I used to live in schoharie county. Now I live in northern California.
We have around 20 chickens, about half of them are mutts. Our one rooster is in quarantine, because he was too hard on the ladies. He'll be going to freezer camp soon
We grow a lot of our feed for our animals. Letting them free range on pasture saves a lot on money and makes for healthier chickens and better quality eggs. When we can't let them ree range, we give them lots of stuff from the garden. We remove the semi composted material on the ground several times a year and put it in the garden. The best fertilizer we can get our hands on comes from our own animals.
Hey, thanks for the welcome.
Have been looking over posts regarding using colloidal silver for topical treatments, microbial water, etc. Lucky to have spring water all year including -20 below winter temps.
Restoring the house, milkhouse and having a general late in life ADD leads me to think the next building/cooping/ breeding efforts will help me to appreciate my girls all the more.
Time to segregate to roos because they've been roughing up the girls and bringing all my "daddy" dna to the surface. Do most folks separate the roosters out early on?
I've gotten a considerable variety when hatching with all these roos and have started to have favorites. The biggest pisses me off when he's aggressive but I'm guessing he and I are just competing.
FarmerDenise, you mentioned composting. Have a dairy farmer next door, (ok 1 mile next door) that built a concrete manure pit, mixes in water and I don't know what else, and sprays his fields, eliminates the chemical fertilizers. Thinking of a small scale version, using chicken leftovers, bedding,( using hay, saw dust for moisture and smell control).
Any nitrogen/ it'll burn your stuff/ type advice. Thinking the longer it brews the mellower it might be. Hate to waste anything