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I have an oppertunity to get some white or blue 55 gallon plastic drums with lids from a farmer that advertised on Craigs List. He has hundreds of them that contained either teat dip, detergent or iodine. They are not free and they need to be cleaned, but they are relatively inexpensive, $10 for...

This is me under my chair. I am heart sick and afraid. I was watching the news this morning while they were discussing the health care provisions in the stimulous bill. Aparently, these provisions, in addition to providing the funding for placing all medical records on the WEB, also will limit...

My Roxy, a 2 year old Black Austrolorp is going through a hard molt right now. I got her this spring and have never seen a molt before. She is getting pretty bald and the "feathers" that are comming in are not fluffy but seem to be like gray pins. they are from 1-2 inches in length and odd...

Today I made my first loaf of sour dough bread. I started making my starter 4 days ago and didnt think it would work. It did, sort of. My starter did proof and bubble. It had a great sour / beery smell and it did make a good sponge. It seemed ok when I added flour and did the first kneeding of...

I got Pebbles and her hatchmate Roxy in May. At that time they were 2 years old. I was told both girls had laid eggs all winter but this spring Pebbles had stopped laying for some unknown reason. She was not laying at the time I got her. I noticed early on that she had quite a few broken...

I have been looking for DE locally without luck. I have seen many web sites that have DE, but I am too cheep to pay the price of the shipping, which can be more than the cost of the DE. Yesterday I went into a local farm and garden store and found a product called Sweet PDZ. According to the...

BamBam, my EE just layed her first egg today. I was so proud of her. BamBam was hatched on April14 and I purchased her when she was 8 weeks old. The egg she layed was a robins egg blue one that was medium in size. Will her eggs get larger as she gets older? What can I expect for a quantity...

I am looking for ways to can Butternut squash. I normally would just place them whole in my basement and use them "fresh" but this year I decided to try a new seed from Gurney's. It is for extra large Butternut squash. They claim that some squash might get to be 35 pounds! I don't have any 35...

I have a Peckham Pear tree in my yard, that for the first time, will have enough pears to can, this year. I am not sure how ripe the pears need to be inorder to can them. I would assume (possibly incorrectly) that the pears should not be as ripe as you would want for eating, since they will be...

I am trying to find out the various signs that a pullet is ready to lay her first egg. I know that her face and comb will get red as the time aproaches, but that is the only indicator I know. Can you wise chicken keepers tell me other signs to look for. My RIR is about 18 weeks old and her...

I am looking fro blackberry recipes. I Planted blackberries two years ago and we picked 6 pints this year. I am also am trying to find out if blackberry canes can be cut back in the early spring (March) and fertilized with a 10-10-10 fertilizer in May so that the berries will ripen in the end...

I am looking for a sweet Elderberry wine or cordial recipe. I have a huge (12 foot or so) Elder Bush that is full of berries that will be ripe at the end of the summer. I have not tried to use them in the past but this seems such a waste. This year the crop of berries seems exceptionately large...

I am interested in hearing from anyone who has tried Poulin Grain Layer Pellets. I live near their packaging facility and there for I can buy direct from them at a discount. I currently am feeding my hens Blue Seal Layer Pellets but I will consider changing to Poulin because of the cost, if I...

This evening, after putting my two 10 week old pullets to bed in their cage in the hen house, I let my two older hens (2 years old) out of the chicken run into a low fenced in area to "free range" a little before their bed time. I was sitting and waiting for the girls to get tired of pecking at...

I had thought, up until today, that my hens would know enough to get out of the rain. I was wrong! We had a bad storm pop up this afternoon. There was thunder, lightening, wind and torrent of rain. I went out to the hen house and run to put my two 8 week old pullets into the hen house from...

I need some suggestions on how to introduce two 5 week old pullets to my small flock of two 2 year old hens. I want the new girls to be safely incorporated into the flock. I have heard that chickens can peck younger or weaker chickens to death when they are added to the flock. I just got my...

I just got two hens that are two years old. Their previous owner told me that the Silver Laced Wyandotte had faithfully laid eggs all fall and somewhat regularly thru the winter. She stopped laying when spring came and has not laid an egg since. He did not know why. Her companion, a black...

I am a soon to be keeper of chickens. I am so excited! I am also a little nervous. I will be getting two chickens this Sunday. One is an Australorp and the other is a Silver-laced Wyandotte. Both of the girls are 2 years old. They are being rehomed to me by their present owner because he has...