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7 Ways to Use Eggshells (and tips you need to know)

07 Apr
Eggshells can be ground in a blender and used for many purposes, indoors and out.

Eggshells can be ground in a blender and used for many purposes, indoors and out.

If you eat eggs, make sure you make the best use of those shells! Most of an eggshell is calcium. In fact, about 95% of shells are calcium carbonate…the same stuff that sea shells, coral, and limestone are made from (the other 5% includes proteins, calcium phosphate, and magnesium carbonate). Here’s a list of what you can do with those shells so the calcium and its brittle shell don’t go to waste.

USE EGGSHELLS FOR THIS

1) Give your hens a calcium boost. Eggshells contain 95% calcium, and hens need calcium to lay eggs that have those strong shells. There is nothing unhealthy about feeding your hens eggshells, as long as those shells have been sterilized to kill bacteria (see below on how to do this) and offered in ground form. Pay special attention to shell sterilization if you get some of your eggs from another source where you can’t be sure of the laying hen’s health.

2) Give your pets a calcium boost: In the case of eggshells, what is good for chickens is good for your pet. Adding pulverized eggshells to their food provides extra calcium for bone health. And just like using shells for chickens, be sure to sterilize the shells first.

3) Give yourself a calcium boost: Consuming calcium from eggshells can help you, too. In a 2003 study published in the International Journal of Clinical Pharmacology Research, eggshell consumption helped stop bone loss in postmenopausal women. While you can consume pulverized eggshells for added calcium, remember that calcium amounts very greatly in shells, so there is no way to tell exactly how much calcium you are getting (but we know you are getting more than if you didn’t consume the shells at all). Be sure you bake the shells before consuming to prevent ingesting any bacteria if you haven’t washed the shell before eating the egg (see below).

The finer your grind your eggshells, the sooner the calcium will be available to garden plants.

The finer your grind your eggshells, the sooner the calcium will be available to garden plants.

4) Incorporate them into your soil: It’s a great practice to add ground eggshells into your garden soil (and your indoor pots, too). But realize that it takes awhile for those shells to break down enough for the calcium to be available to your plants. In fact, eggshells can take many years to decompose fully and it will take several years to see the benefits of those eggshell additions to soil. But don’t let this deter you as adding eggshells to soil is great for plants! Start now…in a year or two you’ll start to see benefits (the finer you grind the shells, the more quickly you’ll see benefits). And don’t forget to sterilize those shells before adding them to the soil to prevent adding bacteria to your garden.

5) Keep garden critters at bay: Slugs are slippery little devils, and they dislike the chalky sharpness of ground eggshells. Cutworms don’t like it, either. Sprinkle the eggshell around plants like tomatoes, peppers, broccoli, and cabbage to keep their stems safe and destructive critters away. Make sure you cover the surface of the soil around the entire stem.

6) Clean your pots and pans: Yes, you can grind your eggshells into a powder and use it as an abrasive. But, it being an abrasive and all, it will scratch! I’ve used this for especially stubborn spots on cast iron pans or stainless steel (on the insides). Don’t use this on any surface that you want to see a scratch on.

7) Make your coffee sweeter: Adding crushed eggshells to your coffee grounds helps to lessen the acidity of your coffee. Then you can toss the used grounds and eggshells in your compost bin. Better yet, toss them both into your garden soil! The eggshells have the calcium, but the coffee grounds provide the nitrogen.

You can use a blender to grind eggshells fine. (Bowl by the Little Pottery Venture.)

You can use a blender to grind eggshells fine. (Bowl by the Little Pottery Venture.)

PREPARE EGGSHELLS LIKE THIS

For most eggshell uses, it is better to make sure they are clean and free from bacteria. If you don’t wash the eggs thoroughly before using, bake the shells at 150 degrees Fahrenheit on a cookie sheet for about 10 minutes.

You can grind your eggshells either wet or dry. I personally find grinding  them dry to be easier, but decide which method works best for you in your kitchen:

To grind eggshells wet, simply take all of your eggshells, place them in a blender and fill the blender with water to about 1/2 way up the eggshells. Then whizzzzzzzzz, and drain. What to do next is where I find the difficulty. Small bits of wet shell are not necessarily cooperative, and most uses for eggshell are easier to implement when the shells are dry.

