Chickens for 10-20 years or more? Pull up a rockin' chair and lay some wisdom on us!

[sager:)silkies]

YaY

 

[perchie.girl]

YaY

LOL... did you know your avatar is sideways? Yay is right...

 

[BWKatz]

So glad to be back online. Really missed this thread. Re Clay and manure.. I just got thru using a pick ax to dig 7 holes for fruit trees in my clay and granite soil. Anything I plant gets amended soil and some kind of manure. These got chicken manure. Went out and checked them yesterday after 2 days...everything looking good. Of course all the rain we're having didn't hurt. My coop got built straight on the ground for that reason too. I figured nothing could dig thru that rock. I still used aprons on my run though.Can't be too careful..

 

[Mommy 2 Wee Ones]

Again, we thought we had lost our BR Queen Bee, caught her two days ago over in the neighbor's yard. I called Chick Chick Chick & over the fence she flew, back into our yard. Went out today & did a head count, no Queen Bee. Hubby was out checking for eggs & saw movement in the cluster of weeds behind the neighbor's shed. There she was, I reached in to pull her out & she was sitting on a cluster of 24 eggs.

Am boiling them up & feeding them back to the hens.

 

[Gypsi]

hallelujah! I figured this treasured thread was suicided, and it's BACK!

 

[Yay Chicks!]

When did this change from "Lay some wisdom here" to "Lay some eggs here?" I must not be very observant...

 

[RWD57]

I hear that wood ashes work against mites/lice. I dump a pile in my chicken run once and awhile for them to dust themselves in.

 

[MedChicken]

Ok, I've got one for the old-timers. One of my leghorns keeps standing on one leg. I went out today and checked her leg and foot. Nothing. No swelling, no bumps, no eschar, no tenderness. Do they do this because they are cold? What's the deal?

Thanks!

 

[Gypsi]

I need a pottery wheel.

Am going to plant my potatoes in homemade chicken wire tubes I saw on youtube.

I am going towards no till gardening, figure when the season is over, I can dump the compost/mulch out of the raised beds and spread over the garden area & try to build up the soil that way.

Was going to also try doing sections of the front yard with compost/mulch, and plant dutch clover, and see if that will help the goat burr issue. Was told & read that goat burrs do not like healthy soil.

If by goat burrs you mean sand spurs - those little 3/8 inch wrecking ball spiky seeds - what they hate most is water. If you keep them thoroughly watered through the whole summer (very hard to do in North Texas), they won't go to seed, and will die off in the winter and not return. Weedkillers won't kill them, I've been digging them out on my lot for a couple of years, only had about a dozen this year. The first year I dug, after not watering them, hoping they would die for 5 years, I filled my biggest trash can a dozen times with the plants/seeds.

 

[Mommy 2 Wee Ones]

If by goat burrs you mean sand spurs - those little 3/8 inch wrecking ball spiky seeds - what they hate most is water. If you keep them thoroughly watered through the whole summer (very hard to do in North Texas), they won't go to seed, and will die off in the winter and not return. Weedkillers won't kill them, I've been digging them out on my lot for a couple of years, only had about a dozen this year. The first year I dug, after not watering them, hoping they would die for 5 years, I filled my biggest trash can a dozen times with the plants/seeds.

Oh Yes, my girls call them "Pokies". They just jump up and grab you. Our oldest dog, he runs to the edge of the property and comes hopping back, with pokies in his feet.