I finally got some pickles!

We went on a cruise last week and stopped in Ponchatoula, Louisiana on the way back.  We found a neat little cafe called Paul's Cafe.  Great food for weary travelers!  Anyway, we were about to leave when we noticed a little craft/farmer's market across the street.  So, we stopped in.  Wouldn't you just know, they had a booth with homemade canned goods!  And they had pickles!  I could only find Bread and Butter but I'd rather have dill.  So, I asked the lady if maybe that booth had dill somewhere.  She read the jar in my hand and said, "These are ing pickles.  I've never had ing pickles.  Maybe they're like dill."  To clear up the confusion...the homemade label on the jar reads "ing: pickles, vinegar, asst spices."  Ing means ingredients!  It's not a type of pickle!  My husband almost lost control right there in the market but thankfully he made it outside before he couldn't contain his laughter anymore.
Thankfully, the other lady standing next to her did inform her that "ing" meant ingredients.  I just couldn't believe how serious she was!  She truly thought there was a type of pickle called an "ing pickle."
We'll not get into the fact that the label should have read "ing: cucumbers, vinegar, asst spices."  Whoever made these didn't start with pickles as an ingredient....she got pickles as a result of the pickling.  Brother....

At least I can rest easy knowing I finally got some pickles.

Here are the beautiful things!

Eggs and Cholesterol

Many people seem to not eat eggs because they are "high in cholesterol" and "bad for you."  Well, I'm convinced eggs got a bad wrap several years ago so lets do a little myth busting.

Here's what Harvard Health has to say about the situation (highlighting is mine):

Fact: Eggs are a good source of nutrients. One egg contains 6 grams of protein and some healthful unsaturated fats. Eggs are also a good source of choline, which has been linked with preserving memory, and lutein and zeaxanthin, which may protect against vision loss.
Fact: Eggs have a lot of cholesterol. The average large egg contains 212 milligrams of cholesterol. As foods go, that’s quite a bit, rivaled only by single servings of liver, shrimp, and duck meat.

Myth: All that cholesterol goes straight to your bloodstream and then into your arteries. Not so. For most people, only a small amount of the cholesterol in food passes into the blood. Saturated and trans fats have much bigger effects on blood cholesterol levels.
Myth: Eating eggs is bad for your heart. The only large study to look at the impact of egg consumption on heart disease—not on cholesterol levels or other intermediaries—found no connection between the two. In people with diabetes, though, egg-a-day eaters were a bit more likely to have developed heart disease than those who rarely ate eggs.
If you like eggs, eating one a day should be okay, especially if you cut back on saturated and trans fats. 

When I researched the Mayo Clinic site I found this:

How much the cholesterol in your diet can increase your blood cholesterol varies from person to person.
When deciding whether to include eggs in your diet, consider the recommended daily limits on cholesterol in your food:

• If you are healthy, it's recommended that you limit your dietary cholesterol intake to less than 300 milligrams (mg) a day.
• If you have cardiovascular disease, diabetes or a high low-density lipoprotein (LDL, or "bad") blood cholesterol level, you should limit your dietary cholesterol intake to less than 200 mg a day.

One large egg has about 213 mg of cholesterol — all of which is found in the yolk. Therefore, if you eat an egg on a given day, it's important to limit other sources of cholesterol for the rest of that day. Consider substituting servings of vegetables for servings of meat, or avoid high-fat dairy products for that day.

Mother Earth News compared small farmer’s eggs with commercial store-bought eggs and found differences in everything from cholesterol amount, ratio of omega 3 to 6 fats, and vitamin content.  Go home grown eggs!

Here's my conclusion, it's not that eggs are evil it's just that most Americans have so much fat and cholesterol in their diet that they start to point fingers at eggs.  We know that eggs contain LOTS of good nutrients so why don't we point fingers at chips, fast food burgers, processed food, etc?
Don't blame eggs for high cholesterol! 

Chicken Waterer

We like having chickens but we also like to travel so we needed a way to leave them plenty of water that they couldn't tip over.  Chickens will find a way to mess up nearly everything you try to do right so don't think a big bowl of water will last all weekend.  They'll wade in it then knock it over about an hour after you leave.  However, they haven't messed up the waterer I made yet!  I'm making a second one to put in a pen with a hen who is molting.

Here's what a chicken nozzle looks like in case you're not familiar...

Now...

*You'll need a bucket.  (We used a 5 gallon bucket for the big pen but I'm using a 2 gallon today for the little pen I'm making.)
*"chicken nozzle" (You can order these pretty cheap online.)
*5/16 drill bit
*7/16 nut driver
*thread seal tape
*drill

First, drill a 5/16 hole in the bottom of your bucket.  I'm only putting one nozzle on this bucket but we used three on our big bucket.  So, drill as many holes as you want nozzles (spacing them out, of course).

Next, wrap the nozzle threads in thread seal tape.  This helps create a watertight seal.

Use the 7/16 nut driver to drive the nozzle into the bucket.  Make sure you are putting the threads inside the bucket.  You wouldn't want to do it upside down!

Here's the finished product...

Now, just hang the bucket in your chicken pen and fill it with water.  They can't wade in this water OR tip it over.  Some people say you can freeze a water bottle and drop it in the bucket during the summer to keep the water cool.  I never did.  It didn't seem to get that warm.
You want to hang the bucket at a height where the chickens don't have to squat.  Hang it so they can slightly extend their necks to drink.  Make sure they can all reach it if you have different breeds!

When I first made one I wondered how to show them where the water was since they were used to a bowl.  I read online and most people said to just take away their water bowl and they will figure it out.  Well, they did!  Just monitor your flock to make sure they all figure it out.