To grind eggshells dry, you can either leave them sit in a bowl until they are thoroughly dry (I keep the pretty bowl shown above next to my sink and simply stack eggshells as they accumulate), or you can bake them. Baking to dry and sterilize them can serve double duty here! If 10 minutes baking at 150F doesn’t dry all of the wet egg remnants inside the shell perfectly, just leave them bake in the oven until the insides of the egg are perfectly dry. (To see a video on how to use your blender and a mason jar to grind your eggshells and other foods, click here.)

DON’T USE EGGSHELLS FOR THIS

I just can’t recommend that you use eggshells to start seedlings, even though this is a popular infographic on Facebook and all over the interwebs as an eggshell tip (I know…I’m the problem child sometimes). Seedlings are like icebergs…at best what you see above the soil is equal to what is going on below the soil. In fact, sometimes the root system is much larger than the seedling. Half an eggshell just doesn’t have the space necessary to support a growing and intricate root system unless you transplant it pretty quickly to the garden. In drier climates it is also difficult to keep such a small amount of soil moist enough to keep a healthy seedling happy.

Eggshells do not sharpen garbage disposal blades. I don’t think it harms the garbage disposal any more than anything else, but I have read that egg shell bits in the drain, because they are heavier than usual kitchen sink refuse, can contribute to drain clogs. The idea being they settle into a pipe at some point, and slowly start to trap debris. Even more reason to use eggshells for one of their many beneficial purposes!

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Posted by on April 7, 2013 in Animals, Gardening, Home Remedies & Apothecary, Homesteading, Kitchen Tips

 

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Harvesting and Drying Mint

19 Aug

Mint is wonderful in the kitchen, medicine cabinet, and as a pest repellent.

Mint is one of those herbs that has a ton of uses and grows prolifically in the garden. Sometimes that prolific growth can be a nuisance (it has, in fact, take up residence in one of my raised beds and it’s definitely a battle between me and it). But like anything else in life, what can be seen as a hassle can also be take as a gift with just a slight shift in perspective: Instead of cursing your prolific mint, harvest it shamelessly and exploit it for one of its many uses! SHAMELESSLY!

There are many kinds of mint (spearmint, peppermint, chocolate mint, apple mint, pineapple mint, and others. They are all perennial, meaning they’ll come back year after year; you’ll have a never-ending supply of this tasty plant after sticking just one in your garden. But beware: if you don’t want it to spread everywhere make sure you plant your mint in an area where you won’t mind it getting a bit out of hand. However, flavored mints such as chocolate and apple are not as prolific as the straight-up peppermint and spearmint.

Mint does best in full sun to part shade with a soil that is slightly acidic, rich, and fairly moist, so if you live in a more arid environment, your mint won’t explode as it would in more ideal growing conditions. And, of course, you can grow mint in a pot for year-round fresh use provided it gets a southern exposure when indoors.

Mint not only serves as a valuable food and flavoring in the kitchen, it also has medicinal uses such as calming the stomach, assisting with gingivitis, helping relieve colds, and cooling overly warm skin, among others. It can also be used to repel pests in the home and garden, and lend a wonderful scent to washing linens when included with vinegar in the final rinse water of a wash. I’ll cover these uses in more detail in a future ‘spin.

HARVESTING

If your mint is a new planting, wait a year or two for it to establish a strong root system before you start harvesting it. You can clip fresh mint sprigs during this time for sure, but for a full-on, no-holds-barred harvest, wait until the mint is well established. With my established mint, I literally hack it back in late spring, mid summer, and again in very early fall until there is only about 6 inches of stem left; it grows back readily. Just make sure you don’t harvest too late in the fall; you want to give the plant enough time to recover before winter hits. Like any other herb, the best time to harvest mint is in the morning while the volatile oils in the plant are at their strongest.

After washing my mint, I lay it on a towel in several loose layers to dry thoroughly in the sun.

Before drying mint, rinse it clean under a spray hose in the kitchen sink, or outdoors if you have a lot of mint you’re processing in one batch. After cleaning, the mint must be thoroughly dried. I do this by shaking off the mint thoroughly, then laying it out on a few loose layers on a towel in the sun.

