Homesteaders

[rancher hicks]

No one knows about my Cosmos?

I usually give away my roosters too. I haven't the skill to kill and process them. Too, I worry about the smell of blood and guts. Bee, you're lucky like Joel here who usually takes my extra roosters and old hens. I really need to keep records of who is who. I do band the hens but not the roosters. Unfortunately some hens lose their bands and I'm lazy and don't replace them.

I pulled a Delaware hen out of the nest box tonight. Put a band on her so we shall see if she is really broody or not. If she is, I haven't decided what to do with her.

Got home late cuz DW had to go to the ER. Thought a kidney stone but just a muscle problem. She's on meds and doing well. I was worried since it was so late.

I know there is a cat about these days and that's not a bad thing. Well I don't expect it to get into the run to get the chicks. I found some poop of undetermined origin in the yard though. Looks to be cat poop but it was in the grass and that puzzles me. I reckon I should look into finding a "Scat" page to compare it to.

That nasty Ground hog is still about. I have got to deal with it somehow.

I haven't gotten any tomatoes. Not even anymore little yellow cherries. I hate getting a late start. It's been so warm I would surely ahve gotten some by now if I'd gotten them in in May. Strange as it is I've got plants that self started that are doing better than those I planted.

Something is eating my cukes again. I suspect voles. Which is why a cat is not a bad thing. I did see a big snake in the compost a few days ago. I figure it to be about 3 feet long. It was a big one. It crawled under the plastic of the full compost pile. I don't bother with snakes as they eat mice and what nots. Maybe even get the voles eating my cuke plants. I had the same problem last year.

 

[Mini Meat]

Put a load of wood chips on the garden this evening where the chips were too thin. Got ripe maters out there which I intend to dehydrate. Getting yellow squash now. Corn is tassling and earing up, beans are getting tall, some tomato vines are topping 8-9 ft. , though they are just cherry tomatoes. The rest are at the 6 ft. height but all have blight, so it won't be long before they succumb to the fungal infection. Peppers are all blighted as well, as are the potatoes.

Picked up four young cockerels from my sister today...she's one of those folks who don't like to kill chickens, so I get the benefit of that now and again. The sad part is that all her hens go to waste as they die of this or that, so that meat is entirely wasted and her birds suffer before dying. Some things you can't fix.

Hope to get a chance to pick up more spare roosters here and there this season for extra meat...that's meat I didn't have to put much money into at all, so it's a win/win.

And that, my friends, is real chicken math....addition and then, later on, subtraction too. These cockerels will hang around here free ranging until they are big enough for eating and then will be put to good use.

Got another broody...that's three hens in the broody buster pen right now. Need to put up a spare roosting space for young birds that are growing out....thinking about using a part of a pallet for that.

Now that ^, is something to be taken to heart. "Chicken Math" has become something of a dismissive term. "Well, that's chicken math for ya' "
People are unprepared responsibility for subtraction portion of raising chickens.This leads to the unrealistic expectations of finding "forever homes" for unwanted roosters and spent layers.

This needs a new phrase coined.

How exactly would I phrase It?:

Chicken math... Don't add when you can't subtract!

This may be going in my sig.

 

[Beekissed]

Amen! That's one of my pet peeves on these forums....folks laughingly saying they are victims of chickens math and then later on you read where they are having issues with overstocking such as poor health, parasites, cannibalism, "bullying", etc. Then there is the problem of extra roosters and you are correct...they don't want them but they don't want anyone to eat them either. That's an unrealistic expectation.

They go through all that drama and then, next spring, you read where they are hatching again because they are just addicted and chicken math is rendering them helpless to prevent it all happening again.

It's all very hard to understand from where I'm sitting.

 

[rancher hicks]

Just so we're clear here. I have no fantasies that birds I give to Joel or anyone else are living in paradise till they meet their maker. My subtraction comes when Joel shows up. Though I have paid to have bird processed once.

I whole heartedly agree that some folks aren't being realistic when they post that they're giving away a rooster but only as a pet.

Seems to me too many get involved without doing the research as to what keeping chickens entails. Of course that for me holds a lot more than just what to do with extra roosters as you all know.

Though for me my biggest pet peeve is folks who think I should raise a pullet to laying age and then sell it to them for the price of a chick!! $5? Are you kidding me? I'd sooner wring her neck, pluck and eat her myself than participate in such a losing endeavor.

But what can you do? The same holds true for cat folks who won't have their cat's spayed or neutered, then want the shelter to take them. As if they have the room. I thank God for the CNY cat coalition here in Syracuse. I like cats but am not up to cleaning a litter box anymore.

