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Growing Good Podcast #87: Entomologist Ron Bittner

This conversation with Ron Bittner will help you make the connection between crop pollination, water conservation and soil health in a way you probably haven’t before.

Learn about how Ron’s interest in insects—specifically the alfalfa leafcutting bee—has taken him around the US and all the way to Australia.

Hear about the beginnings of Ron’s small vineyard, which he operates with his wife, daughter and a small crew and why this location in Caldwell, Idaho, is ideal for growing wine grapes. Ron also talks about his farm’s certifications: Salmon Safe, Bee Friendly Farming and LIVE.

Ron’s involvement with the nonprofit Pollinator Partnership and continued research on pollinator populations in his area keep him involved with some of the 4,000 native bees in the US. Let his passion for pollinators get you excited about how to attract and protect these creatures on your own property. 

Links from this episode:

Hobby Farms Presents: Growing Good podcast episode with Sara Wittenburg

Pollinator Partnership website

iNaturalist citizen science app

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Equipment

How Much Weight Can a Front-End Loader Lift?

front end loader lifting feed for cows
Tractor with front end loader scored feed for cows. Adobe Stock/sheris9

How much weight can a front-end loader lift? The answer depends on many factors, including the size and strength of the loader, the type of load you’re lifting, and whether your machine is appropriately counterbalanced.

Whether you’re looking to lift a 300-pound log or 1,000 pounds of dirt, it’s wise to know the maximum lifting capabilities of your loader so you can tackle suitably-sized jobs safely and efficiently. Here are three tips for determining (and maximizing) the lifting capacity of your front-end loader:

#1 Check online or in the manual for weight lifting maximums.

You don’t have to guess how much a loader can lift, at least not entirely. You can find basic numbers by looking up the front-end loader’s specifications online or in a printed manual if you have one.

There are two key numbers to know. The first is how much weight the loader can lift to maximum height at the pivot pins. Let’s say it’s 1,250 pounds. You’re good to go lifting anything up to 1,250 pounds, right?

Wrong. The bucket of the front-end loader sits forward of the pivot pins, and this added distance creates leverage that reduces the lifting ability of your loader. The same goes when using other attachments, like forks. In all likelihood, the load you’re lifting is going to sit somewhat forward of the pins.

That’s where the second number comes into play. If your loader is rated to lift 1,000 pounds to maximum height at a point 20 inches forward of the pins, that’s a more realistic measure of your loader’s lifting capacity.

Understand that a small front-end loader may be fairly limited in its lifting capabilities. If the most it can lift to a maximum height 20 inches forward of the pins is 550 pounds, you’ll have to carry less with each load (if lifting dirt, compost, logs, etc.) and skip lifting solid objects weighing more than 550 pounds if they can’t be separated into smaller loads.

On the other hand, powerful tractors with large front-end loaders can be capable of lifting more than 6,000 pounds. When you have a front-end loader this strong (and a powerful tractor to match), you can tackle some mighty heavy-lifting projects without running up against the limitations of your loader.

#2 If you only need to lift a little, you can lift more.

Notice that the rated lifting capacity of your front-end loader refers to the amount it can lift to maximum height. If you don’t need to lift a heavy load as high up as possible, you can squeeze more lifting power out of your loader. For example, if you’re using a bale spear to lift a round bale, and you only need to lift the bale a few inches off the ground, you’ll be able to lift more weight than your loader is otherwise rated for.

#3 Counterbalancing is the key to safety and max performance.

When lifting heavy loads with a front-end loader, it’s critical to counterbalance the weight at the front of your tractor with ballast at the rear. Without weight at the rear, when you attempt to lift your load, you may find that the load stays stationary and the rear wheels of your tractor lift off the ground instead. Suffice to say, that’s a safety hazard.

Ballast helps you stay safe while getting the most out of your front-end loader. Wheel weights and liquid tire ballasts are two common options. You can also install suitcase weights on a bracket at the rear of your tractor, or mount a ballast box to the three-point hitch and fill it up with heavy materials like rocks, concrete blocks, or dirt. In a pinch, you use any three-point implement (like a plow or box blade) as rear ballast, though doing so can make your tractor less maneuverable, and you mustn’t forget about the implement an inadvertently damage it while focusing on your front-end loader.

By combining these tips and tricks with the rated lifting capacity of your front-end loader, you can stay safe while maximizing the amount of weight your front-end loader can lift.

This article about how much weight can a front-end loader lift was written for Hobby Farms magazine. Click here to subscribe. 

