The Bees have arrived!

We I have been wanting bees for a long time.  Hubby and I have discussed it many times, and I was waiting for him to take action.  Well, needless to say, that didn’t happen, so when a friend emailed me, looking for locations to host his hives, I jumped at the chance.  I thought this would be a good opportunity for us to be around them, get a feel for what needs to happen, and learn the process.  I will do several “update” posts throughout the year keeping you informed about the progress of our hive and the things that we learn along the way.  

Below are photos from the setup process, and don't miss the video at the end where Jed explains whats happening with the bees.

These are the bees that were taken from the parent hive to start this new hive.

Inserting the Foundation trays for the bees to start building on.

Left:  The new queen safely in her box until a few days from now when the bees chew through the marshmallow on the bottom.  This gives them a chance to get wind of the Pheromones she produces and accept her before she is released.

Setting the new queen in.  As you can see the Bees are all buzzing around her.  In the video below Jed explains what is happening and why they are acting this way.

What came first, the Chicken or the egg?

Its springtime, and around here that means babies.  We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of several babies this month on the farm.  I have a couple goats who should be delivering anytime, and a Sebastopol Goose who is sitting on a clutch of at least 7 or 8 eggs that should be hatching this week.

    I even have a broody hen, which I haven't let set on her eggs yet, but I think I am ready to give her some.  Why pull out the incubator when I have a willing mother hen ready to do all the work?  

   Many of you have asked me at one time or another what kind of chicks I recommend.  And while that  depends largely on several factors, the one factor that most people care about is egg production.  All the ones listed below lay nice brown eggs unless otherwise noted.  If you just want a chicken that lays an egg daily, and you don't care about anything else, you can choose between quite a large list:   

One of our Black Stars with her brood.

Black Star (sexlink)

Red Star (sexlink) 

Easter Eggers (Americaunas) (green eggs)

Buff Orpingtons 

White Leghorns (white eggs)

Black Australorps

Rhode Island Red

Barred Rock

Delawares

     But did you know that some of these birds are have a much higher feed to egg ratio, and will even lay an egg a day for 365 days?  Does that matter to you?  If it does, your very best choices are going to be the Black and Red Stars.   They also have a good temperament, and are good foragers in a free ranging setup.  I have even had one go broody and hatch out 10 eggs all at once.

  If you are determined to have white eggs, the White Leghorn is a good choice.  This is the bird that lays most of the eggs you find in stores.  But your eggs will still be better if you are raising a free range bird.   I personally like to have "easter eggs" all the time.  I like to have several different colors of eggs in my basket.  So i have white, brown, pink and green layers.

My Coronation Sussex with her newly hatched babies

     Orpingtons are a heavier breed, and tend to eat much more.  They do still lay very well, and double as a good table bird if you wanted to butcher a few.  Also one of my favorites in this same category are the Light Sussex.   They are an excellent Table bird, and lay a medium size pink egg, daily.  They are good mothers too, and tend to go broody in early spring.

More rare birds that still lay well:

Light Sussex (pink eggs)

Coronation Sussex (pink eggs)

Speckled Sussex

Brown Leghorns

Blue Andalusians (white eggs)

These birds tend to be more in the “pretty feathers” category, but will still lay eggs for you pretty well.  5-6 eggs a week or more.  I really like the Sussex, they are a great all around bird.  Andalusians are good layers of white eggs, they are very small, lightweight birds, with a good feed to egg ratio, and are also foragers.  I could never keep mine in the pen.

I like to keep a mix of pretty birds, good layers, and unique egg color in the coop.  My current flock consists of a few Americaunas, a light sussex, some Black stars, a white leghorn, and a couple of mixed birds.  Any old farmer will tell you that mixed birds lay better eggs.   Black Stars are actually a mix of Rhode Island reds Roo and Barred Rock Hens.  Red Stars are also a mix of Rhode Island Reds Roo and Delaware Hen.   I also have some fancy feather birds, a Coronation Sussex and a breeding trio of Golden Cuckoo Marans.  Now Marans don't lay worth a darn.  2-3 eggs a week in their best season, but they lay dark chocolate colored eggs, have feathered legs, and are very pretty birds.  So to me, that makes them worth keeping around.

If you have any specific chicken questions, feel free to email me, or leave them in the comments below so all can benefit from the discussion.

Make a Fresh Multi-grain Flour at Home!

  I use Multi-grain flour in most if not all of my baking, so I thought it would be good for those of you who plan to follow my blog to know what I put in my flour, and how I make it.    I heard or read somewhere once that grains are not meant to be eaten alone.  That each grain has different nutrients and properties that compliment other grains.  So by mixing grains you get more nutrition, enzymes, and even flavor than eating just one grain can provide.  I have been doing alot of research online trying to find the source of that information, and have come up empty handed.  But it was one of those things that just felt right to me when I learned it.  And immediately I started using more grains, mixing them in everything, and enjoying them.   For me there is really no rhyme or reason for which grains I mix, but I will give you a couple successful mixes that I have tried just so you know that if you mix these particular grains you will have good results.
     Also keep in mind that these grain mixes really only work with baked goods such as sweet breads, cookies, cakes, etc.  There are completely different rules for mixing grains when it comes to gluten breads because there has to be enough gluten in the grain in order for the structure of the bread to develop properly.   So anytime I put up a recipe calling for Multi-grain flour, you can be sure that you can use almost any flour combination.   For breads I will put up specific flours and substitutes as well as amounts so as to keep the grain ratios properly balanced.

     While I do have a nice Nutrimill grain mill for large batches of flour, I prefer to use my Vitamix to grind the mix.  There's a couple reasons this works out better.   One is that all the grains are not uniform in size, so if I were to put them in the Nutrimill, it would have a hard time putting out a nice consistently ground flour.   Secondly, for this small of an amount it is much quicker in the Vitamix.
For this batch I used the following grains:  Amaranth, Buckwheat, Quinoa, Millet, Sorghum, Oat Groats, Rye, Kamut, & Spelt.   I did 1/4 C. of each grain, which filled the container to just over 2 cups.

I only purchase small amounts of these grains at a time because I use them collectively in small amounts.   I will do several batches all at once if I'm planning to bake a lot that week.  But I still do them in the Vitamix because of the consistency issues with mixing grains.   I suppose I could grind each grain separately, but that would produce more flour than I needed, take longer, and be hard to get a good mix.   The blender mixes the grain as well as grinds it.  As you can see, I am left with a beautiful white flour.

This is fantastic in sweet breads, cookies and cakes.   I used this specific batch in the Multi-Grain Banana Oat bread I make, and let me tell you, it was mouth watering!  The only other flour I put in the bread was Coconut flour.  Which obviously isn't a grain, but it increases the protein content of baked goods as well as ads vitamins, and a bit of sweetness.

     As I said before you can really use ANY of the grains in any combination and just experiment.   When I don't have 9 or 10 different grains around, I usually just do 1 C. of Wheat, 1 C. of Brown Rice, and 1 C. of Oat Groats in the blender and use that as my basic multi-grain flour.  I have used that combination in Pancakes and waffles and we LOVE IT!  

You can add in some Barley, or whole organic popcorn, any variety of rice you want to try, or whatever you have around.  It all makes good flour.  I DO try to buy organic and non GMO where practical, but it can be quite expensive.  I would say if you are going to buy one thing Organic, Non GMO, make sure its your corn.  Corn is so screwed up with all the genetic modifications they have tried on it, that if its not ORGANIC and non GMO, I don't trust it.