INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[Faraday40]

Note to self for next year. Either fence in the chix or fence in the garden !

Yes, I learned that same lesson. For 3 years, my chickens have left the fenced-in garden alone. This year they learned how to jump the fence & decimated my broccoli, spinach, Swiss Chard, peas, beans, leeks, onions, etc. The only produce I'm getting is from my neighbor's garden patch which I also maintain. Hers is not fenced to protect against rabbits, so the squash, tomatoes, & cuccs go there.




Too late to replant, so I'll have to figure something out for next year. Guess I'll either have to buy a taller fence or find some aviary netting to go across the top.

 

[Greenthumb83]

Or both! I tend to do both. There are some times that I don't mind the birds being all over the backyard, and other times I really don't like 'em being into everything, eating all the grass, and pooping up a storm. I've got a four-foot chicken wire fence around the biggest garden, a two-foot fence on one side of another (it's between the garage and the run, which is an enclosed 6-ft fenced area), and a gate and a four-foot chain link fence between the birds and the front yard and its gardens. They don't pick on my greens as much as I'd feared, but anything that they can reach through a fence is fair game (like the swan gourds my daughter wanted to plant).

I got a super late start on the garden this year. Shamefully, woefully late. Hopefully, we'll still get something to eat out if. So far, we've picked a few ripe cherry tomatoes and tossed 'em to the birds. No one here much cares for them, but they've been volunteering for duty throughout the yard, so I keep them for my mom and the birds. Most of my tomatoes this year are volunteers seeded from last year's cherry and Rutgers plants. All my starts died this spring, so I bought some Pink Lady and Romas, but hey're not ripe yet, and the hornworms love them. When the poults are allowed into the front yard for caterpillar duty, they tend to do almost as much damage as the stupid hornworms!

I've got two habanero plants from last year which nevertheless have never fruited. I'm probably going to have to move them again. I planted them in the pheasant run because supposedly pheasants don't harm plants much... well, that's a lie, friends. Between them and the quail, they had those poor peppers bald as Sir Patrick Stewart in no time flat. They've bushed out since then, but any part that creeps anywhere near the little protective fence is promptly devastated. Once again, I planted numerous varieties of hot and sweet peppers, but the spring killed them all---except the two I brought inside for the winter last year.

I planted two types of corn and three packages worth... but have fewer than twenty plants up. Between the shade, the stomping children and guests, and the birds, the poor corn just isn't faring well this year. I'll plant them somewhere else next year. I planted several kinds of beans, and they seem to be faring better, but some of that may just be my hopefulness. Planted kidney, pinto (both as science projects for/with the kids), Alaska peas, and different kinds of green beans (including one that's supposed to be purple!). Unfortunately, many were buried when we dug the trench to get power lines to the garage and coop.

*Finally* have those lines in the ground, and if DH tells me we did it wrong and have to dig it again, I might just smack him because this is the second time I've dug this stupid thing for him. Power still isn't hooked up, but I don't care so much at this point 'cause the digging's done.

Planted two kinds of pumpkin, three or four kinds of watermelon, about twenty kinds of sunflowers, cukes, summer and winter squash, zucchini, almost every herb I could find. First year for greens. Cabbage didn't come up, but kale, spinach and some others have. I haven't ID'd them all. Planted nasturtiums, cosmos, and marigolds almost everywhere. Also planted catgrass and catnip.

Tried to do everything as companion gardening, which means means that I've strictly avoided monocultures and every plant which can conceivably get along is planted in a big huggy neighborhood, strictly willy-nilly like in any given area of garden. Since plants of the same type all have the same needs, they tend to deplete their area of the stuff they want. Avoiding monocultures avoids some of that competition, and neighboring plants confuse aerial predators, attract beneficial insects or hummingbirds and/or repel nasties and/or function as a trap crop for nasties.

