Food

Influential Color in Eggs The old adage of you are what you eat makes true for poultry too.  The yolk color is often the most notable difference in eggs coloration.   The egg yolk color can be influenced to a degree by the diet of the birds.  Free-range birds that are …

When the weather is warm and the days are long chickens will be quite productive and happily supply you with eggs. Perhaps more than you can easily use. As winter approaches, their production drops. Where are those eggs now that you need them? Hopefully, in your freezer. When you have an …

To Kill a Honey Bee I was alarmed when I first heard about bee colonies collapsing in 2007; entire colonies of bees either dead or simply vanished. Fingers point to GMO crops, pesticides, parasitic mites, disease, etc. It’s such a dire situation apparently, Monsanto went on the offensive and publicly …

Making Your Potting Mix 1 part wet wood stove pellet (make sure its pure wood) 1 part fine pine bark 1 part peat moss (optional) can substitute coconut coir instead of peat 1 part coarse sand For a starter soil you want something fine and light.  You also want to …

Coquito Egg Nog Recipe Here is an easy and quite tasty eggnog recipe with a Puerto Rican style.  It’s not all completely from scratch but its good.  Its a good way to use the food storage to rotate some canned goods if you want to use that excuse. 1 egg …

Backyards Really Can Produce There are approximately 250,000 households in the city of Seattle.  The citizens of the city of Seattle stood together and now have the ability to keep 8 hens per household.  There is a sense of local food and self sufficiency in the Pacific Northwest.  Backyard chickens …

Urban Farm Craze Refugees? Our unwanted or non-laying birds typically go into tamales or similar dishes (young roosters are better for frying than old hens that need slow cooking).  We can’t simply keep nonproductive birds in such a small holding so we utilize them fully. People are so removed from …

Chicken Fueled Early Greens Here is the greens patch we grow a lot of micro greens and smaller leaf greens in. We have two of these made with scrap lumber and a polypropylene corrugated top. The top will lift back on those warmer days so that they don’t get overheated. …

Here’s how I supplement my chickens with this system. I give them grass about everyday in the winter time. You can use barley or wheat or any other grains that are edible. Oats are good too.  Nearly anything that sprouts and grows. Some people think that ‘economical’ is something free. …