was wrong. It is no trouble. I think part of it was I assumed I would forget to water them (a frequent problem in my gardening attempts), but since I kept the sprout garden right by the sink and I visit the sink like a dozen times a day, it was no problem at all. So worth it. If you even like bean sprouts a little bit, you can get into this.

 Start with some mung beans. I got mine at Sprouts. This bag of beans costs less than two containers of bean sprouts and will probably make about 20 times more. You also need a very clean wide mouth jar, a small piece of cheesecloth or something similar (I happened to have a spool of tulle ribbon about 4" wide so that's what I am using),  and a rubber band. Put enough beans in the jar to cover the bottom, then cover the jar with the cheesecloth and rinse the beans a couple of times in cool water. Drain off the water & let them sit next to your sink til it's time to water again. Keep the jar out of direct light (I just propped a Tupperware lid up against the jar to cast a little shade on it) and rinse 2 or 3 times a day til your sprouts are the desirable size. I like to sprout them until tiny leaves form because I think they look like little snakes. Once you taste these, you will never want to buy sprouts from the store again.

mung beans

it's a tiny garden!

ready to eat, or wait a couple days and get 'em nice & big

Waste Not Want Not...

I recently read an article in Whole Living magazine that informed me that the average American household wastes 14% of total food purchased, about $1600 worth for the average family! Waste of any sort is one of my pet peeves, but even my family is not immune. Of course having dogs, chickens, and our buddy Frank the tortoise helps. Between the lot of them, not much goes uneaten, including scraps that would normally go in the garbage. One item that regularly goes bad before it gets used is milk. It is shamefully common for an unopened carton of milk to pass it's expiration date here at the homestead. Milk is good for several days past the date stamp, but I could tell my family that until I am blue in the face and nobody would touch it. But luckily, I've got a solution for that. When life hands you lemons, make lemonade and when you get expired milk, make cheese. (Since it has no rennet, it's technically not cheese, but that what we're calling it.)

First, you gotta prep. You need milk and either vinegar or lemon juice, about a quarter cup per half gallon of milk. You also need cheesecloth or a very thin towel, a strainer, and a bowl to catch the whey. A thermometer is nice, but I bet you can get by without it.  Make sure everything is very clean. I usually wet the towel and then microwave it for 30 seconds or so to kill any cooties, but I'm kind of a germaphobe. Heat the milk in a heavy non-stick saucepan to about 180 degrees, stirring occasionally. Some recipes will tell you to stir constantly so the milk won't burn on the bottom, but since I hate standing at the stove and my chickens love the browned milk that forms a skin on the bottom of the pan, I don't hassle with it. It's easier to remove if you spray the pan with Pam before you start, but as long as you soak the pan a little, it will be no problem.

When the milk comes to temperature, pour in the vinegar and turn off the heat. I wait a few seconds before stirring gently to mix the milk and vinegar. You will see curds almost immediately. Carefully pour into the cheesecloth lined strainer. I put the strainer over a large bowl to catch the whey, but if you are not interested in saving the whey, just do it in the (very clean) sink. Bundle up the cheesecloth into a pouch and gently squeeze out some of the liquid, simultaneously shaping your cheese into a ball. Let it sit and drain for an hour or so. You can place something heavy on top to speed the process if you wish.

I cannot tell you how much chickens love this cheese. Even Elsa, who is Mother of the Year, has a hard time feeding this to her babies before she herself gobbles it up. You can tell she feels bad about it but she just can't help herself.

You can also make this cheese for humans, and you can use milk that's fresh. You may want to season it though with a little salt. It's very good, bland and creamy like ricotta. And there you have it. Never pour milk down the drain again!

Moving to bigger and better quarters...

The Showgirl babies have outgrown the nursery coop, and so this weekend was spent coming up with the best solution to their housing problem. They needed a bigger home, somewhere safe and warm, with a small yard for scratching and dust bathing. It would also need to be easily accessible to me because I want the chicks to be very tame, and that means I have to interact with them daily. The big bird coop fit the bill perfectly. A minor remodel and they were good to go. Since I have to haul Esther's big ass out of a tree every night and place her into a coop anyway, the nursery coop works out just fine. Lucky for me, Coco is smart and adaptable and figured it out the first night.

Everything is fine, until something happens...

Are you up do date with your tetanus booster shots? I am, now. I stepped on a nail in the backyard while trying to get Esther out of a tree and I didn't really think that much of it until I started reading about tetanus on WebMD. (Also, you should never go to WebMD to diagnose a possible illness unless you want to get the crap scared out of you. They put the most dire spin on every medical situation.)

