Brad

If you read my blog regularly, then you may know that I recently returned from a bird watching excursion to Jamaica. My articles about the experience talk about the flora and fauna and the wonderful time I had there. They also talk about the warm hospitality that I was shown wherever I went. This may seem like a stark contrast to the news that is coming out of Jamaica in the last fews days.

The government of Jamaica has declared a state of emergency in the nation’s capitol, Kingston as gangs of “thugs” have attacked several police stations in west Kingston, Spanish Town, and a couple of other surrounding areas with an arsenal of assault weapons. Some of Jamaica’s police officers have even been killed.

These gangs are attacking in a vain attempt to stop the extradition of a popular crime boss from Tivoli Gardens and Denham Town in west Kingston. Christopher “Dudus” Coke is the subject of an extradition request from the US government. It is alleged that he is heavily involved in gun running, drug trafficking and controls some violent gangs not only in Jamaica, but in the US as well. The fact that his supporters are all armed with assault rifles in Jamaica would seem to lend credence to the gun running accusation… I’m just saying.

He has said that he will not turn himself in and his well-armed supporters have declared that they will defend him with their lives. Already they have killed several police officers. These are criminals who don’t care about Jamaica as a nation or about anyone but themselves. They are not typical of the average Jamaican or anyone that I met while I was there just one month ago. They are a minority of the population confined to a few areas in and around the capitol, Kingston.

Jamaica is a great place to visit. The people are generally friendly and the area is usually as safe as any major US city. Right now, of course, people might want to avoid Kingston and environs, which, unfortunately, includes one of the island’s major airports, the Normal Manley International Airport. Visitors can still fly in to the Montego Bay airport, whose name escapes me at the moment…

Jamaica is a beautiful vacation destination, full of charm. The island is almost completely dependent upon tourism for the sustenance of its economy. The nation, as are many smaller countries, is in deep debt and needs the tourism revenue to stay afloat. In a few weeks, I expect all this will have blown over, Dudus will have been captured or killed and things will be back to normal.

Last night, May 11th, at around midnight, I heard a noise from the area on the deck where we have a bird feeder. I though it might be a raccoon trying to get into the feeder. I turned on the deck light, but couldn’t see anything so I got a flashlight and shone it through the window. No movement was visible, but the bird feeders that normally hang on the corner of the deck were gone. Stepping out on the deck with a flashlight, I heard very heavy pounding footsteps galloping off toward the woods. My wife saw a low black shape about the size of a black bear running off. Rather than go out and survey the situation in the dark, we waited until morning.
When we went out to check on things we found three bird feeders from around the yard missing altogether. Apparently, the bear had carried them off. We later found all three about 50 yards from the house about 20 feet off of one of our walking trails. The thistle feeder was crushed, and the mixed birdseed feeder was broken into pieces. We also found claw marks in the deck railing where the black bear had apparently tried to pull itself up to reach the feeders there. Another metal pole used to hold a bird feeder was bent by the bear as it pulled down the feeder there.
I had heard reports of several people throughout southeren New Hampshire losing bird feeders to black bears, but we hadn’t had any here before. To prevent bears from coming after your bird feeders, you can simply take them in at night. This will also prevent them from being raided by raccoons or other nocturnal prowlers.
The same goes for any chicken feeders that you may have outside if you have chickens. We had some covered steel trash cans with chicken feed stored outside near the house, but, fortunately, the bear did not find them. Today, I’ll be putting them into a shed to keep them safe and to avoid tempting any animals overnight.

Since we raise our own chickens and have lots of eggs, I’ve been looking for different ways to prepare them. I plan to try many different ways to make pickled eggs using a variety of spices and flavors. I bought several different kinds of vinegar to use as the base and will be combining them will various spices and other flavorful ingredients. I’ll post recipes here as I make them up.

I’ll try to use more and more home-grown ingredients as I get going. I’m a big fan of eating locally and controlling the source of one’s food supply. This recipe uses 4 ingredients (out of six total) that I have grown or produced on my little five acres. I’d like to try making sugar as well, but haven’t gotten to it yet. I could make it either from maple sap or from beets, either would have a different flavor than the cane sugar we are used to.

First, I wanted to start simple. This gives me a baseline to compare against. The first thing I’m trying is adding a garlic flavor.

This recipe makes 8 eggs in a 1 quart jar.

Ingredients:
8 eggs (from our own chickens!)
1.25 cups distilled white vinegar (5-6%)
1.25 cups water (from our well!)
1 whole medium yellow onion (from our garden!)
3 tablespoons minced garlic (from our garden!)
1/3 cup white granulated sugar

First hard boil the eggs. Place them in a saucepan of water deep enough to cover them easily. Bring to a full boil for about 10-15 minutes. While the ggs are boiling prepare a bowl of ice-water. Remove the ggs from the boiling water and place them in the ice water. Allow them to cool for a few minutes until no longer warm to the touch. If the ice melts add more to keep the water temperature ass cold as possible. This will help make it easier to peel the eggs cleanly.

