Homemade lemon puddings with lemon zest and juice dusted with icing sugar. Adobe Stock/Olga Gorchichko
Lemon recipes hit the ticket any time of year with the lemons themselves offering a bright, refreshing flavor. Here are some vintage lemon recipes from the 1970s that do not disappoint.
Lemon Pudding – 1976 Recipe Book
Ingredients
1 cup sugar
2 tbsp. flour, heaping spoonfuls
¼ tsp. baking powder
1 lemon rind
3 eggs, yolks and whites separated
½ tsp. salt
1 cup milk
Juice of 1 lemon
Directions
Place the dry ingredients in a bowl, add the rind of lemon, and mix well.
Beat in egg yolks and gradually add milk. Add lemon juice.
Beat egg whites until stiff but not dry, and fold into other ingredients.
When baking the lemon pudding, place the cake pan in another pan containing water. Bake in a square cake pan for 30 minutes at 350°F. It should be a little brown on top when finished baking.
Once baked, don’t remove from the pan until it is ready to serve. A cake layer will form on the top and sauce will form under the cake layer on the bottom.
Serve hot or cold with whipped cream or powdered sugar.
Lemon pudding recipe submitted by Leona Frickman. Shared from the 1976 copy of Dodge Center St. John Baptist DeLaSalle Catholic Women’s Cookbook. Iowa.
Adobe Stock/Davizro Photography
Lemon Fluff Dessert – 1978 Cookbook
Here is another recipe from one of my 1970s cookbooks. It includes Vanilla Wafers, Jello and Cool Whip – how very 70’s, wouldn’t you agree? It’s almost comical how many recipes include Jello from this time period.
Ingredients
Crust Ingredients:
1 lb. box vanilla wafers, crushed
¼ cup chopped nuts of choice
1/3 cup melted butter
Remaining Ingredients:
6 egg yolks
1 cup white granulated sugar
½ cup lemon juice
2 boxes of lemon Jello
1 cup milk
4 egg whites
1 cup whipping cream or Cool Whip
Crust Directions
Mix together the crushed wafers, chopped nuts and melted butter for the crust and firmly press into a 9×13 pan, reserving 1/3 cup of the mixture for the topping.
Filling Directions
In a double boiler, heat the egg yolks, sugar, lemon juice, Jello, and milk. Cook until it starts to thicken.
Once thickened, allow to cool.
Beat the egg whites and add it to the whipping cream. Add the cooled lemon mixture to the whites and whipping cream mixture. Mix together until smooth.
Once smooth, spread the mixture over the crust and sprinkle the remaining topping over the filling.
Refrigerate and allow the Lemon Fluff Dessert to set at least 4 hours, or overnight. Keeps very well.
This Lemon Fluff Dessert recipe was shared by Mrs. Francis McFadden. Shared from the 75 Years of Good Cooking cookbook, compiled by the Rosary Society Immaculate Conception Parish in Lonsdale, MN.
Salad Dressing With Lemon Juice
I’ve included a really short recipe for a basic salad dressing that features lemon juice, as many do. It has a star written in pencil by it from the previous owner, so that made it stand out to me.
Ingredients
1 cup salad oil
6 tbsp. red wine vinegar
2 tbsp. lemon juice
4 tbsp. white granulated sugar
½ tsp. salt
1 tsp. dry mustard
1 tsp. grated onion
Directions
Pour all ingredients into a jar, shake well and keep refrigerated.
This recipe was contributed by Mona Bean. This recipe was found in the “Our Daily Bread” cookbook, compiled by the First Baptist Church of Benton, Illinois. Updated third edition, 1980. The first edition was written in 1907!
This article about vintage lemon recipes was written for Hobby Farms magazine. Click here to subscribe.
Why do you need a multi-bit screwdriver? Wouldn’t a regular set of screwdrivers—or better yet, an electric drill with a full set of bits—handle your farming needs just as well or better?
Actually, a multi-bit screwdriver serves a useful and versatile purpose in the toolkit of any farmer. Here are three reasons why you need one…
1. They Can Drive & Remove Many Different Types of Screws
A regular screwdriver is sized to fit a particular style and size of screw; perhaps a small Phillips-head screw, or a large flat-head screw. To drive or remove screws of different sizes and types, you need to have multiple screwdrivers on hand.
In contrast, a multi-bit screwdriver features a single handle with interchangeable bits, which can usually be stored on or within the screwdriver for convenience. Depending on the number of bits it comes with, you can tackle a wide variety of screw shapes and sizes just by switching bits. Perhaps it’s a 6-in-1 screwdriver, or an 8-in-1, or an 18-in-1. Whatever the number of options, a multi-bit screwdriver offers a lot of versatility in a small package.
2. They’re Lightweight, Portable & Inexpensive
While larger and bulkier than a regular screwdriver, multi-bit screwdrivers are still lightweight and portable. They’re also relatively inexpensive, so it’s not unreasonable to have multiple around. You can toss one into the toolbox of your tractor and forget about it until you need it, keep one in your garage for odd jobs around the house and farmyard, and put one in the barn for similar purposes.
A lot of times you’re going about your day, working on farm projects, and you don’t know what types of screws you’ll need to drive or remove. You might be mowing around a pasture fence when you notice some mild fence damage; to fix it, you need to remove a Phillips-head screw and drive it into a different location. Guess what? That multi-bit screwdriver in your tractor toolbox probably has the right bit for the job and you can repair the damage right then and there.
3. The Bits May Be Compatible With Your Electric Drill
While this isn’t guaranteed to be the case every time, there’s a good chance the bits that come with your multi-bit screwdriver can also be used by a typical electric drill. When paired with an electric drill, a multi-bit screwdriver becomes a convenient carrying case for extra bits and backup if the drill battery runs dry.
It’s worth noting that the inverse probably isn’t true; electric drill bits probably won’t be compatible with your multi-bit screwdriver, since a typical multi-bit screwdriver requires bits of a specific diameter and attachment style while an electric drill can accommodate multiple diameters and styles. But that’s okay since the main point of a multi-bit screwdriver is that it comes with lots of compatible bits.
If these three reasons haven’t convinced you why you need a multi-bit screwdriver… perhaps you should purchase one anyway and give it a try yourself. You might be surprised by how handy they can be.
Combining a sickle bar mower or disc mower with a conditioner to promote better drying, modern mower/conditioners are the perfect tool for cutting hay. It sure beats a handheld scythe!
