Chickens and all things fowl

[W.Lynn]

It's not that hard to clean, large washer, gentle cycle, then take it out before the spin and lay it on salvaged screen door. Rinse carefully with a garden hose. Woolite.

[Joyce Hoffman-Gayley]

Fiber sources. They can't give away Llama or alpaca fleeces locally. If you will take them raw, I know people who have sheds of them. A few are felting the raw fleece to use as mulch/weed barrier cover in their gardens they are so worthless.

Redman, I would love to get my hands on some of those fleeces! Can you private message me and give me a contact as to how to obtain them? I would really appreciate it. Joyce

[Joyce Hoffman-Gayley]

I need chickens. I'll probably order some birds soon to get it going.

What kind of birds to you like to keep? I've always thought you had to be careful with which breed in particularly warm (hot) climates, like yours. Have you found this to be true?
I keep my girls cooped with a large fenced run as we have soooo many things that would like to eat them (hawks, eagles, raccoons, coyotes, neighborhood dogs, etc.); but I also have some Guinea fowl that we let free range mainly because they want it that way. As a side note, they make an excellent early warning system. Anytime anyone or thing steps foot on our property they let us know.

[Joyce Hoffman-Gayley]

It's not that hard to clean, large washer, gentle cycle, then take it out before the spin and lay it on salvaged screen door. Rinse carefully with a garden hose. Woolite.

You beat me to the punch. That's exactly how I was taught (many moons ago) to clean the fleeces. However, instead of an old screen door I have a frame I made with some old pieces of one by and 1/2" x 1/2" hardware cloth that I put together. Just recently we bought a new super large capacity washer and you should have seen the salesman's face when I was talking to my husband about it being big enough to fit the Llamas and Alpacas. I never did clue him in that I was only talking about the fleeces and not the whole animals.

[redman2006]

I will pm you. She is actally a rescue for the llamas.

[W.Lynn]

Some baby alpaca would probably be nice, I wonder what I could get for undyed yarn locally?

Had such a laugh at a town square event a long while back, my daughter actually found someone selling tiny versions of drop-spindles, and I could spin with them. The sellers were fascinated, they sold them as decor, and neither had ever seen one in use!

[hsehntr98]

Joyce and Lynn I have some roven from some sheep that belongs to one of the ladies in my fiber arts network group and I also have a spindle to try and spin the wool. I tried spinning it on a spinning wheel to see if I wanted to invest in a wheel, but I'm not sure yet. I'm also going to try weaving to see if I want to do one or the other.

[W.Lynn]

I have at least one entire fleece I haven't even touched yet, kind of makes me wonder if my current washer is big enough? My dad's new machine that agitates with just the basket, no central agitator post thingy, would be ideal.

[Joyce Hoffman-Gayley]

I have at least one entire fleece I haven't even touched yet, kind of makes me wonder if my current washer is big enough? My dad's new machine that agitates with just the basket, no central agitator post thingy, would be ideal.

That's exactly the type of washer I have. It's just a big ole stainless steel drum with no center post. It agitates from the outside in.

[redman2006]

Joyce, pm me your contact info. I have two big assed bags of llama fleece at my clinic. I need to ship them out to someone. it is either your or Kick. Since his dogs eat everything, he might not like that.