A couple of coop tips for those toying with becoming backyard chicken owners.
If you are building a coop, the guiding principle is really simple. Chickens nest low and roost high.
They would rather not lay eggs right on the ground, so lift the nest boxes 30cm or more. Saves on your back too when collecting eggs. If you can collect eggs from outside, that's a help. But there is a lot to be said for walking amongst your birds so you can keep an eye on how they are doing. They are natural busy bodies, not machines just to give you eggs.
And don't place the roosts right up in the gods, if you can help it. They are clumsy as hell, and if they have a way to fall to the ground, they can dislocate legs. And perches are quite important. At a push of course they would spend a night on a precarious branch that is too small or too big for their claws to hook around, but long term give them a plank 4" wide and 2" deep. They will sleep better. and fall off less!
#chickens #growstr #olivegroveeggs #olives
Looking at egg timers, as you do. We have come a long way. Found one from the 60's, the classic hour glass, calibrated for 3 minutes and 2 seconds. Never realised my boiled eggs and soldiers as a kid were so precisely prepared. Those old folks could teach us a thing or two!
And now you can get wind up egg-timers, equally fascinating.
And an egg-shaped pod that you drop in the pan and they change colour as the eggs go through soft, medium to hard. Not sure about that one, if you wear glasses, you are going to steam up checking progress.
Personally, I'm a "take it as it comes" boiled egg eater these days. Although everyone else says my eggs definitely taste better, I can't really tell the difference any more because I never eat shop bought.
However, whenever I do eat a boiled egg I am immediately transported back to childhood, watching Spiderman cartoons and dunking soldiers often burnt to a crisp, because my mother didn't have a toaster time.
#eggs #chickens #homesteading #growstr #nostalgia not #nostralgia
Probably Nostr 101 but how can I find a conversation between me and another npub, if I know the approximate date
#asknostr
If you are thinking of getting some chickens for their eggs, I suggest 8 ad a sweetspot number. naddr1qqxnzdejxsergdpexgmrzv3sqgs8ksa3ewj00rvwdp9grgx0tlx5laq7pvryzxaggrt8tj4mncx5tgcrqsqqqa28epaq93
"They say" if every third home had a few chickens, factory farms would be gone tomorrow. A little idealistic, but you get the idea.
Modern intensive animal farming is such a fiat construct. Ignore the billions of hectares of land that could flourish if animals were around fertilsing and disturbing the soil. Instead get in as many tractors as you can outside, while cramming as many animals into an interior space as possible, be that a cage, a pen or soft-focus barn.
But keeping such a density of life healthy is no easy task. It creates problems that need solutions that generate economic activity that ushers in other problems.
Just think how many vets are prescribing all sorts of products that keep hens from keeling over, but the medications stay in the animal and pass through to the animals that consume it, mainly homo sapiens.
Or behind the scenes, you may not be aware of the literal shit show going on to store, and dispose of effluent. The expense, the processes, the nonsense to keep it out of the water supply, often unsuccessfully. Madness.
And consider the side effects on human health as we are drilled to eat three square meals a day (or in Spain, eat something 5 times a day!) On top of that constant food craving, we are sold ever less nutrient dense comestible "stuff" to sate those cravings. It seems we don't eat to feel literally full, we eat until we have enough micronutrients to meet our body's needs. So we have to eat so much more than our ancestors to find those nutrients, and so we get obese, and so it goes on.
This circle can only be broken by backyard chickens. I'm kidding, but you get the idea. Start somewhere.
Last night I offered a simple tip about walking on gravel to assess your gait.
What stage is the moon at tonight, and do you know where it is in the heavens now, without looking?
GN.
It has to be said, Nostr folks are so helpful and positive and encouraging. Much to share, shining lights on so many rabbit holes, stimulating, eye-opening.
I'm sure the tone of any network is set by the earliest adopters and if they refuse to budge on their principles, whoever follows is going to feel that vibe.
It's very obvious with forums that the tone is set by the owner. I was in an industry where the forums were animal houses. Owners setting up threads designed to provoke arguments. I set up a forum, called it a reading room, it got quite busy and I literally never had to moderate a thing. People just came along and saw there was no BS and vacuous lol comments , just great info and obligingly adopted that mode.
8 chickens, a sweet spot for a backyard flock
To be precise, healthy hens will each provide you with 0.82 eggs per day average over the year! That is about 4 dozen eggs a week from 8 healthy hens. That yield covers a lot of scenarios.
View article →Talk about slowly, slowly suddenly. Yesterday #Proton released encrypted notes/doc sharing, which is a huge deal to get off of Evernote and any OS notes apps that auto sync to snoop doggy dog Googles or Apples.
Today Proton have their bitcoin wallet up and running. Shame I can't see a Lightning option to go with their one-click email sending option, but I am sure that will come.
And now #Fountain App have just filled my inbox with glorious news that they are now a Nostr client.
This is visionary times.
It feels like everything in my workflow is getting encrypted now!! Thank god for Password Managers.
#asknostr But is there an obvious hole in the plan, an obvious weak spot.
Even PDFs have been added to the current list.
Tom
How to password protect a PDF on Mac
To keep documents secure, it
Proton mail, Drive, Calendar. Proton Docs, what a gem.
VPN
Whatsapp is encrypted by default and now my archives on Google Drive are too.
I hesitate to password protect the passwords to keys on Amber signer. Seems a bit much!
Tremendo, very easy and looks good and the gravy... it schedules posts too
Walking on gravel tells you a lot about your gait. That's all. GN
