Leora Laforge

I have found that young growing chickens will eat ticks, but adult layers are mediocre at eating ticks. So I hatch out a bunch in the spring and free range them from chicken tractors to get the ticks. I have never had guinea fowl but they are supposed to be the best for eating ticks. I don't have roaches, but they are likely big enough that adult layers would find them worth catching. I think it would be worth trying chickens just because they they are fun and easy to take care of.

Young chickens of any breed will lay when they are at the age to start no matter the day length. If they hatch in the spring, most common layer or dual purpose breeds will start laying around 6 months in the fall, and lay fairly well until the next fall when they molt. Commercial breeds will lay well in short days, they tend to just lay no matter what, make sure their nutrition is up to par, they can make themselves sick by laying too much if nutrition is wrong. Heritage breeds will slow down laying if their nutrition is off to compensate.

Here is the last 1/3 of my pumkin harvest this year. These are all sugar pumpkins. Keep those recipes coming please?

There might be a some plants that stop growing with short daylight hours, but most will just grow really slowly, and with long, thin stems. Some plants might have trouble supporting themselves. So you can decide if you want to limit yourself to plants that can grow in these conditions, or spend the money and get grow lights to be able to grow whatever you want.

The other thing to consider is that chickens like to kick up a lot of dust, which will coat the inside of your greenhouse, you will need to plan to have it easy to clean the inside walls and ceiling if you have chickens in there.

Judson Carroll wrote: You can make an excellent lasagna-type casserole, using squash/pumpkin slices in place of noodles, with cheeses, marinara, spinach and (optional) meat.

A pumpkin lasagne casserole sounds fantastic. Would you put raw pumpkin slices in to cook in the casserole, or roast the pumpkin before putting it into a lasagna?

I have recently decided to change my staple crop from potatoes to pumpkin. I find them easier to grow, tastier to eat, and easier to share with my chickens. However, while I have at least a dozen ways to cook potatoes, I only have one good recipe that uses pumpkin, and that is my mothers pumpkin pie/pudding recipe. I would like some healthier options, so please share.

Pie Crust                                                                    Ruth Laforge
3 cups all purpose flour
2 cups whole wheat flour
2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. baking powder

1 lb. lard or vegetable shortening
(at room temperature)
1 egg
1 tbsp. vinegar
½ - ¾ cup water

Mix together dry ingredients. Drop in a pound of lard and cut into the flour
with pastry cutter or knife & spoon. Pieces of lard should be no larger than a
bean seed with most much smaller. Evenly mix ingredients.
Break an egg into a glass measuring cup. Add vinegar and fill to ¾ cup line
with water. Beat.
Dribble around surface of the pie crust & work evenly into it. The softened lard
also works as a moisturizing agent to help pastry to bond evenly. Press into
about 6 to 8 balls and flatten partially making sure cracks do not form on the
outside of the circle. Place on floured surface & roll out evenly with light
stroking passes until pastry is thin enough & will cover your pie pan. Trim
edges of the pan with a table knife.
*You may need another tablespoon of water to form balls.


Pumpkin pie filling                              Ruth Laforge
1 pint cooked pumpkin
4 eggs
2 cups milk

1 cup brown sugar
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. ginger
½ tsp cloves

Preheat oven to 350F. Beat together pumpkin and eggs. Warm milk in the
microwave. Mix spices into sugar and add to the pumpkin & eggs. Beat.
Add warm milk to the other ingredients while beating slowly. Pour into pie
shell. Bake about 1 hour until pie is firm to the center but not starting to pull
away at the sides yet. Time varies according to the size and depth of the
pie.
*1 pint = 1 ½ - 2 cups
* butternut squash works very well instead of pumpkin.
* put the filling mix mix into a roaster or oven safe bowl instead of a pie shell to make pudding


Anyone have a good pumpkin soup recipe?
How about something that would be good for supper?

Well, I never got around to trying the buckwheat/pea combo. I did however throw mulch on top of the thistle patch which allowed some wild oats to grow well. The wild oats are pretty good at competing with thistles, and I go in with leather gloves and pull thistles, they have a tough time regrowing while shaded out by wild oats. I also planted a bunch of pumpkins in this spot, about a month after planting I pulled weeds close to my pumpkins after that they competed just fine with the thistles and wild oats.

Hi Phillip, I have met a couple guys from this post. In particular is Rex who lives only 40 minutes away from me, we have become good friends and have worked on a few permie type projects together. I am dating someone I met elsewhere.

I am on still on the farm and enjoying my gardens and chickens.

If you are on facebook, I would suggest following the Regina seedy Saturday group. It is mostly women your age who like to garden and are often experimenting with permie techniques.

I was about to suggest adding duck weed to absorb all the extra nutrients, but I guess it's already there. cattails are also good at absorbing extra nutrients. Both these plants are edible for humans and livestock. If you have a strong butterfly net you can pull out some duckweed easily. It's a great protein source for chickens or pigs. Cattails are a good carbohydrate for pigs or chickens too.

Willows or other water loving trees would be good to go around the banks too, they can throw a little shade over the water and lower the temperature which would make it more comfortable for fish.

It seems likely to me that your roosters could be trying to overbreed and bully your hens. I have had pullets get very concerned about going into the coop when multiple horny roosters are waiting at the door. This fall I introduced 3 new roosters to my flock of 27 hens. When I let them all try to free range together, after their initial quarantine, the rooster were bullies. I ended up introducing them 1 at a time, over the course of a week. They were much better behaved this way, my flock pretty much gets along now. The roosters even call the hens over when they find a good treat.

I believe you said you have 6 hens and 2 roosters. That is probably too many roosters, for most chickens you want 6-12 hens per rooster.  Highly active breeds, like leghorns its closer to 12, for less active breeds, like silkies, closer to 6.

I have also had chickens fly up onto my shoulders when they are looking for a place to roost in the evening. Luckily I am tough to startle so I let it sit there a bit and eventually set it down on the perch.