tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-193167352024-03-12T21:33:52.257-05:00Urban AgrarianGrowing, harvesting and cooking vegetables, eggs and chickens while living on a small lot.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger159125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19316735.post-68632170848098139852009-12-20T18:14:00.004-05:002009-12-20T18:51:46.674-05:00Brewers GrainFree Lunch for ChickensA few weeks back a friend offered me the barley that was left over from his beer making. I know brewers grains have a good amount of protein but less carbohydrates than before the process. I had done a bit of research about the amount that can be fed to chickens, but I thought I would just try free feeding it alongside their layer pellet and see what happened. I received aUnknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19316735.post-25800558857108866042009-11-10T14:07:00.007-05:002009-11-10T14:42:15.505-05:00Novella Carpenter is Coming to BostonI really had fun reading Novella Carpenter's new book Farm City. It is probably not a big surprise that I enjoyed it and found it so interesting. After all, someone who writes a blog called Urban Agrarian is kind of already sold on the idea of urban farming and has probably already slaughtered a chickens or two. In addition to my love of her subject matter, I think that Carpenter is also a Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19316735.post-74711519299884519752009-10-20T19:39:00.010-05:002009-10-20T20:40:12.626-05:00Grilled Chicken Hearts <!-- @page { margin: 0.79in } P { margin-bottom: 0.08in } --> This fall I raised some broiler chickens again with my community garden cooperative broiler group and I also raised some at home in my backyard. Not only does this mean lots of chicken for my freezer for the winter, but it means I have ALL the parts of the chickens including giblets and feet. After raising and caring for an Unknownnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19316735.post-21385384939386538492009-06-15T21:22:00.003-05:002009-06-15T21:35:41.688-05:00Community Garden BroilersFor the last two years I've raised broiler chickens in my community garden plot. This year I'm doing it as a cooperative project with 3 other people. We're growing 20 Cornish Cross together in the community garden. They are 7 weeks old and when I weighed one today. It weighed 7.25 lbs. We won't be processing them for 2 more weeks. Too bad because they are plenty big enough right now. We may have Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19316735.post-89905063053353277982009-06-15T20:51:00.004-05:002009-06-15T21:08:44.166-05:00Bees Building CombI got 2 hives last year and 3 this year for a total of five. In one of my new hives the bees are building their comb in the wrong place. It's all my fault. I was short an inner cover and they built up up up. This is going to take a while to clean up and probably neither the bees or I will be totally happy with the process.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19316735.post-76982821831008616042009-05-31T10:17:00.002-05:002009-05-31T10:32:54.992-05:00Back to bloggingWell... After a year an a half of no blogging, I'm hopefully starting again. There are many reasons blog posts can dwindle, but for me it was a good reason. After the birth of my new grandson, I was helping my daughter and son-in-law out with day-care for Nicholas about 20 hours a week while they were both at work. It was lots of fun, very fulfilling and exhausting! He is quite attached to me Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19316735.post-26817186037675011862008-01-05T09:02:00.001-05:002008-01-05T09:15:42.471-05:00Cold and FrostLately it's been cold. Cold enough that my car window has frost on the inside, as does my house and many other places that have breathing beings inside creating moisture on very cold windows. Frost seems to form in many patterns. Here is the feathery type as seen below on my bedroom window in the morning.There is also a swirly type as seen on this chicken coop door. It's not my chicken coop doorUnknownnoreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19316735.post-37275365703693291652007-12-25T08:40:00.001-05:002007-12-25T08:52:49.352-05:00NicholasNicholas, one day oldI'm now a grandmother. My daughter and son-in-law are now parents and my mother is now a great-grandmother. Meet Nicholas, born December 19th, 8 pounds 14 ounces, a health baby boyNicholas, home with Mom by the Christmas treeUnknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19316735.post-83145595551430896592007-12-24T17:19:00.000-05:002007-12-24T17:49:32.390-05:00hatching chicksAbout three weeks ago I got a new incubator. I'm planning on doing some hatching in the spring. The incubator, a hova-bator 1588, holds 42 eggs, but I thought I'd give it a little test run with 8 eggs. Because I have no rooster there would be no point in using eggs from my hens, so I headed over to Codman farm where I volunteer, and collected the 8 eggs you see below. They are all shapes, sizes Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19316735.post-60459084143933909882007-11-20T14:25:00.000-05:002007-11-20T14:49:44.438-05:00First SnowIt's a damp raw slushy day out, just right to stay home and bake for ThanksgivingToday is the first snow of the season. It's the slushy kind. not the nice fluffy stuff and won't add up to much. It's predicted to be in the 50s for the next couple of days so I guess it won't even last the week. Here it is not really unusual for it to snow on November 20th. What is unusual this year, is that the Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19316735.post-816344714506818222007-10-28T10:21:00.000-05:002007-10-28T10:45:14.852-05:00A Blue EggThe type of chickens that lay blue eggs are called Easter Eggers. They are Araucana mixes and can lay blue, green, brown or white or a blend of those colors depending on the genetics. The gene for blue eggs is actually dominant. It is a seperate gene from the ones that control white or brown egg color. So the egg can have both blue and brown color. That can make them look greenish or kakhi.I was Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19316735.post-76131270919355256892007-10-25T19:55:00.000-05:002007-10-25T20:30:24.519-05:00Dust Bathing Chickens and Dog?Chickens like to take dust baths such as here , but last week one of my dogs Kahlil decided to join some of the broiler chickens in a dust bath. Luckily I had my camera, because it was an odd thing to see a dog rolling around with chickens.