AI6YR BenJul 4

"There are leftovers we don't want to eat in the fridge" says the family, looking at me.

Me: "What do they think I am? Oh... never mind"

(going in the compost pile, I can't even...)

Show threadJim HubbellJul 4
@ai6yr
That's what chickens are for.
Show threadMsMeropeJul 4
@dougfir @ai6yr or goats....
Show threadJim HubbellJul 4
@MsMerope @ai6yr
Nope. We had goats for a while. They are more trouble than they are worth.
Show threadAI6YR BenJul 4
@dougfir @MsMerope My son wants me to keep chickens, but they require neighbor permission, and our next door neighbors on one side HATE us. Would never happen.
Show threadMsMeropeJul 4

@ai6yr @dougfir

I have friends who keep chickens - they say that they are too much work.

Show threadCavedale Rhônes
@MsMerope @ai6yr @dougfir Absolutely, but I can’t imaging living without a small flock. It’s an addiction, but I suppose there are worse ones.
Jul 4 at 3:58amWeb
Show threadJim HubbellJul 4
@CavedaleRhones @MsMerope @ai6yr
Yes, we have them and a small flock of Muscovy ducks because they bring my wife happiness and joy.
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AI6YR BenJul 4

"There are leftovers we don't want to eat in the fridge" says the family, looking at me.

Me: "What do they think I am? Oh... never mind"

(going in the compost pile, I can't even...)

Show threadVissJul 4
@ai6yr you know, i saw ads at one point for some huge black plastic bag looking thing that you'd put in your yard (assuming you had the room) and youd do all your composting in it, and the compost would generate methane, and there was a weight you'd put on the thing to push the methane out. not 100% sure on how youd collect it and store it, but supposedly tech exists to make your own natural gas
Show threadAI6YR BenJul 4
@Viss I did a deep dive on that before, LOL... Sounds feasible, but you have to have a LOT of material to generate methane for any kind of power. I guess if you have cows, it works great.
Show threadVissJul 4
@ai6yr i figured there was stuff that i dont know about at play - like the way you collect and create liquid co2 is with this contraption and a weird u-shaped tube with a valve at the bottom - perhaps something similar happens with methane - you just pressurize it, it goes liquid, then you 'pour' it into a canister?
Show threadAI6YR BenJul 4
@Viss If I recall, you get the digester going and there are gas outlet tubes, which are not liquid or compressed, but are fed into something like a propane generator. But, the trick is you have to have enough volume it self pressurizes...
Show threadVissJul 4
@ai6yr yeah i was figuring that 'putting weights on a giant industrial trashbag' probably wasnt gonna create enough pressure, and all the commercial stuff you would normally feed propane into expects a certain pressure, so you'd hafta figure out a way to basically refill a propane canister with it.
Show thread@stevewfoldsJul 4
@Viss @ai6yr Municipal sewage plant stirrer ran off methane powered truck engines. Sealed conical top had a tube to carburetor & a line to the wall where a coffee pot was kept warm. In late 1940s my father checked on a plant in Indiana as a part time policeman.
Show threadJim HubbellJul 4
@ai6yr
That's what chickens are for.
Show threadMsMeropeJul 4
@dougfir @ai6yr or goats....
Show threadJim HubbellJul 4
@MsMerope @ai6yr
Nope. We had goats for a while. They are more trouble than they are worth.
Show threadAI6YR BenJul 4
@dougfir @MsMerope My son wants me to keep chickens, but they require neighbor permission, and our next door neighbors on one side HATE us. Would never happen.
Show threadJim HubbellJul 4
@ai6yr @MsMerope
Ah, yet another benefit of living in farm country.
Did I ever mention no one noticed the time I used 15 rounds to send a chicken-killing raccoon into the eternities?
Show threadMsMeropeJul 4

@dougfir @ai6yr

15?:
A little annoyed were we?

Show threadJim HubbellJul 4
@MsMerope @ai6yr
A little. Plus, I used a 22 pistol, and it was a big, strong, chicken-fed critter.
Show threadMsMeropeJul 4

@ai6yr @dougfir

I have friends who keep chickens - they say that they are too much work.

