rachels.haven's Journal

[rachels.haven]

You want a laugh? Sometimes I have to remind myself why sometimes I get frustrated when interacting with others here. Then I take a step back and laugh.

Here's one of the ads for $50 laying hens. Apparently leghorns are not commercial breeds. And easter eggers.

Turkeys geese ducks chickens - farm & garden - by owner - sale

We are a small better then organic, sustainable agriculture farm utilising holistic practices and...

worcester.craigslist.org

and meanwhile, people in my town are going after each other on their FB page because someone is getting their deck painted by pigeons daily (we're next to several large cities and hardly rural, but of course no one can admit that either) and they want to contact an pest control...people don't want them to because the pest control will KILL them. And pellet gunning them is reportedly illegal (just checked, jail time for a month and a fine of $20?). And poisoning them is supposedly illegal (don't want to check anymore)...in fact it's illegal to even scare pigeons ...Someone wants them to contact a wildlife rescue. SAVE THE PIGEONS...Some probably less rich person says he'll shoot and eat them all and is a troll. Oh the drama! And this is why I only check that group about once a week unless I have a need.
...Yikes, let's just log out of all that for another week and we'll see which unbalanced party comes out most alive...

...And people in the town are again opting out of statewide mosquito and insect pest (tick) spraying because they love nature from the comfort of their own living rooms with windows and doors tightly shut and never have to be actually out in it.

...I feel like I might be living in the wrong neighborhood and me, my family, and my delicious leghorn game hen cockerels all need to come back to earth. It sounds like next they are going to outlaw farming and make everyone become a "rescue".

Maybe when I sell animals I just won't let anyone come here to look at them incase actual farming DOES eventually become illegal.

No more FB zoo exhibits. Going back to being a nice person now. I remember why people are difficult here. All done being mean.

(...jk, just waiting for the yearly "save the turtles, don't accidently smash them in your car you unethical filthy human scum" campaign to start again where they encourage people to stop traffic and have their apparently worthless kids risk life and limb to move turtles from one side of the road across traffic to the other)

Very confusing.

 

[Baymule]

Sounds like a bunch of inbred morons to me. All their food comes out of a box with a shelf life of 43 years...…….We are in the 4th and 5th generations of food from a box...……. and this is what you get.

 

[rachels.haven]

I believe they like the term "middle class rural suburb" for themselves best.

Actually they are an upper class, but not top tier, bedroom community full of estates between 2 and 5 acres (and we are enjoying ruining our larger than normal one by adding livestock fencing and farming actual livestock).

I'm very grateful for my mother and father. While they weren't and aren't perfect, we weren't affluent enough to be box people so we lived on home made bread, beans, bunnies and eggs for my early childhood (after we all became anemic and later moved around we had to add cheap beef and chicken instead of just bunny, but I learned to cook and like cheap cuts best as a result). While my family situation now is stable, I really don't want my kids to fit in with the types in the above posts. It's really not healthy on any level or for any length of time. Plus, it makes me sad.

You're not a rural anything if you can call city hall to complain about a pothole in the downtown and get it fixed with in the week as opposed to being told to drive around it and laughed off the phone or being told it will get fixed when they get around to it-meaning in the next few years. Or if you can walk to your closest neighbor's house in 5 minutes or less. Or the cops could be called and arrive in less than 10 minutes. Or you talk about how cute and sweet bears are when they knock on your windows looking for things to eat. Not rural. But this is where we live right now so that DH can work where he does (I'm grateful for his good stable income too, btw, we are ridiculously blessed/lucky).

Now, it's MY TURN WITH THE STOMACH BUG. Thank you, children! Too much sick kid cuddling.

Btw, my soggy chicks are SOOO happy to see me this morning no matter how sick I am. These are so much more fun than the khaki campbells were. I'm amazed.

 

[Bruce]

Interesting that the Pekin's are more fun than the KCs were. I've heard (mostly from @CntryBoy777 that KCs are pretty entertaining.

