The road less traveled...back to good health! They have lice, mites, scale mites, worms, anemia, gl

[Mtn Laurel]

I've got some happy, happy girls today!

I've always been of the opinion that chickens were to be "partners" in the garden. Their job is to eat bugs, fertilize and till. We've had the garden fenced off from them as we still have cabbage, broccoli, kale, and collards in there and I know they'd be having a banquet if I let them in there.

I've been pushing DH to come up with a way to let the girls have access to the fallow areas of the garden - where our tomato's, beans, cukes, and squash had been. We'd had some squash bugs so I needed the gals to get in there before the ground froze and get whatever of them remained. These areas were tilled in the spring and the soil was amended with tons of compost. The dirt in some of the spots is black. DH fashioned a "chicken corral" around those areas so the girls could get in there without giving them access to the stuff that's still growing.

OH, MY! Talk about excited ladies! They got into a raised bed filled with black dirt and DH thought they were having seizures the way they were rolling and kicking about. Quite the feast as I watched one of them pulling out a big worm while she was in the middle of "dirt bathing". Nothing like laying about and having your dinner appear right at your face!

I've been standing at the window watching dirt fly for the past 45 minutes as they kick and roll. Great to see them so enjoying their new spot! And I'm really tickled to know that it will be pre-tilled and fertilized come spring although I know I'm going to have to add dirt back into those raised beds as they're kicking the most of it out!

 

[Beekissed]

So fun to watch! Lucky chickens, indeed.

When mine are dusting they are so single-minded that I can approach them without them scattering and they seem to really be thinking hard about getting every little inch covered with dust...it's a serious business, to be sure.

So glad your gals got this wonderful treat right in the middle of winter..now they will be spoiled and expect this every day.

 

[fishnet1971]

Bee, i started my ff today. I had looked for the acv with mothers with no luck in the past. Guess who is now selling it???? WALLMART!!!!! Made by heinz. It actually says unpasteurized wit mother. How cool is that?

 

[Beekissed]

That is cool, alright! It wasn't too long ago that you couldn't find it except at health food stores. I may be crazy but I think that the many folks all over the country that are now giving it to livestock, particularly chickens, are requesting this at stores and the larger chain stores are catching on...and putting these items in all their stores. Krogers is now stocking mother vinegar as well.

Same with all the products for homemade laundry detergent...wasn't too long ago you couldn't find this at all but now Walmart is selling them~grouped together, side by side on the same shelf.

 

[aussie pete]

thanks for the reply Bee,guess if they r getting a slight buzz ,good luck to them

& I'm the same don't think I will go back either Ff is here to stay for me
cheers Pete

 

[Leahs Mom]

Found one...not sure which part of the state...

http://www.rosehilldairy.org/katahdin hair sheep.htm

Well...bad news on this. They sold all their sheep (website is out of date). I emailed them last night and got this reply:

'Actually, my website is very out-of-date, and I had to sell off all my sheep during the drought. If you look at the membership list on http://www.katahdins.org/, try Dave Coplen (MO), Laura Fortmeyer (KS), Victor Shelton (Vincennes, IN). John Stromquist is not far fom you in IL, and is a top notch breeder, but he feeds a lot of grain. Sorry I don't seem to have too many more names handy. If you place a wanted ad on katahdins.org, that may be a good way to find sheep if you're trying to buy them during the "off season".
Good luck!
Gina'

 

[Beekissed]

My farm guy was feeding his Kats and Kat/St. Croix mixes a lot of grain too but he learned real quick that these breeds do better on a grass diet. You can get some of those grain fed Kats and switch them over pretty easily into what they were meant to be.

That's the problem with these traditional woolly farmers. They get the hair breeds because of getting rid of the wool but they insist on trying to treat the hair breeds like their usual meat breeds and it always ends in disaster. Pretty soon you have hair sheep that are prone to parasites, problems in lambing, diseases, etc. They simply cannot see that their greed to get everything to market as quickly as possible and make the most money just doesn't fit with these hair breeds.

Hair sheep grow slower but they fatten up nicely on only grass and hay. Their meat is so sweet that it can hardly be called lamb or mutton..no strong flavors like the woolly meat breeds. They do so well on grass and natural husbandry that when they are used badly(fed grains, given harsh chemical dewormers, kept in feedlots) for production/meat markets they start to show the same difficulties as the woolly meat sheep and so the silly and greedy farmers declare themselves as being victims of deceptive advertisement on the hair breeds.

Mama always said, "If you always do what you've always done you will always have what you always had." Time for the sheep farmers to slow down and go back to basics with hair sheep. Who could ask better than a sheep that requires little to no grain for fattening? That's one cheap sheep!

Look at this Katahdin and tell me if she looks any different than a grain fed sheep? She is not pregnant in these pics, BTW...just fat on grass and hay.

 

[delisha]

First eggs are so much fun. Right now I have two new pol's laying and I am trying to find out who lays what type of egg. One of my *things*. I feel it is important to know what egg belongs to what hen. Gathering the eggs every day, I can tell who I need to watch. If someone is missing an egg, I go find the hen and do an exam. I feel for the egg, and make sure they look OK. I just feel better knowing.

 

[galanie]

That is really a comfort to know, isn't it?  My boys were much the same way and, trust me, no emotional scarring happens when you introduce children to death early on.  They are more able to understand when young that things die and are gone forever...this helps later to deal with the finality of death and adjusting their coping mechanisms for it. 

I just wished I'd known when I was a mother of small children what I know now. Kids a extremely adaptable and if introduced to things in a matter of fact manner at an early age, never have any phobias or problems with it. Kids are a whole lot smarter than anyone gives them credit for. Sure they appear to say dumb things (nearly always the result of a very logical process once you think it out) and have "irrational" fears but most of those irrational fears were planted by someone. And the others? They'd have regardless.

They will accept almost anything you introduce to them in a matter of fact manner as "normal." After all, they don't have a baseline for anything different. They are too young and inexperienced to already "know" something is "just wrong." Forget Dr. Spock ferheavenssake. His evil book is 60+ years old and people still think they are raising little porcelain dolls.

 

[Eggcessive]

Okay, I today made something like 4 gallons of the homemade laundry detergent that you all recommend. I remember back aways that Bee said she didn't use it to wash certain things or colors--I can't remember it or find it on this thread. Does anyone know which post this is on? By the way my husband walked into my kitchen tonight where my fermented feed bucket and laundry soap bucket are, and said our house smells like a brewery in a laundramat.