What's Happening on the Homestead This Week? Garden Work and Lash Eggs.

Added: 2026-05-24

[00:00:04]How you doing, ladies?

[00:00:06]So, I was up here giving them some greens out of my garden.

[00:00:11]Just weeds, mostly dandelions and clover and stuff, and I noticed one of my chickens was possibly egg bound. So, I've got her soaking back at the house.

[00:00:24]Dan had to throw a Rubbermaid tote over the rooster to keep him from attacking me while I caught her. She was pretty lethargic, so she was easy to catch.

[00:00:40]But now we're going to go clean out the hospital pen side so I can keep her separate for a little bit because it's full of feed bags.

[00:00:51][laughter] There's a chicken in there sitting on a bunch of eggs.

[00:01:07]My litter's gotten so deep I can't hardly get my door open over here anymore.

[00:01:15]Let's get this place cleaned out.

[00:01:19]So, I have been feeding this organic feed 17% layer crumbles. It's from Countback, and I haven't had any issues with it. But I thought since I recently found out that there's an Azure drop closer to me now instead of driving several hours, I'm glad they added one in Northern Michigan. So, I'm tried I only ordered 100 pounds, just two 50 lb bags of this Big Sky organic feed. And I thought I would try it because it is corn and soy free and I really wanted to try that. So I stuck it in my barrel. [snorts] Barrel is all dusty but it keeps the mice out. [snorts] So it looks like it looks like that it's all wheat and peas and all sorts of other stuff that's not corn.

[00:02:17]and soy. So, what do we got in there?

[00:02:20]We've got we've got wheat, peas, barley, some calcium, fish meal, flax seed, minerals, black oil, sunflower seeds, linseed oil, microbial supplement, organic kelp, diet tomatious earth, and salt. And that's all that's in there. And I think, yeah, it's a 16% layer mash.

[00:02:45]So, We'll see how well they do with it and see if they they seem to like it.

[00:02:54]I just put put it in there yesterday.

[00:02:56]So, we'll see how much how much we go through. It actually ends up being cheaper. I think it was only about 4 cents a pound cheaper, but cheaper is cheaper. And we'll see if uh see if my egg production changes. See if their health changes a little bit. And we'll just see what see how it goes.

[00:03:16]If you use this um feed from Azure, let me know how you like it.

[00:03:21]So, if you're like my husband and you're asking why on earth I'm saving all of these feed bags, I'm saving them for a project. I actually make um reusable shopping bags out of these cuz they make really, really good bags and they're just really strong and they last forever once you make them and they only just get softer and softer. So, I have a whole bunch of sewing to do but that's why I've been keeping them. We are in the greenhouse. So, I finally got all of my plants out of our guest house. We keep all of our plants under a plant light when I start them in the spring because we can keep the guest house really, really warm, and it's easier to keep that warm than it is to try to keep my greenhouse warmer at night. So, I finally got everybody moved out here because it's it's going to be warm enough at night that I can at least keep the diesel heater um keeping it at a good temperature in here without struggling too much. Um, and then, um, they just needed better light. So, we everybody's looking a little bit sad.

[00:04:15]Uh, everybody got a little bit wilty because I forgot to water them. That's the bad thing about them being in the guest house cuz I don't see them and then you don't see them, you forget about them. So, everybody got a little wilty. So, I had to quick get them out here and get them some water. So, tomorrow my plan is to work on getting my uh raspberries moved out of the garden um into a different part of the garden because they're taking over my raised beds area and I don't want them that want them in that spot and getting everybody transplanted into bigger pots. So, let me show you what my diesel heater looks like here. So, it's just a little a little thing. It's got a tank in it for the the diesel in there. It's pretty quiet. It's actually nice and warm in here. And then we've just got a little power station here that we plug it in. That's the bad thing about uh the diesel heaters is they need a power source. So, I got my melons. I got my tomatoes. Everybody's getting a little lanky and sad looking.

