That's so cool! Goats milk and honey/brown sugar and oats are a perfect combo!!We ran out of lye some we used Drain-O, brown sugar w/ oatmeal mixed in, and goat milk of course.
I made it with some friends so I don't have the whole ingredient/recipe list, but there are websites that give good recipes:
http://fiascofarm.com/recipes/soap.htm
Quote: Fantastic!
They love leaves in the fall too. Along with eating the plums that fall on the ground, mine also eat the leaves that fall off too. It is funny watching them fight over a leaf.
Some call it chicken TV.
Ron
Oh my goodness I love the look and smell of lavender. I can;t wait to see pics when it starts really filling in! be sure to share! Maybe I should plant lavender a long the front and rainbow chard on the sides....hmmm hehe
It is funny. I put the whole fruit in there for apricots- they totally pecked them a part. Playing chicken games with their catch. I would watch one run with a big piece another one gave chase- snatched it it and ran and then 3 more would chase her. hahaFantastic!
They love leaves in the fall too. Along with eating the plums that fall on the ground, mine also eat the leaves that fall off too. It is funny watching them fight over a leaf.
Some call it chicken TV.
Ron
Quote: We're also in the foothills and out of town. We have the same type of predators. I have lost my whole flock of 20 (except the Roo) but not while free ranging. They were locked in a coop & run that we'd used for about 20+ years w/o a problem. We're not sure what killed them because they didn't eat any of them and they were left in a pile in the run. Our area is large acreage parcels so it's hard to even see the coop from any road but we felt it wasn't of the four legged variety. Scary! Over the years we have periodically lost to more skunks then anything but after building a hardware cloth encased run attached to the coop we haven't lost any. Knocking on wood!
We have a fox and bobcat that we see routinely in the olive orchard and have had coyotes that came right up to the house mid morning and the roo attacked but I can't bare to keep them locked up all day and for me, the benefits outweighs the risk.
I think it's a choice every chicken owner has to make for themselves. Doesn't mean anyone cares more or less for their chickens, just a lifestyle choice.
Did you hear that wolf they're tracking is here in Butte County? I'd hate to have him wander onto our property while the chickens are out free ranging!!!!!!!
Yes!
Sorry if it sounded like I was against free ranging. It is a choice to leave them out and a choice to leave them in. Each place is different and each person keeping chickens gets to decide how to raise their own chickens. The chickens will be better either way then the poor factory chickens.
I am worried about human predators in my neighborhood. Also the Dog breaking through the fence. Urban Predators?
(Sorry I couldn't resist this emoticon--it is so weird...)
Paradise is in the upper foothills of the Sierra Nevadas--not a volcanic range. Bella Vista is in the lower foothills of the Cascade mountain range. There actually is a break between the two ranges. A couple of thousand years ago there used to be a big volcano called Mt. Tehama. The sucker blew up and threw millions of tons of rocks into the area and left a big hole between Mt. Lassen and Broke Off. You can see where the mountain used to be when you drive up that way. Paradise may even have some of those Rocks. There is a lot of it near Redding. Soil is different, water is different. Plants are even a bit different between the two places.
Predators are probably similar but they could be different and in different numbers. I did not know that the Wolf was in Butte county. The last I had heard it was just over the Oregon Border Closer to I-5. There is also talk abut bringing Grizzly Bears back to CA. Along with Differences in where we live for predators, there is also the fact that there are more of then now. I am pretty sure I read that Yolo county eliminated their trapper.
It is great we are all thinking so much about taking care of our chickens!
Ron
Well, I have to correct you here.....have you ever heard of Table Mountain? I can see it from my house as well as several other volcanic formed mountains. And my husband will certainly have to argue the point after having to blast the lava cap to put in our driveway in and most recently to put our water line in!Did you know that Redding and Paradise are the same growing zone? We're both 9a! Geographically, Redding and Paradise are very similar except Paradise is higher and cooler, thankfully! We've lived in Paradise for 43 years and my husband was born and raised here. My husband has hiked Mt Shasta and Mt Lassen too many times to count and has a passion for geography. We're avid hikers and horseback riders (well, before the car accident that wrecked my back) and have enjoyed all the terrain we have to offer in the Northstate. It's SO interesting isn't it?
