Wicked Chickens

Wicked Chickens Lay Deviled Eggs....

http://www.dumpaday.com/random-pictures/funny-pictures/random-funny-pictures-35-pics-8/

Another Chicken Tea Towel

This post (http://veggiegardengirl.blogspot.com/2013/05/chicken-towel.html) inspired me to go look for tea towels on Amazon, and this is what I found:

Wind Egg

We got another wind egg today, or sometime in the night. A wind egg (a.k.a. a "fart egg") is one that is lacking a yolk, or a shell, or something. So this one has a very thin shell and was mostly just yellow liquid. So again, I'm not sure who laid that. Since it wasn't at 7:45am on the dot, I'm thinking it wasn't Oreo. That girl is regular. It's only 6:45am now, so I assume if I wait an hour or so Oreo might lay a good egg.

 I'm thinking if she doesn't lay a good egg, then we know it was her. It's just so confusing -- because (http://veggiegardengirl.blogspot.com/2013/05/it-happened.html) we got the green egg and the wind egg on the 21st of May. And so the green was Butterscotch, and the wind egg was one of them. And then Butterscotch hasn't laid since, and now this morning we get this new wind egg.

 I've been giving them oyster shells, and their feed is layer feed.

Future Chicken Farmer!!!

I saw this T-shirt on Amazon! This is the women's T-shirt, but you can get to the men's through the link.

Chicken Towel

I bought this chicken towel for my mom, when I was in Charleston, because the chicken on it looked like Oreo.

Chicken towel in the top/center of the picture

Here's the website you can get it from:  http://store.marylakethompson.com/Chicken-Gift-Basket-Gift-Set/M/B004CNJX5Y.htm

Hops!

My friend at work is into the local beer brewing movement...  So he's started growing hops, just for a challenge.

Here is his hops garden as of a week ago:

He says the 3 hop plants are Cascade (2) and Centennial (1), grown from mail order rhizomes, about $3 each. Each one was planted in about 1 cu. ft. of a approx 50/50 mix of mulch and the existing dry soil, in east side yard against fence where they get decent sun from the south. Daily light watering. After a month anyway, so far so good. They should start yielding hop flowers in 2 years.


Ok, so one thing I'm noticing -- he says "hop" plant and I say "hops" plant. Hmmm.... I'm assuming I'm wrong, as he's the beer maker guy.

Here is a picture of his hop plant, this week:

This Describes Me...

https://www.facebook.com/ChickenCoopDesigns

Chicken-isms

https://www.facebook.com/ChickenCoopDesigns

My Vitamin D Results

In a previous post (http://veggiegardengirl.blogspot.com/2013/05/important-vitamin-d-test.html) I talked about how you can do an at-home Vitamin D test and be part of a 5 year study by going to this site: http://www.grassrootshealth.net/

At the very least you should goto that site and get educated on what D does for you.  What good levels of D prevents, and what a deficiency may cause.  Take a look at this chart below.  It shows your blood level of D at the top, and the various disease prevention that happens at those levels.  Some sites recommend getting your D as high as 50ng/ml (still in the normal range, which is considered 40-60ng/ml) to get all the health benefits.

http://freetheanimal.com/images/2009/12/Vitamin-D-and-Disease-Incidence.png

Anyway, so I signed up to participate, as did Hubs, and I got my D results back the other day!   41ng/ml That's just a HAIR above the lowest normal range. I already supplement with D in my multi-vitamin and take an extra D supplement on top of that.  And so depending on what you read, 40ng/ml is a bit low....

Anyway, they have a nifty little chart to help you figure out how much extra D you need to take, depending on what level you are currently: http://grassrootshealth.net/media/images/chart-serum-level-intake-5-by-3-ngmla-both-charts-single.pdf

So I'm ~40ng/ml right now, and I want to be at 50ng/ml (right in the middle!) and so it says I need an extra 900IU of D a day. Easy peasy!

Hubs should get his D test in the mail any day now. We looked at some of his old D tests from medical records, and a few years ago he was up around 51ng/ml. So he should be fine. But it doesn't hurt to test again, and I'm sure the study coordinators would appreciate the extra data point!

Get your D tested!!!!!!!!

