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  1. RichnSteph

    Coffee grounds. How much is too much?

    I've recently gotten the green light from two Starbucks here on base to collect their coffee grounds each day and take them home for our garden. Our soil is 99.9999999% sand and nothing will grow in it without help. We also have oak trees all over the place and have been raking them up into a...
  2. RichnSteph

    Aquaponics flowers

    We'll be pulling our system apart next spring to convert into something a little more enjoyable but have found a use for it between now and then. Since we've started keeping bees I figured I'd plant the aquaponics beds full of fall flowers or at least full of flowers that are a little more cold...
  3. RichnSteph

    quick question about poop boards and nesting boxes

    Hey folks, been off the site for a while due to work and the multitude of things that go along with getting the property here at home taken care of. So I'm back and of course have a question. I'm building a new coop for the girls out of a pile of pallets and a rather large gazebo that we took...
  4. RichnSteph

    Our newest addition to the family.

    This is going to be the newest addition to the flock. His name is Chuck Liddell and he's one of three roosters that were hatched out by one of our hens 8 months ago. He's out of a Gold Laced Wyandotte hen covered by a Buff Orpington rooster. His two brothers (James and Charlie Brown) will be...
  5. RichnSteph

    Chickens roostnig in the tree, shotgun roosters, no one is laying eggs.

    Several issues on the homestead. 1) Most or our 22 birds are roosting way up high in the trees. I don't mind it so much now but I don't know how I'm going to convince them to roost where they are supposed to once the new coop is built. Thoughts? 2) The above roosting issue has caused another...
  6. RichnSteph

    DIY greenhouse build, question on fiberglass

    During this winter we're building a 30'x16' greenhouse to contain our AP grow beds, a deep water raft system for leafy greens and shrimp and a few soil beds for larger plants. We've been back and forth between pouring concrete or a wood flood and have decided a wood floor will be the easiest and...
  7. RichnSteph

    The no waste 5 gallon bucket feeder is a hit!

    We made our 5 gallon bucket feeder (with two access points) at the beginning of the week and so far it's already paid for itself! If you don't know what it is then do yourself a favor and search for it here, Just type in "5 gallon bucket feeder" it'll be the first search result. I was pouring...
  8. RichnSteph

    Planting in a hollowed out tree trunk?

    We have a lot of Post Oak on our property that I'm slowly taking down and cutting for firewood. One of the trees that was felled during home-site prep is about 2' across by 10 feet long and the entire center is just rotted. I'm thinking I could run a chainsaw down it and either split it in half...
  9. RichnSteph

    Need help moving a hen that has hatched a few peeps and still has eggs yet to hatch

    Two of our hens went broody. One of them hatched out a chick and left the nest alone long enough for the chick to start shivering even in the Texas heat. I gave that chick and the remaining 5 eggs to the other hen who also hatched today but is staying with her chick and eggs. The problem is that...
  10. RichnSteph

    Found 18 eggs in the yard. *ick*

    Egg laying had been disrupted due to a couple of broody hens. We just figured the others weren't laying. Today while squirrel hunting I stumbled across 18 eggs in a shallow depression in the yard. Some were so rotten that they exploded when I tossed them into the compost bin. Time to either...
  11. RichnSteph

    Broody momma and 6 new chicks out walking the yard!

    I received a phone call from my lovely wife a few minutes ago letting me know that one of our broody hens is now walking around the property with the 6 chicks she's been simmering for the past few days. She left 4 eggs behind in the nest so when I get home I'll get rid of them, 6 out of...
  12. RichnSteph

    Our hen won't stay on the eggs

    Our Black Australorp has been broody for the past 3.5 weeks. She's been gifted extra eggs by the other chickens every time she gets out of the nest to go get food and water. Last night I went to check on her and she was once again sitting in the wrong nesting box (on one egg) while her clutch of...
  13. RichnSteph

    Starting a new coop since our flock just can't seem to stop growing.

    I guess some of you've been where we are now. Flock of 5 initially has grown to 18 and our 5x7x7 coop is no where near big enough even if they just sleep in there. So now that two of our hens have gone broody (yup you read that right we have two of them sitting on eggs at the same time) and have...
  14. RichnSteph

    Chickens helping each other keep the eggs warm?

    One of our Black Australorps has decided to start sitting on eggs. She started last week and at first I moved her off the nest and collected the eggs from her, 8-12 at a time. Since she's seemed to be serious about it we've left her alone and now she's sitting on I don't know how many eggs but...
  15. RichnSteph

    Youngest rooster is crowing and he's so loud I can hear him through the walls of our home.

    Our youngest rooster has finally gotten his crow perfected and it is way beyond loud. Our dominant roo has a nice raspy crow that you can only hear outside. The new kid has this high note that cuts through the house at 5 am every morning, every.... morning.... I can hear him from a block away...
  16. RichnSteph

    How does a new rooster get "girl friends" out of an existing flock?

    We're about to be down to two roosters in our flock of 20 something chickens. One of them is our BO named Pete and is the dominant 1 year old who has a monopoly on the hen business. The other is a 20+ month old BR/Au cross named Remington and he's started crowing but not one single hen has come...
  17. RichnSteph

    processed my first chicken yesterday, was surprised at the meat color

    I processed one of our roosters yesterday after work, will be doing another one today and tomorrow, and was surprised at the color of the meat and organs. I guess I should have been expecting a darker shade of the meat and a brighter color to the heart, liver and gizzard but I was rather stunned...
  18. RichnSteph

    Processing some roosters today. Couple of questions.

    Three of our four younger roosters have been drafted to attend freezer camp this week, starting today. I've looked at all the EZ chicken plucking things and the scalding pots etc.... Is there anything wrong with just taking the birds head off with a hatchet and then plucking the feathers out by...
  19. RichnSteph

    Duck went broody (no drake available), I removed the eggs and she stopped laying

    Young Cayuga of ours suddenly became very erratic in her laying. Up till now it was one egg a day every day. A few weeks back we started getting one egg every two or three days. Well last weekend I found her nest of 9 eggs in the yard and half of them were black inside. She was still cooping up...
  20. RichnSteph

    Picking the right rooster to keep out of 4.

    As the title says we have four roosters that are coming of age in our flock of 22. We have an established rooster who is just about a year old and he's doing great with his girls. We have four new roosters (we hatched 7 chicks and thought that one of them was a rooster and the others hens...
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