[00:05:13]So, everybody needs to be transplanted and given a little bit of fertilizer and get everybody looking better. I was planning on doing all of this today, but I was dealing with an egg bound chicken most of the day today. So, giving her an Epsom salt bath, getting her soaked, and helping her to feel a little bit better cuz that can be a life-threatening condition if you don't treat it. So, I will be doing some gardening tomorrow.

[00:05:39]And it was really depressing today cuz it's May. It's May 7 today and it was snowing a little while ago and I thought we were done with snow, but it was snowing. It didn't last long and it turned into rain, but it did start out as snow and that's not fair.

[00:05:54]So, we came up to check on her this morning. She's got her own food and water in there and she's eating really well this morning.

[00:06:02]She does not like being in there by herself. She wants out in the worst way, but I need to keep her separate for a little while.

[00:06:11]So, what happened is we thought she had a thought she was egg bound and turns out when she laid whatever it was that she laid that it wasn't an egg. Um, this was after the Epsom salt bath and it turned out to be a lash egg. And I'll spare you the details of the in the picture of what that horrendous thing looked like, but it was it was awful. It was like a gelatinous fat-filled mass of pus basically. And it was it was really gross. Um, and I made the mistake of cleaning it up with paper towels and cleaner with my bare hands without gloves. And I was told that that's probably not the best thing to do because it's basically all Salmonell and E.coli. So, I washed my hands really well, got uh got her um separated, didn't put her back with the rest of the flock, and now we got to get her some antibiotics. So, we'll see if she ever lays again. Um, they say it's kind of 50/50 whether they do or not, but if she's good and healthy, we'll keep her around. Just got to keep her separate for a little while.

[00:07:19]These guys are all good.

[00:07:22]It was kind of funny. I had to have Dan sit on the rooster for a little while yesterday while I caught her because he's pretty mean. He doesn't like anybody messing with his ladies. So, I threw a Rubbermaid tote over top of him.

[00:07:36]Had Dan sit on the tote for a little bit while I caught her. And then uh we let him go. He was not happy being underneath that thing, but it was better than getting spurred because there's a reason the roosters are around. They protect their ladies.

[00:07:52]My baby's in their nesting boxes. And I got to get in there and clean out the nesting boxes and everything too because um if she's been in there at any time.

[00:07:59]She I'm thankful she did not lay the lash egg in a nesting box and she did not lay it in the ce. She was [laughter] already separated and in a like a pet carrier cuz that was the only thing I had to let her dry out in after her bath. [laughter] And so I'm glad it's not in here because that would have really caused havoc in here of having to clean everything out immediately. But I need to get in there and clean out the [laughter] clean out the uh nesting boxes. Just make sure everybody's got good clean bedding. I mean, everything's good and dry in here, but um better be safe than sorry. And it's basically a reproductive um infection that it could have been there for as long as a few months.

[00:08:41]So, it says it takes a while. So, she probably hasn't been laying for a while, but it's spring. So, I mean, they're only just starting to lay right now, so I may not have noticed, but she's I'm I'm encouraged that she's got a good appetite and she's up and around and she wants out of there. So, I think that's a good sign.

[00:09:01]And she still smells really nice from her Epsom sal bath because it has some essential oils and it has some eucalyptus in it, which is probably good for her. So, she smells she smells all pretty, don't you?

[00:09:16]She doesn't look at all red or anything around the vent. It's all nice and clean and pink. So, see if we can get you feeling better, huh?

[00:09:27]Cuz I am headed to the up next week and I got to get feel get her feeling better before I leave.

[00:09:37]We are going to play out in the garden for a little while this morning. It's finally warming up a little bit. It was we had a heavy frost last night or a heavy freeze warning and it definitely frosted. There was ice on anything that had water in it this morning and it was really really really cold. My heater shut off in my greenhouse last night and I came out here and everything was at 38°. Thankfully it didn't freeze and I'm I'm sure everything's going to survive as long as it doesn't freeze. It's just going to slow things down a lot. So my goal is to try and keep this place heated but it's going to warm up. Right now it's in the 80s in there right now.

[00:10:10]So, it's really nice. So, I I'll show you what I wanted to get done today.

