Maine

[buckabucka]

Black plastic??? I can't use it around my yard because I have an incredible problem with ants... carpenter, black, red, you name it, they're all battling for every square inch of my property.  Will chickens help with that?  If I park my tractor with young birds over a small nest, will the birds kill the ants or will the ants hurt the birds??

I don't know if chickens eat ants, but I doubt the ants will hurt them. We have ants here too (sandy soil), but they don't seem to be a problem.

Does black plastic encourage ants? I haven't noticed that it made them any worse, particularly. Maybe someone else knows more about ants than I do.

We get the really thick black plastic so we can reuse it. Before we had the hoop house, we had to hold some of it down with old tires (really ugly), but there is a rock shortage here. We do have a lot of bricks though, and bought a bunch of earth staples too.

Enjoy your free time, Joanie! I go back to work today, so I'll be reminiscing about my former free time.

 

[Clover Run]

Speaking of eggs, my birds are laying like mad. I do have lights in the barn, mostly over cages to keeping their water unfrozen. The LF cochins have slowed down, but they are about to have new nesting boxes, so that may encourage them. My white cochins in "The Chick Room" have given me two eggs - hope the roo is doing his job!

Today, Ryan goes back to his daycare program, so I get 4 1/2 hours to myself. I'm going to clean pens and rearrange birds. That way, I'll be getting hatching eggs from my red, black and buff bantam cochins to start hatching in earnest. I may even put "Rufus" ( my frizzled black mottled roo) to work! The porcelain d'Uccles are laying again and I need to decide which mille fleurs to keep so that I can still get eggs but have only a trio. Anyone need a barred bantam cochin cockerel? A mille fleur cockerel? I have to many boys!

All this talk about gardens makes me so jealous! My little plot of land is all rocks and hard soil. Yep, raised beds is the way to go. But where do I get the soil to fill them?

If you want a raised bed this year I will bring you soil in my truck. Vinings sells good loam and lets you get just a pickup truck load at a time.

 

[ashandvine]

Clover.... that was very nice of you!

The French deal with what they have. You can go there and they grow in gravel. Its amazing. I figure if people can garden in just water or sand and things like air plants exist I can make do... of course that was my philosophy BEFORE I moved to this 9 acres and its garden bed that is the size of a small house foot print.

Regarding ants. I have yet to see a chicken eat an ant. I wish they would. I have seen the ants swarm and wouldn't recommend putting chickens on the nests. I have read corn meal and coffee grounds are the trick. Both are natural and good for the garden either way. It could take a year to to get rid of them so be patient. Maybe rent an ant eater?

I need golf balls.

 

[Mainechick168]

I don't know if chickens eat ants, but I doubt the ants will hurt them. We have ants here too (sandy soil), but they don't seem to be a problem.
Does black plastic encourage ants? I haven't noticed that it made them any worse, particularly. Maybe someone else knows more about ants than I do.
We get the really thick black plastic so we can reuse it. Before we had the hoop house, we had to hold some of it down with old tires (really ugly), but there is a rock shortage here. We do have a lot of bricks though, and bought a bunch of earth staples too.
Enjoy your free time, Joanie! I go back to work today, so I'll be reminiscing about my former free time.

You can come get my rocks!!! everytime I stick a shovel in the ground I find about 20 more....

I have a surprise extra day of vacation today- yay! back at it tomorrow though

 

[hoppy]

I might be able to help if you can tell me what color is our cochin roo?
barring is a sex linked gene, hens carry 1 copy on her sex gene(for us it's our XY- birds are the opposite where the female determines the sex of the chicks), the roos, carry 2 copies.

Speaking of her offspring! I have a genetivs question for anyone that might know. I think that i can sex her chicks when they hatch when crossing her with my cochin roo. So far i have hatcjed a dozeb or so of that cross and every male that has hatched, hatches with a large white dot of feathers on his head. The makes have also been the only pnes to get the barring from her. Is this coincidence or have i accidentally discovered aomething known to all of you already?

 

[annabananaandfamily]

Hoppy, the roo is red.

However, when I start hatching this spring I will have 2 cochin roos with her for a little while and one of them is splash. Would it still work with that one?

 

[hoppy]

figures, red, which has hundreds of combos, so that I might figure out what kind of red, what colors do you get of all chicks produced (and what are males, what are females?)

Hoppy, the roo is red.

However, when I start hatching this spring I will have 2 cochin roos with her for a little while and one of them is splash. Would it still work with that one?

 

[CoopChick719]

All this talk about gardens makes me so jealous! My little plot of land is all rocks and hard soil. Yep, raised beds is the way to go. But where do I get the soil to fill them?

Hi Joanie, I use a comination of potting soil, topsoil, peatmoss and compost. My ground has lots of clay so my raised beds sit on a thick layer of newspaper to keep the weeds down then I layer it with all the dirts above, like a lasagana. I'll PM you some directions I found on Mother Earth News.

 

[CoopChick719]

alright, I think I can handle this! the temp in my house is rarely about 65 degrees, so this shouldn't be too hard.

Thank you so much!!

 

[Widget]

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Just a bit on the chilly side today. House has been hovering around 60. Not too bad and the pit bull loves to snuggle so we are staying warm. Gave me a chance to peruse Fedco's site. I broke down and placed and order. Figured that the benefits of having fresh veggies this summer justified spending a bit today. I think I will try some container gardening on the back deck for the tomatoes and herbs. Might try other things in containers too. I did get a few flowers that the bees should like. Didn't want to forget them. And I am sure the chickens will love some of the plants too.

Also got a call from a place I applied to a couple weeks ago. I go in tomorrow to fill out a paper application and take an aptitude test. Looks like a good place to work. Manufacturing but good money and benefits. I also have a job shadow at another place tomorrow morning to see if I like that job. Great benefits but very low pay. Never heard back from TSC but I figure that's their loss. So there is a candle burning at the end of the tunnel. At least I hope it is a candle and not the light on an express train.