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19316735.post-54589376126390012982007-10-24T15:49:00.000-05:002007-10-24T16:08:01.325-05:00dahlias with beesThis year someone gave me some of their extra dahlia tubers. I ended up with showy dinner plate sized yellow ones, spiky burgundy ones and my favorite one, a salmon with petals that curl. I'm now hooked on dahlias and will save and replant the tubers next year. I took these photos a couple of weeks ago before the frost turned the plants black.I am happy to see that the honey bees like dahlias Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19316735.post-62408750332410760612007-10-15T20:06:00.000-05:002007-10-15T20:41:47.447-05:00chicken tractor in the garden This year I decided to try raising something a little different in my community garden plot, Cornish Cross broiler chickens. I've raised these before but not in my community garden plot. I got permission to do this and am calling it a pilot project. Hopefully next year other gardeners will join in also.I started out with 13 female chicks, I brooded them in my garage for about 3 weeks. One Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19316735.post-11746553825523746242007-10-14T18:44:00.000-05:002007-10-14T19:23:03.969-05:00Frost in the GardenYesterday morning when I went to my garden in Lincoln, Massachusetts, I discovered the first light frost of the season. The dahlia leaves were black and the pepper leaves were droopy. I decided to pick the rest of the peppers. With hot dry weather this year I've had a great year for sweet red peppers. I'm not a big fan of green peppers, but they are unlikely to turn red before rotting so I'll Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19316735.post-22868219762566182752007-05-12T08:27:00.000-05:002007-05-12T10:40:24.944-05:00Cheep Housing What if you have a few chicks that are are ready to go outside and you haven't had time to build that chicken mansion you've been designing? If you have an old plastic dog crate you are in luck. Get some welded wire, a wire cutter and a pair of pliers and create a quick and dirty version of the fancy igloo type chicken coop. I did this one in 45 minutes. The door is on the end away from the dog Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19316735.post-90145504735522304032007-04-08T09:11:00.000-05:002007-04-08T09:43:46.268-05:00MicroclimateA microclimate is a local area where the climate differs from the surrounding area. This area on the south south east side of my eastern Massachusetts house forms a small microclimate. Due to the exposure, the cement foundation, the bricks of the house and it's proximity to a heated home as well as a westerly wind block it is much warmer than the rest of my yard. The daffodils just 20 feet away Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19316735.post-10580321843767094572007-04-01T07:10:00.000-05:002007-04-01T07:28:12.983-05:0012 Day Old Baby Chicks It always amazes me how quickly baby chicks grow and feather out. At 13 days old, they seem to have tripled in size and are sprouting wing and tail feathers. They also easily fly up onto a low perch. An Easter Egger chick hams it up for the camera while her fellow Buff Orpingtons and Sliver Laced Wyandottes eat dinner.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19316735.post-4384662542911111612007-03-21T15:23:00.000-05:002007-03-21T15:44:28.579-05:00New Baby ChicksThe baby chicks have arrived. They made it all the way from Ohio to Waltham Massachusetts in one day. The regional facility in Waltham called me to come get them there because my local post office was already closed for the day. They've done this before and it really speeds the chicks along. They're in the new brooder in the cellar for now, but will soon be moved out to the brooder house (aka Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19316735.post-1174264894443827282007-03-18T20:17:00.000-05:002007-03-18T20:41:34.776-05:00Amaryllis Time I enjoy taking pictures of flowers but about the only thing that blooms now are my indoor amaryillis bulbs that I save from year to year. The red one is the last one that will bloom for the season. The pink one was impressive and is even interesting (to me) in its decay. Now I'll need to wait for the crocus and daffodil bulbs which were poking up, but are under snow once again. Last year I Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19316735.post-1173835708527331462007-03-13T21:17:00.000-05:002007-03-13T21:30:36.316-05:00To Everything There is a SeasonWe are now in the season of mudLace your boots tightly or the mud will suck them right off your feet.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19316735.post-1173478392950491782007-03-09T16:37:00.000-05:002007-03-09T17:13:12.976-05:00Boston Area - Backyard Chicken Class Some of the eggs recently produced by the chickens at Codman FarmToday I just want to let people in the Boston area know that Codman Community Farm in Lincoln Massachusetts will be running a class this spring on raising backyard chickens. This will be a great opportunity for people who want to raise their own chickens or just find out what's involved. I've included a description of the class Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19316735.post-1173058277938269622007-03-04T20:27:00.000-05:002007-03-04T22:07:09.356-05:00Three Dogs Here you see, from left to right Cocoa, Bogie and Kahlil. Cocoa and Kahlil are my dogs and Bogie in the middle is my daughter and son-in-law's dog who was visiting for the day. I thought I'd practice sit-stay with three at a time. It actually went better than I thought it would.In case you can't tell, Bogie and Kahlil are brothers. The are also son's of Kia who lives hereCocoa's job is to be Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19316735.post-1171932514719541982007-02-19T19:36:00.000-05:002007-02-19T19:57:37.870-05:00Mini Ohio BoooderBaby chicks need to be kept very warm for the first weeks of their lives. Providing heat for them with heat lamps or other means is called brooding. The first week they need to have the temperature at 90 degrees F. Each week the temperature can be lowered 5 degrees.The other day when I had plenty of other things that I was supposed to be doing, I decided to build another chick brooder. I’d been Unknownnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19316735.post-1171666351972900962007-02-16T17:43:00.000-05:002007-02-16T18:42:49.840-05:00Chicken en Croute and Egg ThiefIf you've landed here looking for a chicken with crust recipe, keep googling because this is a chicken coop encrusted in ice.I haven't had time to work on the new chicken tractor/coop. The only thing different from my last post is that it's encrusted in ice. It may only look like snow on the top, but it's very icy and solid. It still needs wheels. If the wheels were already on, I could have Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2