Consolidated Kansas

[tweetysvoice]

It's going to be beautiful this weekend!! I hope everyone is able to get everything done that they intend! Danz - I hope your birds come back home!!
My plans for this weekend is to finish removing all the mulch and leveling the ground to begin the coop building on Wednesday. We decided to go with a Hog Fence with attached hardware cloth for the 2 sides of the run that aren't already fenced in by the 6ft wood fence. The biggest problem we see is that it's 16' long and we had to schedule a UHaul just so we could get it home!

I'm really hoping that it's not too heavy for me and DH to handle. I'm also planning on finishing putting the chicken wire around the bottom of the wood fence boarder of our yard. We won't be letting the chickens/ducks free roam - it's more a precaution to keep the rabbits outta the yard and protect my garden! LOL. We are putting hardware clothe on the fencing inside the run since I'd rather it be tougher against predators. Still trying to decide what we are going to use for the run cover. Either bird cloth or a hard wire grid.

Cute story about DH last night. We let the chickens and ducks out yesterday because it was so nice (and I needed to clean the pens) and DH saw a hawk flying a few blocks north of our yard. He got out of the lawn chair and stood right next to the kiddie pool where the ducks were swimming without cover and scanned the skies (for over half an hour!!). Chickens were in a dog kennel without a bottom. Never saw the hawk again, but he said that there was no way a hawk was going to get his babies and he's break the law if one tried. LOL. I love this man. Willing to stand up to a hawk for his ducks!

 

[averytds]

over the garden pics. I'm married to one of the "my great-great whatever did it this way" guys, so I have a massive weed choked, water and space wasting behemoth every year.



I don't candle anymore until I'm moving to the hatcher or if I'm out of room. Less stressful and zero chance of dropping, hence killing, the 1 egg I most wanted to hatch.

 

[chicken danz]

Tweety invest in some regular Polyethylene poultry netting. That bird netting stuff won't hold up to anything as strong as a hawk or coon. This stuff comes in different strengths and can hold as much as 80 pounds. Always buy a bigger piece than you need cause it can be a pain to get on straight and stretch out until you do it several times. I've bought all mine from http://www.3tproducts.com/ because they are cheaper than most places. Another option is to tie ropes or streamers across the pen about every foot. The hawks can't spread their wings to land with them running across. You can use about anything that won't break easily.

 

[HEChicken]

Tweety I love the look of your gardens but I do have a question. What happens when the plants grow? I've had a vegie garden the past few years and almost every plant I've ever grown, has been larger than 1 square foot. Tomatoes for sure, and cucumbers and squash, but even the greens - Kale, Chard, Collards (I grow tons of all of these as we use them for salad greens for the people and also to give the girls supplemental greens) mostly expand larger than would be contained by a square foot. Kale could maybe fit in that space as it grows taller rather than bushier but the others really expand, even with us picking them almost daily. How does the square foot gardening method handle that? Or do you just plant things that remain small (and if so, what are they?)

 

[JosieChick]

Tweety- Definitely buy the heavier mesh netting, it is pricey but worth it. I put up bright colored string all criss crossed last fall and a coopers hawk dive bombed into my pen right through it, almost got away with one of my silkies. It is so worth the peace of mind.

Danz- My gander is doing really well. Just checked his stitches yesterday and gave him his last does of antibiotics and it looks great. I gave them an inch or two of water in the pool this am and they were just tickled with that. He has had to stay out of water to keep it dry so they have been bathing out a bucket which is not his style at all!

I am so excited to go pick up my GP today!!! She is going to be a very good addition here on our little hobby farm. She couldn't get here quick enough either because the neighbor up the hills HUGE intact male bloodhound was running in our pasture this morning. I chased him off but I can't stand the stress of all the potential predators running around in the yard and having a dog out there is going to be so nice for when I can't be watching over them.

 

[Ivywoods]

Josie-I am so eager to hear how your new GP works out. I hope everything works out well and that she give you great peace of mind so you can sleep at night and not worry about predators.

Danz-Give us an update on your wayward peacocks when you can. I think planning to try to catch them in the trailer is probably the best way, unless you can do the method I will tell you about. I had peacocks years ago. They were nearly impossible to catch. They roosted in the trees above our poultry runs. They always stayed fairly close, but I never could catch them.

If you have a large pen you can leave empty, get your male out, put him in a smaller enclosure inside the other larger pen. Leave the gate open on the larger pen. He will walk the fence and call to they others. The others will walk the fence and eventually walk in through the open door to get to him. I've caught a number of wayward birds that way, and that was the only way I finally caught those free range peacocks I had. We sold them when we moved up here.

