charming chickens

svensk sortehøns (black swedish chickens) - this rooster (aptly named "blackie") is my favorite.

as you know, we got chickens back in june. and then husband built them a veritable mansion that we dubbed chez poulet, because it's so fancy. the coop has two entrances - one into a totally enclosed area, where we give them table scraps and one into a back yard, where they can fly (and yes, i assure you they can fly, tho' it's not the most elegant sight) over it and get out to explore.

in fact, they were letting themselves out to explore so often, that we've just left the gate open of late, to make it easier for them. it's nice to have them wandering in the garden, cleaning up, tho' i have found them as far afield as over in the shelter belt near our bees. but charmingly enough, they come running from wherever they are when you go out there and talk to them. i hadn't expected that. they're really quite charming. and a bit funny. and their plumage makes a perfect fall fashion statement.

dansk landhøns (danish land chickens)

the three roosters can spend hours trying to outdo one another with their cries of cock-a-doodle-doo. and the other day one hen was a rather insistently clucking midwife to another one who was in the nest and clearly laying an egg. it was as if she were a little chicken cheerleader. later, i realized it may have been more of a complaint, because i found that hen in the same box, laying an egg of her own, so she was probably just telling that other hen to hurry up. there are five nest boxes, but as they've begun to lay eggs, i've noticed that they stick to the first one and the fourth one. it's hard to know what chickens are thinking, so i'm not sure why that is.

we're getting 2-3 eggs a day and they're starting to be a little bit larger now (they were pretty tiny at first). i've already checked an all-eggs cookbook out of the library, as once all 9 hens start laying, we're going to be eating a whole lot of eggs around here! at the moment, we can keep up.

in all, i'm enjoying this chicken thing much more than i thought i would. they're easy to have around. plus, we've cut back significantly on the amount of garbage that goes into our bin on a weekly basis, because so many scraps go to them - the only thing we don't give them is chicken, but otherwise, all greens, leftover rice or couscous, cheese, other kinds of meat go to them, anything we didn't manage to eat all of ourselves. in return, we get plenty of eggs and quite a lot of amusement.

garden lessons

i suppose we're at the halfway mark with the garden and it seemed like time for some assessment.

we had a month-long strawberry harvest. i learned from it that i am a horrible judge of when the strawberries are finishing, as i kept thinking, "this must be the last time i'll pick this many berries" and then the next time, i'd pick two buckets instead of just one. we ate strawberries every evening and in many different ways and i put up a dozen jars of strawberry marmalade (several quite large) and had a big jar of strawberry porridge (jordbær grød) in the fridge that lasted for a week's worth of desserts. and we never bought a single strawberry from the grocery store. so i think we can safely say that the strawberries were a success. the next step with the strawberries is to do a thorough weeding and then prepare to take the little fledgling strawberries for new beds next spring. this we do by digging in a little plastic pot below the runners, settling their roots into some good potting soil and encouraging them to take root. in the spring, we dig up the little pots and move them to a new bed.

as for other things, we haven't yet begun to havest in earnest. our weather has been rainy and a bit cool, so some of the expected lush growth hasn't yet happened. nearly every day, tho', i can add tuscan kale to my dishes, as it's thriving in our cool, rainy weather. we will soon have more broad beans and runner beans and borlotti beans than we know what to do with (i'm already planning on canning them various ways). and the raised bed of brassicas is looking good and the cabbages finally appear to be forming heads of cabbage - we were a bit worried for awhile that they were just going to keep making leaves. i've been harvesting small stalks of broccoli for stir frys for a couple of weeks.

moving our rhubarb didn't seem to hold it back and all of the plants have come back and are producing in earnest. you can get some ideas as to what i've done with it here. we now have three rows of asparagus going - the row you can see on the left was asparagus we bought in pots last autumn - it should be ready to begin harvesting in two more years (one lesson from gardening is patience). there are two additional rows of asparagus i started from seed back in march. i didn't read the instructions on the packet, which made it sound quite difficult, but just planted them in little pots. every single of one of them came up and despite their tiny stature, they are all thriving very well, even after i planted them out.  so the lesson in that - don't be scared away by difficult-sounding planting processes, just jump in and try it.  it will likely be 5 years before we can begin to harvest from those, but i'm hoping the wait is worth it.

