Seedyeggs

Flying Chickens !

2016-11-04T12:13:00.000-07:00

They fly through the air with the greatest of effort!

Kelp Meal is good for chickens and goats

2015-08-15T12:01:00.000-07:00


By FASTILY (I created this work entirely by myself.) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons			http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d0/KelpforestI2500ppx.JPG

Kelp contains as many as 72 Trace Minerals. Sea water is full of minerals, because the Ocean covers around two thirds of the earths surface and rubs against a lot of rocks. That being the case it would seem reasonable that kelp would contain a nice mix of many the minerals available on the planet. Our chickens and goats will get their trace minerals from the kelp we feed them, and we will get our trace minerals from their eggs and milk, also, our garden will benefit from kelp enhanced chicken and Goat manures in the compost that we use to augment our soil.

We noticed a 50 lb. bag of Kelp Meal at our local feed store and thought it might be good to add a little seaweed to our diets. We got the bag home and opened it, seaweed meal is dark rich green with little light green specks and is about the consistency of course ground pepper.

If you look really close at the grains of kelp, you can still tell that it is kelp by the surface texture of the granules. (click the image to see it bigger)

We decided to prepare the kelp meal as a broth for the chickens. Our chickens like to drink soup, and they all get their share when food comes in liquid form. We put a cup of the Kelp Meal in to a pot of water, and boil it until the Kelp expands and a thick broth forms. We strain out the kelp solids to add to the Seed Mix, and put out bowls of Kelp Broth for the chickens.

For the goats we just fasten a small bucket kelp meal granules to the wall, for them to eat free choice, as a mineral suppliment.
Every so often the goats eat a little, they seem to find it tasty.

I looked on the web and found some interesting information about Kelp as a food source.
http://whfoods.org/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=135

Alfalfa, to Nourish and Entertain your Chickens

2015-07-26T00:49:00.000-07:00

Our chickens like to forage into the woods find their greens. We feed our chickens a lot of seeds and grains, but in hot weather we pull back on the corn because of the sugar content, but there are a still lot of calories in grains, and also grains rank pretty acid on the food pH.charts.

High calorie, acid producing foods like grains meat or dairy tend to "anger the blood" and make it harder to deal with heat in summer, the chickens also tend to get irritable and short tempered when they are eating too much acid producing foods.

Leafy greens tend to be more alkaline in the food pH. charts (greens are chock full of minerals). The chickens seek out leafy greens to balance out their pH. levels after feeding on grains

However with the hotter drier weather they have been going deeper into the forest as things dry out to find their greens. At the same time the raccoons have been coming closer to the house in search of food, and finding eggs and chickens occasionally.

We have been trying to find something to keep the chickens closer to the house site. we figured that the chickens want to eat their greens after they have their grains. So we thought we might find them some greens to help them balance out their grains, and baled produce seemed to be a practical way to provide greens for the chickens.

We have been experimenting with different bailed products.

The chickens always enjoy scratching in the wheat straw that we put in the coops, to find any left over seed that they might find, but the straw it's self has very little food value.

When our neighbor cut the grass hay this year we got a few of his bails for our chickens to sample, and found that they spent a little more time pecking at the bails of hay. There are more seed tops and some juicy grass in the fresh hay bails than in the straw.

So then we decided to try a bail of alfalfa. A bail of alfalfa is full of dried green leaf. By observing the chickens behavior we can tell that alfalfa must pass the taste test with pretty high scores. As it turns out, alfalfa has a pH. value of ten meaning that is quite alkaline. We noticed that the chickens all mellowed out today after snacking on alfalfa for awhile.

While the chickens loose interest in the straw and even the hay, the alfalfa bale is like a magnet attracting chickens to it's self, all day long we see a rotation of chickens scratching and pecking the top of the bale and other chickens walk around the bale browsing around the edges of the bale and eating the alfalfa flakes that have been scratched to the ground by the upper chickens.

Alfalfa is a very nutritious food crop. Alfalfa sends it's roots deep into the soil. One of the reasons that farmers use it in their crop rotation is because the shorter rooted crops can use up the surface nutrients, but alfalfa's long roots will pull nutrients to the surface from the deeper soil.

Alfalfa Contains:

18% Protein

Vitamin A (beta carotene), Calcium (More than Milk or Eggs by weight)
phosphorus, Vitamin E, Potassium, Chlorine, Vitmain B1, Vitmain B2, Vitmain B6, Vitmain B12, Vitamin K, Niacin, Folic Acid, S-Methylmethionine, Magnesium, Copper, Biotin, Sulfur, Cobalt, Boron, Panthothanic acid, Inocitole, Molybdenum, and trace amounts of: Nickel, Strontium, and Palladium

We have been using alfalfa pellets to supplement the chickens diets, by soaking the pellets overnight and feeding it to the chickens in bowls. They eat up the soft dark green alfalfa mash during feeding times, but we wanted to provide a source for them to nibble on throughout the day. Putting alfalfa bales in the yard allows the chickens to feed themselves and seems to entertain the chickens as much as it does us.

Here is the same bale after a few days of chicken pecking.

Our next plan is to get a few more bails to put in the coops. We hope that having alfalfa bales within the coops might keep the chickens occupied in the mornings, instead of squawking at us to hurry up, wake up, and let them out.

Alfalfa is being cut now, so it is a good time to find some nice fresh alfalfa for your chickens.

P.S.

If you have Goats they will help your chickens eat the bail, if you let them,

Winter Update:

It is now wet and rainy, so leaving a bale of alfalfa out in the weather is not a great idea, but the chickens really enjoy eating nice dry alfalfa powder when everything else is wet.