3. Tedder
A machine used to aerate cut hay and speed up the drying process—an important step if you’re trying to bale before rainfall arrives.
4. Bale Kicker/Thrower
While it’s possible to get by without a bale kicker/thrower, if you’re working with a small crew, having a machine that automatically shoots fresh bales from the baler into an attached wagon can save time and effort.
Baling Hay: Attachments
5. Hay Rake
Hay must be raked into windrows to facilitate easy baling. A hay rake—even an old one—can do the job just fine.
6. Baler
Whether you’re making square bales or round bales, a hay baler is necessary to pack the hay into manageable units for easy handling and storage. Try moving loose hay around, and you’ll quickly see the benefits of bales!
7. Hay Wagon or Trailer
At least one hay wagon or trailer is convenient for hauling bales off the fields. Having multiple on hand allows you to unload one wagon while the other is picking up new bales.
8. Bay Accumulator
As an alternative to towing a wagon behind the baler, you can pull a hay accumulator, which will gather and hold a large handful of bales before dropping them off in a single location.
Later, you can drive to each group of bales and pick them up with a wagon, saving time compared to picking up individual bales scattered all over the fields.
9. Hay Bale Spear
In you’re baling round bales, a hay bale spear—literally a few heavy-duty prongs designed to pierce and pick up heavy bales—is a great tool to have.
Trade out the bucket on your front-end loader (or mount the bale spear on your three-point hitch) to make transporting round bales a breeze.
Hay Equipment
10. Baling Twine
Without baling twine, a hay baler isn’t much use. Calculate your needs for the season, then stock up sufficiently so you won’t run out.
11. Fuel
Does your tractor run on gasoline or diesel fuel? Either way, have enough on hand so you won’t run out in the middle of baling.
12. Gloves & Safety Goggles
Wearing appropriate safety gear around powerful farm machinery is always a good idea. Gloves and safety goggles are just two examples.
13. Spare Parts
Sometimes machines break. Spare tires, rake tines, shears pins, etc. should all be handy so if something goes wrong, you can quickly switch out the broken part and keep moving.
Hay can be messy. Leaf rakes, bow rakes, push brooms, shovels and similar hand tools can sweep hay wagons and barn floors clean, or help tame the mess if a hay bale bursts open during stacking or transport.
16. Water
The saying “make hay while the sun shines” often means hay is baled during hot weather. Staying hydrated is important, so have lots of drinking water on hand for you and your crew.
17. Appropriate Clothing
Light-colored clothes made of cotton are ideal for working in hot weather. And a long-sleeved shirt can help protect you from getting scratched up by prickly hay.
18. Enclosed Tractor Cab
No, this isn’t a requirement … but isn’t the thought of riding around in an enclosed cab (especially one with air conditioning) an appealing thought on a hot afternoon?
19. Hay Elevator
If you’re storing hay in the upper level of a barn (or even just stacking it really high), a hay elevator can easily lift the hay where it needs to go, saving time and effort. They can also act as a conveyor belt to carry hay across wide spaces, such as from the front of a barn to the back.
Baling Hay: Storage
20. Hay Barn or Shed
You need somewhere dry to store your hay, yes? Any barn or shed can do the job, so long as it protects hay from the elements while still providing proper ventilation.
Storing the hay on floor pallets can help get air under the stack.
Knowing how to keep chickens cool in the summer when the high heat kicks in and heat-stressed chickens take a sabbatical and drop egg production is important. Once temps reach the triple digits, you’ll be lucky if you get a single egg from a flock of a dozen hens. However, with a bit of extra attention, you can ease the stress of summertime heat and help the girls continue laying those golden eggs even during the dog days of summer.
Enemy No. 1 – Heat Stress
Chickens are fairly hardy creatures, often enduring crowded conditions, suboptimal nutrition and less-than-ideal housing. However, when it comes to battling heat, chickens aren’t overly adept at maintaining their cool. That’s because chickens don’t sweat.
Instead, heat is dissipated via their comb, wattles, shanks and the unfeathered areas beneath the wings. While it is true that chickens, like dogs, are capable of panting to aid in cooling, once panting is evident, the hen is already in a state of heat stress.
Because chickens don’t sweat, knowing how to keep chickens cool in the summer is important. Learn to recognize the contributing factors to heat stress so you know when to put your heat management practices into action. Once temperatures reach a balmy 75°F, many hens begin to consume less food. This results in a reduced level of nutrition.
As protein and calcium stores become depleted, egg production and quality begin slowly dropping.
By the time summer temps reach 85 degrees, eggs become fewer, smaller and have softer shells. By 95 degrees, overall production drops significantly or stops altogether, with heat exhaustion becoming a serious threat to any unprotected birds.
In regions with high humidity, chickens are in even greater danger of heat stress. Heat indices often reach these thresholds much sooner and last for much longer than in less humid regions.
Provide Cool Water
A constant supply of cool water is perhaps one of the best strategies for how to keep chickens cool in the summer and comfortable enough to continue eating their rations and laying eggs. However, water that is cool to the touch during the early morning hours often becomes unappealing, hot liquid before noon in many areas.
Hot water is much less appealing to the flock, resulting in less water consumption and dehydration. Once dehydrated, the hen struggles even harder to stay cool and simply cannot lay eggs.
Left untreated, dehydration leads to heat exhaustion and then death.
There are many ways to ensure a cool water source even if you’re away from home for most of the day. A water container with an automatic waterer attached is the easiest option for providing a continuous supply of fresh, cool water.
Each time a hen takes a drink, fresh water will refill the container, encouraging hens to continue drinking.
Supply Frozen Water
Another easy option is to freeze several water buckets overnight in a large chest freezer. Set each one out in the morning in the shade to allow for slower melting. Refill containers with fresh water as soon as you return home in the afternoon.
Alternatively, freeze water in half or 1-gallon ice-cream buckets each night and place in water containers each morning or, even better, every couple of hours as the temperature rises whenever possible. Refill and refreeze each evening.
For a special treat, freeze large sections of fruit such as watermelon, cantaloupe, tomatoes, and even berries and cucumbers for each day. These may be placed in the water buckets like ice, which also helps to keep the hens drinking.
In addition to cool water, electrolytes may be added to the water to encourage drinking and to replace lost electrolytes. There are many home recipes as well as ready-made electrolyte mixes available for purchase.
