Consolidated Kansas

[sunshinegirl620]

Yes, I'm cutting out after the fact. My original plan had me framing as I built the walls but I hadn't bought the windows yet so didn't know what size to frame. I have a friend helping with the build and he suggested just building all four walls and then cutting out and framing afterward, and that seems to be working very well so far. We got the door framed up beautifully and I would have loved to have hung it but alas, no hinges. We used a hacksaw to cut out the studs at the nails so wound up with intact lumber that we then reused in framing the door.

I am so lucky to have the concrete slab, and didn't even know it was there when we bought the house! My original plan had the coop in another area of the yard but then I saw the slab and it was a no-brainer to change plans and put it there instead.

I wish I had a tiller. I need to till an area for my vegie garden and may end up having to rent one. At this point I'll probably leave it til next year as I just don't have time to get it tilled and ready to go this year with everything else.

Have you ever tried 'lasagna gardening'? It's a super no till way! I laid my whole veggie garden, 8-9 years ago. You will just need a few supplies, that mostly are free at least around here. Layer: Newspaper or cardboard, peat moss, barn litter, peat moss, compost, peat moss, grass clipping, peat moss, chopped leaves, peat moss, wood ashes.... I didn't completely follow this, due to not having some of the materials.. and I didn't layer it as thick as recommended but it did fine. I planted right into that lasagna that spring and by the next spring it was Beautiful soil!! You can build it this year and let it sit until next spring, if that suits you better.

Same results... Awesome soil!!

 

[chicken danz]

I had to laugh after tilling up a whole brand new garden spot the last couple days. I hope all l that grass I tilled up breaks down into layers like noodles! Not layered properly for lasagne!

. I had piled a bunch of smelly chick shavings out there a few weeks ago and have a pile of dirt that composted from chick shavings last year I plan to move over there. I just have a feeling I'll be having a lovely crop of grass for years to come. But I have to plant it anyway. I don't have the energy to rake it all out. It's late but I sure need to get a garden in. If I had a truck load of sand unloaded across it I think it would be just fine. But the truck is full of gravel and I'm not about to shovel all that off to go get sand and shovel that off too.
This may be a total failure but at least I intend to try. I was hoping the chickens would find the dirt and help me out but not one single chicken even looked at that spot. I'll bet as soon as I put in seeds and plants that will be the only place they'll want to be!

 

[cherwill]

All this talk about lice and ticks is making my head itch.

We did a bunch of mowing and some gardening today, then my niece and I made the cupcakes for her school thing. We'll decorate them after school tomorrow. Everyone is supposed to bring a type of food from a certain country or region. She got the USA in general. What kind of food is that; we're a country of immigrants! Everything she thought of her teacher told her had come from somewhere else originally. Together we've made a ton of decorated cupcakes so she looked up cupcakes and talked to her teacher and they agreed the cupcake is American. She's decorating them to look like cherry pies (in honor of George Washington) and blueberry pies.

I've been watching my goofy birds. The big girls don't care about all the little neighborhood birds that hang around the yard, but the little girls try to chase them out. Maybe they're afraid they'll eat all the food, but I haven't actually seen any of the neighborhood birds getting into the chicken pellets. They have been pulling the leaves off my savory in the herb garden; I've watched the little thieves do it.

Medawinks, we couldn't get our young pullets to even go into the kennel we're using as a coop until DH raised it a foot or so off the ground. They'd roost on top of the kennel, even when it was quite cold at night, and we'd have to put them inside. He raised it up and then put the top of a dog house on it at a steep angle so they couldn't stay on top. He put a piece of rebar and a stick across the kennel on the inside so they could roost on those. Once he raised it up like that, they've been putting themselves inside. All four of them have been lining up every night on the rebar. Maybe your birds just need a little higher place to go at night, like mine apparently did.



My biggest bird, who DH finally admitted was fat as well as being a larger bird in general, is laying some strange looking eggs. She always laid the biggest eggs, and they were longer and darker than the other birds' eggs. They weren't bigger around, just longer, and the insides weighed around 2 1/4 ounces. For the last couple of weeks, though, the eggs have been flatter. I don't know how to explain this well, but basically they're still longer, conehead type eggs. But now the top and bottom (let's say) are more flattened and the two sides are still rounded. Also, the coloring has changed. The narrower end has a spot about 1/2" in diameter that is quite dark, then most of the rest of egg is a medium tan like the other BOs, with a light tan section in one of the flattened sides; it reminds me of how a water stain will bleach out certain colors. This picture shows the dark spot, but it doesn't show the rest very well. She's the one who looks like a BO but is larger than the other two BOs. Our birds are various sizes, but she's the only one who looks and feels fat. She doesn't have access to any more or different food than the rest of the older birds. I guess she's just better at eating?

