Maine

[superchemicalgirl]

I'm loving this compost discussion! Of course, I have questions..... Olive barrel? Where did you purchase this? We do have a dark plastic trash can (with cover), so maybe I can try that. Right now, it is full of other compost.
We tried to take control of our compost area last year. DH moved the giant tangled mess away, dug out some soil and put down sand with pavers on top in a big square. The square will hold 4 wooden compost bins, but we set up 3, with the extra area to stand and work.
It looked great for a while, but 2 of the bins grew giant weed tangles. Then I noticed the "active" bin was filling with sand. We found huge rat tunnels that went under the tile and came up into the compost. We put a bait station in the compost, but they wouldn't touch it. Eventually, DH went into mad scientist mode, putting propane into the holes. We really did have compost on fire, but we haven't seen any tunnels since.
I love the landfill idea, Joanie! We have a couple of landfill areas here, too. We're not actually trying to fix these areas up, it's more a dumping ground, but we're only dumping natural materials.

Olive barrel. Bought it from some people on 201 for 20$ right by the Church of the Mirror Images in Winslow. I have no idea what the church's real name is, I think it's Baptist, but they have 2 buildings that are mirror images of each other. They're by two different plow sellers, slightly south of 137. I'm terrible with directions.



The barrel is great, you fill it up with stuff, add a bit of water, put it in the sun. When you need to turn it, throw it on the ground, roll it a few times, and then put it back upright. You can vent it or take the top off every few days. It's pretty big, and pretty heavy when full. BF was going to drill holes in it, fill it with dirt and then plant strawberries in it, but hasn't gotten around to it yet (too many other important projects) so I turned it into a composter.

Can I borrow your husband for a few hours? I have major rat issues over here. Like yours, mine won't fall for baits or traps. I was successful a few weeks ago flushing it out of its home and then bludgeoning it with a shovel. It wasn't pretty, but it had to be done. 6 days later a new rat moved in. This one has been harder to kill. I cleaned the duck coop yesterday and found it had been making a mansion under the ducks. I dug it up but didn't find the rat. Maybe I'll go rat hunting today. I have a small propane torch. And BF is at work...

 

[buckabucka]

Sent you detailed instructions!

 

[lazy gardener]

I've heard that people have success if they can block all of the tunnel exits then run a vacuume hose from car exhaust into the tunnel to kill the critter with CO. An old time gardener told me he did this with ground hogs. Benefit is that you don't have a body to dispose of! Of course, that means that you'd need to be able to get close enough to the compost pile with the car.

 

[hoppy]

not chicken related but maine related, this is what I worked on today.
pug dog on a stone cut from stained glass.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?...46761445.15608.128299457204854&type=1&theater

 

[buckabucka]

That looks great, Hoppy!

I was out taking photos of the coop today. I'm going to enter it in the UMaine Cooperative Extension Service contest you sent a link to. The deadline is the 31st, so I'd better get moving on it.

Also starting on 6 kinds of Christmas cookies here. I love cookies. We'll eat a bunch, give some away, and the rest go in the freezer for January grazing.

 

[ashandvine]

I was really hoping to have some poop for the garden...but what about all the hay? when I clean things out, i just dump it all in a pile out back...I don't have poop boards either....how do I get some good manure out of this situation?

You could do what we do I guess. We do the lazy composting, and I do have a frozen pile wrapped in some heavy black plastic waiting to be drug over the garden, but we also have a poop bucket and poop picking gloves. (I think the ideas above are good though, especially the keeping chickens on the garden over winter. I like the idea of putting them in there in the spring right after a till or turning because they eat out worms and grubs that I don't want int here) We have a bucket that the mammoth broody poops went in and poop boards are as easy or as complicated as you want to make them. We just lay loose boards down under their roosts for now and scrape them down into a pile which goes into the bucket. Pure poop... or nearly. You can mount them with brackets and fill them with sand then scoop out with a kitty litter scooper.
Don't worry about the hay. It breaks down pretty easily and even if it doesn't add aeration to your beds. Just turn it in.

I'll go back and edit that post to make it more clear- I'm having a bad night.

Bad news here: Rooster with a bloody comb. IDK why for sure but he has a huge single comb so he either got frost bite suddenly or he had an issue with someone/thing.

Like that. I hate single combs, esp the large ones. I am going to try to get a rosecomb Dorking to cover my hens so all the resulting offspring will be rosecomb. I don't CARE if they are or aren't sop. They don't freeze or bleed or look the same either and that wins it for me.

 

[hoppy]

bloody comb probably is NOT frost bite. normally frostbite will turn black then it falls off, very little blood. sounds more like he had a tussel with someone.

Bad news here: Rooster with a bloody comb. IDK why for sure but he has a huge single comb so he either got frost bite suddenly or he had an issue with someone/thing.

Like that. I hate single combs, esp the large ones. I am going to try to get a rosecomb Dorking to cover my hens so all the resulting offspring will be rosecomb. I don't CARE if they are or aren't sop. They don't freeze or bleed or look the same either and that wins it for me.

 

[buckabucka]

I hope everyone has a great holiday!

I'm baking cookies today. I'm also hoping that the reason SCG is not online, is that she is either enjoying time off or working (not spending time in the burn unit after failed rat elimination experiments).

 

[ashandvine]

LOL.... saw her yesterday. And because of her I now have a few eggs to decorate my tree with. Well, and now that the ducks are laying I have large blue/green eggs which are beautiful for the tree so maybe it was a cosmic team effort.

I am sending antisocial bf to the grocery store today. Its totally punishment. He didn't take the turkey out of the deep freeze as I asked the other day so now its still a meat-rock (like his head) so he is going to go out and get something because I didn't plan to process anyone today.... or tomorrow. Hmm. Maran cockerel next year for a gourmet meal? Now the wheels are turning.

Does anyone use buckets as nest boxes??

 

[buckabucka]

LOL.... saw her yesterday.  And because of her I now have a few eggs to decorate my tree with.  Well, and now that the ducks are laying I have large blue/green eggs which are beautiful for the tree so maybe it was a cosmic team effort.

I am sending antisocial bf to the grocery store today.  Its totally punishment.  He didn't take the turkey out of the deep freeze as I asked the other day so now its still a meat-rock (like his head) so he is going to go out and get something because I didn't plan to process anyone today.... or tomorrow.  Hmm.  Maran cockerel next year for a gourmet meal?  Now the wheels are turning.

Does anyone use buckets as nest boxes??

 

Oh, so glad she is not in the burn unit! I recently wormed my chickens and saved a bunch of shells thinking I will create an eggshell mosaic, but I have yet to do anything with them.

In one of my coops I have bucket nest boxes. I bought them at chickenstock because I was desperate for some (since I was bringing home some laying hens to a new coop with no boxes!).

One small flock has no other choice, so they use them religiously. The other flock started with 2 buckets. They used them, but then I found a little clutch of eggs wedged up next to their dustbox. I made a wooden box (or watched DH make one while I stood with plans in hand) and set it right on top of the area where the clutch was. Some prefer the wooden box, some like the bucket. It seems that once they decide to lay in a certain spot, they stick with it.

I think the hen looks kind of cramped in the bucket nest, but they are certainly easy to clean.