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Office Hours

Screwing the Soil, Baby Chick Care, Bee Water Formula

December 29, 2024 · by Drake Weinert

Drake opens with a foundation update: Pure KNF now has 19 members, and Office Hours is on its way to being renamed the KNF Podcast. The I Ching reading for the last episode of the year is Oppression and Exhaustion.

He tours an ʻawa (kava) farm he's been teaching, where the soil was dead clay with no reason for roots to reach out. His fix is "screwing the soil": auger holes two to three feet deep, spaced every five to ten feet and staggered by five feet, filled with IMO, compost, cinder, and biochar. He'd rather drill columns than broadfork the whole bed. He also shares a bee water formula, medicine, cleanser, protectors, structure, and mineral solutions mixed into water and set in a dish of rocks outside the hive, so bees can land and drink before entering.

Working through Master Cho's animal videos, Drake shows a quick liquid LAB method using just rice starch water, no milk or sugar, though it has a short shelf life. On baby chicks, Master Cho's rules stand out: unlimited uncooked brown rice for the first three days to stretch their intestines, always pick a chick up from the front so it feels cared for, never let the water run dry, and expect a normal die-off of three to five percent.

The episode closes at Master Lee's farm in Muju, remembered here after his passing, covering chicken economics (a worst-case sixty percent gross profit margin), how chicken psychology affects production, and an indoor IMO setup running off a BMW, bacterial mineral water, machine.

Questions answered

  • 23:25 Why drill holes ("screw the soil") for root crops like ʻawa? — Dead clay soil gives roots no reason to reach out, so Drake fills drilled columns with IMO, compost, cinder, and biochar to draw them in.
  • 27:42 How deep should you auger when screwing the soil? — As deep as your tool allows, roughly two to three feet, spaced every five to ten feet and staggered.
  • 27:42 Does KNF actually help bees? — Yes, always, and Drake points to his bee water solution as an example.
  • 31:32 What's the bee water recipe for the hive entrance? — Mix medicine, cleanser, protector, structure, and mineral solutions into water and set it in a dish of rocks outside the hive so bees land and drink before going in.
  • 32:23 Is broadforking worth it for aerating soil? — Drake isn't a fan of aerating a whole bed by hand; he'd rather drill holes with a battery auger.
  • 36:59 How do you make liquid LAB fast without milk or sugar? — Soak rice and starch in water and skim off the starchy liquid that collects the lab, cheap but with a short shelf life.
  • 39:16 How much brown rice should baby chicks get? — Unlimited uncooked brown rice for the first three days, it stretches their intestines and improves digestion.
  • 41:07 What's the right way to pick up a baby chick? — Scoop it up from the front so it feels your care; grabbing it from behind scares it.
  • 45:42 What's a normal die-off rate for baby chicks? — Three to five percent dying off is normal, they're small, fragile, and growing fast.
  • 47:13 How careful do you need to be about chick water? — Never let the water run dry in the first few days, it's vital for the chicks.
  • 49:45 What profit margin should a small chicken operation expect? — Master Lee's worst case runs about sixty percent gross profit on the sale price.
  • 58:22 Can you make IMO indoors in winter? — Yes, Master Lee runs an indoor IMO setup so you can collect microbes even in cold months.

Topics: lab, imo, bmw solution, bee water, chick care, brown rice, soil aeration, biochar, chicken profitability, root crops, auger

KNF Office Hours is a free live Q&A every Sunday at 9 AM HST. Bring your question to pureknf.org/learn/questions or join live.

In this episode

  1. 0:00 Welcome & sound check
  2. 2:53 Foundation update, membership, format change
  3. 7:34 I Ching: Oppression and Exhaustion
  4. 17:18 Touring the ʻawa farm across the street
  5. 23:25 Screwing the soil for root crops
  6. 28:28 Bee removal story
  7. 31:32 Bee water formula
  8. 32:23 Broadforking vs. drilling
  9. 35:19 Master Cho video: quick liquid LAB
  10. 39:16 Baby chicks: infinite brown rice
  11. 41:07 How to pick up a chick
  12. 45:42 Normal chick mortality
  13. 49:16 Chicken economics and profit margins
  14. 55:06 Muju: Master Lee's farm
  15. 58:22 Indoor IMO and BMW water
  16. 1:00:54 Wrap-up and closing

Transcript

Auto-transcribed with Whisper. Click any timestamp to play from there.

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