It's late August, which here in SoCal means we're still in the peak of summer. Days are hot, nights are short, and there's never enough AC.But luckily, the garden seems to be loving this extended summer season! It's going WILD, and we're literally up to our ears in squash.
Apparently squash, especially zucchini, grow really well in our climate and do well in straw bales! Who knew?
The only problem for us is that now we have more zucchini than we can eat, so we had to get creative.
When life gives you too many zucchinis, make zucchini fries! (this links to a Martha Stewart recipe that I like, but really any recipe that includes parmesan and panko is good)
While the plants seem to love the extra sun (as long as we give them plenty of water), the chickens have a harder time dealing with the heat.
Even though Andalusians are a pretty heat-hardy breed, they are still covered in feathers in 100*F weather. So to help them keep up their water intake, I give them treats like watermelon or frozen grapes.
Recently I learned of another cool trick though: fermented feed! It's like kombucha for chickens! Plus, it makes your chicken feed last a lot longer.
To make fermented feed, I just take the regular grain-based feed I get form the feed store and put some in a bucket. Then I covered that with a couple inches of water, and let it sit outside in the shade for a day or two. When I came back, it was bubbly and sour-smelling, which is a good thing in this case! Then I scooped some of the wet mash out and put it in a bowl (that was once ours, but has since been "donated" to the chickens because we keep forgetting to bring it back into the house after they eat their treats).
You can find more info about fermenting feed on lots of other chicken blogs. I haven't perfected it myself, but when I get more experienced with it I will share what I learned!
The girls went straight for it and gobbled it down!
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