[00:10:15]These are my raspberries, [sighs] and I'm going to have to sacrifice my season this year, I think. Um, what I'm going to do is I'm going to cut them all down to about 8 in, every single one of them, and then transplant them because that's how you need to transplant them.

[00:10:30]They don't need to waste all of their um recovery time after you transplant them trying to keep all of their growth going. So if you cut them down to about 8 to 12 in and then transplant them from there, all they have to do is just survive for that 8 to 12 in. So and then they grow back really, really fast. It's really good. It's good for raspberry patches to be cut down. I mean, look at how many of them are outside of my fence. There's so many out there because they went right through the fence here. And the problem I'm having is is that all of them are getting into my raised beds right here.

[00:11:09]That bucket didn't get brought in before winter. Now it's full of brown water. I should throw that on my compost bin.

[00:11:15]See, I got how many? Look at my Brussels sprouts from last year. But look at all the raspberries that are coming up inside my raised bed. And I'm tired of fighting this. And I can't walk on that whole side of the raised beds because they just took over over there. And I got to do some major clean up in here.

[00:11:32]Look at all the dandelions I got coming up already. I've been I've been picking those like crazy because they're nice and tender. And I know people eat them, but I haven't acquired the taste for them yet. But look at all those. I've been feeding them to my chickens. And that's what I was doing yesterday when I noticed that my chicken was sick.

[00:11:54]She wasn't eating. Everybody was eating the greens and she was not. And I thought that's weird. And then I noticed that her back end looked a little bit not so good.

[00:12:05]So, these are the giant pots that I bought for my herb beds. And these things are really, really big. How big are they?

[00:12:14]They're a 29 in pot. So, almost 3 ft across. So, they're huge. And I got five of them. So, I'm going to replace at least this bed right here, which is what I keep kind of some annual herbs in and stuff. So, it doesn't matter if I pull this one up. And then this one over here is all mint. And that's just out of control. That's got to get taken care of. And then that way I can get my my tractor through here. And then we're going to get rid of that compost bin today, I hope. And then I'll be able to get through there. And then we'll find somewhere else for the picnic table and the bench. That bench actually needs to be refinished. Got all my bee stuff out.

[00:12:55]We've got got some bee traps up. Let me show you what they look like.

[00:13:00]So, you got two of them up in a tree.

[00:13:02]We're told that the bees like the bright colors. So, we used orange buckets. And there's beeswax smeared on the inside so that they have their pheromone smell in there. And there's one way back over here also. See that one there? Um, and then they're high up in a tree. And then there's a hole drilled in there so they can get in. And then there's also some cotton balls with lemongrass soil on it.

[00:13:26]So, I'm gonna refresh those because it's been so cold that no no bee in its right mind is is swarming in this in the cold that we've had. But hoping that we can uh get some attracted here and maybe get my my bees back. And this thing's got to move.

[00:13:43]We're going to tear that apart today.

[00:13:46]See if I can The compost in here is probably at least five years old. There's some fresher stuff on top from last year and a bucket apparently.

[00:13:59]So, we'll see what's underneath that top layer. Maybe I can use a lot of that today and then just put the unused unusable stuff over in my other compost bin over here. So, and I didn't have I don't have my bees here this year. My bees were right here for lack of time to put them anywhere else. Cuz right now they are way way back in the garden, way over there. Way in the backside there.

[00:14:29]Kind of out of the way, but still protected by the fence. So no bears will get in here. I hope.

[00:14:36]So, what I was talking about in my last video about revamping this garden is I think I think we might use these raised beds for one more year and then um we're talking about maybe doing a better fence next year. U maybe doing something that's a little bit more permanent, something that the [sighs] something that's going to last because this deer netting might not last another I don't know how long it lasts, but I mean it's starting to get a little bit stretched out in spots. So, we're going to see what else we can do with that.