When using electrolytes, however, be sure to follow directions closely. Some recommend only offering the electrolytes for a limited time to prevent other health issues.
It’s also a good idea to include a source of plain water nearby in the event a hen decides she doesn’t like the taste the electrolytes add to the water.
Zzzufa/Shutterstock
Increase Protein
Hot chickens don’t eat well, which also decreases egg production. To help hens continue laying, increase their ration’s protein level. Switch from 16 percent layer feed to one with 17 to 18 percent protein, such as those designed for molting.
You can also increase protein by mixing small amounts of milk or sunflower seeds into their mash. This further stimulates appetites.
However, avoid scratch grains during hot weather, particularly corn-based sources. The carbohydrates raise body temperature during digestion, further decreasing food consumption.
Open the Coop
Second only to adequate water and food sources is ventilation for how to keep chickens cool in the summer—not only in the coop but in the chicken yard as well. If your girls are lucky and have windows in their chicken coop, keep them open once temperatures reach 75 degrees.
Screened doors instead of solid doors are also quite useful even if they can only be left open during the daytime hours when predators are less likely to venture to the coop for an easy meal.
Fans also contribute to airflow and are highly recommended. But care should be taken as they can be a fire hazard.
Regardless of how much ventilation you provide inside the coop, hens laying in indoor nesting boxes will still get hotter than is optimal.
Broody hens have an even higher risk of heat exhaustion and stroke than non broody hens. They’ll often only leave their nest once or twice in an entire day to eat, drink and relieve themselves.
So moving nesting boxes outside into a safe area of the run is best for laying and broody hens whenever possible.
To encourage egg laying in outdoor nesting boxes rather than inside the hot coop, you may need to close off the original nesting area to force the hens to look for other areas to lay their eggs.
Empty milk crates and square laundry baskets placed outdoors and stuffed with a bit of straw make suitable outside nesting boxes. Many hens will happily choose these cooler options over their normal indoor boxes.
Lots of Shade
Perhaps the most commonly overlooked needs during hot weather are adequate shade and breezes for how to keep chickens cool in the summer
To provide a constant source of shade around the yard, place several tarps along the run walls wherever possible. But you also need to keep air flowing throughout the chicken yard. Be sure to leave an open space of at least 3 feet around the perimeter between the tarp and the ground.
Scrap lumber may also be used to build simple shelters throughout the yard as well. One of my favorite methods of creating shade is to bend cattle panels into an arch and then cover with tarps.
These shady tunnels are a favorite of my hens. They allow good airflow and protection from the occasional summer rainstorm. As an added bonus, I can move these temporary shelters as needed with relative ease and minimal equipment.
The best source of shade for how to keep chickens cool in the summer is free-ranging whenever possible, particularly in wooded areas. The cool, moist earth is a treasure trove of protein-rich earthworms. It also cools the hens’ feet and provides much-needed relief during extreme temperatures.
In areas where predators are a problem, portable fencing is an excellent option whether free-ranging in the woods or in the backyard. Even cattle panels lined with poultry netting may be assembled into temporary enclosures to provide chickens respite from the heat.
Plus, the additional roaming space keeps the chickens from crowding together under a single shade source. This further allows them to keep themselves cooler and more comfortable throughout the hottest part of the day.
Do, however, ensure your hens have easy access to their water source. They are often quite hesitant to travel back to the chicken yard for a drink.
Place a few sources of cool water throughout their favorite ranging spaces to keep them hydrated. Replenish with fresh water as needed.
Heinz Jacobi/Shutterstock
Dust Baths & Misters
As you likely already know, chickens are known for their love of dust baths. During the heat of summer, access to dust baths is a significant component in heat management. The dust has a cooling effect over their bodies.
You can help chickens create their own dust bath by allowing access to grass-free dirt. You can also dig a shallow hole to get them started.
Another great option is to fill a kiddie swimming pool with soft, loose dirt several inches deep. It won’t take the girls long to find this flock-sized dust bath and jump in.
Another use for a kiddie pool is as a source of wading water. Many hens will happily walk around in a few inches of cool water whenever they get hot. They can take a drink, too.
Adding a mister to the area they roam in is another good way to provide a cooling station. Misters are capable of reducing the surrounding air temp by up to 20 degrees in some areas.
And because hens typically don’t like dripping water from a sprinkler, misters may be used in their place to cool the most commonly used areas of the chicken yard on exceptionally hot days without stressing the chickens further.
Keeping your flock healthy enough to continue laying eggs during the dog days of summer can at times be challenging. However, the extra work required usually lasts only a few months. And it is made easier with careful planning such as breed selection, water placement, and shady locations.
So fill your freezer with ice and frozen fruit, start building those extra waterers and find some shade. Then you and your flock will be prepared when the heat comes.
Signs of Heat Stress
Heat stress begins and chickens need help keeping cool when the ambient temperature climbs above 80°F. And it’s readily apparent above 85 degrees, according to North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service. For most areas of the U.S., these are pretty normal summer temperatures.
Mild signs of heat stress in chickens manifest as:
reduced egg laying
lower hatching rates
reduced weight gain
smaller and weaker eggs
pale combs and wattles
Just as people become more irritable when hot and uncomfortable, chickens suffering from heat stress are also not themselves. They’ll be lethargic, eat less and drink more.
More drinking leads to diarrhea. Chickens might be more likely to pick fights and engage in cannibalism, too. At its most severe, heat stress can lead to seizures and death.
A hen that is simply hot may be seen panting lightly but otherwise will be acting normally, says Ashley Wright, a livestock area agent at the University of Arizona Cooperative Extension Service.
A hen under light or moderate heat stress may pant more heavily or hold her wings away from her body and crouch slightly to aid in heat dissipation through the unfeathered areas under her wings.
She will, however, continue to act normally otherwise.
“These hens may not be in immediate danger, but it is a sign that further action should be taken to cool them and the rest of the flock to prevent heat exhaustion,” Wright says.
“A hen in danger of heat exhaustion will be panting heavily and holding her wings away from her body. She may have a pale wattles and comb; she may be lethargic, limp or unconscious.”
A chicken exhibiting these symptoms is in extreme danger of dying from heat stress and should be cooled quickly.
“Submerge her body up to her neck—not her head—in a bucket of cool—not icy—water and place her somewhere cool until she is completely recovered,” Wright says.
