From the Farm Blog Hop #33

Welcome to

From the Farm Blog Hop #33!

Welcome to this week's From the Farm Blog Hop!

Confetti Treat Ice Wreath - Help your Chickens Cool Down with Frozen Fruits and Vegetables

With temperatures forecast into the 90's today, I thought it would be a good day to serve up this Confetti Ice Wreath to our chickens. It's not only an excellent way to help your chickens cool down in the summer, it's also a great way to use up leftover fruits and vegetables.

Book Review and Giveaway: Gaining Ground by Forrest Pritchard

Several weeks ago, a young farmer named Forrest Pritchard contacted me and asked if I would be willing to review a book he had just written. He told me that he farms his family's land in the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia and sells meat and produce at the local farmers market.  And that he had written a book chronicling how he saved his family's farm.

Giveaway: The Chicken Fountain

Congratulations to Meadowfly Farm! You were chosen to win your choice of fountains from The Chicken Fountain.

A Week in Farm Photos May 5-11th

It's spring! Temperatures are holding steady in the 70s-80s by day and 50s by night. We are spending as much time as we can outside enjoying all our animals, the blooming flowers and the emerging berries and herbs. If only it could be spring year round!

From the Farm Blog Hop #32

Welcome to

From the Farm Blog Hop #32!

Thank you for joining us today at our kickoff of our new blog hop name, format, and best of all, NEW CO-HOSTS! For those of you who don't know, this blog hop was previously called the Farm Girl Friday Blog Fest, but nowwe want to welcome you to participate in a bigger and better blog hop than before!

Annie and Her Chicks - Hatching Eggs under a Chicken

Meet Annie. She's an Australorp, which means she has the tendency to go broody (sit on eggs until they hatch instead of laying her daily egg and hopping right back out of the nesting box). Australorps are known for their broody nature and Annie, true to her breed, goes broody quite often. 

In fact, she helped me write my article on Breaking a Broody Hen last spring because we didn't have room for any more chicks and I wouldn't let her sit on infertile eggs.  But she really wanted to be a Mom.  So I promised her that this spring, if we could coordinate our schedules, I would let her sit on some fertile eggs.  We did, and she did...and now Annie has five brand new baby chicks!

Shrimp Ball Soup with Fresh Dill and Egg Noodles

This quick, easy soup which is a twist on a traditional meatball soup makes for a healthy, hearty meal any time of the year.  The substitution of shrimp for chopped hamburg makes a light soup perfect for cool spring evenings.  Since I just picked the first dill from our garden today, I will be making this tonight to serve alongside some homemade bread.

DIY Tiered Herb Drying Rack Using Repurposed Picture Frames Plus Dried Herbal Supplement for your Chickens

Herbs play a large part in our chicken-keeping as well as my home cooking. Over the years, I have been enlarging our herb garden and growing more varieties of culinary herbs to use fresh all summer and also dry for use over the winter. 

Until recently, I had been drying the herbs on cooling racks on the kitchen counter.  Then I saw a cool drying rack on Pinterest used for drying flowers and a light bulb went off.  Keep reading to learn how to make my tiered herb drying rack using old picture frames.

Standlee Hay Company Product Review

As you know, we're all about chickens here at Fresh Eggs Daily, but we also raise horses, so when the Standlee Hay Company contacted me recently and asked if our horses would be interested in trying some of their products, I happily agreed.  Sundance and Jessie had the chance to try Standlee Premium Timothy Grass Cubes, Beet Pulp Shreds and Berry-Apple Whinny Nicker Horse Treats.  Read on to see what they thought...