Well, at least some of the birds are singing. Our temperatures are in a warming trend now and boy are we ever glad. We’re already into our second year’s firewood. (We try to keep two years worth every year, just in case…) With below zero temps, we were using nearly double the wood we do when it’s even a little warmer, burning two stoves, the living room and kitchen stoves. It looks like my peppers will be planted this Friday, instead of last. Thirty-five above zero with night temperatures of twenties sure beats what we’ve been having!
With the economy in such a whirl, I’m seeing more folks who, evidently, are thinking like us, that we’d best grow all the food we can as prices continue to climb. A lot of folks are struggling, financially, now. And it doesn’t look like there’s an end in sight. Our local store eggs are now more than $5 a dozen for “plain” eggs and up to $12 for organic eggs. Holy cow, that’s $1 an egg! Wait! I’m running out to kiss my chickens on the lips. They’re slowly laying better and better. First it was one egg daily, now we’re up to four. Come on girls! You can do it!
Besides what we grow, in the food department, we’re also going to save some eggs to hatch this year. If we can’t snag a broody hen, we’ll use our little incubator to hatch some chicks. After all, some of our hens are 10 years old (and still laying, by the way). Sooner or later, we’ll lose some of those elderly birds and need replacements.
It’s easy to incubate clean, unwashed eggs. Maybe we’ll get lucky and some of those old girls will go broody and save us the trouble of raising chicks. — Jackie
Sadly, a lot of folks go and spend $1,000+ in building a small coop and run and then the price of chicks and the price of feed…… Takes a lot of $5/dozen eggs to recoup that outlay of cash, which many cannot afford. Thankfully, my chicken house is a few years of age and the pen is several (so, figured out, that cost has been recovered). For us who are home most day all day, chickens can be a fun, easy and profitable expedition, however. I to love my birds and am thankful for them.
Here’s hoping some of your hens go broody.
My hat is off to you all. Tough folks for tough times. I consider myself a part of that culture.
I meant to say no roosters in the hatchlings. I do have a rooster than procreated the chicks. Hah! I didn’t want anyone to think otherwise.
Hi, eggs are ridiculously high here. At 17 dollars a dozen!! Geez, absolutely crazy. I need to put the word out for locals with chickens and see about buying some. I’m putting in a chicken coop in an old shed with a run for 10 chickens. But we’ve got a foot of snow on the ground and we’re lucky if we get above 20 during the day. The shed needs repairs and the ground is too frozen to dig for post holes. I was going to wait another year but I want some this summer. Thankfully I spent a fair amount of time taking care of chickens as a kid, so I’m not a complete novice.
I’m starting plants this weekend. Our last freeze is May 25. But last year we had freezes and snow on the end of June and the other of July. So I’m culling sheets and getting plastic for the my plants. I also am using soda bottles to put water in to increase the temperature in the beds. I’m thinking about putting my peppers and tomatoes in their hoop house at the beginning and at end of the growing season. I’m going to try over wintering some pepper plants. You either grow them in pots on transplant them into pots that fit the root ball. Then after waiting on the plant to get over transplant shock you cut off the top and tuck into a sheltered location. The pepper is supposed to regrow from the remaining stem and roots. Have you ever done this Jackie? Opinions on it? Thanks and still saying prayers for Javid and y’all.
We had -40 a couple mornings ago. Today, so far we’re up to 35.1 above. Hopefully that’s the end of the really cold weather.
I too have burned much more wood than years past. It is wonderful to be in a comfortably warm house. I have 13 hens and was getting up to 8 eggs/day. With the extreme cold-zero! Now they’re laying again about 3-4/day. Last summer a broody hen hatched out 4 pullets (no rooster) now added to the flock. My onion starts are growing and pepper started yesterday. I planted your celery seed yesterday which will be a first for me. Temp here 12 degrees and sun shining-Crazy as it sounds it seems warm. Chores in the bitter cold was challenging. More cows to calve soon. Spring can come soon for us here. I read we will import eggs from Turkey-wow/crazy.
I must add, because of your reference to eggs: maybe people that haven’t been, will now get serious and stop poo-pooing self-reliance and homesteading, raising their own chickens for eggs, among other things. Yes, I’ve heard there is a rush at Tractor Supply. Seems half our nation is going to AI as their god and source, and then there’s us who homestead with the Lord, not AI.
Love your humor, Jackie! I need a laugh after a knee replacement. Seems to be a fad among the elderly (70 yr old next year), knee replacement, that is. I have a red bell pepper plant in my house window, about to bloom, and Oregon Spring tomatoes up and tall for zone 9. Regards from conservative, far north, rural, California.
I was shocked to see our local chain. grocery (not wally) limit eggs to THREE dozen a customer. Non-organic around $5. The local organic free range we usually purchase ($5.50) were out of stock on Monday. But we too got snow, then cold, some snow and winds. A lot of rural roads – read: drifting, thank goodness not snowing our some spots would be white outs, and or ice covered lanes. They salted the roads but the plows couldn’t get all plowed quick enough before it froze. Our road only had one (thankfully) short stretch of all ice.
Gonna be tough times for a lot of folks. Inflation is going to get worse, we’ll not see $2.00/gallon gas or lower prices at the grocery store. We’re likely to have stagflation sooner than we think.