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Poultry

Chicken Water: What Kind of Water Should Chickens Drink

chicken water in backyard with red chicken drinking from a waterer
Red chickens on a private farm in the village. Adobe Stock/UPictures

Chicken water may seem like a basic topic. And, it is. Like all living things, our chickens need water to survive, thrive and produce healthy eggs. Clean water keeps hens’ reproductive systems working the way they should, and some chicken keepers, especially newbies, worry about water quality or if they’re properly watering their flock. To provide some clarity, here are four water sources for your chickens and what to think about when using them.

1. Tap Water

In urban areas with municipal water systems, we don’t usually need to worry about the water quality. City water sources are considered safe for consumption, but there are certainly differences in the taste and composition from city to city. Treated water isn’t all the same, but it is almost always safe. Growing up, I drank from Lake Huron. Today, my chickens and I drink from the Ohio River. I can tell you, the difference between the two is huge; in our current location, we face more hard-water issues.

Watering your flock from the outside spigot is comparable to the tap water inside your house. Although the tap inside is probably cleaner than the spigot outside, that’s certainly nothing to worry about. Sometimes I will clean my flocks’ waterer, fill it up from the spigot, and put it back in the coop, only to find them all drinking out of a mud puddle.

Safety Check: 4 Water Sources for Your Chickens - Photo by Rachel Hurd Anger (UrbanFarmOnline.com) #chickens #chickenkeeping

2. Well Water

About 15 percent of the U.S. relies on private wells, which aren’t regulated like municipal water sources. Wells can be polluted by natural and man-made contaminants, including microorganisms, like bacteria and viruses, heavy metals, and unsafe levels of naturally occurring fluoride. Chemicals or animal waste runoff from farms can also contaminate wells, especially if they’re shallow.

If you have well water, test it for safety. If you drink it yourself, consider it safe for your livestock, too. But, if you don’t drink your well water for reasons like heavy metal contamination, chemical pollutants or microorganisms, remember you are what you eat—and you are what your food eats, too. If you eat the eggs or meat of your chickens, don’t give them water you wouldn’t drink yourself.

3. Softened Water

Water softeners commonly use salt (sodium chloride)—the same stuff in your kitchen saltshaker—to replace the calcium and magnesium ions that make water hard. Hard water’s biggest caveat is scale buildup. It’s not unsafe to drink, but it can clog pipes, build up around faucets, and keep your soap from lathering in the shower. Water softeners installed where water enters the home can protect pipes, making the naturally hard water unavailable.

While water softeners use common table salt, the process of softening is only replacing calcium and magnesium ions with higher-charged sodium ones. Very little sodium ends up in the drinking water. Even for people on a sodium-restricted diet, the FDA says that the amount of sodium in an 8-ounce glass of water is so low that it still falls under its own definition of a very low-sodium food.

Consider that if you’re giving your chickens any kind of electrolyte products, that it contains more sodium than they will consume from softened water. Sodium is an essential electrolyte. If you’re sodium sensitive and use a water purification system that uses potassium chloride in lieu of sodium chloride, this is also safe for you and for your flock.

4. Backyard Hose

Dragging the hose to the waterer for rinsing and refills is often easier than lugging the waterer to the spigot. If you prefer the hose, consider buying one labeled safe for drinking. Most commercial hoses contain hormone disruptors, like phthalates and and bisphenol A (BPA), to keep the plastic soft. If you can’t replace your hose, let the water run for several minutes before giving any hose water to the chickens. This will rinse out many contaminants that could have leached into the water left sitting in the hose.

This story about chicken water was written for Chickens magazine. Click here to subscribe.

Categories
Poultry

Got a Missing Chicken? 5 Steps to Take

missing chicken hiding nest grass
Ana Hotaling

Got a missing chicken? For those who keep a backyard flock in an urban or suburban setting, a missing bird seems unthinkable. How could a chicken possibly get out of its tidy, contained coop-and-run combo or its fenced backyard?

For those of us who live in a rural residential or agricultural zone, however, discovering a member of our flock is missing at lock-up is not as uncommon as you’d think. Combine free-ranging with a chicken’s innate curiosity and you’ll have plenty of reasons why you might be short one chicken.

If this happens to you when you’re closing up your coop for the night, don’t panic. Take a deep breath. Then take on one or more of these five suggestions.

#1 Is Your Bird Having a Slumber Party?

If you raise multiple flocks of chickens, chances are your birds have not only noticed each other but have also communicated back and forth through clucks, warbles, crows and other vocalizations. Commonly, these calls keep each other informed of the status of their territory. This is especially true if you keep more than one rooster.