Esther normally does not roost in trees, but some weird stuff happened at the old homestead recently. My family spent the weekend before New Year's at my Aunt & Uncle's little cabin in the mountains.  I moved the big birds' feeder to a safe & dry place and filled up the water trough and they were good to go, as they are free range birds and have dutifully put themselves to bed every night for nearly three years.  And I wasn't that concerned for the baby chicks because I knew as long as they had plenty of food & water, their Mama Elsa would take care of the rest.

When we arrived back home late Monday afternoon it was already getting dark, so the first thing I did was to go outside & check on my babies. They were, safe & sound, & just as cute as ever. I headed back to the house to help unload from our trip when I noticed Esther roosting on the fence by the quail cage. "Hmmm, why is she not inside?" Well, a piece of lumber I'd leaned against the coop had fallen over and even though it was not blocking the birds access, chickens are strange creatures who are easily spooked by inanimate objects. I picked Esther up & put her inside the coop. Coco saw me,  jumped down from her perch on top of the quail cage & put herself to bed. I looked all over for Nickie and Stella, but couldn't find them. My yard is big and has a million hiding places, so I figured they were sleeping somewhere together & went to finish unpacking.

Esther, the Easter-Egger, taking a dust bath.

The next morning when I went out to do my "bird chores", only Esther & Coco were there to greet me. That was not a good sign, since Nickie was always the first one to come running as soon as she heard the back door. I looked everywhere for the missing birds, but the most I could find was a small patch of black & white striped feathers near the side fence. Never found any trace of Stella. It is still a mystery to me. These birds slept in a coop that was left open day and night for almost 3 years, and then the very weekend we go away, something bad happens. Was some crafty raccoon casing the joint?  Esther still will not go into the coop by herself, so I have to go hoist her giant ass out of a tree every night and risk stepping on nails.

Bottom line, your birds are perfectly safe in your backyard, until they are not. And get your tetanus booster.

Hi, I'm back...

In my last post, I had just gotten a job after 2 years of trying. Nearly two years since that last post and I am again unemployed, this time by choice. A lot has changed, but mostly it's stayed about the same. I've still got my loving and patient husband, selflessly supporting me and my dreams, and our two 20something kids. Still got my chickens, my dogs, and Frank, my Etsy shop, and my blog devoted to living artfully. Still trying to be creative every day & spread the joy of simple living. It is a wonderful mission.

So let's all move forward into the New Year and make it the best one yet. I will leave you with a picture of my current project, a newly hatched flock of Showgirl Silkie chicks.

Happy New Year, Everyone!

Get back to work...

It took almost two years but I finally got a job. Hooray!! I know I should be thankful, and I am, but going back to work has made me realize just how badly I want to make my dream a reality. I had two years to make it happen and as it turns out, that wasn't long enough. Or maybe I didn't try hard enough. Maybe both. So, even though I am behind the eight ball now, I want to make it work more than ever. I miss my chickens. I miss my sewing room. Yes, it will be harder than ever to make this dream come true, but I also have lots of motivation. My boss is a very good business man. He is making his dream come true, through lots of hard work and dedication, and with lots of help from devoted employees. I want to do a good job, but if I'm going to bust my butt making somebody's dream come true, I want it to be mine. So, I will put in my time at the office, doing my job to the best of my abilities, but I'm going to make my time off count more than ever.

While I've been at work, my son has stepped in to help out with the chickens and he's been a great help indeed. I really don't know what I'd do without him, poor guy. Fortunately he really likes eggs, so it's kind of a trade off.

The Silkies finally have full run of the chicken coop. We moved the quail out into their own cage and removed the partition so the silkies are free to roam around and play in the grass. They have a lovely second story on their house, but they never want to go up there. They don't seem to like roosting like the other chickens, they just sleep in a pile in the corner of the hen house, like kittens. It looks nice and cozy, so I can't say I blame them.

Happy Talk...

