Setting Hens

Look at the three pictures. All three are the females of their breed setting clutches of eggs. Heloise the goose, Rosie the hen and Daphne the duck (Tinkerbell the turkey is also setting a clutch, but turned her back on the camera). All three will defend their nests with their lives. When their little ones hatch, they will teach them to eat and drink and run back to the nest when danger threatens. They will teach their young everything they need to know to survive.
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Long ago, *setting hens* were considered extremely valuable. A good setting hen would ensure that your flock of chickens would grow bigger. More chickens meant more eggs and more meat on the table. Precious protein at a time when grains and greens made up a large part of peoples diets.
Then, in the past century or so, when commercial farms took over from family farms and more and more people bought their food at supermarkets, *broody* hens became a liability.
Egg farms didn't want them, they just wanted eggs...the more the better. Meat producers didn't want them either...incubators reduced losses and were more efficient.
Chicken breeds were bred to reduce the natural instinct to set clutches of eggs.
When a hen goes broody here, I let them set a clutch of eggs, protected from the other chickens. Rosie is in the old rabbit hutch where Nugget and her little ones used to be. (They now have their own coop)
But Rosie isn't setting her own eggs...she is setting peafowl, duck and turkey eggs. She went broody a couple of weeks before our new incubator arrived and after our old one was full.
So, I tucked a few eggs from our other fowl under her and removed the two eggs she had laid and was setting. Chicken eggs hatch faster, so, it will be a bit longer of a *set* for her with these eggs. I removed her eggs, because when the first chicks hatch, the setting hen will only wait a couple more days for the rest of the clutch to hatch.
Rosie (and Daphne and Heloise and Tinkerbell) are all doing their jobs well. Whether it is their eggs or eggs that suddenly appeared overnight beneath them (yes, that is how I snuck the other eggs under Rosie!), all are taking their jobs of setting seriously.
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As I read the blogs other people post, I realize that we are *setting hens* (doesn't matter if we are men or women!).
Our knowledge and experiences are the eggs we are setting on. Protecting this knowledge for a generation that may not even be here yet. We teach our own children and anyone else that wanders into our *nests*.
There may come a day when this knowledge is valuable again. When knowing how to garden or store food or milk a goat or any of a thousand skills bloggers post about will be the difference between life and death for some future generation. The more skills we pass along the more likelihood that someone out there that needs that knowledge will stumble across it....and then pass that knowledge along to another.

Good Morning!

It's a Happy Thursday here.
The sky is gray and overcast, the temperatures are dropping and we have a slight drizzle.
But, still, a good day!
Why?
Although I like doing yard work and being outside, I have been doing so much yard work and upkeep around this place that a day doing inside work is a GOOD thing!
I have some sewing to do, the ever-present cleaning and I am going to try to reorganize my library AND my *survival* notebooks.
I have loads of books.
Some I read purely for entertainment and some for education. Some just make me *think*.
Here's some of the books I recommend:
Cookbooks:
More Than Moonshine
Home Made in the Kitchen
Quick and Easy Korean Cooking
Preserving Food Without Freezing or Canning

Current book thats making me think:
To Shake Their Guns in the Tyrants Face

Novels I have been reading:
Deep Winter
Survivors
Tomorrow (Beyond Armageddon)

I read a lot. A LOT.
It is absolutely my favorite non-physical thing to do!
I get a lot of information from books. Although I love going online, there is nothing like having a solid book in my greedy paws! If and when TSHTF, having solid books will be priceless! You don't have to bankrupt yourself to buy them, either. Many books can be found online...all they cost is paper and ink!
Massive pdf files you can print down here that are useful:
Survival Books to Download
Foxfire Books 1-6 to download (if you just want those...they are also on the first survival books link)
Military Manuals
Gardening and Self-Sufficiency Books
Just About Everything You'd Ever Need!

Pick and choose carefully to conserve that expensive ink!
Happy Reading and Happy Learning!

Happy New Year!!!

A new year has arrived. With the new year comes a new opportunity to get yourself organized for food storage, frugal living and prepping.
Make some resolutions...not big ones, just baby steps.
Here are a few suggestions to add to your resolution list:

Commit $5.00 a week to your food preps. Five bucks is not a lot. You can get a few extra cans of tuna, some boxes of macaroni and cheese...look and find inexpensive items to add to your pantry.

Go to the range one more time a month. Getting competent with your firearms is a GOOD thing!

Walk more. Park further away from the grocery store or on the other side of the mall or at the far end of the parking lot at work. A few extra steps has health benefits!

Learn one new skill every 3 months. It may be sewing or baking bread or canning or starting a campfire without matches. Doesn't matter. Just one new skill every three months. Practice at it until you feel confident in your abilities.

Read more. Read history, particularly American history and the history of revolution all over the world and throughout history. Read up on farming, read up on livestock management, read up on alternative/primitive building techniques. Read up on anything that will help you in your endeavors.

Cook at least one meal every two weeks using your food storage! I cook one meal a week, but you might want to start slow. I will be posting some of my favorite food storage recipes in the next couple of weeks to give you some ideas!

Once every three months, buy a "tool for living". A grain mill, a dehydrator, a sewing machine...whatever tool you do not have but feel it is necessary or prudent for you to have. If you have all the tools you need (like anyone ever will?)--but on the off chance you do, go beyond competent and get to be an expert on on one every 3 months.

So, Happy New Year, Happy Prepping and may the best of the past year be the worst of this new year for you all!