My Urban Store

I made a store on my blog!!

http://veggiegardengirl.blogspot.com/p/store.html 

 I've always wanted my own store!

Another Egg Comparison

Here are four of Oreo's eggs (old girl is like clockwork, 8am every day).  Of course her eggs are the four light colored eggs.  The dark egg is a store-bought free-range organic egg.

Here is a zoon in to compare size:

Here are the yolks (we're about to make scrambled eggs!).  Oreo's is more compact, stands up taller, and is darker orange:

Chicken Door

Hubs made me a chicken door...  We just got the patio slab painted, and did a mini-remodel to the patio.  I now need to keep the chickens from pooping on the slab!!  So Hubs made me a door.  We either just step over it, or you can pick it up easily and move it aside.

I Give Up!!!!

I give up!!!  I had been growing this cabbage for, it seems like, 9 mos.  It was the slowest growing thing....  Well, it started leaning toward the protective mesh covering I keep over all my plants, to keep the ladies out of them, and somehow they were able to peck through the mesh and eat the top out of it.   At that point I said, "oh screw it".

Quick Comparison of Home Grown Eggs vs. Store Bought

Here's a quick side-by-side of Butterscotch's egg compared to store bought -- since I already ate her one egg!

Two store bought free range organic eggs on the left, Miss B's egg on the right.

Her's was thicker, SMALLER!, and oranger.  My ladies have petite hips.

Green Bean Harvest

I made this as part of dinner the other night:

I got this off of two square foot garden plots.

It Happened!!

Tuesday I found this in the bottom of the coop on the ground:

The green egg was good, and came from Butterscotch.  The other egg was leathery.  So we hypothesized that Butterscotch either laid two eggs, or that second bad egg was from Oreo.

So I went and bought fake eggs, to encourage them to lay in the coop.  Three days went by with no eggs.

Then Friday came and we got this:

This one is from Oreo!

Still nothing from Butterscotch.

Then Saturday came and we got this (three fake eggs at bottom of picture):

It took Miss Oreo an hour of fussing to lay that egg.  Lots of coo'ing, scratching, nest making, and contemplation.

Today is Saturday, it's 7:15am (about the same time she went up into the coop yesterday), but she's still breakfasting.

Still nothing from Butterscotch.

Williams Sonoma Fancy Chicken Coops

http://www.williams-sonoma.com/shop/agrarian-garden/agrarian-garden-chicken-coops/?cm_type=lnav

Look at these fancy chicken coops (link above).  I just love them....

I like this one the best, however it looks heavy and might be difficult to tractor around the yard:

http://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/cedar-chicken-coop-with-planter/?pkey=cagrarian-garden-chicken-coops&

I also like this one, but can't figure out how it works. I wish they had more pictures. I can't tell if there's a raised area the chickens can go into???? It doesn't look like it....

http://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/salt-box-ballard-chicken-coop/

Look at this $70 waterer -- wow, them's some fancy high class chickens drinking out of there.

http://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/stoneware-chicken-waterer/?pkey=cagrarian-garden-chicken-coops&

Important Vitamin D Test

Everyone should get their Vitamin D tested, and you can ask your doctor to do so.  If, however, you want to do your D test at home, here's an inexpensive way to do so, and be involved in a 5 year research study:

http://www.grassrootshealth.net/
https://www.grassrootshealth.net/proj-welcome/?pr=95284

I went ahead and did this.  I answered the questionaire (mostly questions about how much exercise and sun you get, plus how much supplemental D you're taking), and then you get a finger-prick test in the mail.  You supply to two drops of blood, and then in 7 days your results should come back.  There is a fee to order the  test.  It's about $60, and you can sign up for one test, or for multiple tests.  The idea being that most people are deficient and so the first test will tell you how deficient you are at which time you can tweak your supplements.  Then the second test (6 mos later) will confirm whether or not your tweaks worked.

Vitamin D deficiency has been linked to alot of bad stuff...  One quote on the website says:

Why test your vitamin D levels???  77% of cancer could possibly be prevented....

