The Old Folks Home

[perchie.girl]

If you can't get feed you can always easy the horse deb.

You mean eat? I could eat A horse but Not My horse. Yep 2000 lbs on the hoof. Probably half that in bones and hide.

Naw I would find some place for her if I couldnt afford to feed her. I have a friend who is buying land in Wyoming and has offered to take her If I got in trouble. Shes also a Percheron owner...and has two big beautiful geldings. Permanent pasture up there. Right now Katee is costing me about nine bales a month... @ around 18 dollars a bale.

deb

 

[vehve]

Oz, I think it's just a question of what you're used to. I think I've seen a check maybe 5 times in my life, and never used one. Cashing them is quite an operation around here, you need to do it at a bank and they probably charge some service fee. Bills usually come with a 2 week payment period, so the system is based on trust. Or then you can just pay cash or by card. For some services (mainly vending machines or ordering a pizza) you can pay with your phone, they just add it to your bill.

They have two feeders in the run, one with 27% "half condensed" feed, probably made from baby seals and crushed dreams, and one with a hippie eco domestic near-produced mixed-on-farm grainmix that I think is somewhere between 13% and 19% protein (the composition is about 80% grains (oats, barley and wheat, probably about a 1:1:1 mix) and 20% field mustard and broad been). In addition to this, we make a little bowl of mash for them daily with the condensed feed plus the chia seeds, linseeds, garlic powder and yeast, and then they of course free range and get scraps. They've only been getting the high protein feed for a few weeks though, I want to fatten them up a bit for winter. Once this broodiness/molting issue is done I'll start mixing the condensed feed with the hippie feed and hopefully that should be a decent diet for them. I haven't noticed a smell yet, if anything the smell has gotten better, although the broody poops do smell of death, but that's probably normal.

I just got back from the hardware store, I bought the corrugated plastic for the run now. I didn't go with the stuff I originally planned to use, as it was horribly ugly (it was supposed to be clear but it was sort of foggy and scratchy looking). I found a slightly more expensive substitute for it now, the plastic set us back about 130 euros. I'll start installing it today, and post pictures later. I decided to just fasten the stuff with screws as any more elaborate fastening systems would have set us back another 50-60 euros, and they didn't even have anything that really seemed good to me.

 

[vehve]

Quote: We just bought horse for dinner for today. I haven't eaten horse steaks before, will be interesting.

 

[getaclue]

Quote: We just bought horse for dinner for today. I haven't eaten horse steaks before, will be interesting.
During the depression, my mother's family ate horse meat, but were unaware of it at the time. They usually farmed, and ate pretty good. My grandfather was a machinist. At some point, he got a job in Chicago, and they lived in the city in an apartment, until they got settled into a farm, and resumed farming. Many of the butchers in the city were substituting horse meat for beef due to the higher profit margin. This is when, and where it is suspected that horse meat was introduced into the family's diet. Fast forward to my first DPT shot. I got very sick, ran a very high fever, and swelled really bad. Enough that my mother took me to the doctor. I don't know what all I was given for it, and what else was done, but I do know my arm was packed in ice for a few days. The doctor explained to my mother he had seen this before. Back then, most Tetanus shots were made from horse serum. Children from families that had ingested horse meat were prone to having a severe reaction to the tetanus shot derived from horse serum. He told her that it takes 3 generations to clear this out of a bloodline, and any horse derived serum could pose a threat for 3 generations. From then on, when I got a Tetanus shot, I was given what was called the Tetanus anti-serum, which was not derived from horse serum. Today, Tetanus shots are not made from horse serum, so me, my kids, and grandkids don't have to worry about it.

 

[Wisher1000]

Oz, I think it's just a question of what you're used to. I think I've seen a check maybe 5 times in my life, and never used one. Cashing them is quite an operation around here, you need to do it at a bank and they probably charge some service fee. Bills usually come with a 2 week payment period, so the system is based on trust. Or then you can just pay cash or by card. For some services (mainly vending machines or ordering a pizza) you can pay with your phone, they just add it to your bill.

Checks are being replaced and I see a time coming, here in the US, when they will be gone. I agree with Oz, there are times when they are handy. I realize there are other ways to deal with those handy times, but I like the control it gives me.

I send three checks to school each Monday for my kids' lunch money. They put it in an account at the school and use a 5 digit code to access it. If another kid gets the code, I will only loose a small amount. If that was tied to my bank account, I could lose lots.

I have rental property. I ask for 12 post dated checks made out and signed for the rent. On the first of the month, I pull a check and put it in my account. If the money is not in their account, I can press criminal charges for writing bad checks. They are much more motivated to pay the rent. Otherwise, if they just don't pay the rent, without the checks, I have to take them to civil court, which is a long drawn out process.

I also don't trust EBTs, they are often in error and never to the other party's detriment.

