Washingtonians

[justbugged]

Quote:

Okay okay I will go brave the cold wet nasty day and feed the girls their chicken crack. At least they are under cover now. Maybe I will need to get DH to build me a cover for walking the 10 steps the the greenhouse, and another cover for the other 10 steps to the coop. That way I wouldn't get wet at all.

I am such a puss these days. I am always cold. I want a wood burning fireplace so that I can heat the place to at least 85 degrees. It might just be cheaper to move to a warmer climate though.


PS I hope you fell better soon hallerlake.

 

[hallerlake]

Aren't there enough political commercials on the TV? Not here, too, please.





Quote:
Yes, and they just keep breeding...the population is soaring...and the laws are making it very very hard to feed anyone...

I just got an email about Obama wanting to charge 1% tax on ALL bank transactions so theres the tax money to pay for inspections!

 

[hallerlake]

Thank you. I'm at that awkward stage where I'm not well enough to do anything, but not sick enough to stay in bed all day, and I'm bored. I'm just going to stay home, and drink lots of tea. Hubby would love to keep the house at 75 or 80 all the time. I finally convinced him it made more sense to use a space heater in the room he's in rather than heat the whole house (especially since I get hot flashes when I'm too warm). We have one for his office, and one in the family room.




Quote:

Okay okay I will go brave the cold wet nasty day and feed the girls their chicken crack. At least they are under cover now. Maybe I will need to get DH to build me a cover for walking the 10 steps the the greenhouse, and another cover for the other 10 steps to the coop. That way I wouldn't get wet at all.

I am such a puss these days. I am always cold. I want a wood burning fireplace so that I can heat the place to at least 85 degrees. It might just be cheaper to move to a warmer climate though.


PS I hope you fell better soon hallerlake.

 

[4cats3kids1hubby2many]

Quote:
Okay, I have a chicken eating question: I have a GIANT willow tree in my backyard that the girls get to go and play under on a regular basis. The leaves are turning yellow and are falling onto the lawn below.....my chickens love eating them. I watch them out in the yard just "hoovering" (sucking) those leaves down every day when I let them out. How does a chicken digest an entire leaf? Is there any food value? funny stuff they eat.....oh....and I found them eating a piece of styrofoam that blew out of the shed the other day....Now I know that has no food value.

 

[4cats3kids1hubby2many]

Quote:

Oatmeal for their breakfast, and Tailfeatherz1 has said the more liquid the food, the better it is for chickens...read his post a few pages back on liquifying their food...

thanks, I will go and find. I did actually add a bit of water to cool it down before I took it out to them, so it was on the watery side. DH is mad at me since I threw in a handfull of blueberries....told the DH he could spare a few. He did not agree.

 

[justbugged]

Now it's my turn to thank you. I hadn't remember that I could turn on the space heater again. I have it out, but I feel guilty for using it. I know in my head that 68 degrees is warm enough, but I am sitting here in my coat and my hands, and nose are so cold that I want to cry. DH gets after me when he sees me using the space heater. But he went to Georgia this morning, so what he can't see, won't hurt him. I don't think I would be so grumpy about this except that we had a furnace and heat pump installed just over 2 years ago. I thought that the house would never be cold again. I was wrong. I think it is colder because the air circulates around more and that seems to create drafts. It doesn't probably help that we have a dog door that is almost big enough to drive a VW bug through. But it was there when they designed the heating system. I still don't think that I should feel this cold. What scares me is I think it is me and not the house.

Quote:
Okay okay I will go brave the cold wet nasty day and feed the girls their chicken crack. At least they are under cover now. Maybe I will need to get DH to build me a cover for walking the 10 steps the the greenhouse, and another cover for the other 10 steps to the coop. That way I wouldn't get wet at all.

I am such a puss these days. I am always cold. I want a wood burning fireplace so that I can heat the place to at least 85 degrees. It might just be cheaper to move to a warmer climate though.


PS I hope you fell better soon hallerlake.

 

[hallerlake]

Blueberries are precious things. You can never have too many of them.



Quote:

Oatmeal for their breakfast, and Tailfeatherz1 has said the more liquid the food, the better it is for chickens...read his post a few pages back on liquifying their food...

thanks, I will go and find. I did actually add a bit of water to cool it down before I took it out to them, so it was on the watery side. DH is mad at me since I threw in a handfull of blueberries....told the DH he could spare a few. He did not agree.

 

[ReiMiraa]

Quote:
Okay, I have a chicken eating question: I have a GIANT willow tree in my backyard that the girls get to go and play under on a regular basis. The leaves are turning yellow and are falling onto the lawn below.....my chickens love eating them. I watch them out in the yard just "hoovering" (sucking) those leaves down every day when I let them out. How does a chicken digest an entire leaf? Is there any food value? funny stuff they eat.....oh....and I found them eating a piece of styrofoam that blew out of the shed the other day....Now I know that has no food value.

lol yeah i have seen mine eat styrofoam and plastic trash too. the leaves still contain some nutrients. and there are possibly insects on the leaves. i know in some oak trees get galls in the branches and sometimes in the leaves (galls are parasitic insects that the tree isolates, creating the lumpyness on trees. the insect can't travel, but it is still fed)
my chickens would eat the shrivled apple and pears that fall on the ground after fruit set (the trees naturally abort the majority of fruit so a handful remain, sometimes we help with some varities that dont do it well by hand thinning bartletts, or applying chemical thinners to apples). i know there isnt much nutrient value in the little 'mummie' fruit. but i think sometimes its a case of "if it moves, its eaten"

 

[hallerlake]

It's the wind and the change in the weather. The wind makes the house cool off faster than we can adjust to, and we're just not used to it being cold yet.



Quote:

 

[4cats3kids1hubby2many]

Quote:
Okay, I have a chicken eating question: I have a GIANT willow tree in my backyard that the girls get to go and play under on a regular basis. The leaves are turning yellow and are falling onto the lawn below.....my chickens love eating them. I watch them out in the yard just "hoovering" (sucking) those leaves down every day when I let them out. How does a chicken digest an entire leaf? Is there any food value? funny stuff they eat.....oh....and I found them eating a piece of styrofoam that blew out of the shed the other day....Now I know that has no food value.

lol yeah i have seen mine eat styrofoam and plastic trash too. the leaves still contain some nutrients. and there are possibly insects on the leaves. i know in some oak trees get galls in the branches and sometimes in the leaves (galls are parasitic insects that the tree isolates, creating the lumpyness on trees. the insect can't travel, but it is still fed)
my chickens would eat the shrivled apple and pears that fall on the ground after fruit set (the trees naturally abort the majority of fruit so a handful remain, sometimes we help with some varities that dont do it well by hand thinning bartletts, or applying chemical thinners to apples). i know there isnt much nutrient value in the little 'mummie' fruit. but i think sometimes its a case of "if it moves, its eaten"

Never thought of bugs on the leaves, and was unsure of the food value or if they could even process it correctly. It is just so funny because the leaves are long and narrow so they just go along like little hoover vacuumes and suck those puppies (leaves) down. Slurp, slurp, slurp. It is amazing how many of them they will eat. I also have handed over my veggie garden remains to them. The chickens have done such a good job of rototiling up late start weeds and the paper I had used to keep weeds down. I am not sure how well my earthworm population is faring....but I know there are lots there so I am not worried. We don't have any fruit trees or I am sure they would be after all those too.

I agree, if it is not nailed down...a chicken will try and eat it. And if it is nailed down....they will tast-test it to see if it is worth the effort.