Eggs in the Crock Pot!

I made custard in the crock pot tastes great I'll use less sugar next time and tweak it with splenda at some point. --it turned out pretty well. 

Bread pudding I made in the crock pot vanished very quickly! 

Cobbler I cooked in the crock pot our grand daughters were competing who got to crack the eggs and put them in this recipe and helped mix it up making recipe so much more fun to do. What I learned was the cobbler should have been in the bigger crock pot, the custard needed to be mixed more.  Still tweaking these recipes a bit. 

Crust-less spinach quiche' was a surprise that it was such a hit! We had ours in a wrap the carb count is better and the family liked it that way; but it was a bit watery because I did not put flour in it. Next time I'll do it in the crock pot as well. Tonight we'll have egg salad in a wrap, or tuna salad in a wrap.  

I may try poached eggs as well. 
Recipes coming I have saved them some where around here! 

Got it!

For a treats the hens got crumbs from the box of vanilla wafer cookies and raisin bran cereal, some green grapes with seeds, and one green plum. 

I cleaned under the roost again today and got a frame I'm considering for a frame to hold the plastic we will put up over the wire mesh on part of the roof. The hens do not mind the rain as much as I do when it drips down my neck when I'm out doing chores the tin ends right on the walk way where I go through from one door to the other. I hope this will work. Last year we did not put up plastic because we figured the wind on the wire would just shred it. 

Part of the nest box has a nail loose and the bottom is coming out so we need to repair that this weekend. We moved it to solve that problem. I got 12 eggs today. The days are getting shorter so next month I'll be thinking about getting the light up and fall stuff we need to do. 

This week I've been trying out some recipes and I'll be posting those I finally got the cobbler one to turn out like I wanted. 

August News

Each week it seems I learn some thing new with chickens here. This weekend at a flea market an old timer had some eggs for sale and I was getting some pointers on what to do with a broody hen w no rooster that should be done sitting. I like what he said that they did. They moved the chicken that were broody out away from the others without any eggs, in to an isolation area then after a week they were ready to rejoin the flock. 

What I've been doing is moving the broody hen to a cage away from the others in the morning and then when the hens are done laying at noon closing the coop if there are stragglers they can use the outside nesting boxes. Then I let the broody hen out of the cage and she is more than ready to rejoin the flock. 

Today the broody hen that I was working with  has rejoined the flock after only a day and a half. I'm SO happy about that. Then today found another two that have gone broody of this years hens so I have isolated one and will do what I did yesterday with the other one next. It seems to be working. 

Today I gathered eleven eggs I got a thin shelled egg today so I added oyster shell calcium to the feed, they have it in the run but thought I'd better put it in their feeder as well. And one cracked egg so I had those for my brunch. 

I put up the big feeder that holds a lot for our weekend away. I've removed that one an put up the others. The hens were having a hard time getting the last of it out of the big feeder so I poured it out for them. 

The road construction in our area does not seem to bother the hens at all this week. 
Ten eggs yesterday one was not salvageable was broken. The cracked ones went for boiled eggs I'm thinking egg salad sandwiches or on half a bagel open faced style. That would be fun on the mini ones as well. 

I dug up some bulbs on the West side of the coop, the hens liked getting bugs, our grand daughter had so much fun digging in the dirt with me! First I had to move some wood and then  I watered it so the digging would be easier and would attract more bugs, then I put the hose on another section in front of that to do some more digging on later. 

We are rethinking the placement of the red coop to use for brooders it needs to be closer to the main coop and power source We may be redesigning one to fit on the current coop and incorporate the window we have on it for a hen access place.  


I've put of an eggs for sale sign in our window this week. 

Herding Hens

We've had some thunder and rain here this week. I've fed the chickens this morning and let them out. Today I need to water them and fill their big water font. Plus fill up the big feeder to see if it lasts a couple of days I got it hung up yesterday in the chicken run. 

I dismantled the nest of the broody hen that went next door to for an unsuccessful hatch not surprising with no roo. After a month it was time. The grand kids helped me heard her back home after she went back to that spot she was sitting again. She has showered in the rain and returned to the flock now. That's a relief!The other broody hen is still sitting on a golf ball but is in the coop. 

We got the smallest egg I've ever seen today about an inch and a half long I suspect it is just yolk. It's a very pretty egg dark and speckled a lovely egg. One of the New Hampshire red pullets have already started to lay eggs. We gathered eight eggs today. 

