Kim Kingbold

Kids will over eat if allowed to stay on their moms if the moms are producing well. I just pull all the kids and bottle feed. This lets me know if the kids are getting adequate nutrition or too much. Sometimes a doe will not let the kids nurse enough or she is drying off for some reason and you won't know it if the kids are on her. Also taking the kids and bottle feeding means they will be usually be easier to handle all their lives.

If you aren't planning to use the buck kids for breeding, now is a good time to butcher them. Dairy bucklings drink a ton of milk and give little meat in return. If you don't plan to butcher then I'd sell them asap or even give them away. The milk is worth more to you than the little you will get for a dairy buckling or the small amt of meat.

If what you are raising are the cornishX broilers, they don't move around enough to make it worth the bother. Never saw one trying to catch a bug either. I'd just keep them in tractors for now and when you do a permanent garden and have layers, put them in a moat set up. My birds will chase hoppers all day. The ducks are actually better at eating bugs though, particularly the runners.

Nope no videos. Still don't have a video camera. I'm barely tech literate! Prefer the old ways.

Definitely plaster, whether grass bales or pine straw. I know pine straw insulates, but if anybody has done any Rvalue tests on it, I don't know where to look.

I've actually used straw to insulate a wall. I put 1 inch mesh chicken wire up on one side of the wall then put a 2 ft tall strip on the other side, stuffed it tightly, using poly bale twine to hold the two sides together at several points as I was stuffing. As each section was finished I added 2 more feet, lashing the two sections together. (Kind of like sewing them with bale twine.) Once the entire wall was done, I plastered two+ inches of adobe/straw plaster on each side. If you are using some sort of sheathing such as OSB on one side, use the chicken wire on the other and put nails in at intervals on your sheathing to tie the bale twine to. You will get a gently curving wall that is quite nice to look at. The tighter you get the bale twine and the more points you tie, the less it will curve.


Sorry no pix, this was in the pre-internet days and I didn't think to take photos.

I use a 3ft wide sheet of roofing tin, cattle panel and tposts. Put 4 tposts in the ground and wire your panel to them. Put the tin on the north side and take 4 more tposts and put those on the outside of the tin so it is sandwiched between. You don't need to drive the second set of posts into the ground. Wire the posts in pairs with tie wire under the tin and over it. You are wiring the sets of posts together, no need to drill or fasten anything into the tin.

I've been using goat milk to supplement ever since I stopped using soy or commercially mixed feed for the birds. My goats eat mostly what grows on the farm without much in the way of grain and I don't purchase hay. The milk can be used to moisten mash in a dish, but you will need to be careful not to overfill more than the birds can clean up in a day because it can mold. I also just set out pans of milk or whey for the birds. Even my geese love it. If you have a good source of organic milk or whey, you might consider using it for at least part of the animal protein.

If you can plug the computer into a USB slot to recharge, you can buy a 12vdc to USB converter.
http://www.sportsimportsltd.com/12v-dc-to-5v-dc-usb-converter-car-dash-port-3-amp.html?utm_source=googlepepla&utm_medium=adwords&id=19136088729&utm_content=pla&gclid=CLqvpsru_LMCFQmCQgodYWoAkw This is one such (I've never ordered from this company, just found it on google search.)
You'd need alligator clips. Radio shack carries them and may have the converter.
Make sure you are not drawing that battery down too far. Not sure if a portable fence charger battery is going to have enough juice for your computer. You'll have to check on amps needed for the computer. A multitester would be a good thing to have too.

I would advise you to get something with a door that you can feed easily and clean the ash out without taking the stove apart. Look on craig's list, even put in an ad asking for a cheap or free woodstove. I've heated with a sheepherder's stove and that worked well and is cheap enough. You need to be careful or you are going to burn that coop down.

But I only want to do one. At least I already know how to do cob.