This article about how to keep chickens cool in the summer originally appeared in the July/August 2020 issue of Chickens magazine. Click here to subscribe.
Herbs for chickens to help them beat the summer heat are important since summer can take a toll on our chickens’ bodies as they go about laying eggs and foraging. Adding herbs can boost your chickens’ intake of essential vitamins and minerals and help them survive the summer heat.
So, let’s dive into some heat-beating herbs!
1. Peppermint
Peppermint is one of my flock’s all-time favorite summer-time herbs—and for good reason. Peppermint helps relieve respiratory problems (common for chickens in humid climates), strengthens eggshell quality, repels insects, and increases feed intake. Some experts even suggest that peppermint naturally helps lower body temperatures in chickens (and humans) while decreasing the chance of heat exhaustion.
Serve your flock peppermint free choice in a salad, hang in a herb bundle in the coop or run, or steep in a tea.
2. Parsley
During the summer, a chicken’s feed intake declines. Feeding a treat full of essential vitamins and minerals, like parsley, can help provide nutrients your flock may be missing.
This watery herb is high in vitamins A, B and C; calcium; and iron. It is also a natural laying stimulant and one of the most nutritious herbs to feed chickens.
Chickens love fresh parsley and will eat it out of your hand or in a salad with other greens. However, if you have a picky eater, you can steep parsley in water to make tea.
3. Lavender
While lavender may not possess all the nutrients to help survive the summer heat like the other herbs in this article, it helps to relieve your flock from summertime pests. Lavender is one of the best ways to repel flies, lice, mites and other pests away from our flocks and coops. Hanging lavender in small bundles around the hen house and run provides a delicious snack for your hens to peck at while working to repel bugs at the same time.
With heat, humidity and egg production at their highest, summer can be stressful for backyard flocks. Hanging lavender around the coop can also reduce stress and tension and create a relaxed atmosphere.
4. Fennel
Fennel is one of my all-time favorite herbs to feed my girls. This fantastic herb has many benefits; therefore, my flock eats it fresh or dried year-round. The entire plant, including the bulb, is edible, but the seeds offer the most health benefits. During the hot summer months, feeding laying hens fennel seeds can help reduce the effects of heat stress on egg quality.
An ancient medicinal plant, fennel seeds also help to prevent parasites and reduce the chance of coccidia, cancer, crop impactions and sour crop in backyard flocks.
Fennel can be fed free choice like a treat, or you can steep fennel seeds in water to make tea.
5. Dandelions
I know dandelions aren’t technically an herb, but these bright yellow flowering plants have a necessary benefit your hens need to survive the summer heat. Dandelions contain natural electrolytes that help your flock combat high heat and humidity and keep your chickens in tip-top condition during the summer.
During the growing season, I feed my flock dandelions free choice as a salad. Not only does feeding dandelions to my flock benefit my chickens, but it also helps clean out some of the dandelions that pop up in my garden.
6. Oregano
Studies have proven how much oregano benefits the health of chickens and other poultry species. Oregano is an immune-enhancing herb and keeps a chicken’s immune system strong during the summer heat and humidity. Since summer can be stressful for backyard flocks, providing your chickens with added immune boosters could be the difference between life and death.
Oregano can be fed free choice or steeped in water to make tea (my flock’s preferred method).
Steeping Herbs
All the herbs in this article (except lavender) can be steeped into teas. When steeping tea, boil 1 1/2 cups of water. Add 1 teaspoon of dried herbs or a handful of fresh herbs to the boiling water. Remove from heat and cover.
Steep for 10 minutes. Cool completely before mixing 1 cup of tea into 1 gallon of water.
The herbs listed above are a few beneficial plants that can help your chickens beat the heat this summer. For a complete list of chicken-safe herbs, please visit https://www.poultrydvm.com/herbs.php.
This article about 6 herbs for chickens to help them beat summer’s heat was written for Chickens magazine. Click here to subscribe.
Heat stress in chickens occurs when an imbalance exists between the heat that is produced by the body and the heat that is dissipated from the body. Environmental temperatures warmer than 80.6°F typically cause chickens to start to experience heat stress. Heat stress can be labeled in three different ways: acute heat stress, moderate heat stress and chronic heat stress.
Acute heat stress lasts from one to 24 hours, moderate heat stress lasts around seven days and chronic heat stress lasts seven days or longer. These distinctions are important because birds are more likely to experience detrimental effects from heat stress the longer it goes on. Identifying specific heat stress behaviors within the flock is key so action can be taken quickly to minimize the potential damage.
How Birds Adapt
Unlike humans, birds don’t have sweat glands. Instead, they dissipate heat through certain behavioral and physiological strategies. Panting, for example, allows the bird to transfer heat through respiratory evaporation. For this reason, one of the first heat stress indicators is panting.
Birds also dissipate heat by pumping blood to the peripheral vascularized areas of the body like the skin, wattle and comb and reducing blood flow to other organs such as the intestinal tract. Keep an eye on their combs and wattles. Those parts of a bird’s body tend to be a brighter shade of red when temperatures soar.
Reducing a chicken’s core body temperature is another mechanism poultry use to try to combat heat stress. Birds attempt to bring their body temperatures down by decreasing feed intake and increasing water intake. Reducing the amount of feed consumed allows for less metabolic heat to be produced while drinking more water helps to replenish water lost through panting.
Normally birds drink about twice as much as they eat. However, when chickens experience heat stress, they drink five times as much! These physiological and behavioral changes help ensure birds’ survival in extreme heat.
You may also observe your birds performing certain behaviors when they are heat stressed, such as wing spreading and squatting along with reduced activity. Wing spreading is when a bird holds their wings away from their body to expose the areas that do not have any feathers. Doing this helps to dissipate body heat, especially when there is air movement.
Squatting is when birds place their body in contact with the ground to increase heat conduction. Observing these behaviors within your flock is an accurate indicator of heat stress.
schankz/Adobe Stock
Heat Effects
The physiological and behavioral changes that happen during heat stress can have a negative effect on health and production. As mentioned, heat-stressed birds dissipate heat by opening blood vessels in tissues such as the skin, wattle and comb and vasoconstricting blood from the intestinal tract. This limits the integrity of the intestinal tract and its function, as heat stress has been shown to reduce intestinal cells’ ability to absorb glucose.
