The Old Folks Home

[cupman]

well, I'm not exactly a kid.. I'm 26(maybe a kid in the eyes of our older folk

). Probably a hair less than the median age of this community. I live in my parent's home but they are both retired and travel or stay at one of their vacation homes.. so I don't see my parents much more than four or five days a month. But it is a real problem, I am one college term away from my degree and am thinking about where I will live as my own place.. I'm sure it will happen within the year. I just have a sad feeling that I won't be able to live in a location where I could afford to pay the mortgage and property taxes to support my poultry hobby. My parents are gone so much traveling they also couldn't support my birds. It's just a problem I have no answer to yet.. and am fearing the worst.

 

[Arielle]

well, I'm not exactly a kid.. I'm 26(maybe a kid in the eyes of our older folk

). Probably a hair less than the median age of this community. I live in my parent's home but they are both retired and travel or stay at one of their vacation homes.. so I don't see my parents much more than four or five days a month. But it is a real problem, I am one college term away from my degree and am thinking about where I will live as my own place.. I'm sure it will happen within the year. I just have a sad feeling that I won't be able to live in a location where I could afford to pay the mortgage and property taxes to support my poultry hobby. My parents are gone so much traveling they also couldn't support my birds. It's just a problem I have no answer to yet.. and am fearing the worst.

Geez, have you thought that maybe staying with your parents maybe the best option. Getting a good job isn't the easiest thing and being able to save money by living under your parents roof isn't a bad thing.

We are not that many generations past 3 generations living together--and in Holland I know a family with a large house that had unmarried children living at home. Mind you the all work very hard, and share the load.

You would be able to keep the chickens and help with the upkeep of the house. I'm sure they love having someone live in the house while they are away.

On another note, THanks Wisher for inviting me to the thread. You were talking about vaca. Well many years ago we realized that having a small farm meant someone stayed home. NOw with kids DH and I do different activities with the kids while the other parent stays home. On Friday DH and the boys will go camping for a whole week ! YIPPEEE!!! My work load will be cut in half immediately!!! A vacation for me too!! I have all kinds of plans--paint the house, paint the kitchen drawers. Make nest boxes. I love being at home--I don't need to go elsewhere for R&R usually.

Having too many horses and too many sheep and too many birds--no one would do that kind of work around here.

 

[Wisher1000]

Cupman- Don't cout yourself out of a bird friendly place of your own just yet! I have found that if you look hard, get good advice from knowledgable people (with experience) you can buy property as easily as you can rent. Good land is always a good investment because they are not making any more of it. Try to find something just outside of your town of choice and with no restrictions, an old house, if any, and start working to improve it as you can. You can keep it a long time or get something else and rent it. You may even flip it and get something else to fix up. The choices are many if you don't get in too big a hurry or wait till you have to act fast. I was able to build the house I wanted on 23 acres because of the equity I had in a 6 acre place I bought when I was your age. I still have both places and the smaller one gets me $900 a month in rent!

 

[cupman]

Yeah nothing is certain yet... However, I live in Oregon.. we have no sales tax. The money not gained in a sales tax is made up with an ehanced property tax. So we pay a little more here on our property but don't pay it in sales. I honestly have a lot of what-ifs to explore so we will see.. nothing is definite yet.

 

[Wisher1000]

 

[Wisher1000]

My friend Stumpy was asking about a recent predator problem I am having. I have started missing birds occasionally over the past few weeks. I free range almost all of my birds and accept that that means I will lose some to predators and accidents. I believe that the benefit to the quality of like that the birds get from being able to be birds far outweighs the risk to individual birds. With that said, I will try my darnest to keep predators from them and to maintain as safe of an environment as I can.

My current problem is either a hawk, coyote, or maybe a fox. I have only found one patch of feathers where one was taken, otherwise no signs of a kill or carcass at all. The birds have all been taken during the day and we have seen a large hawk around a few times. In my experience, a hawk will target smaller chickens first, but two of the missing birds are full grown BOs. It is getting closer together, too. I don't think a hawk would take a second large chicken in two days. I am leaning toward coyote. We have heard them at a distance at night. It could also be a fox but we haven't seen any.

Then there are the two (out of five) guineas that were hit by a car day-before-yesterday, a quarter of a mile from my property and about a mile from their coop

 

[Stumpy]

I am in a bit of a different situation -- no children -- but we have found it difficult to avoid taking in stray dogs that are often dumped out in the country. So that has been an expense and we hope to be down to only one outside dog in the next few years. We are very tied down by that. I've only just started with chickens this spring -- I figured I was tied down already and have wanted chickens for ages. That said, I can't have as many chickens as I want for a variety of reasons, so that is forcing me to keep the numbers down.

Wisher, that's too bad about your losses. I can remember when coyotes were unheard of in Alabama.

 

[Stumpy]

Ah, watermelon.

 

[Arielle]

Wisher--always tough to loose a chicken. We have fox--hadn't ever seen one until DH chased it out of the yard and up and over the fence. The point was to make the chickens not worth the effort. DH purposely scared the fox half to death!!! Wish I had been there to see it!!

I have plenty of coyote--DS chased off one with a hen in the mouth. Good riddance to that hen if she doesn't have the sense to go into the coop at night for lockup.

Fencing can help with contolling patrolling prowlers, say that 5 times fast! I put up a perimeter fence and that coyote hasn't come back into the property that way. More fencing to do.

 

[Wisher1000]

I just cut up two overly ripe cantalopes for my flock and they went NUTS! I don't know if it was the melon or the coolness that they loved the most. There was very little left by the time I finished cutting them into wedges.

I have also started freezing water in plastic soda bottles and putting one in the waterer each morning and afternoon. I can fill the bottle just over half way, tilt it in the fridge so it won't break the bottle, use it in the birds' water, then wash it off after it thaws and put it back in the freezer. They seem to love it. They also love to drink the condensation from the AC unit behind the house. Does anyone know if that is bad for them?

Arielle- I was just telling Stumpy that I plan to put up some fences as soon as it cools off some here. Are you hatching any poults this fall?