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I’ve heard that petroleum jelly (Vaseline) will protect chickens’ combs from frostbite. Should I grab the grease and gather my birds?

Probably not. Winter cold snaps sometimes damage the tips of birds’ combs, and black spots can form where tissue has frozen. Applying petroleum jelly to combs will prevent chapping, as it would if you applied such a product to your lips. However, Dr. Scott Beyer, a poultry nutrition and management specialist at Kansas State University, confirms that petroleum jelly has no insulating properties, despite long-standing claims to the contrary from some poultry enthusiasts.

Breed selection is a wiser way to combat chicken frostbite. If you live in a place where winters are severe, choose breeds that have small “walnut” or “rose” combs and small wattles, such as Chantecler or Buckeye, as such features are less prone to frostbite. Provide your flock with a draft-proof coop that will keep your birds dry. If the forecast calls for severe cold, consider putting a heat lamp inside the coop to offer extra protection against low temperatures.

Photo by Fotolia/alkerk



Homemade Sweetener

What are the best options for homemade syrups and natural sweeteners from plants I can grow or process myself?

Depending on your region, your choices for homemade syrups and sweeteners may include tree syrup, sorghum syrup (molasses), sugar beet syrup or paste, stevia, and sugar cane.

Two popular homegrown sweeteners are tree syrups and sorghum molasses. Syrup-seekers living in cold climates often opt for sugar maple or black maple trees because they yield a high volume and concentration of sap that’s about 2 percent sugar. Making 1 gallon of maple syrup requires boiling down 40 to 50 gallons of sugar or black maple sap. Because red and silver maples produce a more watery sap, syrup-makers must collect and boil more of it to produce the same amount of syrup.

Other tap-ready trees include boxelder (a maple relative), birch, walnut, hickory and sycamore, but the cost and time commitment of making syrups from these trees can be prohibitive. Birch syrup necessitates twice as much sap as maple syrup does — up to 100 gallons of birch sap to yield 1 gallon of a more savory-tasting syrup.

In warmer climates, sorghum syrup is most common. Making sorghum syrup requires an upfront cost for a press to crush the sorghum canes and extract the juice, but it can yield a sweet payoff — 1 gallon of sorghum syrup requires boiling down only 10 gallons of juice. You can go in on the price of the press with your neighbors as a way of cutting costs and achieving community self-sufficiency. Dig into more info on maple sugaring and tree tapping at Farming Syrup Trees: Maple Sugaring and More, and in Farming the Woods by Ken Mudge and Steve Gabriel.

Amanda Sorell is an Associate Editor at MOTHER EARTH NEWS magazine.


How should I monitor my garden cold frame on warm days to ensure I’m not frying my plants? Do I need to check the temperature every hour?

No, not every hour, but you’re right to err on the side of vigilance anytime the sun is out — even if the temperature isn’t particularly high.

During spring and fall, when temperatures range widely, check your weather report early in the morning. If the day will be sunny with temperatures above 50 degrees Fahrenheit, the cold frame’s internal temperature will rise too high for your plants, so you should crack the lids open to allow excess heat to escape. Close your units up at twilight if the forecast predicts nighttime temperatures below your plants’ cold-tolerance level.

Photo courtesy Cedar Cold Frames: Even when snow surrounds your cold frame, the plants inside may need a breath of fresh air.



Winter Rye

I want to plant a cover crop in my garden beds this fall. Which cold-hardy crop do you recommend?

One of your best bets is winter rye (Secale cereale), the grain used to make rye flour (not ryegrass, which is a different plant). Winter rye loves cold weather, and it’s widely adapted, inexpensive and easy to sow. According to Managing Cover Crops Profitably, published by the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program, rye will even germinate in temperatures as low as 34 degrees Fahrenheit, and will grow through winter wherever temperatures stay above about 38 degrees. It will suppress winter weeds, improve your soil’s texture, add organic matter, prevent erosion, and attract beneficial insects when it flowers the following spring. It also makes a terrific winter pasture for poultry — or, you can cut the greens periodically to feed to your flock.

Ordering cover crop seeds by mail can be a bit pricey, but saving your own rye seed is easy. Order seed by mail if you can’t find a local supplier, and then sow it in fall. Allow it to grow through the following spring until June, when it will produce seed heads. Snip off the seed heads and then, without threshing the seeds out of the heads, simply plant the heads in fall (see photo above, left). The mature rye plants will be easy to kill after you’ve harvested their seed heads. Cut the stems at soil level with a serrated harvest sickle or large knife, and then use the straw as mulch or compost. (If you don’t own a sickle, Earth Tools offers a nice Italian-made model for only $23; look under the “SHW” category.)

Growing cover crops in unused beds is one of the best things you can do to improve your soil. To learn more about sowing rye and many other kinds of cover crops, I highly recommend the SARE book mentioned earlier; it’s free online.

Photo by Cheryl Long: Winter rye seed heads sown directly into soil in fall will grow to maturity the following spring.











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