AIR DRYING

After my mint is washed and dried, I bundle it up for hanging and drying. I make my bundles loose to allow for the much-needed air to circulate around the herb and draw the moisture away. Air circulation is key when it comes to drying herbs; the air removes the moisture from around your plants and helps prevent mold from developing.

When making my bundles, I use rubber bands to secure the ends. Rubber bands have two main advantages over string: first, the contract as the stems dry out and shrink, thereby maintaining a tight bundle throughout the drying process and second, they can be used over and over. I save all of the rubber bands I end up with from the grocery store or anywhere else, and use them for my herb drying. I attached an unfolded large paper clip to my bundle and use the paper clip to hang the herbs from my ceiling. You can hang herbs from wall racks, or anything else you can think of as long as the location is warm and gets plenty of air circulation (i.e., basements are poor choices).

Rubber bands are the best way to hold herb bundles for drying. Here, a rubber band is first slipped over one stem, then wrapped around the bundle several times.

After wrapping the rubber band around the bundle several times, secure the end by slipping it over a few branches. This provides plenty of give for shrinkage.

You may have read that herbs should be placed in brown paper bags to dry. I believe this is nonsense. I think the only exception is when you are drying an herb such as dill and want to save the seed, then you’ll need to place a paper bag around the seed head. Otherwise,  unless you live in the driest of environments there is no way you’re going to get enough air circulation to draw the moisture away from your plants if they are suffocating in a bag. I am also lazy. Packaging herbs up for drying is just not something I am interested in spending my time doing since I see no detectable benefit from doing so, unless I am saving the seed. But I’m sure many will disagree with me, and that’s ok!

This re-purposed screen serves as a wonderful drying rack for herbs when hung from a ceiling in a warm, airy locations such as my front sun room.

Instead, I hang my herbs upside down from a drying rack I have hanging from the ceiling in my front sun room. The rack used to be a screen with rice paper lining, but the rice paper was torn at one point, so I removed all of the paper and the hinges, and hung it from the ceiling to serve as a drying rack. It also just looks kinda cool.

The ideal temperature to air dry herbs really varies; I’ve read anywhere between 70F and 120F. Frankly, whatever warm location you have available is the best location. So many guides provide supposed “rules” but ultimately the best environment is the one you have available to you. You just need to find a way to work with what you have. But with drying herbs, good air circulation is a must…without it your herbs will mold. If you don’t have good air circulation, consider placing a fan in the room in which your herbs are drying. And it’s best to keep your drying herbs out of direct sunlight; while my sun room is sunny, the herbs at ceiling level are protected from direct exposure.

How long does air drying take? It depends upon those unique conditions you are working with. In an 80F, moderately humid environment with moderate air circulation, bundles such as the ones shown above can take two to four weeks. Here in Colorado in my very warm sun room, it only took about 4 days to get crisp-dried mint.

OVEN DRYING

I encourage you to air-dry your herbs whenever possible; it just seems a lot easier to me if you have the space and if your environmental conditions are dry enough. However, if you live in a moist environment or don’t have the space to hang herbs, oven drying is a great option! Some people even prefer the flavor of oven-dried herbs to air-dried. Frankly, I can’t tell the difference.

To oven dry herbs, you also want to wash and either air dry or pat them dry before proceeding. Then you can either strip the leaves from the stems and place them in a single layer on a cookie sheet, or lay the stems on the cookie sheet themselves in a single layer. Place the herbs in a warm, 180F oven for 3 to 4 hours with the oven door cracked to allow moisture to escape. Then, crush the leaves and store.

COLLECTING AND STORING

Collect your dried mint by crushing the leaves off the stem.

The leaves are the edible portion of mint, so when it is thoroughly dry, you’ll need to remove them from the stems. I do this by taking one of my bunches, holding it over a large bowl or sheet, and simply pressing the stems. The leaves crush off cleanly from the stem, and any bit of stem that might break off and fall is easily removed after I have finished removing all of the leaves from my mint.

It is recommended that you store your mint in a cool location away from direct sunlight. I store a portion of my mint in a used tea tin and keep it in a cupboard by my tea kettle. The rest of my yearly supply is stored in a large air-tight mason jar in my pantry. Sometimes I just take the jar out and look at it…herbs that you harvested and dried yourself are not only fresher (and thereby tastier) than store bought, looking at them can also help us feel the summer sun on a cold winter day as we recall the harvest.

