Difference in Eggs

The color of the yolk is an indication of the presence of nutrients. The pastured egg on the left is a dark orange color. The organic store egg in the center is slightly less orange. The supermarket egg on the right is paler and might even be white were orange foods and dyes not given to the chickens. By the way, chickens producing organic eggs are mostly raised in barns, not on pasture. Conditions are certainly better than those for the typical battery egg. However, the USDA has determined that the chicken is a vegetarian, and they can be given no animal foods. Chickens are in fact, omnivores, and their eggs will be much healthier if they are getting animal foods. The pastured egg and the organic egg both have two parts to the white, a viscous part around the yolk and then a thinner part around the edges. This is a sign of freshness.

DIY Water Hose Storage / Cleaning Station

This is just the neatest idea & is so handy for the garden! Your diy wash station that is so simple & get's the water hose of the ground. Make it your own.  This example shows a galvanized  pail screwed to a 2 x 4 that is in the ground with a bird house on the top. Roll the hose around the pail & inside a place to store brushes, small garden tools, and a great place to hang a towel! I just love it & is gonna be a summer project for me!

Homemade dishwasher detergent cubes with just four ingredients

Homemade dishwasher detergent cubes with just four ingredients! 

1 Cup Borax, 1 Cup Washing Soda, 1/4 Cup Epsom Salt, Lemon Juice. 

Ingredients:

1 Cup Borax

1 Cup Washing Soda

1/4 Cup Epsom Salt

Lemon Juice

First, start by mixing all the powders together. Make sure they get mixed up good because you want it evenly spread through all the cubes you're going to be making. If you're not sure about the Borax, just eliminate that from the recipe, it won't harm it at all.

When everything was mixed,  put a cup of the powder into a separate bowl and then pour in a little bit of lemon juice. For one cup of powder used 4 tablespoons of lemon juice. You don't want it to be dry but you don't want it soaking wet either. 4 tablespoons made it a little wet and sticky which is exactly what you want.

The lemon juice will foam when it hits the powder. Mix it all in and get it a little sticky. When finished with that, start to add it to the ice cube trays. Put in the amount and pat it down.

Now, when you're all done, set the cubes up on the window sill in the kitchen so that it would get a lot of sun and therefore dry quicker. Letting it sit overnight will make it nice and hard. In the morning flip the trays over and knock the cubs out.

Build a High-Protein Dispenser for FREE Chicken Food!

Found a nice little article that will help all those who have chickens, through the winter and the rest of the year saving you money by feeding natural, and high-protein, and FREE feed to your chickens with a little material found 'round the homestead or farm with a dollar or two thrown in for some minor materials.

The article I gleaned this info from is out of the "Countryside & Small Stock Journal" Vol 96 No. 6 November/December 2012, Page 61, by Jeff Hoard.

Basically the articles author explains how to create a maggot dispenser for your chickens using some simple materials:

• Flat plywood- to put under dispenser to catch & feed chickens on a clean surface.
• 5 gal. bucket with lid, bottom cut out but leave a 1" lip around it to hold a round piece of grate or heavy wire mesh.
• Grate or Heavy Wire Mesh
• Charge (dead animals, meat scraps, or raw fatty meat products. Don't use anything sick or dying.)
• PVC Coupler
• Long piece of ABS pipe
• Auto Heater Vent Hose
• Skirting-for little bird & wind barrier
• Tools for cutting & Drilling

 The author goes on to explain how he put the dispenser together and how it works:

     "I mentioned ours being a deluxe model and I'll explain. The hanger/vent was made out of scrap pipe. At the top I inserted a long piece of ABS pipe. The horizontal hanger is another short pipe that is welded over a hole that I cut in the main vertical pipe. A little below that are two more short pieces of pipe in a v-shape that stick out on each side of the hanging bucket. These serve as bumpers. On the lid of the bucket, I inserted an appropriate sized PVC coupler and a piece of auto heater vent hose, which attaches from there up to the hanging pipe.  This is how the odor is vented up and out at the top of the long ABS pipe. Like the vent system, the "skirt" that was installed on the bucket is certainly not a necessity but does perform some added functions. first, it keeps smaller birds from hanging off the bottom trying to eat their fill. Second, the skirt serves as a wind catch. Third, as the chickens go for the maggots they hit the skirt to hopefully dislodge a few more. Fourth, it helps keep the charge from drying out (very important). I did drill one small hole in the center at the top of the bucket's lid to allow for moisture to be added onto the charge if needed. " (page 63)

The author continues with some tips, "Install the dispenser 20 ft away from the chicken house,  in the shade, this will help draw the flies away from the flock and the flies are immediately drawn to the charge. They then lay their larvae on the charge and the larvae then turn into maggots, hundreds at a time and as they grow larger they get heavier and eventually fall through the grate and onto the plywood below to be gobbled up by a waiting chicken. It usually takes about 5 days for the maggots to start dropping and as long as the charge is refreshed," there is a constant supply of high-protein feed for your chickens and it's free! Chickens can keep laying with this feed and greens for quite some time, without the need for corn scratch!

I scanned the image directly from the magazine in order to show you all what they've created and about how it'll look when finished. It's in pdf form so you will need Adobe PDF viewer to see the file>> PDF