The turkeys are doing very well… And they will soon be moving out onto greener pastures.
Check out the video!
KW Homestead
Pasture Raised Poultry & Edible Landscaping Plants Since 2013
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What a wonderful sight to see, when you come out of your front door… A little nest filled with little tiny babies!
This nest has been occupied for 3 years, same nest and same plant. The jenny wren love their home here!
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This video is a fun one, but it doesn’t even show half of the hilarious antics that our piglets engage in!
Both litters of piglets sped most of their day squeezing out of their pen (although a few are getting to fat to make it through) and exploring the world. They started close to their mother’s pen but have since started going all around the yard, fearlessly visiting ducks, Gandalf and the teenage pigs, and even exploring the blackberry bushes.
They usually run when we approach, and the sight of 7 little pig butts high-tailing it really is one of the best sights you can see out here.
Here is a video (although it is a bit shaky since I am chasing them) that shows you what I mean…
Bolt loves to chase and hump Amelia the pig!
Jason and the animals spending some quality time together…
And a video of Bolt and Amelia!
We planted some more today, and checked on a lot of our little plants. Here’s what’s growing around here…
Provider greenbeans (first planting of three so far)
Baby pepper plants: bell peppers, cayennes, jalapenos, and aji.
Jason harvesting some greens for the chicken soup!
Baby paste tomato plants and their friend, basil!
Oregano and thyme that came back strong from last year’s planting.
Spearmint… What a wonderful smelling intruder!
Beans round 2.
The tomatillos are looking great!
Zucchini!
Our little garden pond, beloved by fish, frogs, and our flowering comfrey plant.
This year we’re growing our Irish potatoes in straw instead of in the groind… Should be easier to harvest!
Our cilantro went to seed very early this year!
Thyme in a tire… What a perfect planter!
A bed of snow peas, green onions, and carrots.
Snow peas!
A beautiful, volunteer chia plant. What symmetry!
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You might be thinking… “You got more animals?!”
But let me explain… We’ve actually had these new chickens for about a week now, without us realizing it. When our second round of turkeys were shipped to us, the hatchery sent us 12 chicks as a “thank you” for being patient since our order of 50 bourbon red turkeys was delayed by 3 weeks. Since opening the box of baby birds can be exciting and very feathery, it is always hard to count them!
We noticed that there were a few “weird” looking birds mixed in with the homogenous bourbon reds, but just thought that maybe there was a color variation within the breed.
As the days went by, we became more skeptical, and we are sure now that the extra birds are chicks!
As far as we can tell, they look like a mutt bunch of Ameraucanas, who should grow up to lay beautiful green eggs. How exciting!
You can see from the pictures below that the “weird,” chipmunk-striped chicks are certainly different than the rest!
Sleeping, you can really see how different the chick looks than the pair of turkeys!
Here’s to more exciting diversity in our flock!
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After a quick fermentation, my hickory leaf gruit, while still young, was ready for some tasting.
All in all, it’s not bad. Very drinkable, refreshing, and a definetly not overpowered by the hickory leaves that were used in place of hops. I’d say that the 5 ounces of fresh leaves were just enough to balance out the malt sweetness without imparting too much bitterness or off flavor. They let the yeast favors come through, some subtle fruitiness, a mix between Apple and apricot maybe.
hickory leaf session gruit brewed without hops
Now that I know that you can indeed produce beer from hickory leaves, I want to try pushing the envelope a bit further and see if I can brew a hickory leaf IPA with no hops. I may start off trying 1 pound of dried leaves, just to see if I can find the upper limit.
The leaves on their own are not unpleasant, and have a grassy, meadowy, slightly tannic taste. I’m excited to see how this one ages, and equally excited to know that at least for simpler beer styles without a lot of hop character, hickory leaves are a fine bettering substitute for the homebrewer.
Everyone’s heard of farm to fork, the local food movement that brought farmers and consumers closer together, but we want to go one step further.
Farm to Your School!
Kuska Winasun Homestead is now offering a way for students, teachers, and parents to interact with a young pair of farmers and their livestock.
What exactly does a farm to school visit entail?
