The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[Leahs Mom]

Just catching up, something I learned after making the video, for you non sewers is thrift store pillow cases work well for sprouting bags too.

I was thinking that the weave would be too tight on regular material for the roots to take hold for feeding inverted. Am I right? If so, they just stay loose in the bag rather than grabbing hold of the material and you just dump to feed?

100% cotton?

 

[Kassaundra]

I was thinking that the weave would be too tight on regular material for the roots to take hold for feeding inverted. Am I right? If so, they just stay loose in the bag rather than grabbing hold of the material and you just dump to feed?

100% cotton?

yes, 100% cotton (but that might just be a preference thing since it is the only ones I have tried)

Not exactly, there are more "loose" sprouts, but plenty still find a way to "Hang on" to the pillow case fabric. (keep in mind these are old thrift store pillow cases so not as tight weaved as egyptian cotton $100 cases, lol lol lol)

 

[Leahs Mom]

Got it. I imagine folks could look for the cotton with a looser weave. My mom had some old ones that were looser. I think I'll keep an eye out and look at places and see what I see.

I do like the burlap for the "holding power"

 

[lalaland]

and if you wash them in water with a hefty dose, and I do mean hefty, of vinegar (cheap white kind) you can help remove the toxic crap from fabric softeners that will have built up on them. I have to keep rewashing until there is no scent, sometimes takes a couple of cycles ( I just take them out of the clean dryer and throw them right back into the dirty laundry pile).

 

[Leahs Mom]

I use the vinegar on my burlap sprouting bags when I wash them too. Nothing but vinegar in the water.

That's a good tip on for washing the used pillow cases.

 

[Jewelwing]

At daybreak, I went to do chicken chores and found 4 eggs laid in the pre-dawn hours:




The whopper egg weighed 3 oz, and was a double yolker laid by a sulmtaler. Keeping my fingers crossed she is just getting things worked out and that this won't be longterm. The other eggs were between 1 1/2 oz and 2 oz.

when I cracked them open, I found the little round white spot - does that mean that yolk was fertilized?

Except my huge egg got laid some time in the afternoon, so I don't know who laid it! I know who laid the four morning eggs, so I can narrow it down to five chickens: two Australorps, two Welsummers, and a Brahma. Here's my beauty:







And then I had a yummy fried egg sandwich!!

 

[evoterra]

Thanks for sharing our site, Leslie! And yes, audiobooks (ours and others) are a great way to pass "windshield time" for truckers and drivers of all types!

 

[lalaland]

Except my huge egg got laid some time in the afternoon, so I don't know who laid it! I know who laid the four morning eggs, so I can narrow it down to five chickens: two Australorps, two Welsummers, and a Brahma. Here's my beauty:



And then I had a yummy fried egg sandwich!!

nice coincidence!
and I am still waiting on confirmation that the little white dot is a blastosphere or whatever, meaning a fertile egg....

 

[SallyinIndiana]

We're going to start out with 5 and add a few every year or two. I guess you're right that for a while we'll be overflowing with eggs. I'm sure we'll find takers for the extras. . . And I'll just have to keep expanding my garden and orchard to have a place for the poo . . . good excuse--never thought of that one! I've told my husband we need alpacas and a few bunnies for the poo too though. Might be wearing thin. We only have 3 acres. . .

3 acres is MORE than enough for 5 chickens. Many production breeds slow down after their first couple of years laying eggs. Adding a few chickens each year is a great way to maintain 5 good laying hens.

 

[Leahs Mom]

@lalaland
I am having a hard time telling on that egg as it gets a little fuzzy for me where the white spot is. But it looks to me like it is more solid than "bullseye". When you were looking in person, did it look like there was a ring around the outer edge or did it just look solid round?

See how this one has a ring:
Aoxa's photo:

And this one doesn't but it does have the round spot.