Recent content by Al Gerhart

Don't forget supplementing that prototype feeder with gallons of cayenne pepper, mint spray, essential oils, concoctions made of cornmeal, baking soda, processed nuclear waste and eye of newt, then sit out after dark slapping mosquitoes with a night scope trying to shoot mice.

Chickens love duckweed but I'd make some shallow ponds in a semi shady area and grow it from a clean source or harvest wild duckweed. It multiplies like crazy, a handful will cover a pond in a few months. Or a kid's wading pool in a week.

Just give it to the hens, they have great instincts on what is safe to eat. If it is slime algae, they might not eat it. Something like water hyacinth can be fed fresh or fermented. You would be unbalancing their diet though if you are raising broilers or laying hens.

My 95 year old mom's car had the wiring damaged twice by mice. First time it was just a few wires in the engine compartment, enough to have it towed for repair. Second time, the car was totaled by the insurance company after the car had set for a week while she was in the hospital. A $8000...

That is a good bit of advice for a humid area but it leaves the feed open to rodents during the day and eventually the rodents will find it and create a problem. I'd recommend a treadle feeder but only put enough for one or two days or I'd add a low wattage bulb in the top of the feeder to keep...

"water proof" is tough, water resistant is achievable. When you get into blowing rain most feeders need some sort of overhead cover. The swing back door feeders do better than the guillotine style feeders where water puddles up behind the feed compartment. One trick is to bend the lower front...

Best at what? Cheapest? At stopping feed waste? At stopping rodents and wild birds?

Consider why the snakes are attracted to the coop... likely rodents are the draw. Will they eat the chicks and eggs, sure. But far more likely rats and mice draw them in first. Watch out for squirrels too, this time of year mamma squirrels are needing protein to produce milk and they are...

Humans and most species have specific viruses and bacteria that can cause sickness within the species. Close association creates a nexus, milk maids in Europe back in the day where their exposure to cow pox generated a weak form of small pox in the maids, immunizing them against virulent small...

IF you cut fresh sprouts of Johnson grass the chickens will eat but not the coarse stuff. Watch it if any part of it turns reddish color, it can become poisonous during droughts or very high heat

Rats.... and squirrels are just tree rats.

Dealing with rodents is very simple. You have to stop feeding them. Then they leave or revert back to natural food they have to hustle to find and that lets predators thin their numbers down quickly. Get the feed in metal trash cans or steel drums. Buy a real rat proof treadle feeders, not...

Only if you choose to feed the rats by using bad feeders. Control the feed, control the vermin.

There isn't any question that lead and lots of other heavy metals are used in auto tires and plastics and have been for a very long time. It ought not be a surprise the same heavy metals will be found in shredded tires. The studies I looked up in just a few minutes used xrf guns which are...

Interior Graphic Standards, second edition, published in 2010, a college text used to train architects and interior designers, you will find my name in the chapter author credits. I literally wrote the book on countertops...