Elise Villemaire

I made an extensive comment listing ways I dealt with the munchies, based on science. Why it was quickly hidden is a mystery to me. No indication other than a polite general suggestion that if it were "edited" it might regain publication? Is this really as propagandistically censorious a platform as the rest of our society???

Jen Fulkerson wrote:I started out growing fodder. My system was much smaller, and not as nice, but it did the job, and didn't cost me anything. Then I discovered fermented grains, and it was so much easier, and used a lot less water, and the chickens seem to like it just as much. I thought about doing both, but I decided since they get so much form the garden I would stop growing fodder.
I would like to grow the in ground fodder. I built the frames, (2x4 square or rectangle with chicken wire, or hardwire cloth over the top so they can only eat the top, and the plants keep growing) and tried it, but it didn't work for me. I have  wood chips in the chicken yard, and they kept covering the top with wood chips. I don't have a much wood chips right now. I was also thinking of adding a board around the top to make it harder to kick stuff  on the top.  I my try wheat this fall. Maybe sprout it first, then plant it. Maybe put it closer to the coop so it's easier to water. We will see. I always have to many projects, but the boxes are made, so it easy enough.
On a side note, the boxes have come in handy. We have used them to sift worm castings, and to help grow clover and grass in the front yard where the dogs are. It allows the seeds to germinate, and get established so they can handle the dogs.

You could try what I am planning. a 1 - 2 foot high raised bed box filled highish, then planted. Too high to scratch much into! Then wire & frame protected. Chickens can easily jump up or you could make steps if elders, or less flight capable. I am always amazed at how much straw & hay my flock can get into my 8" high food troughs!

Rachel Lindsay wrote:I always heard everyone say that life with newborns was hard, and then it got easier.

Nope. Not how I see it. The newborn phase is the easy one, and they only need more from there.

I have found it to be the same with these chicks, who turn four weeks old tomorrow. The first week was the easy one!

Mine are just reaching the beginning of their 3rd week, but with a very fiercely protective virginal broody that I successfully put them under (with cover of night), she is taking care of much of the important business!

Cd Greier wrote:

Bruce Alan wrote:
No reference to Brussel Sprouts.
Am I the only one left in the world that likes them ?

I like Brussels Sprouts every once in a while: maybe several times one month but skip 'em for two or three!
My search for the perfect companion garden plan suggested that Brussels Sprouts are the grumpy uncle of the Brassica family: they dislike everything the other members dislike but they are none-too-fond of family, either. Apparently they do tolerate beets, Swiss chard, lettuce and spinach so I'm putting those between the BS's and virtually anything else.  

I detested the adorably beautiful Brussels for their intensely bitter cores. Once my gourmet-cook mom went to all lengths for a specific recipe that had her peel every single leaf and discard the cores, which I truly enjoyed, first time ever around 50 years old.

Then, early during Covid, after I got my dangerously (medically/causing massive obesity/MetabolicSyndrome!) low D raised from only 6ng/ml up above 50ng/ml, I began Keto/IF and wow did my tastes change, likely due to a new & much healthier microbiome (which I've read controls what foods we love or hate). I now love BS but still have yet to grow any.

Rachel Lindsay wrote:Also, do I need to go buy grit today? How do I "serve" it to them?

I don't believe 'all' starter blends have grit in them, but my feedstore is out of the organic Scratch & Peck, so I don't have their ingredients list in front of me, yet,  and Livvie disdains to accept their substitute, so scrambled eggs + millet, chia, flax & lemon balm for 2 more days? As a bare 2-year newbie, I succeeded in putting all of my 6 new hatchery chicks (under cover of their 1st night's darkness with a dim red headlamp) under my very insistently but quite virginal broody Olive Egger and she is ferociously protecting them from everyone! I included one (up to possible s-r three, but was gifted an extra straight-run, so now four???) cockerels in the order to provide some rooster protection in their free ranging pasture. I don't think the substitute starter had any grit, since they all clearly wanted some.
Just offer the chick grit, they will take what they need and it is cheap! And my original hens never demanded I go to the full size version, either, so it won't likely be wasted.

Sprinkle it over their starter, then you can sprinkle on the floor to scratch & peck, and later put in its own server. Offering too much will not hurt them, but not having it can quickly cause illness.

Pearl Sutton wrote:When you are willing to risk your tech because some things are IMPORTANT!

Tragically I sacrificed my inherited phone just carrying way too much (ferment & treats & basket & coffee) to my morning chicken chores! Poor phone died of drowning in my barely warm coffee! Still haven't got it replaced months later. All my chicken photos of their chickdom two years ago lost!

wayne fajkus wrote:Your garden has weeds and you don't care

Or, rather: Your garden has weeds and you put up protective barriers so your free range chickens can't manage to eat them all!

Began making my own homemade mayonnaise after starting Keto/IF and losing 80 pounds, so far, though I'm still Insulin Resistant, just much less so. It is super easy, and using my own organic/home-raised/pastured eggs from my lovely mixed Heritage and Cross 2-year-old flock of 8, is not at all critical. Homemade can avoid "processed seed oils so high in those dangerously oxidizing Omega 6 fats, OR any sugars. We currently get like 200 TIMES the amount of Omega 6 fats in the average American diet, and they are almost all already oxidized in even the freshest bottles when we buy them. (The dose is the poison!) Also, making your own means you can go straight to a glass bottle, and not add even more estrogenic plastics into our systems.

But, the KEY to shelf stability is the glories of simplest FERMENTATION!
Whatever recipe tickles your fancy, add a couple tablespoonfuls of living whey (I use my home-fermented kefir whey, but straining some store-bought probiotic PLAIN yogurt gets you both the powerfully probiotic whey to use wherever AND yummy Greek yogurt, too. Woohoo!)

After making your mayo with whatever recipe (per pint mayo, I just use 1 egg +1-5 additional yolks, pinch salt, a cup olive/MCT/Avocado oil blend, T lemon juice, mustard, garlic, a touch of cayenne & sometimes different herbs or spices,  in a jar with a stick blender - more yolks just makes that pricy Japanese type, or if you're looking for sweetness, Stevia, Allulose or Monkfruit are far safer non-nutritive sweeteners that nonetheless do raise blood glucose/Insulin, just less high, so I don't ever.)

Then, simply blend in about 2Tbsps living WHEY per pint finished mayo at any point, and let it ferment safely at ROOM TEMPERATURE on a counter (out of direct sun) to ferment an hour or two before refrigerating, also safely for like a month, if it lasted that long...LOL

You can now make more of it & less often. But be very careful to leave out any vinegar, since it can kill the helpful probiotics protecting your eggs from going bad. The fermentation will add some very mild acidity, so vinegar is not needed for that. These bacterial lives are much more protective than vinegar's simple acidity by a longshot!