Categories
Poultry

Duck Leg Injuries: Causes & Treatments

white duck swimming on water. swimming can prevent duck leg injuries
Adobe Stock/Amanda

Duck leg injuries are frequent occurrences in backyard flocks. From sprains and broken bones to arthritis, learn how to diagnose and treat these common duck leg injuries.

Why Are Duck Leg Injuries Common?

Duck leg injuries are common for several reasons. Some of them include improper nutrition, rough handling, tripping in or out of a water source, predators, and flock conflicts.

The good news is that many duck leg injuries can be prevented with good husbandry techniques, but before we get into prevention, let’s look at some of the most commonly occurring duck leg injuries.

Sprained Leg

Sprained legs are among the most treatable of duck leg injuries. Sprains range from mild, with ducks only showing a slight limp, to severe sprains. Individuals suffering from a severe sprain may exhibit symptoms common to a broken leg, such as dragging their hurt leg behind them.

Sprains are usually easy to treat and should not require veterinarian treatment (unless dealing with a severe sprain).

Sprain Symptoms
  • Limping
  • Refusing to engage in everyday activities
  • Dragging an injured leg behind them
Treatment

The best way to treat a sprain is to move the injured duck to a quiet, isolated spot away from the other ducks to prevent them from being trampled. Ducks are flock creatures, so give your duck a gentle friend if possible. (Note: If the injured duck is a female, avoid placing a male with her to prevent further injuries. If the female and male become depressed from being separated, allow several directly supervised visits daily.)

Always allow a duck with a sprained leg to swim in a kiddie pool (not a pond). Swimming will help the duck’s leg heal faster and relieve any discomfort it might be feeling.

If your duck exhibits severe symptoms, such as dragging its leg behind it or refusing to walk, take it to a vet for a proper diagnosis and further treatment.

Broken Leg

Of all duck leg injuries, broken bones are the most severe. Ducks with broken bones can’t walk and will also refuse to stand. If your duck suddenly goes lame and refuses to stand or walk, there is a good chance the duck has broken a leg. Broken bones often lead to bone infections and require the care of a qualified veterinarian.

Broken Bone Symptoms
  • Lameness
  • Refusing to walk
  • Swelling
Treatment

When treating a duck with a broken leg, separate them from the rest of the flock. Provide a small water dish and food bowl they can easily reach without standing. Handle your duck carefully. Do not attempt to move their leg.

If you suspect your duck has a broken leg, the best thing you can do is take it to a qualified veterinarian. A vet will perform radiographs to confirm whether the bone is broken. If the break is severe, the vet may suggest humane euthanasia or surgery. However, if the break is minor, most vets will prescribe medication and send the duck home with instructions on how to care for it. Ducks with broken legs should be kept in small enclosures to keep them from walking around or moving.

Broken leg bones are very painful, so act quickly to avoid needless suffering. If the duck is not a family pet, humanely dispatching them is the best way to prevent suffering.

Arthritis

A prior leg injury usually causes arthritis. One of the most overlooked things about arthritis is that it doesn’t just affect older ducks. Young and middle-aged ducks also can suffer from this condition.

While arthritis can usually be treated from the start, it will affect your duck’s ability to move quickly. Therefore, ducks suffering from arthritis (and other leg injuries) should never be allowed to free-range, as they are prime targets for a predator attack.

Arthritis Symptoms
  • Swelling
  • Stiffness
  • Limping
  • Lameness
Treatment

Although there are several ways to treat arthritis naturally, leg massages and hydrotherapy are the best ways to help your arthritic duck stay comfortable. Before beginning treatment, have a veterinarian examine the duck to ensure you have diagnosed the condition correctly.

Massage: Gently massage your duck’s feet and legs using your thumb and index finger. Start on the toes and work through the webbing and up the duck’s legs. Most ducks respond well to massages and seem to enjoy them, especially if they have enjoyed being handled in the past.

Hydrotherapy: During the warmer months, fill a kiddie pool and allow ducks to get their weight off their legs and enjoy a leisurely swim. In winter, limit swims to short swims several times a week.

Whenever possible, while treating arthritis, avoid using veterinarian-prescribed anti-inflammatories, as these medications are harmful to a duck’s organs—feeding natural anti-inflammatories such as chickweed, dandelions, fennel, oregano, turmeric, violets, and yarrow will reduce inflammation without negatively impacting the organs.

Duck Leg Injuries: Prevention

Duck leg injuries can not always be prevented, but following these common practices should reduce the number of injuries in your flock.

Cleanup: Remove tripping hazards like rocks or sticks to avoid ducks falling and hurting themselves.

