Michigan

[Elliemae 77]

OIC. Is there a minimum age to use it. I have a 8 week old cockerel that is confined to coop most of the time. I just put some in the corner of the coop so he could take a dust bath if he wanted to.

 

[BackyardFarmMom]

Speaking of *special* pets... I found some crackers left over from lunch today, that the kids did not want to eat, on the table... Tried a bite... STALE! No wonder they did not eat them. I called my vacuums over to clean them up... Gunny got one... Noah comes running spitting out dog food as he runs... Couldn't help but laugh as the bits shot out every which way!!! Now there is dog food bits all over my dinning room. Sigh

 

[M.sue]

Nope....8 wks is fine.. I make dust bathes with it and sprinkle it in the bottom of the nesting boxes and the coop floor after I've cleaned.

My dust bathes are made of DE, Wood Ash & Sand and I usually just make them throughout the fall/winter months. The chickens dust bath in the garden & my rock garden during the spring/summer months.

I have also dumped it into their favorite spot and mixed it into the soil.

 

[NovaAman]

Well, while I was out and about today, driving around, chucking garbage into little plastic tubes, and throwing trash in driveways... I heard on the radio some caca about child labor and farms... Seems that big G is trying to pass laws that will prohibit kids from doing a lot of things on the family farm that they used to. It could also have effects on 4-H. WHY? Because it has been decided that it is not safe for any one under the age of 18 to do farm work. This does not include the picking of berries, veggies...ect... by hand... BUT if it requires the use of any farm machine... NOPE. This includes milking cow, getting cows to the cow shed, sheep, pigs, well hell, all live stock... Because kids on the farm are not really able to do such things... Its a hazzard, and those jobs should be done by adults who, for all intents and purposes need the jobs... OH WAIT! The average farmer is now in his/her 50s.

I am sorry, but when I was a kid, I did the corn de-tassel job. Would get up at 5 am, get on the bus by 5:45, and usually be out to what ever field we were working on by 6:30. I started that at 13. Did it for 3 summers. But, I didn't learn anything. Nope.. I was to young to learn the value of that pay check I earned. To young to understand what I was really doing... Give me a friggin break. The best times for kids to learn farm work is the precise age that they don't want to have kids doing it. Not even with a permit.

What is this going to do to the 4H kids? Those who show cows/steers/sheep/goats/pigs? They will no longer be able to be on the farm working with these animals, because it is to dangerous for them. Not all kids want to work with a chicken for 4H.

We would go to visit family in Canada... and they had the milk in plastic bags. My Granda used to deliver milk for Baremans here in Holland both before and after WW2. I have a laundry shoot. LOVE IT! Had one at the old house as well. Not the type where it slides down, but just a hole in the wall, with a little door, and a strait drop. Here, its a hole in the floor in my bathroom under the sink and vanity. The kids think its great, and I am waiting for one of them to get a brilliant idea and try and go down and land on the shelf over the dryer that catches the clothes.

I gotta get stuff done... been a long long day.

 

[NovaAman]

I officially talk more than Olive on this thread. Of course, Olive, you "SAY" a lot more than I do...

 

[sarah92480]

That was a good speech about the farm situation Nova...I hope that really doesn't go through. I think those kind of things are good for kids to do. Apparently the people deciding this never had the opportunity for such a great learning experence. IMO

 

[Elliemae 77]

There you are Nova, how's little blue?

 

[Opa]

The forecast for tonight is pretty chilly. Ya'll better have that farm hand put his shirt back on.

 

[kimmie6067]

Do we have to close them in? Or can they just go to their roost themselves? I will have a 8 X 19 foot run on my coop. Can we leave them out in their tractor?

Kimmie

Ah, okay. That reminds me, I have been meaning to ask...

What time does everyone shut their chickens in? Do most of you lure them in before they would normally go in, or do you wait until later when they have gone in themselves to shut things up? I go back and forth, depending on my day, but I have been wondering if it would be best to shut them in a bit earlier. They still have access to their run in our set up, I only lock up the run door and leave the coop door open.

 

[EeyoreD]

The forecast for tonight is pretty chilly. Ya'll better have that farm hand put his shirt back on.

Where did you learn your survival skills?! The best way to share heat is skin to skin.