- Growing, Foraging and Feasting from the Urban Landscape

Scram! Keeping Cats Out of the Garden.

Posted on: March 13th, 2012 by Rachel

This is Jack. Enter Joke Here.

Jack is my favorite cat. We have two other cats, Kali Ma and Bonnie. Bonnie is clearly Tom’s cat. Scratch that. Bonnie is Paul’s cat. She snuggles with him at night and takes some of the most contorted positions just so she can sit on his lap. Kali Ma is my cat because she doesn’t like anyone that doesn’t tell her she’s pretty on a regular basis.

Tell me I'm Pretty!

I’m the sucker that tells her she’s pretty. And in return she comes over with her razor claws to make biscuits on my lap and right when the drop of drool is about to fall she shakes her head and sprays me with it.

Bonnie, aka Naughty Bon Bons

As much as I love my cats the one thing I cannot stand is cat shit in the garden. This is one of the reasons my kitties are indoor-only kitties. I’ve given up my orchid obsession in exchange for keeping them out of my veggies. Bonnie in particular is the worst one. We tried having an indoor plant until Bonnie decided to poop in it. Repeatedly. Until it died.

Of course keeping my cats in the house doesn’t help with neighborhood cats shitting in my veggies. Enter our secret weapon.

Don't mess with me or I'll cut you!

OK, you probably can’t take her serious looking like that. But here she is on the hunt.

Don't bother me I think I found it!

Unless they are her animals she wants to kill anything that comes into our yard. She spends all day with our cats but strange cats she doesn’t hesitate to chase out of the yard. Cats aren’t that dumb and usually never come back after only one good chase.

Not everyone has a secret weapon though. Fortunately there’s a really easy way to keep cats out of your beds. It can be a bit time consuming at first and until plants grow in it’s not the most attractive look, but it does work with good success.

The cats stay out of these beds

Sticks. Lots of sticks about 6-8″ long stuck in the ground upright about 6″ apart. Cats are too lazy to scratch around them. If you get cheap or free mulch from a tree service it will usually have a lot of these sticks. Unfortunately sticks don’t work for squirrels (because they truly are the spawn of Satan) but for cats if you use sticks you won’t have to worry about finding kitty rocha in your patch of carrots.

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Posted in Miscellaneous | 14 Comments »

Cutting Off a Limb – Pruning Trees

Posted on: March 12th, 2012 by Rachel

A well trained tree when young makes for easier pruning. These are apricot trees at Sunny Slope Orchard.

A great orchardist once told us that when pruning fruit trees it doesn’t matter how many fruits the tree produces if you can’t reach them. Proper pruning is important to train the tree into the correct form so the fruit is not only reachable but also so that the structure is open bringing light to the inside of the tree and allowing air circulation so that there are fewer diseases.

I’m not even close to being an expert on pruning but I do know the basics and since some of you may have some questions, I figured I should share at least what I know. For more in depth information on pruning there are many classes offered in the winter (check your local Cooperative Extension or nursery) and there are books you can pick up. I use an old buck written in the 1940′s called How to Prune Fruit Trees. Unfortunately it doesn’t look like it’s in print anymore.

Pruning is best done during the dormant season (winter for most trees). You can also prune during the summer but it should be more limited. A benefit of pruning in the dormant season, especially with deciduous trees, is that you have a better view of the trees structure as it’s not hidden behind leaves. Pruning during dormancy also invigorates the tree but it can also cause excessive growth such as water sprouts, which should then be trimmed out as soon as they appear. Pruning in the summer should mostly only involve thinning cuts. I’ll go over the different cuts below.

Thinning cuts – These cuts remove the entire shoot back to the shoot it’s coming from. The first ones that should be removed are dead and diseased wood and crossing branches. If you have diseased wood, dip your pruning shears in a bleach solution between each cut so as not to spread the disease. You don’t want branches touching each other because they can rub each other causing injury which can allow diseases and pests to enter the tree. Also remove branches that are hanging low – a crotch that is greater than 90 degrees. Other thinning cuts will depend on the type of tree it is and it’s structure and how it should be trained.

Heading cuts – These cuts remove the terminal bud (the tip of the branch). They make the tree send energy to produce more side shoots from the branch. This can be beneficial because it produces a stronger branch that is more rigid.

