7th Annual BYC New Year's Day 2016 Hatch-A-Long

[CGilbert]

This next year's project is fencing and a cow and horse barn. Got three chicken coops and runs, along with two LARGE planter boxes done this last fall. And planted trees along our quarter mile driveway.
I love my projects. And I really want a full fledged farm eventually.

 

[ronott1]

I wish we could figure out how to offer raw milk to the public. Getting certified for raw milk production it hard and the latest news is the Land O'Lakes "Cooperative" will be dropping farmers who are selling raw milk. I suppose they want to squash the competition. They are also penalizing farmers that ship more milk than they have in the past, enough to make sure that all farmers start cutting production. Expect all milk prices to rise in the future, due to "shortages". I think they saw what happened to egg prices after AI wiped out a few million layers.

I believe we should be paying more for our food, but with the extra cost going back to the producers to support better quality and better quality of life for the animals, not going to pay executive bonuses at the agribusiness companies.

I wonder if we could legally rent out cows and have people come milk them themselves to get the raw milk. Or sell the cows and charge a fee to maintain and feed them. Maybe I could form a local group of several families that would jointly own the cow and take turns milking it, taking whatever milk they get for themselves.

Here in California, people sell cow shares, so they own a part of the cow. That gives them the right to the milk according to the number of shares they have.

 

[ChickaLong]

@dheltzel
I saw a craigslist Colorado ad this year that leased out hens for the spring to fall time frame. This might work for milk animals.

 

[KYTinpusher]

Sure you don't want to move? I have a couple rental houses on the ranch!

Boy, the offer is tempting, but I am too old and have too much stuff to move again. I don't think they make a trailer big enough for 3 mini donkeys, 2 mini cows, 4 cats, 2 dogs, 3 rabbits and 80+ chickens (not to mention the chicks hatching!).

Has or Is anyone using this incubator? I would love to hear reviews from the hatching peeps!

I have never used one, but from what I have read, the ones that say Janoel are good, but the others are knock-offs and have a lot of issues.

I wish there were someone near me that had raw milk I could trade for! I've always had a cow to milk. I still have cows but lupus and arthritis make it too hard for me to milk them now. I miss the milk soooo bad!!

If you can't find someone who wants to milk in exchange for some of the milk, you might try here: http://www.realmilk.com/state-updates/ to see where you might obtain some.

Quote: I have the cooling feature on one of my Brinseas, but I have never used. Like you, Ron, I am almost always doing staggered hatches.

Quote: The mini cows produce 3-4 quarts per day. They only require half (or maybe a quarter) the space of a full sized cow, but would still make short work of an acre of grass. Feeding hay all the time would cost more than the $6/gal. for the milk.

Quote: There is lots of information about cowshares here: http://www.realmilk.com/state-updates/

BTW, raw milk is very good for making kefir which is excellent for chickens!

 

[TJChickens]

I'm going now to milk the cows, With a surge machine.
We only use one stall at a time.
I can do it both ways, But I think manual is still quicker up until about 7 cows in.
Of Course, I'm milking 6 cows this morning! With a Dang machine.....
Easier on the hands though......

You need to come live near me too! Bring your cows!

Dwarf might be an option when I retire, maybe....
I don't think we can even buy raw milk here so $6.00 would be good. It's pushing that for "organic milk" milk here. Maybe more.

I tried milking zebu, thinking a smaller cow might be easier. Turns out that zebu won't let their milk down unless the calf is nursing. Makes the process very tedious. Made me miss heresies.

Here in California, people sell cow shares, so they own a part of the cow. That gives them the right to the milk according to the number of shares they have.

 

[OneMountainAcres]

I have a feeling that the raw milk you are drinking is from the people that gave me my first sample. It was at the Potatofest (OMG! I am not a city girl anymore!) in Ebensburg. They will sell you a cow. In fact, I think they have a few mini cows. Don't forget that they are an option! A quart or so a day isn't bad!

They are clover creek farm from Martinsburg. Their cows are all grass fed. Eventuality, we're just going to get a couple 5 gallon buckets and go to the farm and have them fill them for us. It's cheaper per gallon that way. At least until we have our own dairy whatever here lol

 

[cree57i]

BTW, raw milk is very good for making kefir which is excellent for chickens!

How do you make kefir? I have a cowshare and raw milk.

 

[KYTinpusher]

How do you make kefir? I have a cowshare and raw milk.

It is quite easy, but requires near daily maintenance. It is wonderful for people, too! It is similar to yogurt, but instead of 5-6 different active cultures (all bacterias) found in the really good yogurts, kefir typically has between 40-60! - both beneficial bacterias and beneficial yeasts.

Find someone with kefir grains. I let mine go last summer and have to find some myself, or I would send you some (that is actually on my To-Do List for today

). There is a group on FB for Kombucha and Kefir that has a list of people who are willing to share: https://www.facebook.com/groups/KombuchaNation.CulturesHealthHealing/. Here are the instructions:

 

[Cynthia12]

I'm going now to milk the cows, With a surge machine.
We only use one stall at a time.
I can do it both ways, But I think manual is still quicker up until about 7 cows in.
Of Course, I'm milking 6 cows this morning! With a Dang machine.....
Easier on the hands though......

I can imagine easier on the hands! I used to milk goats..can't imagine doing that many cows!

 

[Cynthia12]

Aw, thank you!
Got power back at 11pm last night. Bator was only off for about 30-45 minutes. It only got down to 89°.
Hopefully the chickies are ok.

Oh good, power outage..wouldn't be a good thing here. Too many things going on for chicks, chickens, and eggs!