Excietment of Back Yard Chickens

Exactly 31 weeks ago, I purchased 4 baby chicks off of Craigslist.  I was told they were Americanas

 They were all so adorable, and I was secretly hoping that they would all be hens.

  Then I would have 4 hens.  Perfect.  But alas the time came and I was pretty sure that I had two roosters.  I started asking in various Facebook groups I belong too, and no one was willing to 100% tell me that I had two roosters, but I was pretty sure.

 (Ozzie has his back to us)

More time passed and it became apparent I had two roosters and two hens.  Since these were our first chickens, and they were going to be egg layers, we had not planned on processing any.  We really did not want to kill either rooster.  I did some research online and discovered that sometimes it works out.  We decided to wait and see if the two roosters, Ozzie and Zoltar, got along.

As time went on it became apparent that Ozzie was the more aggressive of the two roosters.  Not aggressive like I have read some to be, but more than I would like, since I have a two year old.  Zoltar will let you pet him.  Last weekend (2/16/2014) we butchered Ozzie.  We need practice.  At this time no "how to" post will follow.  You would all make fun of me.  But besides being a beginner, it went well.   He made great fried chicken and the learning process is amazing.  The difference in the quality of the meat, is mind blowing.

Up till this point we still had not gotten any eggs.  What I had discovered was:  Americanas (if these are Americanas) usually lay at an older age, and they came into maturity during the winter.  (We are having a very cold Texas winter)  BUT, the day after we butchered Ozzie, one of our hens laid our first egg.

 

To say we were excited, would probably be an understatement.  We were thrilled.  This added a third possibility.  Having two roosters was stressing the hens out.

What do you think? Too many roosters?  Cold Weather?  Do these look like Road Island Reds or Americanas to you?  The differences are so subtle to me when I look at pictures, to my untrained eye its very hard to tell.

Adventures in Homesteading - The Back to Eden Garden

We are putting in our first fall garden & decided to use the "Back to Eden" Method.  We had originally planned to have the garden area tilled and then the mulch delivered, but the man I found on craigslist appeared to have a drug problem and that did not work out.  So we went to plan B.  The rail road ties (30) were delivered on a Thursday & 75 yards of finely shredded mulch were delivered on Friday. 

We originally thought we could spread all 75 yards by hand.  We were wrong.  We spread out a paper that helps prevent weeds.  After some further reading and since we were waiting for the man to come and spread the mulch we sprayed the majority of the weeds with vinegar.  This took a lot of time and it 1/2 way worked.  I think it works best on walk way areas, and actual weeds, not grass.

The day came and we eagerly watched them spread our mulch.

The guys were very nice and worked much faster than we ever could have

We shortened the garden from the original size we had planned on, we decided this was still a REALLY BIG garden.

Over the next few days we watered the mulch to get it good and wet.  The back to eden idea is the much holds more water.  And its fine shredded so its a mixture of wood and organic material

Micah is an expert water.



I planted beans, squash, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, radishes and turnips.  Everything has sprouted except the carrots.  When it cools a bit more I will plan the lettuces.

So far I am pleased with this method.  I have noticed:

1) The grass that grows up around the sides (that wasn't fully covered with dirt)  is mostly dead at the bottom and pulls out fairly easily, I pull a bit each day.

2) the fresh grass that grows in the mulch pulls up very easy from the root we pull about 5 or so pieces a day when we go out to check the new growth.  

Originally posted on September 23, 2013 on my other blog ~ From this point on my Adventures in homesteading blogs will be here.