Comments

Episode-1077- Listener Feedback for 2-25-13 — 26 Comments

  1. With a 30×30 chicken area you could divide it into thirds on each side and end up with 9 10×10 areas to paddock shift the chickens. Run the chickens on each section four days and each area will have a 32 days rest period. You want 28 days or more in between to reduce parasite load.
    I wouldn’t run more than a few birds in this. Chickens can do a crazy amount of damage to a small area. If you’ve ever seen a chicken scratch you’ll know what I mean.

  2. Jack – you mentioned in the show you’d like to see more major arms makers react to the new/proposed laws. Obviously Beretta isn’t going to stop selling to government agencies since that’s their cash cow, but they are considering leaving Maryland entirely over Maryland’s new proposed legislation surprisingly enough reported on in the Washington Post. That would be a nice blow against the anti-rights crowd.

    • I love the quote from the article that the politicians probably won’t believe.
      “But Berettas don’t bluff.

      Steelheart

  3. jack i get your point on the programing comparison and im not trying to be a smart ass but modern programing does allow small changes without affrcting the rest of the code thanks to object oriented programming and model view controller techniques

    • I think you have to add the word “some” to your statement. Additionally your point is that the system was designed to be changed by man in a specific way, the ability for SOME change is coded in. I don’t think the creator (however you define the creator matters not) designed DNA to be changed by man.

  4. Appreciate your “Call to Arms” for firearms manufacturers to take a stance against states in violation of the 2nd Amendment.

    I work for Desert Tactical Arms (manufacturer of precision long range rifles), and just took this to the president of our company. Got word today that he is on board and is writing up our official notification. Add 1 more to the list.

    The revolution is you.

    -Dan

    • That is great to hear, Dan. Every time another company stands up for our Constitutional rights an important statement is made. Kudos to you for bringing it up the chain at your work, and kudos to your employer for having the courage to make this decision.

  5. I love the rocket mass heater. I plan to experiment with them and hope to use them to exclusively heat any enclosure I might need to heat on my homestead.

    However…the rocket mass heater, even if one was in every home in the USA will not eliminate the need for fracking…which has gotten a lot of bad press. Everyone who has a bad opinion of fracking should watch the documentary “Fracknation” if only to get the other side of the story.

    I understand that Mr. Wheaton is interested in making money on his DVD, and is using words and phrases that might facilitate that outcome, and I do not fault him for that. He may even believe that fracking is bad…which is sad, but one can only decide what is true if they have all the information regarding a particular subject, and I forgive him for his fallacious opinion.

    I would love to contribute to Mr. Wheatons Kickstarter…but you see, I get my money from my husband, and he gets his money providing a product to the fracking industry, you know, the ever deadly environmentally hazardous silica sand (that was sarcasm in case anyone missed it). So it would be a conflict of interest for me to do so…therefore, I will use the book I purchased “Rocket Mass Heaters…” by Ianto Evans and Leslie Jackson and trial and error to figure it out instead.

  6. Re chicken fencing: I didn’t like the price of electric fencing so I’ve rigged up my own very cheap paddock fences. Instead of poultry netting from the fencing aisle (~$60 for 50 feet of 4′ tall), I went over to the roofing/siding aisle and got a 150′ roll of 3′ stucco lathe for $64. It’s got the same hex shape, except it is a heavier gauge and only 3-ft tall. My girls stay inside (I do clip their wings). I stand the fence up using 1/2″ electrical conduit, cut into 5-ft lengths and threaded down through the lathe. The conduit runs $20 for ten 10-ft sticks and hacksaw them in half to get 20 small posts. I use an extra post and some bailing wire to make “Yankee” gates wherever needed.

  7. Thanks for your big plug Jack!

    TSP is now up to $3470! Soon you can add “Supreme Executive Producer with Bacon, Cheese and Sparkles” to your resume. 🙂

    Passionalty agree with you about the mosquitoes. Jocelyn is listening with me and she is utterly pissed.

    30×30 can do paddock shift if you have a sacrifice area. And if the person tries it, they will start to scheme how to let the chickens into a bigger area.

    Tilling: every time you till you lose 30% of your organic matter.

  8. I think the Provita article might be a hoax.

    All the articles seem to be referencing/ or are identical to each other and I can’t find any sign of Provita Pharmaceuticals other than facebook and twitter.

  9. OK, Paul you have me convinced – switching to paddock shift with some spring construction projects. Plan is to have 4-5 set paddocks (i.e. somewhat permanent fencing) with a “hallway” fence to get to the paddock we open from the coop. My flock runs 10-12 birds (depending on how well I keep the coyotes away). Two questions:

    1 – any suggestions on paddock size for that size flock (mixed birds – Marans, Orpingtons, Australorpes, etc)?

    2 – any suggestions on the cheapest / most effective fencing?

    • Assuming you have infinite space and the land has some food for the chickens, I would go with 1/4 acre paddocks.

      Cheapest fencing: I would look into chicken tight hedges grown along the top edge of hugelkultur beds. Combined with some home-made all-natural-from-your-land wattles.

  10. I’m on 22 acres, so while not infinite, it should be enough to do 4 x 1/4 acre paddocks. Seems like a lot for only 10-12 birds, but I guess they won’t complain about having too much room 😉

    My coop is on the edge of the tree line / woods – up hill definitely the possibility for some hugelkultur, but worried about blocking all the sun (uphill is also the south). Downhill is into the woods, so not sure they would get enough sun to actually grow anything on. Plenty of wood though, so may just do it all as wattle. Any tips on wattle gates?

  11. What size of tarred twine do I get? I do not want to end up with 1000 feet of cord at thick as my finger.

    • Generally #18 but I don’t trust ordering it online. You want actual TARRED line which means it has a coating of tar. Apparently there is no law that says you can’t call line tarred just because it is black and doesn’t even have any tar on it. I always open the plastic a bit and check any I buy, if it ain’t sticky I don’t want it.

  12. One more advantage of tarred twine: It’s a heck of a lot easier to double up/triple up twine when you need more strength, than it is to cut and splice 550 when you need more length. (You hinted at this, just carrying through the logical thought.)

  13. Running way behind listening, as usual. Glad I made it to this episode, plugged in my $100 contribution to Paul Wheaton’s video project. Should be amazing.

    Now to find that blasted tarred twine locally so I can try it out…