One writer describes Table Mountain: A massive lava flow of olivine basalt rock, ending on the west in a palisade of cliffs above the Sacramento Valley, North Table Mountain offers some of the most brilliant wildflower displays in the Sierra Nevada. A ramble over its broad volcanic plateau also turns up many other surprises, including vernal pools, ephemeral waterfalls, box canyons, and a strangely beautiful, moor-like terrain.
Read more at Trails.com: North Table Mountain | Oroville California Hikes | Trails.com http://www.trails.com/tcatalog_trail.aspx?trailId=HGS335-003#ixzz20uBEkttI
Oh and the bears! Yes, we've had lots of bear sightings recently! I don't know why all these predators just pass us by (so far). We have a large, 30 acre olive grove next to our house and when we sit outside in the evenings, we see all these guys just pass by. Stop and look at us and then trot on. EVEN the bear! My sister was hiking in the Feather River canyon last week and coming down the trail she needed to go up to come out of the canyon! They looked at each other and down the canyon he went!
I don't know if these guys pass us by because of the horses and dogs, or maybe all the crowing gets to them too!But I'm thankful that I can raise my chickens as I prefer. With over 30 years of having backyard chickens, this has worked for me. I actually had a hard time making the choice to breed Polish because I knew they would need to be penned but after learning about them, they actually prefer a familiar surrounding because they can't see as well. They never went far from their home anyway so it doesn't bother me like it does when I've needed to keep the EE's in for the day and they sit in a bunch at the door waiting for me to bust them out!
Here's a little info on Table Mountain that some of you may find interesting:
North Table Mountain: All of the Beauty, Majesty and Wonder of California
By Eva Begley
As you drive east out of California's Central Valley into the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, the landscape gradually changes from flat, irrigated fields and orchards to rolling pastures, which in turn give way to oak woodlands and eventually to dark green conifer forests. Just north of Oroville, however, the landscape changes abruptly, with one of northern California's premier wildflower gardens rising dramatically out of a sea of blue oaks, interior live oaks, and foothill pines. This wildflower garden flourishes on a plateau of ancient volcanic rock.
About 30 or 40 million years ago, a sheet of thin, runny lava flowed southwestward from somewhere in northeastern California, past Oroville and on as far as the Vacaville area. Several more such flows occurred, one on top of the other, until a layer of dark volcanic rock several hundred feet thick accumulated. Then other geologic processes took over, and the Central Valley was formed, obliterating much of the hardened lava. Along the edges of the Central Valley, though, and in the northern Sierra Nevada mountains and southern Cascades, there are still remnants of this ancient lava flow, including the plateau just north Oroville, called Table Mountain.
Quote: We're also in the foothills and out of town. We have the same type of predators. I have lost my whole flock of 20 (except the Roo) but not while free ranging. They were locked in a coop & run that we'd used for about 20+ years w/o a problem. We're not sure what killed them because they didn't eat any of them and they were left in a pile in the run. Our area is large acreage parcels so it's hard to even see the coop from any road but we felt it wasn't of the four legged variety. Scary! Over the years we have periodically lost to more skunks then anything but after building a hardware cloth encased run attached to the coop we haven't lost any. Knocking on wood!
We have a fox and bobcat that we see routinely in the olive orchard and have had coyotes that came right up to the house mid morning and the roo attacked but I can't bare to keep them locked up all day and for me, the benefits outweighs the risk.
I think it's a choice every chicken owner has to make for themselves. Doesn't mean anyone cares more or less for their chickens, just a lifestyle choice.
Did you hear that wolf they're tracking is here in Butte County? I'd hate to have him wander onto our property while the chickens are out free ranging!!!!!!!
Yes!
Sorry if it sounded like I was against free ranging. It is a choice to leave them out and a choice to leave them in. Each place is different and each person keeping chickens gets to decide how to raise their own chickens. The chickens will be better either way then the poor factory chickens.
I am worried about human predators in my neighborhood. Also the Dog breaking through the fence. Urban Predators?
(Sorry I couldn't resist this emoticon--it is so weird...)
