I love the idea of using quail for pest control! They must absolutely love the chance to get at live bugs. I don't have a garden so I have to feed my quail dried meal worms instead, and it is their most favorite food ever, they go absolutely berserk for it! And they recognize the meal worm bag, so when I pick it up they all immediately run to the cage door to wait eagerly for it. Indeed, normally I can leave the cage door open and none of them ever try to come out, but if there are meal worms on the way, they will run right out of the cage in their eagerness! LOL! I should probably pick up some live crickets from my local pet store and see how the quail react to them. And as long as you wash the vegetables thoroughly, or peel them fully, depending on what type they are, there should be no reason to fear trouble from the birds having been tending to them. People really do have strange ideas. And if you cook your veggies properly, then you really take any associated risk down to as close to zero as it can get. I'm guessing the people making this kind of claim are mostly people who have never done any gardening, and probably never been in any sort of rural or wilderness setting at all. I can believe these kinds of people might be at increased risk as their immune system probably isn't as strong as those who have (or did have at some point) a more rustic life, so maybe those people should indeed stay away. But for those of us who grew up with gardening and playing outside and being a free-range kid, it's fine.
Mareemas are very noisy in a metro area setting. Kelpies when you get the more confident ones can do many things. Good as a guardian and alert dog with training
I am wanting to get a little bit of honey, but I only have 1.5 acres. Any suggestions on how far away the hive should be away from the house? Maybe what I should use?
I started using your chicken feeding method a week ago, works a treat. I’ve had an ongoing battle with squirrels, and be honest, the squirrels were winning. So when I saw your method I thought this could be the answer. And it is, hens are feeding well and the squirrels have moved on to greener pastures. So easy to implement, just takes a bit of time twice a day. Thanks from South Carolina
We had the grandpa feeder and the Norway rats here figured out how to trip the latch and enjoy the feast inside. As soon as I saw it, we switched back to hand feeding. Sorry rats, kitchen is closed!
I have several flow hives and the Chinese versions due to cost and to compare, they work well, easy to take the super off to inspect and my hives are healthy and thriving, my flow frames never looked like yours, the beauty of beekeeping is there are many ways to do it successfully, good luck 😊
You commented people are getting snotty with you for talking too much lol. I definitely don't feel that way, but I do think the content is very much focussed on audio. Have you considered making a podcast? I think that would be a great format - Just chatting together and working through a peer reviewed paper with some homesteading implications with an informal not too technical way that a lay person can understand. I think most journal articles have so much esoteric lingo and jargon in them they are not often not really accessible to non-scientists. Even this video I listened to the majority of it with only audio while out doing farm chores myself. Even the processing acorns part could be explained on a podcast if you described in more detail some of the visual elements (i.e. the colour of the acorns). Anyway, just wanted to send that idea along, I see you haven't made a video in a while so not sure if you're still at it, but If you make a podcast I would definitely subscribe and tell all my friends too as well. Hope all is well and thanks for the great video and channel!
Great video! Always glad to see evidence based homesteading insights in an age where it's so easy to peddle pseudoscientific nonsense for likes, clicks and sales. Never thought I'd see a succinct breakdown of what a peer reviewed article is in a video about chickens! Keep it up :)
I have to disagree about “you shouldn’t have chickens if you can’t do this same feeding routine everyday”. Our small backyard flock is kept in their coop and run most the time, we can not let them free range the yard all day everyday because of our hunting dog, hawks/predators, and the weather isn’t nice enough all the time to do so. We also have a large garden in the back yard we can’t let them have access to all day long. So I wouldn’t want 100% of their diet to be just their feed rationed out in exact increments with a 20 minute opportunity to eat, since they can’t spend the rest of the hours of the day foraging around. I spend a lot of time taking care of our chickens but it’s not realistic for us to do that daily routine for feeding them, that’s pretty tedious. And there are often times where we are not home-leave town- so it wouldn’t work then, a feeder in the run is needed. Lastly that feeding system is unfortunate for the ones like your black silkie who gets bullied away from the feed, she didn’t get any feed! If it’s perfectly rationed out for them to get their daily requirements but the ones at the bottom of the pecking order don’t get their ration, that’s a flaw in the feeding method. Just don’t think it’s fair to say no one should have chickens if they don’t take the time to feed them this way everyday.
Chickens eat Mice Mice do not eat their feet if they tried to they would become Chicken Food!" If you have a Hanging Feeder from a Chain a mouse or especially a Rat would have a hard time feeding from a Spinning Container make a Barrier with Hardware cloth or Aviaria Netting....
You need to learn to stop the useless drivel and talk about information relevant to the topic of the video. I almost threw my phone waiting for you to make any useful or coherent points or to give out any actual useful information 🤦🏻♂️
You're not freeing "range quails". Neither are they "range quails" that are free. Rather, they are free-range quails. They hyphen is important. "Free-range" or even "freerange" must be joined in this case. Also, you are free-ranging quails. Please help bring back word joinery and visual reading, thank you!
