The Front Porch Swing

[perchie.girl]

Hon-eeeeys, I'm hoooo-oome!

Woo Hoo Bloo ie is back

deb

 

[rrrmamma]

Hon-eeeeys, I'm hoooo-oome!

Welcome back Blooie, I am so happy that Linda is doing well. Will continue to keep her in my prayers. It is still a long road for her recovery. With the sense of humor that seems to run in you family, she has a great chance at a full recovery. Laughter is really the best medicine.

 

[wyoDreamer]

Very cool! So I don't have to tell you about cheese curds and to make sure to find out what days the nearest cheese factory makes them, right?

We load up every time we head north to visit. I used to deer hunt north of 8 near Tony WI (western part of the state). So pretty up there. Your new home and property look beautiful!!

Short story - DH was running a road construction job in the middle of the state. They had 3 contractors working, he had 2 young engineers and 3 summer interns helping do the "observation" They discovered the cheese factory 1/2 mile from the job. Being engineers, they actually set up a schedule of who's turn it was to pick up the fresh curds at 11:08 on Thursday. Not 11:00.\, not 11:15, but 11:08 exactly. And they always got there just as they were bagging them up. They were still warm. Those guys ate 8 pounds every week! granted they shared them with everyone on the job. But he never brought me any. : (

I might have missed the original 'problem'. Are you saying your DH buried the Tahoe or the people you bought the place from had done so?
Bad idea in either case. And I would watch the transmission on that Z turn. They aren't made for towing even grass collectors.


I'm very happy with my saddle nipples in PVC pipe. Don't really need a 5 gallon bucket of water hanging in the coop. There will always be some water dripped out of the nipples because the birds don't catch every drop. Don't need that in middle of the coop either. I have an old chicken trough feeder (I think) attached to the wall under the nipple pipe to catch the drips. No mess in the coop filling the 5 gallon cooler outside the coop that feeds the pipe.

I will wave in the general direction of your new place next week when we go through, once Tuesday, again Wednesday. Picking up the younger daughter at Beloit College. Drive through Canada is longer but a LOT more pleasant than the 'southern' route on I/90. Went that route when we took her to school last August, stopped to see Niagara Falls on the way. Wife decided going through Chicago once was more than enough times so we came back through Sault Ste Marie. Good thing we hadn't booked hotels yet!

Bruce

It was DH who was exploring the new property and got stuck in the field. He used the z-turn to haul the floor jack and lumber out to the Tahoe to get it unstuck. No pulling with the Z-turn, just the only other piece of equipment with wheels and a motor that he has available. Had to get lumber out there somehow. he dug enough to get a board and the jack under the truck, then jacked it up and put boards under the wheels. 4-wheel drive and managed to get it out. Park it in the driveway, then walk back across the 25 acres to get the mower.

I thing I understand about the saddle-nipples, but if you gat a chance could you snap a picture for me. I am trying to plan for my coop and I like the idea of being able to water from outside the coop

When you go through the split of Hwy 141 and Hwy 41, you are within 3 miles of the place. I will have DH wave!

 

[bruceha2000]

It was DH who was exploring the new property and got stuck in the field. He used the z-turn to haul the floor jack and lumber out to the Tahoe to get it unstuck. No pulling with the Z-turn, just the only other piece of equipment with wheels and a motor that he has available. Had to get lumber out there somehow. he dug enough to get a board and the jack under the truck, then jacked it up and put boards under the wheels. 4-wheel drive and managed to get it out. Park it in the driveway, then walk back across the 25 acres to get the mower.

I thing I understand about the saddle-nipples, but if you gat a chance could you snap a picture for me. I am trying to plan for my coop and I like the idea of being able to water from outside the coop

When you go through the split of Hwy 141 and Hwy 41, you are within 3 miles of the place. I will have DH wave!

Oh, when you said "buried the Tahoe", I thought you meant BURIED the Tahoe. As in: underground and covered over. People have been known to do such things, don't know why they don't just call the scrap metal guys. NEVER MIND!

Saddle nipples. This is what I first made. I later incorporated it into the bottom of a 3 "seat" open nest box so I could keep the nipples from freezing. That is why there are 2 tubing connections. I have a REALLY small reptile waterfall pump (no reptiles, just needed a small pump) that I run only in the winter. I take the tubing off it in the summer and the water is just gravity feed. Use teflon tape or silicon when you put them in. Even with the right size drill, the holes may not be EXACTLY round and they will leak. In fact, though I was as careful as I could be, 3 of the 5 leaked.


