New Experiment - Hemp Bedding for Chickens - 2021

 As anyone who uses wood products knows right now, the price of it keeps rising substantially. Last year, I paid $11.99 for a bale of aspen wood shavings (compressed to about 50L) that weighed about 20 to 25 pounds, if I remember correctly.  Now it is almost $30 for the same sized bale. A bale typically lasts me about two months.  I stocked up last spring when I noticed that the prices were increasing, but apparently, the prices have not stabilized at this point.  I go through a lot of shavings when I'm brooding chicks so a bale only lasts me for about a month while I use about half a bale per month in the coop. 

A lot of people use the less expensive pine shavings or fir shavings. BUT, I refuse to use any other type of wood shavings because of the smell/toxicity factor.  

While many people who raise chickens swear by the large grain sand; our coop design, being a tractor pull, can't handle the weight of the sand, and I don't even think it would stay inside on the coop floor without a special fitted tray. So.... doing my research, I wondered about hemp bedding. 

According to this well written article, they can't try the hemp for legality reasons, but it may be the next best option for us as long as there is no mold or smell to it.  Hemp bedding is about half the price of the aspen shavings at the moment.  

IF I don't like it, I'll make the switch to straw, even though I have never liked dealing with straw. On the positive side, the hemp, like straw, is more biodegradable than the wood shavings, (wood shavings take a couple of years to fully break down so I can't directly add them to my compost pile). That would be sweet to be able to throw the hemp materials into my compost pile loaded with the chick pooh. Comparison of Chicken Bedding

UPDATE March 2022.  The Shredded hemp is working very well.  It's a bit finer than the aspen shavings, and has a distinct odor, but not overwhelming, nor bad.  It is very absorbent and spreads well.  Although the price is steadily rising, so is the price for the aspen shavings.  The hemp lasts longer.  I can get by with using less because it is more absorbent. In the baby chick brooder, I am using "puppy pee pads" under the shavings, and that is helping to protect the wood flooring better. So far and first week in, it has been very good. 

Kelp Meal and Feather Plucking

This past year is the first time I have ever had to deal with a hen that pulls out her own feathers and was not broody at all. She was actually still laying eggs but she was looking very ragged. She started plucking the feathers last January/February when we had the snow storm and deep snow, and she never stopped plucking herself.  We never needed to pull her out of the flock for broody behavior. Several of the other hens also started to self pluck after she started, but they stopped the plucking behavior after we switched feed. The one hen was the only one left doing it. 

Reading more about nutrition, feather plucking and bullying, on a couple of sites, it was recommended that we add kelp meal and some protein to their diet. Rather than just switch all at once, first we stopped using the Layer pellets and went over to the Flock Raiser with more protein but no calcium. We started supplementing with calcium on the side. We had some really crazy extra calcium deposits on the eggs for a while, but that settled down and it rarely happens now. This actually works better because we can have the pullets in the pen at the same time. They do go through a lot more oyster shell/calcium supplement than before, but it is cheap. So that seemed to work for the other few that had also started to eat feather. They stopped pulling out their chest feathers, except for the one hen. So we figured we were on the right track, but was just not enough of something for the one hen. 

So the next thing I tried was putting "No Pluck" on her chest. That also helped, but did not stop the behavior all the way.  Some of the feathers would grow back in, but the crop area was still bald and bright red. 

Eventually, I started adding organic Icelandic kelp meal in July.  I read that for poultry, this will add many micronutrients that act as a prebiotic. Another level of nutrients that can help with health and behavior. The recommended amount is 1% to 2% by feed weight. So that would be about 0.24 ounces of kelp meal for each pound of food. We add a small scoop that we measured to match the appropriate amount that we feed the birds a couple times per week. The kelp does not "stick" to the pellets, and basically just collects on the bottom of the feeder but they do eat some of it from the feeder tray.  

I don't know if the birds actually get enough of the kelp meal, as recommended, but there is a noticeable change in the feathers coming back in on the one hen who has been bald for so many months.  It took several months of the kelp meal supplement, but her feathers are filling in, even though it is moulting time for her. So I'll continue to add the kelp meal.  It does not seem to be harming them and their eggs are looking/tasting great. 

Plus, now that it is moulting time, I am giving the hens a little extra kitty kibble (fish) and Black Oil Sunflower seeds three times per week to supplement a little extra protein since the nights are getting cooler again.  I know that the extra protein is needed for the moulting hens and since we still have layers in the flock, I don't want to change out the feed again since there has been a gradual improvement.

