Soy Free Chickens

Growing Your Own Tea

jeremiah — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 19:23:09 +0000

As you all know, I’m very much into growing as much as you can for yourself. My love for my morning tea hasn’t been mentioned on here, but here’s my secret….. I grow my own! I’m a huge fan of My Patriot Supply for their seed collections and their Herbal Tea Garden Collection is no different. I’ve bought this and have had an enormous amount of success growing their teas. There is nothing quite like being able to grow, pick and dry your own tea (and add your own honey while you’re at it! )

Here’s what it includes based on their site:

Anise Hyssop – 120+ Seeds/packet

Anise hyssop makes a delightful addition to mixed herbal teas and a fine tea all to itself. It has a delicate anise or licorice flavor. The tea is naturally sweet, so extra sweetener is not necessary. In fact the tea is so sweet that it can be used to sweeten other foods. Folklore medicine employed anise hyssop herbal tea to treat colds, coughs and fevers, and to strengthen a weak heart.

Wild Bergamot – 250+ Seeds/packet

The Oswego Indians first introduced wild bergamot to American colonists during the time of the Boston Tea Party. Wild bergamot replaced the tea that was thrown into the Atlantic ocean. The fresh or dried leaves are brewed into a refreshing aromatic and medicinal tea.

Chamomile – 250+ Seeds/packet

Chamomile makes a pleasant aromatic tea with a fruity flavor, enhanced by sugar or honey. The gentle, calming qualities of Chamomile tea make it an ideal after-dinner or bedtime tea. A popular tea for those looking for mild relief from stress.

Lemon Balm – 400+ Seeds/packet

Fresh leaves burst of lemon when squeezed. A truly delightful tea made from the dried leaves is our favorite anytime tea as it both stimulates the heart and calms the nerves. Fresh chopped leaves are also interesting in salads, soups and stews.

Lemon Mint – 900+ Seeds/packet

The bright, refreshing citrus tones of Lemon Mint make this tea a refreshing pick-me-up morning, midday or evening. Beautiful lavender flowers are a favorite of butterflies and hummingbirds.

Peppermint – 100+ Seeds/packet

Peppermint tea is well known for helping upset stomachs. Great tasting tea!

Echinacea – 130+ Seeds/packet

Echinacea leaves, flowers and roots can be used in herbal teas, the taste of which is improved by blending with peppermint or orange rind. Stevia and honey are natural sweeteners that go well with Echinacea tea.

Catnip – 250+ Seeds/packet

Catnip tea helps relax the mind and induces good sleep at night.

Herbal Tea Garden Seeds (8 easy-to-grow tea herbs) The Herbal Tea Garden is our very own collection of easy to grow herbs for making your favorite herbal teas!, $16.95

Bees!

jeremiah — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 02:41:36 +0000

The day has come and with it, our new bees!

We’ve had this planned since last year and ordered our package of bees around Thanksgiving. After much anticipation, the day finally arrived to pick up the package of bees. We’re very excited to add bees to our homestead and take one more step toward complete self-sufficiency.

Installing the bees was a little nerve-racking. I’d never done anything like that before. After watching Doug from BeeKind’s youtube video on how to install bees, I felt confident I could do it myself. I’ve heard that you tend to drop the queen in the box of bees if you wear gloves, so I did it without gloves. As nervous as I was, the bees let me do my thing and didn’t once sting me or act aggressive.

Setting Up The Hive

The Completed Hive

Bees flying around their new hive

Bees in their new hive

Check out our friends at BeeKind for more information about bees!

The New Chicken Coop

jeremiah — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 19:22:34 +0000

We’re doing a big upgrade for the chickens. Right now they’re housed in a small coop, for which I feel really bad. Their new coop will be a HUGE improvement. Above, you can see the framing for it. The coop is 6 feet by 12 feet and is large enough to hold around 20 chickens. It has a built in run for days when we need to keep them in, but will be opened to the rest of this part of the yard so they can free range and forage the way that chickens should.

Look for major chicken updates in the near future, including more girls and the finished coop!

New Bill Would Tighten Egg Labeling

jeremiah — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 22:54:44 +0000

From: http://www.bohemian.com/northbay/eggs-actly/Content?oid=2283106

A new bill before Congress would ensure accurate labeling practices for commercial and free-range eggs

Call a bubbly wine made in California “champagne,” and you’re asking for legal trouble from the captains of the global wine industry. And if you call a conventionally grown potato “organic,” the enforcement branch of the U.S. Department of Agriculture will be at your door as soon as it unearths the fraud.