2011 is off to a rough start, but I really can't complain because I've still got it pretty good. My backyard chicken flock is doing quite well. All three ladies are now laying. Shirley was the last one to begin laying. I think if Shirley were human, she would be an old spinster. She's ugly, for one, and cranky as heck. Chickens do this squatting thing if you move up on them suddenly. From what I've read, it's a submissive posture and a sign of sexual maturity meaning they are ready to breed and/or lay eggs. Nickie and Esther squat quite happily and let you scratch their back and right above their tail. Nickie gets really into it. About a week before Shirley laid her first egg I noticed that she was squatting too, only she was not so into it. It's like she has the instinct to do it, an instinct so strong that she can't help but squat, but she hates it. She'll squat, begrudgingly, but if you try to scratch her back, she bites you. I think she has intimacy issues.

the landscaping crew

My chickens have brought so much joy into my life. It's really hard being unemployed after a lifetime of successful employment. Applying for job after job and getting no positive response takes its toll on your self esteem. It is just delightful to be able to step out into my big beautiful backyard and be greeted by a happy flock. I know that they rush over to me to see if I am bringing them a treat, but even after they discover I've come empty handed, they don't bail on me. They hang out and scratch around for buggies while I keep watch over them. They know I am protecting them and that feels good. Another thing I am so grateful to my chickens for, and some people may not think this is a plus,  they have finally killed off the clover that takes over my yard every year. My husband doesn't understand what I have against the clover, but I just can't stand it. It takes over every year, smothers out all the other plants, then after a short life, dies down, leaving brown strings strewn everywhere. It looks good for about a week and then looks terrible. So, good job flock! Hopefully they've killed off the grass too, because that's another nightmare. Our backyard, or "Wild Kingdom" as my sister likes to call it, is rolling terraces, trees, shrubs, rock walls, basically random chaos. It looks cool and natural, but when the grass starts to grow in the spring, it is impossible to mow. We have to weed-whack and it's about a third of an acre back there. Patches of grass are able to grow tall and sprout foxtails. So far we've had to have foxtails removed from Lola's' nose, twice, and Gladys' ear. And it's dang expensive. But so far, my dutiful birds are keeping the grass in check. Way to go, Ladies!

Silkie Palace

 Busy busy busy!! We're all cleaned up after the flood and I finally have my sewing room back. Too bad I've been tied up with another project and haven't been able to enjoy it yet, but today is the day. I've been poring over my books looking for the next fantastic sewing project to tackle and I think it's going to be a messenger bag. I made a kid-sized one for my 5 year old nephew for Christmas and he really loved it. He won a wallet in a "white elephant" raffle at a Christmas party, unfortunately it was a ladies wallet. Fortunately he didn't know or care. He was so excited, he started carrying the wallet around with him everywhere he went. Being a ladies' wallet, it didn't exactly fit in his pocket, so I crafted a custom "man's bag" for him so he could tote his giant wallet in style.

Yes, I've been busy remodeling the duck pen into a Silkie Palace.  As you may recall, construction is not my forte'. But I did it, all by myself and I am very proud. It doesn't look half bad. It doesn't look great, mind you, but it is completely functional and secure, which is the most important thing, and the baby Silkies like it.

I am fairly new to raising chickens, so everything is unfamiliar. I can only go by what I've read (which can be quite contradictory), instinct and observation. The chicken flock has been pretty textbook so far, the ducks were vastly different from the chickens and my expectations, and the Silkies were different still. Different from the ducks and different from our first batch of chicks. The Silkies are Bantams, which means they are much smaller than regular chickens. You could tell right away that the day old chicks were very small. They ate and drank so politely, no flinging feed everywhere, no splashing in their water. Much neater that baby ducks, and even baby chicks. They peeped nonstop, even when nothing was wrong. I had doubts that they would ever be the docile lap-chickens that they were made out to be. It didn't help that one of the chicks arrived with a crippling injury. That poor baby was always crying, but sadly there was nothing I could do for her. I had to make a choice to either put Baby out of her misery or allow her to tough it out. I went with toughing it out. She has struggled and she's much smaller than the others, but she manages well enough.

Day old chicks willingly allow you to hold them and even seem to enjoy the warmth and closeness, but with each passing day they like it less and less. After just a few days on this Earth, they are less than thrilled with being picked up and make sad pitiful noises when you catch them. These Silkies were terrified of me. When I would try to hold them, they would freak out and trample the Baby, so after a while I stopped trying. It wasn't until they decided they liked spinach that they began to like my again. Now they have no problem being picked up, even Baby is cool with it. Actually, there is still one, Penelope, who hates to be held. Her nickname is the Screamer because of the awful sound she makes when you pick her up.

And now, some Silkie pictures to get you through the day.

Search Amazon.com for chickens in your backyard

And a Happy New Year!