I have both wild carrots (Queen Anne's lace) AND domestic multi-colored carrots coming up (again, I'm really hoping for some pretty purple ones. Might actually get the kids to eat some veggies

). It doesn't help that the poults *helped* me plant the carrots, which naturally, caused seeds to go everywhere in the yard after they took off with and shook my bag of seeds.Life with poults is never dull.

Since people love to think chicken coops are eyesores, I think you're better off using the cute, green one for the coop. Nobody cares what the shed looks like, so bland and unobtrusive work great (and less ventilation works fine in a shed!). generally, I would advise putting the garden shed closer to the garden, but it looks like the gray one might be closer already, so it works doubly well for that purpose. The green one already has a fence started, too, which makes yet another awesome point in its favor as a coop. Just put in a pop door and maybe some more ventilation, and it's golden for the job!

I am a companion planter also. I actually just finished a draft for next year's rotation and garden design. I am somewhat new to companion planting and did not make plans before planting this year, rather just threw things together. It is working, but definitely not as well as it could. Most of my beneficial flowers didn't bloom until the veggies were well established, as well as the pests lol. I need to be much more organized for next spring. We also are going to start doing major work to the soil, trying some Back to Eden and with our lovely chicken poo.

I tried the soap bowl trap for cucumber beetles yesterday. It totally works!! There were a bunch dead in there last night. But, I guess I need to bring it in at night, because it was full of parasitic wasps this morning.

didn't wanna kill those guys!

 

[Greenthumb83]

Yes, I learned that same lesson. For 3 years, my chickens have left the fenced-in garden alone. This year they learned how to jump the fence & decimated my broccoli, spinach, Swiss Chard, peas, beans, leeks, onions, etc. The only produce I'm getting is from my neighbor's garden patch which I also maintain. Hers is not fenced to protect against rabbits, so the squash, tomatoes, & cuccs go there.




Too late to replant, so I'll have to figure something out for next year. Guess I'll either have to buy a taller fence or find some aviary netting to go across the top.

Oh my goodness. I think I would cry!! Actually...I'm sure I would lol. You could still replant your broccoli and greens, probably even some beans. I just put in a second round of broccoli, 3rd round of beans, and some onion starts (just for the green tops) a couple weeks ago. Sorry about your beautiful garden!

 

[hanakimi]

i'm wanting to buy electric fencing from premier 1 supplies but I was wondering if any of the good people on here know if and when premier 1 ever run sales on their electric fencing? as i'd like to save some money on an expensive purchase. I should explain i'm wanting it to fence my garden to keep out the bunnies as they have eaten lots of my greens, it more like i can list what they haven't eaten then what they've eaten lol.

 

[Greenthumb83]

I am looking for ventilation ideas especially on tbe gray one. One of these will be chix coop and the other my garden shed. Thankyou in advance for your input.

I'm still a newbie, but this is how we built ours.


(I just realized I never put up a finished pic lol!)

Anywho, having this much ventilation has been awesome. You could do something similar and then add an overhang.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

I'm so sorry, pipd. I'm kind of amazed it wasn't the Brahma having problems; they're such fluffy, feather-intensive, well insulated birds. It think their generally lazy, easy-going nature is about the only thing that saves them from heat stroke here. 


I'm freezing more than twenty little Gatorade bottles of water in my chest freezer. Going to try to get the kids to a pool and leave the birds with a lot of ice tomorrow. There's already a fan trained on the nest boxes, but I might bring a 16" or 20" out for them, too. 

Umru is probably fine because he's still not feathered in completely. Seriously, he's got bald patches on his shoulders and only has downy feathers down his back. Never had a bird dawdle so long to feather in. He's almost 10 weeks old!

I don't have that many bottles, unfortunately, but I have gotten a few frozen. I went out an hour or two ago and refilled waterers, soaked the brick wall in the shade, refilled the shallow pan with cool water, put out frozen milk jugs in a few shady spots including one in with the babies, and put smaller frozen bottles in water buckets and one in the broody buster with Marge. I also moved some of the nest boxes so that there's an open portion of the shelf they can lay eggs in and they don't have to be enclosed in the plastic bucket nest boxes I use, and strategically put eggs in there and a couple other places in the coop to see if I can entice them to use those areas during this heat. So hoping it all works. I need to check on them again soon.