we had a number of things that just didn't come up. primarily beets and spinach and kohlrabi and parsnips. our carrots are extremely patchy. what's frustrating is that we don't really know what lesson to take from the experience. was the soil too cold when we planted? did birds eat the seeds? did we not plant deep enough? too deep? not enough fertilizer? not enough water? too much? is our soil too sandy?  i would love to learn from the experience, but feel that i don't know what the lesson is. i find that a bit frustrating.

our artichokes, which are a perennial, are doing very well. they took off like mad after husband put a load of horse poo around them. you have to be careful doing that, as it can burn them, but the artichokes seemed to love it! as to the eggplants in the greenhouse - we can see that their roots have reached down to the layer of horse poo and have taken off like mad.

our sweetcorn is pretty patchy as well, as you can see in this photo, but it just hasn't been warm enough for corn. we do think part of it is that one brand of seeds - Albertine's Have - were duds, as i think that all of the seeds which didn't do what we expected were that brand. in all, i think the garden should be farther ahead and more lush than it is and i'm not sure how to ensure that next year. we're talking about more raised beds for the more delicate items as one measure. more pre-planting indoors and in the greenhouse to prepare for planting out. we will work more horse poo into the soil this autumn - actually, that yellow-ish patch to the right (i just mowed down the tall weeds) will be next year's garden and we're soon going to be plowing in some manure in the coming weeks to prepare for that. another thing we're going to do is more continuous planting. planting new rounds of salads and radishes and things and daring to replant what didn't come up. we definitely haven't done enough of that this year.

what lessons is your garden teaching you? and if you have any ideas as to what lessons i should be learning from our garden failures, i'm all ears!!

first honey harvest

on thursday last week, our bee mentor said it was time for our first honey harvest. he came over (that's him on the right) and helped us take the honey-laden frames. only one of our bee families had produced anything, the other one seems to have a lazy queen and has not been doing their job (more about that in a separate post).

but our well-functioning bee family is doing very well. twelve frames, heavy with golden honey, were ready to be harvested. here, the sun shows just how full and beautiful the frames were.

husband constructed the box you can see. you need a box to transport the frames in. husband made one that fits six frames, as honey-filled frames are heavy and to carry more would be pretty hard on your back. he estimates that the boxes cost approximately 60DKK (about $12) apiece to make in materials - wood and hinges. the box has a bottom and a lid, as once you take the frames, you don't want the bees to find their way into them and try to come along to the harvest.

the bees indicate that they are finished with the frame by sealing it off, as you can see in the photo above. i found out the hard way that the bees are not at all pleased to have their hard work removed. i was merely the photographer and thought i was at a safe distance, but i got stung on my cheekbone. i can tell you it was VERY painful. the kind of pain that actually takes your breath away (tho' i didn't have an allergic reaction) and i actually had to lie down for awhile - it made me feel quite ill.

we transported our two boxes, which contained the twelve frames, to our bee mentor's house. he has a centrifuge for extracting the honey, so we did all of the work there. the sealing wax must be scraped off with a special tool. sabin loved that part.

each frame is spun in the centrifuge three times and the centrifuge holds four frames. the honey is spun in one direction, then the frames are turned and spun again. then you return it to the original position and spin one last time.

at this stage of the year, the frames are returned, wax intact, to the bees, so they can fill them again for the later harvest (some time in august). i didn't get photos of the empty frames, but they look a bit forlorn and messy, but the bees very quickly remedy that when you give them back to them.

the centrifuge has a tap at the bottom and you capture the honey in a clean white plastic bucket. it's then strained through a large mesh sieve to get the last bits of wax out of it. i somehow neglected to photograph that part as well.

i wanted some honeycomb along with the honey, so we cut the middle section from one of the frames. the bees will quickly build that back again (and hopefully won't lay any drone eggs there). i had to have some because i wanted to chew on a bit of wax, like when i was a kid.

we got 22 kilos - or 45 pounds of honey from our 12 frames. a pretty good harvest for the first time and for only one bee family. the honey has to stand for a couple of days before you put it into the containers. we got a big stainless steel stirrer that husband fits onto his drill and you stir it to aerate the honey, to help along the natural process, which i guess is a sort of fermentation (we're still learning). after two days of stirring and settling, we tapped the honey into the containers. we had friends visiting and the kids loved that part of the process. we filled 32 glass jars and 10 of the plastic ones with our first harvest.

we don't expect to sell any of it this round, but use it for our own consumption in tea and baking and in making cordials and preserves.  i expect to be experimenting in the kitchen very soon.