 
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Posted by on August 19, 2012 in Edible Plants, Food Preservation, Fun Experiments, Gardening, Great for Kids, Hobbies and Arts, Home Remedies & Apothecary, Homesteading, Recipes, Saving Money

 

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Homemade Cottage Cheese, 1839 Style

29 Jul

In 1839, making cottage cheese was just a matter of leaving raw milk sit out until it formed curds, then strain overnight.

First, let me say that this won’t work unless you have raw milk available to you. The reason is that raw milk never really goes “bad,” it just sours. You can use it months after it’s left the cow (properly handled, of course). Pasteurized milk, on the other hand, has had its molecular structure altered, and because of that it doesn’t ever sour, it putrefies. This means if it goes bad, it’s not edible. I know, I know, this happenstance eliminates the possibility for many to make cottage cheese using this method, but it’s still interesting to see how people made food 175 years ago.

But if you do have access to raw milk, this makes a wonderful creamy cottage cheese that I love. It’s creamier than store-bought cottage cheese, and the “lumps” are very small. The flavor is a combination of cottage cheese, sour cream, and cream cheese. It doesn’t taste like store-bought cottage cheese because the store-bought stuff is cultured, which gives it a specific flavor. You can make cultured cottage cheese at home, too, if you purchase the culture from an outside source, but this recipe allows you to make your own like folks made it at home long ago. And, it’s easy as pie!

INGREDIENTS & HOW-TO

  • 1/2 gallon raw milk
  • salt (optional)
  • butter (optional)

Raw milk forms curds on its own after it sits in a warm location for several hours.

Take your milk out of the refrigerator and set it in a warm corner (room temperature or higher) until curds form, which will take between 12 and 24 hours, depending upon the temperature of your room. You’ll see the curd development easily as the curds will separate naturally from the whey, as seen at right.

Once the curds form, strain them overnight, making sure not to press them. This can be done in different ways. I took a colander and placed it inside a larger bowl, and then poured my curds into a jelly bag. I left the jelly bag sit in the colander in the refrigerator overnight (you don’t need to refrigerate it). If you don’t have a jelly bag, you can just line your colander with a kitchen towel. Or if you don’t want to save your whey, you can secure a jelly bag or towel (tied at the ends) to the kitchen sink spigot and just let it drip into the sink.

The next day, turn your cottage cheese into a clean bowl. At this point you can choose to add more cream if you want it super creamy (I don’t find this necessary), butter for additional richness, or salt or spices to taste. I like it plain, myself. I just dump the cheese into a bowl and call it good.

I eat my cottage cheese with fruit and nuts, and I use it in recipes for things like homemade ranch dressing, dips, or anywhere I’d use cream cheese, sour cream, or sometimes plain yogurt. It has a wonderful flavor, and is so easy to make that I use cottage cheese in many ways. It is really only limited by your imagination!

Note: The references for this came from  the 1839 publication, “The Kentucky Housewife,” by Mrs. Lettice Bryan. The original text reads: “Take a large bowl of milk* that is just beginning to turn sour, cover it and set it in the corner where it will keep lukewarm till if forms a curd. Then place a linen cloth over a sieve; put in your curd, fold over the corners of the cloth to keep out the dust, and let it drain till next morning, without pressing it in the least. Then turn it in an earthen dish, add as much rich, sweet cream as will make it a little soft; add a large spoonful of butter to each pint of the curd, mixing it in a very little salt, and work it with a spoon till th whole is very smoothly mixed. Then put it in a china bowl, and set it in a cool place till the tea-table is ready.”

 
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Posted by on July 29, 2012 in Fun Experiments, Great for Kids, Homesteading, Recipes, Saving Money

 

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Using Wild Yeast Sourdough: Makin’ Bagels

29 Apr

Bagels are a great way to learn about using your own wild yeast sourdough starter!

People who collect wild yeast for their own sourdough starter eventually learn that some baked goods are better suited to their local wild yeast than others. Here on the Colorado Front Range the wild yeast produces light bread and biscuits, but back in eastern Kansas this was not true. The bread there was on the dense side–still wonderful and tasty but not the light loaf. However, subtler wild yeasts are wonderful for making things like bagels.

