Michigan

[Juise]

Thanks, guys, she was really quite pleased with herself.

Is your babe a really small girl or are those really big chickens?? I saw that pic of her standing next to the group of them and thought "dang!!" She is adorable though.

Haha, I don't think our chickens are uncommonly big, to my knowledge, they just turned a year old. My little one is 20 months old, and a bit on the petite side, though it never seems like it because she is so much bigger than her sister was at her age.

I don't know where they get it from, because I'm like, a big, huge, tall, colossal giant. *applies duct tape to Nova's mouth*

 

[RaZ]

Question:

Does anyone have plants they put in the garden just for their chickens? I saw a book on amazon http://www.amazon.com/Free-Range-Chicken-Gardens-Beautiful-Chicken-Friendly/dp/1604692375

All about giving them forage and relying less on bagged feed. We'll have .64 acres and I want it to be landscaped well enough to give them plenty of natural food (bugs, worms, seeds). There are tons of hawks here (I really love them so don't hate me. As soon as the kids are older I'm taking my apprenticeship exam for my own red tail.) and I usually spot their hunting grounds quickly.

I'll have to check out that book. I plant a lot of "crops" for critters to forage in. Butterfly garden, chicken garden, toad garden and maybe something for me.
But I try to move my portable fencing around because I found out the hard way that 4-6 chicks can decimate a hosta bed in just a few days. They just ate 3 fennel plants that were emerging.

More later, I'm putting up a fence to keep the dogs out of my raspberries.

 

[Juise]

Me, too. I was actually just wondering this afternoon whether or not anyone ever planted a "chicken garden". Guess so!

 

[teeville5]

Juise- nice photos. She looks so happy with her achievement.

 

[Olive Hill]

Oh I grow acres and acres of chicken garden. Weeds and grass and briars and more weeds. Wait... is that not what you meant? LOL!

Seriously though, Raz, is right. I was chuckling a bit at the "landscaped" for chickens. I hope you mean you're going to landscape it with edible plants and then harvest them and deliver them to the chickens, because the chickens will destroy landscaping in no time and you'd end up mighty disappointed. Especially on less than an acre.

 

[NovaAman]

I can not cut strait.

I am woman enough to admit that.

HOWEVER, I am also inventive enough to make it work.

Instead of cutting holes and making windows, I decided to make my 2 clean out doors in to dutch doors. The top half of each door can remain open with the hardware cloth in place. So, plenty of circulation going to be going on there.

I bought hinges that suck. However, I am smart enough to keep my receipts. Yeah me.

I feel like I pulled a muscle half way between my bicep and tricep... I say half way, because where it is, I don't know if its considered the bi or the tri. But... ouch.

I did not set the fire after all. I should before it rains... It supposed to be cooler tomorrow, and no rain, so maybe I will get it done tomorrow. At this rate though, the ducks will never get their pond. LOL

 

[Olive Hill]

Nova - I missed your first post. Is this a new coop? We're going to need pictures, you know.

 

[NovaAman]

. *applies duct tape to Nova's mouth*

Better make it that gorilla tape... It'll last longer.

 

[Juise]

Quote:

Oh I grow acres and acres of chicken garden. Weeds and grass and briars and more weeds. Wait... is that not what you meant? LOL!

Seriously though, Raz, is right. I was chuckling a bit at the "landscaped" for chickens. I hope you mean you're going to landscape it with edible plants and then harvest them and deliver them to the chickens, because the chickens will destroy landscaping in no time and you'd end up mighty disappointed. Especially on less than an acre.

Lol, we have that, too. What I was thinking was of planting something specifically of some of their favourite treats, like jerusalem artichokes, clovers, lambsquarter, and.. I don't know, what are your chickens favourite finds?

 

[sarah92480]

Juise, since I'm a first-timer w/chickens and mine are still all peeps, I have no idea what to expect, size-wise, so she just looked so bitty standing next to that huge chicken on the right! Either way she's really cute, I love the little red & white outfit. What kind of chickens do you have?