Dating and Refrigerating Eggs- What You Need to Know

To refrigerate or not to refrigerate farm fresh eggs That’s the question If you’ve traveled out of the US, you might have noticed that many countries don’t actually keep their eggs in the fridge Grocery stores throughout Europe keep their egg cartons at room temperature, and it’s the same in many countries around the globe

That begs the question, do we really have to refrigerate eggs?? It all boils down to three questions: do you wash your eggs, how quickly will you use the eggs, and what are you doing to avoid salmonella?

What

Starting Seeds in Eggshells

Starting seeds in eggshells is a great activity to do with your kids this summer! Now that school is almost out and last frost date has passed, it’s time to get going with warm crops for the summer garden

 

Eggshells make a great seed starting pot! Not only do they decompose once they’re planted, but they also enrich the soil with calcium and nitrogen during the decomposition process These two nutrients are essential for your seedlings and will help them grow well in the garden!

Supplies

You don’t need a lot of supplies to start

Raising Winter Chickens Part 3

Welcome to Part 3 of the Winter Chickens Series!

We are now several months into our winter chicken raising experience and loving it even more My girls are almost fully grown and are slowly integrating with my main flock They still live in their own chicken coop, but we do plan to move them to the main chicken coop later this summer

What I most love about these winter chickens, is that they should start laying eggs pretty soon! Most chickens will lay their first egg between 16 and 24 weeks of age My winter chickens arrived in late January

Guinea Raising Tips

There are a lot of reasons you may want to consider raising guineas on the homestead, but there are also a few considerations to be aware of before deciding to add them!

Pros of Raising Guineas

To tell the truth, I was first drawn to guineas because of their beautiful polka dot feathers I saw the gorgeous black and white feathers on Instagram and knew I had to had them Then I started reading more about guineas and learned that they are voracious tick eaters Consider me 100% sold at that point

With tick

How to Blow Out Eggs

Easter Egg Trees were a big deal when I was kid in Germany All the German families I knew loved heading outside to find the perfect branches for their trees, and then they spent hours blowing out eggs, decorating the eggs, and hanging them from a lovely “tree” they kept as a centerpiece on their table

Farm fresh eggs are so varied and pretty that I think you don’t have to do any decorating to create a lovey Easter Egg Tree with your fresh eggs as the centerpiece If you’d like to make your own Easter Egg Tree this year

Raising Winter Chicks Part 2

In the last post on raising winter chicks, we talked about the benefits of starting chicks in the winter This post will touch on a few of the concerns people sometimes have about winter chicks: heating requirements, when you can move the chicks out of the brooder, and shipping chicks during cold, winter weather

 

The Cons of Raising Chicks in the Winter

 

  1. Where will you keep your chicks?

 

You will need to consider that baby chicks need a lot of heat, with temperatures around 90F for the first week, and slowly decreasing as

Raising Chicks in the Winter Part 1

Most people think of spring as the ideal time to raise chicks, but chicks are available all year from Hoover’s Hatchery There are some good reasons you might want raise chicks in the winter and this post is the first in a three-part series on the topic of winter chicks

This first post will talk about pros of winter chicks, the second post will talk about some considerations (or potential cons) of raising chicks in the winter, and the third post will talk about how to keep those peeps warm in the event of power outage

Preventing Frostbite in Poultry

Chicken in the snowy backyards

Frostbite in poultry is a real concern during the winter Chickens, like people, are susceptible to frostbite When the temperatures plummet and the windchills pick up, we need to consider the chickens Making a few small changes can help them stay warmer during frigid weather

 

What is frostbite in chickens?

 

Chickens are susceptible to frostbite primarily on the combs and wattles, and sometimes on their feet You will notice frostbite in your chickens if their combs and wattles suddenly turn off color, and eventually become

Why We Like Raising Turkeys on Our Homestead

We enjoy keeping turkeys on our homestead While this is the first year that we have raised turkeys from poults, we have had a tom turkey named Tarzan for several years
Tarzan came to us after his original owner was busted by his city for having backyard birds in an area where they are not allowed He needed to re-home his birds and brought them all to us Originally, he thought he would pick the turkey up around Thanksgiving and eat him, but that did not come to pass

Instead, this turkey started roosting in the trees, my kids named him

Using Food Scraps To Feed Your Chickens

If you have chickens, there is no reason to toss leftover food or food scraps into the garbage Not only can you reduce landfill waste by feeding your chickens food scraps, but you can also save money on feed costs too!
If you’ve read anything about what you can and can’t feed chickens, you might be a little confused because different sources say different things That said, there is a general consensus on a few things that chickens really shouldn’t eat Here are a few things most people agree are not good for chickens:

  • Citrus peels (Although some people do