Very interesting information from Mcmurray Hatchery in regards to Light Bulbs..

Posted on July 26, 2012 by Just another day on the farm

Makes me glad all over that I removed all the non-stick pans in the house, but I will now have to start double checking when we buy our light bulbs for the little barn, so glad I use the in floor heating mats for the chicks, don’t have to worry about this with them.. Still for everyone who has chickens, raises chicks and or heats their chicken area, well worth the read!

http://blog.mcmurrayhatchery.com/2011/02/18/shatter-resistant-bulbs-a-potential-danger-to-your-chickens/

Shatter resistant or safety coated light bulbs are a potential source for toxic fumes that can be dangerous to your chickens and other poultry. There are a number of shatter  resistant light bulbs on the market today. These include heat lamp bulbs, work lamp bulbs, and appliance bulbs. These bulbs have or may have a coating made of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE)  which makes them shatter resistant.

When these bulbs are used, they heat up, and if the glass wall of the bulb becomes hot enough the coating can release toxic fumes. Birds (such as chickens or other poultry) are very sensitive to airborne toxins and can die from the exposure to such fumes. This can happen quickly.

We were recently contacted by a small flock owner whom this happened to. She went out to her chicken coop to find all of her chickens dead. The cause? She had recently purchased a shatter resistant light bulb and used it in her chicken coop. The bulb’s packaging contained no information on the potential dangers and did not tell the composition of the shatterproof coating. The deeply saddened flock owner had her chickens examined by the University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension Service’s Veterinarian, a pathological specialist. The veterinarian examined the chickens, and could find no disease.  The only thing that had changed in the management of the chickens was the installation of this light bulb.  The veterinarian researched the light bulb and found that it has a PTFE coating. The conclusion was that the coating heated up during the use of the bulb, and in the enclosed coop produced high enough concentrations of toxic fumes to kill the chickens.

Something similar occurred on a larger scale in 1999 in a poultry research facility in Missouri, where many birds in a 2400 bird broiler flock died over the course of several days.  According to clinical results, the death of the broiler chickens was due to exposure to noxious gas.  No change had been made to the management of the birds other than the installation of 48 PTFE-coated heat lamp bulbs.

PTFE is a synthetic polymer that was developed in 1938. Besides the coating in shatter resistant light bulbs, it is used in a number of other household products, some of which include portable heaters, irons and ironing board covers, hair curling irons, stain resistant coatings on carpet, stove top burners, drip pans, self-cleaning ovens, non-stick cooking pans, slow cookers, waffle makers, bread makers, and tortilla presses. Not all such products contain PTFE, but some do. PTFE is also associated with the brand names Teflon®, Rulon®, Chemfluor®, and possibly others.

PTFE is relatively stable and chemical and heat resistant at room temperature, but at high temperature it can release toxic fumes.  These fumes can be dangerous to humans, causing flu-like symptoms, but are even more harmful to birds because of their small size, efficient lungs, and high metabolic rate.

We do not recommend using shatter proof bulbs or any products containing PTFE in your chicken coops or in brooders for baby chicks. If you have any doubts as to the safety of a particular product, please research it as thoroughly as possible before using it with your poultry.  The heat lamp bulbs that we carry on our website and in our catalog are free of PTFE and are safe to use with your poultry.

Other types of fumes that can also be harmful or fatal to chickens or other birds include include aerosols, fumes from paint, paint thinners, gasoline, certain glues, or other heated plastics, tobacco smoke, carbon monoxide, pesticides (such as foggers or bug bombs), and moth balls.

Posted in Critters | Tagged , | 4 Comments

Large Black Piglets.. coming soon to our little farm..

Posted on July 26, 2012 by Just another day on the farm

Well, this past week I could not help but notice that Miss Piggy was being a bear with Angelo and she was being sweet with me or Dh, but yesterday I was really unhappy to see that he had a small bite on him, and she would not let him touch her, very strange considering they had been such great buddies..

Anyway, there was a minor breakout, as in got out of their pen but still inside our pastures and on our farm, and I got to spend some time following her around while the spot got fixed and boy was I in for a surprise, I know that a first time girl can fool you and hold that belly in nice and trim on the first litter but I would swear that she is expecting, while I don’t have due date, as she was free ranging with her boyfriend, I now know what one of big weekend projects will be, we will splitting them up and moving her to own nice big nursery pen. I am planning on doing the rabbit trick when she is in labour, we will see if its needed or useful, personally it seems dumb to me but they swear it will help with first time momma’s.

