The Old Folks Home

[CSolis]

Hey! What's all the racket in there? Maybe I should have named Prince "Curious George". He just has to investigate everything!

 

[CSolis]

An odd question. Has anyone in here ever given your beasts (chickens) alfalfa? I buy cubes and soak them in hot water until it's mostly mush.. then give each pen a healthy does of it. They seem to like it and it has great nutritional value. Right now where there's not much in the way of forage I thought it might be a good way to keep up their 'greens'.

 

[microchick]

Prince is well....a Prince!

I wish I could get our cats and dogs to curl up together. Dream on to expect them to show any affection between themselves and a chicken. Any chicken in the house would be tagged as instant DINNER! GAME ON!

Spring has to be coming, she says to herself as she gazes out at the frozen countryside. Burpee sent me my seed order! I'm awaiting my onion and potato sets but I have all these little seeds just waiting for me to plant in the ground....in three months....gawd!

I am trying a new brand of Tomatoes this year. I found a variety called Ivan that is an heirloom tomato that was developed to do well in Missouri's unpredictable spring weather and tolerates temperature changes as well as unpredictable rain patterns. I'm only planting beans, potatoes, onions and beets along with a few cucumbers and squash along with the Ivan tomatoes this year.

All I need is some of @ronott1's spring weather!

 

[microchick]

I haven't but it sounds like a heck of a good idea, @CSolis. Mine are only getting apples that I hang from wires for them so they have a bit of a boredom buster. I still have apples from last fall's harvest that are going soft on us so I stick a wire through them and hang them up. The chicken's have a ball pecking at them almost like a kid trying to hit a piñata. Fun to watch.

But mine are hungry for greens also and for the life of me I can't get them to be interested in lettuce. It just doesn't look natural to them for some reason. Maybe I'll see about getting a small bag of alfalfa and trying it on my birds.

 

[CSolis]

I haven't but it sounds like a heck of a good idea, @CSolis. Mine are

But mine are hungry for greens also and for the life of me I can't get them to be interested in lettuce. It just doesn't look natural to them for some reason. Maybe I'll see about getting a small bag of alfalfa and trying it on my birds.

It's certainly worth a try. I was making pickled eggs and beets this morning and took some eggs that just wouldn't peal right and mashed them up along with the shells and mixed it in with the mushy alfalfa. Of course they went for the eggs first but continued on with the alfalfa. It was still warm when I took it out there so it was kinda like warm green mush.
One thing I did grow in the small kitchen garden over the winter was rape. I pick leaves and shred them, and give them that along with all the weeds I've pulled.

 

[microchick]

I do the yard offerings in the summer. We let some of the lawn, usually around the orchard, grow a bit longer then when we cut it, I gather it up with a rake and dump it in the runs and coops for them to scratch through. They love it. There isn't much they won't eat that way although I've seen them turn their noses up at a few weeds I've tossed to them.

I've got extra eggs on hand right now. Guess I'll scramble up some for them when I go out later to feed and hammer through the frozen water for them.

 

[CSolis]

I do the yard offerings in the summer. We let some of the lawn, usually around the orchard, grow a bit longer then when we cut it, I gather it up with a rake and dump it in the runs and coops for them to scratch through. They love it. There isn't much they won't eat that way although I've seen them turn their noses up at a few weeds I've tossed to them.

I've got extra eggs on hand right now. Guess I'll scramble up some for them when I go out later to feed and hammer through the frozen water for them.

I've still got some kinds of grass slowly growing here in the back of the house, along with weed that have little purple flowers. I mow enough to get a bag full and take it out to them whenever the grass is dry enough to mow, but it's not really enough.

 

[CapricornFarm]

Ron I don't know whether to use the sad emoji or the mad one on your post.

It's currently 11 degrees here now, down to 3. We have 8 inches of snow on the ground with another 2 called on by Friday. They haven't plowed our road yet. No delivery trucks can get through, we can't get out.

I am so ready for spring and so are my chickens. They have been penned up for over a week now. I have to go out twice a day and hammer the ice off their water bowls as one of them took a dump and stopped heating and the other one, well, it doesn't heat to start with so I just take my frustration out on it with a hammer.

They are calling for -8 or -9 over the weekend as lows. One high was -3 at one point but I think they have been moving the temps up a bit here. It's very unusual weather for this time of the year here in MO. Today DH said he wished we had chosen down state about 200 miles to retire to.

I'm still fighting the creeping crud but slowly feeling better so I guess I'm going to live.

@microchick , hope you are back to normal soon. The weather is pretty crummy. We are getting rain and 40° right now. It was up to 50° yesterday, with intermittent sunshine and cloud. Getting closer to finishing the latest coop.

 

[CapricornFarm]

I haven't but it sounds like a heck of a good idea, @CSolis. Mine are only getting apples that I hang from wires for them so they have a bit of a boredom buster. I still have apples from last fall's harvest that are going soft on us so I stick a wire through them and hang them up. The chicken's have a ball pecking at them almost like a kid trying to hit a piñata. Fun to watch.

But mine are hungry for greens also and for the life of me I can't get them to be interested in lettuce. It just doesn't look natural to them for some reason. Maybe I'll see about getting a small bag of alfalfa and trying it on my birds.

Mine have enjoyed fresh spinach. Plain lettuce doesn't have much in the way of nutrients.

 

[bruceha2000]

And 4 miles doesn’t seem too far especially on a snowmobile, not like it’s 30,

The bridge was on a regular road that the snowmobilers use to get to the other side of the river, same as all vehicles. BUT one is not supposed to run snow machines on the regular roads other than to cross them, or in this case the river. They are not equipped with things like turn signals so are not road legal. Not sure what the state will do in that regard. I'm sure they will eventually replace the bridge but I doubt it will be a nice scenic covered bridge. I have no idea what the trails look like to know if they can run on both sides of the river to get back to the trail by the bridge or not.

He got me a Mama Heating Pad!

So now he can heat his Mama!