Show threadAI6YR BenJul 4
@MsMerope @dougfir They are a money pit, from all the chicken owners I know, and they apparently catch every disease known to chickenkind, which requires expensive vet bills (or you get dead chickens... or, you get an expensive dead chicken often, or a whole dead flock). And then here they get eaten by rats, raccoons, coyotes, or hawks. Sounds FUN!
Show threadMsMeropeJul 4
@ai6yr @dougfir
foxes, you forgot the foxes....
a friend lost their whole coop via a fox
I can't even imagine walking out to that mess one morning,
Show threadJim HubbellJul 4
@MsMerope @ai6yr
No foxes here. Just raccoons. And skunks.
Show threadNon Daily Chickens.Jul 4
@MsMerope
@ai6yr @dougfir
Show threadAI6YR BenJul 4
@nondailychickens @MsMerope @dougfir Cute!! What variety is that chicken?
Show threadCavedale RhônesJul 4
@MsMerope @ai6yr @dougfir Yep, that was last Friday.
Show threadAI6YR BenJul 4
@CavedaleRhones @MsMerope @dougfir 😬
Show threadMsMeropeJul 4
@CavedaleRhones @ai6yr @dougfir I think somebody else lost some too... along with encountering black widows and skunks in the process.
Show threadCavedale RhônesJul 4
@MsMerope @ai6yr @dougfir 😬
Show threadJim HubbellJul 4
@ai6yr @MsMerope
They are a money pit. After 30 years of dealing with raccoons and other predators, we now have a fully enclosed, predator-proof chicken run where the last three chickens live a tediously boring life.
Show threadCavedale RhônesJul 4
@dougfir @ai6yr @MsMerope We had exactly the same situation. Unfortunately one of the local grey foxes pushed through the chicken wire in a slightly rusted spot in the enclosed run. I just leveled the old coop and the run. We are rebuilding the run and the coop. This time not with chicken wire! Lots of hungry stuff up here. We have the new baby chickens in the garage while we design the ultimate impenetrable coop 🙄. Let you know how it went in a year. 🤣 #VeryExpensiveEggs
Show threadAI6YR BenJul 4
@CavedaleRhones @dougfir @MsMerope What kind of wire are you using? (I understand chicken wire isn't very good... it doesn't keep critters out of gardens, either.) Metal mesh?
Show threadCavedale RhônesJul 4
@ai6yr @dougfir @MsMerope I was using standard chicken wire and it worked for over 10 years, until it didn’t. I’ll move to welded wire of some sort. TBD.
Show threadjoy larkin 🌺✨Jul 4

@ai6yr @MsMerope @dougfir

One of my Dad's pastimes is to provide an update on his neighbor's ill-advised chicken coop. He lives outside of Philly, and once upon a time, someone imported red foxes for fox hunting to Southeast PA. Anyway, those fox descendants are now wild and they like backyard chickens.

Show threadAI6YR BenJul 4
@joy @MsMerope @dougfir 😂
Show threadNon Daily Chickens.Jul 4

@MsMerope

@chicken

@ai6yr @dougfir

Show threadBokbotJul 4
@nondailychickens Bok bok bok bok bok bok bok bok, bok bok bok bok-bok bok bok bok bok, bok bok bok bok, bok, bok, bok bok bok bok bok bok bok bok Bok Bok Bok Bok.
Show threadAI6YR BenJul 4
@nondailychickens @MsMerope @chicken @dougfir Uh oh, did someone just sic a chicken bot on us?!?! SOMEBODY FIND COLONEL SANDERS 🤪
Show threadBokbotJul 4
@ai6yr Bok's bok bok bok bok bok bok bok.
Show threadCavedale RhônesJul 4
@MsMerope @ai6yr @dougfir Absolutely, but I can’t imaging living without a small flock. It’s an addiction, but I suppose there are worse ones.
Show threadJim HubbellJul 4
@CavedaleRhones @MsMerope @ai6yr
Yes, we have them and a small flock of Muscovy ducks because they bring my wife happiness and joy.
Show threadSarah E BourneJul 4
@dougfir @MsMerope @ai6yr My mom got a pregnant goat (Nancy!) once because my brother had cow milk allegies. She gave birth to twins, both males. We were never able to get her to allow us to milk her and we could never devise a pen that could contain her or her sons. But they were delightful companions. She really wanted to go wherever we did, and would immediately climb into the car when we returned. Volkswagen Beetle, mom, 4 kids, a week's groceries … and a goat!