Chickens, Ducks, Geese and Their Eggs

Some of our animals have really interesting behavior.My children are making so many observations and learning so much! Our geese are probably the most interesting in their behavior. When we first got them, the girl goose(also called a goose. The boy is called a gander)
laid an egg right in the middle of the barn. The kids found it and at first glance was not sure what it was because it was so large. Well, it was very cold weather, and she laid it in the middle of everything. So,we decided to eat it. It has a milder taste than the chicken egg, and the white part is very transparent. I was not to crazy about eating it, but my kids where very excited to try.

After eating a couple of the goose eggs, she started laying her eggs in the chicken nesting box. Well, the chickens do not like the geese because they are mean and always bite them. So, revenge is in order. They would peck her eggs open and eat them. Well, a week later, she decides to make a nest in my basement window. There are decorative rocks around the house there. She has pulled all the rocks in there and made a nest. We brought her some hay and she pulled it in there too. She also seems to be pulling her feathers out and using them. This is still not the safest place. She sometimes gets up in the early morning when it is dark and she eats. At this time, something is crawling in there and stealing an egg. So far, two have disappeared this way. Another time, I was organizing the basement, and I saw a chicken in the window instead of the goose. The chickens had got in there and where pecking an egg and eating it. They must still want their revenge. Finally, she seems to be settling in there. We have three eggs in the window, and she only gets off of them once in a day in the late afternoon. Before she started laying her eggs, the male goose was so aggressive. Now, he spends his days alone while she sits on her nest. He is very quite now and does not say much. However, if we go look at her she starts honking, and he comes running and hissing at us. There is a picture here of him, and he is so funny!

Another egg story we have is our attempt to hatch eggs in the incubator. We have goose, duck, and chicken eggs in the incubator. I am hopeful they will all hatch, but it is entirely experimental at this point. The other picture is the eggs in the nesting box. Everyone favors one box, and everyone is laying their eggs in it. There is both duck and chicken eggs. They seem to be laying good. but no one sits on them. So, they where ice cold. Well, I just collected them and took them inside for eating. We tried the duck egg too. The same as the goose egg. I was not thrilled about eating it and prefer chicken eggs only!

A few new birds

Assalam alykom:

I have been so busy with homeschooling and my farm, that I have not been able to give time to my blogs. We have a few new additions to our farm. We bought a few more chickens, a pair a guinea hens and a pair of white geese, and one turkey. The chickens are laying lots of eggs, and we are enjoying eating them. The guinea hens are scared most of the time, but they make beautiful sounds. The geese are very aggressive and chase and hiss at everyone on the farm. The kids have to show them who is boss. My little girls are especially venerable. They are about the size of the geese and the geese feel comfortable running them down. I told the girls to flap your arms and run at them when they do that to you. This seems to work, but when the girls are not paying attention the geese sneak up to them. It is funny and the girls love to chase them back. There is a sad story about our turkey. He was staying in the big barn in the back behind some boards. He felt comfortable in there so we let him. One morning we went out to feed everyone, but we could not find the turkey. I found alot of his feathers, but not him. Later that morning, we found his body in the pasture with his chest and head gone. I asked my local vet because I was afraid it was coyotes. I would then fear for my children. He said coyotes would eat it if it was already dead in the pasture, but they would unlikely enter the barn and kill it. He said that a raccoon would do this though. Sure enough a few days later after I prayed Fajr, I saw the raccoon in the pasture. It looked about 35-40 pounds. He is now on our hit list. I do not want it to kill any of my other birds. Our goats have finally kidded. So stay tuned for me to load up the cute pictures.

The Newest Member to our Farm

Assalam alykom:

We now have a male sheep for our little farm. We have 1 white female hair sheep and 1 female wool sheep. We just got this little guy who is a hair sheep. We are going to slaughter the wool sheep for meat and keep our herd all hair sheep. They will be much easier to take care of in the summer because you do not have to clip the wool. Our goats still have not had their kids. We will be so excited when they do. Every day we go and feed them and think that they had them. I will be posting the pictures as soon as they arrive.

