rty007 winemaking Q

[Farmfresh]

I have always thought that having animals under the fruit trees was the way to go. Not just chickens, although their scratching can't be beat. Geese are supposed to be good as well and so are sheep, as long as the sheep don't do damage to the tree bark.

All of those critters will help keep the understory clean of any fruit drops and help with the insect problems as well as providing fertilization without creating any root damage.

The biggest thing for fruit tree success is cleanliness and proper pruning!

One thing to note however, even in organic fruit farming there is a certain amount of spraying. Even if you only use a dormant oil in the early spring. Usually some fungicides are also used when necessary as well. You need to be able to have the area animal free during the spraying and for a while after to keep the animals safe.

 

[Farmfresh]

Agreed very beautiful cattle!

I heard of a rabbit colony plan that involved a relatively small space. You start with about a 2 or 3 dozen bales of good alfalfa or clover hay and three unrelated does plus an unrelated buck of whatever breed you choose.

First the colony is constructed by digging out a space that is the depth of one hay bale standing on its side (like the grass grew). At the bottom of the space you lay down a section of sturdy wire with a mesh strong and small enough to contain a rabbit. Then you attach more of the wire to the bottom but standing upright all around the edges of the space.

Fill the dug out space with hay bales packed tightly together to fill up the entire space. Cut the twine and remove it from the bales as you go. Next add a second layer to the enclosure. Some even add a third layer of hay. When you end there should be basically a wire box with two or three layers of hay bales and about two or three feet of free space above the whole hay mass. Finally a top is put on the cage and then a roof is placed over the whole setup to provide weather protection and shade.

To this environment you add the rabbits. All you do at this point is provide fresh water, mineral and salt licks, and grain which is fed on the bale surface. The rabbits eat the hay and create burrows down inside the hay and all through it. Periodically you can harvest rabbits for meat. The colony will multiply in breeding as it grows.

After a while, when the hay supply begins to show signs of severe deterioration, all of the rabbits are harvested. The remnants of hay are removed to be used as mulch in the garden.

Then you can start again with fresh hay and a new unrelated base stock of rabbits.

I have never done this, but I understand you can grow a huge supply of meat this way.

That is really interesting! I may very well have to try that, as it will save me on having individual rabbit hutches all year round!

Hmm.... copying and pasting and saving....

I have never tried this way of raising meat rabbits, but it has always sounded interesting.
The main problems that I can see would be the set up and the fact that after a while the rabbits become very inbred. Also I wonder what happens if disease or a parasite like rodent fleas or ear mites becomes a problem. With dozens of rabbits running around in a burrow system of their creation treatment would be VERY difficult or impossible.

 

[dragonlaurel]

Any diseased leaves might keep the infection going if they are left there. Those should be burned or composted in a hot pile. Regular, healthy leaves should not be a problem.

Letting the chickens free range in the orchard sometimes is a good idea. They'll love doing pest control and fertilize too.

 

[rty007]

Q - winter, fresh green feed.

Ok, of goes the question. What can you grow throughout winter in a greenhouse that you can give fresh to chickens and possibly rabbits? Salad is acceptable in small amounts, but what about others? spinach, herbs(need drying I believe?) and some fish meal? preferably dual purpose for both chicken and rabbits.

 

[FarmerDenise]

I've just been catching up on your most recent posts. Those polish cows and rabbits are amazing. They sound like great breeds for backyard and small farmers.

You really do your research!

And love that you are sharing it with us.

 

[dragonlaurel]

If you did worm composting, you would be making great fertilizer and could feed some of the worms to the chickens. Great protein.
They aren't picky about plants. It's probably good to get a list of any plants in your area that could poison farm animals, then feed them plant thinnings and scraps from anything else.


edited for a mispell

 

[rty007]

About the research, a breath from the herbs and all those crazy diseases and strange words, that need translating, once I just went... "heee..." click wikipedia... ohhhh... so that what it is honestly polish-polish translation was needed

@farmdenise - reaserch

I most certainly try.... about that, one more livestock position:


Sheep: owca żelaźnieńska

A lot of crazyness above the letters, I know

A bit of history:
Works o these breed began in 1953 at the experimental institute in Żelazno (town) under the General school of environment and agriculture. At first they bought 150 does of a primitive breed called "owca łowicka" out of which they segregated two main genotypes. First had primitive features, mixed coat whereas the second one showed obvious signs of crossing with polish merynos. The more primitive genotype was crossed with polish merynos at first, to get crossed with a long hair (fur, or whatever you call it ) breed brought from england - leicester. The second genotype got crossed with leicster from the very start, which gave them two lines of mixes. The next.. obvious step was to crossbreed the two lines, the works aimed at creating a dual purpose breed for both wool and meat, with a plain wool, average thickness in the sorts of BC. Because it was the only breed in poland that was created using Leicester in the mix, they become afraid of the inbreeding problem, so in 1973 they agreed on using bucks from polish flatlands breed - corriedale, which genotype during the studies was set(decided) at 25%. In 1978 they started breeding for a higher breeding capabilities, which was inspired by a doe which had 10 lambs in 4 lambings.
Currently bred, it has a high fertility rate(don't know how to translate that, but you get the story), good wool production 6kg/year(13lb) from a doe and 9kg/year(19lb) from a buck, and a pretty decent meat growth. of up to 200lbs

EDIT

spelling check

 

[rty007]

ME... AGAIN I know, I know

but I finally found the pig breed I want, and a great site for you all folks here, which I think everyone should take into consideration while choosing breeds of your livestock.
American rare breed conservancy

and the breed of the pig istamworth, I told you I will find it eventually, I admit I remembered it with a brighter coat, but that is it.

and a little weirdo-pig

 

[Farmfresh]

The woman I buy pork from raises Tamworths. They are mighty tasty if you ask me.

 

[rty007]

well ok... I am looking for some seeds of weirdo verities like say... green or yellow tomatoes and others for my guillera (how do you spell that word, couse the dict went ... EEEE... WRONG) gardening. BRING IT ON I mean I want the weirdest you have. The only one thing is, I want them to be non-hybrid so that I can collect seeds. And the online(preferably) store has to be able to deliver to my little hellhole

I am planing on making an order here:
http://www.realseeds.co.uk/vinetomatoes.html but I'll wait if you get me a better idea.

I am also looking for some purple carrots seeds, that you could recommend.

Allright, off I go...

If it is a hybrid, it should have a F1, F2 and so on.. right?

Carrot purple haze:
http://www.marshalls-seeds.co.uk/carrot-purple-haze-seeds-pid2288.html

Carrot purple dragon:
http://www.nickys-nursery.co.uk/seeds/pages/veg-carrot.htm

Carrot Solar Yellow
2 gram pkt Av 1,000 seeds/gram
A maincrop variety producing medium length, completely yellow roots. A sweet juicy carrot with very crunchy flesh.

Tomato chocolate cherry