When this happens, less energy is being utilized by our birds and more nutrients are available for bad bacteria. Plus, the decrease in intestinal integrity means bacteria can move more easily from the gut into our birds’ bodies. Heat stress has also been shown to cause inflammation and oxidative stress, which can cause tissue damage in chickens.
These factors hurt performance and can lead to other types of challenges, such as summer molts or potential diseases.
Heat stress also affects egg production and egg quality. Moderate and chronic heat stress causes excessive panting, which can decrease calcium and carbon dioxide pressure in the blood, thus increasing the blood’s pH. This change in blood chemistry can have a direct effect on bone strength and function as well as eggshell quality.
The primary reason hens produce fewer eggs during hot temperatures is because they’re eating less feed. However, heat stress also disrupts the hormones responsible for egg laying. Plus, the reduction in blood calcium reduces eggshell quality. These factors are some of the reasons we see fewer eggs in the summer.
Preventative Measures
As backyard chicken keepers, we can help reduce the negative effects of heat stress through certain nutritional and management strategies. Chickens eat less during high temperatures to reduce metabolic heat. To accommodate the decrease in feed intake, we can improve the quality of the feed. We can also provide a meal mixer that contains a higher amount of fats, quality protein and amino acids to support egg production and gut health.
Offering a pelleted diet has also been shown to help maintain egg production during the summer months.
Other nutritional strategies include providing electrolytes, additional vitamins and minerals, and probiotics. Electrolytes help reduce the blood chemistry imbalances caused by panting, encourage water consumption and help increase tolerance to heat stress while supporting eggshell quality.
Supplementing vitamins and minerals can also play a role in reducing the negative effects of heat stress by helping to reduce the antioxidant mechanisms that support nutrient transport. During heat stress, when birds are drinking a lot more than they are eating, adding these nutrients to water is a great way to support our chickens. Probiotics can also help reduce the negative effects of heat stress by alleviating oxidative stress and supporting gut morphology, integrity and nutrient utilization.
To support your flock with nutritional changes, feed a high-quality diet, feed a pelleted feed and supplement with probiotics, vitamins and minerals, and electrolytes to avoid some of the negative effects of heat stress in the summer months.
Management strategies play a big role in combatting heat stress for our flocks, too! Providing shelter and shaded areas, cooling fans, ventilation and sprinklers during hot summer months are highly beneficial, especially during extreme heat stress when squatting and wing spreading are observed.
Heat stress can have serious consequences on the health and welfare of our chickens, especially if heat stress is chronic. By understanding how our poultry express signs of heat stress through their behaviors and physiology, we can intervene as soon as possible to help minimize the damage.
By implementing beneficial nutritional strategies such as adding supplements to the water and management strategies such as ventilating the coop, we can help ensure our birds beat the heat this summer.
This article about heat stress in chickens originally appeared in the July/August 2023 issue of Chickens magazine. Click here to subscribe.
Choosing pasture mates for goats is important for the safety of your goats and their companions – some mix well and some don’t.
On a personal note, when our Boer/Kiko wether, Huck, started limping, we knew Waylon was to blame. Waylon, the donkey that shares a pasture with our little herd, likes to play chase. The goats were not willing playmates and ran off when Waylon put his ears back, lowered his head and galloped toward them. Huck tripped and sprained his front leg, leading us to reconsider their living situation and start asking questions about which animals are the best, and worst, pasture mates for goats.
Best Friends Forever
Cows
Abby Stewart
Goats can benefit from having a bovine best friend. Cattle and goats do not share the same parasites, and having a cow on the pasture can help break the parasite lifecycle. While both animals love eating fresh greens, goats browse while cattle graze, so there is little competition for food. Their different appetites also make them a winning team for clearing pastures of invasive weeds and keeping grass low.
Horses
David Clow/Flickr
Despite their size difference, goats and horses are ideal pasture-mates. The animals are susceptible to different parasites, so there are no worries about an increased risk of disease in this multispecies pasture. In this pairing, horses have the most to gain: Goats eat invasive weeds and underbrush, which improves pasture grazing for horses.
Cautious Companions
Chickens
Jodi Helmer
Goats get along well with a feathered flock but must not be allowed access to chicken feed. A buffet of chicken feed could cause diarrhea or bloat, which, in severe cases, can be fatal. Chickens might also roost or lay in the hay manger, and goats will reject hay if it has any signs of droppings. Rambunctious goats could also run over slow-moving chickens, especially if space is tight.
Jodi Helmer
Sheep
iStock/Thinkstock
Because of their similar size and calm temperaments, sheep might seem like ideal companions for goats. In fact, the ruminants share many of the same parasites, including brown stomach worms and roundworms (also known as barber pole worms). Thanks to their grazing behavior and lower immunities, Michigan State University warns, “Be prepared for parasite problems with sheep and goats grazing on pasture.” If you want to keep these two species together, rotational grazing can help reduce parasite loads. The ruminants also have different mineral requirements. Goats need a mineral supplement that contains copper. For sheep, however, too much copper can be fatal, so separate feeding locations are a must.
Worst Pasture Pals
Pigs
Shutterstock
Famished pigs root up all the lush browse that your goats love, leaving little forage for your herd. All that rooting creates big holes in the pasture, and rain turns them into mud holes. Pigs love this, but you know how goats feel about getting wet. These species also have different nutritional needs and would need separate spaces to eat. The biggest reason to keep pigs in their own space is safety: Pigs can be aggressive and pose a major threat to newborn kids.
Animals, like humans, are distinct. You need to consider health, housing and nutritional needs as well as their overall behaviors when deciding whether to ask your goats to share a pasture with another species.
We tried separating Huck and Waylon, and they spent their days at the shared fence line looking for ways to get back together. So, despite the occasional, ill-tolerated game of chase, the boys seem to like living together and are back to sharing a pasture.
This article about choosing the best pasture mates for goats was written for Hobby Farms magazine. Click here to subscribe.
Miniature goat breeds are perfect for small hobby farms since these breeds produce about 2⁄3 as much milk as a full-size dairy doe but on half the feed. You can house three or four minis in the space you’d need for one full-size goat. Because of their size, a mini goat is easier to handle than its larger counterparts, making them ideal for children and adults with limited agility or strength.
Does come in a variety of sizes from 17-inch Pygmies to 29-inch Mini Alpines, Mini Saanens and Mini Nubians. Many city ordinances allow people to keep miniature goats where full-size goats aren’t allowed. They’re easy to transport in the back seat of a car or van or in a roomy dog crate in the bed of a truck.