My Pita Bread

Assalam alykom:

Well, Pita bread is an essential staple to an Arabic household, and since the nearest Arabic store is 2 hours away, I needed to learn how to make my own. I have a bread machine and this makes it a little quicker and a lot easier. Here is the recipe I use. I got it off the Internet.

*3 1/2 cups of white bread flour. I also made brown pita bread. I made it with half brown flour and half white bread flour.

*1 1/2 cups of warm water

* 1 teaspoon of salt

*1 teaspoon of sugar

*1 teaspoon of olive oil

*2 1/4 teaspoon of yeast

I put all of the ingredients in my bread machine on the dough cycle. This cycle mixes it, kneads it and rises it one time. Once it is finished, I take it out on a floured surface. I then divide it into 8 small balls. I let these balls rise for about a half an hour. They will rise a little and then I will roll each one out. The oven must be very hot. I put it on about 500 to 525. I have an iron skillet inside the oven getting hot. I place each bread one at time to cook. It only takes about 1 minute or two. You have to watch it. The puff right up and look real nice. I let them coll and they taste really wonderful. Because I do not add any preservatives like in the stores, they are fresh for about a day or two at most. I tried making a whole bunch and freezing them, but they where not so fresh. Now, I just make a batch every other day and we always have fresh bread.

Yougart Balls

Assalam alykom:

Well, with the closest Arabic market being two hours away, you need to either stock up or make your own. At first, I stocked up. The stock is gone and now I need to make my own. I make my own yogurt and I can do many things with it. This is how I make my own yogurt:

1. You bring milk or cream or half/half to a boil. If you use cream, it will be very rich and tasty.

2. Let the boil milk come to room temperature. I do this by sticking my finger in it and counting to ten. If I can tolerate the heat up to ten it is good.

3. Once it is room temperature, add store bought plain yogurt. I use Dannon or Stoney farms. For a small pot , I use 1/2 the tub of yogurt. Stir in the yogurt, put a lid on it and wrap it in a towel. Keep it covered for at least 24 hours. You can keep it covered for up to three days. The longer you leave it the more sour it becomes.

4. Once the yogurt has set and finished, I start my balls. I drain the yogurt in a cloth or paper towels for at least 2 days.

5. Once it is drained and of clay consistency, I roll them into balls and set them on paper towels. I leave them for another day.

6. Once they are dried a little, I put them in a jar of olive oil.

It takes a while to make, but they are worth it. They are very tasty for breakfast with a hot cup of tea and pita bread. I just started making my own pita bread too. When I have a chance I will load up the pictures.

Our Snow Man

Assalam alykom:

Here is our first snowman! The kids had a bunch of fun making him

Did you know this?

Assalam alykom:

My family and I are learning so much about animals and the outdoors. Do you know what this picture is? Will it looks like the feet of a strange creature. Well, we discovered that it is wild rabbit tracks. The two in the front are the rabbits front paws. The one spot in the back is his back feet. They look like one foot because the rabbit keeps his two back feet together when he hops. Did you know that ducks have no nerves in their feet. When we see our ducks swimming in a bucket of water and it is freezing cold, we are not feeling sorry for them anymore. Allah equips them in this manner so they can endure cold water. They also have very thick feathers so they do not even feel the water touch them. We learned this when researching some of the animals we have on our farm.

Did you know that it is good that an animal is shivering when it is cold? Well, I was feeling really sorry for my sheep and goats when I saw them shivering on those below zero days. However, I discovered that if the animal does not shiver that means it is suffering from hypothermia. The shivering is a way the body reacts to the cold and keeps the animal warm.

