Anyone have luck catching a feral chicken?? UPDATE: Rooster caught, no hen

[staceyj]

This is what I found
n the video games, Halo: The Fall of Reach and Halo: First Strike, the phrase “ollie, ollie, oxen free” is used a number of times to pass along information to other members of the team. In Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell, if a player shoots an enemy and then hides, the player is hunted down with the phrase “Ollie, ollie, oxen free! Come out, come out wherever you are!”

Aside from that, it’s hard to find published references to the phrase “ollie, ollie, oxen free.”

Children’s sayings were hardly recorded until the 1950s, and even then, the sayings are very variable. That’s because they’ve been passed down orally from one generation to the next, with no adult intervention or correction. And so, errors in passing the sayings down from generation to generation is not unlike the misheard lyrics of popular songs over the decades.

The most likely explanation for the phrase is that it is a corruption of the German “Alle, alle auch sind frei” which, when translated, means “Everyone, everyone also is free.”

When “alle, alle auch sind frei” is said in a normal speaking voice, phonetically it sounds somewhat like this: aw-luh aw-luh owhk zint fry. Imagine how it sounds when excited children are running about, shouting this at the top of their lungs and it’s easy to see how it becomes this: aw-luh aw-luh owxin fry. With minimal effort, it easily becomes: ollie, ollie, oxen free.

It may also be a corruption of “allez, allez” which is a Norman addition to the English language from French and is pronounced “all-ay, all-ay.” The word “allez” in French, of course, means “go.” The ensuing “in kommen frei” was a phrase popular in Dutch/German New York and Pennsylvania and meant “come in free.” In this case, “Allez, allez, in kommon frie” may have morphed into a French-English hybrid: “Allez, allez, come in free!”

Wow! Thanks for looking that up!
That's is one thing I LOVE about technology. When I was a kid whenever we'd ask a question my mom would tell us to "go look it up" which meant in the set of encyclopedias on a shelf in the corner of our dining room/dads office/ mom's sewing room/ironing room. Lol. (Row house people)
If what we wanted to know wasn't in that set, well!... it might have been as if it had never been discovered and recorded.
I love being able to go down the rabbit hole of knowledge whenever I "look something up" now although sometimes my "research" makes dinner late!
Thank you thank you! @Suzi18

 

[CSAchook]

Thanks for the alfalfa advice @Smuvers Farm ! My bratty cochin teens can be annoyingly picky sometimes. So I am trying various new treat stuff now before my yard totally dies. They really liked chopped alfalfa (or at least I assume they did. Lotsa green poop in my poop trays!)
I'm trying the alfalfa pellets next (cause they were cheap) but wasn't sure if you are supposed to prepare them somehow first. Good to know I probably can't screw this up!!!

 

[staceyj]

@Sassysouth
Don't buy shavings at a pet store or Walmart.
Pound for pound you're paying more than 9 times what a compressed bag costs at TSC

 

[Redhead Rae]

That was when I started pressure cooking the old chickens. Orpington tacos, noodles & orp, orp sandwiches! The orpingtons met the pressure cooker most often, they laid a lot less than the brown leghorns. I did not hatch (much), just ordered more from the hatchery.

We are having an Orpington named Mellow for dinner. We were keeping him as a breeder, but he was the beta rooster and was constantly causing problems in the flock so he went to freezer camp. One of my Orpington hens went broody at 7 months old. I'm hoping the rest are broody too. I had two others that were flirting with the idea of going broody. I got them from Murray McMurray as well.

 

[Parront]

We are having an Orpington named Mellow for dinner. We were keeping him as a breeder, but he was the beta rooster and was constantly causing problems in the flock so he went to freezer camp. One of my Orpington hens went broody at 7 months old. I'm hoping the rest are broody too. I had two others that were flirting with the idea of going broody. I got them from Murray McMurray as well.

Sounds like my old Orpingtons! One the kids named "Big Mamma" always broody. Did hatch them, though.

 

[apryl29]

I used a baby corral. I left it folded smaller until they needed more room. I used a tarp folded in the bottom and up the sides to hold pine shavings. Then an extension arm for my dremel to hang the light. LOL
View attachment 1183509 View attachment 1183510

I wish I'd thought of the tarp for the bottom. Would have saved me a lot of hassle. I'll remember it if I'm ever crazy enough to do chicks again.

Please post pics of your half barrels.... I'd like to see them... what do you use? I think DH and I are going to do pallet gardening instead of raised bed... it'll take less dirt.



We started with 15 eggs. Candled at day 3 and kept all. Day 7 candled and 2 were duds. Candling tonight, and I am certain #7 is a dud... and I believe #14 is a dud... just not sure...... Candling tonight, and then again on Sunday... lockdown on Monday!




I'll post a pic of our cardboard brooder. This is the 3rd one we've *built*. We have leftover packing boxes, but you can get a refrigerator box at Lowes or anyplace else they sell fridges, and use it. This one we've filled with sawdust and leaf mulch. They'll start off with fermented feed and nipple waterers.





Thank you! I remember the saying, and this is intersting information. Thank you for posting it!



I have a bale of pressed alfalfa straw that we toss into their run. I'll also toss a handful of pellets. We also ferment alfalfa, so I don't think there's any WRONG way to serve up some tasty alfalfa greens!!


Sorry I disappeared.... I had a cuppa and was on here, ready to chat... when DH woke up... UGH... off to TSC and Kroger we went. We bought 4 handy panels instead of 2 cow panels, and we're gonna try to make a panel hoop coop. Just testing the idea to see if it's viable for us.

Now, we're vacuuming leaves and making mulch. YIPPEEEEE the life of a steader....

My mom did the pallet garden thing last year & it didn't really work that well b/c she didn't make them deep enough. At the end when she took everything out the roots were all bound up & nothing grew very well. Not saying you shouldn't give it a try, but it'll need to be more than 1 pallet deep.

 

[staceyj]

Smuvs. We did pallets a few years ago. *important note. All pallets are marked. There is a guide to symbols available online.
You CANNOT use the pressure treated ones to grow food in. It's poisonous. After one season they started to rot.
Second season they got termites.

My half barrels are the really tough one they make for gardening. Some kind of thick plastic.
The real wooden ones like they use at a winery are to cost prohibitive for me.

 

[staceyj]

Found this from way in my phone

 

[Molpet]

pallets marked HT is heat treated and good to use

 

[Parront]

View attachment 1183645 View attachment 1183646 Smuvs. We did pallets a few years ago. *important note. All pallets are marked. There is a guide to symbols available online.
You CANNOT use the pressure treated ones to grow food in. It's poisonous. After one season they started to rot.
Second season they got termites.

My half barrels are the really tough one they make for gardening. Some kind of thick plastic.
The real wooden ones like they use at a winery are to cost prohibitive for me.

Similar to what I got at Lowes to grow some things in Palm Desert. My problem was that the ants kept taking the potting soil!