[00:15:06]But, we're going to use these. But looking at this one, I think this is kind of the last year that we're going to get out of these beds. I mean, this one's still usable, but certainly not going to try and fill it up too much more this year. But the rest of them haven't bowed out like that. But, so this is my this is my my job for the day is getting this place ready for planting. I know we got a month yet before we plant, but this is what it looks like pretty much every spring. It's just was winter. We hit We got such an early winter last year. I didn't even get any clean up done in here. But look at this kale. I got kale coming up. I didn't think that kale would overwinter, but these are nice fresh almost edible leaves. Those are fresh growth.

[00:15:57]I didn't know kale actually overwintered.

[00:16:01]Apparently it does. Oh, it even tastes good.

[00:16:05]Got a different variety right there. Get this cleaned up and see if they're trim them up a little bit and oh, maybe I'll have to plant kale this year.

[00:16:17]See what the temperature is in here.

[00:16:24]We are at almost 90. Oh, 85. Oh, it feels so good in here. We got the shade cloth on yesterday because that had slid off and it frozen on the ground last year, so I couldn't even put it away. So, we got that on yesterday because these plants will die almost instantly in this greenhouse when it gets without that shade cloth on the top. They have to have the light, but not that heat that comes from the sun because that 90° will instantly go up to 120 and just kill these guys. So, everybody's looking a little bit better than what they did yesterday. Got everybody watered and fertilized. These are my jalapenos.

[00:17:03]They're doing really good. Even better than the the bell peppers. Those are a little bit behind, but I had to get them out of that dark little house. First thing we're going to do is my uh potting mix is pretty dry cuz it's been sitting in here on in an open bag. So, I got to get that really wet. And then I'm going to get all of my tomatoes, my melons, my leaks, onions, everything pretty much into these 4-in pots. And then I'm going to um get everybody situated until we can get everybody out in the garden.

[00:18:07]That didn't work 100% as I planned it because the deer netting catches a lot of the leaves. A lot of them go under because that that netting is not fastened on the ground in any way. So, most of the leaves can go under, but a lot of them are get getting caught in the in the raspberries. And I've got got leaves embedded in my hair for for days. I got so much dirt in my hair.

[00:18:28]Definitely got to go take a shower.

[00:18:31]Yeah. So, I think I just need to get my rake out again. Got me a nice new rake.

[00:18:35]And I think I'm going to start cutting these raspberry plants down because these big canes are just getting the leaves stuck. So, I think that's my next my next thing.

[00:18:57]They grow long enough to shoot roots out the other end.

[00:19:02]Probably plant that, too.

[00:20:41]>> [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat.

[00:21:01][music] Let's [music] see how many raspberry plants I've got now that I've gotten a lot of the leaves out of here.

[00:21:51]All the way inside, outside, and all of them that are in here. I'm counting 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 about 23 of them that are in the raised bed.

[00:22:15]I've got so much dirt in my hair. I got to go take a shower.

[00:22:19]Oh, I got a lot of work done today. And it felt really good. I've been itching to get out here and get my hands dirty.

[00:22:25]So, I'm going to end the video here.

[00:22:28]I've got a few more plants to finish transplanting over and then I got to get some supper made for us. So, I I'm happy with what I got done today and I think over the next few days I can get this place looking a whole lot better. I think for the most part of our garden transformation this year, I think we're going to uh use these raised beds for one last year, figuring out what we're doing with the fence, and then um we got this compost bin out of here. And that's a huge thing cuz that thing was just it seemed like that was always in the way.

[00:22:57]So, getting rid of that will be great.

[00:22:59]And once I get my raspberries moved over, then I can uh I can use all that up for that. And then hopefully get them in the other pots, the rest of it. So, and then the the rest of my uh clean up will be getting all these acorns out of here so I don't have any more oak trees growing up in my garden. So, we will see you guys next time. Thanks again for joining us. And I know it might not be very interesting to a lot of people, but garden cleanup is a huge part of growing all of our food and being self sustaining um as much as possible. And I I love gardening. I really do. And it's something that I spend all winter dreaming about. So, I'm glad it's [music] finally here. So, I will uh share with you any more updates as to how we're uh getting things [music] ready for this garden. And we'll see you guys next time. Bye.