You can make bagels using any kind of wild yeast, but bagels are a pretty forgiving way to start learning about your wild yeast and its unique character.

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If you haven’t done so already, check out our ‘Spin “Collecting and Maintaining Wild Yeast Sourdough Starter,” to learn more about wild yeast sourdough.

INGREDIENTS

(Note: This recipe comes from the book, “World Sourdoughs from Antiquity,” by Ed Wood)

  • 2 cups culture from the first proof (see below)
  • 2 eggs, beaten
  • 2 tablespoons oil
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 2 tablespoons sugar
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 3 cups bread flour
  • 2 tablespoons sugar

ACTIVATING YOUR STARTER

If you do not use your starter often, or it’s been sitting in your refrigerator for the past two weeks or so, you’ll need to activate your starter so it’s “awake” enough for the first proof (below). To do this, remove your jar of starter from your refrigerator the morning before you bake your bread. Add a cup of flour and a cup of warm (85F) water, stir briefly, and let the jar sit out for the day. You’ll see the activity in the jar start to increase as the yeasts warm up and start to feed on the new flour. After about 3 to 6 hours your starter will be ready for the first proof (you’ll see the starter form bubbles, increase in size in your jar, and perhaps even foam a bit). The total time needed depends upon how warm it is in your kitchen and the nature of your wild yeast, but between 3 and 6 hours is normal.

If your starter is used regularly (once or twice a week) you can skip the formal activation process. All you need to do is take the jar out of the refrigerator, let it sit to warm up a bit, then move on to the first proof.

During the first proof, you'll be able to see bubbles like this (or maybe more!)

THE FIRST PROOF

The first proof is where you really get your yeast active, and at this point it’s called the sponge. Take your activated starter and dump it all into a bowl large enough where it has the chance to double in bulk (it may not expand that much, which is fine). Add a few cups of flour and an equal amount of warm water (about 85F), then stir briefly. How many cups of flour you add depends upon how much starter you have. You want about 3 cups total from the first proof: 2 cups for the bagels and 1 cup to go back into the fridge for your next baking (don’t put it back yet). For this reason it’s very important to not add anything to your first proof besides flour and water.

Cover your bowl with a dry towel (a wet towel will cool your sponge) and place it in a warm spot (about 85F) to sit overnight. In the summer I just leave my bowl on the kitchen counter. In the winter when it’s cooler, I turn my oven on and leave it warm for a minute or two, turn it off, then pop the bowl in the oven for the night. You can also put it in a cool oven with the oven light on all night.

The next morning, it’s time to make bagels.

Divide the dough into balls, roll each into a 6-inch-long rope, and form into a bagel shape by pinching the ends together.

MAKING THE BAGELS

Preheat your oven to 375F.

Measure your 2 cups of culture into a mixing bowl and return the rest of the starter to a clean container to go back in the refrigerator. To your mixing bowl add the eggs, oil, milk, 2 tablespoons sugar, and salt. Mix well with a spoon.

Add the flour, one cup at a time, stirring until you can no longer stir with a spoon. Then pour the sticky dough onto a floured surface and add the remaining flour (and more if necessary) until the dough is satiny and somewhat springy (about 10 minutes).

Divide your dough into 15 equal balls and roll each into about a 6-inch-long rope. Pinch the ends together to make a bagel shape, and set aside. Cover your bagels with a kitchen towel and let them rise in a warm, draft-free place for about an hour. Your bagels may not rise very much, so don’t be alarmed by this. It’s a bagel.

Boiling bagels before baking is crucial.

Bring about 4 quarts of water to a boil in a large pot and add the remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar. Drop the bagels (one or two at a time) into the boiling water; they will first drop to the bottom, then rise to float in the water. When they rise to the surface, remove them from the water and place them on paper towels to drain.

Place the drained bagels on a lightly oiled baking sheet and bake for 25 to 30 minutes until lightly browned on top. Remove from the oven and let cool before eating, if you can wait that long. These are tasty, and are especially good plain with butter, or served with cream cheese and smoked salmon!