Occasionally, your birds’ chatter may actually be more neighborly. Chickens will sort out where each of them stands in the expanded poultry society comprised of all your flocks. If you discover that one of your hens is missing, check your other coops.

I’ve lost count of how many times we’ve found members our BBS Orpington flock peacefully snoozing on the perch in the Buff Orpington coop and Buffs on the Blue Orpington perch. If your birds are having a sleepover , there’s no need to disturb them (unless roosters are present and you breed separate varieties).

Just sort everyone back out when you release them in the morning.

#2 Your Missing Chicken Could Be a High Flyer

With few exceptions, chickens prefer their roosts several feet off the ground. According to Dr. Richard Fulton, a poultry science professor at Michigan State University, the inclination to roost up high originates from an instinct to stay out of reach of ground-based predators.

Most birds are content with the height of their henhouse perches. But others look for higher ground.

Our Dutch Bantam, Cutie, and our Golden Sebright, Dennis, always perched up in the rafters of their coop, well above the heads of the rest of their flock. Dennis went missing one evening, and I spent several hours searching the surrounding forests for that tiny bird.

I finally gave up and headed back to the house. Then I caught an orange gleam high up in one of our maples. Sure enough, there was Dennis, cozy as could be and snoozing away.

If your missing chicken is a bantam or a breed that flies well, such as Ameraucana, Lakenvelder or Fayoumi, get out your flashlight and search in the boughs of nearby trees. Chances are your lost chook is roosting on a low branch.

#3 Mamma Mia! (It Could Be Broodiness)

Even if our coops are equipped with nest boxes, sometimes a girl in Mama Hen mode wants more privacy than we provide. Instead of setting eggs within the safety of their henhouses, these ladies venture out to find brooding grounds of their own.

Ten years ago, our Easter Egger, Keynoter, went missing from release until lock-up every day for more than two weeks. I finally tailed her to the woods on the southeast corner of our property. Here I discovered her—and her clutch of 18 eggs—tucked out of sight beneath a fallen tree.

Our Black Orpington, Fitz, pulled a similar stunt four years ago, except she did not return at night. We’d given her up for dead… until the weekend we were weeding around our pole barn. There was Fitz, all fluffed up and growling at us from beneath our overgrown rhubarb, where she was brooding nine eggs.

We were fortunate that our hens weren’t overly adventurous. Mari, a local breeder I know, lost her award-winning Salmon Faverolle hen one summer evening a few years back. Her family searched everywhere for the sweet-tempered hen, to no avail.

About three weeks later, that Faverolle reappeared, trooping out of the forest and looking very worn, ratty and grumpy … with a troop of chicks accompanying her.

If your missing bird is a hen who has demonstrated a penchant for brooding, check under shrubs and bushes, beneath fallen trees and behind air-conditioning units.

Look inside old tires, too. That’s where we found Ebony Orpington and her egg-filled nest.

#4 A Missing Chicken Could Mean Predatory Danger

Unfortunately, sometimes our birds don’t leave of their own accord. Chicken predators exist pretty much anywhere chickens live, especially if you live in a suburban, rural or agricultural area.

While many predators leave behind vivid evidence of their visits, some grab and go with minimal disruption. If your hen seems to have vanished without a trace, chances are it was carried off by a bobcat, fox or coyote… or by a hawk or owl.

Each of these predators prefers to carry off their prey versus kill and eat it in situ.

Years ago, our Buff Orpington girl, Buttercup, disappeared without a trace. My husband, Jae, and I hadn’t mowed recently, however. I managed to track a trail of disturbed tall grass into the woods and right up to a fox’s den dug out under a fallen tree.

Sure enough, Buttercup’s legs were sticking out of the entrance. The fox was nowhere in sight, so we retrieved our poor girl and gave her a proper burial. If your chicken has seemingly disappeared, she may have been the victim of a predator.

#5 Don’t Give up If Your Chicken Goes Missing

If your headcount is off at lock-up or at any other time and you’ve already exhausted the steps outlined above, don’t give up hope just yet. Call your neighbors and ask them to keep an eye open for your missing bird.

(Our Henrietta once decided to relocate herself to the grassy backyard of neighbors about a half mile to the north.)

Carefully check your road for signs of a chicken unsuccessfully trying to cross a road. Inspect your garage, garden shed and any other structure on your property and on your neighbors’ property, too. If you belong to a local poultry group, put out the word—and share a photo, if you have one—that your chicken is missing.

The more people searching, the more chances you’ll find your bird.

This article about what to do about a missing chicken was written for Chickens magazine. Click here to subscribe.