Paradise is in the upper foothills of the Sierra Nevadas--not a volcanic range. Bella Vista is in the lower foothills of the Cascade mountain range. There actually is a break between the two ranges. A couple of thousand years ago there used to be a big volcano called Mt. Tehama. The sucker blew up and threw millions of tons of rocks into the area and left a big hole between Mt. Lassen and Broke Off. You can see where the mountain used to be when you drive up that way. Paradise may even have some of those Rocks. There is a lot of it near Redding. Soil is different, water is different. Plants are even a bit different between the two places.
Predators are probably similar but they could be different and in different numbers. I did not know that the Wolf was in Butte county. The last I had heard it was just over the Oregon Border Closer to I-5. There is also talk abut bringing Grizzly Bears back to CA. Along with Differences in where we live for predators, there is also the fact that there are more of then now. I am pretty sure I read that Yolo county eliminated their trapper.
It is great we are all thinking so much about taking care of our chickens!
Ron
Well, I have to correct you here.....have you ever heard of Table Mountain? I can see it from my house as well as several other volcanic formed mountains. And my husband will certainly have to argue the point after having to blast the lava cap to put in our driveway in and most recently to put our water line in!Did you know that Redding and Paradise are the same growing zone? We're both 9a! Geographically, Redding and Paradise are very similar except Paradise is higher and cooler, thankfully! We've lived in Paradise for 43 years and my husband was born and raised here. My husband has hiked Mt Shasta and Mt Lassen too many times to count and has a passion for geography. We're avid hikers and horseback riders (well, before the car accident that wrecked my back) and have enjoyed all the terrain we have to offer in the Northstate. It's SO interesting isn't it?
One writer describes Table Mountain: A massive lava flow of olivine basalt rock, ending on the west in a palisade of cliffs above the Sacramento Valley, North Table Mountain offers some of the most brilliant wildflower displays in the Sierra Nevada. A ramble over its broad volcanic plateau also turns up many other surprises, including vernal pools, ephemeral waterfalls, box canyons, and a strangely beautiful, moor-like terrain.
Read more at Trails.com: North Table Mountain | Oroville California Hikes | Trails.com http://www.trails.com/tcatalog_trail.aspx?trailId=HGS335-003#ixzz20uBEkttI
Oh and the bears! Yes, we've had lots of bear sightings recently! I don't know why all these predators just pass us by (so far). We have a large, 30 acre olive grove next to our house and when we sit outside in the evenings, we see all these guys just pass by. Stop and look at us and then trot on. EVEN the bear! My sister was hiking in the Feather River canyon last week and coming down the trail she needed to go up to come out of the canyon! They looked at each other and down the canyon he went!
I don't know if these guys pass us by because of the horses and dogs, or maybe all the crowing gets to them too!But I'm thankful that I can raise my chickens as I prefer. With over 30 years of having backyard chickens, this has worked for me. I actually had a hard time making the choice to breed Polish because I knew they would need to be penned but after learning about them, they actually prefer a familiar surrounding because they can't see as well. They never went far from their home anyway so it doesn't bother me like it does when I've needed to keep the EE's in for the day and they sit in a bunch at the door waiting for me to bust them out!
Here's a little info on Table Mountain that some of you may find interesting:
North Table Mountain: All of the Beauty, Majesty and Wonder of California
By Eva Begley
As you drive east out of California's Central Valley into the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, the landscape gradually changes from flat, irrigated fields and orchards to rolling pastures, which in turn give way to oak woodlands and eventually to dark green conifer forests. Just north of Oroville, however, the landscape changes abruptly, with one of northern California's premier wildflower gardens rising dramatically out of a sea of blue oaks, interior live oaks, and foothill pines. This wildflower garden flourishes on a plateau of ancient volcanic rock.
About 30 or 40 million years ago, a sheet of thin, runny lava flowed southwestward from somewhere in northeastern California, past Oroville and on as far as the Vacaville area. Several more such flows occurred, one on top of the other, until a layer of dark volcanic rock several hundred feet thick accumulated. Then other geologic processes took over, and the Central Valley was formed, obliterating much of the hardened lava. Along the edges of the Central Valley, though, and in the northern Sierra Nevada mountains and southern Cascades, there are still remnants of this ancient lava flow, including the plateau just north Oroville, called Table Mountain.
Thanks for the information about Table Mountain.
My point was that California is a diverse state with many different types of land and that Predator problems might be different based on where you live.
Table Mountain looks like a great place. Pretty waterfall.
Ron