Bench cuts – These cuts remove the vertical shoots which opens up the center of the tree and makes it outward growing. These should be done sparingly as they are major cuts.

As mentioned previously the type of tree dictates how much pruning you will need to do. Peach trees prefer a hard pruning by removing 50% of the previous year’s growth. Pomegranates also need hard pruning to keep them from turning into shrubs. On the opposite side of the spectrum citrus trees shouldn’t be pruned much except for keeping branches from touching the ground.

Pruning isn’t something to be afraid of but it’s also something you need a bit of knowledge to do. Pick up a book, talk to arborists or orchardists or take a class.

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Posted in Gardening, Growing Tips, Urban Farming & Homesteading | 1 Comment »

Flowers – Not Just for Looking Pretty

Posted on: March 9th, 2012 by Rachel

Why Did We Tear This Out?!!!

When your primary focus is growing food sometimes other plants get overlooked. I have to say I’m definitely guilty of this. In a race to use all of our available space to grow food we made the dumb decision to rip out our landscape that was filled with flowers. Soon after we moved the chickens and quickly realized that planting a new landscape – even an edible one – wasn’t going to happen. The established landscape would have been able to hold up to the chickens but anything planted now would quickly get trampled and eaten.

We had Ceanothus (Wild Lilac) which has beautiful cornflower blue flowers that bloomed the earliest in spring. The magenta Penstemon (Beard Tongue) bloomed almost all year round here. In summer the Hemerocallis (Daylily) and Lavandula (Lavender) bloomed together in complementing orange and purple flowers. The Salvia (Mexican Bush Sage) bloomed in late fall. In between all the plants grew a blanket of white clover.

The flowers weren’t just there to be pretty. They provided a long blooming source of forage for our bees and the native pollinators. The hummingbirds and bumble bees would visit the Penstemon on a regular basis. The clover offered consistent forage for the bees and turkeys and it would have also been eaten by the chickens if we had left it. Everything together offered habitat for beneficial insects along with acting as a trap crop for pests. It served an important purpose in helping us avoid using pesticides on our edibles.

But there is also nothing wrong with pretty. My day job involves making landscapes pretty. Pretty can make a space somewhere people want to spend time. It can make a space relaxing. While edibles feed the body, pretty feeds the soul. We need pretty just as much as we need functional. And sometimes, like with our former landscape, pretty can be functional.

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Posted in Community, Farm Diary | 1 Comment »

Living in Earthquake Country

Posted on: March 6th, 2012 by Rachel

The Cypress Structure Collapsed During our Last "Big One" killing 42 people

We’ve had several earthquakes lately. The latest one was a 4.0 this morning about 15 miles south of us. I felt it a little bit. Well enough to yell “what was that?!” as the cats went tearing through the house. Tom didn’t feel it though. A couple of weeks ago we had two fairly small (in the 3.7 range) earthquakes about 15 hours apart that were centered just blocks from our house. We were home for the first one and it was a pretty good jolt. The second one occurred while I was at work but I felt it there as well.

While these quakes were all small, they were a good reminder that we do live in earthquake country. It’s important to be prepared in case of a major earthquake. After the Loma Prieta quake in 1989 USGS has warned that within 30 years we could expect another very large quake, particularly on the Hayward Fault (where this morning’s quake occurred) which hasn’t had a large earthquake since 1868. It’s now been 23 years and we’re still waiting for that big one.

Even though I’m not necessarily afraid of earthquakes they do require my respect. Here in the SF Bay Area we are fortunate that our fault zones are not like the one that caused the 8.9 quake and tsunami that devastated Japan. We don’t live with a subduction zone so we will never experience a 9.0. Unfortunately Northern California and the Pacific Northwest aren’t so lucky. They have a one-in-ten chance of seeing an 8.0 or greater in the next 30 years along the Cascadia subduction zone. The Midwest has their own earthquake country to contend with as well. Unfortunately they don’t have the same building codes that we do on the west coast to take on earthquakes. A much smaller quake could be much more devastating there than it would be here. The Eastern seaboard faces the same problems as does the Yellowstone region.

Large earthquakes occur all across the U.S.