Good Breeding Ratios: Overmating is a common cause of duck leg injuries. One of the best ways to prevent them is to keep hens with drakes of the same weight class. House one medium-weight or heavyweight drake for three to five females and one lightweight drake for every six females.

Peaceful Flock: Even though they are not as notorious for flock squabbles as chickens are, ducks don’t always get along. Bullies should be removed from the flock by setting up a small enclosure in the coop to avoid injuries in the flock.

Swimming: Allowing your ducks access to a clean kiddie pool will keep them looking their best and help their legs stay healthy and strong.

Proper Nutrition: One of the biggest contributors to duck leg injuries is the lack of niacin. Supplementing your flock’s diet with Brewer’s yeast should help prevent leg injuries from occurring.

Duck leg injuries can often be prevented, but when life happens, knowing how to diagnose and treat these injuries can help your duck recover and go on to live a happy, enriched life.

This article about duck leg injuries was written for Chickens magazine. Click here to subscribe.

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Farm & Garden

How to Make Taper Candles from Beeswax

beeswax taper candles hanging to dry
A rack of hand dipped beeswax candles hanging to dry on a wooden frame. Adobe Stock/AVD

How to make taper candles, especially around the holidays when we use them on our dinner tables, is a common question. Did you know that you can make your own from pure beeswax? It’s actually very simple. Yellow beeswax naturally offers a subtle scent of honey when burned, so it doesn’t need any essential oil scents added.

How to Make Taper Candles from Beeswax

Supplies Needed

· Beeswax pellets
· Thermometer to test the wax temperature
· Cotton braided candle wick thread
· Tall, wide-mouthed heat-tolerant containers, such as a canning jar or a candle wax melting metal container with a handle
· Additional jar or container to fill with cold water for dipping candles in after dipping in wax
· A large pot for heating the water and wax (one reserved for candle making would be ideal)
· 2 weights, such as a metal bolt, to keep your wick/candle straight while dipping
· Water, as needed
· You’ll want to use a heat-tolerant container that is tall enough to melt enough wax for the height of the taper candle you desire to make. Example: A quart mason jar will make a small 6” or so taper candle.
· Hanger to dry the candles on or another rack for cooling the candles.

Directions

1. Line your workspace with newspaper or paper towels to catch any spillover.

2. Use a medium or large-sized saucepan to fill about half full of water. In the saucepan, add your heat-safe glass jar or other heat-safe container for melting wax. Fill the container with wax and warm the pot to a simmer to melt the wax. Once the wax has melted somewhat and made room for more wax, add more wax until you have melted enough for the height of the candle you’d like to make. Be sure to check the instructions for the wax to learn what temperature the wax should be heated to before pouring – this tends to vary by brand.

3. Once the wax has melted, remove it from the pot and place it on the protected workspace.

4. Cut a 24” piece of wick thread and tie weights to each end of the string. This will allow you to dip your candles at the same time while keeping them straight. Dip with smooth even and movements.

5. Once you’ve dipped into the wax, dip it into the alternate container of cold water.

6. Repeat dipping into the wax and then the cold water until you’ve reached the ideal height and width of your candle.

7. Once you’re finished dipping and once the wax has cooled a bit but is still warm, snip the weights off the end of the candles and mold the base into a flat bottom.

8. Hang your candles on a hanger/rack to dry completely.

9. Before burning your candle, trim the wick down to 1/4”.

How to Make Taper Candles for Birthdays

Consider making homemade birthday candles for an extra special touch for your next celebration. Use a smaller heat-tolerant container, such as a glass Pyrex measuring cup. Simply follow the steps above, however you’ll cut the thread 12” and dip the thread as tall as you’d like the candles to be. Dip until you’ve reached the desired birthday candle size. The candles can even be reused year after year until they become too short to safely burn.

Safety First!

Never burn taper candles unattended or on unstable surfaces. Keep out of reach of children and pets. Be extremely cautious when handling hot wax. There is a taper candle adhesive that can be applied to the base of the candles as an extra level of caution when placing them into the candle holders that will help hold them in place.

This story about how to make taper candles was written for Hobby Farms magazine. Click here to subscribe.

Categories
Farm & Garden

Apple Tree Branches: How to Protect Them From Breaking

apple trees branches weighted down with ripening green apples
Daniel Johnson

Are your apple tree branches loaded with fruit? Congratulations, you’re well on your way to enjoying an abundant harvest! Just make sure your trees aren’t so heavily loaded with apples that there’s a danger of branches breaking under the weight.

It happens so many times…A mature apple tree blossoms beautifully in the spring and starts growing hundreds upon hundreds of apples. Efforts to thin the fruit prove insufficient and, come the end of summer, the branches are sagging under tremendous loads of heavy apples.