*  *  *

further investment we made to get ready for the first harvest included purchase of a bee brush, for brushing them off the frames to put them into the box - 35DKK ($6.50), a special tool for lifting and separating the frames - 68DKK ($12.75), protective bee clothing for sabin -  200DKK ($37.50), 90 plastic containers with lids for the final honey product - 156DKK ($30) and 36 glass jars with lids - 96DKK ($18). the stainless steel stirring implement was 200DKK ($37.50).  we need several good buckets and the bucket with a tap on it (tho' our bee mentor gave us that one), so there will be some investment in that as well. eventually, we will get our own centrifuge, but at this stage and on the small scale we're working, we will use our bee mentor's equipment.  that raises our total investment thus far to 4610DKK ($864).

let the chicken adventure begin

at last, progress was made on our chicken coop this weekend. it's just been a foundation for awhile, but now it's beginning to look like an actual building with a roof and everything! those poles sticking up at the back are for the fenced enclosure where they'll be able to be outside. according to danish law, you have to have even the outdoor areas completely enclosed, in case there's a bird flu scare - so you can keep your chickens separate from wild birds.  it will also undoubtedly help secure the chickens against the mama fox and her two babies that i've seen meandering in our field in the evenings.

i, of course, couldn't wait to get the chickens 'til their coop was done, so i found an ad in the blå avis (our craig's list equivalent) and went off on a chicken acquisition mission. i think i was also hoping to speed up the building process on the chicken coop a bit by having the actual chickens waiting in the wings, as it were.  luckily, they can live in the outdoor bunny cage 'til their coop is finished.

i went to the chicken farm, intending to get a 1.4 as they call it - four hens and a rooster - but while i was there, i was talked into one more hen and they threw in an extra rooster for free. there was also a possible commitment on my part to buy a very cute little pony, but thus far, we're just whispering about that.  we are going back to get some cool swedish black chickens that are a nordic heritage breed and good egg-layers - they weren't quite big enough (you couldn't tell which were boys and which were girls as of yet). the chickens we got are 2 months old and are dansk landhøns, another old nordic breed. tho' i do still want a couple of araucanas, which aren't a nordic breed (i need those martha stewart blue eggs).

the poultry farm was a marvelous place and next time i will take my camera (how i managed to get out the door without it is beyond me). they're raising all sorts of traditional nordic breeds and contributing to bringing them back to commercial viability. they also had all kinds of turkeys, guinea fowl and even some gorgeous peacocks! they were really fowl people! (sorry, i couldn't resist) i'm always so excited to meet people like that - people who are passionate about what they're doing, have loads of knowledge and enthusiasm for it and are contributing to sustainability. all of their birds had a great life, with lots of fresh air and outdoor space to run around in. they had electric fences to protect against the foxes and said they hadn't had any trouble with them.

it's funny, my high school boyfriend knew all about chickens (he'd been in "country school" 'til the 7th grade) and i remember teasing him endlessly and thinking he was a bit of a geek. and now, some thirty-odd years later, i find having chickens to be cool.

we're in bees-ness

last evening, a little after 9, there was a knock on the door. i opened it and there was a man in full bee-protective clothing, saying he was here with our bees! i practically jumped up and down for joy. there's something so exciting about this bee adventure, i can't really describe why it makes me feel as joyful as it does. that these little buzzing creatures can transform pollen into the golden elixir that is honey and do so in perfectly mathematical wax combs that they build themselves is somehow magical. and it makes me unaccountably happy to think that we will be experiencing it firsthand.

we placed our bee "stalls" as they're call in danish out in the shelterbelt, facing east, to catch the first rays of the sun as it comes over the horizon. our bee mentor (that's him in the bee garb) told us to do that and we've spent several days observing precisely when the sun is best and moving and placing the bee houses so that they'd be ready when our bees arrived. he said if the sun warms the hive, it gets the bees up and out collecting nectar up to two hours earlier than hives that don't face east!

our bee mentor handled the whole thing, transferring the frames from their carrier into their new home. he has a hand smoker so calm the bees (i wonder who ever discovered that, as i would think smoke would make them angry). he said they were a little agitated by the car ride - we joked that they get car sick, but there probably is some truth to it.

