[4 day old ducks]

We moved our fawn runner ducks out to pasture this week.  They are 3 weeks old and seem to be ready to handle the outdoor environment.  We really needed to move them outdoors considering they were almost taller than the walls of their brooder.  Also ducks are very messy with water.  We were constantly adding more shaving or changing out the brooder and adding all new shaving because the whole brooder would be wet.

[Ducks in brooder at 3 weeks old]

We started moving them outdoors to a temporary enclosure during the second week and started putting them in a small kid’s swimming pool so they could have access to water other than their drinking water.  They enjoy foraging for fresh clover and grass clippings on the water surface.  We also throw random insects into the pool that they quickly devour.

[Ducks out for their first swim]

Though they are the same age, ducks seem to be much bigger and stronger than the chickens and seem much more ready to be outdoors.

Currently we have a corner section of our in-progress future pasture/forest garden sectioned off to keep the contained in a small section.  We are using a large dog kennel with a tarp over it as a coop for them.  As soon as I make repairs to the chicken coop and get them moved outdoors, I will start the construction of the duck coop.  We lock the kennel door in the evenings when they go in for the night.

[Corner section of pasture fenced in with temporary fencing]

The forest pasture area was a thicket of dying non-native pine trees, devil’s walking sticks, mulberries, and poison ivy as of a couple of months ago.  We cleared everything out, leaving a couple of mulberry and dogwood trees and planted 2 semi-dwarf apple trees.  I plan on digging a small pond for the ducks to have access to water to enjoy getting in.

[Piglets with sow at the farm we purchased them from]

Last week we added 2 pigs to our homestead.  We have never raised pigs before so this will be a true learning experience for us.  We found these pigs posted on craigslist.  We purchased them for $45 a piece and the drive was about 1 1/2 hours away.

 [The farmer estimated this sow to weigh around 400 lbs]

Our plan for the pigs are to raise them for 5-6 months until hopefully they reach a weight of 200-225 lbs.  At that point we plan to have them slaughtered and butchered.

 [Piglets in a large dog kennel ready for the ride home]

[Piglets at their new home]

I plan on posting more details soon about their enclosure and our plan to raise them in a rotational pasture/forest type setting.  So far my enclosure has keep them contained and they seem to be happy rooting and digging a new garden area for us.

Chicks can easily become dehydrated so always have fresh water available for them.  When introducing chicks to their brooder, dip their beaks into the water first.  This is especially important if you ordered them through the mail.   A common cause of chick loss is not eating or drinking soon enough.  This introduces them to where their water is and once they get hydrated and warm they should easily find their feed.  Add about 3 tablespoons of sugar or honey to each quart of water for the first day or two.  This gives them an added boost of energy to get off to a good start.

We use a watering base fitted with a mason jar to provide our chicks water.  As the chicks get older and are drinking more, we will switch to a larger watering base style waterer.  We will continue to use these waterers when the chicks move out to pasture, but we are planning on possibly trying out the Avian Aqua Miser chicken waterer.

For feed we use NatureWise chicken starter grower crumbles (non-medicated) available at our local rural king, which is high (18%) in protein.  Use newspaper around feeder for the first few days if they are having trouble recognizing where their feed is.  It is recommended to provide 2 foot of feeder space/25 chicks.  We will feed our layer flock the chicken starter till around 16 weeks of age.  After that age we will switch to layer feed.  Once the meatbirds are old enough (4 or 5 weeks) to live outside in the chicken tractor, we will switch them over to meatbird crumbles (22% protein).  For an idea of how much food do chicks need, check out the table below or click on the previous link.

[Table source - Avian Aqua Miser, http://avianaquamiser.com/posts/How_much_food_do_chicks_need__63__/]

2012 will be a year of new learning experiences with raising chickens for us.  We have raised a laying flock before but we pretty much just let them free-range, keep them in a chicken tractor, or confined them to their coop and run.  This year we will be using a pasture/forest garden paddock shift system for the layer flock, and raising and processing our own meatbirds for the first time.  We plan on sharing these experiences with everyone along the way.

