The Front Porch Swing

[LeslieDJoyce]

Yes...those people.   Those people need to get out of the coop for awhile and look at the big picture if the term rooster offends them. 


Yeah...I haven't been back on that thread, nor will I.  Cannot stand to deal with pedantic people pontificating on proper poultry palaver.....      One fella even said a person couldn't breed if they didn't know the proper terminology.....and I asked how he had children, as I'm sure he didn't know the correct terminology on THOSE parts. 


Yes, bless their little hearts!     Southern for "why, aren't they just dumber than dirt?", said in a sweet southern twang.  

I don't breed chickens ... So far it's working well enough to let the chickens take care of that themselves. I just provide refreshments and move the eggs around a bit. I guess I also run crowd control when necessary.

This picture cracked me up. It was taken in the Delaware pen ... a bunch of the chicks were copying their father while he was straining to see something so look like cranes, all tall and skinny.

 

[lindz8504]

GOOD GRIEF!!!! I've been gone not quite a week, and am over 100 PAGES behind! WOAH!

Guess what I did this morning!!!!!!

 

[Loc20chick]

You'd do well to leave the DE out of the mix. It's an indiscriminate killer of soft bodied insects and those the very ones you want helping to digest things in your DL. It's simply not necessary and it can actually kill the effectiveness of the system. I read where one member had used it and stopped using it....later on she was digging through her DL to remove for the garden and everything was rich and composted until she hit the layer with the DE~ where it was still undigested, dry and quite different than the other layers.

If you could layer in different types of carbon in your DL you'll have more success with getting your DL to start composting and "eating" your manures....try leaves, a sprinkling of flower/weed trimmings, pine needles, even some lawn trimmings in moderation and let it build like lasagna composting. Don't stir it around or dig through it too often....just lightly turn in the manure under the roost or throw a forkful of the litter over the poop. Add moisture if it needs it...it goes better if it has occasional moisture~you can just throw in your discarded waterer water as you clean it and refill it, or even just wet it down lightly with the hose if it can reach your coop.

All these things will help you get a more fly free zone there as there will be no feces to attract flies at all....they will be digested in the DL instead. I wish you guys could see my DL right now....lovely, moist underneath the top layer, rich composted goodness. I'm thinking about removing some of it~finally~to side dress my tomatoes. That DL has been growing and composting for 3 yrs now without me removing any of it and it's only about 8 in. deep. It has eaten tons of leaves, pine shavings, pine needles, flower and herb trimmings, hay, even twigs, deer hair, and bones.

The reason I was using the DE was because my coop is above ground and small can only hold up to 12 grown chicken though I only have 9, will the moisture affect it? here is a picture of it.


will the DL without the DE work with this coop you think?

on another note, here are the older ducklings I think they are 3 weeks or 4 weeks old I bought them for the same price as the day olds. Mu Hubby finished the little extension and duck pen today and they get to spend their first night out of the grown pen in the garage. Praying for their safety.




not very clear but that is as close as they will let me get with my phone zoomed by the way they love Fermented feed even the 6 day old

 

[Oldmomma]

Cant remember who asked now but im down to two of my girls, Aieysha just turned 21 and Fatimah will be 15 in September. Hubby, well like I tell anyone that asks, only God knows when he will get back. I went out yesterday to do some shopping, got a cage for my doe rabbit, 6 kilos of chicken feed, some fruits and lettuce and an earfull from my bil as to why I let them go back to the usa and why we didnt tell anyone and why they didnt say goodbye to anyone. Then went to my chicken loving friend for lunch, came home cleaned a few maggots out of my kitchen, garbage left 1 day! Fed my chicks and got my doe and buck, took them for vet visit. Came back read some, ate a bowl of ice cream and called it a day. Got a friend thats from the states coming this morning if her hubby deems it safe to travel accross Tripoli to my city about an hour drive. Mopped my kitchen, fed my chicks, checked on rabbits and its only 8 am.
Showed another person a photo of the famous RUDY the NN wonder and she pointed at his ears and asked what were the holes? My daughter laughed and said chicken ears! She said ive never seen them before! She was amazed at how he looked and I explained what purpose a featherless chicken means. She loved the idea. Then I kept using the term walid (boy) and bint (girl) to discuss my various chicks. Got into a long discussion on how I dont know enough words yet and in english you can say boy or girl instead of male or female since like them we get into different terms to discribe babies and sexes of various animals. Got too many words to remember as it is now.
My chicks love FF but my two older wont eat wet. Although I think they eat LESS therefore my daughter thinks they dont like it. Still no eggs but seems my boy upstairs is now getting cuddly with his new lady. Trying to get more pics this week so I can post updated photos. They love their cage and yet poop is everywhere lol but much dryer since I started the FF. Well better get offline so I can get some lunch plans made. Take care all.

