*** OKIES in the BYC ***

[CityClucks]

Quote:
I couldn't have said it any better than you, Six. This is a great place with great people - a blessing, really.
Putting names with faces at POOPS and meeting the people on here always feels like a family reunion - even when we meet people for the first time.

 

[al6517]

Beth is right, when we first entertained the idea of a Okies get together we really didn't know what to expect. What we learned was that it was so nice to meet these folks in person and in such a way as to form some very good and lasting bonds of friendship.

AL

 

[donnie]

Quote:
Someone that Gerald works with mentioned duckweed and possibly using it as feed. Myself, I haven't found it to grow that easily. I have quite a few tubs full of water lilies and rarely does duckweed take off in it. I think maybe it needs more nutrients and oxygen than a tub can provide. I guess if you have the right environment for it, you could make it work. But then, I'd worry about mosquitos unless you could control them with fish or biological treatments. If you had fish ... they would eat the duckweed, or at least my koi and goldfish sure do think it's tasty.

Carla i was told that you have to put light on it , and it will grow like wild fire , but again i was just told this i have yet to try it lol , was wanting to hear from others about their experiences before i give it a go lol

 

[donnie]

Quote:
i enjoyed my first round of poops

 

[al6517]

I can't seem to get motovated enough to get going LOL, I will though............. right after my next few cup's of coffee LOL.

AL

 

[donnie]

Quote:
same here al im on number 5 lol

 

[Cjarvis]

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Al,
all the coffee out there today isn't going to get me going any better. Wish you luck I think it's just the day.

I am going to sell off a few birds and would like to offer them to other okies first. I have 3 exihibition quality Buff cochin hens BIIIIIG birds and a breeding quad of Golden laced cochins better than average quality but good breeder birds if anyone is interested give me a call. If they haven't sold by Friday I will post on CL.

I hope everyone is fairing well in this wind, I tried working outside but needed heavy tent stakes and a rope to stay in one place. too much trouble for what I was trying to do.

 

[Cjarvis]

Quote:
Someone that Gerald works with mentioned duckweed and possibly using it as feed. Myself, I haven't found it to grow that easily. I have quite a few tubs full of water lilies and rarely does duckweed take off in it. I think maybe it needs more nutrients and oxygen than a tub can provide. I guess if you have the right environment for it, you could make it work. But then, I'd worry about mosquitos unless you could control them with fish or biological treatments. If you had fish ... they would eat the duckweed, or at least my koi and goldfish sure do think it's tasty.

Carla i was told that you have to put light on it , and it will grow like wild fire , but again i was just told this i have yet to try it lol , was wanting to hear from others about their experiences before i give it a go lol

You need to be vert carefull about protien levels and insure the birds get a balanced diet. For good laying and hatching 17-20% protien is really all you want but it needs to be balanced between animal and vegitable protien. Additionally vitamin, fat, and oil content will make a difference in both production and hatchability. For production you want a low fat and oil content. For show conditioning you want a higher fat and oil content. For older birds hatchability you want a higher plant oil content. feed needs are based on the age of the bird, and desired use of the egg. Low protien and solely plant protien feeds are generally undesirable feeds for birds.

 

[Greybear23]

Hey Donnie, I am on a forum for self sufficiency and we have a guy in Texas that has a setup for raising pigs on concrete and it all drains to a tank at one end, there in which he has Duckweed planted and grows it, he also has wire rabbit cages hung over the tops of his pig pens and uses them for shade for the pigs and he washes down the concrete pig pens daily into the tank, he harvest the duckweed and hangs it to dry and stores it to feed to the pigs and rabbits, he also feeds it wet to the pigs, this is all he feeds the rabbits and pigs except for he said the Duckweed is so low in Lyseen that pigs need to grow, so he throws a tomatoe or two in for the pigs each day, he also grows the tomatoes and waters them from the duckweeed tank for fertilizer!!! You sould see his setup, he is a professor and teaches classes on self sufficiency and living that lifestyle!!! So I say the duckweed would be a great source of protien for the chickens if they will eat it( he was experimenting with supplementing his chicken tractor with duckweed also, but I don't know how that was working out, I need to check in to the forum again!!!!) Lynn

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[poultryand bees]

m.ruzycki :

Good morning everyone. Well I broke my own rule this year and paid a pretty price for it. An old man told me a few years ago that he doesnt plant until after april 15 no matter what and the last two years I have had to get that head start and planted early and of course we had late freezes and i got a little set back. So this year I told myself " Not until after the 15" but just 2 days early I couldnt help it and spent the 13th and 14th planting almost 300 tomato plants. Then wouldnt you know it the 15th brings 60 mph winds and I have no wind block. I have black plastic buckets around them for watering, heat absortion, and as a wind block but they were no match for the wind. I now have buckets blown all across our wheat field and lost quite a few plants. Luckily I still have about 900 to put out. On top of that my grandma left the garage door open and the dog went into where I have been keeping my Ameraucana chicks that I had just hatched and knocked over their tub and ate 19 out of 20. Talk about sad and angry.

I can't begin to imagine the labor involved in planting 1200 tomato plants. So sorry that 300 of them sustained wind damage. I know that the weather predictors try to guess the temperatures, but I doubt there is a computer program or a "trick knee" anywhere that can predict the wind.​