I am finally admitting to myself that I've got too much going on right now. Summer is finally here, and passing all too fast. We're desperately trying to get outside projects done before the returning rains put us in lockdown. We finally got the house mostly painted yesterday (finishing the second coat today, thank god for our paint sprayer). We gave up on the garden, the weeds got out of control, and then the garden finally kicked into gear... So, there's a massive amount of weeding to do. The pigs need to go to butcher. Always a new goat pen for which we need to cut a fence line. The old house needs a bunch of work that has to be done while the weather's nice. I need to get the trim on the coop. And on and on. Busy busy! So, I'm taking a month or so break from blogging. Not like I post all that often anyway, but I do spend a lot of time reading all my favorite blogs. It also doesn't help that I can't find the camera. :) When our plate is a little less full, and the camera has shown itself again, I'll post the huckleberry recipe, the meat chicken processing, and maybe by then some info on sending the pigs off to butcher!
Hope everyone is enjoying their summer!
Monday, August 15, 2011
Friday, August 12, 2011
Our egg journal
Ok, posting this again, as apparently first one flubbed and wouldn't show up. Grrr... Blogger.
So, a couple days after the girls started laying I decided to keep an egg journal. I was at the gas station, talking to my mom about our first eggs, and remembered how my friend would keep track of his hotrod's mileage/gas usage in a little notebook so he could see the effects of changes he made to the car's engine, etc. I thought, why not keep one for the girls!
We keep a little 3x5 spiral notebook with our egg basket. Every day, we note down how many we collected, as well as anything unusual that we'd like to record. For example, odd egg sizes, shapes, shell condition, location, etc. Inside the cover of the notebook, I listed all our chickens (11 buffs, 1 barred rock, 4 ameraucanas, etc) and their approximate hatch dates.
Hopefully, this little notebook will be useful in tracking egg production, as well as problems. For example, if we're both collecting eggs, we may not be mentioning to each other that we're seeing the occasional weak shell. If we don't see a pattern (seeing them more often, for example), we wouldn't necessarily know that there was a problem to be treated. We'll see if this helps at all. For the moment, it's just fun to look at the slowly climbing numbers as more girls start laying! And, we'll be able to see how many eggs they produce vs feed costs, which would be interesting to see (we're not doing this yet. Perhaps after the first of the year).
Do you keep track of the eggs you collect?
Egg journal, 7/20 - today
7/20 1st egg, found on ground
7/21 2, 1 had weak shell and was broken
7/22 0
7/23 1
7/24 1
7/25 3
7/26 2, 1 cracked but thick shell, added shavings
7/27 3
7/28 4, 1 double yolk lg as store xl(2.3oz)
7/29 3
7/30 3
7/31 2
8/1 3, 1 sm (1.5oz), 2 xl(2.3,2.4)
8/2 5
8/3 6
8/4 6
8/5 5
8/6 10, 1 thin shell and broken
8/7 7, 5 before 11a, 1 very sm,dark,speckled
8/8 8
8/9 11
8/10 8
8/11 11, 1 was GREEN! (1st green egg!)
So, a couple days after the girls started laying I decided to keep an egg journal. I was at the gas station, talking to my mom about our first eggs, and remembered how my friend would keep track of his hotrod's mileage/gas usage in a little notebook so he could see the effects of changes he made to the car's engine, etc. I thought, why not keep one for the girls!
We keep a little 3x5 spiral notebook with our egg basket. Every day, we note down how many we collected, as well as anything unusual that we'd like to record. For example, odd egg sizes, shapes, shell condition, location, etc. Inside the cover of the notebook, I listed all our chickens (11 buffs, 1 barred rock, 4 ameraucanas, etc) and their approximate hatch dates.
Hopefully, this little notebook will be useful in tracking egg production, as well as problems. For example, if we're both collecting eggs, we may not be mentioning to each other that we're seeing the occasional weak shell. If we don't see a pattern (seeing them more often, for example), we wouldn't necessarily know that there was a problem to be treated. We'll see if this helps at all. For the moment, it's just fun to look at the slowly climbing numbers as more girls start laying! And, we'll be able to see how many eggs they produce vs feed costs, which would be interesting to see (we're not doing this yet. Perhaps after the first of the year).
Do you keep track of the eggs you collect?
Egg journal, 7/20 - today
7/20 1st egg, found on ground
7/21 2, 1 had weak shell and was broken
7/22 0
7/23 1
7/24 1
7/25 3
7/26 2, 1 cracked but thick shell, added shavings
7/27 3
7/28 4, 1 double yolk lg as store xl(2.3oz)
7/29 3
7/30 3
7/31 2
8/1 3, 1 sm (1.5oz), 2 xl(2.3,2.4)
8/2 5
8/3 6
8/4 6
8/5 5
8/6 10, 1 thin shell and broken
8/7 7, 5 before 11a, 1 very sm,dark,speckled
8/8 8
8/9 11
8/10 8
8/11 11, 1 was GREEN! (1st green egg!)
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Mud bath!
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