YO GEORGIANS! :)

[speckledhen]

My husband hated the grass that was in our backyard when we moved here. In our "lawn" grass is the weed. We planted big swathes of red clover to keep the grass away. Wildflowers are coming back now that we've burned out the grass.

I like that. I used to loathe that bermuda grass they would always plant in suburban subdivisions when I was a realtor. It was ugly in winter and was always invasive. Yuck.

 

[Lookin4GoodLife]

I came across the attached link today and thought that someone might find it informative;
www.fao.org/docrep/014/al876e/al87600.pdf

Downloaded. Thanks for the post!

 

[Lookin4GoodLife]

Here's a brochure that explains it:

http://agr.georgia.gov/Data/Sites/1...egg_candling/neweggandeggcandlingbrochure.pdf

Looked like a typical "government document" to me..... it didn't explain anything. It said you had to have a candling certificate to sell eggs and then was an advertisement for the egg industry in Georgia. It didn't say what candling was for, why you needed to do it, nor how many eggs out of what you sold had to be candled. Same ol, same ol.....

 

[Flowerbh]

I live around Powder Springs rd. Where are you located.

Take mine! Take mine! I have three rare Swedish Flower cockerels....6 weeks old. I am also selling a purebred Blue Partridge Brahma roo.....he's only 3 months old but Brahma roosters are known for their calm ways. But, I live in North Georgia. If you are ever up this way for any of the great Spring festivals (like in Dahlonega) let me know!

As far as Egg Candling License, you will need one if you are going to sell eggs away from your home, especially farmers markets. You will need to display your license at your booth. Many of us also have our Poultry license which lets us sell our birds at markets, etc. (Of course, that has been suspended right now). Anyway, it is a nice class.

 

[Flowerbh]

Yeah, just what are you trying to get rid of? Unless it's poison ivy, I would learn to live with just about anything. Most common lawn "weeds" are edible or useful. Chickweed, lamb's quarters, dandelion, purslane, dock, plantain, oxalis, clover, to name a few. I have not learned which of these chickens can eat other than chickweed.

Purslane is great for people and chickens. You cook it like any other 'greens'. I recently read an article about how when you feed it to chickens, their eggs have 10 times the Omega stuff in them then regular store eggs! I made a 'mess' of purslane one time for the neighbors and they were surprised at how good they were. Also made a kudzu quiche which I loved....oh, and kudzu tea with the flowers!

 

[brucifer]

I use a heat lamp but just use a regular light bulb....60 watt. I adjust it up or down depending on what the chicks are doing. If they are all clustered under the lamp...they are too cold and I lower the lamp. It they are all over the edges of the brooder, they are too hot and I raise the lamp. If they are ok, they are sleeping all over. Those red bulb heat lights are way too hot for my brooder. They would be dead in minutes if I used one of those.

I built several tall stands and use one with each of my heat lamps, so I basically do the same as you do by raising or lowering the lamp to control brooder temps as necessary. Studies have shown that infrared light reduces stress and confrontations between chicks in the brooder, so that's another plus. Also, it's getting tougher and tougher to find 100w and 125w find incandescent light bulbs, but the infrared bulbs are still relatively inexpensive and easy to find. They were on sale last month at TCS, so I picked up a few extra 2-pack boxes.

I also have an older heat lamp that uses regular incandescent light bulbs, but the heat shield is missing, so I just use the larger lamps.

 

[katsdar]

I came across the attached link today and thought that someone might find it informative; I know that there a few on here that already know everything that could be known; if that is you, you don't need to reply saying that you already knew this or that you have better stuff; if that is you, just let those of us who don't know it all read and learn so that we don't completely bore you.
No response sought or needed.

www.fao.org/docrep/014/al876e/al87600.pdf

Ok, no response given,

Thanks for the info, liked the pic of the guy on bike with chickens in cages being sprayed, one way to do it

I'm with you on that one, kat. In about an hour I'll start a two-hour trip to pick up some hatching eggs. The breeder is well past the east side of Atlanta. I dread the trip back, but I want them eggs!

Interesting, {note: i do not sell my eggs} so you are supposed to candle every egg before it is sold? is that a correct understanding?

Yep before you place it into the carton,

You don't want to turn those that end up with damaged air cells....just let them sit without turning!

while they are in the bator cooking, don't turn them, won't the yolks stick?

well since you have to have it to legally sell at a farmers market, flea market etc etc, then yes, it's worth it. It was a pretty neat class, and they basically tell you up front, that NO ONE is going to fail it.

as for those asking about eggs all having to be the same size or every egg candled, not that I remember. I don't candle any egg I'm not hatching......and as for size, I have customers who like that mine are a variety.

That episode was so funny I still remember the look on their faces "Turkey's don't fly"

Not sure where to ask this question, but I need a natural weed control solution that really works! Any ideas???

Chickens!!!!

I would also like to see the responses on this question. My husband wants to spray our yard since the chickens won't be out in it. But I worry about using pesticides and herbicides even if we're not spraying their "yard". Where he will be spraying is just feet from the chicken run. I worry about windage and so forth.

chickens eat bugs and sprayed bugs that don't die right away can make it to the chickens, just a thought

x2cdavis Cartersville Georgia

Get Japanese infection and then there be nothing left

Can you get a shot for that?

 

[Flowerbh]

Quote:

 

[katsdar]

ok thanks got ya, yep they are chilling until tomorrow

 

[brucifer]

Thanks to everyone who responded to my egg-candler-certificate question. The wife and I plan to take the class and test sometime in the near future.

Also, due to Atlanta traffic, the four-hour round trip to pick up eggs from a breeder ended up being six hours. Whew! Glad that is over! We had planned to pick up a dozen crele orpington eggs and a dozen jubilee orpington eggs. We ended up coming home with 48 eggs! The breeder was great and gave us a bunch of extra eggs at no charge, and even dropped the price quite a bit because she had only nine jubilee eggs available. I wasn't expecting her to do that, but it sure was a nice gesture. Her birds are beautiful. Anyway, here's the egg talley:

20 crele orps
9 jubilee orps
9 creme legbar
5 langshan
5 cuckoo breda

I'll set these eggs tomorrow afternoon for the BYC Easter hatch-a-long, but I'm not sure if we'll keep any of the legbars, langshans, and/or bredas after they hatch. Maybe the pullets can stay in the girls-only pen, but aside from the legbars, I'm not that familiar with those breeds. In spite of the Atlanta traffic, it was a good day.