At that point, all you need is a windy day or a lot of rain to push a branch past its breaking point and—crack! The branch splits and crashes to the ground.

In many cases, the branch doesn’t break off entirely. It just peels away from the tree, leaving some wood and bark unbroken. It can be possible to repair these breaks by propping the branch back up with a stake and sealing the wound. But wouldn’t it be better to avoid broken branches entirely? Absolutely.

The Best Solution for Healthy Apple Tree Branches

The best solution is to thin the fruit early on, shortly after the blossoms have fallen and the apples are just starting to grow. On any given branch, you should aim to leave one apple every 6 inches or so. Thinning in this manner reduces the weight on branches, allows the remaining apples to grow larger, and encourages trees to fruit every year instead of fruiting heavily one year and hardly at all the next.

But if time slips by and you fail to thin the apples sufficiently, you can still take steps to protect against breaking branches. Best of all, it’s fast and free if you have any meaningful woodlands on your farm.

Support Solutions for Apple Tree Branches

My approach is to explore the edges of the woods with my pruning loppers, looking for young trees or low-hanging branches that I can use as homemade wooden support stakes to prop up apple tree branches. Ash trees are my favorite because they’re strong but not too difficult to cut.

They also grow in abundance on my farm and are constantly trying to encroach on fields, so the young trees need to be cut back anyway.

I like to look for young trunks or branches approximately 1 to 1 1/2 inches thick at the bottom of where I’ll cut. I cut them off in sections so that, when they stand upright under an apple tree, they stand a bit higher than the sagging branches I wish to support. Then I remove all the branches from each support stakes except one near the top. This branch I cut so it leaves behind a 2- or 3-inch stub.

I’ll similarly leave a 2- to 3-inch stub at the top of the wooden stake so that the two stubs form a Y-shaped crotch in which apple tree branches can comfortably rest.

Easy Installation

Once the homemade wooden stakes are ready, installation is easy. I go underneath the apple tree, push the Y-shaped crotch up underneath a sagging branch, and push the branch upward until my support stake is standing more or less upright with its bottom lodged in the ground. Sometimes I have to fine-tune the height of each wooden stake to make it fit, but that’s no problem. I just cut it shorter with my pruning loppers.

And if you don’t have woodlands from which to source the raw materials, you can craft similar support stakes using anything tall and sturdy—lumber, metal T-posts, etc.

It’s fast, it’s simple, and it works well, giving the apple tree branches a boost until harvest time. I’m sure I’ve saved many branches from breaking with this technique. So the next time one of your apple trees is sagging under the weight of its fruit, grab your tools and provide a little extra support.

This story about how to support apple tree branches was written for Hobby Farms magazine. Click here to subscribe.

Categories
Poultry

Keeping Honey Bees & Chickens: Why You Should

chickens bees
Eugene Kogan/Flickr

Keeping honey bees and chickens together is something that many chicken keepers wonder about since both endeavors support a farm and household. The good news is that honey bees and chickens can and do harmoniously coexist. Keep them in the homestead, the backyard or garden and they’ll do just fine with a few precautions and some preparation.

Here are a few reasons why keeping honey bees and chickens is worth it and what you can do to get started.

Get Closer To Your Food

Keeping honey bees and chickens gives you a better picture of your food system. Many millennials and retiring back-to-the-landers (the two largest demographics taking on the keeping of bees and chickens) are either trying to get closer to their food or they’re trying to teach the next generation about the food system. Or both. Keeping chickens gives you instant, daily gratification, with virtually immediate compost ready for a garden.

Good Things Take Time

Honey bees are slightly longer term when you consider harvesting the products of the hive, but that’s another valuable lesson: Good things take time, lots of work and depend on the season. Any beekeepers worth their salt will tell you that harvesting honey at the end of the season is never a given. Some years are better “honey years” than others; some years are too dry, others too wet, and sometimes hives die. Chickens don’t require us to look at the longer-term effects of weather, but honey bees do. And that’s a valuable skill to hone.

Water Is Needed

A few points of concern are worth considering when keeping honey bees and chickens together. One is the water source for both species. Honeybees need access to a clean water source, and if one isn’t naturally occurring nearby (a shallow, slow stream; a pond; a clean bird bath; or water you provide for them), they’ll seek the chickens’ water in no time. It won’t take you more than a few days of keeping chickens to know they’re not very clean animals, particularly when it comes to water. If there’s no naturally occurring clean water source near your apiary, consider creating one. I love to put clean pebbles in a shallow planter filled with water. The pebbles give the bees places to land, and it’s easy enough to refill and move around.

Add a Garden for Food For All

Keeping these two productive homesteading creatures together is a wonderful step toward sustainability—and it’s a well-rounded approach, too. Add a garden for additional food sources for bees and chickens (and yourself), and you’ll be kept squawking like a hen and busy as a bee all season long.

