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

[southerndesert]

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Cut grass can indeed be used.... Drying without molding is very important if you plan to store any.

 

[emvickrey]

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Cut grass can indeed be used.... Drying without molding is very important if you plan to store any.

We also do that but just in the summer. When we cut the grass we put the clippings in the pens. Unless we let the chickens out they don't have any grass and they love it and the bugs that are in it too. I'll talk to DH about storing it for winter and maybe not use so much straw for bedding in the winter. We don't use chemicals on our lawn so it's safe. We can let it dry easy enough before we store it. But as far as storing it what are suggetions as how or what to store it in. We don't have any farm equipment to rake and bale it up but we have plenty of yard.

 

[perchie.girl]

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Thanks for the info. I have a lemon tree started surounded by grass

I guess having it in a hollow in the yard over a septic drip line helped.

I wanted an orange tree but had not attempted so the info about grafting gives me hope.

Mommy to Wee ones- I also have my grandmothers wooden bowl and sifter that she used to make biscuits/bread. Still works.

Just peel back the grass to the diameter of the branches as close as you can. You will see a few thick roots not to worry those are supports. You can also prune the tree to keep the branches from going out too far. That is if its a mature tree. If its young just trim it to keep the branches in order and give enough space for the fruit to get light.

I inherited my citrus when I bought a mobile home in a moblie park. There was one Tangerine tree that hadn't been stripped of fruit for a couple of years it had a big dead branch sticking out of it here and there and it was very pale yellow green through out. Plus it was only about a foot from the corner of a storage shed. I went in first and stripped the fruit. The tree couldn't have been more than about six years old the trunk was small in diameter. I got about ten grocery bags full of fruit. I had to throw most out but some were good still. Then I cut out the dead wood. Then I cut out the interfering branches. Then i trimmed to shape the tree better giving me some space to get behind it and give it a more balanced look. Then I fertilized it. That was one happy tree when I was done it skipped a year then after that I got a good couple of bushels of Tangerines from a tree that was only about five feet in diameter... I did the same to the lemon. when it started producing again My lemons were about the size of a baseball.

Grandma Dixon had a Peach/apricot/plum tree. or at least three stone fruit Grafts. Grandpa Dixon grew what ever made the most money once they settled in San Bernardino. Oranges and livestock... Great Grandma Robbins had the best Grapefruit in San Bernardino farmed twenty acres by herself till she was in her seventies. She also had grafted citrus in her front yard. They all had chicken houses and small portions of their land setup for the family food.

deb

 

[Gypsi]

I have some kind of a grassy weed that looks like bermuda but is an annual and comes out of centered clumps, spreads in a ropy above ground pattern. I was short on cash and straw this fall, it was still 100 out, so I pulled it (30 inches long near my fence, laid it out, let it dry and bundled it like hay. Used it in my nest boxes til I bought straw.

 

[perchie.girl]

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Merry Christmas to you too AL and all the OTs and all the newbies and all us middlies.... hee hee.

 

[perchie.girl]

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Not an OT but I clean it when it gets dirty. Or really what I do is drag it out dump and rinse it then put an already clean one in and let the dirty one get baked by the sun. I dont think I have ever scrubbed a water dish..... But then I use those black rubber tubs made from ground up Car tires.

 

[perchie.girl]

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you could use it for chicken bedding for sure.

 

[perchie.girl]

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That is a Wild form of Bermuda called Devil grass. Very common in hot dry climates because it is sooo tough. When we lived in Las Vegas we had an above ground swimming pool. that stuff would skewer the bottom of the pool and grow right up through four feet of water. Every point where leaves grow out is a joint.... that joint will grow roots. So it daisy chains itself along under the cover of all sorts of objects till it finds a good place to sent up shoots.

deb

 

[Gypsi]

perchie.girl :

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That is a Wild form of Bermuda called Devil grass. Very common in hot dry climates because it is sooo tough. When we lived in Las Vegas we had an above ground swimming pool. that stuff would skewer the bottom of the pool and grow right up through four feet of water. Every point where leaves grow out is a joint.... that joint will grow roots. So it daisy chains itself along under the cover of all sorts of objects till it finds a good place to sent up shoots.

deb

That sounds like my regular bermuda! this stuff dies if you throw carpet over it, just rots. (while bermuda just sends out runners), I don't know what it is. I call it pony tail grass. It is rough and scratchy, but it was better than nothing in my nest boxes, and it dries totally out and doesn't mold. I stored the surplus in some plastic hardware cloth in one of my sheds, up high so it will dry if rain gets in. For true bedding desperation, it's a something. I've gotten it almost cleared off the garden half of my lot. I will let the hens tear it up on the back half next summer. (but I am not letting the girls in my garden, I have almost no "fallow" time when I have nothing planted.)​

 

[perchie.girl]

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That is a Wild form of Bermuda called Devil grass. Very common in hot dry climates because it is sooo tough. When we lived in Las Vegas we had an above ground swimming pool. that stuff would skewer the bottom of the pool and grow right up through four feet of water. Every point where leaves grow out is a joint.... that joint will grow roots. So it daisy chains itself along under the cover of all sorts of objects till it finds a good place to sent up shoots.

deb

That sounds like my regular bermuda! this stuff dies if you throw carpet over it, just rots. (while bermuda just sends out runners), I don't know what it is. I call it pony tail grass. It is rough and scratchy, but it was better than nothing in my nest boxes, and it dries totally out and doesn't mold. I stored the surplus in some plastic hardware cloth in one of my sheds, up high so it will dry if rain gets in. For true bedding desperation, it's a something. I've gotten it almost cleared off the garden half of my lot. I will let the hens tear it up on the back half next summer. (but I am not letting the girls in my garden, I have almost no "fallow" time when I have nothing planted.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cynodon_dactylon Pretty interesting read... Devil grass is the wild version