The last couple of weeks have reminded me how lucky we are to not live in tornado country (when I was a small child we survived a tornado in Wyoming and it was what led us to California). We do get tornadoes occasionally, but they are generally small and do very minor damage. Kentucky this past week was not so lucky and mile wide twisters destroyed peoples’ ways of life. While living in earthquake territory we face destruction, but nothing like that which a tornado can cause.

It’s a good wake up call that we must be prepared. That we must have food security and that our world can get turned upside down in the blink of an eye. Stay safe out there.

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Posted in Current Events | 3 Comments »

Bringing Home Chicken

Posted on: March 2nd, 2012 by Rachel

So you’ve decided to make the jump into raising chickens. You’ve taken into consideration what it takes to have chickens. So now what? Where do you go from here?

Five hens is a good number for a family of four

Figure out how many chickens you want to have. How many are you allowed to have? How many eggs a week does your family use? Consider that a hen in her prime (6 months to 2 years old) will lay about 6 eggs a week. After two years old it will start to drop off until 4 years old and then she’ll pretty much stop laying. Chickens can live past 12 years old so you’ll need to figure out their retirement plan as well. You will need at least two hens but I always tell people to get no less than 3. That way if one of them dies you don’t have to scramble right away to find her a companion.

Nest boxes and roosts are a couple of things you must have in your coop.

So now you’ve figured out how many chickens you want. Next you’ll need to figure out where you will be keeping them. A nice shady place is usually the best, but you can always create shade for them if you don’t have any other options. A good rule of thumb is 2-3 square feet per hen inside the chicken coop plus an additional 5-6 square feet per hen in the outside run. I generally prefer to give ours a lot more space (right now they have 250 sf per hen because they are free ranging but their fenced in yard gives them about 10 sf per hen (not including the coop). Backyard Chickens has some great coop ideas (some of which include instructions on how to build) that you can peruse to figure out what kind of coop you want. You can also purchase pre-made coops at feed stores, online and on Craigslist, though they are generally a lot more expensive than making your own. The main thing you need to look at is security and whether it can keep predators out. A coop with a floor that can be locked at night is your safest bet since critters can’t dig under it. Otherwise you’ll want to bury wire mesh around the perimeter going down vertically at least 18″ to stop diggers. The wire from the ground up to about 18″ should be a smaller cell mesh so as to keep raccoons and other predators from grabbing chickens through it (oh yes, they will do this and it ain’t pretty). It will also help if you get chicks and brood them in your coop so they can’t escape. The only other requirements chickens need are roosts, nest boxes, a feeder and a waterer. You will also want your coops to be able to shield them from drafts while also providing plenty of air circulation.

Black Austrolorps are a calm, friendly dual purpose chicken.

Now you’ve got your coop built and ready for some hens. Now is time to start researching breeds. You’ll need to figure out what your priorities are. Do you want friendly birds that your kids can handle? Would you prefer consistent layers and don’t care about their friendliness? Do you want hardy birds that can handle temperature extremes? Do you want hens that are prone to broodiness (wanting to raise babies) so that they can raise future birds? What about egg color (the color doesn’t have any bearing on the healthfulness of the egg)? Dual purpose birds (heavier and can be used for meat and eggs) I feel are easier to care for because they aren’t as good at flying so are less likely to escape over fences.

Chicks take more work but can be more rewarding

Once you’ve figured out how many you need, you have your coop built and you know what breeds you want it’s time to think about getting some chickens. You can choose to go a couple of different routes. You can buy hens or older pullets (female chickens that aren’t laying yet), but generally they can be quite expensive. The other option is to purchase chicks. There of course are downsides to getting chicks that I discuss in the first link above. However, they do have their benefits. They are easier to bond with if you get them really young plus they are much cheaper. Older birds are, of course, easier because you don’t need to set up a brooder and they can just go into your coop. Chicks will need a brooder, which is basically a special setup to keep them warm until they are feathered out.You will also want to feed them chick starter feed which is higher in protein.