This article about keeping honey bees and chickens was written for Hobby Farms magazine. Click here to subscribe.

Categories
Poultry

Heritage Chickens: The Top 11 Close to Extinction

brown booted bantam heritage chicken
Brown Dutch Booted Bantam chicken standing on a tree trunk. Adobe Stock/KathrinSchmadicke/Wirestock Creators

Heritage chickens are one of the surest bets chicken keepers have to keep a healthy and successful flock if they will take the time to research and find chickens bred to succeed in their area. Heritage chickens often have disease-resistant characteristics and are weather-hardy in certain climates.

According to the Livestock Conservancy,  “The American Poultry Association began defining breeds in 1873 and publishing the definitions in the Standard of Perfection. They were hearty, long-lived, and reproductively vital birds that provided an important source of protein to the growing population of the country until the mid-20th century.”

There are over three dozen breeds of heritage chickens nearing extinction. Preserving them is a way to connect our country’s heritage to modern day, but also preserving some of the best-developed genetic factors based on survival. Traditional historic breeds retain essential attributes for survival and self-sufficiency – fertility, foraging ability, longevity, maternal instincts, ability to mate naturally, and resistance to diseases and parasites.

The Livestock Conservancy  is a nonprofit membership organization with the mission to, “protect endangered livestock and poultry breeds from extinction.” To be named a “Heritage Chicken” by the Livestock Conservancy, the chickens must meet the following criteria:

  1. APA Standard Breed
    Heritage Chicken must be from parent and grandparent stock of breeds recognized by the American Poultry Association (APA) prior to the mid-20th century; whose genetic line can be traced back multiple generations; and with traits that meet the APA Standard of Perfection guidelines for the breed. Heritage Chicken must be produced and sired by an APA Standard breed. Heritage eggs must be laid by an APA Standard breed.
  2. Naturally mating
    Heritage Chicken must be reproduced and genetically maintained through natural mating. Chickens marketed as Heritage must be the result of naturally mating pairs of both grandparent and parent stock.
  3. Long, productive outdoor lifespan
    Heritage Chicken must have the genetic ability to live a long, vigorous life and thrive in the rigors of pasture-based, outdoor production systems. Breeding hens should be productive for 5-7 years and roosters for 3-5 years.
  4. Slow growth rate
    Heritage Chicken must have a moderate to slow rate of growth, reaching the appropriate market weight for the breed in no less than 16 weeks. This gives the chicken time to develop a strong skeletal structure and healthy organs before building muscle mass.

Here are the top eleven nearing extinction and considered critical:

1. Aseel

Origin: India/Pakistan
Purpose: Meat
Eggs/Year: 40-60
Temperament: Aggressive
Climate: Best in warm climates; can tolerate some cold but needs to be kept dry.
Notes: Breed makes excellent crosses for the production of broilers; very hardy and predator savvy; exceedingly protective mothers

aseel heritage chicken
Asil or Aseel is an Indian breed or group of breeds of game chicken. It is distributed in much of India, particularly in the states of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Odisha. Adobe Stock/Ali Hanif Sumbul
2. Booted Bantam

Origin: Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Burma
Purpose: Ornamental/Exhibition
Eggs/Year: 100-120
Temperament: Active but calm
Climate: Not cold-tolerant
Notes: Pet and exhibition fowl, insect control in the garden

3. Catalana

Origin: Mediterranean
Purpose: Eggs, Meat
Eggs/Year: 150+
Temperament: Active
Climate: Best in hot/moderate
Notes: Meat is succulent; cockerels often used for capon in Spain; can be flighty

4. Cubalaya

Origin: Cuba
Purpose: Eggs, Meat
Eggs/Year: 125-175
Temperament: Active, but calm
Climate: Best in hot to moderate climates, highly tolerant of humidity
Notes: Known for fine meat qualities; can be aggressive to other birds, but mild-mannered compared to other game birds; can be noisy

cubalaya rooster heritage chicken
Pure Bred Black Breasted Red Cubalaya Rooster cockerel. Adobe Stock/The Nature Guy
5. Holland

Origin: United States
Purpose: Eggs, Meat
Eggs/Year: 200-240
Temperament: Docile
Climate: Does well in both hot and cold climates
Notes: Top-notch foragers; good homestead fowl; comb can be prone to frostbite

6. Java

Origin: United States
Purpose: Eggs, Meat
Eggs/Year: 150+
Temperament: Docile, but Active
Climate: Does well in both hot and cold climates
Notes: Premier homestead fowl; excellent forager; slower growth equating to excellent meat flavor; combs may be prone to frostbite

