cynda williams

When I raised geese, I blew their eggs out. And almost my brains! Then I found this tool...Blas Fix. That's German for egg blowing. I originally purchased it from Hearth Song but they don't stock that anymore. I found a link for a uTube. Here's the link

https://www.youtube.com › watch?v=PNHeGA7qsr4
How to use a Blas-Fix (Egg blowing) - YouTube

I see the tool is on sale at eBay and Etsy. I have had my tool for 30 years or so. Some of the eggs I have are 30 + years old and there's no odor. A bit late for Easter this year but you have time to find the tool. Best of luck!

Hey Timothy,

A cut that I wish I knew how to cook. The humble drumstick. How do you even cook them!?

I have found that drumsticks are tasty when dipped in milk and then drenched in curry! I am not a curry fan but I do like this recipe.

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees. Put one oven rack on the highest spot in the oven.

Line a cookie sheet with foil and coat with non-stick spray.

Wash and dry the drumsticks.  Dip them in milk, then drench them in curry powder. Place on the prepared cookie sheet. Put the cookie sheet on the top shelf in the oven. Cook for 20 minutes, turn the drumsticks. Cook for another 15-20 minutes.

Serve with blue cheese dipping or dressing if you like.

I haven't raised chickens for meat, that is, on purpose. But I did hatch eggs under broody hens, so sexing them ahead of time was pretty much out of the question. I have found that if you set a broody hen on 12 eggs, she will hatch out 9 cockerels and 3 pullets. I think that is b/c the cockerels grow into roosters and they protect the hens and loose their lives in the process. So, nature gives more males than females. The ambient temperature may have something to do with the m/f ratio too. I think that alligators are the same, sex is determined by the temperature of the egg mound where the eggs are incubated. Chickens are considered related to reptiles, yes?

What to do with all those hormone-rich cockerels? Well, they were the meat birds! At one time, I found a local breeder who had Dominique eggs for hatching. They were wonderful birds. Not the best egg layers but very calm birds and they grew pretty large. One of the cockerels (at about 8 weeks) weighed in at 5# after slaughter. When the hens had matured past egg production, they were slaughtered for stewing birds. Some hens were 4-5 #. Compared to Red Sex links, that is a great weight. They clean up very nicely, skin is white and their breast, legs and thighs are larger then most birds.

My friend was impressed with the Dominiques that I hatched and their progeny. He ordered Dominiques as meat birds from a hatchery. These birds were puny, not very hardy and none weighed more than 3-4 #. If you can find a local Dominique breeder and can get some hatching eggs to set under a broody hen, these birds would be a great choice for meat birds. They may need to go 8 weeks for best result.

Kosher Kings are a great bird of choice. They do need more time to mature before slaughtering and can be pricey. But they are fantastic at foraging and if you have the acreage, they will be happy in a portable house with good fencing to keep predators away. I have heard they can weigh up to 6-7 #.

So, instead of six weeks for (poor, sad) Cornish crosses, Kosher Kings may need an additional 4 weeks to get to good weight.

I never would choose Buff Orpringtons for meat birds...they are so sweet and easy to manage. Great egg layers and great with kids, even the rooster! Black Sex Links were a good idea, any that I had slaughtered weighed in at 4-5 #. They were older layer hens. But if you can order only male birds, they will weigh in at at least 5 # at 7-8 weeks. A few weeks more and they will pay their grain bill.

Then there are Dorkings. These birds are very close to wild in nature. But they grow into very nice meat birds. I think they are more available out in the mid-west rather than on the east coast. Again, finding a local breeder rather than buying in from a hatchery will give you a better product in the end.

I was Certified Organic for my poultry, this made it more costly to produce meat and eggs. But worth it since I seldom had any sickness in my birds. I feel if you were to look into what is in conventional poultry feed, the ingredients may shock you. It is permissible to use soiled bedding as a filler in conventional poultry feeds. And folks wonder how the bird flu is spread? A no-brainer. Feeding animals waste products from other animals should be outlawed. But it is one of the ingredients. Be aware of what you feed your animals if you intend to consume their products.

I don't know if this information helps. I hope it does!

Hey Samantha, I don't know how to send a link...