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Equipment

3-Point Hitch: How to Attach It To Your Tractor

tractor with attached 3 point hitch
Daniel Johnson

How do you attach a 3-point hitch implement to your tractor? It might seem straightforward at first glance, but you need a little knowledge and experience to do the job quickly and easily.

If you’re struggling with getting a 3-point implement attached to your tractor, here are step-by-step instructions to guide you through the process:

#1 Back Your Tractor Up to the 3-Point Hitch

Slowly back your tractor toward the 3-point hitch you want to attach. Don’t approach at an angle; get lined up straight so that the two hydraulic-powered lift arms of your 3-point hitch are positioned roughly in line with the attachment points (likely protruding pins) on the implement.

#2 Adjust the Height of the Lift Arms

The lift arms may not be at the correct height for the implement you’re attaching. Using the hydraulic controls, raise or lower the lift arms as necessary to get them roughly aligned with the implement. You’ll notice the height of one lift arm (usually the one on the right) can be adjusted independently of the other, perhaps with a hand crank. If your implement isn’t sitting perfectly flat (maybe the ground is sloped a bit), you can raise or lower the adjustable arm to match the slant and ensure you can attach both arms to the implement.

Note that some 3-point hitches have telescoping lift arms that can extend and give you even more flexibility for achieving proper alignment with the implement. If you extend one or both lift arms, you’ll have to return them to their proper length once finished. Try backing up the tractor slowly and gently until they snap back into normal length.

#3 Attach the Non-Adjustable Lift Arm

The connectors that the hydraulic lift arms raise and lower—the connectors that actually attach to the three-point implement—are called draft links. Each one has a hole in the end that can be attached via pin to an appropriate place on three-point implements. Exactly where the draft links are attached will depend on the implement.

Attach the draft link on the non-adjustable lift arm to the implement. Secure it in place as required, likely with a lynchpin. If you have trouble getting the draft link to line up with the implement, you may need to adjust or loosen the stabilizer arms that limit the draft links from swinging side to side. The stabilizer arms might be telescoping ones that lock into a particular length with pins, or they might be adjustable with turnbuckles.

You may also be able to slightly tweak the position of the implement itself by pushing and shoving. Use a crowbar or digging bar to gain leverage if needed, but be careful not to hurt yourself (or you machines). Implements can be heavy!

#4 Attach the Adjustable Lift Arm

Move to the opposite side of your tractor and attach the draft link on the adjustable lift arm to the appropriate point on your implement, adjusting the height of the lift arm and the position of the stabilizer arm as needed. Secure the draft link in place with a lynchpin. Once the draft link is attached, you can return the adjustable lift arm to its normal height (if you changed it) to level the implement. Or, if you want one side of the implement to be higher or lower than the other, you can adjust the lift arm accordingly. As an example, slanting a rear blade or box blade in this manner can help create a crown for drainage when grading a driveway.

#5 Attach the top link

At this point, the job gets easier. The top link of the 3-point hitch is adjustable in length, so you can shorten or lengthen it as needed until you can attach it via pin to the top connection point on the implement. Add a lynchpin to lock it in place.

Once the top link is attached, you can further adjust the length to change the front-to-back pitch of the implement, if needed. Once you’re happy with the position, there may be a lock nut you can tighten to firmly secure the length of the top link at your chosen point.

#6 Return Stabilizer Arms to Proper Tension

If you adjusted the stabilizer arms for the draft links, you’ll want to tighten them back to a suitable tension to prevent your implement from swinging side to side.

Congratulations! You’ve successfully attached a three-point implement to your tractor.

This article about how to attach a 3-point hitch to a tractor was written for Hobby Farms magazine. Click here to subscribe.

Categories
Poultry

When Do Ducks Molt? Plus, Proper Nutrition During Molting

molting wood duck swimming
Molting wood duck. Adobe Stock/Jim Cumming

When do ducks molt? Learn the answer to this question and many others as we dive into why and when ducks molt, proper nutrition for molting ducks, and more.

Why Do Ducks Molt?

Ducks molt for various reasons, including replacing their worn-out feathers in autumn to mating plumage, but to get into the nitty-gritty of why ducks molt, let’s first look at when do ducks molt.

When Do Ducks Molt?

Like chickens, ducks do a big molt in autumn, replacing the worn-out feathers on their heads, necks, bodies, and wings with new ones. The new feathers are more airtight and keep ducks warm during the cold winter months. This molt usually occurs in August or September, but exceptional egg layers may not molt until October. But unlike their chicken cousins, who molt once a year, ducks molt twice.