Let's hope! So far it's been pretty much the same. I made it through the holidays without getting sick, and that was awesome, but it finally caught up to me. I woke up this morning feeling like a truck must have run me over. I overslept and was awakened by the sound of a boasting chicken proudly telling the whole neighborhood about what she'd done. Farm girls don't get sick days, so I  dragged my behind out of my warm bed and into my chore clothes. It wasn't so bad.

Southern California was hit by storms the week of Christmas, and as a result, our house got a little flooded. It rained practically non-stop for 3 days. It was a very surreal experience to see the water coming up into the patio and just keep coming and know there is very little you can do to keep it from coming into your house. We've had problems with flash floods before because of the way our house is situated, but they come and go very quickly, hence the name. But this was different. So much rain and nowhere for it to go. Our backyard was a lake. It hasn't rained in days and the yard is still soggy. We spent Christmas Eve tearing carpet and pad out of the downstairs bedrooms and hall, but at least we were all together.

Christmas 2010

Darling Nickie

Christmas 2010 was, like everything else, a mixed bag. Sure, our house flooded and we had to move furniture and rip out carpets on Christmas Eve, but we also got together as a family and made candy to give as Christmas gifts. And even the act of cleaning up after the flood done as a family put a silver lining on a dark cloud.

Nickie's pretty brown egg

Nickie began laying eggs a few days before Christmas, and now she and Esther lay almost an egg a day. It's been two weeks since they were medicated, so their eggs are now safe to eat again.

Bumble

The silkies started eating from my hand a few days ago, and now they go nuts whenever they see me, not because they love me but because they love spinach. Although, today, Bumble jumped out of the brooder and onto the table and when I picked her up to put her back in, she didn't freak out. In fact, I even got her to eat from my hand while I held her for a minute. That felt like progress.

Happy Holidays!

It's Christmas week and I'm not quite ready for it. I've been sewing and stringing my little heart out, but somehow I am not quite prepared. Christmas sneaks up on me just about every year but this year it was almost Ninja. They say that time flies whether you're having fun or not and it hasn't been that fun on the old homestead of late. We lost two of our beloved birds, Mary and Bev. Mary was such a sweetie, and so beautiful I was thinking about showing her. Her silver feathers looked like someone outlined each one with charcoal pencil, really quite lovely. Bev looked like a picture from a catalog. Classic White-crested Black Polish. She was also very sweet and she was my little pal in the yard. Being virtually blinded by her giant crest, she would get separated from the flock and then would cry like a kitten. I would call her,  "kittykitty" and she would rush over to me so I could lead her to where the rest of the girls were gathered.

Bev's loss was so sudden it really caught us by surprise. When I let the girls out Friday morning she seemed quite healthy and was patiently waiting for Esther to finish using the nest so that she could lay her egg. Saturday when I went to let them out, she was obviously quite ill. I did what I could, but she was gone by noon. I did more research and settled on the theory that the ladies had succumbed to tracheal worms. Yes, it sounds disgusting, but most animals have parasites, including humans. All of the research and planning I did convinced me that free ranging was the best and healthiest way to raise backyard chickens, but in the end it's what did them in. Now the birds that I had hoped to raise free of chemicals needed to be given poison, basically. The eggs that we had waited for now were unfit for consumption for two weeks after the treatment. Sigh. Live and learn.

We wormed the flock and now we are trying a more organic anti-worm regimen, diatomaceous earth, cayenne and garlic. At least it makes their poop smell a little better.

No Such Things As a Chicken Expert...

Our lil flock lives in a coop made from re-purposed materials, put together with barely a plan other than to make it comfortable and secure. It's set in the yard is an unobtrusive spot where it sort of blend in with the landscape. It looks nice and homey and it works for us. If I had it to do again, I would have designed it a little better. It would be impossible to get power to it where it is in the center of our large yard and solar is out of the question so the birds are only exposed to natural light. My family came over for Thanksgiving dinner, and everyone wondered about the eggs, so I explained how their laying is directly affected by the hours of daylight and since they get no artificial light, they probably wouldn't lay til Spring. I'm fine with that and my husband told me he didn't care if they ever laid eggs, as long as they make me happy. Which they do. The day after Thanksgiving I was cleaning out the coop when I noticed that the grass in the nest box was very trampled. I thought it was odd, so I peeked inside and found three eggs! Needless to say I was shocked. I had given up checking it because I was so sure they wouldn't lay til Spring, and they never gave any of the 'signs' that they would be laying soon. No shell-less eggs, no squatting, no new chicken sounds. One of the main lessons I have learned through my recent experiences is that there are no absolute truths when it comes to raising poultry. Just a lot of probably. For example, everything I've read says that chickens lay their eggs usually by 9:00 or 10:00. Not my girls. I've seen them lay in the afternoon, and in fact I went to clean their coop a few days ago and there was Bev, laying an egg. It was 4:00pm.