Minis typically give birth to two to four kids, although five is fairly common. There is a strong market for miniature dairy goats, as well as for pets. It’s usually easy to find those kids great homes.
Some, such as Nigerian Dwarfs and Pygmies, are seasonal breeders, meaning they can be bred any time of the year. If you have more than one doe, you can stagger breedings and have milk on the table year round.
Out of Africa
Virtually all of the mini-milker breeds are at least in part descended from West African Dwarf (WAD) goats, known to the scientific community as WAD goats. Though their origin is uncertain, these small, hardy goats have thrived in sub-Saharan Africa for hundreds of years. They’re still valuable sources of milk and meat in parts of rural Africa.
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To this day, they’re the most popular type of goat in 18 western and central African countries, due in part to their resistance to a disease called African Trypanosomiasis that, transmitted by tsetse flies, kills most livestock not native to sub-Saharan Africa. According to United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization figures, an estimated 11 million WAD goats are in Nigeria alone.
There are two types of WAD goats:
short-legged, heavy-boned, wide-built, achondroplasic dwarfs that are ancestors of our Pygmy goats
a more refined, more normally proportioned type from which Nigerian Dwarf goats are descended.
The first WAD goats came to America in 1909. Further importations occurred between 1930 and 1966.
At first, all of these goats were referred to as Pygmy goats. However, some early breeders noticed that not all of these animals were extra short-legged, wide types. They called these more proportionally built goats Nigerian Dwarfs.
In 1975, fanciers formed the National Pygmy Goat Association. Nigerian Dwarfs were first registered by the International Dairy Goat Association in 1981. Nowadays several organizations register Nigerian Dwarfs, including the American Dairy Goat Association.
All of the mini-milker breeds—except the Kinder—were initially developed by breeding Nigerian Dwarfs to full-size dairy goats. Kinders were created by breeding Pygmies to full-size Nubian goats.
If you like a specific breed of full-size dairy goat, scaled-down versions exist. You can also try über-popular Nigerian Dwarfs. Pygmy goats don’t produce a lot of milk, but what they do is uncommonly tasty. The Kinder, with its Pygmy and Nubian goat background, is a dual-purpose (milk and meat) goat that is slightly larger than the other breeds.
1. Mini Oberhaslis
Oberhaslis were originally considered a type of Alpine goat, but they achieved status as a separate breed in the 1960s. Mini Oberhaslis are less common than most of the other mini-milker breeds.
They’re sweet and friendly and nearly always chamoisee colored: a rich, red base coat with a black dorsal stripe, belly, udder and lower legs, and a nearly black head with white stripes on its sides.
At the height of her lactation, an Oberhasli doe gives a gallon to 2 gallons of roughly 3 1/2 to 5 percent butterfat milk per day.
2. Mini Nubians
Most Nubians have loud, strident voices, and they “talk” a lot. This can make them less than ideal for anyone with nearby neighbors. They are very people-oriented, so if you want goats that dote on your attention, this is your breed.
Nubians have sleek, silky summer coats and long, pendulous ears. Most have arched facial profiles like full-size Nubians, though this isn’t a requisite for registration. Does produce 2⁄3 the amount of a full-size Nubian does, to the tune of about 2 quarts to a gallon per day. Their milk is sweet and tasty due to its 4 to 7 precent butterfat content.
3. Mini Toggenburgs
A full-size Toggenburg doe, GCH Western-Acres Zephyr Rosemary holds the Guinness World Record for goat milk production: giving 9,110 pounds of milk, amounting to nearly 1,140 gallons, in a 305-day lactation. Mini Toggenburgs typically produce 2 or more gallons of roughly 3 1/2 percent butterfat milk per day. They can often milk through.
Miniature Toggs are hardy, low-key, friendly dairy goats ideal for hobby farm or urban and suburban situations.
4. Mini Guernseys
The least common mini-milker breed, Mini Guernseys were developed using genetics from the rare Golden Guernsey goat registered by the British Goat Society and recognized by England’s Rare Breed Survival Trust.
They’re often not much smaller than full-size Golden Guernseys. Their short to quite long coats often sport long fringes of hair along their spines and “pantaloons” on their hindquarters.
Mini Guernseys are always golden-colored, both hair and skin. They are unusually placid and friendly.
These miniature dairy goats don’t give a lot of milk, but they do so on grass alone, with no grain needed. Does typically produce 1 to 2 quarts of roughly 3 1/2 percent butterfat content per day.
5. Mini Alpines
Mini Alpines are hardy, alert, active and agile. These are graceful, medium-sized goats that come in the six French-named color patterns seen in full-size Alpines. Mini Alpine does produce from 2 quarts to a gallon or more of roughly 4 to 6 percent butterfat content milk per day.
Courtesy the Miniature Goat Registry
Like their full-size counterparts, Mini Alpines sometimes milk through, meaning they needn’t be bred and produce kids to induce lactation every year. Instead, they can be milked year round.
6. Mini Saanens & Mini Sables
Like their full-size counterparts, Mini Saanens produce a lot more milk than other breeds, but their butterfat content is lower. Saanens are always white or cream-colored with pink or olive-colored skin.
Mini Sables are essentially Saanens of any other color than white or cream. The Miniature Dairy Goat Association registers Mini Sables in their Mini Saanen studbook, while The Miniature Goat Registry registers them in separate studbooks.
Mini Saanens and Mini Sables are friendly, easy-going goats that give about 2 quarts to 3 gallons of 2 to 3 percent butterfat content milk per day. Both breeds often milk through.
courtesy the Miniature Goat Registry
7. Nigerian Dwarfs
The Nigerian Dwarf is the fastest-growing dairy goat breed in North America and for good reason. It’s gentle, intelligent, colorful and productive.
At the height of their lactations, does produce 1 to 8 pounds (8 pounds equals roughly 1 gallon) of rich, 6 1/2 percent butterfat milk daily. And because breeders are selecting for larger, easily milked teats, milking dairy-quality does is a breeze.
It’s important, however, to buy from producers breeding dairy-type goats. Some Nigerian Dwarfs are bred primarily to be pets. Nigerian Dwarfs have short-to-medium length coats and come in a stunning array of colors.
Some have blue eyes, but brown is the norm. Most have horns unless they’re disbudded as kids. But polled (hornless) genetics are increasingly available, too.
