Hello from west Texas

[Lazy Gardener]

Maine: 4 seasons: Mud, Bug, Tourist, and SNOW. Ground frozen Nov thru mid April. State bird is the Mosquito.

Much of the state is glacial rock: which means that there is LOTS of rocks, interspersed with clay or soil. I have high water table, vernal pools in the undeveloped area of my land. Very poor soil, especially for anyone with aspirations to garden or farm. I am blessed to have about 2 acres cleared, and a nice garden spot with gently south slope, imported sandy loam, good sun.

We also have a Black Fly Breeder's Association. (every spring, an article is published in local papers about the scheduled meetings, or seminars, or elections for new board members. Those who are not familiar with the BFB Assoc. go absolutely ballistic. If you are not familiar with black flies: they are about 1/8" long, swarm like crazy, crawl in your ears, up your nose, in your hair, in your eyes, in your clothing and suck your blood after chewing a hole in your skin. I am so sensitive to them that my skin burns just from having them land on my skin.)

 

[HornyToadAcres]

In Wisconsin they used to say there were two seasons: Winter and Road Construction.
But seriously, I found out why people who move to Florida complain about the bugs, the heat and no seasons.
But not the mosquitoes cuz yeah, WI had seriously huge and hungry mozzies.

and the black flies sound horrible!

 

[Hinotori]

Welcome to the group!

 

[HornyToadAcres]

I'm also pretty much a"newbie" here on SS, but been on BYH for awhile. Went on BYC a few times, but after having purebred show chickens for 50 years, and raising free range layers and lots of ccx broilers a year, decided that it was too much more for smaller pet type flocks..... mine have to pay their way at the least.... make some money or contribute to the freezer big time at best.... and since we farm "full-time" as well as both my DS and I work full-time jobs....(although mine is slowly fading away as more dairies sell out or owners retire from milking); decided I liked the more practical group on BYH . It's a pretty great group on there. I like SS because I have gotten some insight into others doing more things to be independently self sufficient. I like hearing about the different areas of the country too.

Yes, I was on BYC a while back and I know what you mean. Somewhat different "audience."

My daughter put it very well - here on Horny Toad Acres, animals are Pets, Production or Products.
And we don't even have anything that is solely a pet. We just can't afford it. And that creates a different
mindset. So if I get a chicken that starts eating eggs, even if she is my oldest, favoritest Easter Egger, she's going to be dog food as soon as I scope her out. I just had to cull a young EE (or something that TSC said was an EE) that laid beautiful medium brown eggs. She didn't eat her own eggs. No, she went after the white eggs.

This is Muffy - she is about 5 years old and makes me smile. She can get by with not laying as much but she is the only one. lol

 

[HornyToadAcres]

This is not very self-sufficient of me but I am eagerly awaiting my first spring shipment of fly predators.
They work really well for me.

Just house flies but a lot of them.

I feel like a wuss after reading this thread.

It's JUST house flies.

 

[Lazy Gardener]

You are saying that you have a shipment of predators to eat flies? More info, please... what species? Do they eat fly maggots or do they eat flies on the fly? That sounds exciting. You might consider raising Black Soldier Fly Larvae. My understanding is that they do a great job decreasing house flies. And, if you have chickens, they LOVE BSFL. They are a wonderful source of protein.

 

[HornyToadAcres]

You are saying that you have a shipment of predators to eat flies? More info, please... what species? Do they eat fly maggots or do they eat flies on the fly? That sounds exciting. You might consider raising Black Soldier Fly Larvae. My understanding is that they do a great job decreasing house flies. And, if you have chickens, they LOVE BSFL. They are a wonderful source of protein.

First, that is interesting information about Black Soldier Fly Larvae. I have looked into that some but I did not know the added attraction of them decreasing house flies.

The fly predators I get come from Spalding Labs (https://spalding-labs.com/) and attack the pupae stage of the fly. I can't find the species though the website is full of info. The people that answer the phone are super helpful. They are tiny but bigger than gnats. It is possibly it is a mix of actual species.

Last year was the first year I tried them. I started a month late and the control is gradually better but it definitely cut our fly population in half pretty quickly. I use those hanging traps but they seem to have a disadvantage of also attracting the neighbors' flies. Lots of horse owners around me. The control is supposed to be even better this year because of starting sooner. By the end of the season, we had only a reasonable amount of house flies (if that makes any sense). We have great swarms of flies (some of them biting, not just regular house flies) otherwise.

 

[Lazy Gardener]

Down side of using predatory insects here is that it's so very cold that populations never get a chance to get established.

 

[farmerjan]

Yes, I have made an occasional "allowance" for a favorite animal. That is only fair and shows that we are not looking at them as ONLY for our benefit.... But for the most part, they have to pay their way somehow. I buried my old cow Smokey... raised her from a calf, and she gave me 14 or more years of calves.... she got down and I decided then that she deserved to die in peace on the farm, not get her up and babied til she was well enough to go to the stockyard. I also buried the first guernsey cow that I bought. I was only her 2nd owner, the first owner raised her from a calf, then had a stroke and could not milk.... they sold all the cows but her and kept her for their personal use, but the grandchildren went off to college so couldn't continue to help out and milk, and then he had another stroke. Got her when she was 7 or 8 and had her for another 6-7 years. Buried her too. But that is only a very few out of the hundreds of cows we have had over the last 40 years... We have buried cows that have died, but we try hard to sell cattle before they get to the "last legs" stage.
I have kept chickens that laid very little in the spring because they have been exceptional birds, in the purebreds. The genetics they have contributed made it worth it to be able to get a few more eggs. The commercial layers would stay as long as they laid decent.
Like you, an egg eater is/was/won't be tolerated..... Mean roosters are not tolerated.

 

[Chic Rustler]

hello