Curious about something? These are actual questions I get through comments and site searches. Some can be pretty strange. If you have a question or an answer just send it through the comment section of the Questions and Answers for Simple Living page or any post page.

Critter Queries

Q. How old are chickens when they go broody?

Q. Can I keep chickens in the garden?

Q. How long should my runner duck sit on her eggs?

Q. How old are Indian Runner ducks when they lay eggs?

Home and Health

Q. Can i put straight apple cider vinegar (ACV) in my ear?

Q. Can I leave ACV in my hair?

Q. Do the voices in my head bother you?

Learn and help us and others learn about homesteading, farming, gardening, critters and living the simple life. Post your question or answer today.

These are actual questions I get through comments and site searches. Some can be pretty strange. If you have a question or an answer to a question just send it through the comment section of this page.

Critter Queries

Dogs & Cats

Q. How can I grow my own cat grass?

A. Easy Peasy. Grow your own wheat grass.

Chickens

Q. How old are chickens when they go broody?

A. If she can lay ‘em she can hatch ‘em. I’ve had 2 hens go broody. They were both about a year old. Many breeds of chicken have had the instinct to go broody bred out of them so they’ll produce more eggs. Just one of the negative impacts of chicken factory “farming”.

Q. Can I keep chickens in the garden?

A. Well, that depends. During growing season we keep them out cause chickens can cause harm in a garden pretty quick. They will scratch around delicate roots, eat tomatoes, scatter mulch and trample down plants.

But during the off seasons we let em have it. They will cultivate and fertilize the garden spot. When we dig for planting they love to follow behind and gobble up delicacies like grub worms and beetles that have been hiding underground. In the process they help break up the soil.

Q. Is it ok to feed chickens Nutritional Yeast?

A.

Ducks

Q. How long should my runner duck sit on her eggs?

A. Duck eggs take about 28 days to incubate.

Q. How old are Indian Runner ducks when they lay eggs?

A. When ever she decides to… but she should start laying eggs between 4 – 6months.

Q. Are all Indian Runner ducks the same color when they are babys?

A. Five of our eggs hatched. We had 1 white, 1 black and 3 grey(blue). I understand that some females have the gene to produce offspring of all colors. Our Bonnie apparently has that gene. The ducklings are 2 months old now and their color has not changed in any drastic ways.

Home and Health

Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV)

Q. Can i put straight apple cider vinegar (ACV) in my ear?

A. Yes, It’s great for getting soap residue out of your ear. Using ACV in the ear has shown to help an earache. Though it is just as effective to mix 1/2 ACV and 1/2 water.

Q. Can I leave ACV in my hair?

A. Why not? It’s a great conditioner. The Ph level of ACV is very close to your hairs’ Ph level.

Q. Will vinegar take perm smell out of hair?

A.

Sugar

Q. Can you use raw sugar or honey instead of white sugar when
making (canning) jellies and preserves?

A. I use raw sugar just as I would use white sugar.

Honey can be used to replace sugar when canning jams, jellies, preserves, chutney’s, fruit, etc. To use honey in place of sugar in canning, use 7/8 cup for every cup of sugar, and don’t change the other liquids.

In baking some folks use honey cup for cup, others prefer 1/2 cup – 2/3 cup of honey per cup of white sugar. Also in baking, reduce the amount of other liquids by 1/4 cup for every cup of honey used and lower the oven temp by 25 degrees to prevent over-browning.

Q. Is raw sugar low glycemic?

A. No.

Q. Is raw sugar as bad as white sugar?

A. I like how jugalbandi.info describes raw sugar as “minimally processed, granulated cane sugar that has not been tortured or molested in unmentionable ways unlike it’s white counterpart. Has a richer flavor and more nutrients.” They have a well written and very informative article on the subject of sugars. Check it out.

Slowly, Put the Chicken Down & Step Away from the Keyboard!

Q. Do the voices in my head bother you?

A. Umm, why don’t you sit down and have a nice cup of Chamomile Tea.

Q. Why does your nose RUN and your feet SMELL?

A. Uh, anybody? I guess maybe I’ve been cleaning out the hen house?

The long awaited day has come! Yesterday, the duck eggs started hatching. By bedtime we had 4 ducklings. There was one more when I went down to check them this morning. I’ll give the remaining 2 eggs until Sunday to see if they hatch.

Red looked up at me like, “Are these really mine? No wonder it took so long. Man, I’ve been sitting on these eggs for 28 days!” That’s a long time to sit in one spot with only periodic leg stretches and bathroom breaks.
The ducklings look very healthy. They are sticking close to Mama Red and the nest. I have given them fresh water and a home mix of starter feed. In the days to come I’ll be supplementing their diet with milk, yogurt, scrambled eggs, grubs, worms, insects and some other goodies.
Home Mix Starter Feed
Corn Meal
Bone Meal
Chopped Alfalfa
Kelp Powder
Wheat Germ
Wheat Bran

The eggs came from the mating pair of Indian Runners we got from Pat. She told me that they had the genes for producing offspring of all colors.

