NY chicken lover!!!!

[rancher hicks]

all the monsters have been in the coop/run since may. They know it's home. They were just being monsters.

I think they are smarter than they want us to believe.

 

[Chicken girl 15]

Oh I dang well known them bugger head monsters are smart. Again tonight they hid on the run from me. The center of the run is 7ft high and 12ft from the side. I'm 5'2" where did they go tonight you ask?! 7ft up 12ft in!!!! I am doing 96 hour lock in. No more free time gurls!!!

 

[HISIRISHGEM]

Oh I dang well known them bugger head monsters are smart. Again tonight they hid on the run from me. The center of the run is 7ft high and 12ft from the side. I'm 5'2" where did they go tonight you ask?! 7ft up 12ft in!!!! I am doing 96 hour lock in. No more free time gurls!!!

Oh noooooooooooooooooooooo! I'm sorry for this, but this post had me laughing. Dont' worry though. My guess is I will be due at some point for something similar. Right now the girls are free ranging and they're skittish. They don't even fly into the garden yet. What they ARE doing is going behind the shed and I'm guessing it's only a matter of time before a hawk nails one of them. How many do you have again?? I hope you weren't scratched up more.

 

[HISIRISHGEM]

I didn't grow much this yr. Weird yr for what we did grow. Some stuff grew great, others bad. Decided to go big next yr, triple size of garden and put the red sussex and white giants I'm keeping to work clearing more garden area so it's easier tilling come planting time. I'll separate them once the start laying but I don't expect that till spring, got them in begining of June. The ones we got in May the yr before EE and leghorns started laying middle of winter with no supplemental light.

How big was the garden to begin with? Triple the size is SERIOUS! Our garden was such a tough one this spring. We used to till and this year my dads tiller conked out after he tilled his own. hahaha So my husband and I decided to go back to our original method of lasagna gardening. Dad teased us that it looked like one big patchwork quilt but it turns out that much of everything grew EXCELLENT compared to past years. Last year we had issues with powdered mildew. This year we made organic spray to kill it before it got anything and we also used another homemade spray for bugs which worked out well. We had TONS of tomatoes, greens, our chard has been the gift that keeps on giving, turnips came out huge, peppers were good, even the squash is nice (though next year we'll be trying hubbard). I think we'll be extending our garden as well. My husband has a vision of a food forest. I'm okay with it as long as it doesn't look tacky! The front lawn is MINE!! I have all my perennials. My hydrangeas are paired with different types of lavender. My hope is to have a self pollinating apple tree in the corner where we buried our Jack Russell. The fencing along the opposite end of the area has echinacea, chives, chamomile, along with daylilies, foxgloves. Some mint and other herbs. I just put a rose of sharon at the end to look nice. I would like roses in the middle of the yard like there would have been in victorian days along with a nice white clothes line. A swing somewhere on the tree in that portion and maybe the icky pine and other maple cut down in front of the house so we can add more flowers in the landscape.

The work is never done is it? lol

One of the reasons we got the chickens was to help with the garden after harvesting and to aerate the lawn. I do hear they add more bigger holes though. lol

 

[Chicken girl 15]

Oh noooooooooooooooooooooo!  I'm sorry for this, but this post had me laughing. Dont' worry though. My guess is I will be due at some point for something similar. Right now the girls are free ranging and they're skittish. They don't even fly into the garden yet. What they ARE doing is going behind the shed and I'm guessing it's only a matter of time before a hawk nails one of them. How many do you have again??  I hope you weren't scratched up more.

20 in total but tonight it was only 8 out. Thankfully no more scratches just a good laugh for the monsters and husband.

 

[Beer can]

Oh I dang well known them bugger head monsters are smart. Again tonight they hid on the run from me. The center of the run is 7ft high and 12ft from the side. I'm 5'2" where did they go tonight you ask?! 7ft up 12ft in!!!! I am doing 96 hour lock in. No more free time gurls!!!

The ones I had roosting in the TOP (can't throw rocks that high) of trees were one small EE (now a excellent broody and my best layer, that lays a olive egg, can't wait to see what her crossed with a welsummer will lay)
and two brown leghorns. I quit free ranging, lost to many to predators, had to put chicken wire on top of their run cause those three kept flying out even with a clipped wing. This spring I free ranged them again and they ALL were in the coop every night when I got home after dark everyday when I let them out every morning. I think some confinement 'lockdown' will help, if '96' hours doesn't, add to their punishment Lol!
I would prefer to free range all the time, lot's of free protein from bugs, grubs, grasshoppers, etc. But I live surrounded by thousands of acres of woods and fields, and coyotes a howling, hawks a flying, fox a running, and even saw the worst IN my HOUSE last winter going threw a hole in the wall of our back room concrete to our cellar, a dang cute little ermine! Weasel! Many have been hit hard by those little things, my Dad lost almost his whole flock of RIRs when I was a kid to one. Keep a eye out for predators. I thought it was fox getting mine, but after coming home to one of my best jersey giant pullets dead outside of a uncovered run this summer not knowing what happened, then shortly afterward had to chase a hawk out of their run as he was attacking the others (had a rifle good thing I forgot to take the safety off cause shooting a bird of prey is a Federal offense even if it is attacking your livestock, can legally shoot anything else) all runs are covered now.....

