Posted on 03/11/2016 4:54:31 PM PST by TMSuchman
Once again I must apologize for not posting anything last week. A lot of challenges came up & bit me in the backside at different times & I could not force myself to sit down & "write" this up. So with that being said, I have a couple of different topics for this week. The first one is, for those of us who have a bit of land/space what kind of poultry do you want to raise & for what reason/s. Do you want chickens for meat or the eggs, what about bug control in your garden/s. Someone on my facebook pages sent me a link about using "Indian Runner" ducks for insect control & eggs. I find this idea intriguing myself, as I have a small pond on our property. [I have to drain,dredge & rebuild the over flow this summer. It has 50 years of silt built up in it. And I'm going to use that silt in one of my raised bed gardens, besides taking the pond back down to it's original depth of 25 feet, then restocking it with some fish, (various NATIVE fish species)] But when it comes back to the poultry, do you worry about the predators [ie local feral dogs, cats, 'coons, possums, 'yotes, ect....] I am playing with the idea of adding a couple of geese to watch over the flock [they used them in Germany during the Cold War along the wall as watch critters]
Then if & when the grid does go down do you have a comm. system set up for you & your family & friends yet. There are a lot of newer tech out like the go Tenna [https://www.gotenna.com/] that hooks straight up to your "smart phone" or do you go old school with a CB systems. {Just remember there are ears & eyes out there that are NOT friendly to you or us, so OPSEC Rules do apply} We do know that the cell systems & power systems can be knocked out/off line very easily & quickly, due to a lot of different reasons. Like storms, power surges, hacking of control systems, sun spots & some one playing with their nuke weapons, just to name a few.
So with this being said, thank you for reading & responding to this.
This week I am going to cook in my solar oven for the first time. Going to try a roast and maybe bread
Good luck.
I just hope you have clear skies.
I currently have two coops for poultry. One with Rhode Island Reds hens(dual purpose chickens) that are prolific at laying brown eggs. The other has a variety of the Sex-Link hens that lay very large brown eggs in abundance. I keep the flock supplied with new stock every year to offset any losses.
My communication system is strictly CB, with a base and two hand held units. All are powered by solar and rechargeable batteries.
I do fight the garden pests every year and kind of split the spoils with them.
Start simple, and uncomplicated ... maybe cookies
and then build you're way up to more complicated and expensive.
Don't start out with a potential financial and 'ego'catastrophy .
My rule : "KISS = Keep it simple, ..stupid "!
Bump
Ducks are really messy and seriously foul up pond water , not a good thing if you want to raise fish.
please add to the ping list.
started a rain collection system (while it is still legal). I hope to ultimately get it to about 3000 gallons. my front end are two ibc containers (270 gallons each). Add a 12 v transfer pump to forward to the rest of the tanks when I can.
Thanks Such
No wonder ducks are known as “Water-Fowl”.
It’s what they do, other than squawk and stalk around their territory.
Here if you need some motivation
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3408098/posts
Try something a bit less energetic for your first time. Vegetables or rice.
I now have a huge barrel that will someday be turned into a rain barrel.
Blah, Soetoro just boarded his plane. Ahh, the air in TX is already smelling better.
The larger the bird, the less chance of it getting killed by critters. Though with coyotes, nothing stands a chance. Hawks can get chickens so keep those in an enclosed pen. Those little roll around the yard pens are too small and cruel. Fence in a large area.
If anyone has any good ways to keep mice from eating the new seedling shoots in the veggie garden, I’d like to hear them.
In SE Colorado. The dogs keep the rabbits and squirrels away, but those doggone mice eat anything young. I’ve tried using (and have to) indoor growing trays to get the seedlings started early then harden them off and plant them.
But once in the ground, the mice nibble every sprout. If I keep them inside too long to get them bigger, the cats get most of the sprouts.
Maybe this should be on the gardening thread? Sorry about that, but you mentioned growing stuff. ;)
Kit.
No problems with asking that question here. Have you tried cyanne pepper
Grow some catnip
that will encourage the cats to 'hang out' in the vicinity.
I have also heard that an aspirin wrapped in peanutbutter does the trick (sorta like warfin).
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