But raise a chicken in a cage, and you’re free to make almost any claims you want to sell the bird’s eggs. That’s because federal laws that regulate animal-welfare terminology on egg cartons leave some gaping loopholes while basically allowing producers to make their own interpretations of just what “free-range,” “cage-free” and “pasture-raised” really mean.

Free Ranging Your Chickens

jeremiah — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 19:24:27 +0000

I’m a huge fan of the forums and friends at BackyardChickens.com. A great article was just written about free-ranging your chickens. I highly recommend the read!

http://www.backyardchickens.com/a/deciding-to-free-range-your-flock

The Girls in 2012

jeremiah — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 23:06:24 +0000

It’s a new year and a new home, for us and the ladies. They’re using an old rabbit hutch right now until we can build a larger coop to host more ladies. The chickens have been on break from laying during the last few months due to molting and short winter days. The Leghorn did surprise us, though, with a fresh egg on New Years Day. Thanks!

In other news, I am in the middle of planning a new full garden. The garden will be multiple raised beds arranged to allow crop rotation and hopefully be capable of providing us with all the veggies we want, year round. More on this later!

We’ve Moved!

jeremiah — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 04:20:50 +0000

It’s been a long time since I’ve last posted. That’s due to an extremely busy year. We just closed on our very own home and left the rental world for good. We now have a couple acres to let our chickens roam and will be expanding our flock in the coming months! Our chickens just finished molting (sorry, no pictures) and hopefully they will start laying again soon.

They absolutely love their Soy Free Feed. We’re still feeding them the Modesto Mills feed. Our birds are healthy and happy. The feed is only the beginning to our happy birds. They get to roam and feed on bugs and grass and whatever goodies they can find. This makes their shells harder, their yolks firmer and the chickens happier and healthier. Our birds tend to be a bit more lean since they’re running around the yard all day, but we want strong, healthy, happy birds anyway. We’re not eating our lovely ladies.

With the new birds on the way, we’ll be building a new, larger coop. Keep an eye out for more pictures in the coming months. There are some surprise additions to our little farm coming soon, too!

Garden Update – July 2011

jeremiah — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 17:55:37 +0000

The chickens have been fantastic. We get delicious eggs nearly every day. The eggs have the deep rich orange colored yolk and strong sturdy shells. It surprised me how easily a store-bought egg cracked after being used to our home-grown eggs. Our brown leghorn, however, has a little mind of her own. She’s decided she doesn’t want to sleep in the coop and hides somewhere in the yard/under the house/who knows unless we can bait her into the coop before dark. She tends to lay her eggs probably where she sleeps. Other than her little bout of teenage rebellion, the girls have been fantastic! We hope to get 2 more to round out our little flock.

The Rebellious Teen - Brown Leghorn

The garden is having a few little problems here and there but is generally doing very well. The weather sure has thrown my beans, pumpkins and cucumbers through a loop. The peas are loving the colder weather. The tomatoes seem a little stunted but are growing great. Take a peak at the latest photos:

Garden – 7-30-2011

The Garden Photo Gallery

jeremiah — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 16:43:07 +0000

The sun finally came out long enough for me to get the camera out and take some good photos of the 2011 garden. I’m trying a few new tomato types and several plants I’ve never grown before or haven’t grown in a long time. I have several types of pumpkins growing this year, some radishes, more types of cucumbers and several new types of carrots. Last year’s pea and bean harvests were terrible so hopefully they grow great this year. The chickens aren’t allowed in the garden since all the plants are still fragile. I toss them a strawberry or two and some leafy greens whenever they come to hang out with me. Chickens can pretty much eat any of the plants I have growing this year. They love it when you cut open a zucchini (perfect for those HUGE ones that always sneak up on me) or strawberries and tomatoes.

Check it out!

Where to Find Soy Free Feed

jeremiah — Mon, 16 May 2011 16:29:05 +0000

When we originally started trying to find soy free feed for our chickens, the task seemed impossible. There are very few mills that produce it and a couple websites willing to ship it. Shipping costs for a 50 pound bag of feed is as much as the feed itself. We did our research and were lucky enough to find a relatively local feed store that happens to carry it. Our research method consisted of emailing all feed stores in the area (25 mile radius or so) and asking if they carried or knew who carried soy free layer feed. Meanwhile, some internet searching found the name of a mill that makes the feed: Modesto Milling. Contact them to find who distributes in your area.

Buying soy free feed isn’t the only option. Recipes for balanced soy free feed can be found online, readily available for free. This may not be a viable option if you have a large flock.

Here is an excellent resource on the BackyardChicken forums for soy free feed:

http://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=20741-organic-chicken-feeds

And here is a recipe for making your own feed:

http://www.greenerpasturesfarm.com/ChickenFeedRecipe.html