Marvin Weber

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.

If you get on Richard Perkins' email list, you can sometimes get his plans for free. His are built out of plywood and  are a good design.

You want to be sure to have a large enough opening so the eggs don't get stuck, but not so big that the hens can still reach through and eat the eggs in the roll-out tray.

Alternately you could, of course, buy a roll-out nest. My brother makes aluminum ones. I sell them on my website (for those located in Canada): https://www.bountywoodsfarm.ca/product/roll-out-chicken-nest/.

Could definitely be beech. Beech can have even rougher bark in some cases. Is it relatively light or heavy? Alders would be lighter in weight and have a much looser grain than beech. Is the wood reddish? Can we see a close-up of the grain?

I have carried the same Victorinox (Swiss Army) officer knife for 30 years. I have lost it a couple of times and found it again. Once I dropped it when I was up on a 65 foot silo, and it landed on the concrete. It survived the fall with only a little gouge in the plastic handle. Over time that gouge disappeared from wear. The blade is ground back to only about half the original width.

I use it every day for cutting something, or the flat screwdriver, or the corkscrew to grab things to pull them out, or the reamer to scrape or to drill holes in thin wood or plastic.

My favorite knife was a Colonial pocket knife (Providence R.I.) with a very high quality carbon steel blade, easy to keep an edge. But I lost it after a few years. I would buy one again, but I'm not sure that Colonial is still making regular pocket knives.

I would prefer a carbon steel blade that can be easily sharpened, although the stainless steel of my Victorinox is sort of nice as I don't have to worry about rust and staining.

I may have to consider an Opinel for the quality blade, although I wouldn't be a fan of the fat wood handle.

Lots of good ideas here. I especially want to endorse some of Marie-Helene's thoughts.  

I like to grow lots of large leafed plants; these cover the soil which prevents unwanted seeds from germinating and also helps stop grasses from sending in their rhizomes. These plants also provide mulch for bare areas, which can be utilized by simply chopping them down with a scythe, sickle or some mower. In my situation these include comfrey, rhubarb, horseradish and even strawberries. Squash could be a good option. These plants could be growing so aggressively in the row that there would be only enough space for one mower pass between the the rows to keep a pathway open. Of course, a little extra chip mulch would help in getting these established, especially the perennials. But if you mix in annuals like squash, they might partly eliminate the need for chips.

The Balkan Ecology Project has some good ideas. https://permies.com/w/balkan-ecology-project.  You may want to invest in some of their booklets.

For several years we have been working at developing our landrace of laying hens which will lay a decent amount during winter without extra lighting or special care. When I hear of somebody who has good, hardy layers I try to get a rooster from them to add to our mix. So far we have Chantecler, Dominique, Blue and Black Australorps, Barred Plymouth Rock, Rhode Island Red, Bresse, Sasso, in approximate order of how much of each influence there is in the flock. The flock is usually close to 200.

We incubate eggs from the top ten percent best layers. We notice that there’s always a percentage of hens that keep laying all winter, with no extra lighting, and no going around daily to treat individual hens for leg mites and such things. It seems that number could be increased with selection.

We searched out old information concerning trap nesting which is how we have been identifying our best layers. We made some trap nests which catch the hens when they go in to lay an egg. We usually trap each group for at least a week to be sure we get a good representation of which ones are laying. During the trapping period we have to go and release them every hour or so, and write down the leg band numbers of the hens that laid an egg.

I wonder if somebody has come up with a better way since 1900, to track which hens are laying. We thought about game cameras but it seems that would require hours of analysis, scanning over the videos at the end of each day. How do other small breeders determine which hens are laying?

We started our breeding project with Chantecler, Dominique and Blue Australorp hens. All three were said to lay well all winter. We have mixed them for several years now. Both the pure breeds and now also the crosses have always shut down for an extended moult plus another extra couple of months of holidays, while they're at it. This usually lasts from late September well into the  winter.

We now use trap nests to identify the best layers during the slowest season. We keep eggs from these for hatching. We've also introduced several other good laying breeds into the mix. Most recently we bought a RIR rooster from a friend who says her hens lay well all winter, and a Black Australorp rooster from another friend who says his hens lay an egg a day pretty much all winter. I hope these genetics will make a difference.

But in the end, I suppose we will just have to patiently keep on selecting for years to come. I think our poor winter production is due to several factors. One is that we are not using artificial light. I want to select for those birds that don't need it to lay a decent amount. Another thing is we don't baby them at all. We decided to not intervene much but rather to allow the birds themselves to decide who would stay for more than a year. We don't do much for parasites other than providing DE dust baths for the winter months.

After reading this old thread I'm thinking of adding a few of the above highly rated breeds.... if I can find any of them around here. So the project continues.

Thanks for your reply Steve. Very interesting!

So the health of the plant is probably what's more in view here. When plants aren't healthy, I assume the berries get smaller and that's why we have to prune out old growth. We just took over an old blueberry patch that is obviously in very poor health. Many of the plants are not vigorous at all and don't readily send up new growth. But I'm wondering if I could somehow reverse that and get to the point where you are. I think probably these are beyond return though, because they're nearly overwhelmed by the witches broom fungal infection. I'm planning to mulch a part of the patch in the hope that some of it's health might spring back. I don't think we will be able to get enough mulch to do nearly the whole patch this year, as it's almost an acre.