I made deviled eggs and our grand daughter helped me mix up two different kinds of cookie dough. 

Peanut Butter Cake mix cookies

P.B. Cake Mix Cookies 
Preheat oven 350* 
Prep. 5-10 min. 

Ingredients: 
1 yellow or chocolate cake mix
2 small eggs 
1 Tablespoon vanilla 
2 Tablespoons water
1 c. peanut butter 
1 cup toppings we like chocolate chips optional. 
Cinnamon

Directions: 
Stir eggs in to cake mix with vanilla peanut butter and water. 
spoon on cookie sheet; sprinkle cinnamon on top make fork marks on top. 

Option: add 7 chocolate chips or m & m's on each cookie for a variation 
Bake 10-12 min.@ 350 cool and enjoy. 
Great for ice cream sandwiches. 

Trip to the Tractor Supply Store

After breakfast our dear grand son helped with the chicken chores he's the fill in person to help out when needed around here. I had the grand kids eat breakfast on the deck I put a table cloth on it dear grand daughter wanted to know why there was a "cloth" on the table. Later we did some errands to the Tractor Supply Store got the hens some more food, putting away stuff from the farm and tractor store. 

I got a galvanized chick feeder I wanted a spare and they were out last time I was checking on them. I cut the bottom out of a plastic mayo. jar so I could use it for this one it makes so much easier to fill the feeder just being able to pour it in. The hens use this as well. 

Then Hubby got busy trying to beat the heat fixed the roosts and perch in the chicken run. The hens were not happy with him messing around out there in the chicken run one was really squawking a lot. It was really quiet outside unsualy so not a sound from other birds; I said "maybe that hawk is back who knows". Then I got busy with the tasks at hand and I rinsed off the ramps for the roosts got the roosts scraped off and the chicken ramps got those back up. 

Hubs grilled lunch yummy burgers for us for our lunch those were great. We also got a small five gallon sized galvanized bucket, like a trash cans we had when I was a kid. This one is like a miniature one of those. Saw they had them on sale, this one is for chicken feed. The clerk said this shipment came without a handle but I knew we had a wooden knob at home from another project. So I rounded that up and hubby put it on while the burgers were cooking. I filled the galvanized mini can with the bottom of the bag feed that was left and I'm glad that worked out so well. 

One egg was broken today when I gathered them seven so far today. Yesterday our grandson came up to the deck grinning ear to ear our grand daughter was tattling that "he got eggs without the basket"; he had eggs stuffed in all of his pockets; such memories we are building around here! They do love to gather eggs and help with the chicken chores.  

I set the waterer up on some 2" x 4" blocks to get the water up off the ground to keep it cleaner that is working well. 

I got a plastic egg carton for the fridge and some of the foam cartons for when folks want eggs those were on my list. 

Mopsy and Flopsy

After my walk today the two hens I'm calling Mopsy and Flopsy one has a floppy comb. Were busy in the nest box hanging out and lots of cluck cluck CLUCK clucking was going on. 

I was watering with the hose and spotted a hawk fly off out of the tree in the neighbor's back yard so it was a warning call to take cover that time instead of the "I've just laid and egg" clucking. I picked apples for them after getting on the old rickety ladder I've decided next time I need to get out the other one that's better and taller. I raked the chicken yard and got fresh apples chopped up for the hens so they can have the worms inside them too. 

I freshened up the nest boxes with shavings and cleaned under their roosts. I Saw one of the nest box perches needs some repair and I stabilized it for now until we can get to it in the morning when it's cooler this weekend. 

I gathered ten eggs today so far yea for a full basket of eggs. Of course when production was down I gave away all the egg cartons I had collected. [Me rolling my eyes.] I do have a couple of spares I keep the clear ones and some I cut in half to use when production is less so they will do for now. The broody hens took a break in the afternoon and got a drink stretch and had some food. The do not poo in their nests. 

One of the younger pullets sort of pecked at my hand when I went outside and had no food for them it was like she was saying "hey don't forget about us"! I picked her up and packed her out to the chicken run and put her by the food. A couple of them are tame enough to be petted and she was one of those. I'm going to see about getting them to eat out of my hand but I'll put on my leather gloves first. 

