Arizona Chickens

[MagicChicken]

We're in high fig season here! For the past couple weeks we'd been doing a pretty good job of keeping up with eating every ripe fig, but a couple days ago they started ripening in earnest. I picked 8lbs and started dehydrating them. We've gotten 2+lbs each day since and both dehydrators are working hard with this new moisture in the air. With any luck, we'll continue getting figs up through the first frost. Fresh figs, truly one of the great gifts in life.

Anybody else harvesting anything?

I am SOOOOooo JEALOUS! I cannot get a fig tree to grow here. I've tried three different spots in my yard. The first two trees died. The third has frozen to the ground every winter. It keeps coming back but is no higher now than it was when I planted it three years ago, and I've never gotten a fig from it. I've decided to stop torturing fig trees and try to grow something else instead. But I don't like anything else as much as I like fresh figs...

Everything else is in a summer lull. Not even getting many squash blossoms this year. Maybe because the chickens tore up my on-time garden and I had to start over about a month too late? It's been a weird summer garden-wise. Hope the fall crop does better.

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

Heck yeah, our fig tree is producing a lot and I'm eating some as I type for lunch! They freeze well, we put them single layer on a cookie sheet whole then bag them after they are frozen so they don't get smashed and stick to each other, easy to take out a few at a time that way.

Oh, I never thought of freezing them! I'll have to give that a try.

Gallo, where did you get that plant? Can you start it from cuttings? I'd love to get a start from you. I have a Mexican oregano and it has really fragrant intense leaves, but they are tiny leaves. It could also be because I have it as a landscape plant, not as a vegetable garden plant, so it doesn't really get as much water and no fertilizer. It is a big hard-wooded bush, perennial. I've had it for probably 10 years or more.

I found this plant at Mesquite Valley Growers a couple years ago. It's much more herbaceous than the woody Mexican oregano and it roots from cuttings very easily. It's not drought tolerant, but on a drip or with regular watering it grows like crazy here. It's also not very frost tolerant and I've had to bring cuttings inside to keep it going over the winter. I can give you all the cuttings you want--I even have some that are rooted already. I love my Mexican oregano, but it doesn't fare well with my constant clipping. I'm surprised every year that it comes back.

I am SOOOOooo JEALOUS! I cannot get a fig tree to grow here. I've tried three different spots in my yard. The first two trees died. The third has frozen to the ground every winter. It keeps coming back but is no higher now than it was when I planted it three years ago, and I've never gotten a fig from it. I've decided to stop torturing fig trees and try to grow something else instead. But I don't like anything else as much as I like fresh figs...

Everything else is in a summer lull. Not even getting many squash blossoms this year. Maybe because the chickens tore up my on-time garden and I had to start over about a month too late? It's been a weird summer garden-wise. Hope the fall crop does better.

My fig tree has certainly had it's ups and downs. That terrible deep freeze a couple years ago froze it down to a 1' stump. It's finally back better than ever this year and I picked another 5 lbs today. What kind of fig do you have? If you make it over to this side of town let me know in advance and I'll save a bowl of figs for you. You'll love these!

I'm already looking forward to the fall garden too.

 

[countrygirl74]

Finally got my side yard back in order from building the run and converting the shed into a coop. It has been a mess with trash and scrap wood everywhere. My boyfriend and I are NOT carpenters and made everything up as we went along. We only let the girls in the run during the day (locked up in the coop at night) so it's pretty well predator proof but used the larger galvanized mesh to save a little money and doubled it up along the bottom 1/2 of most of the walls and have a 2ft skirt coming out off the bottom. Still need to get a little more to double up the last wall. The run is 8x8ft and about 6ft tall at the roof peak. I'll take a picture of the inside of the coop once the nest boxes are done, the girls are only 2 1/2 months so we won't need them for a while. The small garden I made today and has black oil sunflower seeds planted in it. The chicks don't go in the rocks so as long as I can keep wild birds from eating the sprouts they "should" grow.

I think you did a great job!!!

@CountryGirl74, I don't want to intrude, but would you please send me a PM and give me an idea where you are located. I would LOVE to start raising meaties, and I doubt I would have trouble processing them. It sounds almost like we are close enough to invite you over when you are ready to do your thing, and I would LOVE to learn. We live in Golden Valley right off Highway 68, paved roads MOST of the way to the house and very hard to get lost, our streets are very well marked.

Skip

Hey Skip - we are located in Chino Valley, north of Prescott - so not too far! Been past your house a few times as we have some some extended family in Bullhead City, been camping at Davis Dam, and to a soccer tournament for my daughter there. Just let us know - or maybe if we can get something planned for a one-day event somewhere in Northern AZ - you could meet there. I've done birds here and also up in Flagstaff to help my sister and her husband do their first meaties...

We're in high fig season here! For the past couple weeks we'd been doing a pretty good job of keeping up with eating every ripe fig, but a couple days ago they started ripening in earnest. I picked 8lbs and started dehydrating them. We've gotten 2+lbs each day since and both dehydrators are working hard with this new moisture in the air. With any luck, we'll continue getting figs up through the first frost. Fresh figs, truly one of the great gifts in life.

Anybody else harvesting anything?

That's really cool! I've never had a fresh fig before - don't know if figs would grow here. I'd like to try if they do because I think it would be cool to make my own Lara bars.
As far as harvesting - the my Houdini chickens got to a lot of my stuff by finding the tiniest little way to get in under the protective netting so my garden hasn't done as well as it has in the past. However, my grape vines and berry vines are growing like crazy and the swiss chard is doing well. Peas are almost ready to harvest! I am surprised they made it through this horrible heat since they are more of a cool weather crop.