7. La Fléche

Origin: France
Purpose: Eggs/Meat
Eggs/Year: 200+
Temperament: Docile but active
Climate: Can handle hot and cold but not extremes of either
Notes: Highly regarded for the flavor of the meat; large breasts for their size

8. Malay

Origin: India
Purpose: Meat
Eggs/Year: Poor
Temperament: Active
Climate: Best in Hot to Moderate
Notes: Tallest of all chickens; meat is very lean with little fat; adults are hardy but chicks can be delicate; can be quarrelsome in confinement – will feather pick each other in close quarters; cannot cover many eggs due to tight feathering, males can be aggressive to chicks

9. Redcap

Origin: England
Purpose: Eggs
Eggs/Year: 180-220
Temperament: Active
Climate: Best in Hot to Moderate
Notes: Huge rose comb; adult color not fully developed until the second or third year

10. Shamo

Origin: Japan
Purpose: Meat, Ornamental
Eggs/Year: 60-100
Temperament: Can be aggressive to other birds, but friendly to people
Climate: Best in Hot to Moderate
Notes: Meat is known to be firm and almost tough; meat often used in Sumo wrestlers’ diet

11. White-Faced Black Spanish

Origin: Spain
Purpose: Eggs
Eggs/Year: 160-180
Temperament: Flighty, active
Climate: Best in Cold climates
Notes: Known as the clown-faced chicken due to the big white face patches of the roosters; noisy; chicks can be flighty, but adults tend to be more calm and curious

Are You Interested in Raising Heritage Chickens?

Heritage livestock farming comes with many enthusiasts. If you choose to take on a breed there are several organizations and individuals passionate to help you in your journey. Start at the Livestock Conservancy and glean from their plethora of resources. Raising Heritage breeds, particularly those considered critical is vital and fulfilling.

This article about endangered heritage chickens was written for Chickens magazine. Click here to subscribe.

Categories
Poultry

Speckled Sussex: Heritage Breed Poultry Profile

Speckled Sussex heritage chicken breed
images by Erin Snyder

Speckled Sussex chickens are gaining popularity in small backyard flocks across America. These speckled beauties are perfect for people desiring a cold-or heat-hardy chicken that excels at egg laying. With these traits, it’s easy to see why the speckled Sussex is gaining popularity.

But what else is making the speckled Sussex breed a popular choice for backyard flocks?

History

Bred in the mid-1800s in Sussex, England, the breed was initially developed as a meat bird. Before Cornish Rocks gained popularity, Sussex was the primary meat bird of England.

Even though the Sussex’s original purpose was to be a meat bird, they are not prone to the health issues often occurring with Cornish Rocks.

Color

The Sussex comes in a variety of colors: speckled, red, light, Columbian buff and white. The striking speckled—a mahogany color with each feather ending in a black bar and white speckle—is the most popular color in the U.S. With each passing molt, the speckles become more numerous.

Speckled Sussex heritage chicken breed

Meat & Egg Production

Sussex chickens make an excellent choice for the table. They are known to have incredibly tender meat, especially when butchered at a young age. Each chicken should average a dressed weight of 6 to 7 pounds. However, speckled Sussex are slower to mature than Cornish Rock crosses (averaging 20 weeks to reach butchering age).

This trait puts them at a disadvantage to faster-growing breeds, who reach butchering age in 9 weeks.

Speckled Sussex are excellent egg producers who will lay eggs without declining for several years. Each hen averages four to five light brown eggs per week for the first four to five years of her life.

Personality

If you are looking for a pet chicken, you don’t have to look any further than the speckled Sussex. These hens crave human interaction and will do anything to get attention. Sussex are chatty, curious, friendly, intelligent and energetic.

They love being the center of attention. They also love to be held and will carry on animated conversations with their owners.

Hens of this breed are very energetic and benefit from directly supervised free-ranging. Even so, they still tolerate confinement well if allowed to stretch their legs. If bored, they often will find ways to entertain themselves. Sussex can bully other flock members when bored, so provide lots of mental stimulation.

Providing Entertainment

The Border Collies of the chicken world, Sussex are intelligent and energetic hens who require physical and mental stimulation. Providing your hens with fun activities will keep these chickens healthy and happy.

If you have a bored Sussex, try one of the ideas below.

Fresh Straw

Putting clean straw in your coop or run will provide chickens with endless entertainment. Even when your other breeds have tired of the game, your Sussex will continue to scratch happily through the straw.

Because if there is anything a Sussex likes to do, it’s scratch.

Chicken Swings & Perches

Speckled Sussex chickens like to know what is happening in the world around them. Having perches and swings for them to sit on and watch the world go by is another way to enrich their lives.