For the first week, keep the brooder temperature between 90-95 degrees. We use a brooder lamp and hang it about 18 in. or so from the bottom of the brooder depending on how many watts the light bulb is.  A red light bulb will help decrease the tendency of the chicks to peck at one another.  Set up the lamp so that it can be adjusted up and down to increase or decrease the temperature of the brooder.  We put a  cheap thermometer on the floor of the brooder, directly under the lamp to monitor the temperature.

Reduce the temperature of the brooder by raising the lamp an inch or so.  You will want to reduce the temperature by 5-10 degrees per week until the brooder is at a temperature of 70 degrees.  This allows them to gradually acclimate to cooler temperature they will experience outdoors.

It’s a good idea to have your brooder set up in advance of getting your chicks so they can almost immediately be introduced to their new home, get warmed up, and get some water and food.  This is especially important when ordering by mail as we did.

Our chicken brooder consisted of a 3′ diameter circle of chicken wire with cardboard on the inside to act as a draft shield.  Chicks need about  0.5 square foot of space per chick, so this setup is large enough for about 30 chicks.

The walls (chicken wire and cardboard) are about 24″ tall.  I hung a brooder lamp from the ceiling using a chain so it can easily be adjusted to change the temperature.  About 1″ of large pine shavings were placed in the bottom of the brooder.

We used the bottom of a large dog kennel for the ducklings.  The setup is basically the same as the chicken brooder.  We didn’t need as big of an enclosure since we only ordered 2 and floor space is limited in our basement.

Now all there is left to do is add the feeders, waterers, and chicks/ducks.

It’s been a while since my last post but I should have plenty of posts coming out 3 or 4 times a week coming up with the arrival of the chickens and ducks.  I have been trying to share the content of some of the blogs and sites I enjoy on facebook almost daily.  Be sure to follow us there.

First, do some foraging and collect some wild chickweed.  We have it growing everywhere in our vegetable garden so this is where I usually harvest it.

Gather about 1 cup of chickweed.  Rinse and blanch chickweed for about 3 minutes. Drain and chop in a blender (leaves and stems).

Mix blended chickweed into your pancake batter.  Check out this post if you need a recipe for perfect pancake batter.  Finally pour chickweed batter onto a hot skillet, cook, and add some real butter and some maple syrup (or however you prefer your pancakes).  They taste delicious.

Here is our setup we use to protect strawberries from deer, birds, dogs, cats, and any other animal that might want to eat them or dig in the bed.  Our strawberries were in there 4th year of production last spring, so we pulled up all the old strawberries a couple of weeks ago, put down a kill mulch of cardboard, and planted about 50 bare root strawberries. Our strawberries are in a raised bed because the soil in this area of our property is extremely rocky.  At one time this area was part of the drive way.

To protect our strawberries we run 24″ chicken wire around the raised beds with t-posts in the corners and 1 in the middle on each long side.  This years we used some old dried jerusalem artichoke stalks as stakes for the middle posts.  We use straw baling wire that we save from straw bales to fasten the chicken wire to the posts.  Next we drape some bird netting over the top to keep out birds.

Pretty simple and effective.

I did harvest some of the tubers and cooked them with some olive oil and seasoned with pepper and salt.

I left the rest in the ground to store and planned to harvest more throughout the winter.  I never got around to harvesting anymore.  I recently went to check on them to see if new jerusalem artichoke shoots were coming up yet.  I uncovered the mulch and noticed small (1 1/2″ – 2″ in diameter) tunnels throughout the hugelkultur bed.  Through further inspections I also discovered that there were no traces of any of the jerusalem artichoke tubers that were left in the ground over winter.

So I’m assuming that the tunnels were created by voles (or some type of field mouse or possibly a shrew).  Our cat and dog occasionally dig up voles and shrews.  I’m also assuming that the voles ate my jerusalem artichoke tubers.

Voles will often eat succulent root systems and will burrow under plants or ground cover they are particularly fond of and eat away until the plant is dead. Bulbs in the ground are another favorite target for voles; their excellent burrowing and tunnelling gives them access to sensitive areas without clear or early warning. The presence of large numbers of voles is often only identifiable after they have destroyed a number of plants. – Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vole

I think it’s also probably safe to assume that the hugelkultur bed (with its buried rotting logs and limbs) is a perfect place for small rodents to build nests deep in the hugelkultur between those logs and limbs.