Anyway, should I be worried about this change in her eggs? She's about 2 years old.

 

[HEChicken]

Have you ever tried 'lasagna gardening'? It's a super no till way! I laid my whole veggie garden, 8-9 years ago. You will just need a few supplies, that mostly are free at least around here. Layer: Newspaper or cardboard, peat moss, barn litter, peat moss, compost, peat moss, grass clipping, peat moss, chopped leaves, peat moss, wood ashes.... I didn't completely follow this, due to not having some of the materials.. and I didn't layer it as thick as recommended but it did fine. I planted right into that lasagna that spring and by the next spring it was Beautiful soil!! You can build it this year and let it sit until next spring, if that suits you better.

Same results... Awesome soil!!

The problem with doing anything is I have to put it somewhere. And if I just start layering on top of a patch of grass, it is only a matter of time until the grass grows through it. Been there, done that! First, I need to till it and remove the grass growing where I want to have a vegie garden and THEN I can start to add materials to improve the soil. Actually, although I haven't done the exact layers, "lasagna gardening" is pretty much all I've ever done, but I have learned from experience that you can't just start it out on grass. The last time, I laid out paper feedsacks on top of the grass, thinking they would be thick enough to provide a good weedblock. Then I built the garden a good 12" of a mix of horse manure, compost and a little top soil. It took almost no time for the grass to break through all of that and I've fought it since then (its in my current garden). So I decided to do it right this time and get the area tilled first, and then put in the raised bed frame (last time I used lumber but since that will eventually rot, I'm thinking of setting out the beds with cinder blocks this time), and then start to fill it, so by next year it will be ready for planting.

 

[Hawkeye95]

My cheap and easy garden-- I used rail road timbers, because they take like 50 years to rot. And then put them in a square and then dumped humus and manure and topsoil in it. I just mowed very closely to the ground where I was putting the timbers. Piled up all the amendments and never had one blade of grass pop thru-- even though I didn't lay down any kind of barrier. I told my mom and my neighbor how I did it when they asked last year and they built theirs exactly like mine and they never had a grass or weed pop thru from under neath. Pretty nifty way to do it.

OKay... wow, had a lot to read thru, but most of it was back and forth chatter that was fun to read, but I didn't have anything to contribute. Except the gardening! LOL

Karen-- I'm going to be there today!! Yipee!!! It's Wednesday already!! Glad you're in love with those turkeys. They are special. Hold them a LOT and they will be your best friends out there. More so than chickens, who do become super friendly, but those turkeys are followers. My turkey used to fly up to my shoulder (yeah when she was FULL GROWN!!!) and try to sit there or on my head. And once there, then she'd preen my hair. It actually felt really good! She'd run her break thru my hair over and over. She was just a sweet heart. Sigh.

Danz, so exciting you are driving all that way to come down here!

Cherwill, that is an interesting egg! Maybe it's her age and she is sort of "sputtering" along now?

I'm kidding! I don't really know! It just looks like one of those eggs that had a fluke thing happen to it.

I woke up to TWO more babies in the incubator!!!!

There is a Blue and a Splash in there looking at me. Big vaults on their heads. So far 100% of my birds have had a vault-- so my pullet must have some kind of dominant gene that is passing that on! My cockerel does not have a vault, I find that interesting, because I didn't think any of my chicks would get vaults.

I wonder why that is. It's not a bad thing, but I know it can be a problem with causing a "lobe" look inside the crest when they fill out. But in the case of my pullet-- her crest is perfect and actually on the smaller side. (some people think it makes them bigger!) So there you go-- you never know! Can't wait to see how they all grow out.

 

[chicken danz]

I should be out packing up birds and feeding and such but I just have to have my morning coffee first. Congrats on the babies Hawkeye. You've become quite the expert hatcher these days. See it just takes some patience...and AI or a bird that knows which end to aim for!

Hechicken, I end up with strange shapes and odd coloring on a lot in eggs. Particularly in the darker egg layers. The color in several breeds is applied when the bloom is. It's just a malfunction in the paint factory. Nothing to worry about. Also the eggs will get larger as the bird gets older. I have several birds that just turned 2 years old so I am experiencing much of the same things. I'm sure not ready to retire them though. They are doing great.
I'm so looking forward to today. Hawkeye I can't wait to meet you. It seems like I know you so well already! And of course any one else I haven't met. Are you bringing any of your littles or are you coming alone?
I guess I should go start feeding and gathering birds.