We serve alfalfa to the goats, in a box. but we only give them the chunky leaf and stems, because the powdery alfalfa leaf tickles the goats noses making them sneeze. We collect the finer alfalfa that is left in the bin after picking out what we feed to the goats, and distribute it to bowls in the yard and in the coops for the chickens to eat. It works very well for the chickens because the stems are too big for them to swallow and just get in the way of the leafy alfalfa powder, which is what they prefer.

Forest Feeding Chickens

2015-02-07T00:40:00.000-08:00

In our quest for a leaner and healthier yolk, we have decided that just feeding the chickens good food wasn't enough, they need to exercise to aid their digestion, and to pump all the nutrients in their blood around their bodies. When a chicken feeds from a feeder, they feed until their gullet is full and then they just hang out, digest some, and poop a lot. But when they eat in the wild, they peck once and scratch twice, repeatedly, all day long. Eating this way causes the chicken to eat more slowly and the constant exercise provided by all that scratching means that the chicken is better able to better utilize the food they eat.
We decided to stop feeding the chickens in bowls, or even simply scattering grains on the bare ground. What we are doing now is taking a bag of mixed grains and seeds into the forest to scatter among the fallen leaves, moss and grasses. The chickens seem to get almost all the grains. (what they don't find should sprout, the grains are even better when they sprout.)
We have been throwing the seeds out in the woods for the chickens. We feed them in a random rotation to keep them from over scratching any one area of our property.

The chickens are actually requiring less seed overall, because they are getting more moss and other forest goodies along with the grains we throw, there has been a rise in egg numbers, the shells are firmer, and the yolks are darker and more translucent, and therefore less fatty.

Egg Shooters

We also noticed that the chickens seem to be having an easier time laying, because they are all spending less time sitting in the nests, they just hop up lay, and move on. Perhaps all the work spent scratching in the woods is toning up their egg shoving muscles.

Mixing up the Vitamins

2015-01-09T21:43:00.000-08:00

Chickens enjoy this wonderful seed and vegetable mix.

This batch included roasted acorn squash and pumpkin rinds.

Some of the other foods that we provide to our chickens include:

Alfalfa

Beet Pulp

Whole Barley

Cracked Corn

Flax Seed

Millet

Rolled Oats

Oyster shell

Sea Weed (Kelp Meal)

Soy Bean Meal

Sunflower Seeds

Garden Vegetables,

Fish Meal and Kelp Broth

Check here for more about the Seedy Eggs.

Steamy Morning Broth

2014-12-24T11:21:00.000-08:00

Chickens wear natural down coats and are well equipped for cold weather, they do quite well in the winter. That being as it is, still when we look out at our chickens in the frosty morning forest, we know that they will be all the warmer inside their coats with a good serving of this nutritious steamy broth.

In the evenings as I fish the chickens down out of the trees, and get then settled into their coops, Jin puts a big pot of water on the stove. She puts in some seaweed meal, alfalfa and beet pellets, some fish meal, brussel sprout leaves or other garden vegetables * along with some soybean meal. It simmers awhile and then waits till morning.
When the cocks crow**, Jin goes down and warms the broth back up, and brews up our coffee. When the broth is warmed up she pours off the broth into bowls*** that we set around the yard, so all the chickens can get some.
Then we can enjoy our coffee inside, and watch our chickens drinking broth, and exhaling steam.

Now if they don't get their soup they come and peck on the windows. It's kind of scary, so we don't skip the soup very often.

* Recient batches have included generous amounts of winter squash
** 9 grown roosters & 1 adolesent roo who is just getting his voice, and sleeps in the livingroom for now
*** We save the solids for their mash

Chicks dining on Q Bar Farm Chick Starter

2014-04-27T10:27:00.000-07:00

What are "Seedy Eggs"

2014-04-26T15:04:00.000-07:00

Seeds and Eggs are much the same, in that they are both fantastic sources of concentrated nutrition.
Seeds are formed by a plant which throughout it's growth period extracts various minerals from the soil in which it grows. Every plant stores a different composition of minerals in it's seed, but the goal is always the same, the plant stores it's best stuff in the seed as the potential to start a new plant.
Eggs are basically a chicken's seed. The chicken spends it's day scratching and hunting and pecking at the ground. They eat all day enough to sustain themselves, and enough to produce one egg. The egg contains all the protein, calcium, and other nutrients necessary to form a chick.
So if the seed is the best the plant has to offer, and the egg is the best thing that the chicken can deliver, then, we thought why not give the seeds to the chickens and get the best of the best into the eggs.

We went to the feed store and up above and behind the counter there are menu boards, like in a fast food joint, listing all the feeds they have to offer for poultry and and livestock, We ordered: millet, flax seed, sunflower seeds, ground corn and soy bean meal and oyster shell from the poultry side of the menu. But we didn't stop there over on the other side there was whole barley and rolled oats so we got those too! That is an eight grain mix.

We fed the mixed grains to our flock, and they love it. The first thing that we noticed was that after they ate it they all started going for the oyster shell like they never had when we fed them the layer pellets. They seem a lot more alert yet calm and contented after they eat the seed mix. The egg shells are getting firmer as well.

Here is the Recipe:

Into a large bowl put roughly equal parts, whole millet, flax seed, sunflower seeds, ground corn and soy bean meal (about double on the soy, because the chickens need the extra protein for making eggs), whole barley, rolled oats and oyster shell (provides grit and calcium).

Go to the Garden and collect some greens, there are: Mustard greens, Swiss Chard, Collard greens, assorted lettuce, Cabbage, assorted chinese greens, thistles and other weeds that the chickens like to eat.

Chop up the garden greens, apple, and orange peels (vitamin C is important for making calcium into Egg Shell), in the food processor and add them to the bowl and stir.