My 'egg-citement' was short lived however, because I noticed that Mary wasn't acting quite right. I went online to see if I could find any help. Based on the symptoms and the fact that the girls were starting to lay, I was leaning towards a diagnosis of egg binding, a condition where the egg gets stuck inside the chicken. Sounds awful and unfortunately, it can be fatal. I didn't feel an egg inside her when I rubbed her belly, and she was pretty skinny, but I tried the home remedy anyway. At least it wouldn't harm her. I gave her a nice warm bath in my old dish tub. Surprisingly, she really liked it. I rubbed her belly while she soaked and when the water cooled off, I dried her off and wrapped her it a towel and carried her around for a while. The next morning, she acted a little better, scratching and pecking with the other girls. But soon she was off by herself, displaying sick symptoms again. I felt again for an egg, but didn't find one. I went online again to see if there was any information out there. Very few vets will treat a chicken, and I don't have money to run a bunch of expensive lab tests anyway, so I had to rely on home treatments. It seemed there was no definitive diagnosis out in cyberspace. I didn't know what to do except to isolate her and try to get her to eat and drink. I fixed her some "chicken soup" which is made FOR chickens, not FROM chickens, but she didn't really want it. She passed that night. She was such a sweetie, and she was so pretty. I was sad.

The next day, I was giving the flock their scratch and I noticed Bev wasn't joining in on the feast, so I called her, "Kitty kitty!" That's how I call my birds. I think it sounds better than "Chick chick". Bev is almost always that first to come running when I call out. She is so blinded by her crest that I frequently have to lead her around the yard to the food. No Bev, and I started to worry, then I saw her huddled up in the corner of the side yard and my heart sank. She was laying down with her feathers all fluffed up, just like Mary had done. Oh no. I picked her up to comfort her and to my astonishment, uncovered a clutch of five eggs. Bev was setting on a nest of eggs. Whew!! What a relief.

I realize now that there is no such thing as a chicken expert. Chickens are all different and do pretty much what they want. My Easter-egger, Esther, is not sweet and lovable like the 'experts' said she would be. She is a nice bird, but does not want to sit in my lap and be petted. My Polish pullet, Bev, is a prolific layer, even though the experts say Polish are only so-so. And the Dominique hasn't laid yet. Of course, with these short days, I wasn't even expecting any eggs, so they are all welcome surprises.

 

R.I.P. Mary

Ups and Downs Part II

They quail were happily living in their new home and I just love to listen to their sweet songs.  Time to roll out Phase 2 of my plan.  Trust me, I have a plan. See, the whole thing with the ducks was that we wanted eggs, but we also wanted meat. I much prefer chicken, but my little flock is part of the family, and there will be no baby chicks because there is no rooster. That's why we went with ducks. Male ducks are no more noisy than female ducks, which, as it turns out, are kind of noisy. Although I would have loved and cared for my ducks, once they were gone I didn't want to replace them with more ducks. It was a failed endeavor, so I scrapped that plan and came up with another. Quail will lay eggs with no males present, but they will also breed readily, or so I have read. We are still waiting. My quail flock was about a mix of male and female so the plan was to split them into breeding groups of one male to two females and, gosh I hate to say this but we'll probably eat the extra males. Sounds harsh, I know, but I eat meat every day and I think it would be hypocritical of me to balk at killing and eating animals I raised. The fly in this ointment is that domesticated quail rarely set on their own eggs. The eggs must be incubated, or set under a foster mother.

Phase 2: Silkies. Doing research online I found that overall, Silkies were thought to be the best foster parents for hatching the eggs of other birds. There were a few other choices such as Cochins, but since quail eggs are so small, I thought Silkie Bantams would make more sense, plus they are super cool looking and have a reputation of being very sweet birds. Time to get some Silkies! Of course, mid-Fall is not the best time to order day old chicks. And there is only on place that offers sexed day-old Silkies, My Pet Chicken. No problem, really, because that's where my lil chicken flock came from and besides having an amazing selection of chicks, they are super nice and give great customer service. As Fate would have it, just about the only chicks available in November were Blue Silkies. After my experience with not being able to tell the ducks apart, I would have preferred to order a variety of chick colors, but since that was not possible I felt the next best solution was to order the Blue. Having ordered three Blue Polish chicks for my lil chicken flock, I knew that they can turn out looking quite different from one another, and with the Silkies, it would be even more so. There were color variations, as well as possibilities for different crests and beards.

