Recent content by mickey328

Having vehicle repairs done "out", especially on older cars can sure nickel and dime you to death! I know next to nothing about them, but fortunately DH is really good with them. I love his approach...when there's a problem, he considers the things it could be...and fixes the easiest/cheapest...

Our chickens love, love, love comfrey! Don't remember where, but I think I read some place that you shouldn't give them too much...but what "too much" would be, I don't know. We have 6 chickens and they get about 2 of the huge leaves every couple of days. This summer, I hope to harvest and...

A few generations ago, most of us lived pretty much the same way, nok. Then with the industrial boom and increased wages and plentiful everything, we became a nation of consumers and disposers. I think what most of us are working toward with this thread is to find our way back to some of those...

Critters can be so weird! Our rabbits love the alfalfa, but only the grass portion...the flowery bits they leave in the dish. I've tried tossing some in the run with the chickens and they turn up their beaks. I think I'll save the powdery stuff and mix it in with their oatmeal or...

I'm sorry if it's here and I missed it...I've looked and looked! We're going to be raising some CX meaties and I'd like to make my own starter feed. Our laying hens are already on a grain mix so rather than buy commercial stuff for the chicks, I'd like to make it myself. Does anyone have a...

I included 1 part in my last grain mix but they don't eat it, so I'll leave it out next time. I think I might try fermenting it; they may well gobble it up then :)

LOL! Trust me, if anything comes out of that pressure cooker I can't break by hand, it won't be going in the processor! Hadn't thought about rib bones though...that might well be an option!

We're starting to make our own bone meal...little bits at a time. I haven't tried it with other kinds of bones, but when I make chicken stock, I throw everything in the pressure cooker and once it's done, the chicken bones are quite crumbly. I let them dry and toss 'em in a bag. When I have...

I recently tried a little experiment: I put a 5 gallon bucket in each of our showers with strict instructions that when running the water to warm and when lathering, to direct the spray into the bucket. I was totally amazed...it averages 2 gallons of perfectly clean, unused water goes down the...

There's a lot of conflicting information out there, Dennis. The latest I've seen is that eggs are NOT the big bugaboo they've been touted to be vis a vis cholesterol...neither is butter for that matter. Plus the fact that these are natural, unrefined, unprocessed foods goes a long way...our...

My best ever was a coffee mug I picked up for a nickel at a rummage sale. Turns out it was a fairly rare collectible and it went on eBay for $325. Our latest treasures include a very sturdy, heavy plastic playpen that has 8 panels about 30" wide each...it'll make an awesome exercise pen for...

Protein is protein and we try to get as much to the birds as we can. I wouldn't feed it raw, just because they could possibly relate that to their sisters and start eating each other, LOL. I do the same with eggs...all the ones with cracked or damaged shells get fed back to them, but I do cook...

We have 6 RSL's and get a pretty good variety of eggs. Two of the hens are lighter in color than the others and their eggs are also always lighter in color...more of a cream. They're also a bit longer and thinner than the others...one of them lays really, really long eggs. The others lay...

We tend to be a bit anal about stuff like that here. DH was shocked to discover that eggs could be kept for months if they're just cool. When I was growing up we ordered them by the case and just stuck them in the root cellar. They were fine for a long time. In point of fact, unless an egg...

If Cornbread is bigger and older, she'll likely be the dominant and you'll have to keep an eye on the chicks. We had a situation here where we had to separate a bully for a couple of weeks...she went beyond dominant into being actually mean. One of the others was bleeding where she was...