Heather you have your garden planted already? I'm still waiting for the weather to cooperate and DH to have the tiller on the tractor so I can get mine tilled in good. It's got all the shavings from the brooder house on it-or in it where the chickens have done some work for me. I really need to get it worked up. I also have a big area I need to till after I spray it with Treflan if I can find it, then till it. That will be my chicken garden full of pumpkins,watermelon and cucumbers.
I wish, but sadly, no. I haven't even started seeds in flats yet so I am a bit behind. I put down the mulch and then I will just plant right through it. I couldn't put off cleaning out the coop any longer.
Danz, I filled a hanging feeder with oyster shells and put it on 2 stacks of concrete bricks. It has very little litter and I haven't seen it tipped over yet, even when we had those 50 to 60 mph wind a week or so ago. I'll take a pic of it and see if it make sense to you.
Oh, I like the hanging feeder idea - I've had the same issues Danz mentioned with mine. I thought my solution was going to be to attach them to the wall of the coop, high enough bedding wasn't likely to be kicked in but the hanging feeder idea might work even better.
Handed the grant proposal in.
I so hope we get the grant, we need better facitltys for the fair, and we want to start having mini 4H work shops here, and mini 4H multi -county shows. Every one keep your fingers crossed that they are like minded too!.
Yay for getting it turned in and I'll keep my fingers crossed it will be approved for you!
checoukan, I would love to set all the crap next door on fire just to get rid of it all, but I would be afraid I would start some big grass fire or something & burn down the neighborhood. There is an old travel trailer right by our fence that has been stripped of all the siding & windows & things are just hanging out of it. Then there is an old mobile home that has been stripped of things too & is open. That's all besides all the trash all over the hill that the people dumped for years & it's spread all over the yard there now. I'm on the Rural Water district board for our district & we had to pull the water meter there because people were stealing parts off of it. It's just a royal mess & the owner isn't going to do anything unless she's made to & fined.
Have you made a report to the local compliance officer? I bet she is in violation of some law and reporting might be the first step to get it cleaned up.
Saffron has been transplanted to her new kennel complete with cushy nesting space. I even put a plastic egg in there to help her along. I will watch her for about a day and see if she continues her broody ways.
I bet she will - she sounds very determined if she's been sitting for a month already. I usually only give them a couple of days to determine they're serious and then give them some eggs as I don't like them sitting for too long. They don't eat well while they're sitting so they can lose condition pretty quickly if they stay broody.
Well, here's a turn up for the books. Silkies are notoriously broody, right? So my silkie went broody and after a few days I moved her to her own nest and ever since she has been pacing the front of the hoop coop looking for a way out (but I'm sure if I let her out, she'd rush straight back to join Miss Broody Duck on her nest), so I'm letting her chill in the hoop coop for now. Meanwhile, my Aloha hen, who is far less likely to go broody, also decided to sit on the broody nest. So last night I moved her into the hoop coop and figured if she gave up too, then at least the two of them would keep each other company. Nope - the Aloha hen is apparently far more serious about it and is sitting on the nest. She has 3 Olive Egger eggs to hatch, if she goes the full 3 weeks.
I started the day down a bird. Josie and I had agreed she would take my Welsummer cock bird, since although he is a GREAT flock protector, respectful of me and good to the hens, I don't have a place for him in the direction I want to go. So this morning I ran him up to her place and we had a nice visit. It was fun to see all her new pens now that the work is complete and the birds are moved in. What a great design and great job they did on them!
I was feeling quite pleased that the Welsummer gets a good home, and now I can focus on the birds I have. One less mouth to feed and all that. After returning home I ran down to the coop to check on the birds and found that my Production Red was out. No idea how she got out, but figured she somehow flew over the fence. So I herded her back in. Then I looked over and saw my Production Red - not out after all! Darn - this is that neighbor's hen that has been hanging out in my hedgerow, conversing with my birds through the fence. Normally she is on the far side of the chicken yard, in the hedgerow, but this time she was on my side of the fence, hanging around the gate like she was looking for the way "back in". She sure had me fooled. But now that she is in there, I can't get her out without letting everyone else out since she won't let me near her. So I guess for today at least, I am back up a bird. I'm not quite sure what to do at this point. On the one hand, if someone is looking for her, I want to return her to them but on the other hand, she has been consistently hanging out in my hedgerow, by herself, for quite awhile now. I suspect that her owners don't have a secure place to keep their birds and that any flock mates have been picked off by predators, and that is why she is alone and seeking out the company of others. So - perhaps she is better off staying with my flock? What would you do? The only way I can possibly get her is to pluck her off the roost at night and drop her back over the fence but if I do that at night when she can't see, she will really be vulnerable to being picked off, since she may not be able to return "home" in the dark. Egad - what a mistake to make, but in my defense, when I look back and forth between her and my Production Red, they are so alike, its really uncanny.
