Washingtonians

[Farmin Momma]

Well the cyote came back again this morning. My DH got to see one finaly. DH came and woke me up at 6am, said that I needed to hurry up and go check on the chickens and turkeys because the turkeys were making quite a lot of noise and one male was now on the roof and one male ontop of our fence. So I grabed one of the dogs and ran out there, DH was squating out in the yard facing our creek with our DS's BB gun! Every one was safe as I had locked the chickens in the coop last night untill about 7:30 this morning. The only ones I was worried about were the turkeys sense they don't sleep in a coop just out in the yard, and one of the hens is on eggs just in the tree line. But all was fine!
I have not been on much to tell you guys, but we are looking at buying another home and moving. We have already found one that we are putting an offer on. The address is in Monroe. The place is around High Bridge (if any one knows were that is). It is great, 10 acres, 6 bedrooms, ready for horses and other animals, huge chicken coop!!!!!! Shop and also a garage for DH to be entertained while I play in the 9 stall barn or the HUGE covered areana. This place is amazing, and best of all..... if a fricking cyote shows up out there, we will be having cyote for dinner! I can't wait to live somewhere that I can shoot the things that threaten to take my animals.
So wish us luck, got my fingers crossed for us!

 

[FirewifeJess]

My coop is coming along nicely, soon I will post pics. And I want to say thanks to everyone here, I have learned alot and you all are very helpful. I do let the chicks play in the run during the day and they love it. They have really started to get into the whole dust bath thing, it is so cute.

Yesterday, we found a baby stick bug. I have only ever seen the bigger ones, It was so cool, my daughter put it in a jar and had to show everyone. She even showed the neighbor kids who then asked if they could come see the chicks. So we all visited for a while, then the kids let the stick bug go so he could be free. The neighbors seemed impressed with my coop building abilities, lol. It is turning out so cute.

Another question:
Am I supposed to worm the chicks? If so, what do you use and how often is this done.

Lisa

Generally chickens shouldn't be wormed until they are fully grown; puts stress on their organs that isn't necessary. Baby chicks shouldn't need worming by most accounts...but mine did. Unfortunately when mine were 3 months old I had to worm them, I actually SAW worms in their feces. I used Eprinex Pour On, approx. 1/10-1/4cc per bird as it was hard to measure; full size birds get 1/2cc so hopefully I didn't damage my babies, but it had to be done. They saw a dramatic growth spurt after I wormed them. But mine were also outside on dirt and grass, eating earthworms and being exposed to parasites from 2 weeks on, so that's probably why it happened.

 

[FirewifeJess]

Oh, and do you have pics of your coop? I want to see it! Glad the neighbors are happy with your chickens and coop, makes a big difference!

 

[Greg Richardson]

The Food Companies Spending the Most to Hide the Facts

Are your favorite food companies trying to hide what's in your food?

By Emily Main
Topics: genetically modified organisms (gmo)

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Which food companies are trying to keep you in the dark about what's in your food?

Surveys repeatedly show that more than 90 percent of Americans want genetically modified (GM) foods labeled. That overwhelming majority of the public wants to know if it's eating ingredients derived from lab-created plants that have been genetically modified to resist (and sometime even create their own) toxic pesticides, withstand drought, or produce higher yields.
Considering that GM ingredients have infiltrated more than 75 percent of processed foods, however, food manufacturers have successfully defeated (or threatened to defeat) law after law that would have required these ingredients to be labeled. Once people know that a product contains GM ingredients, the thinking goes, they won't buy it.
One Million Americans Demand Labeling for GMOs

This November, the tug-of-war between food companies and food eaters is coming to a head in California. For the first time, voters—not senators, representatives, or corporate lobbyists—get to decide whether labels like "This product contains GMOs" or "Contains GMO Corn" will appear on food packages. Labeling advocates successfully garnered more than 1 million signatures on a petition to get the California Right to Know Genetically Engineered Food Act (also known as Prop 37) on the November ballot.
Needless to say, food companies have been out in full force, funding ads against the measure. The "No on 37: Coalition Against the Deceptive Food Labeling Scheme" has been collecting money from the obvious (biotech companies like Monsanto) and the surprising, including a number of food companies that market and sell organic foods (by definition, organic foods are prohibited from containing GM ingredients).
The California Right to Know Campaign just issued the dollar amounts spent by major food-industry groups and companies to defeat the ballot initiative. The numbers are collected by California's Department of Campaign Finance and reflect donations made between April and July 2012.
The 20th Anniversary of the FDA's Biggest Mistake