The Pig Package
Students will get to pet and scratch a friendly pot-bellied pig. These cute pigs are much smaller than standard pigs, and are sometimes kept as pets.
Pot Belly Piglets
$60 per hour (2 hour minimum)
The Poultry Package
This add-on gives students a chance to feed some friendly ducks and enjoy seeing how distinct the different varieties can be. They also get to compare the difference between a rooster and a hen, and hear the cockle-doodle-doo firsthand.
Some of our ducks, lining up to be fed
A flock of roosters!
+$25 per hour
What do you need to provide?
Nothing really, just an outside area somewhat out of the way where the event can take place. And of course, the children.
We recommend a minimum of 15-20 minutes per class, and in order to keep the animals calm, we like to limit the number of kids taking part to 20 at a time. You can schedule the visits however you like, but please keep these limits in mind.
What do we provide?
We will provide the animals and everything they need for comfort (cages, water, food etc.). We will also have some hand sanitizer available to keep all the animals healthy.
We will answer questions, tell stories, and direct the entire event.
Parents and teachers will also have the chance to purchase some of our farm products at a discounted price after the visit.
If you would like to schedule a visit, or have any questions, feel free to email us at ourochreway@gmail.com.
‘Tis the season for hens to start getting broody, and since we have noticed that our bantam hens are naturally more interested in sitting on eggs, we weren’t surprised to find one of our favorites, Cleo, sitting on eggs. She is the most dedicated of the “sitters” and never gives up! The other hens often wait until you reach for them ,and then explode out of the nest box with murder on their mind! Not Cleo, who sits patiently and fusses at you, pecking at your hand.
The video below shows one such event… and is a great resource to help you tell if you have a broody hen. It is also important to keep in mind that being broody doesn’t necessarily mean they will be committed for the whole 21 days. To be sure, the hen should refuse to give up, even when you reach under her to snatch eggs. If you can also feel that she has no feathers on her chest, and it feels like bare skin down there, then she’s probably in it for the long haul. Hens pull out their own chest feathers to ensure that there is skin-to-egg contact during the incubation period.
Check out the video below to see an example of 2 broody hens… One feeling broody but not yet committed, and one ready for the real deal!
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Bryn in solitary
One of our bantam hens, Bryn, was having some health issues a few weeks ago…
Her vent had prolapsed! For those of you don’t know, a chicken’s vent is where the eggs come from, as well as all the other things expelled from a chicken’s body! So having a prolapsed vent means that all of those things hang outside of the body and the chicken has trouble pooping and laying an egg becomes terrible.
A prolapsed vent… NOT pretty!
A couple reasons why this can happen…
- Older hens lose muscle tone in this area
- A particularly tough egg can do damage on its way out
- Poor nutrition or lack of proper supplements or diet
A couple things that are important to do if this happens…
- As soon as possible, separate the hen from the others so other hens don’t pick at the red, raw area.
- Try to limit her light since the length of the day makes hens want to begin laying or continue laying.
- Make sure she has access to proper food for healing.
Even if you do the above…
- She might get an infection and die.
- The vent might not retract on its own, which means you’ll need to help her out!
After doing some research, I learned that cleaning her vent area, applying witch hazel, and gently pushing her vent back inside is helpful and might work at getting her back in good health. I tried this 4 times and her vent stayed inside for a few minutes, but then popped back out. She wasn’t showing any signs of infection, was acting like herself, and hadn’t layed any eggs since being in solitary, so I didn’t want to give up her even though my tactics weren’t working!
Bryn getting her butt bathed…
Working on her vent…
I spoke with my dad and he reminded me about the medicinal magic of the plantago plant, which is great at fighting infection but also great at tightening and causing retraction. We thought it would work!
So this time I:
- Washed her vent area really well with warm water
- Chewed up a couple large plantain (plantago) leaves and spit the juice and the leaf peices around and onto her vent
- Used my smallest finger to gently push her vent back inside her body and hold it there for a little while
Drying her off…
We kept her in the solitary cage for a few more days, and saw that in those days her vent continued to look better and had not popped back out again! She was reintroduced to the flock and has been fine ever since!
So if your chicken has a prolapsed vent, we recommend plantago!
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