February 12, 2015

Good morning, it has been several years now that we first got our “starter fowl”, the guinea's. The sole purpose for getting them was to control our grasshoppers. The year that we got them there was a huge grasshopper infestation. Once the guinea's were big enough to fend for themselves they quickly brought the hopper problem under control. At that time we also had female guineas. When we were lucky to find their nests, we would collect their eggs. Because of their food source these eggs had incredibly yellow yolks. We kinda liked having our own eggs.

Shortly on swapcycle there was a flock of bantams that came up for grabs. We made a chicken tractor with nest boxes for the hens. There were 7 birds and 2 were roosters. They were in a large enclosed area. We thought that the hens would prefer the nest boxes. Nope! they would lay anywhere but the tractor nest boxes. Fortunately the enclosure was several hundred square feet as opposed to 28 acres. This was the beginning of the “chicken channel”. What fun to watch them and there never were any reruns. It was nice having regular eggs. Unlike the guineas the chickens lay most of the year except when they are molting or it is the dead of winter. Not every one of the hens would stop egging so there was a reduced but constant supply..

So we thought “what the hay”, why not get some full sized chickens. Because we did not want to put the chickens in with the guineas, we built them a separate hen house. The separation of the fowl worked pretty good until we went free range and several of the hens wanted to roost in the guinea coop. I am not too sure what the guineas thought of this. The guineas were still pretty young birds and spent most of the day foraging and were not hanging in the barnyard. So not too much intermingling except at roost time. Well these hens laid eggs for a little over a year until their first molt, when egg production plummeted. This lasted until after they finished molting and the daylight increased. By this time we had 8 guineas, 6 bantams (one rooster was rehomed, we hoped) and 18 Rhode Island Reds. A total of 32 birds.

Later a friend's daughter was moving out of state and gave us her 16 hens and 3 ducks. Well we needed to add onto the hen house to make room. Over the course of time neighbors dogs killed all of the guinea hens. Some of the chicken hens would go missing or just wake up dead. Such is the life of agriculture.

Then this last year, some friends were moving away and asked if we would take their hens. We said sure and so became our full hen houses. I have not tallied lately but we have around 50 hens 3 roosters, 6 ducks and 3 guineas. In the peak of egging season we harvest 16 dozen a week. Even though we have a aging flock, egg production should pick up in the spring but over all quantities may diminish. Time will tell.

Well If we were real farmers we would cull the older birds during the winter slow down and have spring raised pullets egging through the winter. We are not real farmers!

The summer feed bill is somewhat less because there are greens and bugs to forage. Winter time the hens get all the culled greens from the garden and the occasional bug, but most of the feed is store bought. If we were to put a straight dollar value on the hens with only the egg perspective, our business model would not be a very good one. We might break even over the year. We could boost egg production by putting lights in the hen houses during the winter. I have always thought this move to be a nonstarter. Egg laying has to be a drain on the ladies. It is just not right to force them into production. I wonder how this act would age the birds along with what health consequences would come about. No, I think allowing the seasons to be what they are is just fine. Besides there are several side benefits other than just the egg thingy. They do create a wonderful firebreak, control bugs outside the garden, great source of entertainment, and of course manure for the garden. So when you put everything into perspective the fowl are a net gain.

Imagine my surprise when I woke up this morning to let the cat out. I can only look at the surprise of the cat as she did a “U” turn and headed back into the house. There was at least an inch of snow and it still was falling. I was expecting rain. It is interesting how Underground and NOAA seem to trade off getting the forecast right. Kudos to Underground this time.

I still have some harvesting to do, I suspect ther will a bit of a delay. If I can't there could be duplicates in the bag orders. This may have to happen soon anyway. I am finishing beds fairly quickly and new crops are being a bit slow to mature. This seems to happen every year but it is worth a heads up.

Peas are starting to bloom quite nicely so peas are not far behind. Lettuce is 3 to 4 inches wide. I suspect there are some beets. The boc choi is looking pretty good.

My first planting of toms this weekend is delayed but by the first of March they should be ready to out plant along with my other Solanaceae friends to be followed with all the other summer veggies. Gotta love fabric!!!