Summer Heat

Our chickens are all alive and well we have plenty of shade and water buckets all around the yard under shady areas. Some frozen treats or okay with the hens now they have decided. I've been watering the hot spots during the day to cool it off a bit and they enjoy the cool grass. They've been eating less feed. We got eight eggs yesterday. The guy from hubby's work was very happy with his eggs, on Sunday for family breakfast they made making pancakes and got a double yolk-er the kids got a kick out of seeing that they were helping to make the batter! Out of that doz. several were double yolkers. It's a challenge to explain that double yolk eggs are sort of random and do not all come from the same hen as far as I know any way. 

When I open up the coop window one hen jumps up on the ledge and I jump back expecting a chicken bomb, that's when a chicken takes flight and you need to get out of the way! But this one did not fly just saying hi and I petted her so that's the new routine a couple of them are tame enough so that's great. 

Our granddaughter got between the feed and one got pecked once so now she will not go out in to the chicken yard or coop she is afraid. Not all bad if we get a roo it's good that she remains a healthy distance from them but so far none are roos. The hens from this spring's crop of Rhode Island Reds all seem to be laying. Delaying my summer plans to paint the inside of the coop as it's a pretty busy place through out the morning. Maybe in the afternoon but it's been in the triple digits this week here so that's not very appealing. 

Chicken Notes & Ideas

Today I got one egg first thing today it was cold so had been laid a while ago none in the nest box last night when I last checked. 

U.S. farm report had good info. but an hour long was too much time. will have to try to catch the rest later on the net. I like to follow info. on crops and stuff and get ideas about feed. http://www.rfdtv.com/shows/agriculture/u.s._farm_report/

Speaking of feed I'm going to put the corn meal in the freezer to kill any potential bugs from hatching. I'd not thought about G.M.O. corn being in the feed we use until I saw the show this week,  I'll be giving that some thought. 

Decided we might try to get some Rhode Island White in the fall to have them ready to lay by spring to prevent the lag time we had this year. It's sort of an art from keeping on top of that. I'll have to call and put in my order. 

The hens are not keeping up with the apples at this point. I got a shrub rake, I had to attach the handle before I could use it. Then I cleaned out the coop and run yesterday. After that I Freshened up the nest boxes with new shavings hoping to prevent the occasional cracked eggs. Surprised how long it took me to figure that out! LOL! 

Beginning the new tech. stuff will get a new cable modem tomorrow afternoon. To get the tech. net stuff on the smart phones we have will double the bill so we will not be doing that. Bummer. =( Keeping my fingers crossed that I'll be able to get a tablet and do it with that using the cable net. 

Soft Shell

 Hoping to get some new technology by fall so I can put up some chicken videos, & pic. 

The other day a chicken laid an egg directly in front of me, it was a soft shelled one. So I upped the amount of oyster shells in with their feed. That was amazing and I could tell that she was one of the hens with the crook in her comb. 

I've been getting between 4-6 eggs a day this week. Only the EE is laying from the older hens. 

Hubby brought home a cage to use for chicks or isolation from a guy at work that wanted to trade it for eggs. I have sent the first doz. with hubby to work for the guy. He lives in the city limits and cannot have chickens and is really missing the fresh eggs. I was glad to hear that he did not mind green eggs! 

Grand kids have been having fun helping to feed and gather eggs naming the chickens that are their favorites. It's a challenge to tell them apart with most all of them the same breed this year. 

Ours do not like the frozen treats so much in the hot weather they wait until the treats of frozen fruit are thawed to eat it. 

Double

Double yolker egg today elongated shaped. That was a fun one to find it was an elongated egg more so than the average egg. Last night I put my gloves on and picked up the broody hen briefly so I could check her eggs and she had two pullet eggs in her nest so she's sitting on three eggs now. So the new hens have been laying for a week now. 

I got some herb plants marked down one each of lemon thyme and regular thyme planted those in the front yard, where the chickens will not eat them so much. 

At the farmers market I got some zucchini  Swiss chard, and carrots. Then I realized after I got home that I should have had the guy leave the tops on the carrots when he asked I could have given them to the chickens! 

I dropped of feed sacks to the gal that uses them to make feed sack totes and next time I'll ask if she does the feed sack aprons. Picked up another sack of feed while we were down town. This one is a new design! 

Egg-citing News!

