This will be an ongoing topic for a potpourri of things pertaining to rural living in general. It could be sharing your new adventures with chickens, what you've been up to on the homestead, or perhaps asking a question. Pretty much anything goes here.

I'll start.

We have about a dozen and a half laying hens who favor the top tier of a 6 sectioned nesting box. This causes them to bunch up in there as well as break eggs. They somehow managed to break the perch to get into the lower portion a long time ago so they simply didn't use it.

Recently I was watching a Joel Salatin video and it occurred to me that maybe, in addition to the perch missing, the bottom tier was simply too low for their liking. So the other day I raised the whole unit up a foot or two. I also built a new perch, attached to the floor, so they can get in. I'm not showing you a pic because my tools are scattered all over and I was working with what I could find. Let's just say it won't win any carpentry awards.

But it works. I threw a couple wooden "dummy eggs" in and rght away they started using the bottom tier. A simple fix.

In case anyone is interested:

I originally planned to go and buy some birds but with everything else going on, that plan is on hold at least until next year.

last warm day we had ended up pulling out the pear tree that up and died, planted another plum tree, a peach tree and 5 more pawpaw trees. waiting for the milkweed to sprout to transplant somehoping enough blossoms held back to get some fruit this year

Every spring the goats end up with mites and one of them in particular gets them bad. This year the bugs pretty persistent. I've given them Ivermectin shots x 3 ( at a higher dose than normal ) now as well as sprayed the one with lime-sulphur. I've also sprinkled their bedding area with Pythom dust for good measure. It looks like I'm gonna have to get even more aggressive and get a tube of Nu-stock, which is lime sulphur in pine tar.

Problem is, they see me with gloves and/or anything in their hands, they take off running. So I'll have to catch the one who needs it the worst and then have someone glove me up so I can administer it. It's a messy solution but it should do the trick.

2 hours ago, Chris said:

Every spring the goats end up with mites and one of them in particular gets them bad. This year the bugs pretty persistent. I've given them Ivermectin shots x 3 ( at a higher dose than normal ) now as well as sprayed the one with lime-sulphur. I've also sprinkled their bedding area with Pythom dust for good measure. It looks like I'm gonna have to get even more aggressive and get a tube of Nu-stock, which is lime sulphur in pine tar.

Problem is, they see me with gloves and/or anything in their hands, they take off running. So I'll have to catch the one who needs it the worst and then have someone glove me up so I can administer it. It's a messy solution but it should do the trick.

Do they make mite collars for goats like tick collars?

16 minutes ago, Ann said:

Do they make mite collars for goats like tick collars?

No.