Hey Ann, I looked at the link you sent but it isn't what I am talking about. I really don't know how this website works, I haven't been able post pix or make replies. I'm just winging it. Thanks!

So, this is a reply to the probation for a post I made a year ago. I don't understand what is going on here...so please clarify. I was giving my own experience with red vs white heat lamps for chicks. So...what now?

Hey Permies,  I forgot to mention that I put up several shelters for ducks and chickens. I found two discarded truck caps, two discarded trampoline tops (the part that you bounce on).

I covered the ground with the trampoline tops, held them in place with earth staples. The trampoline tops are very sturdy and water goes right through them. Then I set the truck caps on several cement blocks (the kind with three holes) on top of the trampoline tops, one on each corner and one in the middle on the long sides of the truck cap. This raised the top of the truck cap nicely so I could reach easily underneath to grab the water bowls. I made sure the back window of the truck cap faced south for winter solar gain. In late fall, I would buy some hay bales and put them around three sides of the truck cap, leaving the south side open. During sunny days, water wouldn't freeze (unless there was a high wind). If it was warm enough, I would get the hose out and fill the kiddie pool for the ducks and sit back for great show of splashing and dunking. What fun!

Since the trampoline covers are porous, hosing them down removes droppings. This idea was great, no muddy mess in the swimming pools, water buckets or in the feed bowls. I highly recommend this system to anyone who has free-range ducks.

In spring, the hay bales were strewn around the poultry yards so the chickens would do their job, composting the hay while they search for insects.

My Muscovy ducks LOVED slugs! I had several pieces of plywood cut the same width as the aisles in my garden. I flipped them over every morning for the ducks and chickens to have breakfast. One flip and the wood was set up for the next day. The chickens and ducks were VERY interested in the insects under the boards!

Easy peasy to control slugs. And keep ducks and chickens amused and fed.

Hey Cold Weather Folks with Chickens (ducks, turkeys and other small livestock),

I live on the southcoastal area of MA. I had chickens, ducks and turkeys (now I'm retired). In the chicken houses and yards, I had rubber water bowls. I also had a nice collection of rocks around the size of my fist, some a bit larger. I heated these in my oven @ 225 degrees over night. In the morning, I loaded the rocks into a milk crate and along with hot water, hauled them out to the poultry houses. I had dumped out water the night before and collected the rocks for over night heating.

I put a couple of rocks into the rubber bowls, added hot water. This kept things warm until noontime or later. I would repeat this process. At the end of the day, I collected the rocks and dumped the water. Ducks didn't have feed overnight since they can choke on food unless water is available.

Some warmer days I would get out the large, rubber water bowls and fill them with hot water and a couple of rocks for the ducks to splash in. They loved it.

The only time the water froze before mid-day swap or the end of day was when it was below 15 degrees and there was a wicked wind-chill factor.

While this may not work for someone who works all day, it will work for those who can change the rocks & water mid-day.

I have also used heated rocks when I had a new batch of day-old chicks and we lost our power. No brooder lights or heaters would mean a quick end to the chicks. It was my mom who suggested the heated rocks. Bricks, cement blocks, granite pavers all work, too. Just don't heat them up too much, you could start a fire in the shavings or hay.

I saved 200 day-old chicks with this trick. It's important that the rocks (or whatever you plan to use) are available before snow covers the ground. I had a pile of them in metal milk crates stacked up for ease.

I lined the walls of the coop with the rocks. Another batch was in the oven heating up. When I went out to check on the chicks, they were actually lying on the heated rocks, all stretched out like they were at a spa! This kept them alive for two days and nights. I didn't get a lot of sleep but the chicks did just fine!

It's time to prepare garlic beds for late fall/early winter planting. I have done some garlic planting in the past and will share my experience here. Since I was the only gardener and had a lot of other work to do, I prepared my garlic bed in very early October. I live on the south coast of Mass, winter finds us later than say, Vermont. I hand weeded any perennial weeds, tilled the soil, added fertilizers and tilled again.

On the "fertilizer" list, I added Azomite, minerals from A-Z. I have done a lot of research on planting garlic and NOFA/MASS (organic growers) farmers have done experiments with/without Azomite. The garlic planted with Azomite were larger than those without. That was enough for me to find Azomite!