Our brooder is fairly simple

The brooder can be made up of any solid sided box that is large enough for the chicks to move around plus their feeder and waterer and a heat lamp can be hung from above. Our brooder isn’t a standard setup. It’s a wire dog crate with small cell chicken wire around the bottom to keep the little buggers in. When the chicks are young we either place a large cardboard box without a bottom in the crate or line the cage walls with cardboard. This helps keep more heat inside when they are really young. We also choose to keep them outside in the coop where they will be living so as to expose them as soon as possible to coccidia. By doing this we don’t have to feed the chicks medicated feed and we don’t end up with sick pullets when we put them out in the coop. After 3 weeks we remove the cardboard and start to allow them to roam some more. Depending on the weather we’ll also only keep the heat lamp on at night. The chicks can help you determine how far the heat lamp should be from them. If they are panting, it’s too close and they can’t get far enough away from it. If they are piling on top of each other and chirping a lot then it’s not close enough.

Chicks in their brooder

Now you are ready to purchase your chicks. In the spring most feed stores will carry them. Call them and ask when they will be getting the breeds you want. Sometimes they’ll even special order them for you. Another option is to order them from one of the various hatcheries. Unfortunately almost all hatcheries require a minimum order of 25 chicks to help keep them warm during shipment. Don’t worry about them starving or dehydrating. Nature has made it possible that a chick can go three days without food or water without suffering. A hen will sit on her eggs steadfastly for at least 3 days from the first hatched chick to make sure they all hatch before she will take her chicks to food and water. They are able to do this by absorbing the nutrient rich yolk right before hatching. Keep them warm and happy until they are 8-12 weeks old and then they can start living in the coop without the heat lamp. After 16 weeks you can transition them to layer feed which has a bit less protein but has added calcium. Depending on the time of year they should start laying for you when they reach 6 months old. If they turn 6 months old when the daylight hours are less than 14 hours then it will take them a bit longer to start laying. When they start laying you’ll also want to be sure to offer them oyster shell so that they get enough calcium for shell development.

So those are the basics to getting started with chickens. Got more questions? Throw them on over.

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Tags: chickens
Posted in Chickens, Livestock, Urban Farming & Homesteading | 7 Comments »

Some Thoughts on Milk – A Lesson on Natural vs. Man Made

Posted on: February 23rd, 2012 by Rachel

I remember when I was a kid my grandmother used to drink skim milk exclusively. We used to joke that it was watery and had a blue tinge. Skim milk was exactly that – milk that had suffered the injustice of having the cream skimmed off. But it wasn’t necessarily bad for you, it just wasn’t the tastiest thing in the world.

I don’t remember when skim milk turned into nonfat milk. The thin blue milk I remember my grandmother drinking was now white and no longer thin. Sometimes I would wonder why, but for the most part I just brushed it aside. I mean, everyone said that it was healthier for you, so it couldn’t really be bad. Right?

Right?

Enter Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food. There was just one short passage in that book about nonfat dairy that piqued my interest. I continued to do research on nonfat milk and what I found was interesting and a bit disturbing. I then continued on and found that commercial milk actually scared the shit out of me. So let’s start with the problems behind nonfat milk.

First off, nonfat milk is missing the fat. “Duh, Rachel, we could have figured that out on our own,” you say. But what isn’t as obvious is that all the fat soluble vitamins that are in milk also go the way of the dodo when the fat is removed. The milk no longer has natural vitamins A, D, E or K. Vitamins A & D are usually put back in by the manufacturer but it’s been shown that fortification isn’t as healthy as the real deal because just adding the single components doesn’t take into account all the other enzymes and minerals that work symbiotically with the vitamin. Also you can’t absorb fat soluble vitamins without….fat!

So why is nonfat milk no longer blue? That’s because companies are putting in various additives that they actually don’t always have to include them on the label. The first additive you can find in nonfat milk is dry milk. Sometimes it will be labeled as “protein-fortified.” Some manufacturer’s do include it on the label, but some don’t. Dried milk is far from benign though. The process used to dry it creates oxidized cholesterol, which accelerates plaque build up in arteries. Animal studies have found that even a small increase in oxidized cholesterol over 12 weeks doubled the plaque buildup compared to the control group. If your trying to eat heart-healthy, nonfat milk might be counter productive. Also, dry milk contains orotic acid which may have damaging effects to the liver.

Another additive sometimes used to make the blue liquid white is titanium oxide, a common ingredient in paint and sunscreens. It’s sometimes added to nonfat fluid milk but mostly used in other dairy products such as sour cream and cottage cheese.

