raw milk

I think (as do most libertarians) that adult humans should be able to choose whatever foodstuffs (or drugs, or whatever) they put into their body.

Want raw milk or raw milk cheeses? Go for it. Do the homework, know the risks, enjoy the benefits.

Check out what is reputed to be the FDA's response to a lawsuit:

"There is no absolute right to consume or feed children any particular food." [p. 25]

"There is no 'deeply rooted' historical tradition of unfettered access to foods of all kinds." [p. 26]

"Plaintiffs' assertion of a 'fundamental right to their own bodily and physical health, which includes what foods they do and do not choose to consume for themselves and their families' is similarly unavailing because plaintiffs do not have a fundamental right to obtain any food they wish." [p. 26]

"There is no fundamental right to freedom of contract." [p. 27]

I don't drink raw milk (or haven't since I was a boy on a farm), but the FDA's position here is egregious.

A different internet

The 'net today is substantially different now than it was in the mid-90s when I started making my living at ISPs.

There have been many important changes but the decline of Usenet (nntp) is the one that hits hardest for me.

I have long been a proponent of newsgroup-based community conversation rather than web forums. But the NNTP servers are simply going away; major ISPs took their servers down and the froup members are abandoning the service and not being replaced by others.

Perhaps it is an elitist position, but the early net with clueful users and open SMTP relays was delicious and heady. Now it is click-and-drool. Army of Lusers used to be pejorative; now it is the new normal.

It's ok. On the whole the new 'net is what it should be, I think.

C plus four - bedding

In this pic you can see the paper towel overlay is gone, and they are directly on shredded paper bedding. Under the shred is solid newspaper to facilitated daily cleanout (roll it up, take it to the compost).

The chicks appear to like sleeping in the paper "grass" (see pic on right). They scratch more, which is fun for both them and us. The darker EE is the queen of scratch so far; she'll scratch food away then not be able to find it again. :-)

They do pull at the paper but do not appear to eat it.

The chicks have more pronounced wing feathers, and you can start to see slim tail feather stalks filling in. The have started flapping their wings when they run.

first draft: chicken tractor

A chicken tractor is a movable coop that is open to the ground.

This lets the chickens do a bit of "free ranging" on bugs and vegetation and retreat back upstairs to roost and nest.

Ours will be called The Chicken Hut, after the great fried chicken place that used to be SW of Coit/SpringValley. We loved the guy that ran it; it's a taqueria now.

This one is pretty normal, other than my shockingly poor carpentry skills. It was built mainly out of scrap and stuff people have given me over time. Still to do: back egg harvesting door and food/water provisioning door. Painting. Putting up the chicken wire. Setting up nest boxes. Luckily I have about 5 weeks before the birds are ready to move outdoors.

It is different in a couple of ways, mainly having to do with my concern about Texas heat.

1. The area behind the nesting area will have a netted vent up high to let heat out and increase ventilation.
2. 6" roof overhang on that end to keep weather out of the vent
3. The insides of the roof are lined with some radiant barrier I inherited in a friend's move.
4. More covered area to provide shade.

Hopefully these minor changes will minimized heat stress on the birds. My backyard is mostly shady but I still want to keep 'em as cool as possible.

C plus three - tails

Greater definition on wing feathers, and their tail feathers started appearing yesterday. Still fluffy but definitely sticking out.

That's the Dear Wife's hand in the brooder. We are handling/holding the chicks every day to check for pasty butt and get them used to human contact.

When you pick them up they peep like mad but when you put them back down they'll sit in your hand like nothing happened. Sometimes you have to give them a pretty good nudge to get them to hop down.

Elevated the feed/water about .75" as they are taller now.

C plus two - feathers

I swear they are visibly larger. You can also see feathers starting to develop on their wingtips.

They are starting to sleep further away from each other so I'll drop the heat a degree or two.

C plus one.

All peeps made it through the night; they look happy and healthy.

A closer shot of Rhode Island Reds (left, and sleepy in the background) and an Easter Egger (right). It's hard to see but the 4th peeper, the other EE, is drinking water behind the right-hand bird. Count the feet.

Changed the paper towel superstrate and tossed the poopy paper in the compost bin. The towel is there for the first few days to help the chicks stand easily while their leg parts finish forming and to help them discriminate between feed and bedding. The substrate is shredded paper. Shreds are something of a minority position in the backyard chicken world, commonly used by folks who compost and have access to large amounts of shredded paper. We'll see how it goes. Can always go to wood chips if shreds fail.

Fresh food and water; sanitized the containers with brewing sanitizer (star-san in a spray bottle).