So in the history of chicken keeping it has always been done your way right? Raising chickens and caring for them is not always cookie cutter. What works for you may not work for another chicken keeper. I've had chickens for a while and I have them quite content and healthy. I get your good intentions. It is not one size fits all.
Last year we had a horrible problem with rats. We have Norway rat and mice here in Alabama and when we added to our flock this year, I started fermenting our food and we have no birds eating our chicken feed and 0 rats now because our flock consumes 100% of their daily rations. I've also cut out their scratch grains in the summer months because it creates over heating in the chickens body, and here we call it eating at McDonald's, i.e., it's less nutritional for them. I also added vitamins and probiotics plus electrolytes for the hottest days to their watering container. Another idea is to add frozen water bottles to help cool the waterer a bit of like a cool drink for them. The other bit we had to do was clear back brush and ivy. The only time I put bedding down now for our girls in the coop is when we have rain to keep them out of the mud and I'll make them a tub to dust bathe in with potting soil, DE, sand and herbs to help them feel fresh and prevent mites and lice. Great video, let your daughter finish her sentences, lol. I know as a parent we want to move ahead quickly, I was guilty. Your a great Daddy for teaching her and she will never forget these life lessons, I never did. 🐔🐓❤🐓🐔
Just adopted a female - mostly Kelpie - pup here in San Diego CA and although we don’t have chooks I found this video so helpful and fascinating. Thanks for sharing your knowledge! Love you informative style.
Old video so do not know if there is any one ever reading this. You obviously had your experience with this product but I'd like to challenge you a bit if I may. To me it seems like your problems would come down to user error. Firstly from your video it does not look like the hive was tilted backwards when you first start draining it. It has to be tilted backwards ever so slightly for the honey to run out of the drain pipes. It may not have been advertised on your version of the flow hive though. Normal use it should have a tilt a bit forward so rain water will not run in and when draining have it tilted backwards for gravity to help the honey flow out. Point 2. In your demonstration of how much the frame twists you seem to be opening a whole frame at once. That is not recommended. And combined with not have enough of a tilt backwards the honey had no where to go but into the hive and kill all your bees. I'm so sorry for the loss of your bees but I am happy that at least the FH gave you and your daughter a good hobby of bee keeping. Beekeeping is an amazing hobby and I dont even like honey. Cheers
I am now dealing with this and am trying my best to not upset my neighbours and also to ensure the eggs I eat and distribute are not being touched by such dirty animals. This winter is when I started to notice holes in their coop, but it was an old wooden shed and because I never heard any squeaking or seen rat droppings I figured they were just pre-existing holes. but since the snow has melted away I am starting to see them and they are hiding under their coop...They are now unable to enter the coop but are breeding and feeding off of food and excrement that goes past the 2x6 flooring. I have taken steps to further reinforce the outside of the coop and am re-strategizing my cleaning method so there is not much seepage. If things do not improve ill probably end up lifting the 2x6s and cleaning up and adding something new or moving the coop all together and raising it... I feel a big part of the problem is that they sense the chicken feed and love it. Ive had chickens for a year now and have been keeping up with cleaning regularly, so I'm fairly upset at myself for allowing this to happen...
I have never seen flow hive frames look like that and they never should. I think that has to do with your mass death from the pesticides or maybe somehow your queen got through the excluder and started laying eggs up there. It kind of looks like a broods nest frame. Also honey bees are not anywhere near extinct. That is a rumor that has been going around for years but if you look it up, scientist believe that there are more bees on the planet now than ever in history. Glad you enjoy beekeeping and keep it up but I would definitely say that there was just something bad that happened with your hive that isn't common with all flow hives.
Good job Rooster! I love kelpies my Kelpie Maxwell is awesome and he took on 2 raccoons during the day who were up to no good. Held em off till I got out there and shot them. A .22 rifle is a good anti fox tool as well. (you might have to get an air rifle because of your government).
Fascinating. I’ve just rescued 6 caged hens and their desire to be outside free ranging is incredible. Here in the uk it’s expected that chickens are able to free range. Great videos, Soph is very knowledgeable about your chickens. Excellent work. Lol vegetarian chickens, seriously. Chickens eat mice, each other, insects, spiders etc etc. next they’ll be selling vegan eggs lol
Hi from Ontario Canada. New to your site. I'm getting day olds this spring and was thinking I would limit access to food. Seemed to me that a constant unguarded supply would be an invitation to vermin. You did mention that growing chickens need a constant supply. How do you handle this? Thanks.
Have a mobile coop fertilize the ground jeep moving every other day food on ground I don’t use compost tumbler or static ones my cows and chickens, pigs , sheep. Fertilize and I have no barns.
Hi! Great video! I am listening as I am harvesting acorns off the ground for my two chicken potentially that are a few months old. They have been through a lot of raining days here in California in the USA. I notice that many are cracked open and even rooting. Wondering if those are okay or if the root is not a good idea or if they still need soaking. Any thoughts on this?
