I have a little weekend place/cabin that is unoccupied 5-6 days a week this time of year. The other day I was up there and discovered this.
What animal would be doing this. I’ve had mice and crickets and the typical things before, but I’ve never had vandalism!
Who do you think the culprit is?
I’m doing some research for a potential startup. The goal is to provide fast, remote health advice for livestock to help owners decide between "treat at home" or "call the emergency vet."
Does this sound like something you'd find valuable?
What’s the #1 thing you wish you could ask a vet without the $200 vet fee?
I can see the value in writing everything down, but I also know a lot of people don’t want to turn hatching into a paperwork hobby.
Curious where people land on it in real life.
Are you tracking things like:
Honest and sincere question:
Is there any place in the USA where a legal American citizen can set up a tent or camp site shelter and as long as they are clean and law abiding can permanently live there, providing for themself, or is that not allowed on public or private land?
And if not, why not?
My wife and I want to buy some land and get away from society, we are looking at a good sized plot of land, but it is a mining claim.
From how I understand that as, is the BLM owns the land, but what we would be buying is basically a contract so that only we can do any mining operations on that plot. We would not be able to build any housing or anything unless it is specifically for mining operations.
Is that correct, and is there any way we would be able to get around that?
It's in Utah, Washington County if that matters.
Hi all, Just wondered what everyone is doing with current and possibly higher fuel costs in the future? Everything in the gulf could end peacefully tomorrow, but so much infrastructure has been damaged that it's looking like fuel costs will continue to be higher until some things are repaired / rebuilt. From higher diesel for equipment to those living more rural so freight costs make everything more expensive to pricier fertilizer, are there any plans y'all have been making or actions you've been taking?
At our place, we've already been working on installing solar and batteries, but we're not fully off grid, and it more just helps us run this place with the sketchy energy company's ever increasing bills thanks to AI centers. But it's not like it's going to run fully electric vehicles or anything.
How safe is it, and how well does it work?
hello! we are looking for some help on one of our chickens, if anyone has the knowledge. can anyone provide any kind of help? is she a lost cause, are we are delaying her death? be kind, please, our layers are not like our broilers - they are our pets
on wednesday, my parents found one of their hens wrapped up in some netting in their horse barn. we are estimating that she had been trapped out there for 1.5-2 full days, as she was swamped in her own feces and severely dehydrated.
yesterday (friday) i came over after work and we did some research on how to bring her back to full health. last night we observed that she had no movement in her right claw, and minimal movement in her wings. we moved her to a warm, dark space separate from the other chickens, with a heat lamp and fresh pine shavings as well as a towel for upright support. she was extremely lethargic with no strength, and very light in weight. we gave her 10ml of water mixed with egg yolk + a small amount of salt for calories/electrolytes via a dropper.
between then and now, she has been checked on every couple of hours. tonight she is able to move her wings, but still not her right claw - though she is able to move the leg itself. i'm not sure how to add videos here but i did attach two pictures. questions? suggestions? pointers?
What happens if it rains??
Hello,
I have a well at my barn that works…but then the water stops sort of abruptly after about 2-3 minutes of running.
I was thinking that the issue is that the well hose has a tear in it near where the pump is, and once the water (approx 2-3 minutes worth) goes below the tear, pressure is nearly instantly lost and I don’t get water.
I have attached pictures of what my well looks like. I undid 2 of the bolts on one half of the well cap, and I was hoping I could just take half out to see if I could then see if the well “hose” was made of solid or flexible plastic or cast iron to confirm my hypothesis.
After undoing the 2 bolts I noticed that the hose was still pretty tight and the cap would not come off easily, so I put it back on because I was worried that if I took the cap off the whole hose would fall in and I’d be screwed.
Is the hose super heavy? Am I right to worry about that?
Does my hypothesis make sense or does anyone think my issue is more likely something else?
Thank you
By the way I have not lived in this house for long so I don’t know anything about its history.
I'm joking before y'all come for me, but this just serves as a reminder that there's always a cheaper alternative for things.
Hoping for some feedback to determine if this is a reasonable ask. Dogs killed 5x 8mo birds that just started to lay, I recovered the dogs and the police got involved so there's basically a solid case, what I'm not sure on are the numbers if they're reasonable or not:
Plaintiff:
Defendants:
Defendant Address:
1. Statement of Incident
On DATE, dogs owned or controlled by the Defendants entered my property without permission. During this incident, the dogs destroyed a section of my fence and killed five (5) laying hens.
At the time of the incident, the hens were approximately eight (8) months old and had recently reached productive laying age. These hens were being raised for egg production for personal use and sale.
The incident was reported to the Police Department and documented under Incident Report #: #######.
