Yesterday I suspected that my young Isa Brown “Dolly” was going to lay her first egg.  She spent much of the morning in the nest box “nesting.”  I have 5 good egg layer pullets this year and I’ve been anxiously waiting for them to start laying.  So to have 1 of them start is really exciting!

After awhile, I found her first egg!  A soft shelled small one (see picture).

Soft shelled eggs are very common mostly in new layers.  Their systems are still adjusting to the fine art of egg production:)  If a hen is an established layer and lays a soft shelled egg, it could be an indicator that she has a calcium deficiency.  Calcium is very important to a hen’s diet for nice hard egg shells.  I offer my girls crushed oyster shell at free will.  Some people prefer to use crushed egg shells.  I do not offer them crushed egg shells because I’m too afraid it will encourage them to eat their own eggs, but many people do with no problem.  If you choose to use the egg shells, be sure to clean them, dry them completely and I would suggest microwaving them to kill any bacteria that may exist before crushing and serving to your ladies.

soft shelled egg

Yesterday I tried my hand at 2 yummy recipes I have never tried before.  Blueberry freezer jam and oven dried beef jerky. The jerky was so scrumptious, we devoured it, it’s gone!!!  The jam is still setting, but I can tell you the mixture was so good, my husband licked the bowl, with the help of myself and our son of course:) So I thought I’d share the recipes with you.

Blueberry Freezer Jam:

You will need:

3 Cups crushed blueberries (about 3 pints)

5 1/4 cups granulated sugar

1 T lemon juice

1 package powdered pectin

3/4 Cups water

Crush berries in a large bowl, add lemon juice and sugar, stir to mix well and let stand for 10 minutes. In a saucepan, mix pectin and water and bring to a boil.  Boil, stirring constantly for 1 minute.  Mix pectin mixture into fruit mixture, stir for 3 minutes.  Pour fruit mixture into small canning jars leaving 1/2 inch headspace.  Cover immediately and let stand at room temperature for 24 hours.  Store in freezer.  Makes about 6 cups.

Blueberry Freezer Jam

Oven Dried Beef Jerky

You will need:

about 1 pound of beef, I used a small Roast but London Broil works great too.

1/2 Cup Worcestershire sauce (I used Lea & Perrins Thick)

1/4 Cup liquid smoke

1 tsp. garlic powder

1 tsp. ground black pepper

1 tsp. onion powder

Mix above ingredients together. Slice beef against the grain thinly (this is easier done if beef is frozen) place in a ziplock bag with mixture, shake to evenly coat beef slices.  Squeeze out all the air, reseal and let sit overnight.

Once your beef has marinated over night, blot off marinade from each slice with paper towel and lay on a wire rack inside pan (I use a lasagna pan) but a cookie sheet would work too.  I also line the bottom of the pan with tin foil for easier clean-up.  Make sure beef slices are laying flat on wire rack and not overlapping each other.  Bake in oven at 200 degrees until beef is leathery, about 2-3 hours.  Let cool on rack completely before serving.  Store in air tight container or ziplock bags.

oven dried beef jerky

It’s finally a beautiful day!  Weather is sunny and we’re expecting a high of only 73 degrees.  Perfect gardening weather, at least for me:)  We still are in need of a good rain, even a good thunderstorm to zap the garden and give it a growth spurt.  Did you know lightning has that effect on gardens?  It does.

I’m going to plant more beans and peas because what I planted has been eaten by something.  There’s alway something that gets eaten isn’t there!  I am also going to spread some DE around the cabbage and broccoli because the slugs are in mass numbers this year and feasting on those as well.  I’ll also use my tried and true method of watering the garden then sprinkling chili powder or cayenne pepper on the plants that pests love. It really works on keeping them off!

How is your garden growing this year?  Leave us a comment and let us know, we love hearing from you!

CONGRATULATIONS to SARA SWEATMAN and ELIZABETH WHITE they are our 2 winners from our hatching eggs giveaway!

Thank you to all who entered our giveaway!  We sure enjoy and appreciate having you all be part of our world, sharing in our love for farm life!

