Arizona Chickens

[Gallo del Cielo]

Quote:

Exactly! My wife showed me the penny floor pics a few months ago, knowing full well how that would totally tap into my OCD for tediously meticulous tasks like that. I started thinking about the amount of time it would take to glue each individual penny down and I realized it would probably be one of the most expensive floor options with all the labor. It does look good though.

Thanks everyone (especially AZKat) for their thoughts on stained concrete floors. It helps to hear positive stories. I'm testing out color samples today.

 

[pipemum]

If I designed my dream house, stained concrete would be the preferred flooring type. We painted our enclosed porch with concrete paint, and that has not held up well to traffic...mainly large dog traffic, plus they track in lots of dirt and sand to etch away at the paint. Staining would have probably held up better, but we went with the cheaper and less time intensive option.

I'm so impatiently waiting for eggs. 21 week EE is ready, the other not so much. One of the 18 week barred rocks is getting red now too.

I think I need to manage my compost better. I mentioned a while back that I didn't really take too much care of my compost and it still produced nice, rich compost? Still true, but this weekend I was turning it, and I found an ant colony, grubs, and a HUGE centipede living in the compost. It's not getting hot enough to deter pests. I also found a bunch of plastics and non-degradables that have snuck in (via the vacuum bag, I'm sure). I keep a separate chicken coop compost that is primarily chicken poop, sand, and pine shavings...and I dug through that and it also had a ton of grubs, though the bottom stuff was fairly well broken down (and I've only had chickens since May).

I'm not sure what my point is regarding compost, but I feed the grubs to my chickens, and whoo boy, that was fun.

 

[pipemum]

Just remembered that Hotel Congress has penny floors! Those are probably real copper pennies too.

 

[pipemum]

I had originally logged in to ask a specific question and totally forgot about it. I started fermenting feed again. The last feed I tried it with was organic grower crumbles, and the feed fermented beautifully and did not smell unpleasant. The feed I'm using now contains fish meal, and omg, nasty. The feed is fermenting well (bubbling) but stinks. Is this normal for feed with fish meal? I can get the same feed without the fish meal, and think I might since I'm not sure it's a good idea to ferment feed without the animal products turning rotten.

ETA: Looked online a bit, and fish meal is okay to ferment. Blech.

 

[LadyKotaDoria]

GALLO, look at YouTub videos on it, there are time saving and time labor methods of doing it. Please don't let your wife know of my Suggestion or she may be me.

 

[City farm]

I'm sure most of you know I'm a Joel Salatin and Polyface Farm fan, so I check back for their latest videos every once in awhile on YouTube. They have a half-hour episode that just showed up about two weeks ago that goes more in depth about their farming structure and philosophy. I think it's the best they've put out, by far. I don't think anyone here has a real ranch this large on this thread, but it gives you something to think about. This would be a dream come true for me. I love the ingenuity of some of their stuff.

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Oh Kay.. My kind of thing.. No wait our kind of thing... Dude thank you for sharing this.. Dreams can become reality..

 

[City farm]

Just remembered that Hotel Congress has penny floors!  Those are probably real copper pennies too. 

That would be cool to see..

 

[City farm]

I put up some pictures of the silkies I picked up at City Farms when I was there last night, as well as the silkie & one of the two frizzles I'm fostering, on my blog. I really don't know much about either one, except they look like aliens.

Oh I can't wait to see them... Since I can't on our iPad..
It took me 4 tries to watch the video that demo posted.. I am going to your web page now..

 

[Demosthine]

I had originally logged in to ask a specific question and totally forgot about it.  I started fermenting feed again.  The last feed I tried it with was organic grower crumbles, and the feed fermented beautifully and did not smell unpleasant.  The feed I'm using now contains fish meal, and omg, nasty.  The feed is fermenting well (bubbling) but stinks.  Is this normal for feed with fish meal? I can get the same feed without the fish meal, and think I might since I'm not sure it's a good idea to ferment feed without the animal products turning rotten.

ETA:  Looked online a bit, and fish meal is okay to ferment.  Blech. 

The Big Sky feed I buy has fishmeal in it, and it smelled horrid when I first started fermenting. Once I got a really good brew going, though, it drastically cut down the smell. I mean, if you're holding a cup of, it still smells, but it isn't making my entire shop smell like vomit. I would stick with it and keep the fishmeal around.

 

[Arizonachicken]

desertmarcy I really like your new website! I especially like how you listed "advantages and disadvantages" for each breed. FYI, I checked it out on both my iPhone and iPad and it worked great on both. Awesome job!