(Fish head eating not shown)
Salmon Broth

When we cook up the salmon head bones it makes a nice fish broth that we feed the chickens, salmon is an excellent source of Omega 3.
We now use a pressure cooker which makes the bones much softer so the chickens can eat everything.

Add salmon head bones (provides more calcium), softened in a pressure cooker*, and mix it all up with a "Hand Mixer"

Feed the Chickens!

Educating your baby chicks about forest dirt.

2014-02-06T22:52:00.000-08:00

Spring is around the corner, and people will be starting their flocks by bringing baby chicks home from the farm store. Chickens when raised by humans lead a rather sheltered existence, when compared to hen raised chicks. Humans do a fine job of taking care of the basic needs of chicks like food and shelter, but what of the educational needs of your chicks, while they are living inside of a pen?

A chick in a pen usually has a floor of pine shavings or straw which makes a nice floor to walk on and manage the droppings, but is still a fairly bland, and sterile environment for the chicks educational development.

In our woods we found an old hollow oak tree trunk that had recently fallen, inside the trunk was dirt made up of over a hundred years of rotting wood, generations of dead bugs, fungi, and old leaf matter.

We collected this black dirt, mixed it with rich soils and mosses from around the bottoms of oak trees, and put them in roasting pans to introduce the chicks to all the stuff that they will encounter when they get old enough to graduate into the real world outside. They get a chance to scratch, taste, smell, and roll in the stuff in the roasting pans, they really enjoy the change of scene.

Finding ways to enhance the environment of baby chicks, while they are in confinement, by using dirt trays or adding mossy branches for the chicks to play in, or nibble on, just seemed like a sensible thing to do.

Oyster Shells for Chickens

2014-02-02T14:42:00.000-08:00

We serve our chickens oyster shells right on the clean dirt along the edges of the rocks or trees.
We found that if we use bowls they get spilled, this way the spills can be where we want them and even kind of decorative. The goat said it looked nice.

Oyster shells provide both calcium and grit. Hens that are laying eggs need a source calcium to replace what they use in making their egg shells.

Putting the Oyster Shell along the edges of things keeps it from being walked in as much helping to keep the shells clean, and reduces waste.

The chickens will find it and eat what they need, and the firm soil is a better surface for pecking at oyster shells then the bottom of a smooth bowl.

Oyster shell also functions as grit to grind the stuff she eats.

She will digest and deposit oyster shell calcium, reconditioned as egg shell, and in their poop which I can add to our garden soil, providing a more bio-available form of calcium for our garden greens to absorb.

We've been trading eggs for foods!

2011-12-31T02:29:00.000-08:00

The Eggs for food trading has worked nicely for us so far. It is nice because it has led us to find and try foods that were not really on our radar. We also tend to find our foods closer the source, and meet food gatherers, producers and enthusiasts. Since we started we have been able to trade eggs for: Kombucha, Tomatillos, Cucumbers, Zucchini, Acorn Squash, Pumpkins, Tomatoes, Corn, Cantaloupes, Watermelon, Honeydew Mellon, Kimchee, Goat Milk, Razor Clams, Tuna bellies in the can, Chanterelle, Matsutake and, Lobster Mushrooms, Whole Grain Feed Wheat (about 400 LBS! ), Q-Bar Chicken Layer Ration, Apples, Pears and some Current Juice.

Trading eggs for other whole foods.

2011-12-30T20:14:00.000-08:00

We have been trying to take control over what is going into the foods we eat, by producing some of our own food . . . if you want something done right you gotta do it yourself, as the saying goes. We figure that there are other people who feel as we do, who are either producing real foods on a small scale, hunting or gathering, or who are purchasing those foods from small farmers, who are probably motivated by the same reasons as we are, so their foods are probably more in tune with what we would want to eat.

We would like to trade our eggs for other foods grown on little farms such as: Raw Goats Milk, Goat Cheese, Chestnuts, Honey, Mushrooms, or even a nice big bucket of assorted fresh caught fish (probably not grown on a little farm, but caught in a little boat, same kind of thing).

Our chickens also need to eat, so we are also looking for locally grown bags of feed grain, or some nice bails of alfalfa hay. So our chickens can eat locally grown foods as well.

We have been experimenting with this using Craigslist, and it has been fun trading with other people who produce their own foods.

We hope to find more people who like trading food for food.

New Discovery

2011-09-14T19:12:00.000-07:00

We have been running Craigslist ads, looking for people that would like to trade foods that they have for our hen's eggs. We have also been offering eggs, for alfalfa and grains to feed the chickens.

We got a response to our Eggs for Feeds ad, from a couple of locals who are producing a fantastic line of livestock feeds, and have traded some of our eggs for some of their feeds.

They really do this feed the right way, evidently they started out making feeds because they had trouble finding feeds that they wanted to feed to their livestock, wanting a feed that was closer to something they might eat themselves, and so they started making it themselves, which is of course a great way to get a thing done right.

Take a moment to check out the list of ingredients on this label of their Local Layer 17%

( Click on the yellow label to make it big enough)

Click to enlarge and read this label

Now here Click on this picture of the Q Bar Farms feed.

You hardly need the label, you can still see the ingredients.

This feed doesn't look like the usual "Crumbles" or "Pellets"which I always thought seemed overly processed. The Q Bar Farm mills their feeds gently so the grains are kept close to their whole natural state, this makes for much better digestion.

It was overly processed types of feeds that started us experimenting with whole seeds and grains to begin with, and started us on the seedyeggs path. But, we are not food scientists, and while we give our chickens all kinds of good things, it is good to know that there is a source where we can find feed that has been so well balanced, so we can be sure we are not missing anything.

We have now changed our hen's menu to include their Local Layer Ration.
We are including four bowls of the Q Bar feed to our this mash bucket, each day for about fifty chickens.

