Just get out and do it.

Welcome to my blog, Garden for Your Life! This site will be mostly about my garden, but you can build one just like it in your back yard too. It can be bigger or smaller, just get out and do it. You can do it for fun. Your can do it for your health. You can do it for fresh food in these troubled times. The point is to get out and do it for whatever reason that you need.

Over time I will cover topics like canning and preserving your harvest, soil and beds, bugs, what to plant and when, and much more.

I've been working on this garden on mine and improving on it for over five years now. I will continue doing that for many more. You can too, just get out and do it.

Ken

Saturday, December 3, 2011

Bird care.






Howdy,

     Well if you got birds in a cage like I got quail you have more issues with their health.  Lice and mites being the biggest problems.  Free range birds like chickens and guinea fowl have access to plain old dirt to take a dust bath in.  For caged birds its up to you to provide.  Its best if you go a step farther too.  In addition to dirt in a pan provide Diatomaceous Earth.  It's an extremely fine dirt that comes from the skeletons of ocean diatoms.  This powder has very small but sharp edges that are death to bugs.  It cuts open the exoskeletons of the bugs and they dehydrate and die.  You can also use it in your pets beds, or just dust them with it once and a while.  They can eat small amounts in their food for intestinal parasites.  Once a week I dust my birds.



Twenty pound bag from tractor supply






 
I mix the pans with one large scoop of dirt and one scoop
of Diatomaceous Earth.  Into the coops it goes!


It took no time for them to dive in!
No, these ain't dead birds, they just roll, scratch and make dirt fly!

They all try to crowd in.




Some quickly dirty birds.
The excess dirt that they kick up goes right into their waste pans under the coop.  Ants and flies quickly cease to be a problem!  Got a problems with ants in your house?  This is the white stuff that your pest control person puts around your door sill.  As long as it stays dry its good for pest control.