Surviving the illness strengthens the potential for disease-fighting ability of the flock and of the survivors' offspring. One disease that can devastate a flock is avian influenza, or bird flu.
Although Maya Angelou was never a farmer, we farmers can learn a lot from her attitude and composure. Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it. Maybe you love farming but you want to take your crops in a new direction or...
Don't forget that when things get tough—when your cucumbers are plagued with squash bugs and the tomatoes have blossom end rot because of seven days of ceaseless rain—that your love for the land exudes far beyond the task at hand.
Maybe your city or town is taking down a tree that is interfering with power lines and would welcome help disposing of the wood. They are all slightly different variations on building a raised bed from layers of organic matter, which rots down right where...
Every time I climbed into my car in some new creative way, dropped my keys because my hands were shaking from the cold, or added another layer of clothing to my daily outfit, I thought of Hal Borland's quote above: This winter may be intense, but it won't...
Do-it-yourselfers can use homeopathic remedies to treat minor ailments and injuries, for first-aid emergencies until the vet arrives, and to augment conventional veterinary treatment.
Ingestion can cause dizziness, stomach pain, diarrhea, high pulse rate, nausea, drowsiness and low blood pressure. Winterberry (Ilex verticillata), also known as winterholly, brightens winter landscape with brilliant berries.
I may not be able to start gardening or backyard chicken-keeping any time soon, but when that time comes, I'll already have a head start. I'm constantly mulling over possibilities in my mind, from the contemplative (“What if I was from a different country?”)...
I took a quick look at my typical herbal seed and plant providers and found ashitaba seed readily available from Horizon Herbs, where owner Richo Cech has been growing tomorrow's leaf since Dec.
However, identifying immature insect nymphs can be a challenge for gardeners, as the nymphs of many pest and beneficial species share little to no resemblance with their adult forms.
Frozen soil is dense and rigid. Digging in your garden too soon or in the wrong conditions results in two things: frustration for you and poor soil structure. If there is no spring or give to the soil, it's probably still frozen and too cold to work.freestar.queue.push(function()...
Damping off is a term commonly used for indicating the sudden death of seedlings, often caused by soil-borne fungus stimulated to grow by nutrients from a germinating seed. The otherwise healthy looking seedling will discolor or wilt suddenly, or simply...
Make a bin using recycled pallets and poultry netting (chicken wire). There are many commercial compost bins available from garden centers or from mail order suppliers.If you do buy commercial compost look for the "OMRI" logo.
The turkey needs to be covered during cooking with oiled or buttered parchment paper, not foil, except for a brief period near the end to brown the bird. The interest in heritage turkeys is just one step away from backyard chickens.What are heritage turkeys,...
I always keep dry laurel leaves in a glass jar for spicing my winter meals: sauerkraut or dry beans in a casserole, sauerkraut stuffed rolls, marinated sauce for meatballs, beef belly sour broth, Christmas pork dishes and pickled sweet peppers.
Better known as Dracaena sanderiana, this plant is a fixture in many households.Connoisseurs agree that not all bamboo is created equally.Lucky bamboo, also known as "Belgian evergreen," is a woody shrub with shiny green leaves.
Since the food web partially depends on the plants that grow in it, the more different species you plant, the richer and healthier the soil.Your plants belong to you, but in a larger sense, they serve your community, since diversity is the sum of all...
This process had the intended effect of replenishing the soil, but it left half the arable land unused and unproductive. As the name suggests, arable fields were divided into threes.
Fresh-cut Okoume heartwood darkens with age and exposure to light and air. Okoume is the wood of the Okoume tree (Aucoumea klaineana), a species native to west-central Africa, in particular Gabon, Equatorial Guinea and the Republic of Congo.
I have since moved on to asking friends of friends with hens, telling them how cute little baby chicks are and how much fun it is to breed your own chickens. “Psst! Hey buddy, want a rooster?” Then I'll proceed to pull him out from under my jacket...
(By this point, it's doubtful that I'll ever come around to beets, fennel or especially coconuts.) I've come around to most of my disliked foods, and I've even developed a taste for olives and raw tomatoes, both of which were expressly banned from the...
Frost will kill it. These sprawling plants are vines that can grow up to 30 feet long or tall if they have something to climb on. They come in shades of red, purple, white, yellow and pink.
At pH above 7, phosphorus becomes unavailable, and the build up of calcium carbonate and other toxic salts can inhibit root development. Sodium hydroxide (NaOH) is a base because in solution it dissolves to form Na+ and OH- ions.The pH scale was developed...
While it's common practice to put mulch down in the garden at the end of the growing season, mulches also help in the spring garden and throughout the growing season. It won't look the prettiest, so consider topping it with compost soil if aesthetics...
Arrrggghhh! I've been waiting for a chance to use some pirate-ease on this blog. Because I can't wait until Talk Like a Pirate Day, which only comes around once a year, I figured I'd jump at the chance now.
To answer the reader's question, a Black Sex Link female chick is completely black, but an Australorp female chick is black on the top with a buff color on her neck, chest and bottom.
The juice from the sugar cane's stalk is highly prized and is the source of 70 percent of the world's sugar. It can take six to 24 months for the plant to grow to maturity.Sugar cane is harvested when it reaches maturity and during the dry season of the...
