LGBTQ+ Poultry Keepers

[SnapdragonQ]

This is the first year I've started gardening out there.

I am snickering about you talking about good size gardens and me having a lot of space... I'm a nut who has corn in 1 corner of an 4x8 garden... lol

Right now the way my 4x8 is:
8 sq ft is popcorn (4 / ft, 2 seeds in each hole not thinned)
4 sq ft cherry tomatoes ( 1 / ft, 2 died but have not been replaced)
4 sq ft "Big Boy" tomatoes (1 / ft, died and was replaced with cutting)
6 sq ft Jalepenos (1 / ft, 2 died I believe, none replaced)
2 sq ft Bell Pepper (1 / ft, 1 died leaving 1 plant, not replaced)
8 sq ft was planted with carrots, harvested entire harvest of 3 carrots, re-planted 4 sq ft with cilantro, has not come up yet.

So I still have a solid 4 sq ft block that is empty as well as the spots where the tomatoes and peppers died.

Next year:
Putting a cattle panel hoop over the 4x8 garden.
Making 2 modified 3 sisters gardens, likely 4x4 ft each. One will be corn and beans, the other will be sunflowers and beans. No squash as I want to be able to get into the garden to pick the beans.
Putting up another cattle panel like a fence with 3 supporting t-posts to put summer squash on.
Will re-plant the 4x8 garden with tomatoes and peppers, and that may be all that goes in there during the hot part of the year. Apparently Basil grows well under tomatoes, so may do that on the south side. The hoop is to drop strings from and train the tomatoes and peppers up so stakes and cages are not needed.

I do have 11ish acres, but most is pasture for the horses and trees. Working with what used to be the lawn for the old rundown house that is out there as the garden area.

I do have plans for the area wrapping around the house to make a "secret garden" with fruit trees and eatable flowering plants. I want to put in an 8 foot privacy fence made by stringing high tinsel from wood posts and then training blackberry bushes up them to make a living wall. I figure that will be more effective at keeping things out than a real fence would be plus berries!

Lol...and I'm snickering right back because I also started with a small square foot bed and was enthusiastic enough to be seen from space. Things got bigger as I went along and figured out what worked for me and it sounds like you have excellent plans going forward. Oh and if you haven't experienced it yet, the seed catalogs that arrive snail mail in Dec/Jan really will have you drooling and make you plot and plan on graph paper (or scribbled on make do graph paper) like a mad person. Those around you will come to recognize this as gardening withdrawal and have them begging Ma Nature to bring early spring weather because they fear for your sanity.
Love the bramble fence idea, and corn in a Sq Ft bed??
What kind of horses? A couple of us have horses too.

@jolenesdad ...I am not surprised you are excited by a worm egg! (and have the equipment to produce such a good pic!)

@Ihavesomechickens I don't know what the word was but I'm sorry. Mean people suck. Trolls suck too and there are plenty of those around. Glad to hear the hand is mending.

And I guess I should have asked first if it was ok to hang out here some. I like open, accepting, and nice people and did not mean to barge in. Mention gardening or horses and I just start yammering. **blush**

 

[KikiDeAnime]

I'm excited! The ducks eggs will be arriving tomorrow(finally!!).

Also, surprisingly I got defended at the store by an off duty cop from a crazy dude. Not saying what it was about because it's a bit personal.

The hens are starting to start up laying again after the heatwave finally passed.

Our broody hen is still a cranky broody so hoping she takes to the duck eggs tomorrow. Not holding out hope for all the eggs to hatch but at least she'll have had something to sit on. I'll also be glad if at least 1 hatches. Wilco still have chicks so I can get a chick or 2 in case only 1 duckling hatches.

 

[Ihavesomechickens]

@Ihavesomechickens I don't know what the word was but I'm sorry. Mean people suck. Trolls suck too and there are plenty of those around. Glad to hear the hand is mending.

It’s an incredibly offensive term to most people, so I didn’t write it out.

 

[ChocolateMouse]

And I guess I should have asked first if it was ok to hang out here some. I like open, accepting, and nice people and did not mean to barge in. Mention gardening or horses and I just start yammering. **blush**

I think we're pretty chill about who hangs out here as long as nobody's being a jerk, gaslighting, minimizing, sealioning, etc. So, welcome. I mean, there's a lot of varied interests in the community, including horses and gardens. XD I have one of the two, so that aint bad. And it's not like we don't have any straight pals.

But hey, I also have these Q-T-pi's.

They started opening their eyes today.

 

[aart]

do you have an opinion on what you see?

Nope, sorry, don't have enough experience to know.
Positive ID is difficult, and important.

 

[jolenesdad]

Nope, sorry, don't have enough experience to know.
Positive ID is difficult, and important.

Yeah I know.... positive ID being the whole dang point of not just broad spectrum-ing them away! Naturally, these two cecal or roundworm eggs are supposed to be super hard to differentiate.

deeper i head into the world of parasites!

 

[Stablecoop]

Hi fam! Anyone on the east coast doing any prep for Isaias? We’ve got 2 pretty heavy mobile coops that I’ve anchored down (the meat birds in them will be processed in a week), and we moved them out from under trees, but is there anything else you’d recommend doing? We do have a barn we could move them to in an emergency (it would be a difficult move though), but we are in eastern mass, so it’s looking like a tropical storm here, we are on the wind side of the storm, not the rain side. Any advice welcome!!

 

[Ihavesomechickens]

Hi fam! Anyone on the east coast doing any prep for Isaias? We’ve got 2 pretty heavy mobile coops that I’ve anchored down (the meat birds in them will be processed in a week), and we moved them out from under trees, but is there anything else you’d recommend doing? We do have a barn we could move them to in an emergency (it would be a difficult move though), but we are in eastern mass, so it’s looking like a tropical storm here, we are on the wind side of the storm, not the rain side. Any advice welcome!!

I’m in central Maryland, and I’m getting the brunt of Isaias tomorrow. I got some heavy ran and high winds tonight, but tomorrow is supposed to be bad. I can only recommend moving them into an area that isn’t movable, but since you live all the way up there it might just be like a bad thunderstorm for you.

 

[Stablecoop]

I’m in central Maryland, and I’m getting the brunt of Isaias tomorrow. I got some heavy ran and high winds tonight, but tomorrow is supposed to be bad. I can only recommend moving them into an area that isn’t movable, but since you live all the way up there it might just be like a bad thunderstorm for you.

Hoping it’s not too bad for you! Be careful down there. And thanks for the info and update. Do you have peeps outside hunkered down or you have them all in a non-movable structure? Thanks for you reply and advice!!

 

[cheepteach]

we are in NY--looking for a day of thunderstorms/flooding somewhat. All you can do is batten down the hatches as best you can. good luck