Arizona Chickens

[LadyKotaDoria]

I started some sweet corn and bush cucumber!! Anyone have some tips to keeping my corn from the birds let me know.... It seems that wild birds come pluck them out when they are smaller

I've seen all types of things done to keep birds away. Tin cans that rattle, cd disks to scare them away, but they all seem to work, from what I've seen, only until 1 bird figures it out. I use bird netting.

I looked on eBay, found some at a good price for me. In this bed I will have my tomato's and other plants that birds love to eat. Plus my girls will make short work of any unprotected seeds and seedlings. I give then all the seedlings I thin out, but otherwise each bed will be covered.

 

[kevs-chickadees]

I started some sweet corn and bush cucumber!! Anyone have some tips to keeping my corn from the birds let me know.... It seems that wild birds come pluck them out when they are smaller

Are you sure its birds doing that. There are bugs that live just under the soil surface that will eat your young plants down to ground level. If this is the case you could try toilet paper rolls to protect them.

 

[LadyKotaDoria]

I started some sweet corn and bush cucumber!! Anyone have some tips to keeping my corn from the birds let me know.... It seems that wild birds come pluck them out when they are smaller

Are you sure its birds doing that. There are bugs that live just under the soil surface that will eat your young plants down to ground level. If this is the case you could try toilet paper rolls to protect them.

I am know of a number of bugs that do that, but not in this soil and climate. What are the bugs so I can look them up. Ants are the only ones I am aware of here. As soon as I have a beed fully covered, I will be going to big guns to control those little nasty s. I don't want to kill all of them, they have a job, but control the numbers. Just way to many, this funky growing medium I used/using is perfect for ants. The main nests are in the beds I have not yet started to convert to composted soil mix.

What other little creature am I Harboring. (I need more lizards) I do not like poisons, but! Everything I've tried has not worked.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

I wish to publicly a sure any one coming to my home, that. I will be first thing tomorrow morning making an appointment, an emergency appointment to be checked out for worms, parasites, lice, ticks and any other Possable contamination. My Sister and Nephew are worried that I have one or more parasites. My nephew sanitizes the house and kitchen after I have been there do to there loving concern.

I have chickens, chickens have deceases, parasites, bacteria, and other unclean stuff, I do not ware shoes in my house, and sometimes my girls try to get in, therefore I contract these things thru my feet.

Furthermore, if you wish not to come I understand. After all, no one will come into a house that a chicken has been in........ It is just not civilized, sanitary, and a thing any normal person would allow. But if you are willing to risk your health and that of family members, knowing a head of time that I have chickens, that I actually handle, I am so looking forward to this week end.

If it will make you feel safer I will pick up cans of disinfectants, masked, and a box of latex gloves, you will have to being your own hazmat suits

Good Grief! How about taking your sister and nephew in to have THEM checked out! I think a brain-eating parasites have invaded each of them.

My GREAT GRANDMOTHER had a pair of housechickens back in the early 1910s. I am told that her house was always spotless. I have neighbors whose chickens occasioally wander into their family room, and they are not huge chicken lovers/raisers. Their house is always spotless. I occasionally have chickens wander through, although my house is always a disaster (I didn't inherit the house-cleaning gene). However, the disaster is never about chickens; it's always about stuff that down't get put away.

I won't be coming to our party, but that is not because you have chickens. It's because my philosophy is that chickens are our friends, not our food.

 

[City farm]

I started some sweet corn and bush cucumber!! Anyone have some tips to keeping my corn from the birds let me know.... It seems that wild birds come pluck them out when they are smaller

If you have a way to hang a bunch of old cd's/dvd's. They flash in the light and scare the birds. It's best if they are on a string so they move around.

A dog.. ? Our will chase them off when we say BIRD,BIRD,BIRD.. For the front yard we just planted seeds.. Which includes;
Sweet Pea, blue ripple, Moroccan spice, Cupid pink,royal blend & wedding blush..
Stock & Bells of Ireland for flowers.
Yummy edibles; golden beet, Gormet beet blend, bok choy, broccoli, German Chamomile, cilantro/coriander, leek,
oh & LOVAGE
Has anyone had luck with this? This will be my 3rd time & nothing..
Onion, Mediterranean oregano, rosemary, sorrel, savory, bright lights Swiss chard, thyme. & last but not least tomatillo..
We will be using chicken wire in the potted planters.. Some of these are planted at the wrong time.. However some of the seeds
were 2009.. Desert planting is a bit different so what the heck..
Again, the moringa tree seeds failed.. Ahhhh!!! Does anyone have seeds??

 

[pipemum]

Well, my dog went very, very peacefully on Monday. I'm grateful that his illness was so short and painless. I miss him--it's hard when I feed the other dogs and only have 3 dishes instead of 4. He had a good 14 years!

My chickens are 16-20 weeks old now. One of the 20-weekers comb and face is red, and she actually squatted (instead of the usual mo of squawking loudly and running away) when I stroked her back. One of the 16 week barred rocks is getting a really red face as well. I don't expect eggs from either one too soon, but I still am checking every day!

I opened a new bag of feed yesterday, my first from the Tucson Organic Co-op. It's awesome! The chickens seem to love it, I got a little nervous when the little velociraptors start milling around me as I prepared their food this morning.