Hopefully, the feathers will continue to fill in before winter sets in. Here is an article about livestock and organic kelp meal with some research links. 

11/14/21 Update - While the majority of the feathering has filled back in, there is a vertical strip on the crop that she continues to pick at. I don't know that she will ever stop this behavior. She may simply do it like a person who chews their nails. Such as life. 

Raw Apple Cider Vinegar from Apple Scraps

 I have read so many different recipes for this that my head is swimming.  Some does and don'ts that might help.  I'll update this as needed.  This is my second year making my own Raw Apple Cider Vinegar (RACV) using apple peels, cores, and pieces of apples that I freeze and save over the year.  Most of our apples are the honey crisp from our trees, but also granny smith and fuji that we get from the store. I just save the peelings and pieces/chunks from any apples we have started to use, but didn't need the whole thing. I store them in a ziploc type of bag in the freezer until I have enough.  This recipe if for a quart jar, but my most recent batch is being done in a 5 gallon ceramic crock.  This should give us about a gallon and a half, or so. When done, I will strain the RACV into half-gallon jars and keep them stored in a dark location.

Make sure to wash/rinse fresh apples before peeling. Don't use any apple pieces that are starting to rot, are black, or moldy. Worm holes, bruises, etc. are fine. I don't even remove the stems or the seeds, personally. Just don't let the peels, et al. set in the refrigerator for days. Put them right into the freezer bag in the freezer. 

While fermenting or whatever they call it, a warm dark place seems to work best for me.  Not too warm, about room temp (68F - 72F).  I don't usually use jars.  But when I have, I keep them inside a brown paper bag to help with maintaining the darkness.  I don't use any metal on the jars.  I just use two layers of cheese cloth to allow for the release the fumes/gasses and rubber bands to hold the cloth in place. Try to check them daily or several times per week.  Some people stir or swirl the jars slightly to ensure that there are no apple pieces that dry out or get moldy.  In the crock, I use one layer of cheese cloth and a wet kitchen towel over the top.  I also use a dinner plate upside down to help weight down the apple pieces until they all sink and don't float any more. Again, stir every day or two, to help with making a more even break down of the apples. A batch using a quart jar will produce about two cups of RACV.

I am NO expert on this.  So here is an article that helps explain the process a bit better and why not to use this type of Apple Cider Vinegar for canning purposes. Another page about Apple Cider Vinegar with links to uses. 

I use my RACV for refrigerator pickling, but that process is not canning. I also use the RACV for making fresh mayo, in cooking/recipes, and for my chickens as a probiotic. 

The Raw Apple Cider Vinegar using Apple Scraps Recipe

8 oz of Apple scraps (yes, I weigh them)
2 Cups of Water (unchlorinated, distilled, or let the water set for a day or two before adding to the jar)
2 Tablespoons of Honey (sugar works... brown, white, raw, etc.) 
4 Tablespoons of RACV (Braggs will work) I shake up the bottle to ensure that the mother is all broken up and distributed in the jar before I measure it out.  A lot of recipes do not include this. I do. 

Sterilize the glass jar and allow it to cool off. Add apple scraps. The scraps should fill the jar by about 2/3 or 3/4 full without being forced down. The water should be enough to cover the apples but NOT fill the jar.  That extra space is necessary in the process.

I mix the honey and RACV in the water before adding it to the apple scraps in the jar.  

Cover the jar with two layers of cheese cloth using a rubber band, and place the jar in a warm dark location (or in a brown paper bag on the counter, fold over and clip the top).  If using a crock, you can cover the top with a wet towel, and keep the towel damp during the next few weeks. 

Check daily or at least every other day to swirl/stir.  If any dark film starts to form at the top, remove it and watch for any mold. This fermentation process usually takes about two or three weeks and it is the cider process.  I wait until I see that the apples no longer float. 

When the scraps no longer float, you may notice a white film starting to form on the top of the water. That will be the mother. BUT, it may not form until later.  If it is already starting to form, scrape off the mother with some of the juice and set it aside. Strain out all the apple scraps, stems, and seeds.  You may need to squeeze them a little to keep all the RACV liquid for the next phase. Pour the strained liquid into fresh sterile jars, add the mother back in if you had any, and put fresh cheese cloth over the jars. IMPORTANT - Do not fill the jars to the top. Leave about two inches from the very top, or about an inch below the neck of the jar. Now we are starting the vinegar phase. 

