Chickens in Trees • Hacker News Board

Re: Chickens in Trees

#151

Post by tomcam » Tue, May 28, 2024, 6:51 PM UTC

tbyehl wrote: post #136

tomcam wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn’t trust myself so I hired an awesome dude who did a great job. Two years later we learned mountain lions are bigger and stronger than expected.

Sorry for your loss. And that's kinda crazy bad luck. Every story I recall reading of a mountain lion getting into a chicken enclosure built well enough to defend against a determined racoon or fox has been a young cat strolling through an open door, not forcing their way in.

> Sorry for your loss.

Genuinely appreciated. I have lost many relatives and (human) friends in my life with causes ranging from murder to disease to suicide. The chickens are different, I think because I am completely responsible for their safety. They are true innocents and I screwed up.

> Every story I recall reading of a mountain lion getting into a chicken enclosure built well enough to defend against a determined racoon or fox has been a young cat strolling through an open door, not forcing their way in.

And same here. I didn't understand how strong the big cats are. Our Fort Knox is accessible only through a garage so that wasn't an issue.

Re: Chickens in Trees

#152

Post by tomcam » Tue, May 28, 2024, 6:53 PM UTC

oooyay wrote: post #115

tbyehl wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you not on any chicken social media groups? If you're paying someone else to build something with, uh, curb appeal — fully painted, metal roof, nice hardware — $20k is real easy.

Ah, I'm not social media apart from forums. I do watch a lot of coop and run builds on YouTube though. With that inspiration I bought a bunch of tools and am in the process of revamping my stuff to fit more with our house. It has the added benefit of making the chickens more a part of our little microecosystem as well since much of it is geared towards collecting their waste and pine flakes to make into compost. Even…

I don't trust myself to get it right. This involved many bags of buried concrete for the main structure, special hardware cloth buried a foot down, expensive lumber during its peak prices during covid times, etc. I was running a faltering business at that time and was happy to delegate.

Re: Chickens in Trees

#153

Post by pvaldes » Tue, May 28, 2024, 10:03 PM UTC

nradov wrote: post #91

bagels wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The meat would probably be really tough. I'd think the only acceptable preparation would be braising or confit. They probably have a lot more parasites (worms) than you'd be used to as well.

The localsn in Maui have a recipe for cooking the feral chickens there. Put the chicken in a pot. Add a lava rock. Fill with water. Boil until the rock is soft.

Those chickens have a lot of genetic legacy related with old practices of cockfighting. Being aggressive also helps with survival.

Races of chicken that were breed to fight are very slim and all muscle. Not much different than pigeons. Probably a hard meat. Old roosters of most other races are perfectly edible.

Of course locals could have more than one motive to not want foreigners eating the birds. Specially when there is an old and widespread tradition of let the chicken free-range around villages

Re: Chickens in Trees

#154

Post by aj_icracked » Tue, May 28, 2024, 11:22 PM UTC

becomevocal wrote: post #108

aj_icracked wrote: post #98

Awww I love seeing chicken lovers on HN threads! I started a company called Coop specifically to make it much easier and accessible for anyone with a backyard to raise chickens. We make cameras that do a bunch of computer vision work for predator detection, door alerts, egg alerts, etc. We're at the point where we can now notify people that, "hey, raccoon is detected, door is closed and all chickens are safe". It's b…

Very cool product! We got into chickens a few years ago and it’s taken over our life in a good way. Sounds like we’re in a similar boat as tomcam :) I remember the first time my wife saw your coop, she said “that is what I wanted to build”, so you probably have some product market fit going on. We had already built our run at that time, however now she thinks a good supplemental product idea is a feeder with a camera…

Aww thank you becomevocal! I love the feedback! :)

Re: Chickens in Trees

#155

Post by Galatians4_16 » Wed, May 29, 2024, 3:06 AM UTC

ars wrote: post #150

Galatians4_16 wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Plants do eat bacteria waste (see aquaponics), rabbits can eat some kitchen plant waste, but should of course not solely be fed that, (same with chickens), rabbit poop can be fed to fish and chickens (rabbits themselves eat it like 3x because poor digestive tract)… There are obviously a few steps I left unmentioned, as I am keeping my comments simplistic for the format. You seem to have selective comprehension issues…

> Plants do eat bacteria waste (see aquaponics) Sort of. Some bacteria do convert ammonia into a form that plants can eat, but the majority of bacteria waste is just CO2. > rabbits can eat some kitchen plant waste Very very very little. A couple leaves from romaine lettuce and that's about it. They can not eat vegetable peelings for example. Chickens can. > rabbit poop can be fed to fish and chickens (rabbits themsel…

Food production and consumption using the methods by which living beings have consumed each other for the last 3.8 billion years, is emissions neutral, on average.

The argument for CO2 reduction has always been that all the extra carbon released from coal, gas, and petroleum, is bad, as a net increase of emissions, beyond natural processes.

Re: Chickens in Trees

#156

Post by hombre_fatal » Thu, May 30, 2024, 1:10 PM UTC

pvaldes wrote: post #145

hombre_fatal wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are these bad consequences so that someone can challenge your position?

Vegetarianism can be easily linked to a higher risk of chronic illnesses such as cancer, and heart, respiratory and neurological diseases.

What's the evidence for that?