Wisconsin "Cheeseheads"

[jvls1942]

good forenoon as I begin to write..

Sandi, did you get the email about the peahens ? I don't want to pay $30 for a hen, but might have to .. those are too far for me to go after.. (gas $$)

Tthe two turkey eggs that I held back did both hatch.. I am glad that I floated them..

I got propane from Menard's yesterday.. They accepted my old tank as an exchange.. F&F does not.. He11, they are the ones who changed the connector, I didn't.. I still have a couple more of those old connector tanks.. I am going to exchange them while I can, even if I don't need the propane..

Friday is the new butcher day.. If Annie keeps changing the day, It will be autumn before we get at it.. LOL

Ken's brother died yesterday.. then we got a phone call from his "little" brother that we have been trying to contact for 5 years.. Seems the older bro who died, never forwarded any of our queries about Billy.. they lived in the same area all their lives.. let's just say that they are not a very huggy, kissy family..

goats....goats will eat what they like.. but if you are milking them, burdock and some of those succulent weeds will make the milk taste very bitter.. when I had goats, I was careful to let them on grass only,,, I fed them good hay, grain and stock molasses on their grain.. we had nice sweet milk... You have to be careful with what table scraps you feed also.. none is the best,, give the scraps to the dogs and chickens..

I keep the young chickens in a 4 foot fence with the guinies.. the guineas fly over the coop to get out, the chickens just have not caught on yet.. If they fly out , it is OK with me.. I open the gate at about 6PM and everything is free to come out.. by 8:3oPM it is getting dark, and everybody goes back to where they belong..
when it is dark, I just go around and shut the doors and gates...

Haven't heard from Otonoh/Dave or FT/Sandi lately.. ??

..........jiminwisc..........

 

[jvls1942]

found this on CL.. kind of far away for most of you, but they might travel ??

For Rent Chicken Plucker w/free dressing out of chickens (Eagle River, WI)

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Date: 2011-08-02, 2:49PM CDT
Reply to: [email protected] [Errors when replying to ads?]
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Are you tiredof butchering your own chickens - well, help is here. We supply the chicken plucker, scalder and the help to dress out those chickens. You supply water and electricity. We offer fast, clean, humane service. Please e-mail for prices and availablity.


Location: Eagle River, WI
it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests



PostingID: 2526501479


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Copyright

2011 craigslist, inc

BTW,, I have a plucker if anybody wants to borrow it..

...........jiminwisc..........

 

[dkvart1]

Raiquee, good luck w/selling the house. The home you are interested in sounds PERFECT... if you get it can you adopt me? I'm real good at house work and garrdening. PLEEEEEASE??

Jim so sorry about Ken's brother

MLH, such a shame that people are so misinformed about chickens... heck if they knew the "therapy" value of chickens and how much happier they could be just being entertained by them, I bet they'd change their mind about neighbors having them! Imagine neighborhoods full of lovely chickens...maybe someday things will change.

Today is absolutely beautiful, humidity gone, nice breeze, very hard to motivate so I grabbed my camera in hopes of getting some pics of the elusive finches here. They remained elusive but I got some wonderful shots just the same.

A couple of my favs

The bees little feetsies just tickle me!

Finally gonna get the new boat in the water later today...yay!
Have a great day all!
Deb

 

[Celtic Chick]

You do know that Jim is going to give you flack on that "feetsies" comment, right Deb?

Awesome pics, BTW! Get a thistle feeder. Prob with elusive finches will be gone!

BL, thank you for posting the Wiki link. I didn't know what those caterpillars looked like, esp. in their first stage, but I'm not one for killing bugs unless I know what they are first. I don't know if I've ever seen one of those black ones around here, but I've got plenty of the tiger ones, which has pawpaws as a host plant, which I ordered from Gurneys. Actually, I have ordered many over the years, but they all died. Gurneys is the only place I found that sends you potted trees. The bareroot ones don't make it, so make sure you get potted ones. I have 2 & they are turning into beautiful trees. I just wish they grew a little faster.

I'll have to take some pics. And I do have an almost obnoxious amount of dill & wild carrot growing around here, to get back to the subject. Darn AAADD.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asimina_triloba
http://www.grit.com/garden/fruit/pawpaws.aspx

Gaelio, I think your hen is just beautiful, and I'm sure all her chicks will be too.

Actually, MLH, since you already have 3 walls on the carport, it wouldn't be much work to close off the 4th side. I used 4 kennel panels that I had, which came to 20' wide, which is exactly how wide the carport is. DH used huge hose clamps & some super HD zip ties to attach the kennel panels to the frame of the carport. You can run some wire fencing from the top of the panels to the top of the c.p. to keep critters out. We then cover the top part for winter with tarps. The panels have privacy fence stripping in them, which has plenty of gaps for airflow & ventilation. You can get a roll of it at Menards. Just a thought.

I don't like fencing my gals either, but it is a necessity around here too with all the predators, dogs & grouchy neighbors.

DrH must be fishing again? Maybe he took Dave with him. And I agree, Jim, where has FT been? Putting up fencing til the cows come home?

Glad to hear from Raiq. That house & barn look awesome! I hope you can get it.

I hope you're feeling better too, Carol. That is no fun.

