robin
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Post by robin on Mar 6, 2010 11:43:18 GMT 8
Hi all, sorry to be gone so long, so busy here in the spring ! I guess it is not for me to have guineas, what with spending so much cash for them and having them walk off~~~~and i dont think I want to spend so much time looking for their eggs~~~ It is bad enough dealing with the elk here. Deer eat your garden, but the elk can ruin your entire yard, break the fences down, your livestock get out. My guns are loaded. Ans siwasayin to meman justoday what a joyitis to have a big pop to scare'emoffen the yard 'ere! An mebeb get wonint'freezer for the greenies showup~~ Hey I am the angel there. I am trying, y'all! An, I am turning it all over tomegalpal in Canuckland to deal with, Mikey dear I do want to know all the details of the gorgeous hen lakelands won as champion in her piccies~~~ breed, age, etc ? I also want to know if any of you worm your poultry for roundworms (ascarids) and do you have any problems with mites ?
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robin
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Posts: 46
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Post by robin on Mar 6, 2010 23:43:25 GMT 8
I have been in photobucket and seen the album of jsjmm, and have t say you have an awesome yard and garden and a beautiful bunch of birds, and lovely family. The places shown in Australia are so wonderful. The flat desert-like country with scrub oak trees and bush is alot like Northern California, Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico country. Looks hot~been there in that kind of weather, hate it, it makes me ill. You Aussies are a hardy bunch, that is for sure. Here it is cold, it was in the 10's (about -15 C) here in December, and no snow. Usually there is a little snow for Christmas time. Last year there was 3 or 4 feet of snow, unusual for the Pacific Coast Maritime climes here are usually more mellow and not into extremes either hot nor cold. We heard you have been getting drought ? Fires scare me, living in NorCalifornia was always scarey...My cheeky man just loaded up to make the 12 hr drive down to NorCal to check on our house that is rented there, and relatives,swy Ibe up early, later on then~ it stopped raining and I can get some work done~
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robin
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Post by robin on Mar 6, 2010 23:59:59 GMT 8
I tried to put up a post and think my MSN is on the fritz, anywho we raised koi in California before we moved up here in September of last year. I saw alot of you are into koi, so I am going to dig out some koi photos to post. We stopped raising koi due to the thousands of gallons of water and huge electrical bills from pumps and filtration systems, and running the bore pump alot..it got way too spendy. We did sell them all, and then bought 16 huge solar panels to put on the workshop roof so now there is no electric bill. It is called a grid-tie solar system.
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robin
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Posts: 46
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Post by robin on Mar 7, 2010 2:24:02 GMT 8
OK everyone ! I have posted another album on photobucket of alot of koi piccies, what from over thousands I have. A few weeks ago I deleted hordes of them as I had way too many on the computer. But here is some and it seems page two is the start, and work your way backward as time goes, showing the digging of pond #2, 2700 gallons what we called the little pond, and then we did pond #3 which was 4700 gallons and several others for friends and neighbors. Enjoy !
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Post by Duck Diva on Mar 7, 2010 3:03:41 GMT 8
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Post by lakelands on Mar 7, 2010 14:55:33 GMT 8
Hi Robin, I am glad you liked my photos. I haven't posted any in photobucket for ages so I have lots of new additions. I have a web page if you are interested in having a look... lakelandspoultry.webs.com I use a broad spectrum wormer "Kilverm"that picks up a lot of species including roundworm. I only use that a couple of time each year. the rest of the time I lace their drinking water with garlic....which I think does a pretty good job on most worm species.
I am just waiting for the weather to cool doown so that I can give them a good dose.
I haven't had a look at your Koi yet but will do that soon
By the way you are in for a treat. Wendy's photos are fabulous.