8. Mini LaManchas
These medium-sized miniature dairy goats are heavier-bodied than most other mini breeds. They’re noted for their sweet personalities and easy-going temperaments.
Their short ears come in two types:
Gopher ears contain little or no cartilage and look like rings of skin around the auditory canals
Elf ears, stand upright and usually have a flap of skin at the tip that turns up or down
Only gopher-eared bucks can be registered.
If you’re thinking of getting dairy goats, think small and do your homework before you buy. Chances are there is a mini-milker breed exactly right for you.
More Information
Not Quite a Mini Goat
The Kinder isn’t technically a mini milker, but it’s still a great nonfull-size option. This goat is a stocky-built, easily-handled, dual-purpose milk and meat breed initially produced by breeding registered Pygmy bucks to registered Nubian does. After that, Kinder-to-Kinder breeding is the norm.
Does give 2 quarts to a full gallon of 5 to 7 percent butterfat content milk per day. Kinder kids grow rapidly, reaching roughly 70 percent of their adult weight by 1 year of age. Kinder carcass weight is about 60 percent live weight, making them excellent meat goats, too.
The Pygmy Group
Few people think of Pygmy goats as milk producers. But when milked, does give from 1 quart to 1⁄2 gallon of 5 to 10 percent butterfat content milk that the National Pygmy Goat Association says is higher in calcium, phosphorus, potassium and iron than milk from full-size dairy breeds.
Pygmies are small, docile and intelligent. Besides producing milk they make great pets.
Choose Your Registry
First-generation miniature goat breeds are produced by breeding a Nigerian Dwarf buck to a full-size registered dairy doe. Does from these breedings are usually bred to registered miniature bucks of the same breed.
Most breeds, barring the Pygmy and Kinder, are registered by more than one organization. In some cases, they don’t recognize individuals registered with rival groups. Do your research before buying your minis, making sure they’re registered with the group you’d like to do business with.
Contact these organizations to find out more about miniature milkers.
The benefits of a folding level are numerous. Depending on the types of projects you tackle on your farm, you may want to add one to your arsenal of tools.
A folding level is much like a beam level, but with a big difference: it’s hinged, usually in multiple places. When the level is fully unfolded, it stretches out to a decent length (perhaps a couple of feet) and can be used like a beam level. But the hinging ability expands its versatility and usefulness.
Here are three benefits of a folding level:
1. Compact size
A folding level is easy to carry around since it folds to such a compact size. If you have a large pocket, it may fit inside. It’s convenient to toss inside a small bag of tools, or in the tool compartment of a tractor.
The compact size of a folding level also comes in handy if you need to take a measurement in a tight space where a longer, regular level won’t fit.
2. Ability to measure multiple angles at once
Compact size is nice, but the biggest benefit of a folding level is its ability to measure multiple angles at once. A typical folding level comes with several bubbles mounted in different orientations, such as horizontal, vertical, and 45 degrees. By folding the level in various ways, and by utilizing bubbles on different sections, you can quickly and conveniently measure multiple angles at a glance.
Let’s provide an example. Suppose you’re installing a wooden fence post and want to make sure it’s standing perfectly vertical (plumb). Facing the fence post, you need to make sure it isn’t leaning left, right, forward, or backward. So long as your level offers multiple horizontal bubbles, you can fold it at a 90-degree angle so one horizontal bubble measures the left-to-right lean and the other measures forward-to-backward lean—just like a post and pipe level does. It’s faster and easier than constantly switching back and forth from one side of the post to another, as you have to do with a regular level.
By offering horizontal, vertical, and 45-degree bubbles, a folding level can cover a lot of different combinations. If you need to measure multiple angles simultaneously, there’s a good chance you’ll figure out a way to do it with this level.
3. Usability as a regular beam level
As mentioned previously, by unfolding a level to its greatest length, you can use it just like a beam level. This shouldn’t be underestimated, because sometimes sheer length is helpful.
For example, if you want to make sure a long piece of lumber is level, but the lumber itself isn’t perfectly straight (with little bumps and inconsistencies along its length), a level that’s only a few inches long can give a false reading if one end happens to be sitting on a bump or in a dip. A longer level can ride over these subtle variations and give you a more accurate indication of levelness.
Combining all three of these benefits into a single tool moves a folding level onto the must-have list if you commonly tackle small building and construction projects.
Knowing what scraps can chickens eat is important since a flock can help reduce food waste and a chicken keeper’s feed budget. It’s never my intention to embarrass my wife when we go out to dinner. But she sometimes cringes when I approach the waiter for a to-go box and say, “If I don’t eat it, our chickens will.” The staff is always happy to hear that the food isn’t going to waste. But my wife pretends she doesn’t know me when I talk to strangers about feeding chickens food scraps.
Too few restaurants and homeowners compost or give their food waste to farmers. And that contributes to the fact that the average citizen generates 20 pounds of food waste every month, according to the Harvard Food Law and Policy Clinic. That adds up to about half a ton annually for a family of four.
Citywide, that means food waste from homes, restaurants and institutions composes about 13 percent of municipal trash that goes to the landfill. That probably costs most cities about $40 a ton or more—carried by garbage trucks that get as little as 3 miles per gallon (not a typo). So, every time your customers or a restaurant throws away food, they’re creating upward pressure on their own tax bill.
There are also environmental advantages to letting chickens eat these food scraps. If these scraps go to a landfill, they slowly decompose in a way that turns them into methane gas. The methane will escape into the atmosphere where it is 25 times worse for promoting climate disruption than is an equivalent amount of CO2 coming from your car exhaust or those garbage trucks.
And if you’re on a city sewer line and dispose of food scraps down the drain, with or without a garbage disposal, things aren’t much better. When those scraps of food waste get to your water treatment plant, the staff has to spend money getting all that organic matter out of the water so it won’t cause fish kills downstream.
Not only is it expensive to landfill food waste or remove food from wastewater, but chicken feed isn’t cheap either. If my two-person household generates almost 500 pounds of food waste per year, I estimate that we’re able to give a third of that to the chickens: about 160 pounds (much of that weight is water, but still). I don’t have hard numbers, but I believe our modest efforts at giving chickens food waste from our kitchen, our restaurant leftovers and scraps from our neighbors might cut our feed bill by as much as 20 percent.
Clearly, feeding food waste to chickens is a great way to fight climate disruption, reduce landfill costs, cut water treatment costs and shave down your chicken feed bill, too. So here are some tips on how you and your customers can reduce your contribution to food waste and climate disruption as well as cut the cost of feeding chickens.
