Arizona Chickens

[LadyKotaDoria]

Update on "MY WORLD, a comedy of live".

My garden is doing wonderful, my nitrogen fixing plants (peas) are starting to take off, my root plants are showing above ground progress. On the othe rhand I am finding Basil to be taking over like a weed. I am finding tomato's that have self seeded every were.

. It is our major growing season, I know a lot of use have gardens, I would love to see your photos. The aquaponics and other systems of gardening. Mine being a Semi-Mittleider Gardening system and old fashion gardening. I fertilized every week, but much less, more on soil conditioning. I am changing slowly over composting.

My family is descending once again, I need another week yet to finish decompression from last months visit. I offered some of my tender new greens..... She asked me if I was letting my chickens poop in plants........?. She also wants reassurance I will not be using chicken poop to fertilize my garden. So funny.................. Should I tell her.... She CLAMED to be 199.9999% organic. Pays for it..............

I refuse to

 

[LindaMurphy]

I lost my favorite chicken to a coyote. It really sucks. It got my little white crested polish hen T.T. (as in Tina Turner) Now Elvis is so lonely. I have other chickens that he gets along with for the most part but I can tell he would like one of his own kind to hang with. I felt so bad when I lost T.T. I had to keep telling myself it's just a chicken. Well the truth is that my husband kept reminding me. He is not nearly attached as I am. He finds himself amused in the mornings when they are deciding their pecking order for the day but he would never admit it.
I am going to start looking for a female soon but I would like to find one that is close in age if possible. If anyone knows someone in the Phoenix, Peoria, Surprise area that maybe breeds, white crested black polish please drop me a line. I would rather go that route than to have to get another baby.
I do hope you have better luck with the rest of your feathered friends. The predators do present a challenge.

 

[LindaMurphy]

Your garden looks wonderful. I wish mine was as pretty. I have had the same problem with the Basil. It is growing like a weed. I just topped all of the plants flowers and seeds off. I thew them out for the birds. What the chickens don't eat the other wild birds do. Then I pulled up and potted the other grown plants that I did not want in there and gave them to friends and family. Everyone thought it was great.

 

[Arizonachicken]

My chicks are coming Oct 6th.  I placed an order for organic starter with Phoenix Organic Feed, but it may not be here before the chicks come and that would not be good.  Does anyone know where I can get organic starter feed locally (just a smaller bag) to last a few days?  I'm in the NE valley and have gone to a few feed stores and been unsuccessful in finding organic starter.
Now to start building the coop!

I'm in South Scottsdale and have some. It's from the Phoenix Organic Feed. PM me if you're interested!

 

[bcluff]

Okay so I have a question for you turkey people! I have a two week old black spanish turkey that I would love to enter into the fair in late October. But the minimum weight is 15 pounds to enter. So I have a few questions. 1. Is it possible to have a two month old turkey weigh 15 pounds or more. 2. How early can will I be able to sex. I have the poult on turkey starter and she certainly has doubled in size but I doubt she weighs over a pound at the moment. Thanks!

 

[HomeGrownChick]

Update on "MY WORLD, a comedy of live".

My garden is doing wonderful, my nitrogen fixing plants (peas) are starting to take off, my root plants are showing above ground progress. On the othe rhand I am finding Basil to be taking over like a weed. I am finding tomato's that have self seeded every were. . It is our major growing season, I know a lot of use have gardens,

I would love to see your photos. The aquaponics and other systems of gardening. Mine being a Semi-Mittleider Gardening system and old fashion gardening. I fertilized every week, but much less, more on soil conditioning. I am changing slowly over composting.

My family is descending once again, I need another week yet to finish decompression from last months visit. I offered some of my tender new greens..... She asked me if I was letting my chickens poop in plants........?.

She also wants reassurance I will not be using chicken poop to fertilize my garden.

So funny.................. Should I tell her.... She CLAMED to be 199.9999% organic. Pays for it..............

I refuse to

Your garden is beautiful!!! I LOVE my organic garden produce, however, I have not had the success you are enjoying! I'm in Northern AZ and we were blasted by so much rain I have a mold and rotting issue with the squash, green beans, beets, and many other (formerly) beautiful plants/veggies! I'm so envious of your accomplishment! Don't get me wrong, I've had a nice harvest, but who would have thought of "MOLD" issues in AZ?!?