The weather has warmed up, and the chickens started putting on weight from eating a lot more worms in the mornings. We took out the fishmeal from the soup, and started using the Q Bar Local Layer, which will add even more variety to their diets, and includes a balanced blend of grains and seed oils, grown and processed right here in Oregon. Batches are made up when the orders come in, so their feed is always fresh.

We were so impressed by Q Bar Farm's feeds that we decided to start another 21 chicks using their Chick Starter.

The most notable observations we have had, have been while watching the chicks. The chicks have been on the new starter since they arrived from the store. They seem to be a little calmer, on the Q Bar Farm chick starter and eat less franticly than chicks that we had in the past that were eating the 'beige crumbles'.

I think what we are seeing are nourished chicks eating at a relaxed pace, as opposed to hungry chicks fattening themselves up on overly processed and hard to digest mono-feed.
The food they eat seems to stay in them a little better too, It seems that they have smaller and less frequent poops, and eat up the food less quickly.

There are no fillers in these feeds and the natural structure leads to better digestion and smaller denser poops, which dry up quickly and fall to the bottom of the litter, so the pen doesn't stink. We also noticed that switching away from the "crumbles"to a more natural form of feed eliminates pasty butt in the chicks, We had about three pasty butt chicks when they arrived from the store where they were eating crumbles, but with the Q Bar feed, no pasty butts. The chicks really love this feed, we really think the variety of pickings is important for the development of the chickens, they need to pick and choose and develop the skills that they will use all their lives, especially while they are young and their brains are wiring themselves. Imagine how dull it is eating white crumbles all day, compared to this.

Do your chickens and yourselves a favor and get some of this wholesome feed, after all you are eating what they eat.

Q Bar Farm feeds are a bargain at $13.50 for a 25 lb. bag of this awesome handcrafted feed. We have been just mixing grains and seeds for our birds, to make our own scratch (it is very good scratch) it has been necessary to purchase and store a lot of 50lb bags, and we never really knew if we had it "right". Of course our birds are able to free range to make up anything we might miss. This feed is already right on. A bag or two like this should last a typical back yard flock of 5 or 6 hens about a month.

Q Bar Farm sells:

17% Local Layer
17% Lucy Diamond Poultry Developer
20% Local Broiler
22% Chick Starter
16% Hog Grower

All made from the same great local products, and only made to order, they do not pre-make any feed.

It is available at the following locations:

Naomi's Organic Farm Supply 2500 SE Tacoma St Portland 503-517-8551,

Pistils Nursery, 3811 N Mississippi Ave. Portland, Oregon 503-288-4889

and it is also sold at

KOOKOOLAN FARMS 15713 Highway 47 Yamhill, OR 503-730-7535

Bulk orders over 330 lbs. are available directly from Q Bar Farm

Thank You, Doug and Deanna, for making wholesome animal feeds to nourish us all.

Maple Oak Salad

2011-08-16T17:15:00.000-07:00

This year the oaks put out an unusual amount of leaves, due to the unusually late spring, with the extra rainfall and late warming. there were so many leaves that whole branches broke off of the trees. One oak branch fell in our driveway, and the goats ate on that branch for about a week.

We had been gathering maple leaves that were too high for the goats to reach for themselves, to give to the goats as treats and bribes, and the milk was nice and sweet. After the goats started eating the leaves off of that oak branch in the driveway, we noticed the oak had imparted a nutty richness to the milk.

We have been giving our goats a little help reaching the high leaves lately. The pruning pole allows me to get a quick breakfast together for the goats before they go out to browse among the blackberry vines, poison oak and shrubbery.

When I get up I let out the goats and go into the woods to collect a few branches of oak and maple for Rue Dee and Happy for breakfast.

Now the girls get a maple oak salad for breakfast, sometimes I add a huckleberry branch if they have been good. The milk is now sweet, nutty and richer than ever.

Crazy Goat

2011-07-31T13:17:00.000-07:00

Rue Dee goes nuts like this, after we steal her milk, it is quite entertaining, and keeps us alert. She yells " Robbed! Robbed!" and goes on her rampage. We must always look both ways before crossing the yard.

They say that Nubians are the loudest Goats

2011-06-19T02:06:00.000-07:00

Rue Dee is already lead chicken!

Got Goats!

2011-05-24T15:45:00.000-07:00

Here's "Rue Dee"

and her little girl "Happee"

they are going to help us eat our forest.

One bite at a time.

Surprise Custard due to Sneeky Hens!

2011-03-12T20:56:00.000-08:00

We thought the egg numbers had dropped by a few, but it tuned out that the hens had been hiding a few on the side. We always keep an eye out for hidden treasures around the farm, and we found a stash of eggs between a couple of bails of straw we are storing. When we find a stash we count the eggs, and examine the egg shapes and colors to figure out how many hens have been contributing to the stash. (Each hen has her own signature egg design) This way we can determine about how old the stash is, These eggs could not have been more than a few days old, but to be on the safe side we ate them ourselves, as is our custom in these cases. Custard is a wonderful way to prepare a bowl of eggs, even if they are not mystery eggs.

Custard is pretty easy, just put eggs and honey in the mixer, get them well combined, and while still mixing, slowly pour in a pitcher of hot off the stove milk. Put the hot, sweet, egg milk, in a covered double boiler. (Ours is simply two stainless bowls held apart with stainless steel scrubber pads, and covered with some other pot's lid.)
The custard top burns, if it isn't covered.

Stick it in the oven at 350 degrees, for about an hour.

When it comes out it looks like this!

Let it cool a bit so you don't get burned, but this stuff is just glorious while it's hot.

Independent study completed:

2011-02-08T23:16:00.000-08:00

Our eggs have received a positive review from a taste testing panel, consisting of two judges.

