Old Fashioned Lifestyle

Here is an update on my Broody Hen. We are going on 5 weeks and she is still sitting tight in her nest.

broody hen

Finally yesterday, I pulled out all her eggs – and gave her 5 fertilized ones.

I feel bad giving her more, but she also seems determined to set until she has some chicks. I’m not sure if she can make it another 3 weeks. At some point, it can’t be good for their health! Then again, I’m so new to such things. I’ve been lurking at the homestead forums, people there seem really helpful. Maybe they will have some suggestions for me.

Part of my quest living on the homestead is to get back to the basics where food is concerned.   It is a quest to move away from the grocery store meals and toward naturally home grown meals.

Last week, I made some homemade ravioli – - including ricotta cheese made from instant milk!

I’ve been searching pantry cooking on the internet, and I came across a great little website:   Cooking by the Numbers.   Enter what you have, and they return some ideas for you!

A start….  (the list will be added to perpetually!)

• Hike the continental divide
• Hike the Appalachian trail
• Drive coast to coast on Highway 50
• Watch the Iditarod
• Go Salmon fishing in Alaska
• Float the Colorado River

We’ve got a broody hen – - going on four weeks.

Her eggs haven’t hatched, but she won’t leave the nest.

We made some mistakes upfront:

When she sat on her clutch, we didn’t take out the eggs to candle them.  She was also sitting on too many eggs – 19 of them!!  We just figured that of the 19, there would be some fertilized eggs in there. So, we left her alone.

The other morning, we went out and saw that there were about 6 eggs uncovered – - and ice cold.  Looked to me like she haden’t been covering them all night. 

We tried to candle them.  They looked dark, but no evidence of life.

We opened one.  A mushy yolk.

We opened another.  A chick.  Small, but fully formed.

I have a huntch that she was just not able to cover all those eggs all the time, and at one time or another they were all kicked out, got cold, and died.

In the mean time, I’ve got this poor hen with no babies!  What do I do?

Things happen fast in the spring!

• Midnight (rabbit) had her babies a few days ago…  They look like miniture pot bellied pigs!
• The seedlings from the state arrived yesterday.
• We got a ewe and her 2 lambs….   now we are repairing fence….  holes we never knew about!

Not to mention our business life has been busy busy.  We are writing a how-to book and preparing that website…

How To Start A Self Storage Business

But, I miss writing about our homeschooling activities and our homestead – - – so I will try to carve out some time somewhere!  At the very least, I’ll come back with some spring baby pictures.