Teach Your Chickens Tricks

Speckled Sussex are intelligent chickens and can learn commands and tricks. You can teach your hen or rooster to come when called, follow you around, and hop up on your lap. Some Sussex will even stroll around their yard with their favorite human.

Speckled Sussex heritage chicken breed

Health Concerns & Lifespan

Speckled Sussex are very healthy and hardy chickens so long as they maintain a healthy weight. They are, however, prone to overeating and obesity.

To help prevent obesity in your chickens, feed them a proper diet and allow plenty of exercise.  Feed Sussex twice daily versus unlimited free choice feedings.  This practice will keep your girls from doing unnecessary “snacking” (yes, chickens do snack). Provide feed to chicks, growing pullets and cockerels at all times.

When allowed to become obese, Sussex hens are more prone to oviduct prolapse and egg binding.

Speckled Sussex lives an average of six to eight years, providing you with lots of fresh eggs, love and entertainment. So, what are you waiting for? Give these friendly, energetic chickens a try. You’ll be so glad you did.

This article about the Speckled Sussex heritage chicken breed was written for Chickens magazine. Click here to subscribe.

Categories
Recipes

How to Roast Sunflower Seeds With the Shell On

roasted sunflower seeds recipe roasting
Ievgen Skrypko/Adobe Stock

How to roast sunflower seeds with the shell on is similar to roasting pumpkin seeds and pretty simple.  

This recipe begins after you’ve harvested your sunflower head, removed the flower heads on each seed (the disc florets), removed the seeds from the sunflower and rinsed your seeds. 

Yield: 1 cup 

Ingredients

  • 1 cup raw, fully matured sunflower seeds with the shell on 
  • Water, as needed (about 3 to 4 cups) 
  • 2 tbsp kosher salt (or more if desired) 

Instructions 

In a medium-sized saucepan, add rinsed and prepared sunflower seeds. Fill with water to cover the seeds 2 inches. Any seeds that float to the top are likely empty seeds that did not mature and can be scooped out and discarded.  

Stir salt into water. Once the salt is dissolved, sample it and see if it’s salty enough for your liking. Add more salt if needed. 

Bring the seeds to a simmer and simmer for 15 minutes. 

Strain seeds and allow them to sit in the strainer for 10 minutes to allow them to dry. You can also spread them out on a lint-free towel briefly to absorb excess moisture. 

Meanwhile, pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees F. 

Spread out the sunflower seeds into a single layer on a parchment paper-lined cookie sheet. 

Bake for 15 minutes, remove from oven and stir them around with a spatula. Return them to the oven and bake for another 15 minutes. If not done, return to the oven in 5-minute increments until they are lightly browned and dried.

They tend to quickly go from undercooked to overcooked, so set a timer. 

How to Roast Sunflower Seeds: Notes  

If you don’t want to salt the seeds, do not add salt to the water before simmering. 

Do not cook any seeds that are moldy. 

After you simmer and strain the seeds, feel free to add any seasonings you’d like before roasting. Garlic powder and Cajun seasoning are two of our favorites to add to roasted seeds. 

This story about how to roast sunflower seeds was written for Hobby Farms magazine. Click here to subscribe.

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Uncategorized

Growing Good Podcast #86: Cambodian agroecology educator Panha Suon

Cambodian agroecology educator Panha Suon talks with Hobby Farms Presents: Growing Good podcast host Lisa Munniksma about farming in Cambodia, from climate to crops and the challenges that farmers are facing there. Listen to how Panha became involved in agroecology and why he’s dedicated to educating others about the impact human activities have on the environment, particularly in a less-industrialized country like Cambodia.

Hear about Dassatek—meaning to awaken in Khmer—the project that Panha is developing to train Cambodian youth in agroecology. He talks about what motivates young people in his country and how he sees Dassatek appealing to them, including through an apprenticeship and a small seed fund to start their own agroecology project. Panha also talks about the social business enterprise model, as opposed to structuring Dassotek as a nonprofit or for-profit entity.

Learn about Panha’s 3-year homestead-building plan using natural building methods and how this suits Cambodia’s climate. He offers his advice for building your own earthen structure, focusing on using what you have on hand.

Listen to the very end to hear about Panha’s favorite traditional Cambodian farm meal!

Links from this episode:

Dassatek on Facebook

Dassatek on LinkedIn

Categories
Poultry

Heritage Breed Chickens: How to Choose

heritage breed chickens breeds silkie
Shutterstock

Heritage breed chickens are traditional breeds developed through many years of selection and passed down through generations. The exact definition varies with who’s talking. The Society for the Preservation of Poultry Antiquities defines a heritage breed as being old and rare and defines “old” as existing before 1940.