 
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Posted by on April 29, 2012 in Recipes, Wild Yeast Sourdough

 

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Feeding the Horse: A 1924 Perspective

13 Apr

(Note: The text and images are taken from “A Study of Farm Animals,” by Charles S. Plumb, 1924. Click on photos to enlarge.)

“The use of the horse, in spite of the automobile, is very general in both town and country. He is suited to do many things for which the motor is not fitted. He is a more economical producer of power in short hauls than is the motor, and he is as necessary as ever on the hill farms and where small areas are cultivated. According to the 1920 census we had in the United States some 20 million horses and over 5 million mules. These horses had a farm value of $2,000,000,000, and the mules were valued at half a billion dollars, so we may see that the production of the horse in America is a great industry….

The work of the horse and what he can accomplish depends upon his weight, his muscular development, and his endurance.  What is knows as horse-power, is the power necessary to raise 33,000 pounds at the rate of one foot a minute against gravity. The real measure of horse-power is based on the unit of a foot-pound, shown in the power manifested in raising a pound one foot. The horse works in different ways, no matter what his type, weight or size….

Feeding standards for the horse have been in use for a long time, and, on the basis of what has already been stated, the necessity for different standards is very apparent. Here weight and work are the two vital factors. The following is the modified Wolff-Lehmann standard for horses, as given by Henry and Morrison (Feeds and Feeding, 1917)

The preparation of the feed for a horse is important. The horse has a comparatively small stomach, and so, as his work increases, concentrates should more or less replace roughage. Food is prepared in several ways. Dry roughage is often chaffed, that is, cut or shredded. Chaffing reduces the work of the horse for the reason that the more the roughage is torn to pieces by mechanical means, the less labor will be required of the horse in breaking it up. Men who care for horses often make hay or straw more palatable by chaffing, then mixing with concentrates, and dampening the mass with a light sprinkling of water. Thus prepared, more roughage is consumed than would be the case otherwise, and the sprinkling reduces the dust, which is injurious to horses. The grinding of grain for horses is unnecessary, unless in the case of old animals with poor teeth. Whole grain is appetizing to the horse, he grinds and breaks it up easily with his teeth, and it digests efficiently as thus fed. Crushing grain may be desirable, and the author has known of city stables where oats were run through a mill and crushed, and as thus fed gave better returns, in the opinion of the management, than were secured from oats fed whole. Cooking of feed has been resorted to by horsemen in the past, more especially in Europe, but this process affects the digestibility of the proteids, so the practice is undesirable.  What is known as a bran mash, that is, wetting bran with hot water to make a thick, fairly moist feed, is practiced. If fed at regular periods, as, for example, once a week, it has a cooling, laxative effect. Bran mash is relished by horses, and is popular as an occasional feed. The soaking of feed may sometimes be desirable, especially in spring when feeding very hard, dry corn or barely.

The feeds most desirable for horses vary according to condition of age, work, and locality. Oats in the grain is the favorite food for horses both in America and Europe. There is no likelihood of danger from overeating oats, they are much relished, and from them the horseman looks for greater activity than from most feeds. Dry ear corn is popular in the corn-growing sections, especially in the South and Central West, where hundreds of thousands of horses see no other kind of grain. Experiments at the Ohio station, conducted by Prof. Carmichael, show no important difference in the feeding value of corn and oats, as fed work horses under equal conditions. Barley is fed horses in some parts of America, Europe, and northern Africa, and meets with favor. Wheat and rye are too pasty for satisfactory horse feed. Wheat bran has been fed mixed with oats and corn, and gives good results. Corn meal is too heavy for a horse feed, unless mixed with bran, oats, or chaffed hay, when it will do very well. What is known as chop feed for horses in some sections consists of varying portions of oats and cracked or crushed corn, the percentage of one to the other depending upon the value of each fed in the market. As a rule, two thirds oats and one third corn is a good proportion. Linseed meal is a most excellent feed to be given in small amount once daily, as, for example, a half pound a day. This is a fine appetizer, and tends to make the skin mellow and the hair sleek and glossy. Condition powders or prepared condimental stock foods are not to be recommended. The lindseed meal will largely serve the same purpose and in fact is a popular conditioner.