 

[tweetysvoice]

Tweety invest in some regular Polyethylene poultry netting. That bird netting stuff won't hold up to anything as strong as a hawk or coon. This stuff comes in different strengths and can hold as much as 80 pounds. Always buy a bigger piece than you need cause it can be a pain to get on straight and stretch out until you do it several times. I've bought all mine from http://www.3tproducts.com/ because they are cheaper than most places. Another option is to tie ropes or streamers across the pen about every foot. The hawks can't spread their wings to land with them running across. You can use about anything that won't break easily.

Quote:
Originally Posted by JosieChick

Tweety- Definitely buy the heavier mesh netting, it is pricey but worth it. I put up bright colored string all criss crossed last fall and a coopers hawk dive bombed into my pen right through it, almost got away with one of my silkies. It is so worth the peace of mind.


Thanks. I'll see what I can find. DH is leaning towards a heavier netting, but maybe we could go with both. Criss Crossing some tie ropes underneath it as well. Josie, how far apart did you have the string? We were thinking at least every 6 inches on the crisscrosses...

Tweety I love the look of your gardens but I do have a question. What happens when the plants grow? I've had a vegie garden the past few years and almost every plant I've ever grown, has been larger than 1 square foot. Tomatoes for sure, and cucumbers and squash, but even the greens - Kale, Chard, Collards (I grow tons of all of these as we use them for salad greens for the people and also to give the girls supplemental greens) mostly expand larger than would be contained by a square foot. Kale could maybe fit in that space as it grows taller rather than bushier but the others really expand, even with us picking them almost daily. How does the square foot gardening method handle that? Or do you just plant things that remain small (and if so, what are they?)

The Tomatoes are easy to control to keep them within the 1 sq ft. As the tomato plants grow and get bigger, you need to clip off the "runner" branches and let the main stalk grow up. This will actually put more energy into the main stalk and tomatoes themselves, then letting them bush out wide. I don't do cucumbers and squash in this set-up, but I do have melons and cantelope - they just grow UP the trellises in the back. The sq ft gardening has guidlines such as 1 tomato or pepper plant per sq foot, 4 lettuce per sq ft, 6 pea plants per sq ft, etc. I have a lot more lettuce than recommended for the general green leaf, but will be culling those back once I see which are the stronger plants. Carrots are 18 per sq ft, I just grow the smaller ones. The peas and beans grow up the trellis. You'd actually be surprised at how they DO stay within the sq ft, they probably take up less space than you think they do.

 

[chicken danz]

Ivy that is exactly what I'd like to do but don't have a pen built yet. I was going to build a building and some pens for all the peafowl and pheasants but it hasn't happened.
Oh BTW I left a message for Rusty Barn a while back and he called me back last night. He said he had too many big money jobs going on right now to do a small one like mine. I guess I am going to have to just build my own darn building some how.
I like how all our friends offer to come in and help! It kind of irritates me cause DH drops what he is doing and runs to help other guys with just about anything, including using his tools, and scaffolding. But I sure don't see them lining up to help out here. Kind of disappointing. I should be able to get a building up in one day if everyone he helps would show up. Of course I know he hasn't asked either. If I just had someone to set the poles I could build the framework myself. Then with help I could get the metal on. And in this same fantasy I could build the fence and everything else!!

I am going to have to order some more netting for pens when I get closer to that. I had a couple rolls but have used some here and there so I'll come up short.

 

[sapphireblu76]

Cute story about DH last night. We let the chickens and ducks out yesterday because it was so nice (and I needed to clean the pens) and DH saw a hawk flying a few blocks north of our yard. He got out of the lawn chair and stood right next to the kiddie pool where the ducks were swimming without cover and scanned the skies (for over half an hour!!). Chickens were in a dog kennel without a bottom. Never saw the hawk again, but he said that there was no way a hawk was going to get his babies and he's break the law if one tried. LOL. I love this man. Willing to stand up to a hawk for his ducks!

That's so sweet ^_^

 

[sapphireblu76]

Okay, all this talk about LGD's couldn't have better timing! I think I might have back-assward-ed myself, lol. Hubby has reconsidered my request for 2 LGD's and decided it would be a good idea after all. Sarge, the pup we got from Danz, is doing great, but we need...bigger? help. Would it be a mistake now to get an older dog that already knows his/her job? Or should we just wait until our pup is a little bit older (he's almost 3 months now) and get another pup next year? I could really use input from all sides