You can take them apart, you just hold the saddle part and twist the part that holds the nipple. Makes it easy to clean them (unless they are buried in the bottom of a nest box with only the metal nipple sticking out

)


Didn't know we would be THAT close!

So, what my wife and I want to know is: If Wisconsin is "the Dairy State" where the heck are all the cows? We figured we would see tons of farms with cows out in the pastures and I think we saw only two! This was last August so it wasn't like they were all inside due to winter weather. And it pretty much takes all day to drive from the bottom of the state to the top so it wasn't milking time, at least not the entire time we were driving.

Bruce

 

[Blooie]

Okay, dilemma here. I want to keep the girls' (and Charlie's) food and water outside in the run. I'd like the coop to be nothing more than a place for them to sleep and lay eggs. I currently have 22 but several of them will be heading to freezer camp. How can I set up a feeding system that feeds several of them at one time and still keeps the food dry? I've been poking around since I finished unpacking and all I managed to do was confuse myself.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

I love it when they do that!     What you got under these broodies, LJ?  More Dels? 

But of course.

 

[Beekissed]

Okay, dilemma here. I want to keep the girls' (and Charlie's) food and water outside in the run. I'd like the coop to be nothing more than a place for them to sleep and lay eggs. I currently have 22 but several of them will be heading to freezer camp. How can I set up a feeding system that feeds several of them at one time and still keeps the food dry? I've been poking around since I finished unpacking and all I managed to do was confuse myself.

Long trough sitting under a flap of tarp off the side of the coop....you could do the same with the side of your cattle paneling. Just zip tie a small tarp to one wall, then attach the tarp to push in stakes to make a small lanai under which your feed trough and waterer can reside. Just attach it high and slant it to low so that it can drain the rain off. The first pic will show tarp "wings" off the side of my coop and this long trough sits under one of these. It is around 6 ft long and feeds many birds at once from both sides of the trough. Takes all of 10 min. to build this sort of trough from scrap lumber. Since you probably feed dry feed and don't want to have them scratching and shoveling in it, you can place a piece of fencing right over the top of the trough to prevent this...this is what I used for that when I fed dry and never had anymore feed waste.

 

[LBejaran]

Hello Bee. Here is a pic of a fox that we caught in the snare trap. My DH went to check the traps and found it snared by it's foot. DH had to shoot it. Also it had the 1 hen that escaped from the coop this morning. We have been leaving them in the chicken coops until we can be home to watch them. This hen is #7 this week that we have lost to the fox or foxes. I'm looking into finding a guard dog, but it doesn't look like there are any pups or young ones available around here that I can afford anyway. I have a friend that is going to breed her GP/Maremma mixed soon, but it won't be in time. In the meantime, hoping the traps will take care of them. I'm hoping this is the one that has been doing all the pilfering!! I really dislike having to keep my flock cooped up all day, especially on these warm sunny days!

While I don't wish to deal with a fox wanting to eat my birds, part of me would love to have a fox fur. I'd probably use it to train my dogs to keep them out since they've never encountered them before (though my dogs are pretty good about dealing with predators anyway). Have you checked your local shelters/sanctuaries for puppies? There are always loads of young dogs available and they aren't very pricey. Training a young pup to protect the property/flock is something you'd have to do anyway and this way, you save another animal from being euthanized. I checked on PetFinder and it looks like there are loads of great pups that would likely be great flock-protectors if trained correctly. One looked really promising and he's located in Batavia, OH.

That's not a very good photo, haha!

 

[Beekissed]

Got my new clear tarp for the coop today!

Can't wait to refurbish the coop tarps and streamline the coop this spring.

 

[LBejaran]

Woot, looks like I've got another broody hen! That makes five including my new bantam! I found her this evening on another hen's eggs. She'd pushed a younger hen out of the nest and had taken over the nest of eleven eggs. I gave the other hen back her eggs and left Granny (the new broody) with a couple nesting eggs. If she decides to stay broody, I will try and get her some hatching eggs. I'm thinking I may want to get another breed of bird, though. What would you all recommend?

Black Copper Marans sound great, as do true Ameraucanas. Now just to find them locally! I love these egg-hunting adventures!