Not surprisingly, the biggest donors represent packaged-food manufacturers and the companies that manufacture GM seeds:
• Grocery Manufacturers Association: $375,000
This is a trade group representing packaged-food manufacturers. In a recent speech to the American Soybean Association, the group's president stated that defeating this ballot initiative was "the single highest priority for GMA this year." This same group actively lobbied to defeat an amendment in the Food Safety and Modernization Act of 2011 that would have banned the hormone-disrupting chemical bisphenol A from canned foods.
• DuPont Pioneer: $310,000
DuPont rakes in about $19 million every year from sales related to its genetically modified seeds, pesticides, and food-processing chemicals.
• Biotechnology Industry Organization: $250,000
Another trade group, the BIO represents DuPont, Monsanto, Dow, and other companies that manufacture pesticides and the genetically modified seeds designed to withstand them.
• BASF: $126,600
The world's largest chemical company, BASF recently abandoned its attempts at marketing GMO crops in Europe, where consumer rejection of GMOs has kept them largely out of the food system, and relocated its plant-science division from Germany to Raleigh, North Carolina. There, the company is working with Monsanto to develop a drought-resistant corn and a strain of genetically modified wheat.
• Syngenta: $63,000
Syngenta's big push is GMO corn, but the company is also notorious for fudging science on the safety of its best-selling corn pesticide atrazine.
Now for the food companies (ironically, many of these same companies have purchased organic brands in the past few decades, so in essence they're supporting organic food and keeping customers in the dark about their conventional products):
• Pepsico: $90,220
• Nestlé: $61,471
Owns Tribe Mediterranean Foods, which has a line of certified-organic hummus
• Coca Cola: $61,208
Owns Odwalla, which manufacturers a line of certified-organic smoothies and juices
• ConAgra Foods: $56,598
• Kellogg's: $33,248
Owns Morningstar Farms veggie burgers and Kashi, its cereal and granola brand that recently caught flack from customers for using GMO ingredients in products advertised as "natural"; Kashi does make some certified-organic cereals and Kellogg's is even working to certify all Kashi products under the Non-GMO Project Verified label—even as it tries to defeat GM labeling.
• J.M. Smucker: $20,396
Sells two types of certified-organic peanut butter
• Dean Foods: $5,424.94
Even though it didn't spend as much as other companies to defeat the bill, Dean Foods owns the nation's two largest certified-organic dairy operations, Horizon Organic and Alta Dena.
With the exception of Dean Foods, this list reflects only donors who've spent more than $20,000. A number of other big food companies have spent smaller amounts, including Hormel Foods, Hershey, General Mills (which owns the Cascadian Farms and Muir Glen organic brands), and Sara Lee.

 

[FirewifeJess]

Thanks Greg! I'm so happy we switched to whole foods and haven't had a single GMO item in months! Well...that we know of.

 

[lisaheath1]

Oh, and do you have pics of your coop? I want to see it! Glad the neighbors are happy with your chickens and coop, makes a big difference!

Thanks for the info on worming. So I won't worry about that then.

We have been taking all sorts of pics of the coop building. They are all on my phone. I will have to sit down and download them. I will try to get to that sometime today. I also wanted to ask everyone about ventilation, if I have enough, if I did it right, etc. I put in the first roost yesterday. I plan to put in two more before we are done.

And I am worried about the raccoons around here. I hear rumor of dogs and cats being injured or disappearing. So I don't want them to be able to dig under my coop. So I'm contemplating what to do about that. The coop seems pretty good size but is still able to be moved if we all take a side, lol. So I'm wondering if we should put some cement pad under, or just do the border of hardware cloth around the perimeter. Hmmm

 

[JNB]

Well the cyote came back again this morning. My DH got to see one finaly. DH came and woke me up at 6am, said that I needed to hurry up and go check on the chickens and turkeys because the turkeys were making quite a lot of noise and one male was now on the roof and one male ontop of our fence. So I grabed one of the dogs and ran out there, DH was squating out in the yard facing our creek with our DS's BB gun! Every one was safe as I had locked the chickens in the coop last night untill about 7:30 this morning. The only ones I was worried about were the turkeys sense they don't sleep in a coop just out in the yard, and one of the hens is on eggs just in the tree line. But all was fine!
I have not been on much to tell you guys, but we are looking at buying another home and moving. We have already found one that we are putting an offer on. The address is in Monroe. The place is around High Bridge (if any one knows were that is). It is great, 10 acres, 6 bedrooms, ready for horses and other animals, huge chicken coop!!!!!! Shop and also a garage for DH to be entertained while I play in the 9 stall barn or the HUGE covered areana. This place is amazing, and best of all..... if a fricking cyote shows up out there, we will be having cyote for dinner! I can't wait to live somewhere that I can shoot the things that threaten to take my animals.
So wish us luck, got my fingers crossed for us!

It sounds wonderful I was drooling while reading .... I will keep positive thoughts and fingers crossed for you guys.... Wish you the best!!!

 

[drumstick diva]

Farmin Momma - the house and acreage sound like a dream come true - I bet you could keep tons of roostering - roosters , and be punished.

 

[drumstick diva]

sorry should read "and NOT be punished."

 

[Chubby Chicken]

My pretty bantam cochin eggs are on the way! This is it for the year though.