Exciting news here from the hen house! Loud clucking was heard this morning and one of the new Rhode Island Red [RIR] pullets has laid an egg; so at 22-23 weeks we have a new productive batch of hens here! Yippie!  I suppose it is so silly to get this excited over such a tiny egg golf ball sized egg! I noticed she had been hanging out around the hen house a lot lately sitting in the nest boxes and being friendly with the others that were sitting & laying.  Our 5 year old grand daughter found it and was the most excited! We got 3 eggs yesterday one green one the Easter Egger has been laying really consistently this week. Plus one beige egg with a pointy end I'm trying to figure out which hen lays that one. 

While I was out in the yard I found a pink tomato but the chickens found it first and was 3/4ths of the way eaten; but I'm in such a good mood about having a new layer I'll forgive them this time. I put the tomato cage up it needs to be wrapped with netting still. That will be next up on my to do list.

When I was out in the yard the other broody hen came flying over the fence from next door clucking loudly as if to say "I'm home!" I had to step back because I was in her "flight path" so she could have a safe landing! She was home for food and water.

Other neighbors have their house up for sale and are clearing out stuff and I got a couple of new to me egg gathering baskets and crock pot for the chickens water-er in the winter to keep that from freezing. I'm going to try that out hoping it's not too hot.  I have sun tea brewing on the deck now so I'll be sipping on that soon. 

Looking forward to the farmers markets this weekend. Today one of the roos woke me up at 5:15 sort of a squack not really a crow; he's still learning. I'm not sure if it was Stewie or Golden Boy there are two I think are roos in this batch. It's time to think about getting their pen ready to go. The hen coop needs to be repainted. 

Fence Fixing and other 4th Activities

Yesterday our five year old grand daughter helped me fix the fence. Doesn't every farm girl fix fence at some point in her life on the 4th even plastic fences count! Then I cleaned up under the roost and moved a the feeders into the wagons and while I did that the chickens thought that was great fun to get up in the wagon to eat!  

I heard the the boody hen off her nest clucking in the back yard so I scurried out to take a look - see I was amazed at how many eggs she had in her clutch I counted between 9 to12 she was in a spot hard to see and took a pic of it but you could not tell much from it. 

We picked apples for the chickens to eat and took photos of the red tomato, and sunflowers in the yard and baked up come cookies for other fun activities. 

The chickens survived another loud night of fire works from the streets in front and behind us. Some one had a radio going and that seemed to help calm the chickens down some what. I will be glad when the fireworks are done especially the really loud ones! 

Chickens and Fireworks

This is the first 4th we've had chickens. lots of our neighbors are avid fireworks fans so I've been nervous about this holiday week. So last night I rounded up the chickens early and got them in to their run before the noise began. I must admit this is my least favorite holiday.  

Some kids buzzing around on an obnoxiously loud mini bike past the cop's house and he was out with a couple of chirps of his siren and lights going  and after their second trip round the block  they stopped. 

Today I've fed the chickens a bit late they were squawking to get out. They were okay after the fireworks not much worse than a T-storm here last night. I got them rounded up and in the run pen a bit early last night. But I know tonight will be worse. We are supposed to have some significant winds here today so that maybe delaying some of those. 

Broody Hen Found!

Today I found the broody hen had not seen her for a few days; she is alive and well. I put some water out for her near her nest and will take out some special treats in a bit. So glad she is okay.  She is in some underbrush in a well hidden spot. So all the chickens have survived this last heat wave we had. Yea! 

The heat and broody hens have taken away from egg production but the young hens are healthy and I'm so happy about that! Glad we took in to consideration how hot it gets here when we were thinking about the kind of chicks to raise last spring. 

This morning we've picked some cherry plums for them to eat from the purple leaf plum tree one of their favorite treats. 

Record Heat

I've been up since before five when hubby's alarm went off, thunder was rumbling, lightening was flashing and we even got a few big drops of rain. It's muggy out today. We've had record hi. temps here, yesterday we have a new hi. for this date 105* phew that's hot! 

The chickens seem to be doing okay. I've been putting out watering stations in the shade at various points in the yard. They like frozen fruit, I put it up last year cleaning out the freezer. With some left over corn on the cob for a breakfast treat as well. 

One of the Rhode Island reds grabbed an apple we were picked for them and took off with it across  the yard and off to the chicken run to eat it! That chicken got it's prize!

Flock Owner's Rainy Day Chili

This is the perfect flock owners crock pot chili recipe that I use. 

