Tina Hillel

My husband is severely allergic to cats as well so ours have to be outdoor.  We introduced ours as kittens (got them both spayed and neutered) because that’s the best way to get our dog to bond with them.  He plays with the cats but will still block them when they get in stalk mode with our birds.  They are friendly enough to us but most people dont even know we have cats because they excel at disappearing.

We have had issues with them being a bit too interested in the chicks but the chickens defend themselves fine.  Turned hose on cats a couple times.  The girl cat at 3 lb did try to jump on and take out a 10 lb meat bird. It just tossed her off.  This is their first year as full adults so it will be interesting to see how it goes with the chicks. Hose will be ready🙀

Edited to add that we saw a major improvement of rodent removal.  Sometimes we see them being eaten and other times they are left for us as gifts.

Is there any chance you have an egg eater? I had one in the past who was very efficient and eat all trace of the shell. They can teach this to other birds.

As far as not roosting, about 8 of my hens don’t want to roost.  Doesn’t effect their laying as 15 out of 19 laid eggs today.

Hope you figure things out!

If warmth is the concern, can you just wrap it with insulation for the winter? My husband went with Langstroth since he bought two hives that someone gave up on. That’s what he did on the advice of a couple beekeepers and so far at least it has worked.  We are only in second year with bees.  We went from two to four hives and had several swarms.  Still learning…

I like using the straight venison as sausage although it can be a bit crumbly.  I sauté with some bacon grease and veg and scramble with eggs.  I can get away with using less meat and have it more dispersed throughout the dish.

For us it also works well in an Italian sauce where the crumble factor is a plus.

We usually like having two.  When older reaches 5, we get a puppy. Occasionally we have had an overlap of three dogs.  Due to family illnesses, we didn’t follow our usual pattern. We just lost our shepherd at age 14 and our 5 year old rottie is now an only dog and doesn’t like it.  In the spring, we will be looking for a new pup.

Older dogs can be great to help train the new dogs in routines and they keep each other company.

I completely understand when you paid extra to get it in patty form.  You can keep it as a patty and cook with the Greek seasoning. Just chop the salad smaller and put in a pita bread or a wrap with the tzatziki to eat as gyro sandwich.  I do it as a salad since I can’t eat bread.

For a change, I like to use Greek seasoning and put them under the broiler.  When done, I cut in strips and add to a Greek style salad (lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, kalamata or black olives, feta cheese sometimes, herbs if I have them or more Greek seasoning) with tzatkiki sauce for a sort of gyro salad.

We also cook them and put strips of bacon and a fried egg and eat without the bread as a late breakfast/lunch combo.

We have a well but catch rainwater mostly for garden use.  In the summer we often have long dry stretches like last summer where we had one hour of rain in six weeks.  

We have a 55 gallon barrel that collects water from the gutters.  We dug a trench to the garden for a hose to connect 2 water totes (275 gallons each I think).  It’s only a slight difference in height but the barrel equally fills the totes.  Hubby hooked up a pump to a battery to make it easy to have good water pressure which made a huge difference in how long it takes to water.  Our previous set up was 2 other 55 gallon barrels instead of the totes but that regularly got used up and wasn’t enough. One barrel got turned into a homemade chicken plucker so the change to the water totes was a complete win!

Marvin Weber wrote:Since fruits and vegetables are apparently things that people are trying to find a source for, I'm surprised nobody mentioned farmers' markets. Most farmers markets have almost everything you need if you can't yet grow your own. And you're supporting very small, very local farms and other businesses such as soap makers, etc. Sure, you spend a bit more but you usually get much higher quality. And it saves you all that time online. All you have to do is be at the market for a few hours on Saturday morning.

It would be nice to support a farmers market.  Unfortunately the window of time to attend is so small, it isn’t often practical.  Especially when the cost of gas/time when you live far away is factored in.  

I was able to attend the state fair this year and bought some different items from local- at least in state anyway-  businesses for some things like homemade soaps and such.  Since I liked their products, now I’m able to support their business with mail order purchases.

Tavonna Nira Strømsengbakken wrote:I'm generally convinced that I'll be received as The Crazy Chicken Lady.

If it makes you feel better, I’ll admit to having a Crazy Chicken Lady magnet added to my car without my knowledge. 😝  (Thanks Sis!) only drove for a week before my husband noticed while he was driving…

I have so much enjoyed your writing and the pictures.  Thank you for sharing!