Female ducks drop their body feathers again in the late winter/early spring just before the point of lay. This molt is a good sign for backyard duck keepers eagerly anticipating those first spring eggs, and it does not seem to cause the duck any discomfort.

Male ducks go into an eclipse molt in late spring/early summer as they replace their bright, vivid mating plumage with subdued plumage, making them look like females. Since all domesticated ducks are Mallard descendants (excluding Muscovies), all drakes go through an eclipse molt. However, if you raise Pekins or other white duck breeds, you will not be able to see any difference in your drake’s feathering except for losing the curly feathers on his tail.

What To Expect

Ducks molt fast. You may find feathers everywhere when you head out to the coop one morning in late summer/early fall. You might think that your flock has been attacked by a predator, but a look around the coop will reassure you all ducks are accounted for. And the fall molt is underway.

molting duck feathers scattered in a backyard
Scattered feathers from a molting duck. Photo by Erin Snyder

Dropping all their feathers may not be the only symptom molting ducks may show. Changes in hormones may result in some ducks becoming grumpy. Grumpy ducks may even start flock squabbles. If this occurs, separate the bully from the other flock members until everything calms down.

How Do Ducks Molt?

Ducks and chickens do not molt the same way, so if you are accustomed to how a chicken molts, ducks may surprise you. Ducks drop all their feathers, including their wing feathers, in just a few days, while chickens drop their feathers over several weeks. Even though domestic ducks cannot fly, losing their primary flight feathers makes them skittish and nervous.

Ducks also appear to feel more prickly than chickens, so be extra careful when handling them (more on that later).

While ducks quickly regrow their feathers, they need a lot of feed and proper nutrition to do that. Molting is hard work, so let’s look at what a duck needs to grow strong, healthy feathers.

A Molting Duck’s Diet

Molting requires a lot of energy, second only to egg laying, so it’s crucial to supply your flock with the proper nutrients they need to molt.

High-Quality Feed: High-quality feed begins with choosing a good brand. Look for a feed with essential amino acids and probiotics to support a healthy immune system. Always feed ducks a layer ration during a molt, as maintenance feed does not have the nutritional values molting ducks require.

Healthy Protein-Filled Treats: Supplementing your duck’s diet with healthy treats will help boost protein levels and encourage your flock to eat, as molting poultry tend to consume less feed. Encourage your ducks to eat by offering healthy treats such as black soldier fly larvae, peas, oatmeal, wheat berries, and zucchini.

Avoid feeding unhealthy treats such as bread, corn, mealworms, pasta, and tomatoes.

Probiotics: If you are not already supplementing your ducks’ diet with probiotics, adding some to their feed or water during a molt is essential to keeping your flock healthy. Molting is stressful for ducks, making them more susceptible to disease. Adding probiotics to your flock’s diet will make the molt easier for everyone.

Brewer’s Yeast: Brewer’s yeast is essential to a duck’s diet. This vitamin B supplement contains high amounts of niacin, an essential vitamin ducks need to stay healthy.

Herbs: Many herbs contain vitamins and minerals beneficial to ducks, especially during molting. Feed oregano to molting ducks to boost their immune system and parsley, fennel, and dill to help them through the molt.

Keep Them Safe

When do ducks molt? In the fall, when many predators are teaching their young to hunt, the combination of increased predator activities and not feeling their best increases a duck’s chance of falling prey.

If your duck flock isn’t already housed in an entirely predator-proofed coop and run, move molting ducks to a safe place to keep everyone safe. Do not allow molting ducks to free-range unless directly supervised by an adult.

Handling Tips

Ducks are often uncomfortable when molting as the new feather growth can make them sensitive to being handled. When handling a molting duck, let them lay across your right arm while placing your left hand on their chest to support them. Pay close attention to the wings as new flight feathers growing in are extremely painful for ducks.

Now that you know the answers to when do ducks molt, what to expect from a molt, and what nutrients they need for a successful molt, you can help your flock through one of the most challenging times of the year.

This article about when do ducks molt was written for Chickens magazine. Click here to subscribe.

Categories
Poultry

Duck Leg Injuries: Causes & Treatments

white duck swimming on water. swimming can prevent duck leg injuries
Adobe Stock/Amanda

Duck leg injuries are frequent occurrences in backyard flocks. From sprains and broken bones to arthritis, learn how to diagnose and treat these common duck leg injuries.

Why Are Duck Leg Injuries Common?

Duck leg injuries are common for several reasons. Some of them include improper nutrition, rough handling, tripping in or out of a water source, predators, and flock conflicts.

