Insulating a chicken coop and feeding alfalfa
What growing zone are you in?
Is your chicken coop insulated? With what kind of insulation? How thick? We have had 15 days of temperatures over 105 with no rain. How would you keep chickens cool? Sometimes our winters have 20 below for weeks. What breed of chicken could survive those extremes?
I have been told that alfalfa that is under stress (no rain) has a higher nitrogen content and can kill cattle. Some guys have lost cattle feeding it. How could you have it tested? Would you mix it with other feed and be OK? We had orchard grass in ours but with the excessive heat, and no rain only the alfalfa made it up.
J from Missouri
We are in Zone 3.
Our present chicken coop is not insulated. We keep it warm by keeping a lot of birds in it and shutting the door at night to hold in body heat. When we build our new coop, Will plans to do a straw bale coop so it’ll have plenty of insulation both to keep fewer birds warmer in sub-zero weather and cooler when it gets hot in the summer. We get to -35 regularly in the winter and below zero as HIGHS for lengthy periods. Yet we raise White Rocks, Cochins, Cornish, mixed banties, and Cuckoo Marans with no problem other than an occasional comb getting frosted.
Yes, alfalfa under drought conditions does have a higher nitrogen level. Usually if you feed grain and hay and feed hay several times a day rather than giving free access, it reduces toxicity. You can have a core sample of your hay tested by any hay lab (check with your county extension office or feed mill) to see what you’re dealing with in your hay. Levels over .2% are usually safe to feed unpregnant animals receiving grain. If you can find grass hay to mix with your alfalfa, that will help, but if in doubt, testing your hay is safest. — Jackie
Storing dehydrated fruits
How long can dehydrated apple and banana chips be stored? I dry them until very crisp and crunchy, place them in canning jars, and vacuum seal the jar.
Judith Almand
Brandon, Florida
I’m not sure; I have some that are 25 years old and are still fine! I’d say nearly forever! — Jackie
hardy momma,
Well…. Okay, my mom and dad had an orchard! We came home to Minnesota with twenty bushels of prime apples and I did everything possible with them, including drying five bushels. I hope they last until our orchard is producing more than we can eat.
Jackie
I’m just curious HOW you kept those apple chips 25 years without them being gobbled up? You must have dried the whole orchard!
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