"The smell of chicken droppings will clean the hair out of your nose." Small scissors are much more highly recommended. Here I come, maybe offending some and losing a few lady friends. I cannot fathom anyone allowing housing used for any type of animal to devolve into such a sh-t house. That is beyond my ability to imagine. If I knew of such a place I would report them to the Board of Health and any other government agency with similar jurisdiction in their area. You must know of some horse stables and/or dog kennels in your area. Visit them and you certainly won't have any question of their cleanliness. If that's not a good example - report them. Do you feel OK buying eggs and roasting chickens from such a place? I don't think you're going to say yes. May I also mention that pigs are one of the neatest animals ever found. They are one of very few BORN HOUSE BROKEN. Give them enough room, enough space, and you will not have any problem spending the afternoon admiring their neatness. Sorry ladies. But I hope you are wrong!
There is no way around it - chicken shit stinks. If you have a large number of them, there will be stink no matter how clean you keep their pens. If you only have a few, that's a tad different. Pigs are, indeed, very clean, but unless you have some magic potion the rest of us know nothing about, pig shit stinks! It has nothing to do with how clean they are, it just is.
The chicken houses I was in were raising the birds for some fast food joint or Tyson, something like that. A few birds running loose in the yard don't make much of a smell, unless you step right in their excrement. A few thousand in an enclosed space...phew. I don't eat fast food. Or frozen chicken for the most part. Yuck.
Messilane, I agree wholeheartedly. SH1T STINKS. That's why everyone avoids stepping in it. It's just my opinion it should not be left around so long, or accumulate to that depth because the space is overcrowded. Our chickens averaged about 30, maybe 40. They don't all drop an egg every day. They spent most of their time in the outside, open air pen. That's where they ate except when covered in snow. The nesting boxes were all inside. We also had, in the same shed, a good size raised cage with an albino rabbit in it. She was bred once or twice a year. Averaged 12 cuties every time. She then proceeded to cull them down to a manageable 7. Their poopies dropped through the wiring onto the floor. It was one of my chores to shovel that out. Good fertilizer. I really don't recall who cleaned out any chicken waste. Or even if anyone did. But it was NEVER a question of - change or clean your shoes before you come into the house, about 100 feet away. And I'll guarantee our porch, hall, etc. was never dirty or smelly. I'm certainly not calling you wrong. I'm just saying I can't see it hanging around enough to affect you or anyone else.
evelyb, you slipped in while I was typing. I kinda figured both of you were describing a large commercial - and wholesale - chicken meat producer. I don't think the same sad conditions would be with a wholesale egg farmer. And I'm going to ask that we drop the subject for now. OK?
From fine scotch whiskey , to pig shit ! & folks thing ' I'm ' good at running a thread off the rails........not this time !
Sorry Komo, didn't mean to step on your Wizard of Oz Red Ruby Slippers! I guess you didn't know the real ingredient in good scotch. Now off to see what the Ladies have to say. But this is my last post on Ted's thread. See you around somewhere else.
My father (and his father before him) raised chickens for family use (eggs and eventual hens which were eaten) which had a "hen house" with straw "nests" to go into at will (except the door was closed at night to keep out marauding animals). The rooster ran around at will (as is the "pattern" of all "roosters" with two legs). Yes, there is an odor (ammonia) in a hen house even if the chickens are free-range and the hen house ("chicken roost") is cleaned/scrubbed/nesting straw changed often. That "odor" explains why there are references from long-ago days about taking a woman suffering from "the vapors" (fainting spell) into a hen house to be rejuvenated/revived.
Hi, Our hen house was scraped out weekly, by me starting at age 6. Three times a year it was all scraped down to the wood and whitewashed. Every morning I had to go in there and remove the eggs. The hens would cluck and peck me while feeling underneath them for eggs. If there were no eggs the hens would just cluck and move out of the way. The rooster hated and I mean hated my sister. When she would come home, he would sneak around until he could ambush her. He would fly up and claw her and peck at her. She always went to the house screaming her lungs out. greg
I might have gotten a new rooster and had coq au vin. My great-grandfather had a goose with a herd instinct. The goose herded the chickens...and my dad as a baby. The goose was the baby sitter. It kept a lookout for bad guy critters, and also kept the toddler from getting close to the road.
For Scotch drinkers: He or she who does not appreciate Johnny Walker Blue, has a serious deficiency. And he or she who praises "single malts," without specificity, is trying to show off and failing miserably. Pass the Pepsi, please.
I recall being at a house party and was challenged to ID scotches. Shot glasses on a tray. Did fairly OK until she started with what turned out to be imported single malts in jugs. NEVER met anyone with such a liquor cabinet - heck - liquor pantry. For Scotch drinkers: He or she who does not appreciate Johnny Walker Blue, has a serious deficiency. And he or she who praises "single malts," ????? without specificity, is trying to show off and failing miserably. Pass the Pepsi, please. Any particular vintage?
I just picked up 3 vintage bottles of crown royal 1968 and (2) 1969. Unopened and in great condition. Any idea of the value?
more or less what they already sell for at the liquor store.... i've got a 1962.....&.i don't suspect that that one is even old enough to command a higher price....
Can you get that in a 'marbled' version......................... ~ ...or.....does that come later in regard to the scrambling of your own marbles?
Geese are the best security system you can get because they will defend their turf and for an example> I used to go to the Honolulu zoo often while stationed at Pearl Harbor, partly cause it was free...and I made so much money serving... Besides having great fun 'feeding' the otters ice cubes... man that was fun for us both. I would almost always stay til closing as there were fewer people around. Literally moments before they announced closing 5 HUGE white geese would begin to drive people from the zoo! They were coming at you honking if you didn't head for the gate! Amazing...and pretty dang scary.
Hi KoT, The best alarm system was the Guinea Hens. When a stranger came on to the property they started yelling and would fly up onto a tree branch and yell until the person went in the house or left. Then it would take 10 minutes until they calmed down and told each other the good work they did. greg