Brad

Owls are some of the most fascinating birds to watch. When we find them, they tend to sit still so that we can get a good look at them. Their large eyes and facial markings seem to give them personalities. Owls, as cute as they are, are powerful hunters that belong to the raptor class of birds, like hawks and eagles. Because many of them are nocturnal, it can be difficult for the average person to find owls. Several of the naturalist organizations in the area, however, have talented guides who organize owl spotting trips several times throughout the year. NH Audubon is one such organiztion.

Here’s a helpful guide to identifying three of New England’s owls: the boreal owl, the barred owl and the barn owl. This guide has videos of all three species and links to hear their calls. There is also a small slideshow which includes some pics of the barn owl in flight.

While I really enjoy trying new and exotic dishes from around the world, I will never be caught dead in the The Hump Restaurant or its parent company Typhoon in Santa Monica. The sushi chef and the restaurant owners have been charged with selling the meat of the endangered sei whale to an undercover vegan woman. The sting operation was orchestrated and filmed by the director of The Cove. Federal officials were on hand to witness the sushi chef retrieve the package of whale meat from his car and serve it to the vegan woman and a companion. First off, what kind of restaurant has a sushi chef storing sushi in their car? Secondly, Sei whales are protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the Endagnered Species Act, Trade in their meat is illegal. The chef has admitted guilt and the restaurant has accepted responsibility. By the way, sei whale sushi cost the diners $85 according to the check which listed it simply as whale sushi. The vegan woman said eating the flesh of an endangered species was heartbreaking, but she knew she was doing it for the right reason. Read more about the California sushi restaurant that was caught serving whale meat to a vegan woman here. 

In February we put 18 hatching eggs into our incubator, the Hova-Bator from GFQ Mfg., with the automatic egg turner. They were due to hatch on the 25 and 26th of February, but we had a powerful wind storm which cut our electric power for three days. The power went out during the night in the latter stages of the hatch and we lost all of the chicks due to lack of heat. The incubator needs to stay at 100 degrees and the chicks after hatching need to be kept at 95 degrees for a week in order to survive. With the power going out in the middle of the night, by the time we woke to find the problem, it was too late. Three of the chicks hung on for a day but eventually succumbed. It was very sad.

We are trying again though, we are starting a new batch, this time filling the incubator with about 40 hatching eggs that we have collected over the last few days. We’ve stored them in the automatic turner at 55-65 degrees to keep the hatching rate as high as possible. I have streilized the incubator with a bleach solution and we are ready to go tomorrow. I’m turning on the incubator todays, sans eggs, to get it up to temperature and allow it to stabilize at 100 degrees before adding the eggs tomorrow.

How to Hatch Chicken Eggs

This time we have a few eggs from our Easter Egger chicken in the mix as well so it’ll be interesting to see how those turn out! The roosters in our small flock are both Red Star hybrids. The hens from which we’ve collected eggs are white leghorns, a welsummer, a gold-laced wyandotte, a red star, a plymouth rock, and some orpington crosses. We should get quite a variety.

We have ready buyers for all of the chicks already at $1 each. Since they are mixed breed barnyard layers, we set the price very low. Our goal was mainly to find a use for all the extra eggs we are getting. We tried selling farm fresh eggs at $2/ dozen and sold 4 dozen with one Craigslist ad. We tried an add for hatching eggs at $6 dozen and sold one dozen, and finally we offered day old chicks at $1 each with a single Craigslist ad and have been overwhelmed with the response. We could have sold hundreds if we had the incubator space. Basically, we’d like to make sure the eggs don’t go to waste and, if possible, get the chickens to pay for their own chicken feed and supplies.

We are also hoping to raise enough ourselves this year for meat to let us have a chicken dinner once or twice a week. We’re using mostly dual purpose sized chickens, so we’ll cull the extra roosters for the table along with any hens that don’t fit our goals for the flock. If I can pick up a few pure bred roosters to match some of the breeds we have (either the welsummer, gold-laced wyandotte, or an Americuana for our Easter Egger, then we’d like to start breeding true lines rather than mixed breeds. The hatching eggs and day old chicks go for much more and have a higher demand.

Hopefully, there will be no more power outages this time around.

Here, in New Hampshire, it isn’t spring yet. Not by a long-shot. There’s still snow on the ground and even though an few bare spots are showing through, the ground will be frozen for weeks yet. We don’t get out of the frost season until around May 20th here. Nevertheless, it isn’t too early to think about preparing the yard for the summer.

While we may be tempted to do some pruning during this dormant season when the branches are bare and we can see what we’re doing more easily, the timing should depend upon each plant. Pruning at the wrong time of the year can leave some landscape plants without flowers or fruit for a year. Others may have difficulty leafing out enough to produce energy to last them through next winter.

One of the earliest signs of spring is the emergence of the abundant bright yellow flowers on the forsythia bushes. The forsythia is one of those plants where careful timing is required for pruning. For complete information on how and when to prune your forsythia in order to maximize it’s spring display and keep it from taking over your yard, here is an article I wrote on pruning forsythia bushes.

SInce we are hatching out our own chicks this year, I’ve been looking into basic genetics as it relates to chickens. One of the most common breeds available from various breeders and farm supply stores is the red sex-lin or Red Star chicken. With this breed all of the chicks with red down will be hens and will be prolific layers. The ones with yellow down will be roosters. Since most people don’t want roosters or at least don’t want a 50-50 mix of roosters to hens, this helps people choose the ones they want. It is also used by commercial egg production facilities since they want only the hens for egg production and don’t want to waste resources on raising roosters.

The study of genetics has always interested me, and this is a great excuse to delve back into the subject in a limited way. I have resurrected an old college text book and have been learning a bit here and there. I would not call myself an expert by any means, but the basics of sex-linked coloration are all that difficult. So, for those who are interested in how this works, here is a link to a brief tutorial that I wrote about sex-linked chicken genetics. 

As the days start to reach temperatures above the freezing point consistently, but the nights still drop into the twenties, the sap begins to flow in the maple trees of New England (and other northern locations). For many, including me, that means that it’s time to tap the maple trees and collect sap for syrup making. I only put out a few taps and make maple syrup enough for my own family. Occassionally, I’ll make a few pieces of maple candy for relatives, but usually only if I let the syrup get too hot by accident.

Controlling the temperature in the final stages means the difference between a successful batch of maple syrup and a batch that will be subject to having sugar crystallize out fo the syrup in the bottle once it is stored. Since it’s maple sugaring season here, I though I’d write up the procedures I use for tapping maple trees, converting the sap to maple syrup, and then enjoying it with a sugar on snow recipe. Enjoy!

How to tap a maple tree

How to make maple syrup

Recipe for Sugar on Snow

One day, I’d like to make maple sugar and replace our family’s store bought sugar with maple sugar. I may have to supplement with sugar produced from beets as well. I’ll bet that using maple sugar in place of regular sugar for baking bread would add a very nice flavor to the finished product.

Tapping maple trees and making your own maple syrup is another way to become more self-sufficient. I’m trying to grow and make as much of our family’s food as possible in order to avoid processed foods and the risk of food-borne contamination, both chemical and biological that can occur when you don’t dcontrol the source of your food. Plus you can’t eat any more local than getting the food right from your own back yard.