Danielle Pannhurst

Dairy goats, chickens, and rabbits are my main animals now and next year I'll bring hogs in again. My primary focus for this would be the goats.

Excellent idea! Do you have any links you can share regarding this topic? I'm in East TN. We deep bed our dairy goats through the winter but it takes considerable effort to manage the ammonia at the start. Even innoculating the bedding 6 weeks before we remove it may make it considerably easier to do and faster to compost.

I know there is a lot of research regarding the use of spent growing media being used as livestock feed (supplement) however, I am interested in the possibility of using not just the spent media but the actual fruiting body or mycelium as feed. This should serve as a high protein feed source? Also, what about using fungi as an antihelminthic for livestock? Management is key but there are times when some have to be treated. We have herbal options already and chemical wormers are largely becoming useless. In either case there are lots of options for delivery and preparation. Which fungi would be the best to start experimenting with? Thanks folks!

That's a good way to look at it and one I never considered. I am of the mind that using powdered sugar is selecting for stronger mites so you've given me something to consider. I enjoyed my TBH so much I'm considering phasing out my langs.

In Stephen Harold Buhner's book Herbal Antibiotics there is great info on it and many other excellent herbs including how to make herbal medicines if you've no knowledge of it. $25, less on Amazon, that you will not ever regret spending. There is also Herbal Antivirals. On YouTube there are videos on correctly identifying usnea. I hunt around after ever good windstorm for fallen branches containing it.

I had my bees last year in south central NC where the beetles are everyone's problem. We moved over the winter to East TN where the locals say they were more of an issue last year than previously. So I'm figuring it will be.

I had much lower numbers of SHB in my TBH's than the Lang's.

I need something in there to get the little beasties!

I recently had a very bad injury to one of our chicks ... The poor thing got stuck and the other chickens damn near ate it's butt off. Seriously, all the feathers were gone around its rump. and just a bony stump was protruding in a blood pecked at mess! His blood got onto other chicks and they got picked nk as well but not nearly as bad. 5 total assaulted. I rinsed with hydrogen peroxide and water to clean it. Then I applied a paste mixture of fresh ground usnea, coconut oil, Grapeseed oil, Tamanu oil, meadowfoam seed oil, lavender EO, niaouli EO and Manuka honey medical grade. (I already had the CO, TO, MFSO and GO blend made up so it was just easy to grab and use. I had just gotten the Manuka honey and wanted to try it out. Any honey is a great wound healer) Next time, hopefully there won't be, I think I'll just do the honey & usnea. The bleeding stopped almost immediately. I kept the chicken in isolation and rinsed the wound twice a day for three days with a herbal decoction of lavender, garlic, plantain, calendula and chick weed then reapplied the paste. The chicken healed very quickly with no sign of infection. When I returned him to the flock I painted the injury with blue food coloring to be sure that the other chickens didn't see it as something to peck at as they are attracted to red and are quite nosy little buggers

If you've no knowledge of usnea I HIGHLY recommend a google search. Chances are it's growing in your yard or nearby, unless your in the desert SW it's been effective on treating cuts on my hands as well.

I've had great success with my portable electric fencing from Premier. It takes my hubby, 3 year old son, and myself, about 15 mins to move the coop and 200' of fencing. The down side is the initial investment to buy. Gah! That was an unexpected expense but worth it considering my birds are unharmed.
I will say I'm glad we got the new fencing with the extra poles space at 6' instead of 12'. I can't imagine how flimsy the netting would be without it. I also like that it's incredibly easy to add on as many lengths of fence as needed up to length the energizer (we call it The Zapper) will service.
No knowledge of electricity or serious wiring is needed. You just connect the clips and it's working!

Food grade diatomaceous earth is all around safe dewormer for anything! Especially good for us too!! Besides that, the aforementioned black walnut.

Dearest TBH Beeks what are you using as SHB traps?

Last year I used beetle blasters on the floor of the hive because the comb allowed me the space to do it but I won't have such luck this year. Not to mention it was disruptive to the hive when reaching in to retrieve it for cleaning and fostered a hiding nook for wax moth larvae.

I'm considering dangling a jewel cd case between the top bars but there are many issues with that. The greatest of all, possibly, the gross neglect of bee space.

I'd like to think myself much more creatively inspired but seeing as I just had my second child three months ago I still have not regained brain function due to sleep deprivation. >.< Or perhaps, as many mothers will say, your kids steal your brain power.

If your wondering about a feeding system check this out. Seems very bee & user friendly and designed not to encourage robbing. http://youtu.be/dN6iKmoCnqY