North Carolina

[Fireantz iceman]

Not to throw water on a fire but I work to raise money for the Friends of Children here. They do so much for the NICU which we all know is dear to my family. We adopted the NICU Christmas Stocking Program in honor of my boys. All donations are tax deductible and if I or anyone gives $1 or $1000 every penny goes to that cause plus it is local. They paid for a couple of the Giraffe Beds at $50,000 each and my twins used them and that helped save their lives. Now there are 14 of them and we are looking to buy more. I may get bashes for this but I support only local except for the March of Dimes, again their research helped save my boys.

Seems I have control over what my funds do, plus I see a lot of abuse on these world mission deals. Local for me from now on but I see personally the results of my fund raising.

The hospitl foundation has a video story of my boys struggle to live and they iuse it to help raise money, so near and dear to us

We are raising money for the stocking program now and the rest goes for other projects that the foundation allows me input on

 

[dutchbunny83]

Sounds great!

My 6 year old niece spent a year at St Jude's and the Ronald McDonald house before she died of brain cancer in 2008. Our family is always raising money for them (which is great, they're a great organization), but they are one of the biggest fund raisers in the country, they are always having lots of money come in. I love the idea of being able to make an impact locally.

 

[chicken dad]

Well we saw a first tonight. My DD and I were loading up the lawnmower on the trailer to go mow my moms yard when I saw one of our girls running like a banshi across the backyard. Got to looking closer and saw a small snake dangling from her beak. It was maybe 6-12 inches long. Don't know what kind it was as everytime we tried to get close she took off running again. She wouldn't even let another chicken near her. So we decided to watch and see what happened. She kept flipping it around like trying to break it's neck. Finally she set it down and it looked like it had quit moving and the next thing we saw was amazing. She swallowed the thing whole. I guess she got herself a nice little meaty treat tonight. We just stood there amazed at the whole incident, took maybe 5-10 minutes from the time she came running out of the flower bed to time the snake was eaten.

 

[ramirezframing]

Quote:
Neat to watch, but makes it hard to show the kiddos the good vs bad snakes.

 

[Banriona]

What's everyone doing for lighting in their coops at night? Anyone adding extra lighting over the winter to aid in laying? My breeds are supposedly good winter layers, but since they are coming in to POL right around January/February I figure I'll hedge my bets and give em a little extra light. May not help, but can't hurt right? I saw on another thread that one guy is using this:

http://www.amazon.com/LED-Star-Ligh...82162397&sr=8-1&keywords=helios+string+lights

Since I don't have electricity at the coop and refuse to run 300' of extension cords this seems like the most cost efficient way of doing it, but I am doubtful that the amount of light would be enough. I'm also curious if the 6-8hrs they would be on would be too much light?

Thoughts?

 

[Hollowoakfarm]

I used to add light, but don't anymore. It shortens the life span of your birds. I just make sure I have a lot of winter layers out there, and let them do their thing naturally.

 

[dutchbunny83]

I used to add light, but don't anymore. It shortens the life span of your birds. I just make sure I have a lot of winter layers out there, and let them do their thing naturally.

Never heard that before wonder why, from laying extra eggs?

 

[Hollowoakfarm]

Not sure, but probably that plus putting them out of natural cycling. I read it on several sources, so opted to stop doing the light. And didn't see much of a difference. Of course, I only had Orpingtons then, and they're supposed to be good winter layers anyway. IDK

 

[dutchbunny83]

Good to know.
I have never done artificial light before, but mine should all be laying around Thanksgiving time. I was going to try light to get them to start versus waiting it out until March/April to start getting eggs.
Maybe I should just be patient!

 

[Hollowoakfarm]

If I had the space, I might consider splitting them into groups and trying some but not others. Maybe the effects are different for different breeds. But, I don't, so I don't add the lights. I think maybe more research should be done on it.