A recent newspaper had Fox Hounds up for adoption. The B series they were called. I almost choked when the article said the new owners will have to house break them. Can you teach an old dog new tricks? I like dogs too. Maybe when I am done with chickens I'll get a small dog to walk.

I'll just gradually downsize, til they're all gone. I expect I'll be posting my incubator soon. I'm just not up to it anymore since DW got sick.

Anyhow that's not really why I'm here. I'm really here to give helpful tips if I can and get some. Without upsetting to many people that is.

All that said I hope everyone here is safe and well. Together we can make the chicken world a better place.

TTFN, good night all.

Love ya,

 

[Chicken girl 15]

Amen!  That's one of my pet peeves on these forums....folks laughingly saying they are victims of chickens math and then later on you read where they are having issues with overstocking such as poor health, parasites, cannibalism, "bullying", etc.   Then there is the problem of extra roosters and you are correct...they don't want them but they don't want anyone to eat them either.  That's an unrealistic expectation. 

They go through all that drama and then, next spring, you read where they are hatching again because they are just addicted and chicken math is rendering them helpless to prevent it all happening again. 

It's all very hard to understand from where I'm sitting. 

oh I love chicken math. I keep adding so that as I'm subtracting I'm still with a full yard.

 

[Serenashome]

Well on the topic of chicken math. We wanted to start our chicken adventure with four. We bought six just in case there were casualties... there weren't they are all happy and healthy. Then a friend of a friend had a rooster in a subdivision and wanted to get rid of him so we added one more. Now we have seven.

We plan on rotating our flock every 18 months and want to maintain about 20 birds so starting with 6 or 7 isn't that big of a deal for us. The subtraction part of our equation is already factored into the chicken plan. What I had NOT counted on was chickens who want to be petted and want to sit on my lap or Puff the 'pirate chicken' who wants to ride on my shoulder as I walk around. We will follow through on our plans, financially it is necessary for us since the chickens need to pull their weight so to speak. I do think the subtraction part may be difficult for me at first but I am sure we will find a way to make this work.

I've so enjoyed them and it is shocking to me that I have. Growing up we had chickens and I never enjoyed a single thing about them until they were fried. So imagine my surprise that these chickens found a way into my fried chicken eating heart!

 

[Beekissed]

That's the thing, really....is realizing that in all reality, the chickens will eventually be culled, be it by your hand or nature. With that in mind and loving chickens as much as we do, isn't it better to give them a good death on a great day in their lives rather than letting them suffer with an illness or get torn apart by predators before we offer them mercy by death?

Then there is room for more cute chickens with cute personalities that have their own story to tell. As much as I love my quirky old hens who seem like old friends after 5-6 yrs, I'd never expect them to die of old age, in discomfort from reproductive issues or a bad heart. Once they are no longer laying regularly, they are then given a good subtraction from the flock.....I waited once to do that, out of sentimentality towards a dear old hen, and really regretted my own selfishness, as my good old hen was suffering from a lash egg she could not lay and others in her abdomen, with signs of cancer at her ovary. Sadly, I hadn't culled her when she stopped laying each spring and it came to her suffering for a day before I killed her. Never again if I can help it.

 

[rancher hicks]

As you know I do raised beds. However be warned. Bees can sometimes build nests in them. I got stung at least twice this morning. I'd covered the bed with newspapers and it left a pocket near the edge. As I was breaking it down I'd stirred up a hornets nest. Lord have mercy does it hurt.

So make sure to weed and stir things up so the bees can't get in there. Those ground bees are awful.

One year they'd made a nest in a pile of grass cuttings. I didn't get stung that time but nearly did. Later some creature got in there and rooted them out, as I saw the pile dug up pretty good and bees were gone.

 

[rancher hicks]

Well my taters are wilting. What's up with that? A blight? What do I do? Will it hit all my taters?

How do I get rid of these ground hornets? They're still there and I need them gone. I sprayed them with Sevin and last night with a hornet spray. They are nastier than an ex wife and nearly as hard to kill. Though their sting doesn't hurt as bad.

I will spray them again with the hornet spray. Not my ex wives the hornets.

Would it be good to dig up the rhubarb and replant it with new soil in the bed or should I just leave it? I kinda think it's too low in the bed and that part does get flooded when it rains heavy. Though it sure ain't gonna happen this year.

 

[duluthralphie]

My rhubarb floods every spring and never has a problem. It is in the lowest piece of ground around here. BUT I am on sand.


I think if you wait until it gets 40 below then bust the hornet nest up they will go away....


I have gotten 3 inches of rain in the last 4 hours.