As for sea berries, they are also called sea buckthorn:
http://gurneys.com/sea-buckthorn/p/84517/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_berry

And for all of you who's dogs like eggs, just so you know, my antiquated cat likes them too.

These must be from the pullets. They're awfully small.

 

[Gaelio]

Deb, those photos are awe-inspiring!! And the bee feetsies tickle me, too.
Everyone thanks for the thumbs up on my little mutt chicks. I posted them on my fb page and someone I sort of know wants two of the chicks, along with help on how to raise them. Yea! Another chicken advocate.

 

[BlackBrookPoultry]

There seems to be some debate about this, but to get lemon blue cochins I would breed brown red to blue right? Why are people breeding buffs instead of brown red and calling them lemon blue? I guess I need to research this more.

 

[Hens and Roos]

Quote:
I am guessing you found Twin Cities Pack in Clinton, WI which is south of Janesville- that is where we go, they do a very nice job and the birds look great when we pick them up-prices seem resonable for a place that is State Inspected.

 

[bigzio]

Evening All... thanks again for the information bl4.....so much to learn everyday...stupid is as stupid does....Yep i walked back in the field 100yds and gave em a toss. Hope they made it?

Raim, I haven't bought feed there since the mill changed hands prolly a year ago. Sounds like a sales pitch on cl to me. Most folks go to either Embarrass or big falls for their layer feed. I should give em atry and see the mixture.....it use to be doboy, not sure if it's the same or not.

Crappy afternoon at 1:15 me and suzie were having a piece of watermellon in the kitchen when the distress calls from the flock were alarming....looked out to see a fox dashing off with what turned out after counting to be a buckeye pullet....dang with the extra cockerals it would'nt have been as bad...

It goes with freeranging I know. My flock loves to roam around...it's only right. The sad thing is she will prolly be back...prolly has hungry pups.

Thanks for the great pics...Raiq good luck with the house, glad to see your doing good. I commuted 50 miles for 30 years...loved coming home to the country and glad it's over.

Doc, did I miss your post? What's up?

Took my ranger in for brakes...plenty wrong there. Thought the power steering leak was just ahose...nope it's the pump...needed exhaust, and oh ya the water pump is leaking too....prolly $800 by the time it's fixed...

later ....

 

[ElaineS585]

Celtic Chick: .... sounds like you have a delicious orchard going, yum! Look forward to hearing future harvest stories from you. I went to a really interesting presentation last week at a farm that has invested close to $200,000 in trialing nontraditional fruit not typically grown in Wisconsin. (See http://www.carandale.com/cropresearch.html if you want more info.) I tasted some honeyberries for the first time and tasted some WONDERFUL gooseberries that I'm going to try to track down in the Spring. Man, those were delish! The honeyberries were teeny, tiny, don't know if that is their regular size or not, but if it is, I won't be growing it! I have a friend who's growing paw paw and she, too, is waiting for fruit. Did you know that paw paws either need to be pollinated by flies or hand-pollinated by you? Bees won't pollinate it. (That's way too much work for me!) But I hear they taste a lot like cherimoyas (sp) which I've had and adore.... I'm on the fence about growing Asian pears. I love them but keep reading that they don't thrive in WI (Carandale's apparently has had better luck with them.) And I'm not getting any younger and I'm running out of room, so unfortunately I think my future choices are going to be limited.

Dornes, thanks for the suggestion on trying to locate some Amish to process some birds for me. (Man, that price is great!) I live in Madison so I wouldn't have a clue where to go. (Madison's ordinances prohibit processing birds within city limits...) Hens & Roos, thanks for the info on Twin Cities Pack in Clinton, WI. Glad to know someone who uses and recommends them. I just need to figure out if I have (or can find) a transporting container that they'll find suitable.

Thanks for all the pictures, folks -- they are really fun to look at. TO, thanks for, "that's how the fight started", I enjoyed it enough to share on Facebook. How's my mean hen adjusting? Still like her? Is she out of quarantine yet?

bigzio, so sorry to hear about the fox incident. I hope it doesn't come back but I think you're probably right that they will. Some predator (I think raccoon) hit me two nights in a row a couple weeks ago and lost my 5 baby ducklings (3 weeks old so they weren't tiny) completely gone off the property, killed a drake and injured a hen badly enough that she couldn't recover and we had to put her down. Just devastating. (Although, the hen that died had been sitting on a nest so I took her eggs inside to incubate and hatched 9 out of 11 -- that has been the saving grace of the whole situation.) My ducks didn't like going into their duck house & pen at night so since they were within double fencing, I felt pretty secure and let them stay in their favorite area. Major mistake on my part and I still feel very sad about it. I lock those babies in their house every night now like the chickens. I don't think it's 100% safe 'cause it could still be dug under but I have my fingers crossed and I will continue to critter proof it as I can...

Well I am tired, so I'll sign off for now. Sure hope the cooler weather is coming that they keep promising as I've got plants to get in the ground!
Elaine

 

[BlackBrookPoultry]

I think I just pulled a "Jim" on a thread in the emergencies section. I'm a little upset. Why do people think it's ok to give advice about something they obviously know nothing about? Not all maggots are beneficial wound cleaners. If you find them eating the flesh on your livestock its most likely fly strike that can kill a chicken, duck, whatever. Don't tell people "it's a good thing"! Sorry, rant.