But problems aren’t isolated to just nonfat milk. The qualities of straight-from-the-cow/goat/sheep-milk are never static. The amount of protein, carbohydrates and fat vary between breeds and even individual animals. It also varies depending on where in the lactation cycle a specific animal is at. So to standardize milk, manufacturers separate everything and then put it all back together at specific ratios. And then it’s homogenized which changes the structure of the milk and oxidizes fats. What used to be a healthful drink has now become another overly-processed food that no longer resembles the natural product.

There aren’t many alternatives right now but they are increasing. EatWild.com, RealTimeFarms.com and LocalHarvest.org are some sites that might be able to help you find local dairies. Straus Family Creamery offers pasteurized cream-top milk sold in old-timey glass bottles. The other option is to locate raw milk. Organic Pastures (not to be confused with Organic Valley) and Claravale (I’ve drank Claravale and never had an issue) are the only two legal raw dairies in California that I know of. They have very stringent procedures have third party testing of their milk several times a week to insure that it’s safe. In other states it may be easier or more difficult to find raw milk depending on the state’s raw milk laws.

Haven’t we learned from the margarine-is-better-than-butter fiasco? Trust the cow over the man.

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Posted in Current Events | 11 Comments »

Off to a Good Start

Posted on: February 22nd, 2012 by Rachel

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The garden is starting to come together. I’m feeling inspired to keep better records as well (more on that below).

The first round of peas and the garlic are going strong. The fennel, spinach and lettuce starts have all been planted. Last night we transplanted most of our onions, though I’m starting to feel we may be a bit late on those. Now if we can only keep the turkeys out of them (they have this crazy obsession with all things onion). The potatoes are planted and we got the irrigation hooked up in the experimental potato bins.

Our warm season stuff is also looking good. This past weekend I transplanted everything in flats into 4″ pots so they can grow a bit longer before being put in the ground. It’s not quite warm enough at night yet to risk putting them out so in the greenhouse they will stay. Speaking of greenhouse, this year it’s tied down so I’m hoping to avoid any and all mishaps that we had last year (wind storm knocked it over destroying all my seedlings). I’ve also made sure to label everything this year, which is something I’ve never done but regretted not doing every year.

There is this awesome website I found that really helps with determining frost dates. I find it really helpful for the Bay Area since we have so many micro-climates and frost dates can vary dramatically within just a few miles. Actually in our neighborhood it varies quite a bit as we can be frost free at our house but just a couple of blocks away cars are covered in frost. My city is never on a list for frost dates so I always just had to guess based on the frost dates from a nearby city. I had thought they were from November 11th to March 27th. Turns out our frost dates are actually (and these are very conservative dates) December 11th to February 29th, which means I get an extra 2 months of growing time.

Since our weather seems to be more and more erratic (last year we had unusually high rainfall very late into the season and this year we’re not getting any rainfall) I’ve decided to keep better track of what’s going on and I’ll be tracking our frost dates. I also want to see the blooming patterns of our fruit trees and keep a log of when and where I plant stuff out to see if making changes helps or hurts our harvest.

Just in time, Erica at Northwest Edible Life puts up her 2012 Garden Journal. I pretty much never buy garden journals because they are targeted towards small scale flower and maybe a bit of vegetable gardening. They never offer enough space for me so I pass on getting them. Because of this I just never really kept any notes – which really isn’t a good thing. I don’t really remember when I planted carrots 3 years ago (and got a bumper crop of them). But now, with Erica’s garden planner this will no longer be an issue. Because it’s a pdf I can pick and choose what pages to print and how many of them I need. What I really like about it is that there are different versions of pages – one more detailed and the other a simpler version – that you can choose from.

And it has everything including a place to keep track of weather, monthly check lists, and project planning. It also includes pest notes and a harvest log. As an added bonus she has included spine labels for binders, a binder cover and dividers with beautiful color photos along with instructions on how to use the journal.

So go check it out and get one! I know I’m going to be a better gardener because of it.