The good news is that many duck leg injuries can be prevented with good husbandry techniques, but before we get into prevention, let’s look at some of the most commonly occurring duck leg injuries.

Sprained Leg

Sprained legs are among the most treatable of duck leg injuries. Sprains range from mild, with ducks only showing a slight limp, to severe sprains. Individuals suffering from a severe sprain may exhibit symptoms common to a broken leg, such as dragging their hurt leg behind them.

Sprains are usually easy to treat and should not require veterinarian treatment (unless dealing with a severe sprain).

Sprain Symptoms
  • Limping
  • Refusing to engage in everyday activities
  • Dragging an injured leg behind them
Treatment

The best way to treat a sprain is to move the injured duck to a quiet, isolated spot away from the other ducks to prevent them from being trampled. Ducks are flock creatures, so give your duck a gentle friend if possible. (Note: If the injured duck is a female, avoid placing a male with her to prevent further injuries. If the female and male become depressed from being separated, allow several directly supervised visits daily.)

Always allow a duck with a sprained leg to swim in a kiddie pool (not a pond). Swimming will help the duck’s leg heal faster and relieve any discomfort it might be feeling.

If your duck exhibits severe symptoms, such as dragging its leg behind it or refusing to walk, take it to a vet for a proper diagnosis and further treatment.

Broken Leg

Of all duck leg injuries, broken bones are the most severe. Ducks with broken bones can’t walk and will also refuse to stand. If your duck suddenly goes lame and refuses to stand or walk, there is a good chance the duck has broken a leg. Broken bones often lead to bone infections and require the care of a qualified veterinarian.

Broken Bone Symptoms
  • Lameness
  • Refusing to walk
  • Swelling
Treatment

When treating a duck with a broken leg, separate them from the rest of the flock. Provide a small water dish and food bowl they can easily reach without standing. Handle your duck carefully. Do not attempt to move their leg.

If you suspect your duck has a broken leg, the best thing you can do is take it to a qualified veterinarian. A vet will perform radiographs to confirm whether the bone is broken. If the break is severe, the vet may suggest humane euthanasia or surgery. However, if the break is minor, most vets will prescribe medication and send the duck home with instructions on how to care for it. Ducks with broken legs should be kept in small enclosures to keep them from walking around or moving.

Broken leg bones are very painful, so act quickly to avoid needless suffering. If the duck is not a family pet, humanely dispatching them is the best way to prevent suffering.

Arthritis

A prior leg injury usually causes arthritis. One of the most overlooked things about arthritis is that it doesn’t just affect older ducks. Young and middle-aged ducks also can suffer from this condition.

While arthritis can usually be treated from the start, it will affect your duck’s ability to move quickly. Therefore, ducks suffering from arthritis (and other leg injuries) should never be allowed to free-range, as they are prime targets for a predator attack.

Arthritis Symptoms
  • Swelling
  • Stiffness
  • Limping
  • Lameness
Treatment

Although there are several ways to treat arthritis naturally, leg massages and hydrotherapy are the best ways to help your arthritic duck stay comfortable. Before beginning treatment, have a veterinarian examine the duck to ensure you have diagnosed the condition correctly.

Massage: Gently massage your duck’s feet and legs using your thumb and index finger. Start on the toes and work through the webbing and up the duck’s legs. Most ducks respond well to massages and seem to enjoy them, especially if they have enjoyed being handled in the past.

Hydrotherapy: During the warmer months, fill a kiddie pool and allow ducks to get their weight off their legs and enjoy a leisurely swim. In winter, limit swims to short swims several times a week.

Whenever possible, while treating arthritis, avoid using veterinarian-prescribed anti-inflammatories, as these medications are harmful to a duck’s organs—feeding natural anti-inflammatories such as chickweed, dandelions, fennel, oregano, turmeric, violets, and yarrow will reduce inflammation without negatively impacting the organs.

Duck Leg Injuries: Prevention

Duck leg injuries can not always be prevented, but following these common practices should reduce the number of injuries in your flock.

Cleanup: Remove tripping hazards like rocks or sticks to avoid ducks falling and hurting themselves.

Good Breeding Ratios: Overmating is a common cause of duck leg injuries. One of the best ways to prevent them is to keep hens with drakes of the same weight class. House one medium-weight or heavyweight drake for three to five females and one lightweight drake for every six females.

Peaceful Flock: Even though they are not as notorious for flock squabbles as chickens are, ducks don’t always get along. Bullies should be removed from the flock by setting up a small enclosure in the coop to avoid injuries in the flock.

Swimming: Allowing your ducks access to a clean kiddie pool will keep them looking their best and help their legs stay healthy and strong.