She dug herself a big old bed in a new spot in the barn and settled, no amount of chop, grain and or sweet feed was getting her to leave her spot, finally had to crack out the banana bribes ( I know that other folks would have gone with force, but that is not just not how I have trained her and I will not break that trust). While I would not trust Angelo to take banana bites out of my hand, Miss Piggy is still such a lady at this point, I hope that stays when the little ones come..

I wish I had an idea of how many she has in there but she is such a good size girl and I saw how little those piglets where, she could easily have six to ten in there, only time will tell..

Posted in Critters, farm | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Feeding hay in July.. yikes..

Posted on July 25, 2012 by Just another day on the farm

Things didn’t quite go as planned this year, I had done all that work last year on a cow pasture, but then my sheep went and had way to many little ones this year (that flushing worked well) and so I ended up wanting to use that pasture as well for them as the cows, so I always kept the cows on half pasture and half hay, they graze during the day, get fresh air, sunshine, rub on trees, nibble on the tree’s and get to be cows, but in the evening, they get put back with their ration and a feeder full of good hay, we switched from winter hay to first cut hay back in end of may.

Having said that, the sheep being sheep, would not touch the bale I had out, they were after pasture only, but now its july and our pasture is not holding at all, typically my sheep are on pasture only from spring till late fall, I don’t normally have to start giving hay till sept/oct, sometimes they barely touch it till nov..

This year is different, parts of the pasture is being locked down for slow growth and recovery time and to keep everyone off it, which leaves them with fewer pastures, that are already done and so we are now into them eating hay, regardless of how they feel about it!

The last rain was good but I will need alot more then that if I want to have my pastures come back for a second flush of growth.

How is it in your neck of the woods?

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Grapes, Black Chokeberries, High Bush Cranberries

Posted on July 24, 2012 by Just another day on the farm

Just a few of the things that are in fact doing well this summer in the food forest, gardens or soft fruit rows..  How are you grapes doing this year?

Posted in gardens | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

What a great idea-Trash in exchange for healthy food..

Posted on July 24, 2012 by Just another day on the farm

What a awesome idea, it helps of course that they live in a area that can grow fresh local food pretty much year round but none the less, I love this idea and I respect where they are coming from in the article and I do understand that they are being PC, but they forgot to say one very important fact, and that is that folks that are in need, would be able to use this program to get fresh food with just a little extra work..

I think that is part of what I really like, they are getting food in exchange but they have to be willing to a) collect the can’s or bottles b) prepare the fresh food.

I would love to see a program like this in canada, anyone aware of any??

 

This came from “http://www.treehugger.com/culture/brazilian-city-trades-vegetables-recycling.html”

In many urban centers throughout the world, vibrant waste recycling programs aren’t just eco-minded niceties, they serve an essential role in keeping communities clean and clutter-free. But thanks to one forward-thinking initiative in the Brazilian city of Jundiaí, trading in trash has never been tastier.

Ten years ago, the city’s Municipal Utilities department launched “Delicious Recycling“, a program aimed at encouraging residents to get into the habit of collecting recyclable waste in exchange for fresh vegetables, grown locally in a public-run garden — and boy did it take off. Today, the garden boasts more than 30 thousand plants to meet the demand of thousands of veggie-loving recyclers, turning aluminum cans and plastic bottles into edible greens.

Ultimately, the program has done wonders for the health of the environment as well, by ridding the city of improperly disposed waste.

“What once cluttered and even choked the flow of water from storm drains is today used as currency for healthy food,” local mayor Miguel Haddad tells Jundiaí Online. “Everybody wins with this.”

As innovative as Jundiaí’s “Delicous Recycling” may seem, it’s actually not the first of its kind, but given the program’s success, it’s no wonder why. Though a number of other Brazilian municipalities offer similar incentives to reward recyclers with food, the idea seems to be catching internationally — like in Mexico City, where residents recently exchanged trash for nearly three tons of vegetables!

Posted in Life moves on daily | 1 Comment

What a Storm.. that Lightning was amazing!

Posted on July 24, 2012 by Just another day on the farm

First let me say, I am sorry for those that this storm did damage to, I understand that there was two tornado’s, tree’s brought down and property heavily damaged and I can imagine that with that many lightning strikes there were new fires started as well, although with the rain, that had to have helped with some of the current fires.

To say that we were checking radar thoughout the day would be a understatement, and it was touch and go for a while on if it would hit us full on or pass us by, turns out it did both in a way, we where right in the middle of it and at the same time, two major cells passed on either side of us, this meant that we got the best possable outcome..