It was a small panel, but, the important part for us is that, that it was an outside source.

Our goat tending friend at Mennagerie Farm, decided to conduct a, side by side, comparison using one of our eggs (left), and a fancy store bought one (right).

Here is a the comparison photo, and a link to the post at Mennagerie Farm:

Wonder Eggs

enjoy the post and . . .

Y'all come back now, Ya Hear?

How to Milk a Chicken

2011-01-28T15:09:00.000-08:00

Raw Chicken Milk

Our latest experiment was a great success, we figured out how to get milk from our chickens.
After thoroughly examining all of the chickens we determined that there is no spigot on a chicken that provides milk. We had to go in search of such a spigot and found one in the hands of a very competent goat farmer, who keeps just a few pasture fed goats. Since it is just as hard to get milk from chickens, as it is to get eggs out of a goat, we just made a deal with her, Eggs for Milk it was that simple.

The Goat herding, milk maid, served us each a sample. This was the first raw goats milk that we have ever tasted. It was one of those "where have you been all my life" kind of experiences. I had my first taste and felt it had a finer and cleaner taste than other milks. Jin's tastes were punctuated by quiet exclamations of enjoyment. We have decided that we both Love goats milk. The taste is not that different from other milk, but there are some qualities that I will try to describe.

Goats milk's molecules are five times smaller that that of cows milk. I believe this is what I experienced as "finer". There is still a richness so it isn't like it was a fat free sort of milk, not like skimmed. I was in the habit of using evaporated milk in regular drip brewed coffee, I have now stepped up to steamed goat milk in espresso, It feels good to eliminate a bad habit like using evaporated milk.

I did a side by side test this morning. I had some of the raw goats milk, and then tried some 3% cows milk for comparison. The "regular" milk seemed thicker, had a heaver taste and left a coat on my tongue. The Goats Milk was less thick, yet with a rich, creaminess, that left no coating in my mouth, only a little clean sweet milkiness.

This stuff is special, it just tastes healthier, and, it is in our opinion not for chugging down but for sipping, so that each sip can be enjoyed with the reverence it deserves. It just doesn't seem right to drink it any faster than it leaves the goat.

We are not going to reveal our source at this time, all but one of her goats are pregnant, so there is little more than a half gallon a day available. The price of goats milk is very understandably higher than bulk milk from the store, as is anything that is hand crafted, but was well worth the price we paid, Real food for Real food.

We highly recommend giving raw goats milk a try, It must be purchased at a farm, because is illegal for a farmer to transport raw goats milk (at least it is here in Oregon ) and you won't find it advertised because goat farmers are prohibited from advertising this precious food. So, go out and find a goat herder in your area, If they don't have any raw milk for you, they will probably know another goat herder, because in order to get milk from a goat it must first kid. So goat farmers wind up knowing others, either because they have to find stud goats, or homes for the little ones.

Here are a few links, one is about the benefits of Raw Goats Milk, another is a link to nutritional information about Goats Milk and one last one that just might help you in your quest to find a Goat Herd near you.

As for us we have our source, at least until her chickens mature, but it looks like we are going to have to become goat owners. Raw goats milk is just that good.

Soy Ocean Soup Plus

2010-11-15T23:58:00.001-08:00

Adding the Zippy Peppy Juice Pulp

The Soy Ocean Soup has just gotten better. In addition to the original Soy Ocean Soup ingredients we have been adding reconstituted alfalfa pellets.

This photo was taken when we were using mixed alfalfa and beet pulp pellets. We discontinued the beet pulp pellets because by the time they become pellets there is little left in them but the fiber. (no red left)

We also add chopped up garden greens (assorted cabbages, chards, mustard greens, and carrot tops), and All of our spent Green Tea Leaves!

Also when we make our morning Zippy Peppy Juice*, the pulp and skimmings go into the mix.

(*Zippy Peppy Juice Contains: fresh beet, carrot, celery, turnip, collard greens and brussels sprout leaves from our garden, purple cabbage, rutabaga , apple & lots of Ginger root)

Our head rooster Grasshopper (Originally known as Little Swimmer, but now he's called Kwai Chang Caine, now that he's matured) , and one of his girl friends (we didn't catch her name) are supervising the mixing.
The added ingredients thicken up the mash, and provide a convenient source of vegetables that will help replace the natural forest greens that go dormant in winter.

We feed the chickens the a big bowl of seeds and grains and their Soy Ocean Mash in the mornings, let them free range the rest of the morning, and in the afternoon we give them another big bowl of seeds and grains. Then they forage in the woods until evening. In return for our offerings they provide us with delicious eggs that have beautifully translucent, deep yellow, yolks.

Soy Ocean Soup

2010-09-06T00:22:00.000-07:00

Hens sharing a bowl of Soy Ocean Soup

We have been experimenting with something we call Soy Ocean Soup.

Soup is a good alternative way to feed chickens if you feel that some chickens are having trouble getting their share at feeding time due to competition. We noticed that as the summer was drying out the dirt in the woods, the chickens were no longer able to find as many worms and insects in the usually rain softened forest soil. We chose to feed them some soybean to help replace any protein they might be missing due to the effects of the dry soil conditions on the availability of the worms.

We were already making soy milk from soy flour in a pressure cooker, and saving the solids in a pot to feed the chickens. We decided to add kelp meal and fish meal for the additional micro nutrients in the seaweed, and protein and calcium in the fish.

Kelp Meal, Soy Flour, Fish Meal.

Soy Ocean Soup contains the same full fat soy flour that we use for making soy milk for ourselves, we buy it in 35lb. bags. We found out that we can order large bags of food products from the bulk foods section at the grocery store and just go down and pick it up. You can save a lot of time, travel, money and heartaches, buying things that you eat a lot of in bulk.