We already have a container for food scraps that go to the compost bins. A few years back, we set up a second one on the kitchen counter for scraps that would please the chickens. The original compost container still gets things that the chickens won’t or shouldn’t eat: coffee grounds, paper towels, banana peels, orange skins, avocado skins (toxic to chickens) and anything moldy or spoiled.
Here’s a list of what scraps can chickens eat that do go in the chicken food container. (A handy tip: In both containers, I put a folded paper towel—or surplus napkins from buying fast food—in the bottom to absorb moisture and to make it easier for the contents to pop out without having to be scraped out.)
What Scraps Can Chickens Eat?
Produce
Being omnivores, chickens like almost all the scraps of vegetables and fruit that we can give them with the important exception of uncooked potato skins and avocados, which are reportedly toxic. Chickens will attack any leftover corn on the cob, overripe cucumbers, carrot tops and more.
Occasionally, at our neighborhood grocery, I’m able to divert a box of vegetable scraps from the dumpster, and the chickens plow through those right away.
Bread, Grains & Chips
We sometimes freeze stale bread to add to soups, but we also give bread scraps to the chickens. They’ll devour stale bread, chips and crackers as well as leftover rice, old pasta, cereal crumbs from the bottom of the box: anything flaky or crunchy from grains will suit them.
Meat & Fish
It’s important to remember that chickens are not vegetarians, so go ahead and give them meat. Nor are they egalitarians, feminists or pacifists, but that’s grist for another story. They like meat. I mean they like meat the way a good Southern boy needs his daily dose of pork products. Chickens really like meat, including gristle, tendons and fat. They’ll pick bones clean, leaving nothing to attract vermin—nothing! And because we cover the ground in the pen with wood chips, any bones quickly decompose in place, too.
But knowing what scraps chickens can eat means we don’t feed them chicken scraps. It’s not necessarily a “no-no” but it seems weird. We don’t want to support cannibalism for any species. (We also avoid the potential for disease. Mad cow disease came from feeding cow parts to cows, after all.)
And we don’t give them fish bones. The smell would stick around too long. Although we do give them scraps of fish skin, lobster shells and shrimp shells, which get gobbled right up. Maybe you already knew this, but those shellfish are related to insects, and you know how chickens love them some bugs!
Fats & Oils
Type “fatbergs” in a search engine. If you or your customers have the bad habit of pouring cooking oils down the sink, you really should see what this stuff looks like when it congeals inside a city sewer pipe. These grotesque “icebergs” of fat cause nearly half of the 36,000 sewer overflows in the United States each year. And even when the fat doesn’t congeal into a fatberg, it still has to be removed from the wastewater, and that costs taxpayer money.
Instead of pouring cooking oils or fats from bacon, burgers, steaks and pork chops down the drain or even putting that stuff in the trash, we pour (and scrape) our waste oils and fats into a bowl and let them set up in the fridge overnight. We feed it to the hens the next morning. They think it’s pudding. It disappears fast.
That’s not nearly as strange as it sounds. Many cooking oil-recycling operations turn waste oils from restaurants and food processors into feed for livestock or pets anyway. Another tip: If you have dusty bits of pellets or grains too fine for the chickens to eat, these can be mixed with liquid waste oils into a paste that they’ll devour.
The chickens don’t get all the bacon fat at our house though. Not because it would be weird, but because it’d be a waste. It’s the best thing for frying eggs sunny-side up.
Eggshells
We give them their eggshells after we’ve eaten the eggs. We smash the shells flat, so they don’t resemble an egg. We don’t want to give them the wrong idea. But the calcium in the eggs is very valuable.
When they’re laying heavily, they wolf down eggshells. In winter when they’re laying less, they can be laissez-faire about the shells.
Dairy
Cheese rinds and leftover milk from cereal bowls are also popular with the poultry set.
Neighbors Can Help
No, we don’t feed the neighbors to our chickens, but the neighbors do bring food to our chickens. The neighbors say they bring melon rinds, pumpkin guts and leftover pastabecause they like to visit the hens. But I think they’re angling for free eggs, too, which we give them because our birds produce more eggs than our household can eat.
Essentially, we encourage a reverse CSA on our block. You may be familiar with community supported agriculture as a method for consumers to pay farmers in advance for their produce. We ask our neighbors to save their kitchen scraps (with the exceptions noted above) and drop them off in the run. After holidays such as Halloween and Thanksgiving, it’s party time in the coop as neighbors drop off their out-of-date ornamental squashes and pumpkins.
I toss these in the pen and then use a long handled child’s shovel (or any sharp-enough, long-handled tool will do) to chop the pumpkin into accessible sections. You can imagine how quickly the seeds disappear. And the flesh goes next, leaving a very thin layer of inedible pumpkin skin.
I know some folks who spoil their birds by cooking the pumpkins first, but that’s not necessary.
You may be able to persuade your conscientious customers to freeze their food scraps and bring them to you at the market. Dump them in your empty coolers, and feed these treats to your chickens when you get back. That way your trip home from market is profitable, too.
More Information About What Scraps Can Chickens Eat
Vermin-Proof Treats
Freecycling chicken treats is all well and good, but you’ll want to keep a few things in mind so that you don’t end up providing a feast for vermin that may be able to finagle their way into your chickens’ run, such as mice and rats.
Timing
Make sharing scraps from the kitchen part of your morning routine. Give your birds enough time to eat your bounty before bedtime. Tossing scraps into the run during late afternoon or evening is just a way to feed the critters that work the night shift.
Sizes
Chickens don’t have teeth, so sometimes you, your knife and your cutting board will have to play that role. Mid-ribs of collards, kale and chard for example would be edible, but they’re too big. Chop them into finer, bite-size pieces before tossing them into the countertop container of hen treats.
Right Side Up
Melon and pumpkin scraps are always popular with poultry. But a chunk tossed skin-side up will make it inaccessible for the ladies. I keep a kid-size shovel with a long handle next to the run’s gate (a regular shovel or gravel rake works fine too). If something lands fruit-side down, I can flip it from a standing position with the shovel. I can also chop melons, pumpkins, apples and other fruit into more accessible slices—all without bending over or stepping into the pen.
This article about what scraps chickens can eat originally appeared in Hobby Farms magazine. Click here to subscribe.