these photos aren't great, as it was really getting dark - my camera at 3200ISO looks deceptively light, but night was definitely falling fast, so that's why these were a bit blurry. there was no time for a tripod (not that i've had been likely to use one anyway). but i couldn't resist sharing them with you anyway!

we got one bee family of around 1000 bees for each of our two bee "stalls." our bee mentor said it's also best to move them in the evening, when they're all back in their box, so you get most of them along, which was why he dropped by so late.

we're already excited about taking out the drone frame in a week and putting in a new one. he also said they really had a good start on the honey, so we'll have to set new honey frames in as well! i'll definitely be sharing more as we learn how to do all of this!  (we're still not entirely clear as to which frame is which and we kinda wonder how the bees know.) i think husband is going to be our official bee handler in our family, but i'm looking forward to the part with the honey!

stay tuned!

~ julochka

we're going to beekeeping (lessons that is)!

so that's what they mean by "busy as a bee."

in denmark, there's an association for most anything you'd like to do. during the darkest days of last winter, in the throes of dreams of long golden summer days, we joined the national beekeeping association. and they assigned us to a local chapter.  a few weeks ago, a very nice elderly man came to the door and welcomed me to the club. he also told me a whole lot about beekeeping - queens and drones and changing out honey-laden frames - about 65% of which i understood due to his strong local accent. but i got a very good vibe from him - he was kind and friendly and clearly loves bees.

husband looking rather fetching in bee headgear

i told the nice man that we were total beginners and would very much like to have lessons in beekeeping. i also said that if he came across anyone selling all of their bee supplies for a good price, we'd be interested. he regaled me with tales of others who had gotten their supplies for a good price and assured me he would be able to find a similar deal for us.

in the height of summer, a frame like this can hold 2.5 kilos of honey!

last evening was the first class. there were several other bee newbies, tho' they were all well past retirement age. they seemed charmed that "youngsters" like us were interested. the club has a skolebigård ("school bee farm" if i directly translate)  at a ramshackle teeny little museum in an equally tiny town that's not much else. last evening, we checked all of the hives there, to see how the bees had come through the winter. actually, we watched, as the guys who knew about it checked them. he showed us the difference between combs that were full of eggs and those that were full of honey. 

again, i got only about 65% of it, but husband was there to catch the important bits. i was mostly taking pictures and feeling that close-to-nature feeling that accompanies such activities. it was an absolutely glorious evening, the sun doesn't set 'til 9 or so these days and it was warm and beautiful. the trees were full of bird song and the bees were humming, tho' they seemed very tame. the little smoker helped, but i also think it helped that the main bee handler was as calm around them as could be. he did warn that if there was a thunderstorm, you should just pack up and go home because it made the bees very agitated.

the guy on the right is the one who came to the door - he knows his bees

so we're going to be getting two of these bee "stalls" just after easter. and then our own bee adventure will begin. i'll definitely keep you posted on how it's going.

Winter Reading List

There are so many things to accomplish once you start changing your way of life, it is difficult to resist the urge to want to do all of the things you want to do....right now. The reality is, you have to pick, choose, and do a lot of investigating into what will work for your family. We began this process in earnest almost 4 years ago. I think for me the hardest thing is feeling a little guilty if I can't get as much done as I would like. I have come to the realization that any steps that we take are important. What I have found so interesting is how many people are interested in what we are doing and how so many people are also taking steps for their families. I think that making healthy choices for our families is precious and something each and every one of us has control over, especially in today's crazy world .

This time of year especially when we are bitterly cold and there is lots of snow, the focus comes down to planning and doing a great deal of reading. Some of my favorite resources I keep handy. The first book we bought when we were waiting for escrow to close on our little homestead was John Seymour's Concise Guide To Self-Sufficiency. From there I loved reading the family journey in "Animal, Vegetable Miracle". It made me focus more on what I was buying at the store. I began to only purchase things in season locally and then as our garden and food preservation efforts grew, I can say that I've purchased next to no produce other than fruit and a few extra onions in the last couple of years. I'm excited to see if the berry patches that we established last year bare us lots of fresh fruit this year! A great book for people on any sized property is The Backyard Homestead. It has loads of invaluable advise on about everything you would want to dabble in. I received "Canning For A New Generation" from a staff member for Christmas and I'm getting ready to crack it open this evening. What is on your bookshelf right now that you reach for?