Mix the water, vinegar, garlic and sugar in a small sauce pan. Stir to dissolve the sugar. Bring to a full boil while peeling the eggs. Remove the vinegar mixture from the heat.

Slice the onion as if you were making onion rings.

Alternate putting onion slices and eggs into the one quart jar (which should be clean and sterile). The jar should hold about 8 eggs without compacting them. Pour the hot vinegar liquid into the jar until it just covers the eggs. Put the cover on the jar and seal it tightly. Allow the jar to cool to room temperature. Once the jar has completely cooled, place it in the refrigerator. Allow the eggs to pickle for about 7 days.

The unopened jar of pickled eggs should keep for about a month in the refrigerator.

For those who are interested in small backyard chicken flocks, I wrote an article about getting your flock to pay for itself and even provide a little extra pocket money. This article is geared toward small flock od less than 20 chickens, although it does also have relevance for larger flocks as well. It provides tips for maximizing the income from your small chicken flock. It focuses on selling hatching eggs or day-old chicks rather than just farm fresh eggs. By hatching the eggs out before selling them, you can go from $2 per dozen to as much as $72 per dozen. It’s not a way to get rich, but it can cover the costs of your backyard flcok and even provide some extra spending money.

Now that we’re doing well with our chickens and planning to expand our flock to include enough chickens to provide us with meat as well as eggs, we are also adding more types of birds. I have four Bronze turkey poults in the brooder that I picked up the other day. We hope that they will turn out to be at least one boy and one girl, ideally, one tom and three hens. If so, we’ll hatch the eggs next year and sell most of the poults, but keep a few for the dinner table.

I also picked up 10 Guinea hen eggs for hatching. These will go into the incubator today, and similarly, we hope to hatch out mixed sexes so that we can not only have Guinea hen eggs to eat, but also some to hatch next spring. We’ll sell these, keeping only the best breeding stock. While Guinea hens naturally tend to roost outdoors in trees at night making them susceptible to predation in this neck of the woods, I’m told that if trained from youth to roost inside a closed coop they will retain the habit throuh adulthood. There are just too many things around here that will eat them if they roost outdoors. Bobcats, raccoons and owls can all get up into the trees to take them as they sleep. Another benefit to Guinea hens is that once they reach maturity, they derive about 90% of their food from foraging according to what I’ve been told. They walk around the yard and through the gardens searching for insects and seeds, but leave the plants alone. I couldn’t think of a better insecticide than a group of Guinea hens carefully picking insects out of the garden each day. They don’t generally scratch up the ground like chickens do so they are safe for vegetable gardens and flower beds. They are also said to be very fond of ticks. It is shaping up to be a very bad year for ticks in this part of New Hampshire, at least. Any natural aid in combatting them will be welcome.

Pheasants require annual licenses, inspections and much hassle. While we’d certainly pass any inspections with our set-up, it’s just too much trouble. So pheasants are out for the foreseeable future. Quail are very small and seem as though they might be too much effort for too little return. Perhaps, I’ll change my mind at some point. Geese are just too ornery. they are very efficient as a source of food, but I don’t want anything that aggressive. The roosters are bad enough for those that are accustomed to being around them. My goal is to select roosters with lower levels of aggression as we move forward to lessen the problem overall. They don’t pose a problem for me, but for most people the natural reaction tot he roosters behavior looks like a direct challenge from the rooster’s perspective and results in confrontation.

If I ever get around to expanding the tiny little pond that I put in last summer, then I’d like to add ducks. Duck meat is my favorite bird meat of those I’ve tried and it would be a nice change over chicken and turkey. If I can make it big enough and get the nearby stream to flow through it, I may consider adding an edible fish. The yield would be very low, but I like the idea of using the habitat to its maximum potential as long as it’s there.

Eventually, we’d like to produce all the meat we eat right here on our property.

Raising the different birds is a lot of fun. I’m a big fan of not only eating locally to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions associated with transporting food over long distances, but also of controlling one’s own food supply. There is simply no other way to guarantee the safety of what one eats. i saw recently that only 1% of the fish being imported to the united states is actually inspected and of that 50-60% fails the inspection and is deemed unsafe for human consumption. It is certain that of the fish that isn’t inspected similar percentages are in the same condition, but end up in the supermarket and on the dinner table of unsuspecting families. Fish isn’t the only food that’s at risk. Things like spinach, tomatoes, peppers, hamburger, chicken, eggs, and many other commercially produced foods have caused major outbreaks of serious illness and thousands of deaths in the United States on an ongoing basis. It usually doesn’t even make the national news unless people are dying in multiple states and someone is able to make the connection to the source.

Gardening, raising meat and egg birds, and preserving the food you raise over the winter are the best ways to insulate yourself and your family from that. We are a long way from growing all of our food on our property, but we try to get a little closer each year. It’s also a great way to lower the amount of processed foods, sodium and chemical additives in your daily diet as well.

That’s probably enough rambling for today…