Quick Homestead Update

There's not much to update you on. Absolutely nothing has gotten done in the garden short of some weeding and fertilizing of beds in preparation for planting because we went from unbearable heat to rain. Rain every day. Rain all day long. Puddles everywhere. Thankfully, the rain has dropped the temperature some, which has been nice, but it's also prohibited us from getting any seeds planted for fear of them washing away and having to re-sow the seeds. I'm ready for planting though. Have seeds. Ready to plant. I'm hoping to double my usual number of tomato plants this year to 50 or more so that sauce can be put up, and wouldn't mind doing the same with green beans for the freezer.

Our backyard chicken flock is doing wonderfully well, even with the rain. The new coop should be here soon, at which point we will merge the now 12-week old babies with the big girls. They're spending big chunks of the day outside now, 3 and 4 hours at a time, and are developing their own little routines. Rumer and Scout, the Easter Eggers, have emerged as the shy and stand-offish, bottom of the totem pole girls. Rarely are they not paired up. Nutmeg, my Rhode Island Red, and Ida, my Cuckoo Maran, are fast friends and the leaders of the pack. It's funny, because Nutmeg was the runt of the group and seemed to me the most shy and needy in the beginning. Not so anymore. She's bold and bossy these days. And my White Rocks, Lillith, Leisl and Loretta, well they are everywhere. Fiercely independent, they think nothing of distracting the big girls so they can get to the food, which the big girls banish them from on a regular basis. They take turns doing the distracting as it usually includes a quick run across the yard with a big chicken doing the chasing and scolding. Ilana, our ex-broody Buff Orpington, has made it through the broody hormones and has begun laying eggs again.

So now we just wait. Wait for the rain to clear up enough that we can plant and feel productive again.

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Broody Vs. Egg-Bound Debaucle

What a day last Friday was. Ilana, one of our Buff Orpingtons, had been out of sorts for a few days. First I noticed that she was taking longer than usual to lay her eggs. Then I noticed that she was hardly leaving the nest. Then fear struck. I got concerned that she was egg-bound because our other Buff Orpington, Avigal, had laid that huge egg. What if poor little Ilana just couldn't pass one of those dinosaur eggs? It became a tug of war. I would pull her out of the nest. She would puff up, just furious with me, hunch over and do this extremely weird squat, and then run back to the nest. I would attempt to coax her out with her favorite treats, and she would just scream at me from the nest with what I call the maniacal chicken look when one has disturbed a hen in the midst of laying an egg. Okay, now panic was setting in. Remember, this is my first go with raising chickens.

Around 4 a.m. Friday morning, I realize that Ilana's not sleeping with the other chickens. She's still in the nest. I begin poring over my chicken forum entries, hoping for a very simple treatment to cure her egg-bound state. It seems like I have 2 choices. The first involves a latex glove, olive oil or Vaseline, and reaching into parts of a chicken's body I really don't care to ever reach into. The other involves placing her in a tub full of warm-hot water to try and soften up those parts I don't want to reach into so the egg can pass. I decide to keep reading forum entries and drink another cup of coffee.

Now it's daylight. I go out to the backyard to check on her, and there my little Ilana is, still in the nest, and still furious with me for even thinking about bothering her. I come back in the house to mull over the idea of finding a livestock vet in the area over a third cup of coffee, but I know Ilana will never forgive me if I do this. So I decide the tub is the answer. How am I going to get enough warm-hot water outside in a container big enough to put the chicken in by myself? Mickey's got to leave for work and, to be honest, if I told him what I wanted to do he'd probably call the little men with white coats to come and get me. I Facebook message 3 chicken-owner friends and ask them what to do. I wait an hour. No one's answering me. My stomach is in knots, but I know I have to do something. Chickens can die from being egg-bound and if one of my girls is going to die, I want to know I've done everything I can to have tried to save her.