Proper Nutrition: One of the biggest contributors to duck leg injuries is the lack of niacin. Supplementing your flock’s diet with Brewer’s yeast should help prevent leg injuries from occurring.

Duck leg injuries can often be prevented, but when life happens, knowing how to diagnose and treat these injuries can help your duck recover and go on to live a happy, enriched life.

This article about duck leg injuries was written for Chickens magazine. Click here to subscribe.

Categories
Farm & Garden

How to Make Taper Candles from Beeswax

beeswax taper candles hanging to dry
A rack of hand dipped beeswax candles hanging to dry on a wooden frame. Adobe Stock/AVD

How to make taper candles, especially around the holidays when we use them on our dinner tables, is a common question. Did you know that you can make your own from pure beeswax? It’s actually very simple. Yellow beeswax naturally offers a subtle scent of honey when burned, so it doesn’t need any essential oil scents added.

How to Make Taper Candles from Beeswax

Supplies Needed

· Beeswax pellets
· Thermometer to test the wax temperature
· Cotton braided candle wick thread
· Tall, wide-mouthed heat-tolerant containers, such as a canning jar or a candle wax melting metal container with a handle
· Additional jar or container to fill with cold water for dipping candles in after dipping in wax
· A large pot for heating the water and wax (one reserved for candle making would be ideal)
· 2 weights, such as a metal bolt, to keep your wick/candle straight while dipping
· Water, as needed
· You’ll want to use a heat-tolerant container that is tall enough to melt enough wax for the height of the taper candle you desire to make. Example: A quart mason jar will make a small 6” or so taper candle.
· Hanger to dry the candles on or another rack for cooling the candles.

Directions

1. Line your workspace with newspaper or paper towels to catch any spillover.

2. Use a medium or large-sized saucepan to fill about half full of water. In the saucepan, add your heat-safe glass jar or other heat-safe container for melting wax. Fill the container with wax and warm the pot to a simmer to melt the wax. Once the wax has melted somewhat and made room for more wax, add more wax until you have melted enough for the height of the candle you’d like to make. Be sure to check the instructions for the wax to learn what temperature the wax should be heated to before pouring – this tends to vary by brand.

3. Once the wax has melted, remove it from the pot and place it on the protected workspace.

4. Cut a 24” piece of wick thread and tie weights to each end of the string. This will allow you to dip your candles at the same time while keeping them straight. Dip with smooth even and movements.

5. Once you’ve dipped into the wax, dip it into the alternate container of cold water.

6. Repeat dipping into the wax and then the cold water until you’ve reached the ideal height and width of your candle.

7. Once you’re finished dipping and once the wax has cooled a bit but is still warm, snip the weights off the end of the candles and mold the base into a flat bottom.

8. Hang your candles on a hanger/rack to dry completely.

9. Before burning your candle, trim the wick down to 1/4”.

How to Make Taper Candles for Birthdays

Consider making homemade birthday candles for an extra special touch for your next celebration. Use a smaller heat-tolerant container, such as a glass Pyrex measuring cup. Simply follow the steps above, however you’ll cut the thread 12” and dip the thread as tall as you’d like the candles to be. Dip until you’ve reached the desired birthday candle size. The candles can even be reused year after year until they become too short to safely burn.

Safety First!

Never burn taper candles unattended or on unstable surfaces. Keep out of reach of children and pets. Be extremely cautious when handling hot wax. There is a taper candle adhesive that can be applied to the base of the candles as an extra level of caution when placing them into the candle holders that will help hold them in place.

This story about how to make taper candles was written for Hobby Farms magazine. Click here to subscribe.

Categories
Farm & Garden

Apple Tree Branches: How to Protect Them From Breaking

apple trees branches weighted down with ripening green apples
Daniel Johnson

Are your apple tree branches loaded with fruit? Congratulations, you’re well on your way to enjoying an abundant harvest! Just make sure your trees aren’t so heavily loaded with apples that there’s a danger of branches breaking under the weight.

It happens so many times…A mature apple tree blossoms beautifully in the spring and starts growing hundreds upon hundreds of apples. Efforts to thin the fruit prove insufficient and, come the end of summer, the branches are sagging under tremendous loads of heavy apples.

At that point, all you need is a windy day or a lot of rain to push a branch past its breaking point and—crack! The branch splits and crashes to the ground.

In many cases, the branch doesn’t break off entirely. It just peels away from the tree, leaving some wood and bark unbroken. It can be possible to repair these breaks by propping the branch back up with a stake and sealing the wound. But wouldn’t it be better to avoid broken branches entirely? Absolutely.