(http://www.grassrootshealth.net/blog/why-test-your-vitamin-d-level/173)

They also say that 80% of pregnant women are deficient....  So ladies....  (http://www.babycenter.com/0_vitamin-d-in-your-pregnancy-diet_661.bc)

I should get my results back any day now.  I imagine I will be slightly deficient, even though I supplement.  I kind of think I'm not supplementing enough.

Are my Chickens Hens?

I don't think they are ever going to lay eggs.  Oreo is doing the "squat" now, and she's making lots of interesting noises.  Twice I've come outside to quite the ruckus, yet no eggs.  I check for eggs (when they are free ranging) several times a day.

Today the ladies are 21 and 23 weeks....  any day now I'm telling you...  Oreo is the younger one (21) and Butterscotch is the older one (23), but Butterscotch doesn't do much, and I can't get close enough to pet her, so I don't know if she's a squatter.

/sigh/

Is it ever going to happen?

All the posts online say a week or so after squatting.....  ok, any day now....

Another Good Book I Hope Everyone Reads

I just finished this book:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Magnesium-Miracle-Carolyn-Dean/dp/034549458X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1368980297&sr=8-1&keywords=magnesium+miracle

The Magnesium Miracle by Carolyn Dean

Super good, all about magnesium deficiency and how much trouble it causes.  I'm upping my magnesium now in an attempt to get rid of my migraines.  I had two migraines this week.  I get my migraines during the weekend or other times of no stress.  I got my first this week on Monday because I was super relaxed at work.  I'd gotten to work really early (5:30am) because I had to drop my husband off at the airport.  I got so much work done before anyone got to work, and I think it made me really relaxed and calm.  I got the other one on Friday (the weekend for me, since I had that day off from work).  Both occured around 9am/10am, when they say that your magnesium is at it's lowest.

Supposedly, upping your magnesium also helps with muscle pain (which I have alot of).  And energy levels (I could use a little pep in my step).  So we shall see!

Life is Hard When you Have to Guard Chickens

Potato Harvest!

Wow, my first ever potato harvest!  This is what I got from two big pots -- I probably planted 3-4 seed potatoes per pot.

Charleston Chickies

I was in Charleston, SC this week.  What a beautiful city!  Wow, I want to go back there on vacation now (I was just there on business).  Anyway, we took a carraige tour of the city, run out of an old barn, that was full of animals.  Here's what we saw!!

Pretty rooster!  He was crowing too!

David Bowie chicken

And we saw a snake on the ground...

How to Sleep Mo' Betta

Ohmigoodness, I just bought a temporary black out shade for my bedroom, and boy am I sleeping well!!!  It really shuts out the light!  I need to buy a second one now.  These temporary shades are just that -- temporary.  They peel and stick to the top of your window sill, and then you pull them up and down by folding/unfolding them one rib at a time, and then using clips to hold them in place.  Pretty cumbersome.  But, if it's a window that's always closed with a drape (I have one such window in my bedroom) then it works fine because you never have to touch it.  However, the second window in my bedroom is one that I like to open each day, so it's annoying -- but worth it for the good sleep!!!  Now I can sleep in as late as I need to, without the summer sun waking me up.  And the porch light on our patio no longer is an issue; it used to keep me awake.  So now we can get deep sleep throughout the night.

I think this is the one I bought from Home Depot, super cheap, and super easy to install:

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Redi-Shade-Paper-Room-Darkening-Window-Shade-4-Pack-Price-Varies-by-Size-1602298/202617418?N=bt0mZ1z0ykrnZ1z0ykloZ1z0yk9wZ1z0yk9kZ1z0xzo4#.UZZqCbXU-So

Important Book I hope Everyone Reads

I finished this book awhile back:

http://www.amazon.com/Vitamin-K2-Calcium-Paradox-Little-Known/dp/1118065727/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1368809266&sr=8-1&keywords=calcium+paradox

VitaminK2 and the Calcium Paradox:  How a Little-Known Vitamin Could Save Your Life by Kate Rheaume-Bleue

The review on Amazon are fabulous -- 64 5-star ratings and six 4-star ratings.

It's all about how important Vitamin K2 (not K1 or "K")

And here's a website comparing the various K2 supplements out there:

http://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/which-vitamin-k2-supplement-is-best-mk-4-or-mk-7/

The Ladies

Guard Kitty