Gardening: I use the dangling cds for birds. Doesn't work too well, but they add a nice design element, hahaha! I have a problem with quail eating my seedlings, grubs eating the roots, and yellow finches eating anything with seeds (sunflowers mainly, but yellow finches make me happy so I plant just for them). My garden has some struggles!

Caution with bird netting--I've found I trapped a lot of critters in it. I used it for a few days, and caught numerous lizards and a baby quail. It wasn't stretched tight like LKD's photo shows, mine was just draped over some wire support, maybe the tautness makes a difference.

 

[countrygirl74]

My sister is very clean, so is my nephew. When they were babies, they had their toys sterilized after playing.

Well, imo, there's "clean" and there's "OCD" - enough said.

I've made my own cottage cheese before, it is not as good with store milk, but it can be done, I would like to try my own yogurt. Doses anyone know off hand where I could get a culture, other then on line. I have had home made before and I liked it.

I make my own yogurt with a Yogourmet. I do buy the cultures/starter at my health food store, but you can also start it with a plain yogurt. I use the Yogourmet and make all my own yogurt with organic milk (no ULTRA-pasteurized). I have to make it myself for my son who has Crohn's disease as it has to ferment for 24 hours and he can't have pectin, which is in most store-bought yogurts - of course, we all benefit from it and it's sooo good!

 

[countrygirl74]

After hearing all the "laying" talk, I guess it's not quite hot enough here to be too much stress on my girls. However, even when we were going through the heat wave (here it was 100, give or take), they still were champs! My Pekin ducks have not missed a single day of laying since they started laying at the beginning of April! My Rouen has taken a day off here and then, but almost has laid as many as my Pekins. I have been super happy with their laying ability!
As for the chickens, I never get less than a dozen a day - our temps have been in the low 90's for the most part. With all the rain, we are in the 80's this week. I have 17 layers, but one is raising chicks right now and a few of them are still young (21-23 weeks) so not sure if they have all even started laying for sure. That means at the very least, I have 4 that aren't laying on any given day and as I said, those might be the ones that haven't even begun yet. So far, so good!
I have so many eggs that I have been selling them!

 

[Demosthine]

So, my wife went off and did me in. Well, she added to my honey-do list anyways. All three of our kids, especially our Baby Girl that isn't a baby anymore, have come to love carrots. I mean, truly love them. They are requested more than any other vegetable now, thank goodness! She recommended that I start canning our own in order to prevent the other contaminates that are in the store-bought ones, particularly the sodium. With a great sale at Sprouts this week, at 75c per pound, I thought I'd stock up and get a dozen quarts jars processed. Off for a trip to WalMart.

The produce at WalMart is very hit or miss. When it comes to canning and making jams, I find that WalMart works best because their produce is not as ripe as Sprouts or Target, so it doesn't soften and mold as quickly. This becomes beneficial with the jam, too, a riper fruit contains less pectin causing the jam or jelly to be more difficult to set naturally. I went over to ad-match about 30 pounds of carrots. When I got there, I saw that their bulk carrots where 50c per pound. That's a pretty hefty difference in price, so I asked about getting a case of them. Yes, I got a 25-pound case of carrots and they look great. After the fiasco checking out (you know, the scales aren't designed for a 25-pound case), I walked out having spent just over ten dollars. Not too shabby.

Tonight, I peeled them and my wife sent them through the food processor with the slicer attachment. A bit thinner than I like, but it's a first time thing. I'll find a way to adjust the blade or buy a different one. We cut about a third of them, I'm guessing based on the looks of the bag. And we ended up with 8 quarts worth. I do believe the canning website was off on their weight estimates per jar, so I may have to buy more jars! Needless to say, we'll be set for a few months (I hope!!!)

At an estimated 21 jars, spending $12 for carrots, it puts me at 57c per quart. That's about 28c per regular can like you'd get with Del Monte. So it saves me a minimum of 50c per can, closer to 75c. Now that, I can not complain about. I may have to re-evaluate the rest of my vegetable shelf and find out about a Farmers Market...


Now to add the yeast to my fermenting wine, wait for the canner to cool and then get to bed. Work comes way too early tomorrow morning. Night all!

 

[kevs-chickadees]

I am know of a number of bugs that do that, but not in this soil and climate. What are the bugs so I can look them up. Ants are the only ones I am aware of here. As soon as I have a beed fully covered, I will be going to big guns to control those little nasty s. I don't want to kill all of them, they have a job, but control the numbers. Just way to many, this funky growing medium I used/using is perfect for ants. The main nests are in the beds I have not yet started to convert to composted soil mix.

What other little creature am I Harboring. (I need more lizards) I do not like poisons, but! Everything I've tried has not worked.

I forgot the name of them, I believe it is a form of a beetle. I thought I had birds, mice, or who knows what getting into my garden when all the new seedlings would pop up one morning and be gone or leveled the next. I then specifically put an enclosure up to keep all pests out and it still happened. It wasn't until then that someone told me about putting the roll over the seedling to protect it for several days. I don't know if I'm coming to the processing class yet but if I do I'm gonna be checking out your Mittlieder garden. Looks awesome!