The Best Solution for Healthy Apple Tree Branches

The best solution is to thin the fruit early on, shortly after the blossoms have fallen and the apples are just starting to grow. On any given branch, you should aim to leave one apple every 6 inches or so. Thinning in this manner reduces the weight on branches, allows the remaining apples to grow larger, and encourages trees to fruit every year instead of fruiting heavily one year and hardly at all the next.

But if time slips by and you fail to thin the apples sufficiently, you can still take steps to protect against breaking branches. Best of all, it’s fast and free if you have any meaningful woodlands on your farm.

Support Solutions for Apple Tree Branches

My approach is to explore the edges of the woods with my pruning loppers, looking for young trees or low-hanging branches that I can use as homemade wooden support stakes to prop up apple tree branches. Ash trees are my favorite because they’re strong but not too difficult to cut.

They also grow in abundance on my farm and are constantly trying to encroach on fields, so the young trees need to be cut back anyway.

I like to look for young trunks or branches approximately 1 to 1 1/2 inches thick at the bottom of where I’ll cut. I cut them off in sections so that, when they stand upright under an apple tree, they stand a bit higher than the sagging branches I wish to support. Then I remove all the branches from each support stakes except one near the top. This branch I cut so it leaves behind a 2- or 3-inch stub.

I’ll similarly leave a 2- to 3-inch stub at the top of the wooden stake so that the two stubs form a Y-shaped crotch in which apple tree branches can comfortably rest.

Easy Installation

Once the homemade wooden stakes are ready, installation is easy. I go underneath the apple tree, push the Y-shaped crotch up underneath a sagging branch, and push the branch upward until my support stake is standing more or less upright with its bottom lodged in the ground. Sometimes I have to fine-tune the height of each wooden stake to make it fit, but that’s no problem. I just cut it shorter with my pruning loppers.

And if you don’t have woodlands from which to source the raw materials, you can craft similar support stakes using anything tall and sturdy—lumber, metal T-posts, etc.

It’s fast, it’s simple, and it works well, giving the apple tree branches a boost until harvest time. I’m sure I’ve saved many branches from breaking with this technique. So the next time one of your apple trees is sagging under the weight of its fruit, grab your tools and provide a little extra support.

This story about how to support apple tree branches was written for Hobby Farms magazine. Click here to subscribe.

Categories
Poultry

Keeping Honey Bees & Chickens: Why You Should

chickens bees
Eugene Kogan/Flickr

Keeping honey bees and chickens together is something that many chicken keepers wonder about since both endeavors support a farm and household. The good news is that honey bees and chickens can and do harmoniously coexist. Keep them in the homestead, the backyard or garden and they’ll do just fine with a few precautions and some preparation.

Here are a few reasons why keeping honey bees and chickens is worth it and what you can do to get started.

Get Closer To Your Food

Keeping honey bees and chickens gives you a better picture of your food system. Many millennials and retiring back-to-the-landers (the two largest demographics taking on the keeping of bees and chickens) are either trying to get closer to their food or they’re trying to teach the next generation about the food system. Or both. Keeping chickens gives you instant, daily gratification, with virtually immediate compost ready for a garden.

Good Things Take Time

Honey bees are slightly longer term when you consider harvesting the products of the hive, but that’s another valuable lesson: Good things take time, lots of work and depend on the season. Any beekeepers worth their salt will tell you that harvesting honey at the end of the season is never a given. Some years are better “honey years” than others; some years are too dry, others too wet, and sometimes hives die. Chickens don’t require us to look at the longer-term effects of weather, but honey bees do. And that’s a valuable skill to hone.

Water Is Needed

A few points of concern are worth considering when keeping honey bees and chickens together. One is the water source for both species. Honeybees need access to a clean water source, and if one isn’t naturally occurring nearby (a shallow, slow stream; a pond; a clean bird bath; or water you provide for them), they’ll seek the chickens’ water in no time. It won’t take you more than a few days of keeping chickens to know they’re not very clean animals, particularly when it comes to water. If there’s no naturally occurring clean water source near your apiary, consider creating one. I love to put clean pebbles in a shallow planter filled with water. The pebbles give the bees places to land, and it’s easy enough to refill and move around.

Add a Garden for Food For All

Keeping these two productive homesteading creatures together is a wonderful step toward sustainability—and it’s a well-rounded approach, too. Add a garden for additional food sources for bees and chickens (and yourself), and you’ll be kept squawking like a hen and busy as a bee all season long.

This article about keeping honey bees and chickens was written for Hobby Farms magazine. Click here to subscribe.