A more specific definition for heritage breed chickens comes from The Livestock Conservancy, which offers and suggests that such terms as heirloom, antique, old-fashioned and old-timey should be considered synonymous with heritage.

According to this definition, heritage breed chickens must:

  • have been recognized by the American Poultry Association before 1950;
  • reproduce through natural mating;
  • have the genetic ability to live a long and vigorous life;
  • thrive outdoors under pasture-based management;
  • and have a moderate to slow growth rate

Compared to chickens developed for industrial purposes, heritage breed chickens generally have calmer dispositions, are more disease-resistant, are better able to adapt to variable climates and environments, and are more likely to brood (hatch their own eggs). The trade-off is that the heritage laying breeds don’t lay quite as well, and the meat breeds don’t grow as fast, as industrial-strength chickens.

In selecting heritage breed chickens for your own flock, consider first your purpose in keeping chickens. If your goal is to harvest lots of eggs, choose a breed known to lay well. If your goal is to produce healthful meat, select a heavy breed. For the best of both, choose a dual-purpose breed. If your desire is to have pretty chickens gracing your yard, take a look at some of the ornamental or exhibition breeds. Here are just a few of the many possibilities.

Great Egg Layers

The top layer by far is the Leghorn, the breed selected by the egg industry to develop into laying machines. Production White Leghorn hens lay more than 25 dozen medium to large white-shell eggs per year. Heritage Leghorns, on the other hand, average just 20 dozen eggs per year, but the hens come in several plumage colors that are less conspicuous to predators than pure white. This small-bodied breed has a reputation for being noisy and nervous, but is also early maturing, hardy and heat-tolerant.

The most popular brown-egg heritage breed is the Rhode Island Red (pictured below), averaging about 16 dozen large eggs per year. As with Leghorns, some strains of Rhode Island Red have been developed purely for production purposes. This breed comes in one color pattern—dark red with a black tail. Rhode Island Reds, like layer breeds in general, tend to be lightweight and rangy, and therefore less suitable than heavier breeds to raise for meat.

rhode island red heritage breed chickens breeds
Shutterstock

Best for Meat

The large breasted Cornish chicken, with its compact body, is an ideal meat bird. The white Cornish is in fact, one of the breeds selected by industry to hybridize for efficient meat production. Heritage Cornish don’t grow as fast as industrial strains—taking 16 to 20 weeks to reach market weight, compared to 6 to 8 weeks for industrial Cornish hybrids—but they don’t develop the same bone ailments and heart failure resulting from excessively rapid growth. Additionally, heritage strains come in plumage colors other than white.

Cornish chickens are unusual in that hens are identical in conformation to males, although somewhat smaller; market weights for heritage hens are 61⁄2 pounds compared to 81⁄2 for roosters. Cornish hens average only about six dozen eggs a year, making them uneconomical as layers. Other large heritage breeds suitable for meat production, that lay somewhat better than Cor–nish, include Cochins and Jersey Giants.

Dual-Purpose Breeds

Dual-purpose breeds appeal to people interested in sustainability—keeping hens for eggs and roosters for fertility, hatching future replacement hens, and butchering young surplus roosters for meat. Dual-purpose breeds lack the blocky body of meat breeds, and they don’t lay quite as well as the layer breeds. Expect only about 15 dozen eggs per year from a dual-purpose hen.

The New Hampshire is a dual-purpose breed created through selective breeding of Rhode Island Reds to improve growth rate and meatiness. Like Rhode Island Reds, New Hamps come in a single color—a light reddish bay, more golden than the Rhode Island’s rich mahogany. The hens lay large eggs with brown shells.

The Plymouth Rock (pictured below) is another large, meaty dual-purpose breed. It comes in a few color varieties, the original and still most popular of which is black and white barred. The hens lay large brown-shell eggs. Other dual-purpose breeds to consider include Orpington and Sussex.

barred plymouth rock heritage breed chickens breeds
Gail Damerow

Awesome Ornamentals

Not all heritage breeds are ideal for egg or meat production. Some are bantams, or scaled-down chickens, that make a good choice for people with limited chicken-keeping space. Bantams lay eggs, just like the bigger chickens, and although the eggs are small they may be used for all the same purposes. Raising bantams (other than bantam Cornish) for meat would be akin to raising pigeons—small, but tasty.

Silkies, with their furlike feathers, are by far the most popular heritage bantam breed. They come in a several color varieties, most commonly black or white. They are friendly, docile chickens that don’t fly well. (Some won’t even perch.) The hens are decent layers of ivory-colored eggs and are such excellent setters they are often kept solely for incubating the eggs of other poultry.