Of all the dry roughages, timothy hay in the East is a leading favorite. It is usually free from dust and is relished by the horse. Any well cured, sweet grass, however, will usually prove satisfactory horse roughage. Good dry corn stover is excellent horse feed. Alfalfa hay or red clover are rich in protein and lime, and may be fed to advantage when care is used. Dust must be avoided, and the leaves should be free of mildew or mould. A combination of alfalfa or clover with corn makes nearly a balanced ration for the work horse. There is considerable difference of opinion among American horsemen as to the suitability of these feeds for horses, but in France alfalfa has long been extensively fed to horses, while in the western United States it has been shown to be an excellent roughage for horses when well cured. Corn silage may be safely fed to horses in limited amounts, but it is important that it be bright and well cured, free from all mouldy matter; otherwise serious results may occur. Horses do well on pasture, especially of mixed grasses or of some sort of blue grass, of which Kentucky blue is the more common sort.”

 
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Posted by on April 13, 2012 in Animals, Historic Reflections, Homesteading

 

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The Feeding of Poultry…a 1924 Perspective

29 Feb

(Note: The text and images are taken from “A Study of Farm Animals,” by Charles S. Plumb, 1924)

A white orpington, 1924

The foods suitable for fowls vary widely in kind and character. In fact, farm poultry will eat almost anything that has any nutritive value. So adaptable are fowls to local conditions, that, as a rule, they are fed the cheapest and most common foods grown in the region in which they are kept. Very naturally, in America corn is most commonly fed, with wheat or its by-products next in favor. In Japan, rice is the food generally used. The kind of food, however, should vary according to the age and condition of the birds, and the purpose for which they are kept. If for fattening, then a carbonaceous food is best; but if for eggs, then that of a protein nature should be used. Protein foods recommended for fowls are meat scraps, fish meal, and milk of various forms. The common grains and cereal by-products, such as corn, wheat, oats, bran, middlings (the leftovers from milling whole wheat), etc., supply the necessary carbohydrates.

Green foods for fowls causes them to respond very rapidly in increased growth or egg production. When on a range of good grass no other green food need be provided, but during the winter season succulent food is most desirable. Coarse vegetables are often sliced or chopped into small pieces before feeding, although entire cabbages or roots may be hung in the house or fastened to nails on the walls, from which points they will be picked to pieces. In recent years sprouted oats have been used in a small way for feed, especially for young chicks. The common plan is to make a wooden rack-like arrangement, to contain series of shallow pans. The desired amount of oats is put into a vessel and covered with warm water and let stand over night. The surplus water is then drained off and the oats are spread over the pans to a depth of one half to three fourths of an inch. The oats should then be placed in a room, preferably a basement or cellar, having a temperature of 60 to 65 degrees. The oats should be sprinkled daily with tepid water and, to provide drainage, should be perforated with small holes. In about ten days the sprouts will be ready to feed to the chickens, but they should be used sparingly in the first of the feeding.

Rations for egg production used in different sections of the United States, vary more or less, according to material available. The following rations are recommended by various authorities engaged in research work in feeding fowls.

RATION NO. 1

Chicken anatomy from 1924 (Click to enlarge)

Mash:

  • 16 lbs corn meal
  • 6 1/2 lb meat scrap
  • 1 lb bran
  • 1 lb middlings

Scratch Mixture:

  • 1 lb cracked corn
  • 1 lb wheat
  • 1 lb oats

RATION NO. 2

Mash:

  • 2 lbs corn or barley meal
  • 1 lb bran
  • 1 lb middlings
  • 1 lb meat or fish scrap

Scratch Mixture:

  • 2 lbs cracked corn
  • 1 lb oats
  • 1 lb wheat or barley

A fine white leghorn from 1924

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Feed the grain mixture morning and afternoon in a deep litter of straw. Feed sparingly in the morning, but give the hens all they will eat in the afternoon. Feed the dry mash in a hopper which is open at all times. Keep grit and shell in open hoppers. Feed green food once a day.

It will be noticed that in all the above rations, corn , wheat, oats, and wheat bran or middlings are the standard foods used. Meat meal or beef scrap, skimmed milk, and clover or alfalfa are always desirable. In the far West Kafir corn or millet seed may be used to advantage. When barley is commonly grown, this is to be recommended as a feed, and may be used in place of corn, if desired.


 
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Posted by on February 29, 2012 in Animals, Historic Reflections, Homesteading

 

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