Marvin Weber

I use two different feeders, both with eight compartments. I feed my cattle Redmond salt, kelp meal, selenium (we're in a deficient area) plus various other minerals that I might change from year to year, depending on which ones I deem to be most necessary.

The wheelbarrow style frame was built by my brother out of stainless steel. I was designed to fit a round mineral feeder with rubber flap. I have used those and they work well. When I switched to free choice buffet minerals I had to have more compartments.  The wheelbarrow type is quite heavy with the roof.

My favorite design for the 8 compartments is the two wheel design. I will build another one of those soon to replace the old one which is rusting out. I will use more stainless steel and wood for the new one.

That's an interesting project idea. Stefan Sobkoviak near Montreal, Canada has done that with an apple orchard. Check him out. He has good advice. His farm is called Les Fermes Miracle and he made a film called the Permaculture Orchard. He has lots of videos on YouTube under The Permaculture Orchard and he also has courses on his website. Go to https://miracle.farm to find out more.

I prefer the Russian ploskorez or Fokin hoe. It's a great all around hoe. However, I do like a good heavy field hoe for grubbing out dandelions and yellow dock.

Thanks, Anne. I think there might be something like canker on the stone fruits. I suppose that might be because the tree is already weakened from the other problem, whatever that is.

I do sometimes apply whey on the trees when we have it. Stefan Sobkoviak of the Permaculture Orchard recommends it as an anti-fungal.

Many of my fruit trees are showing signs of sickness. They were planted four years ago and have been showing these signs for several years. I see it especially in apples but also in plums, pears, even the invincible sea buckthorn.

Any ideas what is causing this?

1. Pesticide residue in the wood chips or leaves that I used for mulch?
2. A trace mineral deficiency? I do test the soil and haven't noticed any serious deficiencies in the minerals I tested for.
3. A disease of some sort?
4. An insect pest?
5. Something I haven't even thought of?

Scott Leonard wrote:And not to overly obviate the point, I've never had an egg breakage  issue

Scott, I have had several flocks of commercial debeaked hens that ate their eggs.  Once they learn it they find a way to crack those eggs. I think it always starts when they are stressed, such as from over crowding, or a deficiency in their diet.

Salt is important. Probiotics can help, either from fermented feed or fed as a powdered additive.

When they really get in the habit they even manage to get some eggs from our roll-out nests.

The main line of defense for us is to avoid the stressors. Also, I highly encourage the idea of culling the offenders if they can be identified, and selecting for those that are not as apt to eat eggs.

After reading this thread, I rushed to the health food store and got some roasted organic pistachios.

However, after some more research, I have come to realize that it may not be such a brilliant idea after all.

For one, apparently the original pistachio study that was spread around was done in Iran, a pistachio producing country. and nobody has been able to find nearly the same high levels of melatonin in pistachios since then.

Also, roasting can reduce the levels of melatonin. So raw would have been better. But I would still have to eat a lot of pistachios to get anywhere close to a 3 mg dose. Also, nitrites added to the nuts would prevent sleep, so make sure to get untreated ones.

Many foods do contain melatonin, but probably not in high amounts. Might be more effective and healthy to get the natural version, though. So I'm not giving up yet.

I did see a paper which suggested that cherry juice did increase the quality of sleep in one study. Here is that paper; the sleep discussion is about halfway down, at 5.1: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308814624018223

Somewhere else I read that the cherries would have to be raw, and juice wouldn't be effective. So I think we must be still in the very beginning stage of researching this. In the meantime, it probably wouldn't harm us to eat some cherries, nuts, bananas and milk in the evening. So lets keep the citizen science going!

We have some Dominique chickens. They are a smaller American breed and are quite hardy and healthy. They do lay smaller eggs. We really like them; I would say they are an ideal all-around chicken with no big faults except for the smaller egg size.

I just found out about this new book by Florida Bullfrog, recommended by David the Good. I haven't got a hold of a copy yet so I can't give you a review. Here's an Amazon link. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1955289158/ref=sw_img_1?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1. By the way, don't buy from Amazon if you can help it... I just don't have another link at this time, but you can search for it. I always try to support smaller more local businesses if at all possible.

Brody Ekberg wrote:On to the issue now: we’ve got mites. Been battling them since last fall with differing degrees of success. I think some pullets we bought last fall came with mites and lice and we didnt know until they were mixed with the flock for several days. I know I should have inspected them before buying and then quarantine but I didnt and now here we are. I learned that lesson!

I am working on a "landrace" of hardy, mite-and-disease-resistant chickens on our farm.

There is a wide variation in genetic strength. I don't keep the non-thriving hens for breeding. I sort out the best layers and the healthiest hens in late winter for hatching our new generation. I also look for the older ones that have resisted disease for several years in a row, and are still laying. After doing this for about 4 years now, we don't have much trouble with mites or diseases anymore.

However, we aren't yet where we would like to be at for egg production over winter. We do depend on them making a profit, so we will continue to work on selecting for good winter laying.