Month: August 2009

Electric Fencing: Simpler is Better

Electric fencing has been around a long time, and has been used with chickens since at least 1960. The methods used then still work today.

The earliest mention I’ve seen of electric fencing with chickens was in a 1960 issue of “Egg Producer” magazine. The electric fence consisted of a single strand of wire 4-5″ off the ground. That’s it! This single low wire was enough to hold in the hens and discourage predators. Sometimes they added a second wire at 8-10″ off the ground, but it was mostly just for show.

I’ve tried it, and it works! And I got independent verification by stumbling across a site that talked about keeping raccoons out of your sweet corn. Same deal.

I once watched a coyote chase a hen that was outside the fence, but come to an abrupt halt when the hen raced past the two wires. The coyote stopped so fast I almost expected to hear tire squeal! Clearly the fence intimidated it to the point where even the prospect of a certain meal didn’t tempt it.

I cover this more fully in a follow-up post about electric fencing.

I also have an Electric Fencing FAQ with more details.

Better-Tasting Eggs: The Big Secret, Revealed!

I’m going to spill the big secret to producing better-tasting eggs: it’s the grass, man!

No, not that kind of grass! Ordinary grass, clover and other pasture plants, I mean.

Happy outdoor chickens that are allowed to run around on a grassy area will eat a lot of grass and other succulent plants. These plants don’t have many calories, but they’re loaded with vitamins, minerals, and flavor.

The eggs of such hens are bigger, have darker yolks, are more nutritious, and taste better. They taste like “real farm eggs,” which is not something you can say of the eggs in the store. The chickens are eating their veggies, and it makes all the difference.

This doesn’t seem like a difficult concept, but farmers, consumers, and even certifying agencies get it wrong every day. They think that “free range” is all about “outdoor access,” and that a barren yard is in the same league as a grassy field. Nothing could be further from the truth!

Egg Shortage Strikes!

Right on cue, we’ve run short of eggs to sell. This is harvest season, so the farmers’ markets are jammed with customers. That’s part of it. And we’re in the long, slow decline in egg output that starts at the end of May and continues through December. This happens every year.

Next year, we’ll try starting an unusually large number of pullet chicks in January and February, to fill the production gaps with young hens who are just starting to lay. Maybe we can delay the day of reckoning until October that way, after the harvest-season crowds start to slacken and the problem starts to solve itself.

That’s the problem with doing the “real outdoor hens” gig — it’s harder to fool Mother Nature. Eggs are more seasonal than with confined hens.

So if you’re one of our egg customers, show up at the farmers’ market early to avoid disappointment!

How I Cured My Insomnia

How did I cure my insomnia? No, it wasn’t by reading my own writing!

I used to have insomnia. I used to have trouble going to sleep and staying asleep. It turned out to be a pretty easy problem to solve, though it took a while to fade away.

The first thing was to resolve to never worry in bed. A big problem with my insomnia was that I would worry, which is a silly waste of time in the middle of the night, because you’re too tired to think straight, so you never solve any problems or gain any insights. So promising not to worry in bed is a good start. Some people actually write a list of problems down before going to bed, so they know they won’t forget any issues overnight.

The next thing I did was to stop drinking caffeine in the evening. That helped a lot. (I make an exception if I’m driving at night and feel tired.)

Probably the most helpful thing I did was buy a copy of Deep Sleep Every Night by Glenn Harrold, a CD that uses self-hypnosis to zonk you out. Works like a charm! Harrold uses New Agey music and an echo effect on his voice, which makes the recording seem almost like a parody, but it really, really works. The CD has two tracks, but I’m always sound asleep well before the first one ends.

After I got tired of this, I switched to playing audiobooks all night. This works best if it’s something I’ve heard before, so it’s not too fascinating. But after a couple of years of this, I found that it was no longer necessary. I fall asleep right away, and stay asleep until morning. I’m cured!

I like using the shotgun approach on problems, trying everything I can think of, maybe all at the same time.

Are Egg Cartons Expensive, or What?

Packaging costs more than you might think. We’re paying about $0.30 per egg carton these days, and we buy ’em 1,000 at a time!

The economy has not been kind to our egg-carton supply. Pactiv closed the Northern California plant that made our egg cartons, so our egg cartons are coming up from Mexico, adding a lot of shipping/energy cost into the mix.

Fortunately for us, we live in God’s Country, Western Oregon, where lots of people are eager recyclers and the state regulations aren’t all written by compulsive hand-washers. Not yet, anyway. It’s perfectly legal to use clean, used egg cartons in Oregon, so we do. And not just ours — anybody’s. We’ll stick our labels on top of whatever was there before, and that makes ’em ours.

So we’re in a pretty good position where cartons are concerned. Our customers bring us huge stacks of cartons and give them to us free, gratis, and for nothing, glad to see they aren’t wasted. We use ’em until they get dirty or start falling apart.

This isn’t legal everywhere. I swear that, in some states, the food-safety rules were written by Howard Hughes. I can find no mention of used-egg-carton-borne illness having ever happened anywhere, even once, but that doesn’t prevent some states from banning it. Oddly, some of the midwestern states seem to be particularly anti-farmer. That’s just plain weird.

Anyway, if you go the used-carton route for your own flock, here are a few tips for you:

  • If you sell any eggs in grocery stores, use new cartons for these. The same people who will happily accept a used carton when you’re selling face-to-face won’t touch anything that’s the least bit shopworn in a retail store. Strange but true.
  • Always put a rubber band around the egg carton, especially if it’s used. Used cartons are floppier than new ones and may not stay closed on the trip home. For marginal cartons, use two rubber bands.
  • When cartons get too dirty or wrecked, into the wood stove with them! Fires are a lot easier to start if you use heavy stuff like cardboard or egg cartons in addition to paper and kindling. Get one last use out of them this way. (Two, if you have a good use for the ashes, which we do.)
  • Egg cartons are all the same except for Jumbos, which are bigger. So you can mix or match all your cartons except the Jumbos.