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Catching some Levain (aka Sourdough Starter)

Posted on: February 20th, 2012 by Rachel

San Francisco is famous for their sourdough bread which runs wild around there. Fortunately we can all catch our own wild sourdough starter, which is also called levain. Levain is the French term for sourdough starter and has been used for centuries to make bread. Bread made with Levain may even be healthier for you than breads made with commercial yeast. Sourdough actually has a lower glycemic index than regular bread. The levain also breaks down phytic acid in grains. Phytic acid blocks the absorption of minerals and vitamins. Levain also shows promise for people that are intolerant of gluten because it helps degrade and deactivate the proteins that adversely affect people.

Nowadays you can purchase commercial sourdough starter, but what fun is that? Plus you can’t boast that you actually caught the wild levain that made your bread. The bonus is that it’s super easy to do and doesn’t take much, but you don’t have to tell others that. Go ahead and let them think it took you days of complicated procedures to obtain.

So are you ready to get blown away? To catch a levain all you need is some flour and an equal amount of water in a wide mouth container or bowl. Yep, that’s pretty much all you need. And all you do is mix the flour and water together and set it outside for a couple of days. Bring it in, keep it in a relatively warm spot and once it starts to form bubbles on the surface you can go ahead and store it in the fridge. The only thing you do need to do is occasionally feed it equal parts of flour and water once a day. It should have a slightly sour smell to it, which is a good thing. You can keep your levain going for as long as you’re willing to take care of it, or if something goes wrong like it gets moldy.

So how do you use your levain? I like to make a nice no-knead artisan bread with it. The following recipe makes two loaves or one really big one if you’re up for it. However, for a larger loaf the baking times will be longer.

In a large bowl mix together 3 cups warm water (about 110 deg F), 1-1/2 Tbs kosher salt and 1/2 cup of your levain. Add 7-1/2 cups flour and mix. It should be a wet dough, but not sloppy. When you measure the flour you want it to be level cups, which you can get by using the flat back edge of a knife to scrape excess flour off evenly.

Cover and allow this to sit for at least two hours in a warm, dark spot. This dough will not rise like breads made with commercial yeast so don’t worry too much. After two hours you can put it in the fridge to store or make a loaf right away. The dough, because it’s wet, is much easier to handle when it’s cold though, so I usually put it in the fridge for about 2 hours before I plan to bake it.

When I’m ready I pull out half of the dough and while working quickly I shape it into a ball by pulling the top down over the sides stretching it. I then place this ball in a bowl that is lined with a heavily floured non-terry cloth towel. Sprinkle a bit of flour on top and then cover with the edges of the towel. Allow it to rest and do a bit more rising for an hour.

40 minutes into the rise place a dutch oven (cast iron of course works the best, but you can use any type as long as it has a lid) in your oven and preheat to 450 deg F. The purpose of the dutch oven is to steam the bread for the first part of the baking. This helps develop a moist crumb while allowing for that real crunchy crust. Of course the heavier the lid the more steaming action you’re going to get, which will further help develop larger holes in the crumb.

When you’re ready to bake pull out the dutch oven and remove the lid. Pick up the towel and bread and quickly (and this can take some practice) and gently roll the dough out of the towel into the hot dutch oven. Quickly put the lid on and put it back in the oven.

Bake with the lid on for 30 minutes then remove the lid and bake for an additional 30 minutes or until the crust is completely browned. Don’t overcook though as the bottom can and will burn if left too long.

Remove the bread from the dutch oven and place on a cooling rack. Allow to cool until you can handle it and then serve. You have now mastered the no-knead artisan bread.

A note about ovens and not getting the perfect loaf. Every time I did this recipe it came out well, but not as good as I knew it could be. I always thought I was doing something wrong. When we got our Wedgewood I quickly realized that not all ovens are created equal. Our previous, cheapo oven just couldn’t do the job and it had made me feel inadequate. So if you have a hard time making that perfect loaf of bread it may not be your fault at all, but rather the oven that you are using.

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Posted in Baking, DIY, Foraging & Hunting, Recipes, Urban Farming & Homesteading | 4 Comments »

Sour Crop in Chickens

Posted on: February 19th, 2012 by Rachel

A chicken with sour crop has an abnormally large crop.

I had noticed that one of my pullets had this amazingly huge crop and that it didn’t seem to ever go down – even overnight. Picking her up and palpating the crop revealed that it was overly spongy and the size of a baseball. She also had horrendous breath. These were all signs that she had sour crop.