LOL about the chicken poop in the garden you family is worried about! I have a fence around my garden and keep my flock out, but my neighbor's chicken is so lonely she gets through the fence to come eat bugs and visit my coop... I'm just getting started composting, and will add the coop cleanings to the compost pile. Any advice?

Enjoy the family and fresh, organic produce! If your cuz doesn't appreciate the greens, let her keep paying for it! Thanks for the chuckle!!! Good luck!

 

[maryhysong]

Thanks for letting me know about the blog comments; I had it set for 'registered users' to be able to comment, to try and keep out the spamsters. I've changed the settings to allow anyone to comment but have added moderation (meaning I have to approve comments before they appear). If you will let her know I've made changes, I would love for her to give it a test run and see if it will let her comment now. Thanks.

Lol. He's cute but he does need to learn some manners & I'm surprised the bigger girls in there haven't taken him down a peg or two, but maybe he hasn't tried jumping them yet; just the smaller silkies and the frizzles.

Was out watching them this evening and watched this little boy start towards one of the older hens but she just turned her head towards him and he backed up and went the other way. Still making the smaller girls shriek however. HOpefully he gets the hang of things....

 

[maryhysong]

Update on "MY WORLD, a comedy of live".

My garden is doing wonderful, my nitrogen fixing plants (peas) are starting to take off, my root plants are showing above ground progress. On the othe rhand I am finding Basil to be taking over like a weed. I am finding tomato's that have self seeded every were. . It is our major growing season, I know a lot of use have gardens,

I would love to see your photos. The aquaponics and other systems of gardening. Mine being a Semi-Mittleider Gardening system and old fashion gardening. I fertilized every week, but much less, more on soil conditioning. I am changing slowly over composting.

My family is descending once again, I need another week yet to finish decompression from last months visit. I offered some of my tender new greens..... She asked me if I was letting my chickens poop in plants........?.

She also wants reassurance I will not be using chicken poop to fertilize my garden.

So funny.................. Should I tell her.... She CLAMED to be 199.9999% organic. Pays for it..............

I refuse to

Boy your garden is going good already. Wish I had a useful herb like basil as a weed! Some years I find it hard to really get enough of it to grow. IGNORE THE IGNORAMUSES (holy cow the spell checker just actually worked!) LoL. I would tell her why yes, I do use my chicken poop on my garden, that happens to be excellent organic practice. I'm sure the organic stuff you buy at the store is grown with all kinds of different manures too. ;-) Let her chew on that one for awhile.

Don't let them stress you out!

I have the Mittlieder book but never wanted to go the synthetic route, didn't agree with anumber of things he proposed along those lines. I will have to dig it out and think about the greenhouse system he shows tho. I might do a couple of those in some spots.

 

[pipemum]

lkd, your garden looks great! Mine is doing okay, and will be doing much better once I figure out a way to keep the chickens out of my bins. I tried armoring the bins with twine wrapped around the borders, which worked for about two weeks, until plants starting growing up the twine and loosening the corners, causing sagging that the chickens laugh at while scratching up my plants. Now I'm buying the old fashioned metal borders and hoping that will work. This stuff is cheap at Lowe's: http://image.made-in-china.com/2f0j00GBYtKSrsCnpc/Garden-Border-Fence.jpg

The flock's dynamics have changed since the boss chicken died. I'm still very upset over her death. I can't fathom why she flew over the fence into land of danger. I never did process my roo...one chicken death this weekend was enough. I think we'll do him Friday after work, brine him, and then have a nice crockpot meal on Sunday.

I'm building a cool garden sink/planting bench/chicken and rabbit processing station. I spent a couple of hours on it yesterday. I'm using the base of a planing bench my husband made years ago--the base is still good, but the plywood top and bottom were dry rotting out. The sink has been waiting for a use in my garden for years...I kept trying to figure out where to use it for a planting bed, but never did find a good spot. I have all the wood cut out already, I just need to prime, paint, and assemble.

Here is before:


And here is after a couple of hours of work. Not pictured are the 2x4's for the hanging rack and backsplash piece. There isn't much workspace, but I'll save the piece I cut out for the sink to place over the sink when I need more table area.

 

[LindaMurphy]

My garden is doing ok in some areas but it appears that a mouse or ground squirrel has burrowed it's way in to my fortress meant to keep the critters out.

It's time for me to go on the war path again. Lost all my watermelon this summer. They can get through anything. I refuse to give up.