An hour of full steady pouring rain, followed up by five hours of steady soaking in rain, barrels filled and where moved to other jugs, buckets, and totes and filled again, the ground saoked it in, raither then it all running off.

We missed the heavy winds, the hail, and even the thunder and lightning never really got that close, never more then a three second count between the strikes.

Having said that, O my god the lightning, it was crazy, I can only remember one time in my childhood watching a lightening storm from a distance and it seemed like a nature’s fireworks show, or so my memory says but this, this was far to close and I am adult enough to understand the power of those bolts now..

I started counting between strikes, the farm had lightning coming on the left, behind and right for over an hour plus, and the strikes were coming so fast, that I could hardly get to five before another one came and sometimes they came in different parts of the sky less then one or two seconds apart, I tried to figure out the math on this and that works out to between 300 to 400 strikes in that hour alone, and we had lightning steady for around three hours, that’s just crazy!

The slew is wet, and a few low spots are holding water  and the pond has a wet bottom but already by this morning, its all soaking in, they say we are going to have 3 days of heat and then possable rain for two more days, if that happens, we will see some major progress in the garden for sure.

Did you get hit by this storm? if so, did you come though ok? Have you ever seen lightning like that, that has lasted for a long time?

Posted in farm | Tagged , , | 5 Comments

Bell-Bell is really starting to show her age..

Posted on July 23, 2012 by Just another day on the farm

Bell is a little mixed breed dog that joined our family 12 years ago up in the north.. She’s quirky, smart, and a great little wiggleworm when she cuddles up..

Posted in Life moves on daily | 3 Comments

Plan and Prepare-Garden

Posted on July 23, 2012 by Just another day on the farm

Well, this very dry year has been eye openning to say that least, I have never had so little rain ever, we have our own tracking system and even when the area’s around us get rain, we are getting nothing, listens to thunder and watched rain go by yet again this weekend.

The hand pump on the drilled back well is getting very hard to pull the water up, clearly its dropped from its typical level, and I don’t want to go back to power, but will have to continue researching putting it on a windmill in the near future.. the front shallow well is holding but we have to be careful with it, we have put on more collection systems for the steel roofs but we need rain for them to work. so far that means our shallow well is really holding the fort down.

After looking at my garden, heading to the market and checking out the cost of farmers market prices, a quick stop at walmart and came home and show our heads, we have decided to take the laundry to town and pay to do it, take the water saved and put it into careful watering in the garden, simple math, the food value is worth more then the cost to go once a week and do laundry in town does.  Hopefully this will be a temp measure for the next month or two, and of course a couple good rains and we would not need to go that week etc.

We spent hours on sat and even more on sunday cutting down tree’s, trimming the branches off, and taking some wood to go cut up as fire wood (after it cures of course) and the rest is being selected and cut down for a huge new hugelbeet.  We now have enough wood for the base and middle, and we will be adding a new layer after the chicken layer, which will be pig poo and bedding, then a light layer of cow and then finish with a big layer of year old sheep before letting it all sit, don’t plan on adding my dirt till next spring.

This heat is cooking my manure piles, I have never seen them go down as fast as they are this year, I would have thought they would be to dry to compost properly and we have given them a watering once or twice when we had rain this spring and it was not quite this dry but nothing for weeks and still they are composting down at a rapid rate.

This fact is not lost on me, I intend to add alot more well rotten organics to the main garden area this fall and work it in the spring, I want the whole feeding area, scraped and mixed and then dumped into my one half of the main garden, spread out to a three or four inch cover and allowed to sit fallow with a green cover on top for the rest of this year and early spring, then I am going to turn it in slightly and turn that whole area into corn next year. 

We are in the process of cleaning out another 1/8th of a acre that will become my grain crop area, we are clearing the bush in this area, then we need to fence it, put a hot wire on it and we are putting the pigs in to help clear it, and work on those many, many stumps, once they work their magic, then I will use girl to finish pulling what’s left out this fall, and if there is anything left compostwise, after we get done the new 40 foot bed, plus the garden, then I will add it to that area, I want to get it finished in time ideally to put in winter wheat, but if not, at least be ready for a spring planting, I want some to be flax as well.

Ps, what are you learning or planning on doing different in your garden after learning from this harder then normal year?

Also, we have a cestern by the big back barn, I have always used it as a root cellar because water for the outside/garden/pasture has never been a issue, but we are talking about cleaning it out, removing the moveable shelving that I haul up and down and considering setting up a system to fill it with water in early spring, when we did get rain and or filling it with the hose from the dug well, when its full to overflowing in the spring,  I would have to measurements to be sure how much extra water this would allow us to store but it would be a very good amount! for future use in the garden season.. thoughts?

