Monday, January 2, 2012
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Life on a very small working farm with humorous stories starring the animals that keep the owners on their toes. Includes information and tips on raising animals, gardening, and occasional ecological ravings, recipes, photography, and disaster preparedness.
About Me
- sista
- A native of Washington State, I moved from Seattle to Lummi Island in 1999. There I established a small homestead on 3 acres where I learned most of what I know about farm poultry, goats, making goats milk soap and the pleasures of living in a small community. After 8 years I sold my little farm and moved to Lopez Island to help my guy whip his house into shape for selling. We moved with our two teen girls to another more accessible island to be closer to the colleges they would need in the next few years. I and THE MAN are currently living on 4 acres. The chicken coop has been built and the garden established. THE MAN and builder of all things on "The List" is currently working on my never ending and always growing requests. Our goal is to become more self sufficient and have fun doing it. Oh ya and get our daughters raised and into college. A feat in itself. So if you are into some humorous farm antics, recipes, organic gardening, with the occasional tip for solving a problem or two read on. Make comments. I love learning from my readers. Sista
WelcometotheHenhouse
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2 comments:
There is always a point. When I started this two years ago I never thought or expected anyone to would hit the join button. I did it as a journal.
What about your roosts and laying bins? What feed do you feed? I saw different breeds of chickens. I really like the speckled sussex. They are not big sellers here.
What is your market out there? Do crafts go over?
You said you were thinking about sending me some soap, if you do I will put your name on the bathroom wall once I get around to making the name plates.
Are you planning on incubating and eggs this year?
See there, now you have a week worth of posts, glad I could help.
Well here we go. My roosts are made of 2x2's with the edges rounded off so my chickens don't develop foot problems like bumble foot. They are installed with 2x4 joist hangers so I can remove them easily to clean the coop. There are several pictures on other blog post of my laying bins but they are accessible from the outside of the coop by opening a door to remove eggs and open to the inside so the hens can just jump in and do their thing.
I feed them Purina Layena pellets mixed with Purina omega 3 pellets and extra oyster shell and they get a scoop of scratch in the evening when they go in. If the weather is icky I put some straw in the run and toss the scratch in there just to give them something to do. They get kitchen scraps and especially like left over cooked brown rice and apple peels or pumpkin. I don't eat my chickens so they are just egg producers which I sell for $4 a dozen but sometimes I raise a few layers for friends. I'm hoping my Sebastapol geese hatch some babies this year all though I've read that they don't do that til the second year. If so I will try to sell them.
Crafts seem to be big out here and I make goat milk soap. Not every one does. If I had your mailing address I would send you some MDR. I would like nothing better than to be on your wall. Beats being on the bathroom wall at the local bar. LOL My email is below this "leave your comment" box.
I have light Brahmas, Buff Orpingtons,new Hampshire reds, speckled Sussex, silver lace wyandott, Dominique, Americanas,black Astralorps,3 silkies just for fun along with a bantom light brahma and bantam rooster who takes care of all of them. About 32 all total.
I don't have an incubator but the boyfriend of one of my girls has one so I may give him some fertile eggs from my Khaki Campbell ducks... just for fun. Would love turkeys but the man says I would turn them into pets so I can't have them. I insist that's not so. I could raise meat birds if there were a processor anywhere near here but the closest is 130 miles one way and I just can't off anything myself.
There is a market for just about anything here so it's just a matter of picking something you want to do. There are a lot of soap makers however and most of them just make basic soaps. I have been working on my recipe for several years so it has changed hopefully for the better. I don't use chemicals to make soap other than the lye. I use food grade oils such as olive, canola, and safflower and the essential or fragrance oil makes it smell great and it gets you nice and clean without leaving a soap residue on your skin like Irish Spring or one of those. If you can smell the soap on your skin it is still ON your skin.
There now. A whole weeks worth just for you. I will send you soap
but need an address. Thanks for the comment. That was fun!
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