Ok Bill, Give me a call when it’s convenient. No hurry, but I could give you a little more info. You have first dibbs. 860-681-8397
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Hi Bill,
Had a thought. What do you do with your trash? Haul it to town? When I lived in Tennessee there was no garbage pick up by the road, everybody hauled it in to a spot close to town and sorted into 5 different dumpsters. Tacked $5 onto the utility bill every month.
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We really don’t have much trash. We burn the paper, recycle the aluminum and the rest we put in the receptacles at the gas station when we are in town. We can have curbside pick up for $26/mo but the curb is 3 miles away.
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Stopped in to visit Jim LaPlant today and he filled me up with free fuel. Gotta love the guys on DOW.
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Utilizing some space.
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A first for me.
I just bartered a dozen free range eggs for a chainsaw tune-up. He cleaned up the carburetor and a new spark plug
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Now that it’s winter do your checkens eat their own eggs?
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Hmmm, I have never heard of that before. They just started laying eggs couple weeks ago.
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What do you mean when you say “free range”? I always thought that meant they eat what they find for themselves. If you can get those eggs from chickens that eat snow, you got a little gold mine going on there.
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A friend has the egg problem. Maybe too many rosters. The roster problem is a political home issue… 
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I found for my girls they would never touch their eggs til the mid winter blahs set in. Usually older hens. Someone recommended a light not for heat but added daylight in the coop and removing the eggs as soon as they are laid. Solved it except the occasional one. We urgently have no chickens right now the raccoons got hungry early in the summer and we did not replace them. We normally buy ready to lay birds ourselves
Best regards David Baillie
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Well, yes can be a winter problem.
“Adjust” the roosters down to just one.
Use a red light.
Pick up eggs 2-3 times a day.
Catch in the act and stew-pot the worst hen culprit.
I’ve had very little problem with this. But I can let mine out to “free-range” on seen fields and grass most every day of the winter. Only have snow-birds here for maybe 7-10 days all winter.
I think cooped that they get bored.
“Free” then our problem is the eagles and the hawks. One little white hen, Hawked just this morning. And once or so a year the coyotes or let-run-loose neighbor dogs.
Note that the multiple birth’ers are generally bio-mass making prey critters and the carnivores that eat prey critters.
We Alpha-level carnivores just not very good at sharing. Wolves. Orcas/killer whales. And US human critters.
Regards
Steve Unruh
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I give chickens back broken empty egg shells, they need calcium to keep producing.
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Thanks for the chicken info, i’ll pass that on.
Oyster shell huge bag 10$ or dried in the oven egg shells for ours… I was always told not to give them raw shells to avoid them eating eggs… Can’t prove that one.
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I guess I have not thought about it that way Don. I guess I interpreted it as not stuck in a cage and not able to walk around and forage. I wasn’t aware that free range meant they were self sufficient.
I check for eggs frequently during the day because if I wait too long they will freeze and crack. After they started laying, I take the shells and grind them into a powder with a cheap coffee grinder my wife found at a thrift store.
What I am wondering now with all the snow. Would it be beneficial to provide the birds with some dirt/sand? I also give them some cracked corn every other day and table scraps.
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Yeah Bill I think you are more right than me about this. This is what I found out from Mr. Google
“What some producers and farmers call “pastured” chicken is much more in line what with many people think they’re getting with free range. This means that the birds are actually kept in coops at night, but are left to forage on grass, seeds, worms, etc., during the day. They might be fed grain as well, but they have access to a greater variety of food in their diet, and the result is much more richly flavored meat and eggs — and a much more humane life for the birds.”
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Hello Bill,
We just crush the shells for the chicken. They eat tubs of greens every day, and I mix 1/8" biochar in with the scratch, which also gets a dose of oyster shell once in a while. Arugula, Mustard Greens, and Swiss Chard make good chicken food. Dry dirt, sand, and even wood ashes give them something to bathe in. If we bake Angel Food cake, which uses 2 cups of egg whites and no yolks, then we scramble the yokes in an old frying pan, and let them have a real treat. Sometimes, dead logs will have lots of grubs, and they go crazy over the big white ones. The yolks from our chickens have a dark orange color. Taste very good! Several years ago, we converted our pastured poultry chicken tractors into a heavy-duty pen, and built a large outdoor run using chain link fence. The run is covered with shade cloth, which we “furl” during storms, else it blows away. The run/pen solved our coyote, feral dog, raccoon and skunk problems, but large snakes can swallow lots of eggs. Old CD’s on monofilament fishing line keep the Hawks at bay. All wildlife loves chickens and eggs. We lock them up every night, and let them out in the morning.
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Good morning Bill.
Below is a web site my son visits often .
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Thanks Wayne, I bookmarked it.
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