Kelp meal is packed with every mineral found in the sea and produces an aroma like a sea breeze, The Chickens really seem to enjoy it. but they really like the fish meal, which smells more like the sea shore in the summertime. We get the kelp meal. and fish meal. from the feed store in 50 lb. bags.

(incidentally, we used the fish meal when we made the cat her food, and she went nuts)


Ocean Concentrate (seaweed and fish meal)

Each day Jin puts a heaping cup each of kelp meal, and fish meal, along with an appropriate amount of water, to make a nice thick broth, into the pressure cooker. Pressure cooking really opens up the seaweed and creates a viscous fluid that helps to keep the soy and fish particles in suspension. This is important because we want all the chickens to get equal sips of this goodness, and this also helps from having a lot of thick stuff in the bottom of the pot when the pouring is done.

When the pressure cooker is full of seaweed, fish meal and water Jin sets the timer for 30 minutes , and quickly leaves the house to go water the garden. While I hurry to go out, and clean the coops. The cat goes nuts.

When the air clears, (smells like the sea!) she returns and pours the "ocean concentrate" in to the large pot where we save our soy milk making solids, and the like, for the chickens.

Chickens can eat soybeans but ONLY if they have been cooked. There are bio-toxins in soybeans that are anti-nutritive, and prevent chickens from properly metabolizing proteins. These harmful substances are destroyed when you cook off the raw bean taste. Once cooked the Soybeans are a great source of protein and minerals for the chickens.

The chickens find it delicious and would like to drink it straight from the cooking pot, but there is not enough room in the pot for 50 some chicken necks. So we pour it into smaller, pans and bowls around the yard, so they all get to drink in their own cliques.

The hens and roosters mingle around the yard sipping from one bowl and then another. It is a very much calmer "garden party" type vibe, than the mosh pit experience that comes with a grain feeding.

When the food is in a liquid form the chickens don't tend to be as aggressive as when they are eating solid foods, not so much because it is not yummy, but because, I think, it is not possible to steal food from someones mouth when it is in liquid form.

When the bowls are empty there are always a few chickens that like to stay in the yard to treat us to music, tinking and clanking on the empty pans into the evening.

For some the party can go quite late.

Good Morning Sunshine

2010-09-01T23:38:00.000-07:00

Seedy Egg

The difference in the fat content can bee seen by looking at the yolk of an egg. There is a translucency and deeper color in the free ranged chicken egg. The eggs from chickens feeding on layer pellets become opaque, and a more pale yellow. (like you find in the stores)

Using Beet and Alfalfa Pellets

2010-02-28T15:52:00.000-08:00

This last winter we were getting seeds and grains from the feed store, and saw that there were alfalfa and beet pellets available for horses. Alfalfa is a great resource for chickens that need more greens. (when it freezes and the vegetation becomes sparse in winter, or in a small backyard where all the grass has been eaten), we figured that beets should be good for them too, a little sugar energy to warm them at night, both products provide the chickens with plenty of fiber.
Both kinds of pellets come in 50lb bags for around $15.00 and go a long way. They are compressed and expand to about three times their size when soaked overnight. You can use the reconstituted leaves and beet fiber mixed with other grains as a mash, and feed it to your chickens.
We have been using it to start their soup. We put some pellets in cold water overnight and in the morning add them to a mixture containing: salmon heads, seaweed meal, fish meal, rolled oats, barley, cracked corn, flax seed, sunflower seed, soybean meal, and diced orange peels. If there are any vegetable trimmings those can go in too, the chickens like everything. This produces a thick nutritious broth that is strained off for the chickens to sip warm for breakfast. The solids, after straining become their mash, for lunch.
While fresh living greens are always the best thing for the chickens to eat, at least they can eat some instant dried vegetables until the yard grows back.

Chickie of the day

2010-01-06T15:07:00.000-08:00

Little Swimmer is growing, crowing, and today I saw him chasing a hen almost twice his size!

Egg Recipe 1: Egg Shooters

2009-11-07T21:43:00.000-08:00

This is probably the easiest egg recipe to prepare.

Choose a fresh squeezed egg, still warm, from the nest.

Wash the egg shell with baking soda, rinse it with vinegar, and then water.

Crack the egg into a small dish.

Shoot it down.

Easy.

Chickie of the day

2009-11-05T10:02:00.000-08:00

This is Little Swimmer feeding his face.

He became the official food taster for the flock after his mother decided to move back into the coop with the other hens, and let her chick move in to the house with the humans for the winter where he would be safer and warmer.

chickie of the day

2009-10-26T19:13:00.000-07:00

chickie of the day

2009-10-08T19:24:00.000-07:00

chickies of the day

2009-10-04T20:52:00.000-07:00

Weed Weight plus two

2009-09-27T12:02:00.000-07:00

We weed the garden of plants that grow but we cannot eat, however the chickens find these "weeds" very tasty. If the chickens were to find these things in their space they would peck and pluck these plants right down to where the roots hold them to the ground. When we toss the weeds on the ground the chickens try their best to eat them but since they are not fastened to the ground, there is a lot of weed tossing and throwing as the chickens try to get a decent bite.

Weighting down the root ends with an old post block helps the chickens strip the weeds down to the stem. That was all that I was going to post about, but, today we had a little surprise. . .

Swimmer and her Little Swimmer

(still wet with seaweed broth)

Our black star hen named "Swimmer", (because Jin saved her from drowning in the pond) showed up with two baby chicks. We were getting ready to leave for town and among the regular squawks and screeching, I heard a familiar peeping noise and turned to find Swimmer over by a bowl of seaweed broth. The peeping was coming from her little swimmer who had just fallen in to the bowl of broth. I rescued the chick, so now Jin and I have each saved a generation of swimmers.