The crop is a pocket located on the chicken’s chest that holds food before entering the gizzard where it gets ground up. Chickens like to have a full crop when they go to bed in the evening and then by morning the crop is all emptied out to get refilled again. Sour crop is basically a yeast infection in the crop. A piece of food gets stuck in the crop and the natural yeasts for the surrounding environment starts fermenting that piece of food. As more food enters the crop, the yeast multiplies until the crop just becomes this fermenting vessel. The spongy feeling is from all the trapped carbon dioxide bubbles.

Fortunately, just like with sick chicken, there are natural ways to heal a chicken with sour crop.

Some websites say that you need to empty the crop. I’m hesitant to do this because it can cause the chicken to aspirate if not done correctly and it doesn’t actually help eliminate the yeast since it’s already established in the crop. So instead I just left the food in her crop and worked on attacking the yeast and resulting carbon dioxide instead.

The first thing I did was separate her from the rest of the flock. It’s not contagious so I actually did this mainly because I needed to keep her from eating the grain-based feed which provides more food for the yeast. So into the wire dog crate she went. We kept the crate in the chicken coop so she could at least be around the other chickens.

I put some raw, unfiltered apple cider vinegar in her water. The bacteria, acetobacter, that turns alcohol into vinegar, would help balance out her pH. Her food consisted of 2 scrambled eggs with olive oil and plain, whole milk yogurt twice a day. The eggs provided her with protein. The olive oil helps break down the bubbles from the carbon dioxide that the yeast creates. The yogurt helped provide additional protein and carbohydrates. The sugar in dairy, lactose, cannot be fermented by yeast so it doesn’t add onto the problem. In addition the live and active cultures in the yogurt kill and consume the yeast. This works for all yeast infections, just so you know….

We kept her on this diet for 3 days, which was long enough so that her crop was completely emptied in the morning and her breath no longer smelled bad. She’s now happily scratching and pecking with the rest of the flock.

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Tags: chickens
Posted in Chicken Health, Chickens, Livestock, Urban Farming & Homesteading | 9 Comments »

The Tip Jar – Going Ad Free

Posted on: February 17th, 2012 by Rachel

Blogging is a labor of love. I love sharing with you what we’re up to and what we learn. I really hope that all of my readers learn a little something from our adventures and can become more self sufficient in their lives as well.

I spend several hours every week researching, writing, finding guest posters and answering email questions. Because this site is self hosted I also have to shell out a fair amount of money for the hosting along with the domain name. I’ll admit, ads are annoying but looking at my options, I felt that they were a necessity. I’m clearly not looking to get rich by any means but I was hoping that between the ads and my Amazon store over on the left under Tools and Books (Amazon will pay me 4% of whatever people buy through my website – it doesn’t even have to be in my store and you don’t pay anything extra) I could at least offset some of my costs for running this blog. Maybe even get a little bonus for all the time I spend writing.

I had originally gone with Google AdSense but they decided that once I was nearing my first payment amount that they would accuse me of fraud based on an uptick (that really wasn’t that big) in visits to the blog due to a really popular post I had written. I tried to appeal it and it was a no go. It made me really angry that for over a year I had provided their clients free advertising and then they accused me of doing something I never did and wouldn’t even allow me to plead my case to a human being. So then I switched to AdBrite, which I had read good reviews on, but I got annoyed with their ads that had sound and video even though I specifically said I didn’t want that. So they are out. My options are diminishing.

I’ve thought about getting sponsors but feel that my readership just isn’t big enough yet to be worth it to companies to sponsor. Don’t get me wrong, I’d be more than happy to take on a sponsorship if So now I’m looking at alternatives. Erica over at Northwest Edible Life first turned me on to Monetization Her Way. Instead of doing ads she has a Tip Jar where people can give her a tip for all the useful information she provides. Even though I’m generally not one to ask directly for money I thought it was a great idea considering how much work she puts into her blog.

I’ve decided to swallow my pride and go for it. Of course there’s no pressure and I don’t actually expect anything, but if you feel inclined it would be very much appreciated. But regardless of any tips, I’ll be here still to answer questions, offer advice, and share our adventures because you, my readers, make it worth it.

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