Bee~ Journal of then...

[Beekissed]

I know...... The sun came out for about five seconds this morning and my birds tried to do the ol' solar panel thingy where they lay on their sides and soak in the sun....but, alas, the sun didn't stay to play.

My deep litter is very dry and doesn't smell bad at all, which is good. I was afraid it had capped, but when I went out to fluff it out of the corners, it was fluffy all the way down. It is approx. 10 in. deep right now, so I was glad it wasn't damp underneath.

I've been throwing BOSS into it every now and again to get the birds to fluff up their own bedding....so far it has worked.

The sheeples are very content today....I think they really enjoyed being babied around a little by Mom. They were really happy to see me! Well.....at least...they seemed happy...can't really read a sheep's mind.

 

[justusnak]

I really like the deep litter in the coops. Mine has stayed pretty dry...for the most part. It has kept the coop about 10 degrees warmer than the outside temps.
Sonny boy is feeling frisky today...he has all the girls on the run! summer babies!??? Ohhh, I hope so!

 

[FarmerDenise]

I like keeping deep litter in my henhouse too. The henhouse is about 20 degrees warmer on a cold morning than the outside. And our henhouse is pretty drafty!! I have been adding the leaves from the fronyard along with a few weeds. The hens just love scratching it all up, keeping it all nice and fluffy. The bottom layer is old hay and straw and was getting matted. Since I have been adding the leaves, it is all nicely mixed up. Oh and it makes such lovely compost to put in the garden in the spring!!!

Happy to hear you are having some nice weather!!!

 

[murphysranch]

What is BOSS?

 

[Quail_Antwerp]

What is BOSS?

Black Oil Sunflower Seeds

Chickens love it!!

 

[FarmerDenise]

What is BOSS?

Black Oil Sunflower Seeds

Chickens love it!!

I'm glad you asked, I didn't know what it was either.

I do buy it when I can find some on sale, and yes the chickens love it, so does the rabbit (but I have to limit how much he gets )

 

[Beekissed]

Sometimes I treat the sheeples with it....couple of times a week I give them a cup or two for their selenium needs. Wish I had extra acreage...I would grow my own. I can grow a little here but not enough to keep a good supply.

I agree about the deep litter. My henhouse has stayed toasty and it has tremendous cracks between the boards all around....some are covered with cardboard but there are many that let the cold breezes in. The DL has worked out great this year.

Last year I did a little with hay but it got capped and too moist. I couldn't keep up with it, so I just raked it out and went with bare floors. These have big cracks in them also, so I had some frost bitten combs on the roos last year. Of course, they were outside in some very cold weather last year....this year the snow prevented that.

Can't wait to put all that on the garden and plow it in. Little bit here, little bit there...throw in some sheep bedding also....should have some good, loose soils this year for growing things.

 

[Beekissed]

Well, the calf is totally processed and turned into many, many bags of dog food in my freezer and several quarts of hamburger for us as well.

The hide is well cleansed and ready for fleshing tomorrow. The fur is very soft and beautiful.

Lucy had her first bag of homemade dog food this morning and she loved it. We'll see in time if she maintains weight or gains weight on this food. It HAS to have more nutrition than store bought foods.

It has raw veal and organs(we didn't cook the meat, just chopped and added to the cooked mix), raw eggs, rice, beef broth, yellow squash, carrot pulp, apple pulp, whole grain oats, onions, salt, mashed potatoes.

The sheep are not crying for Two Bites anymore since Mom went out and took extra special care of them, spent some time with them, gave them some treats and extra attention. I think they just needed to have a herd leader again. It did us all some good to spend some time together.

My boy and I climbed into the hay storage beside the pen, watched the Bettys eat good, green hay, listened to the rain on the tin roof and talked about our good life. It has healing properties, this kind of life~for man and beast.

Having my bi-annual mid-life crisis this week~really, really praying that God would somehow see fit to bless me financially to the point that I would not have to leave my home to earn a living. I have been working for 30 years now and I would LOVE to stay home and enjoy myself while I'm still young enough to want to do this stuff.

 

[murphysranch]

.

Having my annual mid-life crisis this week~really, really praying that God would somehow see fit to bless me financially to the point that I would not have to leave my home to earn a living. I have been working for 30 years now and I would LOVE to stay home and enjoy myself while I'm still young enough to want to do this stuff.

Brought tears to my eyes. Been working since 10th grade (1970), except for 9 wks off for child #1 and 6 wks for #2 and a few layoffs (brief), I'm now ready to NEVER WORK AGAIN. Now I wonder how to pay for the mortgage. Deep sigh. You keep on posting. I'm learnin' from you!

 

[FarmerDenise]

Having my bi-annual mid-life crisis this week~really, really praying that God would somehow see fit to bless me financially to the point that I would not have to leave my home to earn a living. I have been working for 30 years now and I would LOVE to stay home and enjoy myself while I'm still young enough to want to do this stuff.

Oh, I know what you are talking about. I was feeling like that for years. Now that I've been able to do it for a few years and was happy with it, I am not looking forward to having to get a job again and going back to the daily grind. I rather live my self-sufficient-as-possible life and be very poor, then make money going to a job and be able to buy stuff, ugh!
What's worse, if you have to go to a job and still be poor and not have the time or the money to do the self sufficient farm life well.

Well, if BBH can have a pig show up at her door, maybe you can have a million dollars show up at yours, just send a little my way won't you I don't need much