Eggs are good like this

2009-08-26T21:42:00.000-07:00

We thought it might be fun to include some ways to eat Eggs.

Banana Smoothies
Boiled Eggs
Cookies
Crepes
Custards
Egg Nog
Fried Eggs
Frozen Lemon Custard
Mayonnaise
Meringues
Omelets
Pancakes
Poached Egg on Toast
Quiches
Raw Eggs
Scrambled Eggs

Chicken Lounge

2009-02-05T18:04:00.000-08:00

After the chickens busy mornings, grazing in the forest, laying eggs,

and checking on the what the humans are doing, they like to take a rest.

In the afternoon the chickens become quiet and like to lounge in a nice soft, dry,

preferably sunny, and certainly dusty spot. Chickens like to dig little dusty holes by laying on their sides and kicking at the dirt. They bath in the dust by rolling around in, and flicking dust up over their backs.

Then they like to sit in their holes and soak up the sun,

and maybe snuggle a little.

After the chickens have their lounge time, they go back out into the forest all refreshed, and ready, to scratch up their supper.

yummy breakfast

2001-04-07T22:24:00.000-07:00

Thanks for the eggs! Lots of kale, 'shrooms, and cheese mixed in here.

-Alex

____________________________________________________________________________

With buttery, jellied toast, and a black coffee. .. mmm.
Now there's a power breakfast.

Thanks for the picture Alex!

The Third Double Feature

2001-03-30T00:46:00.000-08:00

We swear we only gave her six eggs, We were amazed to find the fifth and sixth eggs in our email box today.

Attached are my last two egg dishes using your eggs:

The first is a soft boiled egg over roasted cabbage and a whole grain soda biscuit.

The second is a poached egg over tomato sauce and amaranth with a side of roasted kale raab.

Sophia, We need to get you some more eggs.

Second Double Feature

2001-03-12T19:59:00.000-08:00

Amazing! We know we only gave this lady six eggs, But she has produced four separate dishes, Bravo Sophia!

Here is the second set, and her letter:

I cooked up two more eggs and wanted to send them to you.
The first is my rendition of egg in a basket-- a portobello basket! In celebration of your generosity I cut out a heart shape in the mushroom . Unfortunately, portobellos don't work as nicely as bread in keeping the egg in place. The egg in a basket is served over some romanesco sauce.

The second egg picture is a simple scrambled egg with harissa on top. Served with a roasted cabbage wedge with country style mustard and a raisin seed soda bread.
Sophia

Eggs with assorted greens.

2001-03-09T14:41:00.000-08:00

Hey, you gave me and Lois some lovely eggs Friday night.

Where can we buy some more eggs from you?

Best regards,

Chuck B.

It is the enthusiastic people like these that we meet that keep us coming back to the bridge. We posed for this picture to document that my hat matched her bike, so much in common, also turned out that we were all egg lovers!

Seedy egg/morel omelette

2001-03-05T14:41:00.000-08:00

It was so nice to meet you two on the bridge late yesterday. You
really made my night! It also gave us an excuse to use up the end of
last year's morels. So tasty!!

All the best,
Joe B.

The eggy goodness continues!

2001-02-28T20:37:00.000-08:00

Bicycle fuel breakfast photo from our friends at:

http://www.carfreerambles.org/

Sunday morning at our house was a his-and-hers egg breakfast, courtesy of
seedyeggs hens! My side is plain old scrambled eggs plus broccoli, James
has fried eggs with garlic aioli and spelt bread. Both were delicious!:)

Thanks again!!

stasia

--------------

Hi Stasia,
Thanks for the delicious breakfast photo, and for showing us how aioli is spelt!

Have a great day!
John & Jin

Tonights Double Feature

2001-02-21T23:55:00.000-08:00

Another packet of eggs landed in the kitchen of an amazing cook that knows how to treat an egg. She prepared TWO dishes for our viewing pleasure, and sent in pictures along with a comment:

baked eggs over polenta

" Attached are two photos of dishes I made with your DELICIOUS eggs-- baked eggs over polenta and shaksouka. I really wanted to make dishes that would showcase the yolks which are so rich and flavorful and plump." --Sophia

shaksouka

The Eggs are returning . . . Transformed.

2001-02-20T18:18:00.000-08:00


If you click this picture, and then magnify it to full size, you can climb right inside, and breath in the deliciousness!

The Free Eggs Experiment is starting to produce results. We sent the eggs on their separate journeys and the "Travel Photos" are coming back, it's like the eggs are saying "Having a great time, wish you were here".

This is the First of the series, sent from our friends at: http://www.carfreerambles.org/.

She sent this picture to us, on the same day as, and shortly after running a 25k race in the mud, Amazing. I don't know how she could hold a camera still after that kind of workout, my arms and legs would be shaking for days.

Here is the accompanying note, with the recipe:

Hi John and Jin!

Do you still want egg pictures? This attached picture is the result of the
best ever recipe for race recovery:

3 of your eggs (the littler ones;)
all the vegetables we had in our house, including broccoli, red pepper,
carrots, onion, spinach, and garlic.
plus some red pepper flakes and black pepper.

So yummy! Especially since we don't eat meat, this will be sure to make my
muscles happy!:)

THANK YOU!!:)

stasia

Valentine's Day on the Hawthorn Bridge

2001-02-18T01:25:00.000-08:00

Last Sunday evening, the eggs had been accumulating, and it occurred to to Jin that it would be a good idea to take some fresh eggs up to Portland, to spread some smiles on the bike paths, after all Monday was Valentine's Day. I thought it to be a little short notice, the car's fuel gauge was showing it's red reserve light, but still a great idea, provided that we make time to swing by Salem on the way, to fuel up the car.