 

[perchie.girl]

Cant remember who asked now but im down to two of my girls, Aieysha just turned 21 and Fatimah will be 15 in September. Hubby, well like I tell anyone that asks, only God knows when he will get back. I went out yesterday to do some shopping, got a cage for my doe rabbit, 6 kilos of chicken feed, some fruits and lettuce and an earfull from my bil as to why I let them go back to the usa and why we didnt tell anyone and why they didnt say goodbye to anyone. Then went to my chicken loving friend for lunch, came home cleaned a few maggots out of my kitchen, garbage left 1 day! Fed my chicks and got my doe and buck, took them for vet visit. Came back read some, ate a bowl of ice cream and called it a day. Got a friend thats from the states coming this morning if her hubby deems it safe to travel accross Tripoli to my city about an hour drive. Mopped my kitchen, fed my chicks, checked on rabbits and its only 8 am.
Showed another person a photo of the famous RUDY the NN wonder and she pointed at his ears and asked what were the holes? My daughter laughed and said chicken ears! She said ive never seen them before! She was amazed at how he looked and I explained what purpose a featherless chicken means. She loved the idea. Then I kept using the term walid (boy) and bint (girl) to discuss my various chicks. Got into a long discussion on how I dont know enough words yet and in english you can say boy or girl instead of male or female since like them we get into different terms to discribe babies and sexes of various animals. Got too many words to remember as it is now.
My chicks love FF but my two older wont eat wet. Although I think they eat LESS therefore my daughter thinks they dont like it. Still no eggs but seems my boy upstairs is now getting cuddly with his new lady. Trying to get more pics this week so I can post updated photos. They love their cage and yet poop is everywhere lol but much dryer since I started the FF. Well better get offline so I can get some lunch plans made. Take care all.

It was me who asked if you were alone. It scares the Bejebes ouf of me to think of you being alone there. Of course I dont understand the culture I am only learning about it through your eyes. I am so glad two of your girls decided to stay... Through media information and misinformation I only see the middle east as a very baaaad place for women. but a glimps through your eyes has helped open my own.

And I can see your incredible strength following an ideal outside any concept i could ever have.

Hugs to you... I am not any faith so legitimately I cant say a prayer... but you have one none the less. For security, success, and a safe haven when ever you need one.

deb

 

[heartsizedfarm]

GOOD GRIEF!!!! I've been gone not quite a week, and am over 100 PAGES behind! WOAH! Guess what I did this morning!!!!!!

Yum!!!

 

[Blooie]

Little Diane and I didn't get to our jam making....but I don't care. Every second spent with the kids was either fun, or enlightening, or heart-to-heart. I can make my jam anytime - I can't get this time back ever. They leave today. We were up pretty late last night playing cards and planning weddings (September 27, it looks like, in the Sertoma Butterfly House in Sioux Falls) so right now they're still flaked out. Their flight doesn't leave Billings until 5, so we're having a nice, relaxing brunch before we leave the house.

God gives us people to touch us, to help us over rough spots, and to learn from. I am so grateful that He gave our family these two remarkable young people. I looked at her last night and I was thinking, "This can't be the same confused, rebellious little girl who was listed on the National Runaway Hotline in 2011." How blessed we are!


I took this picture of Dustin and Diane on Wednesday at the Love Knot Tree and cropped it to use in the newspaper for their announcement. I took it up on top of the Big Horns at a spot I found a few years ago. It's been cut out of this shot, but this is the tree:


Isn't that the prettiest thing?

 

[lazy gardener]

My kids are of that generation that are rethinking the whole human animal relationship thing. They say "It's not that animals are human, it's that humans are animals." I'm mulling on that one quite a bit.

How very sad. That's what our educational system has done for us: Tried to remove us so far from our creator that they would have us believe that we are on an equal plane with animals.

Ohh good golly! What have they got against a claw hammer or a .22? LOL

I don't want to laugh at the inevitable aspect of death when it comes to responsible chicken keeping, but i found your comment amusing, especially in comparison to the folks who would propose that we all keep a stun gun or gas chamber in our back yard to do the deed. IMO, dead is dead, the quicker the better... just one step along the continued circle of life from birth to the crock pot.

I don't breed chickens ... So far it's working well enough to let the chickens take care of that themselves. I just provide refreshments and move the eggs around a bit. I guess I also run crowd control when necessary.

This picture cracked me up. It was taken in the Delaware pen ... a bunch of the chicks were copying their father while he was straining to see something so look like cranes, all tall and skinny.

Leslie, you totally cracked me up!!!


And lastly, i take sanctuary in this thread, where it seems that we are free to speak the unspeakable: Mention of our faith in our God, and i will say it out loud and in print... the big J word... Jesus Christ, Lord, Savior, Messiah, Creator of all, including the delightful chicken!!

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

Anyone notice it's "can I put these chicks out in the coop?" season here at BYC? Yay!!! What a relief that was the first time I did it, and how surprised I was that they could survive without me

 

[Blooie]

Anyone notice it's "can I put these chicks out in the coop?" season here at BYC? Yay!!! What a relief that was the first time I did it,

and how surprised I was that they could survive without me

Remember when it was me and I was counting down the days? Even put them out before the coop was done, and it SNOWED!