Swiech Homestead Happenings

10/20/2026

Poor Mabel has a bumble foot owie. 😩
This morning I got my first aide station ready in the bathroom and caught her in the run. I filled a plastic storage tub up with a couple of inches of warm water with epsom salt, let her soak her feet for a little while and she enjoyed it. Then I gently rubbed her feet off. I had a gauze pad ready and two ace bandage strips (self adhesive) cut in half lengthwise, about 7”. Before the hubby went off to work, he became my nursing assistant and helped me by adding Neosporin without pain meds to the gauze and draped a hand towel over Mabel’s back, as I picked her up out of the water. He held her snug, while I put the gauze on her owie bump and wrapped the ace bandage around her lower leg, over the gauze and between her toes a couple of times. Then he handed her off to me and she was happy to stroll the house in my arms. Our dog Casey just watched from the floor and didn’t even try to come near us. At one point, Mabel closed her eyes feeling so relaxed. I would have held her longer but I had to put her back while the hubby could open the clean out doors for me and I could put her inside the coop. He had to switch his nursing asst hat for his construction ball cap and get to work. Mabel likes laying eggs in the morning so I figured it would be good to just put her inside the coop, rather than having her climb the ladder. She needed to get use to the bandage. I will go check on her soon. Hopefully she’ll start to heal! I will check on her bumble foot in a couple of days. I may need to change the bandage if it still needs more time.
I’ve found that although you can find all sorts of videos on caring for chicken ailments and injuries, not everyone cares for them like this. I’ve talked to other chicken tenders out here and they just let their chickens try to heal injuries themselves. If the chicken can’t, then they gain more freezer food. If we had meat birds, that would be the case, but not our small laying flock, who’ve been cared for as pets. We do our best to give them a good life.

10/20/2026

It’s another beautiful crisp, fall morning here in S. Carthage, TN!
Giving thanks and praying for my family and friends!
💚💛🧡🤎🍂🍁

10/16/2026

What a difference a day makes! Yesterday 90, today 59 and heading down to 46 by morning. We haven’t been used to daytime temps dropping for a while!

I thought the hummingbirds might be gone by now but saw one yesterday evening so I made a new batch of their water for them. I also decided it was time to dry out more egg shells to crush for the chickens, clean & cut jalapeños to dry in the oven and prep the dried Basil for grinding up. Tomorrow I’ll dry the cayenne peppers.

The dogs have been much more energetic and happy, now that the temperature dropped. They are enjoying the cool crisp breeze today and have been feeling playful. They wanted to play tag inside the kitchen, around the island and then again on the front porch. I was able to coax them outside to play since I needed to mulch some plants in the garden. I’m not complaining, but I quickly realized that with the cool breeze, it’s not tshirt weather. A sweat jacket was needed. It finally feels like fall but our temps fluctuate for the next 10 days. I’ll be closing off chicken coop windows as nights get cold.

The girls seem to enjoy this cooler weather too. The Black Stars are still getting chased away from food and treats but not as much as 2 weeks ago. They aren’t squabbling in the coop at night any more. They are getting used to each other, which is great!

10/14/2026

I planted pumpkin seeds in late June and 4 germinated. I transplanted them into my garden when they were about 6” tall. I figured 90-100 days would make the pumpkins ready for Halloween. Nope! It is October 14th and out of the two seedlings that hadn’t gotten eaten by a rabbit, we we’ve been only getting male flowers. That’s normal for about 2 weeks but it’s been 3. This is the only potential pumpkin growing. I’ll keep an eye on it and will hand pollinate it if needed. Today I saw this bumblebee full of pollen but there’s no guarantee it will be around to pollinate this flower. Maybe we’ll have a Thanksgiving pumpkin??

10/11/2026

Hens, eggs, basil and hot peppers!

10/11/2026

10/10/2026

It’s been a beautiful, rainy, fall morning! The wind is supposed to be picking up a little but the cool crisp air is refreshing!

10/08/2026

Rocky fooled around & found out that some critters will fight back. I’m so grateful that he is ok🙏🏻💕.

At first, the constant barking this morning, made me think he encountered a snake. I went over to the corner of the fencing, which is covered in overgrown brush, and he was trying to get something in the woods, on the other side of the goat fence. I got a glimpse of Rocky through the branches and he was standing on his hind legs and looking up at a nearby tree. After making my way through the brush, I noticed about 10’ up was a large, silver-gray cat with thick, short fur trying to hold on to the side of the tree. The tree was within a few feet of the fence. The cat looked well fed. I also noticed that near the top of its thigh, it had what could have been, a wet bite mark, but it wasn’t bleeding. I’m guessing it was a bite mark, because after I got Rocky away from the corner, I noticed a scratch near Rocky’s eye, which had bled a little. I found a couple of fallen branches to block that fence corner, causing Rocky to move away. The cat jumped down with a thud and took off into the woods. Rocky could no longer get passed the branches to the fence, so he followed me inside. He briefly allowed me to wipe his boo boo with a wet tissue before sharing a snarling disapproval. Thankfully, it appears to be just a surface scratch and he’s fine. However, that scratch slightly knicked his outer eyelid. It was so close to really hurting him. I’m glad it wasn’t a bobcat or anything larger! I’ve seen a bobcat cross our property a few years ago. Hopefully, that’s the end of our excitement until the hubby returns from his CA visit with his mom. 🙏🏻

10/05/2026

Jumbo is 70g but I have two at 77g and one at 85g!!! These were from our two Buff Orpingtons that are are 1.5 years old. We got them a year ago at the 4H auction. The reason they can lay extra jumbo eggs is due to changes in temps, stress, or hormonal adjustments as they grow older. It won’t last that way. We had one ISA Brown who layed 6 larger than these! She then laid large eggs. The only hen not laying right now, is our Americana, who is molting and she lays a green/blue egg. The 85g egg wouldn’t even fit in the egg carton with the cover. The 77g barely fit.

If left unwashed, fresh eggs can be refrigerated for 3-6 months. I have water glassed them before in lime-water to be shelf stable, but recently one had exploded (possibly due to a hairline crack) and the hubby said to throw them all out. Afterwards, I read you can just clear all liquid, throw the cracked one out and put the others back into the jar with more lime/water. Since we have room in our fridge, I’m just going to fill cartons to save the extras. At most we’ll probably have 4 extra dozen. We only have 9 hens. If they slow down for winter, and sone may, we will still have eggs to eat and use. They can be fried too. The water-glassed eggs could only be scrambled or used in recipes. The yolks became less firm.

10/03/2026

The newest trio have been keeping to themselves as much as possible because they will be jumped or chased. I watched one wait in line for the longest time to use one of the larger nesting boxes. It was occupied by a Buff Orpington. I came back about an hour later and evidently she couldn’t wait any more. She moved in next to her. All was fine until I watched her try to secure a bit more room. That’s when the Buff Orpington turned and pecked her head, making her leave. She eventually laid an egg in the smaller box. They all found the coop on their own to sleep last night. I had checked before it got too dark, and one of the new girls couldn’t find a space on the roost to fly up to. The older ones weren’t budging. Finally, one of the other Black Stars moved over so she could get up. She needed a boost from standing on the lower roost to fly up. There was a whole other unused roost but she seemed to want to be near her friends. This afternoon I saw them relaxing on a perch in the main run. They have a lot of room to move about here. Their previous home kept them in an A-frame chicken tractor, which was moved each day. They had no idea what a coop was until they moved here.