Our car turned vegetarian about four years ago, nobody close to us pumps biodiesel with a rating better than B15, so we've had a membership with the Flower Power Biodiesel Co-op. in Salem. It is good that Ol' Blue can enjoy vegetable based B99, instead of the dinosaur derived petrol, which makes her farts turn all black, and evil smelling.
After a late start, caused by a sequence of catastrophes, including a surprise water heater repair, a melted and smoking fuse holder in Ol' Blue, and the last minute, quick extraction of a stuck Fed-ex truck on our barely graveled, narrow, muddy and steep driveway. We were sailing smoothly toward Salem, with that cheerful little red fuel gauge light glowing brightly on the dash, and filling us with anticipation of a wonderful Valentine's Day, in Portland. Heck it even looked like the rain might stop.
We greeted our friends at Flower Power, gave Ol' Blue a nice long drink, and made it to Portland just in time to catch the five o' clock rush on the Hawthorn Bridge, in the rain.
We made our way up the south east bike path off ramp, on the Hawthorn, and found a steady stream of bikes zipping around the curve, like a bunch of sparrows, and to our surprise, out of dozens the of bikers going by only one egg taker, a pedestrian. Clearly this wasn't the time or place for juggling eggs, good frontage, but no parking. We stayed glued to the rail until there was a break in the flow, and decided to go back down off the bridge and ride around until things slowed down a bit. We found ourselves on the other end of the bridge, tucked into the stairwell, a little around 7:00 p.m. There was a lot less traffic now, but those who did pass by were able to stop for eggs.

Still, the rain, and wind, did seem to cut down the numbers of people on the bridge, so, we were still giving out eggs till well past 10:00. (our goal was to distribute all the eggs) It is so much fun to see peoples reactions, when they stop for free eggs, But the topper of the evening was a couple, who came out in the nasty weather to find us, meet us, and take our picture, for a wonderful story about the egg experiment on a new bike blog at: www.carfreerambles.org Which is about muscle powered transport. Meeting these enthusiastic people really made our night, and helped us forget about the cold and damp.

We have decided that rather than fight the clock in the future, we will come a little early just to ride around a bit and then aim for 7:00 p.m. as a more reasonable time to try to give out eggs on the Hawthorn, at the S.W. stairwell, to catch the east bound bikes, and walkers. This will give people time to go home, and return if they hear we are going to be on the bridge, While allowing us time to get our farm chores out of the way before traveling.

The Free Eggs Experiment:

2001-02-13T20:49:00.000-08:00

The Free Eggs Experiment:

One day we thought it would would be fun to go into Portland and hand out samples of our Seedyeggs to unsuspecting bicyclists on the esplanade. We figured that peddle pushers, and pedestrians would be able to absorb all the nutrients from our well exercised, lean eggs into their bodies, while exercising. We decided to do this in a high traffic area to move our eggs more quickly, we want them to be consumed while they are fresh after all.

We made some smiles that day, spread some "eggy goodness", and had so much fun, because it was a whole lot more fun to just hand out the eggs for free, than to try to convince people of their fine quality, in order to get them buy them from us. We really can't make chicken feed, for what most people are used to paying for eggs, especially on as small a scale as we feel we need to operate in our forest.

We have decided to make more of a game of it. We will go out and share our eggs for free, and people can, if they like, send us a picture of whatever they cook with the eggs, to post here on Seedyeggs, So, we can all have fun seeing the different tables where those eggs get eaten.

. . . and If anybody is extra thrilled by what we do, there is a tip jar at the bottom of the page, to help pay our expenses, and to further encourage our crazy.

I think I heard one tweet!

2001-02-05T10:44:00.000-08:00

Thanks for the Picture "FrontAve"

We went to Portland yesterday to do a little bike riding.

We had a little fun, giving away some eggs to bike commuters, and a few pedestrians, on the Springwater trail, and later on the Hawthorn bridge. Our plan was to hit the evening commute, hand out our eggs, and then spend some time riding around on Portland's network of bike trails. Seems we missed the main rush, and ended up spending a few hours treating all the people who worked late. We got some nice smiles and, everyone seemed to like getting eggs, We trust that they will all enjoy eating the eggs.

We handed out the last eggs around 10:00 p.m. and then we had a chance to ride around for a couple of hours on the esplanade.

We had so much fun meeting the people that we might just do it again sometime.

Egg Recipe 2: Frozen Lemon Custard

2000-11-25T21:40:00.000-08:00

This is a little less easy egg recipe to prepare then Egg Recipe 1.

Separate your eggs

Add Honey (about a cup)

Lemon Juice (A cup, to a cup and a half)

Add a tablespoon of cornstarch to some of the lemon juice and mix it in here.

Add the Yolks, Folks! I think there were about 18 here.

Throw in about two Tablespoons of butter

Assemble a double boiler

(I'm wedging in a chopstick here to hold it tight)

Stir frequently over medium high in a double boiler.

Keep stirring, But careful of the steam from the double boiler, and the hot sticky custard in the pot.

Don't leave it because it will start to thicken when you least expect it.

When it is thick like this, it is done.

This stuff is so good! It's Sweet, and tart, and creamy. In order to keep ourselves from eating it all at once, we portioned it into small single serving containers, and then put them in the freezer.

Frozen Lemon Custard

Now that you have the custard in the freezer, you might be wondering what to do with all the egg whites. You could make some meringue, but if you have already licked the custard bowl, spoons, and the wire whisk, then you have aready had enough sweets.

What we did after the first round of meringue was just fry up the egg whites like fried eggs.

We found them to be a little less than flavorful, without the yolk. We had just been reading about the health benefits of cumin and so we and decided to add some cumin and garlic to the fried egg whites. The yolk-less fried eggs went down much easier flavored with cumin.