Store the cheese cloth covered jars in warm dark location for another four to six weeks.  The mother should be fully formed  the top.  I check mine a couple times per week to ensure that there is no mold starting to form.  If you get mold at this point, you should not use that jar of vinegar (in my opinion). The jar may not have been sterile enough, or there may have been something that got in the jar that caused the mold to form. 

Now, for my big batch of apple cider vinegar this year, I used, as follows: 

6.5 lbs Apple Scraps
26 Cups of Water (6 Quarts + 1 Pint)
1+2/3 Cups Honey
2 Cups RACV with mother

I mixed them all up and poured them into my 5 gallon Crock. I could have gotten by with a 3 Gallon one, but I don't have that size. I used sterilized dinner plate turned upside down to press the apple scraps down under the water and picked out the apple seeds that floated to the top. Then covered the crock with a layer of cheese cloth, and the wet dish towel. Now to check daily and wait. 

The Guardian of the Eggs - September 2021

 Well, we still have nine of the summer pullets.  They are being pulled in a pen around the apple trees for gleaning and cleaning of the ground while fertilizing. 

The hens, as they are, we have nine of those too.  The Salmon Faverolles crack me up.  One has decided she is going to protect the eggs at least until I pull them out of the nest. She's not broody, yet, but who knows.  I may need to intervene if she starts acting more broody-like. 

The other Faverolle is more of a Chatty Cathy. She gets on the other hens' last nerve sometimes. On occasion, they will come up to her and peck at her beak, trying to get her to stop talking. LOL 

A Cooler August Week 2021

 Those hot days are miserable.  Thankfully, the tree tents helps the apples.  They are starting to ripen now, and only a few were scalded where we couldn't cover the tree branches. 

Worked on a revamp of the pull pen that we used for the meat birds last spring.  We needed a larger coop for the left over chicks that we have yet to sell.  So the pull pen is now a convert-a-coop. Ha. We have read about having chickens digging in the dirt around the apple trees to help fertilize and have the birds eat the larva that drop out of the apples in the fall. We will see if  this concept works. I doubt that it will hurt. So the young birds in their convert a coop will be digging and fertilizing around the two apple trees and eventually, they will be out in the field if we can't sell them all this fall. 

The fall portion of the garden is picking up now that it is cooler outside. Bell Peppers and Tomatoes in their respective grow areas seem a lot less stressed. 

Made up a couple batches of pickled Cukes and Eggs. Tried a different recipe using apple cider vinegar along with the white distilled vinegar. Not bad. Has a nice crisp flavor. 

Another Blast of Heat Alert 2021

 So this one may not get up to 115F like last time, but it will be three days over 100F each day.  Apples are ALMOST ready to be picked but need about two more weeks. This intense heat from the sun will bake them on the trees.  So we covered them as best we can, mostly from the south and west directions and, well, hopefully we don't get any strong winds that take our covers off to so distant locations. There are garden row covers and I think they will work for this situation. I guess we shall see if my "sun screen" works on apples. 

All trees and shrubs have been deeply watered this past week. I will continue to water the area in the field that the chickens have devoured.  I seeded with alfalfa and clover and they are still babies.  Hoping they survive this. 

Moving plants to shaded locations that are in pots and I may need to cover the beans and scallions in the garden with some type of shade. I think the carrots and corn will be okay.  I did restart my sweet onions but I put them in a tub of dirt so that I can move it where ever for best growing purposes. I have the cukes in a big tub of dirt too, with empty buckets all around to help keep the slugs away from the young cukes.  Two are almost ready to harvest/pickle.  More are on the vines and the bees are finding the flowers just perfect for pollination purposes. So it's a win-win this year. 

Also covered the tomato grow area with a shade cloth, and I now have my fingers crossed that we don't lose any more plants to the extreme heat, like we did the sweet onions and the garlic. :( 

Apologies for the fuzzy photos. It was getting dark and I need intense light for less fuzzy photos. 

The Foreigners Summer Start 2021

 We are trying to sell these little cuties.  We wanted to try some mail order chicks this summer. They all arrived in good shape and have all survived for the first three weeks.  Three more weeks and they will be ready to go outside. 

Week One - they all have the same stature but the Andalusians are super fast runners. We have one Black Andelusian that we can't tell from the Australorps yet.  The Blue and the Splash Andalusians are interesting to watch since they stand out from the crowd.

Week Two  - Andalusians are still super fast and are always nervous. We finally figured out which one was the Black Andalusian. All the chicks are starting to get wing and tail feathers. They are all starting to stand more upright and don't squat quite as much. 

