Recent content by EmmaDonovan

Ours is a run, too. We had to put off building a proper coop until fall, when the hell months have passed and we can return to doing stuff outdoors. It's a long run against a fence, about 180 sq ft. They have food and water in the run. The outdoor brooder is at one end of the run. That's...

I don't know. I had a very bad experience in the 1994 Northridge quake. I do not like to talk about it. I don't want to live through anything like that again so I'm reluctant to return to earthquake areas. I am not so young anymore and I might not survive the next one. Nevertheless that is my...

If you have a separate area where your chickens are shut in at night, do you keep food in there with them?

Perfect. By contrast with my current situation, at home (the desert is where I live now but it is not "home," I'm from the coast) it is 63F, 75% humidity, and cloudy. Bliss!! 😍

3:00 PM 96F 3% humidity sunny

Anyone else remember when everyone's home had a stack of newspaper? Newspapers were used for everything: lining drawers, covering notebooks, newspapers drives at schools, model-making, paper mache, etc. I wanted to paint some lumber and immediately thought, "I should put down some newspaper to...

I replace shoes after ~500 miles. The supporting materials break down by then and they're not good for your feet. Planned obsolescence. I usually know when that mile marker has been passed, my feet tell me.

I posted there, too. I picked him up along with five girls from a fellow BYCer. I didn't notice one was a boy until I was almost home so we just kept him even though we knew we'd have to find another home for him. I wish we could keep him, he has grown up with this flock and gets along so well...

There is (or was) a hiking shelter on the Appalachian Trail, I think in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, that has a tin roof. I was there with two other hikers one night when it was raining mixed with hail. It was so loud none of us got any sleep that night. Fortunately, someone had...

He is big and healthy and growing fast. He's the friendliest of our six Bielefelders and he was the first chick in the flock to regularly greet us at the brooder door. He gets along perfectly with our 14 girls. You can pick him up, hold him, kiss him. 💋 He thinks you're weird for doing so but...

Our sweet Bielefelder roo needs a home! He is eight weeks old, big and healthy and growing fast. He's the friendliest of our six Bielefelders and he was the first to regularly greet us at the brooder door. He gets along perfectly with our 14 girls. You can pick him up, hold him, kiss him...

4:00 PM 91F 3% humidity sunny Aurora borealis over the desert last night - amazing!

I found this article on fermenting feed which was helpful. I fermented it for 24 hours then mixed it with some vegetables, blueberries, and a little molasses. The chicks ate more of that than they did when it was merely wet. I'll keep giving it to them as a supplement to their regular grains...