I drag a big white Igloo cooler to the bathroom and put it in the bathtub. I fill it with warm-hot water as the chicken forum has instructed me to do. I go and get my precious Ilana, who is not too happy that I've disturbed her again, pick her up, bring her in the house, making sure I've locked the dogs outside so they can't scare her, and plop her in the cooler. There she stands. I expect a major ruckus with lots of squawking and wings flapping. Nothing of the sort. She stands in the water, looking around the bathroom rather satisfied, with a face that says, "Wait till I tell the other girls what I got to do." I sit on the lidded toilet seat next to her and chat away until the requisite 30 minutes is up. She seems quite happy and content. I towel her off and start to dry her feathers with a blow dryer when I realize that the heat outside will dry her faster than I ever can. I bring her back outside, where she eats and drinks a bit, and then runs straight back to the nest. I pray for an egg to come.

I come back inside and check my messages, and there are fast and furious questions coming in from my chicken friends. Does Ilana have diarrhea? No. Did she make a really big poop? Yes, thankfully in the cooler and not elsewhere in the house. Does she have feathers under her comb? Yes. Is this the same hen that laid the huge egg? No. After I answered all the questions, the consensus was that my little Ilana was just broody as hens are wont to do. She wanted to hatch some babies.

And what to do to fix a broody hen? Well, we're back to 2 possibilities. I could get some fertilized eggs and let her hatch them, or I could remove her from the nest and separate her so she has no access to anything that looks like an egg. Goodness knows we don't need any more chickens at the moment. Heck, we've got 11, more than enough for this beginning urban homestead. So I reached into the nest, totally infuriating my broody hen, and pulled out the golf ball that lay beneath her. About 2 hours later, she left the nest, still angry at me, and joined the other girls for an evening snack before heading off to bed next to the air conditioner compressor (their normal sleeping spot these days). Now I've just got to wait for her hormones to settle back down so she'll start laying eggs again.

Some quick broody versus egg-bound facts: A broody hen will do everything in her power not to leave the nest, including not leave to go to the bathroom. When she does leave the nest to poop, it will be one heck of a big poop. An egg-bound hen will have diarrhea and it will mess up the nest. A broody hen walks just fine if you can get her out of the nest to walk. An egg-bound hen has trouble walking. An ex-broody hen can take 2 weeks or more to start laying eggs again. An egg-bound hen can die within 2-4 days if not helped.

My lesson: Don't jump to dire conclusions. Go with the easier, simpler diagnosis first.

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Stranger Things Have Happened

I don't think I've told you, but every Sunday I go out to lunch with my dad. Come rain, hail or shine (I'd say snow, too, but we're in south Florida), I head to his place to pick him up at 1 p.m. No phone call necessary. It's an unspoken standing date. We almost always eat at this great little Israeli restaurant in Hollywood called At Yakov, just east of 441 on Stirling Road. They have great falafel and other tasty Israeli /Middle Eastern dishes, and we love the fact that everything is made from scratch so we don't have to worry about what preservatives and additives are in the food. Daddy almost always orders the Yemenite soup and I almost always order the baby chicken pita or platter.

Anyway, we did our lunch thing today and, like most Sundays, I needed to do some grocery shopping, so first we stopped at Costco and I picked up some organic quinoa, which is the cheapest place I've found to get it - $2.34 a pound versus the $3.99 even in the bulk section of Whole Foods. And then we headed to Whole Foods. We got the few things I needed and then made our usual stop at the juice counter to get a bag of pulp for the chickens before heading to the register. There are almost always 1 or 2 people in line at the juice counter and just as routinely at least one of them will ask what my plans are for the pulp, at which point I joyfully launch into telling them about my backyard chickens (I'm sure some of them are sorry they asked). And, per the norm, someone asked today, but this time she asked if she could buy eggs from me. I got so excited. My first egg customer! I explained that I really wouldn't have enough to sell till about December as my babies won't start laying till then, but she dutifully took my number and said she'd call. While I don't have any delusions that I'll make money on the deal, I'd be downright clucky if I could at some point cover the cost of their feed.

And that's the chicken news of the day!

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First Homestead Purchase

Our first future homestead purchase. We weren't planning it and I still don't know what made me look, but I came across this stove on eBay and fell in love with it. It seemed to call out to me as the appropriate first purchase for our someday homestead, something that, to me, says home.