Week Three - Even more upright, but the Australorp are the tallest and most upright of them all. The chicks are starting to fly up onto the roost and they like to dust bathe in the wood shavings. The Australorps and Andalusians have the longest tail feathers. The Sussex have the most colorful wings. 

It's Always Interesting - Summer 2021

Yesterday, I picked our first tomato.  It's a mystery tomato from a multipack and none listed varieties on the pack match up with what this looks like.  Kind of a small Cinderella, yellow/orange orb. 1.6 oz and almost 2" across.  The photos are taken on a tile that is 3.75" to give a good reference of it's small size BUT not cherry tomato size. 

We do have a lot of green tomatoes, some that look like oxheart, but mostly like beefsteak varieties. I know that we had at least four plants that were Cherokee Purple, and then the rest or mystery heirlooms from Ed Hume's "early heirloom" pack. 

I also harvested a purple and a red bell pepper.  No photos - they were instantly cut up and added to a salad last night along with a walla walla sweet onion. Very Sweet! 

The past couple of weeks, one of the Salmon Faverelles has refused to roost on her own.  I was expected to walk out there each night to pick her up and carry her over to the coop to place her inside.  The first few nights, she wanted to come right back out and I would stand there, blocking the door until she would hop up on a roost.  She generally does not roost nest to other birds, but will. She would then stay in there the rest of the night. Several weeks of this.  The past two nights are the first night that I have not needed to put her into the coop. So, hopefully, this is the end of that game. 

I checked the nesting boxes like I usually do one last time at the end of the day, and discovered a bit of a slime ball of an egg.  It was a little like a no shell egg, with just a smidge of a shell like layer on it.  The yolk is visible through the translucent layer, and I tried to show that in the photos, but the light reflects too much, and I don't have the best camera or the best lighting. Anyways, I am assuming it is just a newbie egg for now and hope she improves with age. They have free access to oyster shell at all times, and I don't see any pullets being chased away from the oyster shell bin when I am out there. The egg is actually a fairly good sized egg. Just not sure at this point. 

July is Here 2021

 Well, generally, June was a busy month, but it got too hot near the end. Breaking high temp records, day after day was too much. Even the over night temps were too hot to bear. Then, right after the extreme heat, we had a windstorm that blew over a third of my corn.  Thankfully, the corn was still young enough to prop back up and get back on track. 

To combat the intense heat, I put shade covers over the potatoes and the tomatoes. The onions mostly wilted and toppled one by one.  They did not get very large before that.  I only had one left that got to a good size.  Pulled up the red bunching onions and they are very good. More like scallions than anything. Surprised that the broccoli is still producing, even during the heat. Not large ones, but a lot of bite-sized heads. Everything in buckets ended up under the trees for shade and we did not lose any other plants (aside from the onions needing to be harvested) in the extreme heat. Thank Goodness! 

A week after the extreme heat, I had to harvest a lot of herbs, basil, rosemary, oregano, and thyme to keep them from flowering. Onions still have a great flavor and we are eating them as fast as we can. 

Not sure about the garlic.  But we are trying something different to see if we can back.  Even before the heat, the garlic was looking sad. Will see if we can get any to survive. Beans and carrots did fine in the heat. Beans are flowering now.  

Put the Cucumbers out late.  I didn't want to put them out just before the extreme heat, So plants were transplanted right after the extreme heat days just before July.  I noted a flower on one of them today. Yay! 

Peas are not thriving. Hanging in, but mostly just using them as a paper weight. They are holding down the edges of the sunshade for the house. 

I didn't take pix of the tomatoes or peppers, but they seem to be doing very well. 

Potatoes in the square garden are going strong. At least above the gound. Not sure about under ground. 

Corn was planted in sessions.  I planted 15 the middle of May, then another 15 the end of May and the last 15 the middle of June. The first batch is tasseling. The second batch looks good, the third batch suffered from the extreme heat and only some survived. So, we will see what comes of this experiment.

 

We had put the pullets in with the hens about mid June.  The transition was a bit rough, especially for the Faverelles.  But it was slowed down a lot by the extreme heat. None of them wanted to do much of anything, let alone chase one another.  We set up three food and three water stations.  This past week has been the first week where they all go to the coop and stay for the night.  For weeks, we were having to take them out of the nesting boxes and put them inside the coop. The first week, we left the bars on the boxes down so that the pullets would have a space to get away from the hens. Last week, we started closing the boxes late in the afternoon, and they quickly adapted to finding space in the coop to sleep. 

This weekend, we are trying to sell the hens. We have chicks arriving this next week. 

That's pretty much the update.