The hugelkultur bed is working great and I plan on constructing more of them, but for now I will be planting them with annual vegetables (squash, melons, etc.).  For root crops that might be left in the ground throughout winter, I will probably avoid planting them in the hugelkultur beds.  That’s not to say that this would totally protect them from rodent damage all together, but I’ve never had a problem before.

Does anyone have any experience dealing with rodents tunneling in hugelkultur beds or growing jerusalem artichokes (or other root/tuber crops) in hugelkulturs?  Leave a comment.

[Chickweed in late winter without flower]

[Chickweed in early spring with flower]

Disclaimer:  All of the following information about the identification and use of this plant is accurate to the best of my knowledge.  With that being said, only attempt to harvest and eat wild plants that you can identify with 100% accuracy.  Buy a field guide or 2 on foraging for wild plants to learn to identify them at all stages.  Cross-reference information and photos of plants with different sources.  Know if there are any similar looking plants that might be poisonous.  Before consuming a wild plant for the first time, eat only a small portion in case you are allergic.

Chickweed (Stellaria spp.)

General Characteristics

Low growing annual with 1/4-1/2″ oval opposite leaves.  The stems have a line of fine hairs along it.  Tiny star shaped white flowers with 5 pedals (but it looks like it has 10 pedals).  See photos above.

Edible Uses

Chickweed can be eaten raw or cooked.  Flowers and leaves are great mixed in a salad or added to a sandwich.  Also great in stir-fry or stews.  Chickweed is an excellent source of fiber, vitamin A, D, B, C, rutin, calcium, iron, phosphorus, potassium, manganese, sodium,  and copper.

Medicinal Uses

Good for treating cuts, minor burns, and rashes by chopping chickweed and applying it to the area.  Has diuretic properties.  A hot tea can be made to promote flow of urine and to treat the kidneys and urinary tract.

Chickweed Tea Infusion

• 1/4 cup of chickweed
• add 1 cup boiling water
• cover and steep for 20 minutes
• strain and drink

Violet (Viola spp.)

General Characteristics

A low growing ground cover with heart-shaped toothed leaves and a 5-petaled bilaterally symmetrical flower.  Flower blooms in the spring. Flowers range from white, blue, yellow, and white/blue. They spread by underground rhizomes.

Edible Uses

Both leaves and flowers are edible and can be added to salads.  Although edible, eating yellow violets in high quantities can cause gastrointestinal problems. High in vitamin A, C, and E.  Best to eat in the spring.  Leaves become tough during summer.

Medicinal Uses

A poultice of the leaves has been used for headache pain and skin abrasions.

So if you forage for chickweed and or violets, what are some ways you use them (as a food source or medicinal)?

[photo credit: Firefox Bushcraft: http://firefoxbushcraft.co.uk/]

1.  Many wild plants are very rich in nutrients and phytochemicals needed by our bodies.  They are strong and vigorous having not been weakened by hybridization or genetically modified like many of the varieties we buy or grow. Phytochemicals are chemical compounds found in plants that are responsible for the properties of the plants we can sense (color, taste, smell).  They are not essential nutrients but are thought to have biological significance by potentially affecting diseases such as cancer.  They are best obtained by eating whole foods.
2. Many wild foods are full of vitamins and minerals, and high in fiber, calcium, and protein.
3. They are low in fat.
4. Many have Omega-3 essential fatty acids which are vital for normal metabolism and have been found to have benefits in reducing diseases such as high blood pressure, heart disease, arthritis, cancer, and depression.

If times get tough or you’re ever in a survival situation, you can rely on the important primitive skill of foraging to provide you with food full of the above health benefits.  Before you start foraging for wild food, follow these general guidelines.

Only attempt to harvest and eat wild plants that you can identify with 100% accuracy.  Buy a field guide or 2 on foraging for wild plants to learn to identify them at all stages or find someone in your local area that is knowledgeable with foraging and identifying wild plants and learn from them.  Start with easy to recognize species first.  Cross-reference information and photos of plants with different sources.  Know if there are any similar looking plants that might be poisonous.  Before consuming a wild plant for the first time, eat only a small portion in case you are allergic.  Do not forage along roadsides or areas that may have been heavily sprayed with pesticides.