Welcome to the first blog posting of the "Cheep, Cheep Farmer" featuring the happenings and sale items at Pearson's Foothills Farm. We also want to share ideas for frugal farming.
We've just put in our first batch of 100 eggs into our homemade incubator made from an old refrigerator placed on its side. A refrigerator or freezer is an ideal thing to make an incubator out of since it is already insulated. It is heated with light bulbs and uses a Durostat thermostat which works good enough although it would be nice to have one with less of a variance in temperature (plus or minus 3 degrees F). Set the temperature for 99 degrees F and hope there are no power outages for 3 weeks!
The other key part is a fan set in the corner. The fan is set to come on when the thermostat clicks on. We don't use automatic turners because they are expensive and our experience is that they only last one season if that. Besides my son Thad, age 11, doesn't mind turning the eggs, on most days 4 times. We have found if you miss a few turnings it's usually not critical. I hope to have more complete instructions for making a homemade incubator available in the near future.
Better yet still than an incubator is to have setting hens. We have one setting now that is part Silkie. Silkies are the best setters we've seen.
My favorite Bantam chickens are the Mille Fleur. We have several chickens that are a mix of Mille Fleur and Silkie and they are good setters also.
My favorite larger chicken is the Barred Rock. It seems to tolerate the damp conditions in Western Oregon better than most chickens. The sight of a large Buff Orpington rooster free ranging though is an impressive pastoral scene.
At the farm now we have a lot of large conifers for sale. Cedars, Firs, Pines, Japanese Larch, Spruce and others. The 4-6' potted trees are 5 for $40. The smaller trees are 10 for $30. We again have our Dahlia Surprise special this year; 40 mixed dahlia tubers for $16 and shipping is available. If you would like to receive our brochure with individual dahlias, give us a call at 503-668-4524 and we will send you one.
Are you a seed saver? It's fun to save seeds and see what you get. Also have you seen the prices of the seed packets in those mail order catalogs? Have you ever examined a cantelope, tomato or squash and seen how many seeds it contains? True, these seeds may not yield a fruit exactly like the one you got it from, but if it's from a tomato it is still going to be a tomato and if it's from a cantelope, it's going to be a cantelope. Last year I "planted" a bunch of rotten tomatoes (threw them on the ground) and they produced lots of good tomatoes.
Are you aware that many of the varieties of trees and plants that you find in those seed catalogs were the result of a chance seedling with unusual characteristics? Granted, saving those plum or peach seeds to see what you get is a long process, but even if you don't get a real winner you'll get something that will produce decent edible fruit and at the very least will serve as a pollinator for other trees of the same kind. Be aware that some seeds, like those of trees need to go through a weathering process before they will germinate, so they are best planted in the fall or winter.
Well, so long for now. Getting back to chickens let me leave you with this thought: Jesus said,
"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem....how often I would have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not!"
Let us stay under the protection of His wings. May God bless!