Two weeks later I was picking up a peeping box at my local Post Office. So exciting! The chicks were incredibly adorable. They were so tiny and fuzzy. I got them all set up in their nice warm brooder and just stared at them most of the afternoon. The first day they sleep a lot, but it's still hilarious to me. They will just fall asleep, mid action. So cute. That night, I noticed something was a little off. One of the chicks seemed to have a hurt leg. It wasn't as active as the other babies and was having a hard time getting around to the food and water. I knew that chicks can live for a few day without food, it's what makes them perfect for mail order, but soon this baby was going to need to be able to feed itself. The next morning I called MPC to ask them what I should do and they were super helpful providing me with information sources, but basically my only option was to try some home remedies and let Nature take it's course. I tried stretching the leg to get the tendon back into place, to no avail. I tried to splint it but the chick freaked out. I tried to isolate the chick but it wasn't having any of that either. It seemed like my attempts to aid the chick were only causing it pain and stress so I just decided to back off and hope that it would get right on its own. I was beside myself with worry over this chick, meanwhile I was eating chicken for dinner. It made me feel even worse.

The chicks were two weeks old Monday and the injured bird is still hanging on. It is terrified of me. I really wanted these chickens to trust me and be very comfortable around me, after all I need them to adopt my quail eggs and hatch them as their own. I chose them for their loving personalities, but they are scared whenever I put my hand into their cage. I'm hoping this fear will fade once they realize the food they eat comes from me. It's a great way to win over just about any creature.

Ups and Downs Are Great...On a Merry-Go-Round

Wow, it's been pretty crazy here at the homestead these past couple of weeks. Let's travel back in time and I'll explain it all.

Way back in October, a terrible tragedy occurred when my little dogs snuffed an entire flock of ducklings while I was out running an errand. I didn't really have time to properly grieve, because my husband and I were taking a road trip to the Bay Area just two days later and I still hadn't done my laundry. We were headed up north to check out some neighborhoods in case we did decide to make the big move. We needed to see if our 'Plan B' was a possibility or a pipe dream. Suffice to say that the trip did not yield any hopeful results as far as that went, but we did have some enjoyable moments. The day before we were set to leave, we made a quick trip to Chinatown in search of a calendar scroll. I collect them and I have one for every year for the past ten years, always bought on one of our trips. I never cheated and bought one of the Internet, so I really needed a 2010 scroll if I didn't want to break my streak. No luck finding a 2010 scroll in October if you can imagine that, but one shop had something I found even more amazing. A little cage full of little quails. The shop was selling dressed birds and quail eggs, but they also had live quails available for purchase. My husband is really the best ever because I said to him, " I want one!" and he said, "Get one." No, no, no, that would be ridiculous, right? I mean what would I do with 4 quail in a hotel room (they were 4 for $5) and then on an eight hour drive? In my old age, I am finally acting like a grown-up, because I resisted the very strong urge to buy four quails that day, even though it would have been super cool to have quails from my very fave city!

Although I abstained, those quails were all I could think of. I kicked myself for days for not buying those special SF quail. What a coup that would have been! I am not exaggerating that probably half of my knick-knacks & decor is from San Francisco. I love it that much. But I told myself to get over it, those quail were no longer a possibility and we were never taking another road trip to the Bay Area. I knew there was no way in hell my husband was ever going to make that drive again, because he told me so. The duck pen looked so empty, I just couldn't bear to keep seeing it that way. I did research on keeping quail and decided I could totally pull it off. I began looking daily on Craigslist for quail. I had seen them before but, of course, now that I was looking for them they were not to be found. It took a couple of weeks before I finally hooked up with a lady who had hatched and raised some Coturnix Quail, and now was re-homing them. That's what they call it on Craigslist because technically you are not supposed to sell animals. Whatever. She needed to find a new home for them because they were being picked on by her flock of tiny button quail. Coturnix are so docile that they were being abused by the much smaller button quail and they looked mighty raggedy. Some of them were completely bald on their backs. It was a pathetic sight.

We got them home and into their new pen. They seemed to really like it. No more bullying by birds half their size and lots of grass to burrow in. Watching them joyfully frolic in their new home made me feel happy.