Quote:
During the depression, my mother's family ate horse meat, but were unaware of it at the time. They usually farmed, and ate pretty good. My grandfather was a machinist. At some point, he got a job in Chicago, and they lived in the city in an apartment, until they got settled into a farm, and resumed farming. Many of the butchers in the city were substituting horse meat for beef due to the higher profit margin. This is when, and where it is suspected that horse meat was introduced into the family's diet. Fast forward to my first DPT shot. I got very sick, ran a very high fever, and swelled really bad. Enough that my mother took me to the doctor. I don't know what all I was given for it, and what else was done, but I do know my arm was packed in ice for a few days. The doctor explained to my mother he had seen this before. Back then, most Tetanus shots were made from horse serum. Children from families that had ingested horse meat were prone to having a severe reaction to the tetanus shot derived from horse serum. He told her that it takes 3 generations to clear this out of a bloodline, and any horse derived serum could pose a threat for 3 generations. From then on, when I got a Tetanus shot, I was given what was called the Tetanus anti-serum, which was not derived from horse serum. Today, Tetanus shots are not made from horse serum, so me, my kids, and grandkids don't have to worry about it.

Now THAT is interesting! I learned something already today - I can go back to bed.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Supplement more protein and apparently they moult faster.

They don't molt faster, it helps them grow feathers faster. Genetics is the main determinant in the speed of the molt.

Yeah, I'm feeding 27% mash to them right now, and grain mix with some peas and beans added as free feed to balance it out a bit. And then they free range. It will be interesting to see what kind of plumage they develop after this. Seems like a weird time to molt to me though, I would have expected them to do it a bit earlier, we're starting to get pretty cold weather during the nights already.

I've had them molt all times of the year. My Jaers molted in January. I guess, being from Norway, that was their way of saying, "'you call this cold?"

If you cut out the grains, you could use a much lower protein feed. My layers get about 17% and up it to 20% for molting birds. That's plenty.
Whenever I can feed roosters separately, they get 14%.

Mine always moult late in my opinion, half naked birds when it gets cold... Silly. I read 30% protein for the moult. Some people give them tuna. Lol.
Yup not as bad but 3 out of 17.... To be fair, only 8 should be laying... Oh and not a single duck egg yet, they are getting flirty though so soon I hope.

30 is excessive for an adult bird, even one recovering from molt.

A month or more....

X2
A month if they're fast molters. 2 or 3 if not. Another note, the longer the molt - and cessation of production - the better the production will be in the next laying cycle.

Oh lord. I'm never going to get any eggs, am I?

I told you to break the broodies.

Needs a paint job and some sort of liner... I'm thinking astro turf. Hoping if I get it up before they start to lay they won't protest the lack of bedding like my other girls.

Nice. Roll out?

Try egg thieving dog... Lol.
Astro turf as bedding and padding. Also like the roll away because the eggs are usually cleaner.

I keep claiming I'm in the process of converting everything to trap nests but the carpentry just isn't getting done. Too many other projects.

@vehve

Next subject. Protein

When did you start on 27% protein? That's really high. The urea in your chickens' poop must be really stinky.

X2
Hard on the liver and kidneys too.

You mean eat? I could eat A horse but Not My horse. Yep 2000 lbs on the hoof. Probably half that in bones and hide.
...
Permanent pasture up there. Right now Katee is costing me about nine bales a month... @ around 18 dollars a bale.

deb

That's a lot of hay.
I thought I was going through a lot of chicken feed.

 

[ronott1]

Checks are being replaced and I see a time coming, here in the US, when they will be gone. I agree with Oz, there are times when they are handy. I realize there are other ways to deal with those handy times, but I like the control it gives me.

I send three checks to school each Monday for my kids' lunch money. They put it in an account at the school and use a 5 digit code to access it. If another kid gets the code, I will only loose a small amount. If that was tied to my bank account, I could lose lots.

I have rental property. I ask for 12 post dated checks made out and signed for the rent. On the first of the month, I pull a check and put it in my account. If the money is not in their account, I can press criminal charges for writing bad checks. They are much more motivated to pay the rent. Otherwise, if they just don't pay the rent, without the checks, I have to take them to civil court, which is a long drawn out process.

I also don't trust EBTs, they are often in error and never to the other party's detriment.


Now THAT is interesting! I learned something already today - I can go back to bed.

Are post dated check legal in your State? Ages ago when I took Business law, It was not legal to do that.

 

[Wisher1000]

I assume they are legal here. I used to have a loan with a bank which I payed with post dated checks. I will look into it, but I have never been questioned on it. I actually give the tenants a discount for it, making the rent $50 less if they provide post dated checks, which I guess means it is optional, though I have never had anyone opt to pay the higher rent.

 

[hennible]

@ChickenCanoe the protein thing is just something I've read on here, not something I do, but thanks for the info, also the moulting genetics info. Yup, it's a roll away nesting box, front access. What's a trap nest?
Side notes
The weasel is gone and my neighbours horses have volunteered to cut the front lawn

@perchie.girl how big are those $18 bales?

 

[casportpony]

Hennible, most hay bales in California weigh about 100 pounds and are selling for $18-$22 a bale, less if you buy a tractor trailer load. We feed two bales of alfalfa a day.

-Kathy