1953 O'Keefe & Merritt stove

It's a 1953 O'Keefe & Merritt with 6 burners, 2 ovens, and 2 broilers and, while it still works, needs restoration. We're sending it to a company called Dream Stoves in California that specializes in restoring antique stoves.

It should end up looking something like this:

Fully restored O'Keefe & Merritt stove

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Homestead Organic White Bread

Several people have requested my white bread recipe that I use for sandwich bread for my husband and most recently hamburger rolls.

HOMESTEAD ORGANIC WHITE BREAD

INGREDIENTS:
2 (0.25 ounce) packages active dry yeast (4-1/2 teaspoons)
3 tablespoons sugar (or agave nectar or honey - adjust for personal taste)
2-1/2 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
3 tablespoons butter, softened, plus another tablespoon to butter loaf pans
1 tablespoon salt
6-1/2 cups bread flour (I use organic all-purpose flour with good results)
Canola or vegetable oil

DIRECTIONS:
In a large mixer bowl, dissolve yeast and sugar in warm water. Let stand for 10 minutes until foaming.

Warm water, yeast and sugar after 10 minutes

 
Stir in butter, salt and 2 cups of flour. Stir in the remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time, beating well after each addition. When the dough has pulled together, turn it out onto a lightly-floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes (it may be the humidity down here in Florida, but it usually doesn't take 8 minutes for me to reach this stage).

Dough ready for first rise

Lightly oil a large bowl, place the dough in the bowl and turn to coat with oil. Cover with a damp cloth and let rise in a warm place until doubled in volume, about 1 hour.

Dough doubled in volume (maybe a little more than doubled here)

Punch down the dough and turn it out onto a lightly floured surface. Divide the dough into 2 equal pieces and form into loaves. Place the loaves into 2 lightly greased 9x5-inch loaf pans. Cover with a damp cloth and let rise until doubled in volume (an inch above top of pan is fine), about 40 minutes.

Shaped loaves ready for second rise

Dough reading for baking (I went a little far here - got distracted)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. As soon as the oven comes to temperature, turn it down to 375 degrees F and bake for about 30 minutes or until the top is golden brown and the bottom of the loaf sounds hollow when tapped. Cool on rack completely before slicing or putting up in freezer.

NOTES:
I have found that I can reduce the rise time if I preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and immediately turn the oven off as soon as it comes to temperature about a half hour to 45 minutes before I start making the bread.

If you'd like a soft top crust, brush the tops with melted butter right after turning out to a cooling rack.

For hamburger rolls, divide the dough into 12-16 equal pieces and form into slightly flattened rounds. Place the flattened rounds onto a lightly greased baking sheet, cover with a damp cloth, and let rise until doubled in volume. To put a topping on the hamburger rolls, lightly beat 2-3 egg yolks and brush over the tops. Sprinkle with sesame seeds, dried onion flakes, poppy seeds, etc. if desired. Reduce baking time to about 20 minutes, but watch carefully.

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Hamburger Buns

Hamburger buns with dried onion topping

My first attempt at hamburger buns. Just used Mickey's favorite white bread recipe, painted with egg yolk and sprinkled dried onion flakes on them. They're extra large, so I'm thinking I could have divided into at least 14 as opposed to the 12.

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My Edible Yard: South Florida Planting Guide for August

August

• Sow watermelon seeds (2-4) by the 10th. Wait until mid-month to plant beans (lima: bush 40, pole 20; snap: bush 50, pole 20), broccoli (3-5), celery (8-10), collards (8-10), corn (15-20), cucumbers (3-4), eggplant (2-3), onions (fresh 15; storing 20), peppers (3-5), squash (4-6) and tomatoes (fresh 3-5; storing 5-10).
• Plant basil, chives, dill, mint, oregano and sweet marjoram.
• Pears should be ripening - pick early to avoid rot and browning.
• Harvest winter-chilled pineapples.
• Sow vegetable and herb seeds for fall transplants.

*Information obtained from The Edible Landscape by Tom MacCubbin.
**I'm planning on doubling the amount of collards so that I have enough for the chickens.

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