Cait went to the greenhouse this morning to start the onion seeds that we had on hand and returned with a garden in a box.

All the girls are doing good.  Wing feathers are coming out.  The thermostat is working great day and night and its nice to see the chicks resting during the dark period.  Pasty butt seems to be gone.

The iris are coming up and the deer are eating them down.  Time to fix the fence and start closing the gates again.

Our new ceramic bulb heaters and thermostat arrived today.  I replaced the four 250 Watt clear heat lamps for four 250 watt Exo-Terra  heaters and a Zilla 1000 Watt temperature controller.  Two of the heaters are on continuously and two are on the controller.  The dial on the controller has a temperature range from 70º to 105º, but it seems that the suggested location of the probe, against the wall, creates a large discrepancy from what the thermometer is reading.  I changed the probe location and stuck it to the thermometer sensor.  I added another lamp with a 100 watt incandescent bulb just for light.  It is on a timer give the chicks a dark period from 9pm to 5:30am.  This period is just a rough guess of what should be, I want to do more research on what the light period should be for chick development.  I hope the dark period will help the pasty butt syndrome as well by establishing a period that the chicks will not be eating.

I noticed some pasty butt four days ago.  We started to remove their feed at night.  I think that is helping, but the problem needed more attention.  Today was the day.  We started by separating the problem chicks.  In the picture above, the group on the bottom are the problem chicks and the ones on top are all fine.

Most of the problem chicks are fairly minor like the one above.

This was the worst dingle berry in the bunch.  The vent is completely clear, fortunately.  We used warm soapy water and wash cloths as the main tool.   It took holding the wet cloth to the dingle berry for several minutes to loosen the dried poop and then we coated the affected area with olive oil with a Q-tip.  The process took about 2 hours for all the pasty butt chicks.  We kept the treated chicks separated from the others for the time of treatment and then released them with the others after that.  The hardest part was not to rush and pull too hard on the dingle berries and rip out feathers.  A few cases had minor wounds that look as though they will be okay.  We took the regular grain away and left them with ground oats that had been soaked in yogurt over night.  We hope the raw, living yogurt will help populate the little chick guts with beneficial flora in the absence of the mama hen.  We chose this over importing poop from our other mature hens for the chicks to eat so as not to introduce any pathogens/parasites/funky stuff that they may have.  We also added a tray of  soil and sand in a small container for the chicks to get some grit into their gizzards.  In the past, the brooder sat on a dirt floor and so I haven’t been concerned with grit, but now they are on a wood floor.  Hopefully all of this helps to remedy the dreaded pasty butt.

Here’s the newly constructed brooder!  I built the frame with 1 3/8 in. chain link top rail pipe and slip fittings from Colorado Metal Worx.  They are the local company who manufactures the pipe benders and fittings that we used to construct our mobile pasture pens.  The exterior covering is an aluminum/plastic heavy duty bubble wrap I found at True Value.  I wrapped the edges of the bubble wrap with 3 in. wide Gorilla tape, which I also used to piece together sheets for the top.   The installed grommets through the tape reinforcement and used zip ties to attach the side wall and top to the frame.  There is a vent in the top as well as one side of the wall.

Chicken brooder video

The chicks arrived.  Only three casualties in shipment.  We ordered six different breeds:  Rhode Island Red, Sicilian Buttercup, Americauna, Ancona, Brown Leghorn and Partridge Rock.

And what do we get for the effort of making a nice cozy clean room,

with a natural roost,

And free acess to a yard full of seeds to scratch in?

Egg eaters!

I saw very little egg eating before the move.  I’ll try increasing the oyster shell and see what happens.

The auction last night was a nail biter.  The winning bidder got all of the land and water with the exception of the smallest parcel of land and a small water right.  At this point we don’t know who the bidder is or what their intentions are, but have heard some positive rumors.  We are keeping an open minds and hearts and hope something can work out here on the property.  We’ll keep everyone posted as the process unfolds.

Last Share Week Next Week

This has been a wonderfully long end to the season.  It is hard to believe that the last share is next week.

This week the shares are a beautiful combination of purples and greens.

Garden Shares

Arugula – Beets – Carrots – Fennel – Kale – Leeks – Pac Choi – Scallions – Acorn Squash – Purple and Gold Potatoes

Fruit Shares

Honeycrisp Apples – Pears- Plums

Potato Leek Soup

Potato leek soup is a very simple soup that takes little time to prepare.  The recipe below is a nice basic one.  We made a batch the other night and added some bacon crumbles and cheddar cheese to the top.

http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/potato_leek_soup/

Roasted Oven Potatoes

Roasted potatoes are a go to for a quick and simple meal in our house.  We like to have them with burgers for that french fry experience or with breakfast cubed like home fries.  For the burgers we cut them in long uniform strips like fries.  For either sort we put the cut potatoes in  a big mixing bowl and then drizzle on olive oil, salt, pepper and paprika and sometimes add garlic powder or chopped garlic and stir it up to coat each piece.  Then we pour the whole mess out onto a regular baking sheet (making sure the layer of potatoes is not too deep) and pop it in  a 450 degree oven and bake until you achieve desired golden crunchiness.  It is very important to make sure that the potatoes get turned with a spatula for the best results.  I do this about every 15 minutes for the hour or so while the potatoes cook.

We have had a few light frosts in our meadow and are starting to feel the inevitable fall slowdown in the garden.  Fruiting and flowering plants are slower to grow their fruit and all of the leafy garden items are sitting tight ready to harvest.  This time of year brings more introspection and thoughts about what the winter and next spring will bring.  Though there is a sense of uncertainty about our future, there is also a companion sense of excitement about all the opportunity we feel in this community.  We are so thankful for all the community support of our farm and look forward to continuing to meet challenges with our community and to continue to serve our community for many years to come.  But we will need your help.

Guidestone Fundraiser Tonight

Come out tonight and help us Create Miracles for Sustainable Living.   Click on the poster to learn more.

Garden Shares

Broccoli – Carrots – Kale – Napa – Yellow Onions – Scallions – Zucchini – Turnips – Eggplant and Tomatoes (From Maddox Organic Farm – grown outdoors.)

Fruit Shares

Gala Apples

Nectarines

Zucchini Carpacio

Here is a tasty looking zucchini recipe found by our member Abbie Cobb.  Thanks for sharing Abbie.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Zucchini-Carpaccio-107802

Pasta

On of our fall back recipe combos here at the farm is pasta with some kind of vegetable combo from the garden.  Here are some ideas.

Here is a lovely blog with great pictures and a recipe for Chez Panisse Eggplant, Carmelized Onion and Tomato Pasta.

http://www.alexandracooks.com/2011/08/25/chez-panisse-eggplant-caramelized-onion-and-tomato-pasta/

Broccoli, Sausage and Onion Pasta

http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/browse-all-recipes/rigatoni-roasted-sausage-broccoli-00000000044730/index.html

Like mac and cheese with carrots in it.

http://www.pickygourmet.net/2010/06/creamy-carrot-pasta/