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The deal is, I tan ok, and wear sandals, which git me raccoon stripes on my feet. I tell little kids I am part raccoon, and so far all of them belive me.
The deal is, I tan ok, and wear sandals, which git me raccoon stripes on my feet. I tell little kids I am part raccoon, and so far all of them belive me.
A recent essay that nicely captures why many preppers view the humble chicken as THE perfect self-sufficiency critter:
"... I've come to realize how important the chicken is to our civilization. It may be the most important animal that we have "domesticated." To those that know chickens I'm sure this will seem obvious, but, to me it was a revelation. I'd always taken the chicken for granted. Now I believe that anyone serious about "surviving" the crash had better have at a minimum a small flock of chickens to ease the transition."
20 yr's, Once the shed(s) and the rest is a done deal set up, there is little time spent, other than gathering eggs. All there is, is a moring feed, and a evening fed, plus cleaning up water or preventing it from freezing.
In NH USA freezing can be a problem. Once working at a B&B alone, to be Mr Fix It, time was not very friendly for me, so I set up everything to be the lazy mans way.
There were 12 saddle horses, 4 draft horses, the 3 little pigs, then geese, turkeys, and chickens.
I set up old claw feet bath tubs splitting corrals, so one tub watered 2 corrals, for 3 tubs, then water ran by the birds in a ditch, and last to the pigs, then out into the larger paddock into a dug pond. The pigs food was not near that water and another ditch running from the first went to be the pigs mud hole.
Haying the horses was just tossing down a couple bales in the moring from 3 stories high, with pre cut twine, so the flakes bounced around a good ways.
The graining took more time, but I did that with 2 buckets and a scoop. So it was a short walk around dropping grain on flakes in a corral, with or with out any horses present.
With just chickens it wouldn't take as much time for their care as it would to gather eggs.
In evening the birds all go to roost and so it is a simple matter to close a door or two.
i tried to raise chickens so many time, each time lose them all to the raccoons. can you tell me how to deal with them, i never see them during the day.
A good and fearless terrier sleeping outside to guard your chickens. If he/she doesn't take on the racoon themselves they will wake you up barking at the nocturnal bandits.
Our yard is so full of acorns this year, you can't take a step without your shoe landing on at least one. I've been listening to them pinging off the neighbor's truck for 2 weeks (glad I don't have to park under the trees). I never thought of them as chicken feed, but maybe I should save a couple buckets full.
Don't have any chickens at the moment, but I had them for years at our place in NY. The ones that worked best for us were the Barred Rocks. Very good layers of big, brown eggs, decent mothers and plenty of meat on them. Also, the roosters didn't seem to be as mean as some of the other breeds. They were pretty cold hardy too. One winter, I let the birds run loose in the barn with the cow and horses and we got a prolonged cold spell with nights around 20 below (a little warmer in the barn). The only chickens who weren't affected were the barred rocks. Rhode Island Reds and even the white rocks didn't fare as well.
As soon as I find a place with some land to buy in NH, we'll have some chickens again and turkeys too. Our meat and eggs were SO much better than the stuff at the store, I miss it terribly.
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