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Post by mikemurphy on Mar 7, 2010 17:13:42 GMT 8
Hi Robin Re mites. I had an infestation a couple of years back. Tried dusting and all the commercial remedies and then cleared out the chook house and painted everything with sump oil. Filled it with clean hay and nice smelly things and left it for a week before putting the chooks back. Harly seen a mite since, just occasionally and they don't seem to stay around long. Mike
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robin
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Post by robin on Mar 8, 2010 12:15:08 GMT 8
thankyou all, and Wendy's pics are fabulous! I love the golden cockeral, what fantastic hackle he has. I tie flies sometimes...and we boat and fish alot. I will look for killverm. As for the mites, I hear the are bad in winter, and not too much of a problem in hot months as the birds can dust bathe. Mine have had mud, so no dust bath until I made them a large wooden box and filled it with fresh fine sand, permethrin dust (made for veggies and poultry and is derived from chrysanthemums) and fine diatemaceous earth. They love it. Often the birds run out of the henhouse all white and shake and look as if they are on fire what with the dust that blows off ! Not a mite since. I made some leg mite ointment from permectrin used for dogs (a liquid you put on the dog's fur to kill fleas) with vaseline, and Vick's Vapo-Rub ointment and massage it in to their legs to kill leg scale mites. Nasty critters, must have come from visiting wild birds, although none have been in the henhouse~ I hear you can mix diatemaceous earth into the chook feed to kill worms, and not have to stop eating their eggs~ anyone hear of that ? Has any of you tried to import fertile eggs overnight X-press and had any luck ? There is alot of breeders here ! You could get addicted and have thousands of birds, like I did with the koi I want Barnsvelders& Wellsummers, then I am done It is raining cats and dogs here again, on and on the mud ! Talk tomorrow then~
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robin
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Posts: 46
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Post by robin on Mar 8, 2010 12:33:10 GMT 8
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Post by pianochook on Mar 8, 2010 12:36:15 GMT 8
that's interesting that you use the diatomaceous earth, it seems to be more widely used in the US. Annieyokie mentioned this product a little while ago, if you look in the section "poultry health and housing" you'll find our discussion about DE. I bought some and add it to the feed, also I spread it all around in the coop and run, and I noticed a definite decrease of flies. I can't see any reason why you should have to stop eating the eggs when feeding DE (mine are still teenagers and haven't started laying yet, I've only got three chooks in my suburban backyard: Barnevelder, light sussex and buff sussex). So far my chooks seem very happy and healthy
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Post by didgieridge on Mar 8, 2010 13:19:53 GMT 8
I have been using Diatomaceous Earth for 3 weeks now, noticed a difference already. I have been feeding it to my labradors, my QH mare who is 27yo, the all have perked up, with lovely shiny coats and increased appetite (not that the labs need anything to increase their appetite lol, the chooks looking great and free from parasites, I used to use Ivermectin (cattle pour on) for lice and mites, but was thrilled to find an envio friendly product in D/E...thanks Annieyokie... got some hessian bags hanging in the cattle yards, for them to rub on too, and we are taking it ourselves. Fantastic stuff...highly recommend it! Loved all the piccies Robin. Can you please send some of that rain this way. Although not to the east coast, they are in flood at the moment.
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robin
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Posts: 46
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Post by robin on Mar 10, 2010 0:52:21 GMT 8
good morning all ! I am so excited that I have found a hatchery via the web that is not too far south of here in Oregon, and since Gary is in California, he can swing by right off the road and pick up some chicks and bring them with him home ! Maybe, may have to Waite until next week and have them in the post. In any event, it is cold here, about 30 overnight and 50's days, we had a cold front come in just yesterday..it was lovely and warmer. But the brooder should work fine, brand new so I have to go start it up and get it going now... ;D ;D
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robin
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Posts: 46
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Post by robin on Mar 10, 2010 0:58:19 GMT 8
Oh, and I am so happy everyone is finding DE a good product, I am really excited about it too, and my chooks are happy and love the dust bed I made, it is a foot and a half square, and 8" deep wood box with a 50 pound bag of fine sand, and a few big scoops of DE mixed in, and they love to bathe in it. I have mixed some in their feed also, and they look vibrant and healthy and all have laid all winter but for when they molted last FALL,(it was 10 degrees F overnight and 20 degrees F days (your -10 C) so here were the chooks with no feathers on necks and bottoms I gotta go get the brooder going...later ! ;D
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Post by annieyokie on Mar 10, 2010 9:49:31 GMT 8
Im posting this on both threads that are talking about DE ;DFor those of you using D.Earth Iv just been reading about millepede's and the best natural approachto get rid of them is dusting a little D.E. around where they are found . Iv just had some reappear this year and am off to do some dusting
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robin
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Posts: 46
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Post by robin on Mar 13, 2010 2:24:43 GMT 8
hello all down under', been gone a few days setting the brooder up and have an incubator now, on the tiny temporary kitchen counter. Remember we have not built our house yet but are 'shacked up' in a 10x 24 storage barn..very tight here. The deal to buy the Welsummers chicks fell thru, but we will still have 14 barred rock babies Monday morning. Then I went on backyardchickens.com , a thread here, and found hatching eggs for sale, and bought some (8) to incubate and it sounds simple enough. Why can you not get some Marans eggs and air mail to Australia, they can be as low as 40-60 degrees F for up to 7 days and still hatch at least 50%...get some to hatch and make quite a bit of money selling the eggs there to others, would be worth it. Hopefully, next year I will have fertile Welsummer-Copper Marans/Cuckoo Marans eggs to send you.
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