Time to face facts...

When I started this blog, I was hoping it would be a chronicle of the start of something new and life changing. So far, it hasn't worked out that way. I know it was naive of me to think that I would be able to make a living without having to get a real job. Now I am trying to figure out how to keep  my creative outlets rolling while working a 9-5 job. If I ever get one. I put in a lot of effort to keep my Etsy shop going, but realistically it's a business that has to be grown slowly over time. Selling a bracelet every once in a while is not going to cut it. I have branched out and have begun to sell supplies to make the bracelets and I even put together a kit you can buy with all the "ingredients" to make your own very personal bracelet. I am constantly reading and researching ways to grow my business. It just takes time, which is something I have a lot of, and then again, something I don't have much more of. I need a job and soon.

So, my garden has never come to fruition. All I really have to show are a handful of tiny tomatoes and some peppers that are very pretty but way too hot for me to enjoy. I haven't given up completely, but I know that when I get a job, it's the first thing that will suffer. I forget to water all the time. It's probably the biggest reason my garden is so pathetic, my poor plants are always subjected to drought.

And I've given up the notion of making soap or cheese, at least for now. The soap I could probably get into making. If I took a class to walk me through the process, I would probably feel comfortable and confident enough to try it at home. The cheese making is on hold mainly because raw milk is impossible to find in California. I decided that cheese making would be practical only if I had a dairy animal and consequently my own steady supply of raw milk. So those two "homestead standards" are on the back burner, at least for now. Who knows what will happen in the future? Certainly not me.

The one thing I know for sure that will continue is the backyard flock. As scatterbrained as I can be at times, I'm not going to forget to feed and water my birds. I have been a very responsible farm girl, getting up and tending to my animals no matter how badly I want to sleep, no matter how cold it is or how hot it is. Like they would let me off the hook anyway. Maybe the quail, but the chickens are very demanding and they squawk loudly if I'm not out there early enough with their scratch. They are spoiled. I just love them. I'm sure it's just that they want food and they know I' am often a source for it, but it just makes a person feel good when their animals rush out to see them as soon as they step into the yard. Even if I'm not feeding them, they hang around with me while I do my backyard stuff. I never thought I could be so attached to birds, but they bring a lot of joy into my life. I need that.

A Teaching Opportunity...

In my last post I said I was 'over' the ducks, but...
It took me a while to blog about what happened to the flock of ducks, mostly because I was embarrassed about it. They suffered from my mistakes and lack of experience. I mentioned to my husband that I didn't even want to have to share the news on my blog and he told me that I really needed to. One of the reasons I write this blog is to share my experiences so others can learn. Good or bad. I can't just gloss over the bad stuff, that wouldn't be helpful at all. Of course, as usual, he's right. In fact, one of the reasons I ran into trouble was that there is just not a lot of info out there on backyard ducks and what little there is paints a pretty rosy picture. I believed the hype about ducks being better, easier and friendlier than chickens. Wow, easier than chickens? Chickens have been pretty darn easy so far. And friendly too. Before the ducklings had even arrived I envisioned myself as the leader of the backyard ducks movement. I was going to take this ball and run with it.

And when the ducklings finally arrived, they were cuter that I even imagined. They made adorable peeping sounds and slurped their water in such a comical way. After a couple of days, however, I discovered that it wasn't all sunshine and daffodils. Ducks are messy, way messier than chickens. They wash their food down with water which means that their water is constantly being spoiled by food. When the chickens were babies, I dumped their spoiled water out a couple times a day. The duck's water needed to be freshened every 30 minutes it seemed. Also, it was easy to keep  the chicken brooder clean by adding bedding every day or two and changing it once a week. Not so with ducks.
First of all, they splash water everywhere. If I had made a duck-specific brooder, I could have eliminated some of the problems caused by their splashing. I've seen pictures of brooders made from cardboard boxes where the food and water was kept outside the brooder so the ducklings have to access it through a 'window'. That seems like the way to go, unfortunately I wasn't able to use that type of brooder because we don't have a garage or enclosed shelter to house the brooder. I used a wire cage as a brooder to keep them safe from predators, so I had to put the food and water in the brooder with them. Very messy. I 'redecorated' the brooder many times, trying to find a less messy way to offer them water. I ended up setting their water in a plastic tray to keep the water from pooling in the bottom of the brooder and also putting their nest in another tray, slightly higher than the water tray in hopes of keeping their bed dry. These things helped but didn't completely solve the problem.