RE: Fly Strike. Guys, if you're worried about fly strike, you need to keep SWAT in your first aid kit! One application of it over Skua's wound two days ago, and within a couple hours all of the larvae was gone, just one or two dead ones stuck in the ointment. We washed it and just applied Neosporin yesterday, and haven't seen even dead larvae since. Skua's back to being a goof like usual now and should recover just fine.

(And if anyone wondered, I'm choosing to use the word 'larvae' for my own mental health. Dealing with fly strike over the past few days has been a disturbing process.)

 

[Leahs Mom]

i'm wanting to buy electric fencing from premier 1 supplies but I was wondering if any of the good people on here know if and when premier 1 ever run sales on their electric fencing? as i'd like to save some money on an expensive purchase. I should explain i'm wanting it to fence my garden to keep out the bunnies as they have eaten lots of my greens, it more like i can list what they haven't eaten then what they've eaten lol.

@hanakimi
I purchased my first electric netting in 2012 and have purchased several times including this year.

You should get on their email list. Sometimes they have sales on closeouts, but I've not seen any sales on net.

They sometimes have returned items, including chargers and net, that they sell as "refurbished or returned items" so you could watch there if you're not in a hurry. However those items go fast as they're in high demand.

The most expensive part is the charger. I use solar chargers so I can move them anywhere. My original charger has been in service since 2012. I replaced the battery for the first time this year but the charger itself is still going strong. I purchased a second one this year to use with the goats since they will be in more obscure places and need to use it by itself without worrying about the other one.

 

[hanakimi]

@hanakimi
I purchased my first electric netting in 2012 and have purchased several times including this year.

You should get on their email list. Sometimes they have sales on closeouts, but I've not seen any sales on net.

They sometimes have returned items, including chargers and net, that they sell as "refurbished or returned items" so you could watch there if you're not in a hurry. However those items go fast as they're in high demand.

The most expensive part is the charger. I use solar chargers so I can move them anywhere. My original charger has been in service since 2012. I replaced the battery for the first time this year but the charger itself is still going strong. I purchased a second one this year to use with the goats since they will be in more obscure places and need to use it by itself without worrying about the other one.

on your netting did you buy single spike or double spike netting? i'm wondering as there seems to be a big price difference between the two and i wonder if it's worth buying DS.

 

[Leahs Mom]

@hanakimi

IT IS DEFINITELY WORTH GETTING THE DOUBLE SPIKE. Oh... sorry, I didn't mean to shout....


When the ground is dry it is almost impossible to insert a single spike. The double spike you step in with you foot. It can even be hard to get those in when it's dry below the surface.

I can't even imagine trying to get the single spike in.

 

[Faraday40]

Here's an update on our little Sebright & family. If you're like me & read that this breed rarely goes broody, you'll be happy to know that when they do, they're great little moms. When I finally gave in to her persistent broodiness, I gave her some orp eggs since she was too small to be fertilized by our giant English Orp roo,

I'm reposting some of her old pics to show the progression.

Happy mama with 2 day old chicks


1 week old chicks going for a walk with mama. The 2nd black one looked like an extra male, so we rehomed him.


3.5 week old chicks getting bedtime snuggles.

Confused mama trying to cover her giant 4 week old chicks


5 week old chicks surpassed mama in size, but she still mothered them 24/7.



At 7 weeks, our Sebright (Trouble) began laying again & spent more time away from her babies.
The chicks turned 10 weeks old today. Here's the tiny mama with her giant chicks.




Trouble has also resumed to doing her regular tricks for treats, so all is good again.
Here she is today flying up to my daughter's arm when called. Thankfully, the giant chicks were never trained to do this. LOL



Here are some additional pics of Trouble's little boy. I think we're going to keep him if he continues to get along with his dad.