Coop Project: Maken the Plunge & Getting Chickens

Great garden Rock Home Isle

Mysterious said:

WOW! Do you mind if copy your idea?

Click to expand...

The information, insights, and experiences are there for us all to use and share...thank you though for asking.



Bindweed, I'm telling ya, teach your birds to eat Bindweed.

Thanks.

A summer update

It's been a hot hot hot summer here in Colorado...local news is talking record heat AGAIN!!



The garden has just exploded out of the ground. I just love this...my neighbor's look over the fence and ask, "How do you always seem to have such huge plants in your garden?"



I let my girls work the garden all winter long...it's amazing. This is the way it's supposed to be...No chemicals, totally sustainable.

The girls have been watching the garden grow...all summer.



When I weed, I pile the weeds along the fence. The girls reach through and eat it all up.

They do have a reach-radius. You can see in this image how far they hens reach into the garden, when sticking their heads through the openings of the welded wire fencing. Seems I planted my sunflowers just outside their reach...but not enough to save most of these plants...DANG!!!

And as always anytime that I'm in the yard, I get the flock's undivided attention.

Good to get an update on your garden and girls! It's been hot and humid here too. I walk my dogs around 7 a.m. And am drenched an hour later. Who needs a gym this time of year.

One of my 4 BOs is a roo and starting to feel his oats. He does his "dance" around me in the mornings when I open the coop. I remembered your suggestion about pushing him down to the ground in submission, so I've been doing that. This morning he stayed put for a bit, after I let go. He's not aggressive yet, so I'm hoping he settles down. If not, I'll either have to find him a new home or cull him. I'm moving to a property with 6 acres in a couple of weeks, so having more space may help. I have 2 German Shepherds that aren't allowed to be in charge, so he won't be either. But I know, at 16-17 weeks, his hormones are kicking in. The 3 hens are starting to check out the nests, but I hope they don't start laying until after the move.

Your Welsummers are quite eye-catching!

The garden looks great too!

Robilyn81 said:

@Rock Home Isle Does that fence suffice to keep the chickens out of your garden, or do you also clip wings?

Click to expand...

I have this one bird in my flock, and bless her black heart, she has figured out how to climb the fence. She goes up to the fence, grabs on, flaps her wings and walks right up the side of the fence, and plops over the top into the garden.

She's only done this a few times right after I closed the gate on the garden back in late May-ish.

None of the others have tried to climb over...they just COMPLAIN every time I go in the garden.

I did have a bit of a problem with squash beetles, so I took one of my girls and put her in the garden and caught a few beetles for her. I showed her where the beetles were and gave her an hour or so in the garden each day for a week. I stayed close by and watched, but now no more beetles.

I will admit I was worried, ducks work great for combing bugs out if the garden, chickens...not so much. But my girl did well, so I was happy.



My wife quit going into the garden entirely...the garter snakes have started calling it home again for the summer. She doesn't do snakes.



I caught these little gals the other day when I was picking vegetables. They are used to being picked up, so they struggle for a minute or two, then calm down.

The snake in the above image is coiled in my hand ready to strike. She was startled when I picked her up, and with her milky eyes, she really couldn't see. Her first response to being picked up was to attack...no big, she settled down after a bit. I got the open mouth threat, but not much more than that.



If you look closely, you'll see that each one has milky eyes. They were all three hanging out in the garden, getting ready to shed. I thought that was pretty cool....

Yesterday evening, I was in the front room watching cartoons with my grandson. Suddenly my wife runs through the kitchen and out of the house onto the back deck and starts yelling for everyone to come outside.

I ran outside through the open sliding glass door, while my 2 1/2 year old grandson used our dog door. (He truly believes that it is his door).

In the backyard, a Cooper's Hawk had one of my Welsummer pullets by the rump and was flying across the yard with it. Except for my wife...everything was quiet...even the chicken in the talons of the hawk was quiet. My son grabbed the chicken and I made a grab for the hawk.

Welsummers must have loose feathers, I could not find any puncture wounds in the pullet at all. The hawk flew up into the Black Walnut Tree and surveyed all the commotion before flying off.

Wow...that was close. I can only figure that the hawk has been picking off the Eurasion Doves that come into the chicken feed, and decided that today was a good day to take a chicken.

Sorry no photos....wasn't enough time.