Did you know that a rooster can get frost bite? Well, I would have never thought of this especially since my chickens and roosters do not even leave the barn because of the cold. However, my rooster does have frost bite. It does not seem to bother him because he is not lethargic. However, the kids still feel sorry for him and he has spent a few nights in my basement. We have made their roosting room as warm as possible, but he is very large and has a huge comb on his head. It was reading that the larger birds are more prone to it. Keep reading my blog and you might learn more right along with us.

Organic Eid

Assalam alykom:

I have been very excited about having more organic meat, eggs and vegetables in our diet. We slaughtered one of our sheep for the Eid. She was 100% organic. She was fed only corn, alfalfa and grass. The meat looked so different. It was very red when I was organizing it to put in my freezer. I cooked some of it with rice this week. Sometimes, sheep can have a strong smell when you cook it. This one did not and it was the best tasting meat that I have ever had. When we lived in Florida, it was a hassle to slaughter for the Eid. It was always very crowded and one sheep was over $200.00. This year was very easy. We just took her from our pasture and that was it. We have three pregnant goats pictured here. Once they deliver, I will be experimenting with getting their milk and making yogurts and cheese. It will be a learning curve I am sure, but I am looking forward to it.

Snow on the farm

Assalam alykom:

After living in Florida for over 20 years and all of my adult life, I think even a little snow can be overwhelming. However, we have about a foot of snow and huge drifts. This is my driveway and from where I am taking the picture is my big barn and this is where my van is parked(TRAPPED). I started to shovel my way to the road, which is way passed the shed you see in the picture, but I grew tired after three hours. I decided to try again the next day. Well, the next day had shown all of my shoveling efforts to be gone. There was a great deal of wind overnight, and my driveway was once again totally buried. Our friends came with their four wheeled drive, and with a great deal of of shoveling, pushing and a chain that pulled us, we were finally able to get my van to the end of the driveway. I think it will be my parking spot for most of the winter. Later that evening, a neighbor came by with a huge plow and offered to plow the entire driveway. Al hamdolilah! The rest of the pictures, I took during the snowfall. My daughter made the comment when we went outside that she felt like she was inside a giant snow globe. The flakes were so big and she felt that someone had just shook up the globe and she was on the inside looking out. I thought that was such a neat description of what she was feeling. Well, I hope the winter is easy for us former Floridians.

The dark side of a farm

The bright side of farm life is the fact that it is full of life. There are chickens, ducks and animals. There are eggs being laid and baby animals being born. There are wild berry trees, fruit trees and nuts. There are gardens and flowers being planted. With all of this life, the dark side is death. It is inevitable that death will occur on a farm. It can be quite emotional. This emotions are very great when your attached to some of this life. When we first came to our farm, my friend gave us a chick. She was very sweet and so friendly. She was getting quite big and her cage was to messy to keep her in the house. She had a very large cage and we decided to put it outside right next to our back door. It was during Ramadan, and I was up preparing the food in the morning. I checked on the chick, and she was fine. As we were eating, I heard her cry. It was too late. There was a feral cat that had grabbed her through the cage. This was our first death. The kids were all crying, but it was soon healed with a little time and twelve new chickens. Our next story is about a young sheep. We got our first new sheep. There were four, andthey were all young sheep. Three of them were around 4 to 6 months. One was a baby who had been orphaned. His mother had died from a bug bite. He was doing great when we first got him. However, we think that he had ate more than he was used to and became sick. He was our second death. The kids were sad, but better than the chicken. The most recent death was my friends' horse. My friends had brought one of their large horses to my pasture. The horse had been nursing her baby and the baby was ready to be weaned. The mother horse had become very thin from the nursing and she was also older. While she was in my pasture she did not seem to gain weight. Last week, she must have felt ill and sat on the ground. It was very cold and she was unable to get up after that. After spending the entire day with the vet trying to get her better, she died. This is all what can happen with life on the farm. I think that I do not want to have too many animals as pets. The attachment to them is really hard when something happens to them.