 

[prairie]

Hey, Sunshine,
Your lasagne

sounds like a book I read years ago -- Think it was called Ruth Stout's No Work Gardening. I just decided to do that method again after all these years. It isn't layered but is simply about 8-10 inches of hay/straw put over the garden. We always mulch the garden cause we have lots of leftover hay and this spring I told hubby to leave it I was going to go back to no-till gardening. We have a troy built (it's about 30 years old and a bit big for me to use as I get older) but love the no till -- I don't have to water the plants once they get established! We just keep layering on the hay. I use to lay down newspapers first then the hay but we don't take the newspaper anymore so just used hay. Love it.

 

[Hawkeye95]

I should be out packing up birds and feeding and such but I just have to have my morning coffee first. Congrats on the babies Hawkeye. You've become quite the expert hatcher these days. See it just takes some patience...and AI or a bird that knows which end to aim for!

Hechicken, I end up with strange shapes and odd coloring on a lot in eggs. Particularly in the darker egg layers. The color in several breeds is applied when the bloom is. It's just a malfunction in the paint factory. Nothing to worry about. Also the eggs will get larger as the bird gets older. I have several birds that just turned 2 years old so I am experiencing much of the same things. I'm sure not ready to retire them though. They are doing great.
I'm so looking forward to today. Hawkeye I can't wait to meet you. It seems like I know you so well already! And of course any one else I haven't met. Are you bringing any of your littles or are you coming alone?
I guess I should go start feeding and gathering birds.

Yes, I do feel like I know you! It's funny, I talk about you to my DH like we sit here and have face-to-face conversations. LOL!!
AI, for sure. My boy unfortunately still isn't quite sure which end to aim for!

I put him out with the girls every now and then so he gets some action and interaction-- he spends most of his time pointing out the food for them and clucking and trying to tell them which way he wants them to go. They seem very annoyed with him. Then of course, when he jumps on them-- he's so much bigger than they are. Poor girls. And at that, he's half way off, so it't not like he even knows what he's doing.

I'm bringing my Littles! I don't really have any choice in the matter, or I'd leave them with someone. LOL They can be sooooo bad. In fact, yesterday my MIL picked both Littles up from Preschool so I could have the day to myself and she gave up about half way thru and drove home my little girl because she was throwing one of her tantrums and kicking/screaming on the ground. Not a good day for her. So hopefully she will behave over at Karen's.

But, she's 3yrs, and she wants to dress herself, do everything herself and do whatever it is she wants to do. The tantrums come in when I don't let her get her way. Which is pretty much all the time-- unless we're staying home and it doesn't matter that she wants to wear a swimsuit or leotard all day long with a princess tiara. She wanted to wear her leotard yesterday to Preschool, so that was the start of her day.


So these two chicks that hatched last night?? Early this morning?? I don't know when. They are the last of "MY" birds. That brings me up to 8 of my own. The rest are now my shipped eggs!!! Fresh blood! Can't wait to see what they look like! I'm so excited!! I hope I can see better foot feathering right away.

 

[sunshinegirl620]

HEChicken, I didn't have the trouble with grass in any of my beds i laid... but i did use FIL's corn seed bags and those are really heavy duty! Also we don't have grass as much over here as you all have. We have thistles and weeds and cheat grass....

Prairie, ya it's a book, Lasagna Gardening, by Patricia Lanza... I personally have good luck with layering. And she has lots of good tips through out her book that I've used!

Happy Field Tripping everyone!!

 

[Ivywoods]

Drive careful everyone and have a great time! I will be thinking about all of you!

I haven't done the cardboard/layering in a veggie garden, but I have used it in a couple flower beds right over grass. No grass came up through it, and we are talking over some tough brome grass. I always mulch heavily. If I don't I can't begin to keep up with the weeds. That is kind of what happened last year. DH used ALL of my mulch for one of his projects and I ended up not getting any more. This year we have some old yucky hay that is no good for anything, and so I am using it around some of my newly planted shrubs and trees.

Hawkeye-Congrats on the babies!

Have a great day everyone!

OH--I still don't have my new puppy, Lizzy (Havanese) but I did get a couple updated pics. Here they are. I'm hoping I can get her by this weekend.