Comments for Blue Line Farm

Comment on Chicken Coops by Hen Houses

Hen Houses — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 15:49:46 +0000

Hey, this is a very detailed article and the most enjoyable read. My husband and I keep a couple of chickens in our back yard and we built them a chicken ark. They seem to love it!
Keep the blogs coming.
Lucy

Comment on Blue Line Farm 1, Raccoon 0 by Jan

Jan — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 17:43:59 +0000

We live in a 2nd story apt and the coons climb the supports posts to our deck and come in through the kitty door to get to the cat food. Property owners refer us to Animale Contro. Animal control will not help until someone/something is attacked by the coons. We tried the golden malrin/coke mix (with a few pieces of cat food next to it) and the coke was totally ignored. Next we tried canned cat food/golden malrin and tuna/golden malrin. They loved it but it did kill them. The coons are not scared of us at all. The past 2 nights while we were watching TV they tried coming into our apt through the kitty door while we were just 3 feet away from it watching TV. Gonna try a live animal trap and relocate the little bast#%*@ (although I would love to shoot them).

Comment on Chicken Coops by Utah SEO

Utah SEO — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 04:36:13 +0000

i was just researching the size coop I want to build for my urban coop and run setup. thanks for sharing this advice

Comment on About by Ben

Ben — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 15:59:42 +0000

Melinda-
That’s a lot of snow even by West Michigan standards. Drive over from your snow belt to ours sometime. We’ll put some Highland beef on the grill!

Comment on About by Melinda Bladergroen Caito

Melinda Bladergroen Caito — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 20:48:34 +0000

Hi Ben — My husband and I decided to leave Buffalo, NY (we moved from GA to NY in 1991) to live in the country in Delevan, NY. Population 1250. We have a bank, a bar, a laundermat, a convenience/gas station, a post office, and a pizza place. That is town. It takes up a whole 2 blocks. We have to drive over an hour to get to the nearest mall, work is almost an hour away, and the closest stores in town about 3 miles away. We live in the woods, sort of, our house is on 10 acres of woods with a stream running through the backyard. We don’t have as many animals as you, but our daughter has been bugging us for more. We only have a dog, cat, birds, fish, and a rabbit. That’s all we can handle. Winters are rough– 1 foot of ice on my roof right now and the snow on top of that is 2.5 feet. Occasionally I have to shovel off my roof, and it is nothing for us to get up to 3-4 feet of snow in a day. We have well water and when the electricity runs out, we have no heat OR water — this means no toilet flushing either. It is a harder way of life, but so well worth it. Good to see you living the good life. Cheers!

Comment on How to Get Rid of a Racoon by Ben

Ben — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 15:02:51 +0000

Judy-
It really works. I dislike using poison, but it really does work. I have had a success rate of 100% in getting rid of raccoons using it. Just remember to keep it well away from the dog. I still don’t know if dogs will go after this stuff, but it will kill them if they do.

Comment on Chicken Coops by Kat

Kat — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 14:51:40 +0000

I have raised chickens for years ever since I was 7 or so, almost all on my own. My Dad & Grandpa took a old building and turned it into a coop. This year I ordered more chicks so now my coop is to small.
You can let your chicks out in the open if you have a need to save $$ on their feed bill. I just open the door and they follow me to the great outdoors.Chickens LOVE to eatgrass,seeds,&such.NO DOGS WHO LIKE TO EAT THEM. My dog learned the hard way.

Comment on How to Get Rid of a Racoon by judy prather

judy prather — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 03:41:32 +0000

does this really work we have caught this raccoon in a trap more times than 1 and he manages to get out of any trap he gets in.he is huge was getting in the garbage cans but has stopped that since my daughter takes her dog outside and he does his business around the garbage cans.he gets in the walls and runs through a lot of times at night or early morning.i cant afford to hire an exterminator but this raccoon has got to go and soon before he brings a family back.please help !!!

Comment on Fight at the Library by Hellmann, Tim

Hellmann, Tim — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 02:46:59 +0000

Possibly it was a PETA activist who felt that the rousing of Phucksalilanimalup Phil, the Groundhog, was an immoral assult on nature VS a traditional weather forcaster who highly values the intrinsic meteorological prophicies of of this Pensillyvania rodent who was also upset at “saw shadow, ergo – 6 more weeks of winter”?

Comment on Chicken FAQ by Ben

Ben — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 14:51:11 +0000

Ash-
I’m not sure you’ll be able to convince your Mom, but I’ll be happy to put some thoughts out there for you.
1) Chickens only stink if you don’t change out the litter in their coop – just like cats. That said, ours tend to only poop on the sidewalk coming into the house, which is really annoying! We have a huge yard for them! Just one chicken, probably won’t stink though.

2) The odds of one egg hatching are probably less than 50%. Even if you get an egg, there is a very good chance it won’t hatch. I’ve given up trying to hatch chicks from eggs. You can usually buy chicks in the Spring from your local feed store for a few dollars, however. The other issue here is that you can’t tell what gender of chicken you’ll get. You probably will not want a pet rooster. They are noisy and get ornery as they get older. You want a hen. They are much easier to deal with.

3) Chickens and dogs do NOT play well together. If you have a very well trained dog, or can keep the chicken penned up and out of reach of your dog, then it might work. Cats and chickens are ok, once the chickens are older (chicks, not so much), but dogs and chickens take some work to get along.

4) Chickens aren’t too much work, but they do require daily feeding. Also, you need to open and close their coop every day if you are letting them walk around.

Good luck with your Mom! Remember though, she’s the one paying for chicken feed and dog food, so she gets the last word!