Vintage Dutch boy & girlSharin' the love under the Redbud and Lilac are two of my favorite garden pieces.
Both the Redbud and the Lilac have spring buds, but it will be a few more weeks before either is blooming.
Three hens a - layin'!Big Red, our rooster, "shares the love" ALL the time.
Fertile eggs are the tasty result.
As of this week, our chickens will be given ALL organic laying mash.
After reading the ingredients list on our local mill's mash, I made the very pricey
($7.50 per 50# for NON-organic...VS...$21.00 per 50# for ALL organic)
decision to go all organic with their feed.
Tho they are truly "free-range" and getting much of their food right now straight out of the gardens and yard, I feel I have to do this.
Ever since we have had our layers I have always given away our surplus eggs.
To go all organic would make that very difficult.
My dear friend Jen, from "A Bowl of Cherries", has agreed to now purchase her eggs for $2.00 a dozen to help offset the new cost.
She will be getting organic/free range eggs, and so will we!
Such a deal!
Chickens doing what they do best...foraging for fresh greens and bugs!They are out from about 9am till dusk when I go and lock them in for the night.
Our henhouse is fairly secure with a cement floor and insulated walls so it would take some mighty fine handiwork on the part of any predators to get in.
Last years tomato garden
THIS is what I will be tackling this week!
We are expecting some beautifully warm sunny days and I must take full advantage of it!
Since I was in a lot of pain last year, the gardens were never properly put to bed for the winter.
Hence, this will make for much more work this week.
Nevertheless...it is what it is, and it has to get done!
This particular bed will not be for tomatoes again, but for lettuce, potatoes, carrots, chard, and possibly some beets.
The tomato garden will be where the lettuce gardens were last year....
Crop rotation and all that....
How's YOUR week looking?
xoxo,
Cindy
THIS is what I will be tackling this week!
We are expecting some beautifully warm sunny days and I must take full advantage of it!
Since I was in a lot of pain last year, the gardens were never properly put to bed for the winter.
Hence, this will make for much more work this week.
Nevertheless...it is what it is, and it has to get done!
This particular bed will not be for tomatoes again, but for lettuce, potatoes, carrots, chard, and possibly some beets.
The tomato garden will be where the lettuce gardens were last year....
Crop rotation and all that....
How's YOUR week looking?
xoxo,
Cindy
17 comments:
The Dutch boy and girl are so cute.
You are so lucky to have fresh eggs whenever you want them.
I'm so glad you worked it out! My first thought when you wrote about your hens recently was wish you lived closer so I could buy some of those eggs off you! $2 a dozen is still a great deal for her and it makes your choice a little easier. I love Win/Win situations. And if you ever visit Milwaukee we'd love to buy some eggs too! :)
Heather
You GO Cindy! Organic ... fabulous!
I just got 2 dz from a friend at work whose chickens are laying faster than she can eat!
REAL EGG BEAUTIES! So nice to know they're from HAPPY CHICKENS!
Blessings each day ~ Maria
Your feed is so much cheaper than what we have to pay down under. But such a big difference in price for the organic feed - arranging to sell your eggs to off-set the cost is such a good idea. When we purchase our new pullets we are going to buy more than we need with the same idea in mind. Also going to buy our new girls from a free range farm that uses organic feed. Then the decision whether or not to buy the organic feed. After seeing a 60 minutes programme last week on the chemicals used on farms in Australia that are banned in many other countries we are inclined to go all organic.
Just wondering what exactly is in the conventional chicken feeds? I will be reading the bags to find out exactly what is in the feeds we have here.
I would like to go organic but the price! We raise a lot of chickens because we eat ours.I am hoping to grow a lot of things for them this year so maybe it will cut way back on feed and I can go organic.
Wow Cindy! Everything is looking "springy" there! How wonderful that you have organic chickens and eggs...yummy! I pay for mine and we go through lots. Maybe a few chickens would be a good idea. :)
Just letting you know that I am praying for you...hang in there friend! :)
With Love,
Camille
(Psalm 91)
I'm tackling my garden and flower beds this week too! Don't you love the forecast for the week?!
I'm so happy that this summer will be easier for you without so much pain!
Cindy, I have just got to know - do you think I could get away with chickens here? I must have them, I cant take it.
I was in the garden today - holding a gassy baby and have my work cut out for me.
Parisienne Farmgirl
I give away our eggs as well. I can't charge for them, people have been so kind and generous with us, that it's awfully nice to be able to share what we have.
I hope to get into our tomato beds as well. I want to redo those cages this year and make them better.
Yay! So happy you get some better weather!
~Faith
Those free range chickens are a BEAUTIFUL sight! And $2.00 a dozen is a great deal! Here in my part of Canada, the cheapest store-bought eggs are $1.97 (oops, were that price, but I think they've gone up to $2.29).
My tomato garden looks just like yours! I ran out of steam by the end of the summer and just left it all :-(
Grace and peace to you, dear sister.
Oh Cyn, in a way I wish my week looked like yours and yet I know that time of my life has passed.
I will get out there and piddle around in the flower beds today and get them ready for some new plants. Time is a passin'. :)
Daughters...yes. I just spoke to my firstborn daughter who lives 3000 miles away in Georgia. I miss her...terribly! They truly are wonderful, aren't they? I am fortunate to have two daughters still nearby..and one at least still in the state.
Love,
Mona
Cindy, GOOD CHOICE! You know how I feel about GMO's and you can be sure that the non-organic feed had corn in it - GMOs and all. Paying for the organic feed is good incentive to pasteur the hens as much as possible. And to be creative selling eggs. I try to keep the cost of my eggs cheaper than the store, but enough to help defray the costs so that both the seller and customer get the benefit (which is exactly what you're doing!).
my week?
busy...
expensive....
we're flying the grands out $800. yikes, but it's worth it...just like anything good (including organic feed). :)
thank you for the luv!
I live in a house with virtually NO yard. I always wanted to live on a farm. I want my own chickens. I've been married to my hubby for 27 years-he aint no farm boy! :(((((
The Dutch boy and girl are so sweet. :)
I am trying not to be jealous of you making plans to work in your garden. The snow just melted off of mine...I don't plant my garden until the end of May...so I have a bit of a wait. I am ready though!
I always get inspiration for doing the best for my family and farm animals from your blog....not sure yet if I can go completely organic on the chicken fed, but the chickens here do get a lot of what grows in the gardens to supplement their diets...
Gardening weather, yay! This means you've healed well enough to tackle more physically demanding jobs? Praise God.
We're getting the gardens ready too, such a busy time of year after a sedentary winter.... Feels good.
Funny, I no longer get upset about a few specks of 'red' in my eggs - good thing, because it's rare when there isn't - and feathers, always feathers on the shell. From what I understand, that's why we don't need to refrigerate our eggs - they're not washed before being sold.
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