Help UC Davis with the California Backyard Poultry Census

If you’re a California backyard chicken enthusiast the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine and Cooperative Extension has a short survey they’d like you to fill out. The purpose of the survey is to get an estimate of how many backyard flocks are out there and, “bridge the communication gap between poultry experts and backyard poultry enthusiasts.” The survey is confidential and contact info will only be used for educational purposes. Last year...

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Root Simple’s New CritterCam

...t time? (We’ve seen them two times in the backyard). Are rats visiting our chicken feeder? When does a broody hen get up to eat? What critters are hanging around the chicken coop at night? Use the camera’s time lapse function to look at shade patterns in the yard. I’ll share the results on the blog over the next year. The first night I used the camera I pointed it at the grape arbor where I know rats visit. The resulting images, that I strung toge...

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Saturday Linkages: Invaders, Sick Chickens and Adaptive Reuse

...n the horizon http://garynabhan.com/i/archives/2494 When To Isolate A Sick Chicken | HenCam http://hencam.com/henblog/2014/08/when-to-isolate-a-sick-chicken/ … via @terrygolson Can Edible Gardening Reduce Deforestation? – http://go.shr.lc/1lkI1wO via @TenthAcreFarm How to Kill Poison Ivy – http://tafarm.us/1kEpTgQ via @TenthAcreFarm “Does Beauty Still Matter?” A thoughtful article by @mharrisonhough http://goo.gl/WxIcmv Adaptive Reuse: Old Stuff,...

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The Best Way to Get Bees For Free

...haphazardly, upside-down, in a large plastic pot that was half filled with chicken litter. I intended to throw the box out at some later date. Then, a few days later, as a neighbor was telling me about his favorite climbing roses, Kelly called me from the porch, saying there was a”bee situation” going on in the back yard. I ran up the stairs and behind the house to see one of the awe inspiring miracles of nature: a hive moving into their new home–...

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Designing the World’s Most Pretentious Garden Shed

...do” list is a much needed garden shed to store tools, pots, fertilizer and chicken feed. After years of dragging my heels for years, the project went from napkin sketch to construction in under a week. I set as my goal to build the world’s most pretentious garden shed and, as much as possible, to use salvaged materials. Yes, I’m crazy. I have to admit that when British hedge fund manager Crispen Odey tried to build a $250,000 neo-classical chicken...

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