Don't eat those extra WL cockerels, grow them out and sell them for $50 each!

 

[rachels.haven]

Lol, Bruce. What a very local idea.
Khakis ARE entertaining. Ducks are hilarious. When i had them mine had always been big on running away starting very early. These guys not yet.

I had a Pekin pair once. I sold them for the noise issue because of close neighbors. They sort of ran away when you tried to catch them... slowly, but they were already over a week when I brought them home, so less imprinting. We still enjoyed them due to their slower, calmer nature. Their main drawback is rapid weight gain and noise these may have been Jumbo's so instead of foraging they sat behind the AC and ate the insulation off the wires. We'll be ready for that if they start being destructive. Wealso wwill not overfeed them. These are not Jumbo's.

Phone glitching so time to go.ww

 

[Baymule]

Cure for stomach bug is apple cider vinegar. It will stop diarrhea, vomiting and even food poisoning. I mix 2 tablespoons ACV with 2 tablespoon honey in a small glass of water and sip on it. Don’t gulp it down, but finish it in about 30 minutes. In less than hour, you will be ok. ACV is nature’s disinfectant, it kills the bad bugs but not the beneficial gut bacteria that you need.

 

[rachels.haven]

Thank you, I believe it. I may have to go out and get some acv if the freezing rain ever slows and roads clear...and never be out of it again.

ACV and REAL sushi ginger would be lovely right now. Supposedly that also kills bacteria and the taste is nice and settling too. I got just a bit on the two days I was working up to being sick this time and it seemed to help push the unavoidable off during the daylight hours. I'm out now, of course.

Maybe the acv if I can get it can help DH get over this too. He's starting to get sick too as of this afternoon. Then we are done, I hope.

 

[Jesusfreak101]

Nope @Bruce . The only thing they did mark for some reason was the leghorns. That's the first time I've ever had anything marked and I didn't ask for it.

Did I get someone else's order? Did they get the digits swapped and just send anyway? Did they just sent me a ton of cockerels? Did the first hatch of the season not sell well and I got a bunch of straight run extras? I guess we'll find out.

I can sell the extra pullets (I've seen listed for $50/pullet, some $25) but if they are female I wouldn't mind keeping them. There's a big demand in the area for inexpensive "non-organic" normal eggs, especially colored ones and these are all production birds-leghorns and whiting in blue and green (and brown). They are flighty and forage well and lay even better. Hopefully they don't eat eggs right off the bat (new deep, dark nest boxes going in). Before I sold the egg eaters I had someone asking me for 8 dozen weekly, and other people requesting 3-4 dozens weekly in the same time frame at $3.50/dozen. I've noticed that most sellers here only do organic or "locally fed" (mill their own feed) eggs for $4-6/dozen and only catch the affluent buyers. Everyone else appears to be out of luck and stuck with nothing between that and the grocery store.

If we go that big they will all be ruthlessly free ranged all the time once adulthood hits, and I may cull down at winter to my favorites and rehatch some next year out of that.

Okay before i forget again Rachel check your protein percentage on your feed bag it might not be high enough. Most unless my hen find a broken egg they don'
Eat them. I feed a game bird(all flock raiser) with 28% protein with chicken scratch along with scraps and they don't go after the eggs(i also have a tendency to throw eggs for them when we have to many 20 dozen on my counter as I type this)

 

[rachels.haven]

Okay, I will. I think I was getting 18 percent layer. That should be okay. They will be getting more than ample protein when they are big enough the weather breaks. We have insect issues.
Honestlu it was probably boredom that started it. We had coyotes getting them during the day that would go after us too and a tenacious hawk with bad habits so the chickens had to be "protected" and cloistered away for a long time until the fence and dog came. We won't have that issue this time if I can help it.

 

[Jesusfreak101]

Yeah mine dont get locked up so havent had that experience. We had a hawk coming in and fly into the coop a shot gun shot made it stay away. We have stray cats, dogs and coyotes taking birds before they vanish for some unknown reason (don't look at the smoking gun)