Surviving Minnesota!

Bogtown Chick said:

I believe in insulating the roof for sure to hold down any chicken generated warmth.

I did do this Reflectix stuff in my coop to see about using the sunshine to gently warm the coop. it did not overheat it last winter and I LIKED that about it. I will tell you that last winter was my first winter with it. And...last winter really wasn't a good test of it. It was so mild and really I didn't get a good feel on how it made a difference on cold cold days/weeks. I'll give a good solid opinion after another winter of it.




It's like silver bubble wrap. Got it at Home Depot. the reason I insulate is because my first winter ...EVERY DAY...every. Started at -20 below. Not very nice for extended periods of time on birds, my feeling. If it's just a week of -20...I think the birds can handle no insulation and no heat.

Click to expand...

Do the chickens peck at this?

Violetsfeathers said:

It's been there long enough that I don't see it anymore, I'm used to it. You could paint it maybe

Click to expand...

Wouldn't painting it be counter-productive? Don't you want the silver to be reflective?

duluthralphie said:

HI..

I have to confess I did not win fairly on the first post of the day. I sent it from the ER. I Woke to find Judy on the floor of the bathroom at 1. She said she laid down so she didn't fall down. She did not pass out, but said the room was spinning and she was getting weak.



I was in the ER until 8. She is home now, in bed, they do not know what was wrong with her. Her white count is high they did a ton of tests and X-rays and found nothing. Some of the tests take days to come back.


Other than that nothing much going on.

The Socially inept little BA rooster named "Pat" is no more, he is cooling his heels in Mom's Fridge today. There should be much less drama in the rooster pen today.

Click to expand...

So sorry to hear this, take care of her and wishes for a quick recovery.

MNChickMom said:

Today we are at my parents so I had unfair advantage in waking up early. They consider 5:30 sleeping in. Today we will be putting my dad's antique Johnny poppers in a parade. Should be fun as the grandkids will be throwing candy from a manure spreader.

Click to expand...

You win though! Use every advantage.

I have completed a list of things already today. I have showered, shaved am fully dressed and drinking coffee. Judy is still sick but not is as much pain today. Hopefully, she is mending. She thinks she is reacting to an antibiotic the doctor gave her a week ago.

I am waiting for my cousin to pick me up we are going mushroom hunting this morning for a few hours.

I went and bought more feed yesterday. The cost of keeping those roosters is getting high. I have decided it is time to grade and cull. The small one my Mom did yesterday was larger than I thought it would be. It was a fair to good size fryer. Good news for me, bad news for the roosters.

Beings have so many different sized roosters I am not going to be able to process them all on one day. I will have to do it as they are ready. I made a major purchase last night. I bought



Sorry,,cousin came and I forgot to post...will finish in a bit

Hey Ralphie this is my cousin's back yard . Yep banana trees in IL .

duluthralphie said:

You win though! Use every advantage.

I have completed a list of things already today. I have showered, shaved am fully dressed and drinking coffee. Judy is still sick but not is as much pain today. Hopefully, she is mending. She thinks she is reacting to an antibiotic the doctor gave her a week ago.

I am waiting for my cousin to pick me up we are going mushroom hunting this morning for a few hours.

I went and bought more feed yesterday. The cost of keeping those roosters is getting high. I have decided it is time to grade and cull. The small one my Mom did yesterday was larger than I thought it would be. It was a fair to good size fryer. Good news for me, bad news for the roosters.

Beings have so many different sized roosters I am not going to be able to process them all on one day. I will have to do it as they are ready. I made a major purchase last night. I bought



Sorry,,cousin came and I forgot to post...will finish in a bit

Click to expand...

I wrote this before 7am. my cousin was going too pick me up between 7-7:30. He showed up about 5 minutes to 7 and I left, forgetting to post it..





Jerry, My brother has Banana's in Durham NC. but they do not make edible fruit, do those? I had bananas in Florida. They were called apple bananas and were good, if you could beat the birds and bugs to them.



I found my first "hen of the woods" today. We only found one, and I actually stumbled across it. I kept a small piece to try and sent the rest with my cousin.

I went to post a picture and it was the only one I did not take a picture of. Dumb me! I was so excited to find it I forgot to photograph it!


Here are some of our other finds:


Jerry help ID them if you can.. We did not eat them as we could not be sure.










We thought these two were the same species until we got home and started examining them closer. My cousin thought they were "honey Mushrooms". When we looked at them closer and with the books and internet, we decided they may be, or may not be. We are currently doing spore prints on them.










If anyone knows what they are, PLEASE tell me. My cousin has picked mushrooms since he was a kid, but he is just now starting to branch out into more species, he says he always picked the same 6 most his life.





Not sure what it is, could be destroying Angle, but sure was large and pretty. (above)



We thought this might be a puff ball. There are some stalked ones. It has pure white flesh like a puffball but we could not find a picture of one with the stalk wider than the cap. So it is headed to the garbage too.