One of the most important reasons to keep a heritage breed is to help preserve genetic diversity. The Livestock Conservancy lists heritage breeds according to conservation priorities. Review the many options and select one that most appeals to you. When it comes to heritage chickens, you can’t go far wrong.

This story about heritage breed chickens originally appeared in Hobby Farms magazine. Click here to subscribe.

Categories
Crops & Gardening

Fall Gardening: Try Some New Veggie Varieties

cabbage grown for fall gardening
Cabbage (Brassica oleracea) in vegetable garden. Adobe Stock/Nailotl

Fall gardening is a great time to try something new. Combining hybrids and heirlooms can yield more productive, flavorful fall produce. With cooler temperatures and shorter growing seasons, fall gardens may be a little more limited than their summertime counterparts, but they actually have a lot to offer. The soil’s already warm enough for rapid seed-starting, and there are fewer insect pests with which to contend.

In fact, when it comes to herbs like cilantro, fall can provide the perfect do-over. If yours bolted early this summer, you can always reseed in the fall. What’s more, many of the roots and leafy greens you can grow right about now are real superfoods.

And, with new varieties being released every year, the fall garden doesn’t have to be boring.

Fall Gardening Essentials

Diane Blazek is the executive director of both All-America Selections and the National Garden Bureau. While each group highlights new garden varieties each year, All-America Selections, in particular, is a plant-trialing organization.

Blazek explains, “For edibles, we have 35 different judges all across the U.S. and Canada and we divide it out by region. The judges are sent the entry, which is anonymous, and they’re sent two comparisons.”

Judges grow the different varieties, taking note of criteria such as growing habit, productivity, yield, taste and texture. If the tested variety performs better than its comparison varieties, it merits All-America Selections recognition.

Among 2020’s All-America Selection Award winners, Blazek recommends Snak Hero Peas for fall gardeners. “It’s 65 days to maturity and it looks a little bit more like a green bean, because it’s long and slender,” she says. “But it really is a stringless, snap pea. I grew it this spring, and I was just amazed at how sweet and tender it was.”

As for the National Garden Bureau? “Our membership covers pretty much every single breeder that’s doing work in North America,” Blazek says. “They submit varieties to us that they want to feature—it’s the newest of the new.”

If you’re looking for a striking new lettuce, you might like Lettuce Marciano. Vitalis Organic Seeds developed this butterhead variety for 2020, and it’s available via Johnny’s Selected Seeds. Along with improved resistance to downy mildew, lettuce mosaic virus and lettuce leaf aphids, Marciano features a bright burgundy exterior and splashes of green on its interior leaves.

These 5 tips will help you as you establish your fall garden.

More Good ‘Greens’

Renee Shepherd, founder of Renee’s Garden, offered two new and notable kale varieties in 2020—Mars Landing and Purple Moon. “They’re both gorgeous,” she says. “They’re unique for their color and very, very good flavor and really pretty form.”

“The Mars Landing has a lot of mauve in it and it has these interesting ruffled tips,” she says. “And, if you look at Purple Moon, those purple colors come up really strong—especially in cool weather.”

“If you plant them in fall, they just get sweeter and sweeter,” Shepherd adds. These kale types also hold their own well in cold temperatures, and they pack an extra nutritional punch. “They have a lot of purple in them, and purple is one of the colors that is most healthy. Color means more antioxidants and flavonoids.”

Shepherd also suggests trying Five Color Rainbow Gourmet Beets rather than your usual Detroit dark reds. Similarly, there are myriad Swiss chard varieties worth your time, too. Swiss chard’s large leaves can be stuffed like grape leaves or cabbage.

“There’s a huge array out there with more colors that many people don’t grow,” she notes. “The virtue of it is the more color, the more nutrition.”

For fall gardening variety, Shepherd also suggests gardeners consider growing stir-fry greens, braising mixes and Japanese baby turnips.

Turnips are healthy, tasty—and fun to carve!

Heirlooms and Hybrids

Adding new hybrids or new heirloom varieties to your fall gardening is another good way to shake things up—particularly if you’re partial to just one or the other. “Some heirlooms are wonderful, and some new varieties are wonderful, too,” Shepherd says.

For example? “If you’re going to grow broccoli, you as a home gardener will do infinitely better with hybrid broccoli, because it’s a thousand times more disease-resistant, it grows more side shoots, and it’s more compact,” she says. “Heirlooms are important for some things, but not all things.”

To further boost your fall gardening productivity, you might also want to top certain crops with a floating row cover. Not only will it protect sensitive crops like broccoli from flea beetles and other pests, but it also can prolong the growing season.

“If it’s going to be colder, and you want to extend your harvest, a floating row cover will give you three to five degrees,” Shepherd says.

This article about fall gardening was written for Hobby Farms magazine. Click here to subscribe.