If you didn’t win this time, no worries, because we will be doing it again soon! And…if you can’t wait that long, then you can always purchase these hatching eggs from us.  Our prices are very reasonable and affordable! Just email us at [email protected]

The 2 lucky WINNERS of our hatching eggs GIVEAWAY have been notified by email, so if you entered, check your email to see if it was you!

Thank you to everyone who entered!  So many people interested in both Seramas and Quail, we’ll have to do this one again!  Until then, remember, we do sell our hatching eggs and will ship them anywhere in the U.S. except Alaska and Hawaii (sorry).

Stay tuned to see who our 2 lucky winners were, once they notify me, I’ll reveal who they are:)

Just a reminder that we have a GIVEAWAY going on here on the website.  Just click on the GIVEAWAY tab for details on how you could win EITHER Serama Bantam hatching eggs OR Coturnix Quail.  You have until Monday (tomorrow) night to get in on this awesome GIVEAWAY, so don’t delay!

Have A Great Day My Friends!!!

Couldn’t figure out why Grace, my Delaware, was honking like a goose all morning a couple days ago until I went out to the coop to check for eggs and found this!  This egg weighed a whopping 100 grams (approx. 3 and a half ounces), was 3 inches long and so fat that I could not touch my middle finger to my thumb wrapped around the center of the egg!!!  In the picture below, the other egg was her egg from the day before and it weighed 58 grams.  I was really thinking it was going to be my first triple yolker, but to my surprise it was only a double, her first!

So why does this happen?  Double Yolkers appear when ovulation occurs too quickly.  Double yolkers may be laid by a pullet whose productive cycle is not yet well synchronized. 

In Grace’s case, this was not a fertilized egg, but if it were, it would be unlikely that both yolks would be fertilized.  If by some small miracle they were, it would be unlikely they would survive and actually hatch.  There simply isn’t enough room in there for 2 embryos to develop fully.

Grace's eggs

One of my favorite breeds of chicken is the adorable Serama Bantam.  We currently have 4 in our flock.  They originated in Malaysia, therefore, are commonly called Malaysian Serama Bantam.  Some interesting information about Seramas is they do not breed true to color or size!  All 4 of mine are completely different looking!  I mentioned size, Seramas are categorized in classes, Class A are birds weighing 350 grams or less (these are the most valuable) Class B are birds weighing 350-500 grams and Class C are those weighing over 500 grams.  One of the most important characteristics when showing this breed in addition to their size is their “carriage” the carriage is how the bird carries him/herself.  Seramas should stand very erect with their breasts sticking out, a very proud, kind of “look at me” stance, resembling a vase with a tight “V” shape.

Serama care including incubation, is really no different than any other breed of chicken.  They don’t require as much room due to their small size, which makes them perfect for backyard chicken keepers.  They are NOT as cold hardy as most large breeds however.  When the temps drop below 40 degrees, they get cold.  Many Serama owners will bring their birds inside for the winter or provide a nicely heated coop.

Seramas mature between 16 and 20 weeks of age and will begin breeding.  Seramas are not good egg layers, so if a good layer is what you want, then the Serama is not right for you.  That being said, mine produce an egg about every 2 days on average.

Seramas left to free range are very susceptible to falling prey to wild animals and birds.  I personally do not recommend it.  Another thing to keep in mind, is Seramas are good fliers,  and,  like other breeds, they will return to the coop at night, they can also flee to the treetops or a rooftop.

A Serama rooster’s crow is 1/3 the volume of a standard chicken which makes them the preferred amongst city chicken folks.

"Blackie" our Serama Rooster

Hi everyone, busy today with moving three new chicks into the main coop.  I wanted to remind you that the giveaway we sponsored with The Chicken Chick at Egg Carton Labels by ADozenGirlz  https://www.facebook.com/Egg.Carton.Labels.by.ADozenGirlz?ref=ts                                          ends at nine tonight!  If you’re interested in getting into quail raising this is a great way to start with free fertile eggs!!  Good luck everyone!!