 

[Timskins]

So yeah... we just got some rain (N. Scottsdale) Our girls are doin good. Their run had a little water in it but nothing terrible, they were huddled in the corner of the coop when I went out after the rain stopped. They made it through ok.

It's funny how one part of the valley can be under inches of water and across town is dry.

 

[LadyKotaDoria]

We're in high fig season here! For the past couple weeks we'd been doing a pretty good job of keeping up with eating every ripe fig, but a couple days ago they started ripening in earnest. I picked 8lbs and started dehydrating them. We've gotten 2+lbs each day since and both dehydrators are working hard with this new moisture in the air. With any luck, we'll continue getting figs up through the first frost. Fresh figs, truly one of the great gifts in life. Anybody else harvesting anything?

FIGS I love figs, I want a fig tree so bad. I know so little about fig trees, but eating them I know a lot. yummmmmm.

 

[LadyKotaDoria]

I got my first dehydrator over 25 years ago to make jerky--a cheapie American Harvester. I found another one identical to it at the thrift store for $5, it was never used. Someday I'd like to have a better one. That's great that you're getting tomatoes still! We have gotten a couple in the past week, but not like your production; way to go! It's so hard to grow anything here in the low desert at this time of year. There never seem to be enough bees. My Cuban oregano is going wild right now. I just picked a bunch and put it into the nest boxes. That's a quarter in the pics for scale. Just imagine the most intense oregano aroma ever, that's what it's like when you brush up against this plant.

I got bees....... Plenty of bees.

 

[Twinklin]

we have lived in our house for about 8 months and have been fighting bees since we moved in. Had the guys come out to get rid of them twice but they'd still make huge colonies in the block wall around our back yard. I'm allergic so moving them to a hive wasn't an option and they were super aggressive. It's such a shame all the bees are africanized hybrid meanies around here. No one wanted to take them from us they just wanted to kill them. We ended up doing it ourselves without killing too many. We drilled a hole in our wall and pumped water into it until they all left and found somewhere else to build. They must not have gone far because we still get a ton in our yard when the sprinkers go off and my cantaloupes are always covered with them, I just wish they'd pollinate my strawberries or squash or something else for once.

 

[desertmarcy]

we have lived in our house for about 8 months and have been fighting bees since we moved in. Had the guys come out to get rid of them twice but they'd still make huge colonies in the block wall around our back yard. I'm allergic so moving them to a hive wasn't an option and they were super aggressive. It's such a shame all the bees are africanized hybrid meanies around here. No one wanted to take them from us they just wanted to kill them. We ended up doing it ourselves without killing too many. We drilled a hole in our wall and pumped water into it until they all left and found somewhere else to build. They must not have gone far because we still get a ton in our yard when the sprinkers go off and my cantaloupes are always covered with them, I just wish they'd pollinate my strawberries or squash or something else for once.

You need to figure out where they are getting into the block wall and cement up the hole. It does not take much of a hole for them to gain entry and if there is any comb inside the block, the odor lingers and they will come back. I had that problem years ago when bees moved into my attic space. After getting them out, years later, bees would still come to that same spot to investigate.
Then one year I had them move into the block wall that was built as a horse water trough. One of the cap blocks had come loose, and they were getting in there. I set off one of those room foggers, dropped it down in the block, and closed up the cap block. No more bees....sorry....but had to do it, they were right next to my big outdoor parrot cage. Then I regrouted the block so no more space for them to get in.

 

[Twinklin]

You need to figure out where they are getting into the block wall and cement up the hole. It does not take much of a hole for them to gain entry and if there is any comb inside the block, the odor lingers and they will come back. I had that problem years ago when bees moved into my attic space. After getting them out, years later, bees would still come to that same spot to investigate.
Then one year I had them move into the block wall that was built as a horse water trough. One of the cap blocks had come loose, and they were getting in there. I set off one of those room foggers, dropped it down in the block, and closed up the cap block. No more bees....sorry....but had to do it, they were right next to my big outdoor parrot cage. Then I regrouted the block so no more space for them to get in.

yeah we've gone through as we find the holes and seal them up. It's a bit difficult because our entire property is lined with huge like 20ft bushes and sometimes the holes are right behind a branch that's pressed against the bock wall so we don't know the hole is there until the bees move to that hole and we see them swarming or a huge clump of bees on the wall. We haven't had any on the wall in almost 2 months *knock on wood*. We assume there's a ton of hives in the wall and it runs all the way down the block behind everyone's homes so they may just be at our neighbors house now.

 

[desertmarcy]

yeah we've gone through as we find the holes and seal them up. It's a bit difficult because our entire property is lined with huge like 20ft bushes and sometimes the holes are right behind a branch that's pressed against the bock wall so we don't know the hole is there until the bees move to that hole and we see them swarming or a huge clump of bees on the wall. We haven't had any on the wall in almost 2 months *knock on wood*. We assume there's a ton of hives in the wall and it runs all the way down the block behind everyone's homes so they may just be at our neighbors house now.

Ah, I have a better mental image now of what you are dealing with. That is not easy. Maybe you need to get together with all the neighbors that adjoin the wall and have a block party--as in fill the holes in the block wall--party

with lots of good food afterwards.