Devonviolet Acres

[Mike CHS]

It's funny how eggs can be so different. We have one hen (don't know which one) that lays an extra extra large egg that is literally half again bigger than the others and they are all similar ages.

 

[Bruce]

It is a bit smaller in circumfrence, but certainly comparable.

Do you weigh them?
I can tell which chicken laid an egg based on several things depending on the bird. For instance Nuit and Mellori are both 2015 Black Australorps. Nuit always lays in the 56-60g size, Mellori never under 62g. Angel and Yuki are 2015 White Rocks. Angel often has some shallow grooves in her eggs and they are "egg shaped". Yuki's never have grooves and you can barely tell which end is supposed to be the narrow end. Like the BAs, Angel almost always lays 60g or less, Yuki always bigger.

 

[Devonviolet]

Hmmm. I never thought to weigh eggs. But then, since several girls lay at the same time & they use different nest boxes each time. I don't think it would help, to figure out who lays what.

 

[Bruce]

You have to get "lucky" and figure it out one girl at a time by being in the right place at the right time. For example, Yuki started laying out last summer and the only way I figured that out was a lack of her eggs in the nests. But this year she is using the tall cat box in the feed room, Angel never lays in that one nor do most of the other girls. That is one reason I have multiple breeds since, at least so far, their eggs are different enough to help make a determination. I'm sure I guess wrong sometimes.

Besides, when your eggs don't come in a USDA carton, you sometimes need to know what size they are for cooking

 

[Devonviolet]

Look what we did this morning! We went out in our own woods and picked 3-1/2 bushel baskets of beautyberries! Our woods are FULL with beautyberries! This is the first time I remembered to go pick them.

I want to make beautyberry jelly, beautyberry syrup and dried beautyberries, for later use. I am also going to make tincture (with the leaves), to use in insect repellant. I read there are 3 chemicals, in the leaves, that work well as insect repellant.

 

[Bruce]

They are, indeed, beautiful! Do the goats also eat them if given the chance?

 

[Devonviolet]

They are, indeed, beautiful! Do the goats also eat them if given the chance?

Not a chance! I've been saving them for us!!! I will share the leaves that I don't use to make tincture, though.

 

[CntryBoy777]

We don't have anything like that here....we have plenty of possum grapes tho, but Mom said they weren't dealing with, so not sure why....something about them having to go thru a frost if memory serves me correctly, but were warned to not pick or eat them....goats don't eat them either, even though the leaf resembles something of the grape family.

 

[Baymule]

We have beauty berries too. I always enjoy them in the fall, they are so pretty.

 

[Devonviolet]

We have beauty berries too. I always enjoy them in the fall, they are so pretty.

Great! Isn't it amazing what we can find on our own property?

You should pick some & make Beautyberry Jelly. But you wouldn't have to pick as many as we did.

The recipe I found calls for 6 cups of berries. That same recipe can be used to make Elderberry Jelly too.

I knew they were here, but never did anything with them until now. When we looked at the property, before we bought it, I saw them, but didn't know what they were. I asked our Realtor & he didn't know either. So he took a picture & sent it to his DD, who looked it up, and texted back what they were.

We didn't realize until today, when we went out to pick them how many we have! We didn't even pick them all. We got hot & sweaty & DH got tired, so we gave up. After picking the Elderberries, we knew our job was only half done. But, I'm sure it will be worth it in the end!