My two friends came to help plant the garlic in one area. They were supposed to come right after noontime. But they showed up at about 4 PM. So, we were pressed for time! After planting, I mulched with straw and covered with row cover.

A second area was roto-tilled DURING THE FULL MOON AT NIGHT. I added fertilizer and Azomite and tilled again. My neighbors thought I was out of my mind, tilling at night. But there was going to be a hard freeze and I had to get this done! I didn't have enough straw to mulch this bed, so I covered it with row cover and crossed my fingers.

Spring come, the garlic started to bend under the row covers, so off they came. I was so amazed to see NO WEEDS at all in the garlic bed that was tilled during the full moon!  The garlic with the straw mulch (that was tilled during the daytime) had weeds! Of course, they were easy to pull with the straw mulch, but still! No weeds in the full moon tilled bed? I was totally amazed!

In early-mid May, every garlic plant got 1 Tablespoon of blood meal. That was it for fertilizing. In late August-early September, I pulled the garlic. The fists were very large, much larger than what is sold at stores.

There are many varieties of garlic...stiff neck vs. soft neck. Learning about the different varieties is an education! However, soft neck garlic can be braided and will keep nicely in braids.

Stiff neck garlic doesn't keep as long as soft neck garlic. At least that's been my experience.

It is important to pull the garlic when it has been dry for a few days. Less dirt on the outside skin makes easier cleaning. If you pull right after a rain, mud will stick to the garlic bulbs and they don't dry as well.

This is just my two cents on growing garlic.

Unusual facts about me. I am one of 12 children, three mothers, two fathers. I didn't meet my birth father until I was 32. I  met some of  my fathers children when I was 32. I have a brother (by my father, who has since died) who's birthday is two days later than mine. He was several years younger than I. We had so much in common it was very strange. We both liked the outdoors, fishing, camping and similar clothing! My birth father's second wife is like a mother to me and took me in when I first spent time with my father. I didn't like him much, he was a braggart but he was my father. My youngest brother was 18 years younger than I. One of my sisters is 3 months older than I. We first met at our father's funeral and when we were comparing birth dates we discovered how close we were in age. She was so upset, she left the reception. One of my father's daughters is an actual "mini-me". We have the same build, same skinny legs! She and I are both gardeners.

The strangest/scariest thing that happened to me is when I went camping in the Colorado mountains in September. I met up with a friend who was supposed to arrange a camping trip and all the necessary camping accessories. When I arrived in Denver, I discovered he had done less than he promised, including arranging a camping site. We decided to go anyway. We drove to a place called Buck Snort (REALLY!) and found a campground close by. It was closed for the season but the owner took pity on us and let us stay in a campsite. We had the pick of the place. It was sleeting like mad when we finally arrived and I set up camp. My friend was totally incompetent and had no idea how to set up a tent. I got soaked but had dry clothes in the car. I cooked supper on Sterno inside the car. My friend wanted to take food into the tent but I forbade it. We argued about it. I told him if he wanted food, he should sleep in the car!

During the night, I heard noise outside the tent. I quickly put my hand over my friend's mouth and whispered him to be quiet, don't breathe!!! We listened as a very large animal circled the tent, sniffing out what was inside. I was seriously afraid my friend would bolt out of the tent! After 10 or 15 minutes, the animal left and I fell asleep again.

In the morning, I woke up to a clear, blue sky. Not a cloud to mark the brilliant blue. In the distance was Pike's Peak! Covered in snow and more beautiful than I ever imagined. I looked at the spoor prints around the tent. It had been a large bear who had circled the tent 3-4 times before he decided we weren't worth the effort. I told my friend that we would be dead if he had taken food into the tent!

As I was cooking breakfast over an open fire, a yellow tabby kitty came to join us. I fed him bacon and eggs, we packed up camp and kitty went with us. I asked the camp owner if this was his kitty. He said that many folks brought kitties and then abandoned them at the sites. My friend took the kitty home with him.

This was only one of my adventures in the wild. I have many more stories like this. I will say that the bear encounter was probably the scariest.