Even worse that water is poop. Ducks drink a TON of water, so their poop is very liquidy. And ducklings eat basically cereal, so they are pooping out liquid cereal all day, which, if left to sit, smells like spoiled beer. There is no way you can just throw some shavings on that and make it last a week. The duck brooder had to be cleaned out daily. Fortunately it was warm enough that I could transfer the flock to a tub with a few inches water and they could take a little swim while I washed their house out an a daily basis. Also fortunate (?) that I am unemployed and have the time to so such things.

While chickens require eight weeks in the brooder, ducks can get by with three or four, depending on the weather, which is a big plus because by three weeks, they are fouling their brooder at an alarming rate.
Our flock was moved to their pen at four weeks because of construction delays, and it was not a moment too soon. Sadly, what seemed like a benefit turned out to be instrumental in their demise. They were hardy enough to stand up to the weather, but had no defense against two little dogs. The chickens weren't allowed to free-range until they were nine weeks old, basically full grown. A nine week old chicken flock could probably defend against a dog attack, at least by my little dogs who notoriously back down from any challenge. Four week old ducks just try to escape, and even my candy-assed dogs will give chase.

So, what are the lessons we've learned?

• Ducks are NOT easier than chickens. They are more hardy but NOT easier.
• The right brooder makes all the difference.
• Ducklings shouldn't be allowed to free-range until they are big enough to defend themselves.

And on that note, I will leave you with the last video of my dear departed duckling flock, taken the very day of their expiry. Some day I will have another flock of ducks and I will take proper care of them. They are just too fun to give up on.

When the going gets tough...

So we suffered quite a set-back with the loss of our duck flock.  It has taken me a while to get over it, but as the saying goes,  "Where there's livestock, there's going to be deadstock" and if I really want to be a farm girl, I have to accept that.

I also need to shake off this black cloud and persevere. Not everything is going to work out as planned, but I need to keep going and moving forward if I want to succeed. No crying over spilled milk.

As sad as I am about how the duck project ended, I now realize that the plan wasn't going to work out for my situation. If we ever move to our dream farm I will try ducks again, but they are too loud and our yard is just too open to have roaming ducks. It's a poop issue, really.

But on the bright side...

The chickens are doing wonderfully well.

I've been avoiding you...

I've been dreading writing this post because it's a little painful and sort of embarrassing. But here goes...

October 13th started off quite nicely. The ducks were awake at sunrise, but so was I so I fed them their chopped greens and that seemed to satisfy them for a while. I brought out my camera and took pictures and video of the ducklings joyfully gobbling their "greens soup", then I led them down to the "swimming pool" . It was a little too early for swimming, so they rooted around in the compost heap for a minute and then headed back to their coop to finish breakfast and do their ducky stuff. I had a very busy day ahead of me so I finished my chores and headed off for a Costco trip with my mom and sister.

After shopping, my mom and my sister stopped by with my niece and nephew. It was a lovely sunny day and the kids wanted to see the animals so we went to the backyard & fed the chickens and ducks and dogs whole wheat spaghetti. Frank got some vegetable scraps. Everyone was having such a good time. My nephew Ryan wasn't too impressed by the chickens, but he was fascinated by the ducks. Everyone left, I had more errands, and when I got back home, I downloaded the pictures I took in the morning and posted them on my Facebook page. I was just about to write a blog post when my daughter called me from downstairs. She sounded troubled, but I figured she was going to tell me that our little dog Lola was limping. I already knew that. I had checked it out and it didn't seem too serious. Instead she told me something was wrong with the ducks.

"What do you mean?" I asked.
"They're all dead" she answered.

How was that possible? I was confused. I just saw the ducks, they were fine. How could they all get sick and die so fast? When I went outside to check, I understood. They didn't get sick. They were murdered. I was totally in shock. It wasn't gory or gross or anything, but just sad. Very sad. Five little ducklings, just dead. I knew that my dogs had done it. I knew they probably didn't mean to, and I knew that I had failed as a duck mommy. The dogs had never bothered the chickens, probably because the chickens are ornery. The poor ducklings had no defense. If they had been a little older maybe.

So, no more ducks. My duck plan is on hold for now. I really liked them and I thought they were super cute, but they were much more demanding than I thought they would be, and our yard isn't suited for so many roving birds. It's hard enough to keep the patio clean with chickens, I can't even imagine how it would be with ducks pooping all over it.

I leave you with the final video of ducklings enjoying their morning greens. R.I.P., little birdies.