I apologize for the poor photos. If you click on them you’ll get a better view. I hope to post some better ones this weekend. They’re so cute!

Meet Bonnie and Clyde from Swanannoa. A mating pair of Indian Runner Ducks that are the latest additions to River Rest.

Ducks in general are excellent foragers. Known as insect, snail and slug exterminators. Runners lay more eggs per year than chickens. Duck eggs are also about 25% larger that chicken eggs. They are great for baking and taste pretty darn good too. Runners are also meat birds making them dual purpose.

Runners have a very unique appearance. They have been described as a wine bottle with a head and legs. They also have a more smooth running gait rather than waddle.

We  picked up Bonnie and Clyde last Saturday. We enjoyed meeting Pat and her son Darius(who actually named them). They have quite a menagerie including; ducks, chickens, goats, miniature donkeys, dogs, cats and a pair Capybara. Each one was a rescue animal. I could tell that they both have a good heart and are very good to their animals.

Along with the pair of ducks we came home with 9 fertile duck eggs. One of our hens, Red, went broody again. She just successfully raised a clutch of chicks. Since we no longer have a rooster we thought, hey let’s sit her on some duck eggs. I’ve read where a chicken hen will raise duckings so we decided to give her a chance. We gave her 7 eggs (kept 2 for breakfast). Duck eggs take about 28 days to incubate (chicken eggs take 20-21 days) so Red has about 21 days to go.

It’s going to be interesting to watch a chicken raise a flock of ducklings. Charley mused the other day about how Red might freak out the first time she takes them to the creek for a drink and the ducklings jump into the water!

You may ask, why we didn’t let Bonnie have the eggs. Well as far as I can tell she is not feeling broody. If she wants to take over raising them after they hatch then that’s between her and Red. Right now her job is to provide us with eggs for our table. It’s Clyde’s job to make them fertile so we can raise more Runners. They are very loving to each other and seem to like having the chickens around. They are very shy around us and it’s been hard to get good photos of them. I’m hoping that they will eventually warm up to us.

A few months ago I mentioned that Red, one of our hens, went broody. She sat in the nest box for several days without leaving. When we opened the lid to take a peek she would growl and hiss at us. These were the signs that she wanted to become a mama. We have been wanting to hatch some eggs. This was the opportunity we had been waiting for. I had just recently read a highly informative article called Working with Broody Hens:Let Mama Do It by Harvey Ussery. We decided to give it a try.

On April 9, 2009 we fixed her a brood box in the outer coop where we could isolate her from the other chickens. Placing 10 new eggs on the nest we moved her in. There she sat for 20 days. Getting up only 1 or 2 times to eat, drink and relieve herself. The eggs started hatching on Wednesday night the 29th. By the next day, 7 of the 10 eggs had successfully hatched. They were all black. The same color as the dominant rooster, LB.

Red and her chicks stayed in the brood box for a few days, but it wasn’t long before she had them out foraging for food. At first we supplied the bulk of their diet. Not wanting to give them commercial chick starter, we provided a variety of foods. Scrambled eggs and milk was a favorite. We ground sunflower seeds, oatmeal, oat groats, corn, wheat berries and lentils, with flax seeds and kelp added to the mix.

The chicks favorite food had to be grub worms. We were in the process of planting our garden. As we dug, we collected the grubs in a jar then fed them to the chicks.

As they grew older, they gradually started to venture farther away from Mama Red. At five weeks of age Red let her babies go and she rejoined the flock.

They are now 11 weeks old. They have their own chicken “click”. It looks like we might have 3 cockerals and 4 pullets. Two of the cockerals look like they came from our Barred Rock hen Barbie. One of them has started to crow. It’s too hard to tell which hen the rest of them came from.

During this time we had 3 roosters. LB was a black Jersey Giant, Rocky was a red rooster of unknown breed and Johnny was…well were just not sure if Johnny knew what he was.

At first, being the oldest, Rocky was the dominant roo. He was very good to the hens. He was gentle, protecting and always gave them first choice at whatever food he found.

As LB grew older and larger he soon took over the number one spot. We noticed that he was too rough with the hens. Some started to get bald spots on their backs and were afraid of him. We knew LB had to go. Johnny was not far behind.

So, Rocky was back and better than before. Just in time too because Bent Wattle, one of the Wyandottes, went broody. On June 6 we gave her 9 eggs to sit on. After 20 days she had hatched 8 babies. There were 7 of various shades of cream and 1 black. I named them the chipmonk chicks cause they had a stripe pattern down their backs like a chipmonk.

Soon after the chicks hatched Rocky got sick and died. It was a sad day. We were very fond of him and miss him. But he lives on in the new chicks. We hope one of them grows into a good leader like he was.

We have all learned from the new chicks. It was a first for all of us. The great thing about all this was that Mama Hen did it all. She sat on the eggs, helped them hatch, protected the chicks and taught them to forage for food. We just helped her a little along the way.