Above is an "Old Man of the woods" we were not sure and left it be, when we got home we were sure. My Cousin thought that's what it was in the woods but said they are not that good to eat. There appears to be no lookalikes..

The next two below, we have no idea never tried to find out, I just took the picture because it was "interesting".





These are some shelf mushroom, not edible but cool..



Another one simply took for the sake of the photo.







I thought the one above was an immature chicken. My cousin disagreed. He broke off a piece and it did not bleed milk. After I got back and looked I think it is a type of oyster and edible. I have not talked to him to tell him that. He might over rule me. It is 50 miles away so either way I doubt we will go back for it.

I am really enjoying mushrooming. I just wish I had started younger and was more sure of myself. I will be going slow. Thanks to Jerry and BC for getting me into this! I can't wait to hit Jerry's woods!

Judy is still ill today. I should have known better than to marry a Norwegian/polack. She is dumb and stubborn and not letting me take her to the hospital! I being mild manner and agreeable would go right away if she said she wanted to take me in....




Oh my major purchase.... I bought a plucker, a whiz bang type. It says on the box it will do 2- 8 pound chickens in 15 seconds! The boys are going to start disappearing this week.





So if you have chickens to pluck, I might be able to help you out!!! Also I am going to sell my smaller hand one.


Hopefully, I will make some kraut today.






And finally a mushroom picture I thought was just plain good looking...



TTYL..

For those of you not carrying about mushrooms ..sorry I drug on and one about them.





PS. I forgot to mention I found a chicken it was about 25 ft up in a tree. I thought because I found it my cousin should have to climb up and get it. He refused! I even offered to lift him up to the first branch.

So there's an auction for a breeding pair LF cochins. Your choice of black blue and splash. They are directly from Jamie Matt's himself. He said that if I won I could choose the colors I want.
I currently have April, who's a light blue, and Gary who's a darker blue.
Wondering if anyone has an opinion on what colors I should get. I was thinking of blue and splash, since there some black breeders around here.

Nice mushroom pics Ralphie . Try looking up Parasol mushroom . That could be one of them . Well busy couple of days . Bought 4 bantam EE at the sale barn plus some tomatoes . Put the tractor hydro valve back on the tractor this morning . Yea it works . Woke up to rain again today and maybe again tomorrow . Wet and humid . It does clear off but really humid . So I had over a bushel of tomatoes with mine and what I bought . Juiced them through the blender raw and cooked them . Ran the juice through the Foley food mill to remove seeds and any large bits of skin . Mostly seeds . Tomorrow I will can juice and paste .

Morning all


Looks like you lucked out on the hydraulics Jerry. Now that you're and expert come on up here and fix some.

I looked up parasol, I am not sure which one you mean. The one looks like a carousel at a carnival.

I need to check spore prints this morning.


more pictures. Just cause I like them, and some of you do NOT post enough.....


First 3 of Andy. Note how his crest is almost non-existent! Stupid Andy






Here is one of Pocahontas, she prefers the top of a flat open surface to a nest box..Silly bird.



And this is what she leaves me. If I am in the shed working she will jump up on the work bench and keep me company then leave me an egg when she goes.


And below is ED with his "babies". Ed likes to be afather. last year he adopted all the chicks and poults from that one batch without a hen. This year he adopted the Guineas on of one of his wives. They were all sitting there until I wanted the picture. That is why Ed is sitting funny he was getting up. The Guineas do not like their pictures taken, just incase they are used in a line up later for a crime they commit.



And finally a couple of my Dominique Boys. I have not checked them against the SOP's yet. they are young, but the furthest left one seems impressive to me.





If you look close in these pictures you happen to see a couple PC cockerels too. One will move to Hermantown, the other might stay here as a back up roo...Or visit the freezer.

Morning everyone! I had to line judge at a Varsity VB tournament all day yesterday. My legs were so tired!!

My dad and I are going to see what we can do to improve my chicken coop today, shoot some rounds through my 243, and see if I like my dads 270 better for deer season.
The same day as the new Salem exotic animal sale there's an auction and they're selling some rabbit hutches and cages along with a chicken coop, so I will drop the birds off at the sale then go to the auction.

I
Here are the bantams I bought . 2 have slate legs 2 have green legs . Got 1 egg yesterday from them .

jerryse said:

I
Here are the bantams I bought . 2 have slate legs 2 have green legs . Got 1 egg yesterday from them .

Click to expand...

What's your plan with them? How many birds do you own? How many breeds? I don't have any that color, but I don't have any bantams either. I think I would need to keep them under cover all the time or they would be Hawk/eagle snacks.






Oh and those mushrooms we thought might be honey mushrooms. were not. the spore prints were brown to goldish brown. Not the white we needed them to be.