Love/hate relationship with birds of prey
Posted: March 28, 2012 Filed under: 3. Food Security | Tags: day ranging, portable chicken coops Comments Off on Love/hate relationship with birds of prey
Every two months I take three hours to rotate our laying chickens to new pasture. This last time I spent much of that time contemplating the pros and cons of birds of prey.
As soon as I took down the protective ceiling in our day-ranging setup (think of one of those big vertical nets at a golf range mounted horizontally on rebar), eight eagles almost immediately found me. Amazing.
They spent the next hour doing flyovers and deep dives checking out the availability of a take-out lunch. I got to appreciate the huge beauty of a full grown eagle not more than 20′ from me, doing a flyby at less than 10′ off the ground that would do a Navy fighter pilot proud.
And as soon as I got the ceiling back up, the chickens came out from their portable coops and the eagle family disappeared over the treetops.
Next salvage project
Posted: March 24, 2012 Filed under: 3. Food Security | Tags: day range chickens, electronet, farm hack, reuse Comments Off on Next salvage project
We use electronet to protect our day ranging chickens from the almost-daily visits from coyotes. Great product, but a bit of a hassle to move by yourself.
Just watched the WA state series of farm hack videos and saw this idea of using salvage lawnmower as a spool for the fence as well as a holder for the fence’s solar suitcase. Going to find a freecycle lawnmower now…brilliant idea!
Occupy our food supply
Posted: February 27, 2012 Filed under: 3. Food Security | Tags: #occupyourfoodsupply Comments Off on Occupy our food supply
It’s one of those Big Picture issues that affects your daily life…and you can actually influence the outcome of the fight.
Food democracy now
Posted: February 21, 2012 Filed under: 3. Food Security | Tags: Monsanto is evil Comments Off on Food democracy nowLearn more.
Day range chicken tractor, version 3.0
Posted: February 11, 2012 Filed under: 3. Food Security Comments Off on Day range chicken tractor, version 3.0
After 18 months with version 2.0 of the day range chicken tractor, I decided to fix a fundamental flaw of my design which put three of the six nest boxes at the same height at the roosts. Oops. That meant the birds used those top nest boxes for sleeping and (you guessed it) pooping.
The new design features a row of nest boxes (buckets, actually) at 12″ off the ground with bamboo pole roosts 12″ above that. It was made of 50% salvage materials and 50% new materials, with cleverly designed nest buckets from FowlStuff comprising most of the new materials.
Version 3.0 eliminated two wall completely (version 2.0 had them as hinged wings) for massive airflow per Robert Plamondon’s open air design.
We choose to make the south and western walls solid as that’s the direction from which our winter rains and wind arrive.
50% success rate with bees this year
Posted: February 6, 2012 Filed under: 3. Food Security Comments Off on 50% success rate with bees this year
I took advantage of several sunny days in a row (rare winter scenario around here) to check on the hive I’ve been concerned with.
Bad news: the suspected colony was dead. My next step will be to figure out why.
Good news: we harvested several quart jars of delicious honey and then set out the rest for the healthy colony to harvest. They stripped the frames clean in two days!
Which side are you on?
Posted: January 31, 2012 Filed under: 3. Food Security Comments Off on Which side are you on?
Monopolies aren’t good.
Monopolies on the primary mechanism to grow food (e.g. seeds) are really not good.
Despite the short-sighted hype about how Monsanto is saving the world, the truth is actually much much worse. Act now.
Day-ranging chickens in the snow
Posted: January 20, 2012 Filed under: 3. Food Security Comments Off on Day-ranging chickens in the snow
Chickens do just fine in the snow – even in a day-ranging scenario – when they are accustomed to the weather.
Since our 12 Golden Comets do not have a heated/lighted coop (and still producing 8 eggs/day in this weather!), their feather growth is appropriate for a normal outdoor bird. With their two shelters, they can get out of the rain/snow/wind to stay dry, but they do just fine maintaining their own body temperature. Our four Araucanas stopped laying regularly months ago but are still big, strong healthy birds.
Just in time for snow
Posted: January 18, 2012 Filed under: 3. Food Security Comments Off on Just in time for snow
Our first serious snowstorm of the year is here.
Greenhouse completed just in time!
Greenhouse benefits
Posted: January 13, 2012 Filed under: 3. Food Security Comments Off on Greenhouse benefits
Seedlings transplanted from our grow lights are adjusting well to their new setting in the greenhouse.
Still need to find more salvaged shelves, but looks like we’ll be eating salad out of the greenhouse within a week or two.
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