Pursuant to South Dakota Codified Laws § 40-34-2:
“Any person owning, keeping, or harboring a dog that chases, worries, injures, or kills any poultry or domestic animal is liable for damages to the owner thereof for any injury caused by the dog…”
Under this statute, the Defendants are liable for damages because their dogs entered my property and killed poultry (laying hens). This law directly applies and establishes responsibility for the losses incurred.
The statute further provides that a judgment for such damages may be enforced against the Defendants’ property as allowed by law.
A. Property Damage
B. Livestock Replacement Cost
C. Feed Investment (8 months)
D. Loss of Income (Egg Production)
| Category | Amount |
|---|---|
| Property Damage | $220 |
| Livestock Replacement | $30 |
| Feed Investment | $90 |
| Loss of Income | $832 |
| Total Damages | $1,172 |
The following evidence is available and will be provided in support of this claim:
Plaintiff respectfully requests judgment against the Defendants in the amount of $1,172, plus any allowable court costs and fees.
Location: South Dakota
I’m really into homesteading, hunting, fishing... basically the whole “produce your own food” lifestyle. It’s something I find rewarding and meaningful, and on a logical level I have zero ethical issue with harvesting and processing my own animals.
But I’ve run into something I didn’t expect.
When I actually go to eat meat that I hunted or butchered, I get this subtle feeling of disgust or uneasiness. Not overwhelming, but it's just enough that I don’t feel the same desire to keep eating, even if the food tastes great.
I think it comes from being so close to the whole process, as in the blood, guts, smells, everything. My brain seems to stay in that “processing mode,” and it’s like my body hasn’t fully switched back to “this is food now.”
What’s interesting is I don’t feel this at all with store-bought meat.
So I’m curious:
For example, today I was eating a cottontail rabbit I harvested this winter. It tasted great, but I didn’t really want to keep eating it unless I pushed myself.
Would appreciate any thoughts or experiences, especially from people further along in this lifestyle.
A few friends and I are planning on building a homestead in british columbia of Canada. We know it's a long, hard process, especially in this economy. I wanted to see if there were others who were looking to build a homestead in british columbia, I want to make a community of people! Building a large homestead is a lot easier with a small community of people. If you and your friends are interested in joining up, building, and living in a homestead together in BC canada, please shoot me a dm!
Hi, Reddit. I’m not sure this is the ideal subreddit to even ask this question in so if you’ve got a better-suited one let me know.
I’m wanting to make a lube for you-know-what using coconut oil, and I’m wondering how to change the consistency it naturally comes in. I have a jar of the solid organic coconut oil you get from the store but that stuff is a little too solid, I’d like something more like a lotion-consistency. I’m wondering, if I melt this down and mix it with liquid coconut oil, will they cool to make a lotion? Or is there some better way to do it? I’m hoping there is some kinky homesteader or chef out there who can help me solve this conundrum 😂
Thanks y’all!
My tomato plant was planted in my outdoor garden bed about two months ago. About three weeks ago I noticed the tips of leaves turning black. I plucked all of those and the remaining have also grown to have black tips. The plant is producing and the stems look healthy. Is this blight?
I water deeply twice a week and fertilize occasionally. The planter faces south and gets plenty of light. It's about 2x5x1.5 ft and I give it two gallons every three days. The soil was fresh but I did plant a tomato that had mysteriously grown in the pot of my corn plant (I figured a bird had dropped it). That plant also got black tips and I removed it from the planter as I thought it may have some disease that was spreading to my other tomato. I have a third tomato plant in the planter that does not have these black tips.
Three years ago, it was chickens.
Two years ago, we added ducks.
Last year, we added a lot of both.
This year, it's geese.
I guess we're a goose family now.
Chickens truly are a gateway animal.
If anyone has any recommendations on geese, feel free to send them my way. Our initial thought is that (hopefully) these two will be a bonded pair with their own space. However, I certainly wouldn't mind putting them with our ducks.
Not trying to sell anything here - I'm building a rabbitry management tool and I keep running into the same gap.
Breeders who run more than 3-4 does at a time tell me the spreadsheet breaks down fast. You're manually calculating kindle dates, setting nest box reminders (day 28), logging kit counts, tracking losses, and then trying to figure out which doe/buck pairing actually produces the best dress-out percentage.
That last part is the one nobody has a clean answer for. Most breeders I've talked to either don't track it at all or have a separate notebook for processing weights that never gets cross-referenced against the breeding record.
I built something that connects all of it - breeding record → litter tracking → processing yield - so you can actually see dress-out percentage by pairing over time.
But before I keep building, I want to know: what does your current system look like? Spreadsheet, paper, some other app? What's the part that actually breaks?
anyone have any hints or tips for anyone with no gardening experience? where can I get seeds?