Pasture Standards for Laying Hens

...n pasture. That said, the non-profit that adjudicates the Certified Humane label has pasture standards. Here’s an excerpt from those standards relating to exterior access for laying hens on pasture: R 1: Pasture area a. Must consist mainly of living vegetation. Coarse grit must be available to aid digestion of vegetation. b. The pasture must be designed and actively managed to: 1. Encourage birds outside, away from the popholes, and to use the are...

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DIY Sage Deodorant

...this in the original bottle, which is, happily, glass with a pump top. The label from the bottle even peeled off easily! Thank you, Weleda. Then I added about 20 drops of essential oils to the bottle, which holds 100 ml/1/2 cup. I used a blend of sage, lavender and tea tree. I can’t tell you how much of each, because I was fiddling with it as I went, but the sage and lavender dominate. I held back on the tea tree because it has such an assertive o...

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Saturday Tweets: Thanksgiving Weekend Edition

...s in the care of @ucdavisvetmed. Her owner, Jim, says she led the other 17 goats in his herd to safety, taking the brunt of the burn injures. She's an #animalhero in his eyes. @ucdavis pic.twitter.com/2SCZpClfAA — UC Davis Vet Med (@ucdavisvetmed) November 24, 2018 Houseplanters Who Do YouTube https://t.co/STPLkGFoPk via @GardenRant — Root Simple (@rootsimple) November 24, 2018 Beekeepers at Risk of Losing Hives after Mosquito Insecticide Spra...

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Defining a Garden’s Purpose

...ush grass and maybe a pool. Some had vegetable gardens, a few chickens and goats. One enterprising person, somewhere between Bakersfield and Fresno, had a walled garden protecting lush marijuana plants. Other than the food gardeners (a small minority even in rural areas) there was little evidence that people ever went into their yards. It confirms what a UCLA anthropology team discovered when they placed cameras in 32 Los Angeles homes to see how...

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Failed Experiment: Bermuda Buttercup or Sour Grass (Oxalis pes-caprae) as Dye

...od beams are always in the fantasy) and a fire in the grate. I’d watch the goats graze in the back yard while I cheerfully sip tea and knit something marvelous out of hand spun angora dyed with Oxalis. (As opposed to the reality of me stumbling around our money pit of house in my exceedingly unnatural and ancient polar fleece robe, desperately searching for a chair to sit on that doesn’t hold a cat, so I can watch the LAPD stalking around the unoc...

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