BeccaOH: Update of just STUFF

[jfarms]

 

[punkin]

 

[BeccaOH]

Well thats quite interesting..

Either she got a crossbred (Embden & brown Chinese, although it doesn't look like it would be from the size) or it is a Pilgrim. A gander Pilgrim at that, they are autosex, females gray with slight white markings on the head, and males are white with gray, just like the one in her picture.

One of each is great if you ask me, unless you were going to breed. Both are good breeds.

You know, when I started researching geese, I wanted Pilgrims. Now I'd love a pair of Buffs.

The picture has a lot of shade and shadow. Linus is pure white. Lucy has from gosling fluff stage always had a cast of gray to her. Her wing and tail tips are gray now. I'll be interested to see if her coloring changes any as she ages. ETA: And it will be even more interesting if I have their sexes all wrong. LOL

Yesterday she cut her bill. Best as we can figure, she caught it on a piece of wire. I think it will heal fine, but would anyone recommend Blue Kote on it?

 

[BeccaOH]

:How lucky to have family land, even if you are just the second generation.

I think I'm actually 5th generation on the farm. My great-great-grandfather came from PA and bought the land around 1860, then went off to fight in the Civil War. He bought it from a family that had already established a homestead, but I believe he was only the second owner. When he died, he divided the land between his 3 sons. Approximately 90 acres of the original land is still in the family.

My neighbor, though, traces his line back to original land homesteaders. There is a lot of history in our little valley. The one-room schoolhouse where my mother attended for first grade before they started busing kids to town still stands and my neighbor maintains it, hoping to restore it someday.

A couple interesting notes about my grandfather. He was born July 4, 1900, and was always called a firecracker, though he was a gentle personality. The newspaper did an article on him in 1976 during the bicentennial. Also, he was born with a deformed right hand. All the bones for fingers were present, but the skin was webbed together. It sort of looked like a claw as some finger nails were visible. Doctors wanted to try cutting the skin when he was a baby, but his parents wouldn't let them. Grandpa accomplished a lot as a farmer even with that hand.

 

[BeccaOH]

So, last night Quail_Antwerp (Aly) and her DH came over to pick up 2 guinea.

I met a man at TSC who wanted to give away some guinea because 11 were too many for his place. I got 7 (3 mature, 4 just reaching maturity) plus a clutch of 27 eggs. Seven seemed a bit much to start with when I have an order for 4 keets in and now eggs in the incubator, so I gave away 4. Funny thing is that we believe that Aly got a pair, our friend got a pair, and I got the oldest male with 2 females. When I got them, the owners still weren't sure about the sex on the younger 4.

Anyhow. . .Aly was roaming my place and seems to think I'm rather creative. Really, I say, necessity is the mother of invention, but I do love taking something I already have and making it serve a purpose. So, I'll post some pictures of some of my creations in the poultry area.

I get pallets and pallet toppers free from work. These toppers sit on the top of a full pallet of boxed books, keeping things stable. Sometimes the topper is a solid piece of pressed wood and sometimes it is slats of wood stapled together, but they are always 40" x 48".

So, I've used those toppers as coop pen dividers, gates, etc.

Here are 2 gates I did with the toppers. The one gate was a bit short for the opening so I screwed the topper into a treated 2x4 and attached the 2x4 to my post with 3 sturdy hinges. I covered one with extra fencing and the bottom of the other with hardware cloth.

I've also used the pallet toppers to frame an A-frame coop. This is in 2 sections. For the coop part, I leaned 2 toppers together. I supported the bottom with 3 angle cut 2x4s and cut a solid topper to fit for the floor. Covered the floor with scrap linoleum Sides are pieces of solid topper and some old scrap fiberglass roofing. Top strip is a piece from a pallet. The run is done basically the same way and covered with chicken wire and hardware cloth. There are small hinged dropped down doors on both the coop and the run.

Here on my brooder (an under the bed box) I cut a pallet topper in half and covered it in hardware cloth to keep chicks in and dogs out. The frame holding the heat lamp is a step ladder.

Next is my summer coop that is under a roof shared by the dog's box. The coop is approximately 4 x 6. The front and back walls are full-sized pallets set up on end. I used 1x6s to do the long wall with a scrap window out of truck cap. The fourth side is 2/3 open.

 

[BeccaOH]

Now for my feeders.

This one is a quart potato salad container screwed onto a lid from a larger container and screwed into a flat board for stability.

This one is a gallon ice cream container that is screwed onto an old Frisbee.

This waterer I used in my goose and duck brooders is a vinigar jug with 3 arched openings cut in the side.

The waterfowl brooder is an 18-inch deep kiddie pool from Family Dollar ($8) filled with Equine Fresh pellets. I made the sides taller with some cardboard. Worked very well for both geese and ducks. The ducks broke out, though, this past Tuesday and are now in their yard.

Here I pulled out a Torpedo plastic sled. It holds just enough water for a good wading pool. Behind them is the pond form I sunk in the ground. I think the ducks are still afraid to step down into it.

Okay, that's enough showing off. Hope you get some ideas for using stuff laying around your own place.

 

[keljonma]

Love the pics, becca!

We used a kiddie pool for a brooder for our chicks. We used the cardboard and then surrounded it with 4' tall chicken wire fence to keep the chicks from flying out. The brooder was in our laundry/mud room. We decided to use a mama hen instead of a brooder.... so when the chicks went out to the hen house, the pool went as their dust bathing pool. It is still in use.

We tried to use a milk jug for a waterer for the chickens, but they didn't like it much. They prefer to drink out of the dog's water bowl.


edited for typo

 

[noobiechickenlady]

I like your ingenuity Becca!

I'm using pallets for all kids of stuff, well, planning on using them. Got access to a huge graveyard of pallets made out of Pine 2x6 & 4x4s. And they just sit there and rot if nobody gets em?!? I'll take em! Only thing I have actually started building is the coop. Gonna use a truck bed camper shell for the roof! Already got windows and a handy door to open & let the ladies out. Just need to add some hardware cloth.

 

[keljonma]

:How lucky to have family land, even if you are just the second generation.

I think I'm actually 5th generation on the farm. My great-great-grandfather came from PA and bought the land around 1860, then went off to fight in the Civil War. He bought it from a family that had already established a homestead, but I believe he was only the second owner. When he died, he divided the land between his 3 sons. Approximately 90 acres of the original land is still in the family.

My neighbor, though, traces his line back to original land homesteaders. There is a lot of history in our little valley. The one-room schoolhouse where my mother attended for first grade before they started busing kids to town still stands and my neighbor maintains it, hoping to restore it someday.

A couple interesting notes about my grandfather. He was born July 4, 1900, and was always called a firecracker, though he was a gentle personality. The newspaper did an article on him in 1976 during the bicentennial. Also, he was born with a deformed right hand. All the bones for fingers were present, but the skin was webbed together. It sort of looked like a claw as some finger nails were visible. Doctors wanted to try cutting the skin when he was a baby, but his parents wouldn't let them. Grandpa accomplished a lot as a farmer even with that hand.

How very lucky for you. I wanted to purchase family property, (one farm in the family since 1840 and the other since 1890). Unfortunately, I was under 21 at the time and I was informed that I was too young to be legally responsible for land ownership. A long story - the extended family wanted to sell as no one else was interested in farming either property. I had the money for a good down payment at the time, but legalities got in the way. The family thought I was nuts for wanting to farm the land, so they weren't any help.

 

[Dace]

Welcome
Nice to have you join us!!