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A day well spent..

Posted on July 22, 2012 by Just another day on the farm

Well, we had a amazing saturday, up early and did house and critter chores and then we headed off to the farmers market, where we walked around, took notes on prices (yikes) and left empty handed..  The local lamb lady didn’t even have her prices up anymore, I guess to encourage folks to come in to talk to her raither then to see them and walk on by.

The selection of things was good but the quality was certainly down and the prices up, I was surprised to see that it made little to no difference near as I could tell to the buying public, the rest of the folks where happily handing over their hard earned cash.

Then off to the feed store, where I got a new toy that lets you clip a regular bottle to your backpack or jeans, we typically have our metal bottles but nice to have the choice for when we are rotating out our bottled water stocks, it was on the sale table for a dollar.. love it!

At that point we went shopping at the big old walmart, I love shopping with DH, we went in, got what we needed (all of three things) and got out in under ten min, now that is the way to do it!

On the way home, I saw Farmer T who I had not seen since I got home, so gave a wave, and laughed as she stopped in the middle of the road to come give me a warm welcome home hug and a reminder to start coming over to go riding again, guess the bridge is fixed so we can take the main trail again, they are up to about 4 hour rides at this point, that’s going to make me sore for sure but looking forward to it.

Home on the farm, the rest of the day was a trimming, and hauling day, we spent four to six hours (I did the four, and then came in to do house, chores, and supper) trimming out smaller and in some cases not so small tree’s in the yard, pasture and tree area, we want to build a second large hugelbeet that will be ready for next spring, just in case we have the same dry and heat next year, so we now have enough taken down to do a 40 foot base of both bigger and smaller wood for the hugelbeet.

We did make piles in the different area’s but next we will need to sod out the area that we want to put the new one in, and then i am going to lime the subsoil before putting down the tree trucks and brush pile.

O ya and Dh broke the ax handle, good thing you can get replacements for them..

I made a meatza pizza for supper, and as I expected DH loved it, me not so much, considering my favorite “pizza” is ham and pinnaple and DH is meat lovers loaded, this was not a surprise really.. however, a small amount with a large side salad is not bad..

We were listening to vinal tap and ended up spending the last 20 min of it, just a dancing in our kitchen, Dh was getting his funk on LOL for a man that would not sing or dance when I meet him, he sure can do so now.. I remember him only being willing to waltz(sort of) at our wedding, was just busting the moves last night.. 🙂

As I was teaching him how to turn me in the jive, I was laughing but also had a tiny sad moment when I realized that with my mom’s new hip and now knee, she won’t be able to ever jive with me again, from the time I was little, if the right song came on, we would just stop and dance, glad I still have that in my life.

Of to bed for a well deserved sleep, and the hounds even let me sleep in till just after 6 this morning! Here’s to a wonderful and productive sunday to go with my great saturday!

Posted in Life moves on daily | 2 Comments

Free Food! – Bumper Crop of Black ChokeCherries..

Posted on July 20, 2012 by Just another day on the farm

DH had a surprise for me last night when he arrived home, as he often will do on his way home from the feed store he took a new route home and when he came though the door, he was excited to show me something he had found on a tiny back road, as he handed these lovely clumbs of rich dark berries on twigs, he asked if I knew what they were, I took one look and was delighted.. Black Choke Cherries!

I know this fruit, and only needed to bite down into a cherry to hit the pit, see how ripe they were and get that lovely cottenish/pucker bite in my mouth, this was very mild, these were some perfectly ripe berries, just bursting with juice.

I asked how many and I am thrilled to hear that we have a very large clumb of a number of mature bushes and even more excited that he says there is for sure 4 to 6 small bushes perfect for digging out and transplanting to the farm, I will thank the patch by hauling out tubs of compost and will fill the holes left from digging the baby bushes out by filling it in for the bigger ones..  Not only so there will be no holes for us to step in next year but also because it will feed the bushes that I want to harvest from.. Don’t worry, i’m not picking on private property, these are wild ditch fruit.

From the sounds of it, it will be possable to get a number of five gallon buckets full easily and I am so excited to add this fruit, I will be making some into wine/vinagar, some into juice with a small amount into jelly but most of it will be dried and lots made into fruit leather..

If there is extra after that, I will dry the fruits with pits in and use them as extra high quality chicken feed in late winter. While I have not seen them yet, I will be looking to see how or why these bushes are having such a bumper crop on such a dry year, I am guessing they must bump up to a good underground water level but more on that later!

Posted in wild foods | Tagged , , , , | 8 Comments