Just curious who else is living super frugal

[DennisK]

Let my try that again:



This is Jennifer holding up our first head of broccoli. This year was our first garden.

 

[HeatherLynn]

ok other than the wombat, onions and rat poison I have been giving mine all kinds of bad stuff.

 

[Peep_Show]

But wombats are high in protein and loaded with fiber!

 

[ScottnLydia]

But wombats are high in protein and loaded with fiber!

GOODNESS, PEOPLE, I'm sorry already!!! I just misread it. That should read "WABBITS". Wombats do make wonderful chicken food when fresh, however the shipping to get them is murder.

Wabbits have a nasty way of turning it into "duck season", and the next thing you know, BLAM, your beak is on backwards! Reconstructive surgery is NOT frugal.

~S

 

[HeatherLynn]

too funny. I was trying to figure out the whole wombats things but I figured in some places maybe thats the thing to do. Ya know like if you want the shiniest feathers and the healthiest eggs feed your chickens wombats?

 

[DennisK]

I did notice that even though the chickens have layer’s pellets available to them 24/7, they always come running when we show up at the chicken yard gate – chickens, gunnies and turkeys all bunched up squawking and clucking and carrying on - whatever scraps we feed them, they seem to think it is infinitely better than layer’s pellets. They like the weeds we pull from our garden – even stinging nettle.
Even with my adventures with moldy bread, they produce more eggs than we can eat. DW has resorted to scrambling the eggs and putting them, uncooked, in ice-trays to be bagged later and stored in the freezer. This is something she learned to do from, I think, this forum. We haven’t sampled these egg-cycles yet – can’t pass up the fresh eggs we already have.

 

[ScottnLydia]

Ya know, Dennis, I think the truth is that there are lots of different kinds of mold, some might be harmless, some make toxins. It's like wild mushrooms (another fungus), if you don't know what's safe, don't eat any!

The tomato leaf thing. Tomatos are a member of the nightshade family and only the fruit are edible. There are numerous accounts in other forums of folks feeding tomato hornworms to their chickens, only to find them dead the next day. I don't know how many leaves they would have to eat to get sick, but a hornworm eats lots of leaves and concentrates the toxin.

If I remember right, (that would be a first) I read someplace that stinging nettle is actually quite nutritious.

Excess eggs can be cooked and mashed up and fed to the chickens, just so they don't recognize them as eggs. That way they won't start eating their own eggs before you get them. I had 1 hen that started doing that, she was delicious.

My favorite thing to do with excess eggs is to take them to the local food bank. Ours is always willing to take them, especially now that there has been another wildfire that has displaced so many, and left dozens homeless!

Everybody has their own ideas about what you can, or can't, should, or shouldn't do. Whether it's feeding chickens, raising children, politics, etc. Everyone has their own truth. Except me, I've hidden the truth from myself for my own good!

Nice broccoli, by the way. (Duck Season)

~S

 

[hemet dennis]

Ya know, Dennis, I think the truth is that there are lots of different kinds of mold, some might be harmless, some make toxins. It's like wild mushrooms (another fungus), if you don't know what's safe, don't eat any!

The tomato leaf thing. Tomatos are a member of the nightshade family and only the fruit are edible. There are numerous accounts in other forums of folks feeding tomato hornworms to their chickens, only to find them dead the next day. I don't know how many leaves they would have to eat to get sick, but a hornworm eats lots of leaves and concentrates the toxin.

If I remember right, (that would be a first) I read someplace that stinging nettle is actually quite nutritious.

Excess eggs can be cooked and mashed up and fed to the chickens, just so they don't recognize them as eggs. That way they won't start eating their own eggs before you get them. I had 1 hen that started doing that, she was delicious.

My favorite thing to do with excess eggs is to take them to the local food bank. Ours is always willing to take them, especially now that there has been another wildfire that has displaced so many, and left dozens homeless!

Everybody has their own ideas about what you can, or can't, should, or shouldn't do. Whether it's feeding chickens, raising children, politics, etc. Everyone has their own truth. Except me, I've hidden the truth from myself for my own good!

Nice broccoli, by the way. (Duck Season)

~S

I've fed a lot of Tomato worms to the chickens and never had any problem and they've got to the plants and eaten the leafs.

 

[DennisK]

It is good to know about the toxicity in tomato plants. I guess it all depends on the concentration built up in the chicken’s body. I’ll keep the tomato plant’s leaves away just to be safe – can you imagine the trouble I would be in if I killed any of DW’s chickens? Oh …. I don’t even want to think of that! I agreed to cut the mold off the bread before giving the bread to the chickens; so I have been placed on probation.
We don’t have tomato worms – I think it is due to the arid climate here; so I don’t have to worry about that, at least! The broccoli encountered a problem with the field mice, as they would munch off the tops – pooping all over the heads. DW had me set mice traps throughout the garden every night. That helped a little.
Each Wednesday, we volunteer at the county’s food bank. I have been delivering bags of groceries to the outlaying area in this county for about 3 years now. I use to bring in excess eggs, but the need is so great and the volume of food from large farms, corporations, and governments is so large, my few dozen seemed to be more of a hindrance to the warehouseman than help. I can donate them during food drives – that way, they are geared up to receive individual donations. We will be doing that this coming holiday season. So many businesses have gone under, or they have moved out of the county, I worry that this season may be very lean.

 

[mickey328]

Our girls LOVE wombat! Sheesh, what's wrong with it?? I stay away from potato peels because 1. they don't like them, and 2...most of ours seem to have some green; so straight to compost here. I do feed them raw meat though...just beef when I have trimmings from grinding. They go totally wild for it. I wouldn't feed them raw roadkill or anything, though.

We donate extra eggs to our local foodbank as well. There's not enough to go around of course, but I figure every little bit helps. I particularly like to see them go to families with children...the protein is even more important for them than for adults.