Minnesota!

[Bogtown Chick]

Some "Free Ranging" Pictures yesterday. I've got some paths shoveled from Tree to Tree. They were loving it. Right now little paths are filled in with 3-4 inches of wet fluffy snow.

Where's the kick in the teeth emoticon?!


Here's Roger early yesterday morning. My version of "Gorillas in the Mist"

"Big Tootsie in the Fog"

 

[FoxyChicken]

Wow Bogtown, you have a lot less snow than we do! Our current snow storm is just starting unfortunately

Love the pics though, my girls would die for that right now.
How is little Rose doing?

 

[Bogtown Chick]

We just added 3-4 inches to the snowpack today. Heavy wet, fluffy stuff. So all the little trails have disappeared. But faith and some sunshine will get us back and then some. Hang tight! That Big old lake you have up there certainly keeps you cooler longer. That's for sure.

Rose has good days and bad days. Today with the snow she was puffed up and in the corner of the run. Yesterday she was out ranging with her GFs. I want her to make it to after the melt at least where she has a day or two at the very leasty chasing bugs and wondering around on the lawn and weeds and wood or sunning her gizzard in a patch of clover. I want her to go out with those things in her little chicken mind.... I'm suspicious my Sunny has EYP too. My reds having trouble with this issue. I guess that's chickening.

 

[jbenson]

anybody interested in taking a couple dwarf domestic rabbits? I took them a few years ago when their last owners found out they weren't allowed to keep them where they lived. They were originally found wandering the back porch of someone's cabin up north, but are clearly domestic. I have no idea exactly how old they are. There is a grey female and a black male. The female is a bit more skittish than the male, but neither of them like to be picked up all that much. I think with the right attention they would be great pets. They have been living in outdoor hutches at our house. I just don't have the time to give to them and I feel badly that they don't get more attention. Plus DH has been pressuring me to have fewer animals in general. They aren't fixed, but I have been keeping them in two hutches that are side by side so they could see and smell eachother. If they were fixed, they could live a very happy existence together as they totally love eachother (as found out by their last owners who were not smart in the way of animals and kept them together). We're on the north side of the Twin Cities. i think we want to keep the hutches to turn into summer chick "playpens". Let me know. I fear posting them on Craigslist - you know, potential for crazies.

 

[Bogtown Chick]

Just started integrating this feed into the previous feed. So far I think the hens really like it. Had another come back into laying. So I think we're getting our nutrition back on track for the girls.



It's the Locally Laid or LoLa Brand. Non GMO Minnesota raised corn. 17.99 for 50 lbs. It costs a bit more because the Non GMO costs more to raise. Thought it was worth a shot to get my girls back on track after this long winter.

 

[jbenson]

Just started integrating this feed into the previous feed. So far I think the hens really like it. Had another come back into laying. So I think we're getting our nutrition back on track for the girls.



It's the Locally Laid or LoLa Brand. Non GMO Minnesota raised corn. 17.99 for 50 lbs. It costs a bit more because the Non GMO costs more to raise. Thought it was worth a shot to get my girls back on track after this long winter.

Where do you get it? I haven't found it anywhere here in the Cities.

 

[Bogtown Chick]

I picked it up at L & M in Grand Rapids-- L & M in Cloquet started carrying it so they sent over two bags when I gave them a call and requested at their GR store. I think the places are generally up north here.

But here is their website link for the LoLa Feed.

http://www.locallylaid.com/lolas-layer-mix/

It's a mash also. Not crumbles or pellets. I bought a special feeder that reduces waste...as the girls can move some feed out of the feeder quite easily.

 

[ejb3810]

Bogtown what were you feeding prior to switching to the Lolas? I am not enthusiastic about mash as my birds seem to waste a lot of it. I do feed a pelleted feed and some grains or scratch for the entertainment value.
I believe the GMO is overblown hype, although I know many are completely convinced that it is a serious problem.
My breeder birds are primarily fed game bird breeder feed and do very well on it.

 

[Bogtown Chick]

ejb:

I've given my flock a varied diet on their pellets and crumbles this past season. Nutrena Feather Fixer late fall, early winer; Purina Flock Raiser; Nutrena layer pellets to get the hens back on track because at this point I was realizing perhaps I'd overgrained them with the harsh winter. Could have been lighting and nasty cold too. But added some supplemental light in late January. Not one egg for 7 months.

I haven't fully researched GMO vs non GMO. I think GMO crops will give you the same product only more of it on smaller parcels of land thereby requiring less energy and resources for harvest. I do not think crossing different corn plants gives you a bad food per se.

Although the whole pesticide side of things I find a bit scary tho. --No milkweed in the fields, no monarchs...etc. I know I'm going to get some heat on this...LOL. But what I don't like is the politics that surround GMO foods. The Monopoly that is Monsanto. And how small farmers are treated and phased out. My Dad was phased out in the late 70's.

What nutrients are available to that GMO corn when it grows in it's over taxed soil? I'm no expert...but I'm suspect. I think trace elements and nutrients are not replaced and are lost. Especially using the synthetic fertilizers. You take your own garden carrot and compare it to a Carrot grown in Texas where in one day that carrot is harvested and the next a seed is in it's same spot. The soil never rests and is over used and fertilized with sprays only.

Mostly though, I like this company because it's about a family who's patriarch lost his job twice, before switching to this. I like it because they treat their birds right and pasture their chickens to sell good eggs. It's in support of local economics, really and in the off chance that buying locally might get my girls on track too. LOL

I'm not sure if I'm a fan of Mash style either...but the girls seem to be behaving themselves with the feeder that has the plastic slots to keep it in the tray. so far.

 

[Minniechickmama]

You are pretty close to the mark on the GMO. Big corn farmers have been killing to soil for years, which is why they use anhydrous on them, to get the nitrogen back into the soil. Rotating with legumes does replace some of that, but from an organic standpoint, much of the soil is dead to the micro-organism that create a healthy soil. When farmers use manure to fertilize it replaces more, but hardly anyone does that anymore becuase where would they get the manure from? Then if you do use it from the large scale dairies and hog farms and beef containments, it has antibiotics in it that just introduce a whole new problem.
This does create a lot of conflict in the ag world, but if it is true, then the people who created the problem should fix it, but they have government in their pockets. Go figure that will change.