Welcome to The Hearty Hen House
Hobby Farming at its finest!
Winter is waning and spring is on the horizon. The days are getting longer and eggs are once again beginning to appear in nesting boxes. Such a welcome sight! What are some of the things that we, as chicken farmers, can do to help our hens be the best layers that they can be?
I love it when I do something right without even really knowing what or how! I recently posted pictures of my Christmas Cactus that I started many years ago from a 100 year old plant. That brought about some questions about what I do to make it bloom. Uhhh, water it occasionally, let it sit comfortably in the window sill and give it a little fertilizer in the spring. That’s about it! Seemed like kind of a lame explanation and evidence of my total lack of understanding, so I decided to educate myself a little better on Christmas Cactus…after all I have two plants.
The human body is made up of approximately 55%-60% water. Water is a major component is cells, blood, and body tissue. The same applies to animals. Their bodies are made up of water as well. We are told that we can live without food for several weeks, but we can only live a few days without water. The same thing is true with animals. Animals need fresh water for their bodies to function. Water is vital for bodily functions such as regulation of body temperature, lubricating joints, nutrient absorption, removing wastes, body weight, and overall health. When water is withheld or unavailable, dehydration occurs. Dehydration of more than 10% of the body’s water is considered a medical emergency, and the water needs to be replaced ASAP! If the water is not replaced, blood volume begins to drop, temperatures begin to rise, and organs begin to shut down. Animals get the water they need not only through the action of drinking but also from the food they eat. Fresh grasses, fruits and vegetables all contain water. Animals prefer fresh, clean water. Some animals will only drink stagnant water, even if it looks clean, as a last resort. I dump out and refill water pans and buckets every day. When I go away for a few days I always try to make sure my animals have enough feed and more importantly, enough water. I put out extra tubs, buckets and bowls and detailed instructions for my substitute caregiver on what to do about watering. It gives me peace of mind.
Along with my regular in-the-ground garden, I also include some container gardens. There are many reasons to include containers in your gardening efforts. They allow you to grow plants in small urban areas where an in-ground garden is not possible. There is less chance for spreading disease. Some plants that spread quickly, do well in containers where they can be controlled, like mint. They can be less labor intensive, there are generally not as many weeds in container gardening, and they conserve water. Containers can also be moved about if you want to change locations, and often the soil in a container garden can be worked before in-ground gardens. I’m sure you can think of other reasons that a container garden could work for you.
I have many container gardens and some are larger than others. I have two containers in my chicken run where I plant herbs, which the chickens keep beautifully trimmed for me. I have another herb garden in an old metal water trough and I have several large containers lining the edge of my in-ground garden fence. You can grow almost anything in a container: vegetables, flowers, herbs, and even trees and bushes. I happen to grow mostly vegetables, chicken friendly flowers and herbs.
Having a self-feeder on hand for my chickens has been a definite benefit. If I need to leave town for a few days, I can put out their feeder and know that they will not starve, and it makes it easier on their substitute caregiver as well. Even if I’m just going to be away for the day and don’t know for sure what time I will be home, I can put out their self-feeder and be assured they’ll have their dinner. The self-feeder has a lid and therefore protects their feed from the elements better than just leaving extra food in their pans. You can fill the bucket full to last for several days, or you can just add a few scoops to last a day. It’s big enough and heavy enough when filled that the chickens won’t knock it over.
One year my husband brought home some bales of oat hay. We stored it in a location that was, in retrospect, way too close to the garden! For the next two years, I had oat grass coming up everywhere, except for in the pasture where it would have been welcomed. Between the oat grass and the weed seeds that normally come into the garden via the irrigation and wind, I found that I was spending a lot of time weeding. Not that I mind a little weeding, it can be very therapeutic, but I was overwhelmed with the task. It was becoming not so much a task anymore as a burden! I incorporated a few simple tools into my gardening that have helped me to spend more time enjoying my garden, not just pulling weeds.
My favorite waffles, up until last week, were the ones you get from the continental breakfast buffet at a hotel. Their waffles are light and airy on the inside and crispy on the outside. With all the pancake/waffle recipes and pre-mixed flours that I have tried, I have never been able to duplicate the deliciousness of a continental breakfast waffle! Until last week….
I mentioned in a previous post that a few weeks ago my neighbor introduced me to making my own sourdough starter, (see previous post: Sourdough – Worth the Effort). So far, my experiences with sourdough have been positive. I absolutely love the recipe I found for a sourdough sandwich bread and last week I found a recipe for delightful sourdough waffles. I have given away some bread and had others sample the waffles and all of my feedback has been “two thumbs up”!
I am a firm believer in variety! I know that a chicken’s sense of taste is nowhere near as refined as a person’s, but it seems apparent, if you watch your chickens eat, that they seem to prefer some foods over others. In my flock for example, fresh raspberries are devoured a lot quicker than tomatoes, and they prefer spaghetti noodles over rice. It is also a fact that different foods contain different vitamins and minerals and in different amounts. I think that as long as your chickens are getting a variety of fruits, vegetables, grains, greens and herbs, in addition to their formulated feed, they will enjoy their diet and live long, healthy, productive lives.
One of the things that I like to feed my chickens is sprouts. Sprouts are easy to prepare, inexpensive, nutritious and my chickens enjoy them! They are especially good in the winter months when there is not a lot of grasses or garden produce available.
Herbs are a good addition to a chicken’s diet. There are many health benefits associated with herbs such as aiding in the recovery from an illness, strengthening immune systems to prevent illness, and discouraging insects, pests and parasites. Different herbs have different aromatic and medicinal properties. I choose to use a more homeopathic approach in caring for my chickens, believing that prevention is the key to a healthy flock. For that reason I like to grow a variety of herbs, providing my birds with a balance of natural substances that promote overall good health.
My neighbor was going through some of his wife’s old cookbooks. He came across some recipes using a sourdough starter, tried them, and was bragging to me about how good his pancakes were. I didn’t really know too much about sourdough, so I asked him for some of his starter. I had always thought that sourdough starter was some magical family heirloom that was passed down through generations, and if your family didn’t have any, you had to get it from a willing neighbor or friend. But, instead of giving me some of his sourdough starter, he gave me a recipe and told me to go make my own. And so, my sourdough education began. I found a couple of awesome websites that explained sourdough from A to Z and provided recipes and instructions. I gleaned a lot of information, and as much as I love sourdough bread, the more I read, the more I began to think that it was just too labor intensive for me! I decided to give it a try anyway, just for the experience. Here are some things that I learned: 1) sourdough starter is NOT always a sacred family heirloom and you CAN make a good starter from scratch, 2) you can NOT stick your starter in the back of your fridge and forget about it for months and then pull it out and use it, you DO have to tend to it regularly, 3) although a good loaf of sourdough bread DOES take some forethought, it’s really NOT that bad…and, dare I say, absolutely worth it!