In crock pot pour in and stir gently. 

2 cans [15 oz.] Nalley's turkey chili 

1 small can tomato sauce 

2 turkey sausage patties cooked & crumbled

1-2 sliced sausage cheese dogs

1/4 cup salsa 

1 can pork n beans drained or red beans I was out today.

1 teaspoon cinnamon 

Mix ingredients in and cook on low 4 hrs.

Missing Hen Found

Missing Hen Found! Earlier this morning I realized that one of the black hens was missing. I have not found a pile of black feathers so that is good news I suppose. I looked all over the back yard and under the shed in and even in the neighbors yard they hang out sometimes I did not see her. Then later in the morning after I told hubby that I could not find here he opens up the kitchen door just as she flew in on top of the coop and had breakfast! 

I looked under the broody hen she is sitting on one egg. Today I made up omelet for Father's day for hubby and the two Easter Egger green eggs were both fertile that I used I've heard fertile eggs are supposed to be the best for you. 

As I type this I'm trying to think of what happened with the chickens here this week pretty uneventful. I had to buy eggs at the farmer's market this week to have enough to boil for lunches. Production is down a couple of the hens have gone broody and the older ones are slowing down in production. They young ones are not in production yet so we are sort of in between.  

The young roos are starting to scuffle among themselves now. The smaller one pullets are nearly fryer size are leary of them. 

The currents are nearly gone now, the chickens love the cherry sized plums from the purple leaved plum tree and eat the small green apples from the back yard so they are keeping that cleaned up. Now if I could just get them to catch and eat the yellow jackets! 

We are thinking of the cooking surface for the patio and we're thinking an outdoor sink would make butchering day a lot easier so we looked at some for that hoping to get a used sink for that. 

New Chicken Yard Fence

This week end we put up the new fencing in the chicken yard the other one was temporary and I learned I needed more access so we put in an additional point of access a make shift gate. The green plastic fencing is not permanent but should last better than the other one. 

Today the chickens are in the back yard while I water the chicken yard when ever I go out to change the sprinkler they think it's feeding time. When I moved it last time I put buckets upside down by the current berry bushes so they could get the taller berries. They seem to really enjoy them. The ones by the wagon were picked clean! Great free chicken food. 

Roses in the chicken yard have grown a lot this year that was great to see. I'm thinking where I can put one more old fashioned rose in as it's great cover for them. I've learned that they do not bother the things I plant as much if I let them get the bugs out first and then after planting but the netting around it. 

It's getting more difficult to tell the difference in the young birds and the older ones as they are all nearing the same size. Some are getting courser sounding squawk in their clucking making me thing this might be a roo. 

I got paint for the coop and I'm thinking how to get the wall inside the run done and dry in time for their nightly roosting.  I guess I'll be out cleaning it bright and early before I begin and then locking it up after they are out they don't mind feeders being moved out side under the trees. 

We need a bigger latch for the back gate/door and lower front one as they seem to be the ones I fight with to get to close not enough give in them it's frustrating and I'll be glad to have that problem solved! 

Chicken Adventures

Chicken adventures are expanding the neighbor kid is done with high school gave his chickens (2 hens) away to a friend and gave the coop to us we are going to remodel it for an isolation cage / roo run/ or brooder. So it was a very exciting day to get that last weekend! It's red the other neighbor made it I need to ask him if it is paint or stain the top needs a new coat. 

We are down to six hens we got rid of the older mean hens. Also we still have all ten of the chicks they are now fryer size and some are as big as the smaller hens. The four we got later are pullet size now of those four looks like only one is a hen.  :roll: 

This week hubby cut a 2" x 4" for a second roost and things have calmed down at night when they go to roost now that they have more room. We had been talking about doing that for a while. I put up a temporary one of a tree branch that broke off one of the the trees in the yard in a wind storm but it was too unstable for any of the bigger ones to use. The really like the 2" x 4" on the four inch part to roost on at night. 

I've changed them over to pellets and have less feed lost to song birds / mice stealing it because of the larger size. The chickens also love corn, canned corn I found some at a yard sale down the street,  and corn on the cob I got an extra one for them to enjoy. I need to go pick up the cobs! 

The younger chickens are learning to enjoy the backyard I have a few holes to plug up so they ones do not escape, but it's an easy fix as so far only one spot has been a problem.