 

[Beer can]

HISIRISHGEM, garden was 50'x50' when we moved here. After a few yrs seemed like to much work, veggies are cheap in the store. So I rolled it flat and planted grass two yrs ago. Last yr, I thought but dang fresh tomatoes are not cheap and we love them so started some in cut down 50 gal barrels, ohh so are cucumbers! started one filled with them. Then cleaned out the coop deep litter and put it down by our pond where I couldn't grow nothing before, 63 pie pumpkins, eight big pumpkins and 32 butternut squash!!! Then I watched 'Food Inc.'....too much work turned into I do not want to buy from the store what I can grow myself. Busting sod with our small rototiller was not fun, why I put a chicken run where we are expanding, put them to work. Want to plant 100x100 next yr.
It was around 25x50 this yr. Never grew kale before but it's doing awesome, spinach crap, chard crap, beet greens crap, but I did get some nice beets we just roasted, yum. Onions crap. Potatoes did great, picked a huge cabbage a month ago and have 30+ more to pick mostly for sauerkraut (couple split, have to pick them soon!) a lot of carrots great, planted a fifty foot row of Chicago pickle cukes ate many fresh and pickled 12 gallons and gave my father in law enough to pickle many gallons also, never did so good with cukes. Tomatoes, didn't do a lot this yr, but they were super sweet! Down by our pond where we did great last yr I planted watermelon, muskmelon and pumpkins, got three crappy pumpkins...nothing else. I've had great success in the past with all the stuff that didn't pan out this yr, weird yr. Usually do great with sweet corn also, always plant golden bantam, didn't plant any this yr.
I couldn't grow garlic either when I tried, even tried it planted in the fall. I know people that do great with it so it does grow good in NY.

 

[HISIRISHGEM]

HISIRISHGEM, garden was 50'x50' when we moved here. After a few yrs seemed like to much work, veggies are cheap in the store. So I rolled it flat and planted grass two yrs ago. Last yr, I thought but dang fresh tomatoes are not cheap and we love them so started some in cut down 50 gal barrels, ohh so are cucumbers! started one filled with them. Then cleaned out the coop deep litter and put it down by our pond where I couldn't grow nothing before, 63 pie pumpkins, eight big pumpkins and 32 butternut squash!!! Then I watched 'Food Inc.'....too much work turned into I do not want to buy from the store what I can grow myself. Busting sod with our small rototiller was not fun, why I put a chicken run where we are expanding, put them to work. Want to plant 100x100 next yr.
It was around 25x50 this yr. Never grew kale before but it's doing awesome, spinach crap, chard crap, beet greens crap, but I did get some nice beets we just roasted, yum. Onions crap. Potatoes did great, picked a huge cabbage a month ago and have 30+ more to pick mostly for sauerkraut (couple split, have to pick them soon!) a lot of carrots great, planted a fifty foot row of Chicago pickle cukes ate many fresh and pickled 12 gallons and gave my father in law enough to pickle many gallons also, never did so good with cukes. Tomatoes, didn't do a lot this yr, but they were super sweet! Down by our pond where we did great last yr I planted watermelon, muskmelon and pumpkins, got three crappy pumpkins...nothing else. I've had great success in the past with all the stuff that didn't pan out this yr, weird yr. Usually do great with sweet corn also, always plant golden bantam, didn't plant any this yr.
I couldn't grow garlic either when I tried, even tried it planted in the fall. I know people that do great with it so it does grow good in NY.

Yeah, that darn garlic! There are quite a few people I know who grow it. I must be doing something wrong. Seriously! Hahaha Our garden was 30 by 15. We're expanding it next year a bit more. cucumbers did great this year. We ate them all. Not enough for canning. Tomatoes did wonderful this year too. We like sweet 100's, Roma's and Organic Big boys. We haven't done cabbage yet. I've been afraid of the cabbage worms. Have you done any of them? Kale and Chard have just been awesome here which is good because we're a mainly plant-based family. Onions didn't do very well for us either. My parents are funny. They have a small garden and yet everything grows and they get an abundance of it. Dad swears by Wegmans lobster compost. It's too expensive to buy for bigger gardens though. We have the chickens for the same reasons.

Your right! You really have to know where your food is coming from. Too many hormones pumped into things. I mean, look at the difference between conventional tomatoes and organic. They are HUGE. This year I tasted one of our tomatoes and there is such a difference. They have flavor! So sweet tasting. It brought me back to my childhood.

Another thing that my gram once brought up before she passed, she was making her goulash and I asked why she used beef broth with her beef. She mentioned the beef hadn't had flavor in years so she always added beef broth to give it flavor. I found that quite odd! Having chickens will be great! No more paying for the eggs (except feeding them of course. lol The eggs taste SO much better than the store bought.

It will be interesting to see your new garden next year. Lots of work, but I hope you reap the harvest more than you did this year. We're going to amend the soil with nutrients before snow hits. Thats another thing our soils are lacking since our grandparents and great grandparents gardened. Nutrients. It's sad we have to add it to the soil. The soil should have it already in it.

 

[Purpletie3]

For those of you who are interested or want to grow garlic it is planting time... Go to the farmers market and get some bulbs or from a local stand. Split them apart a day or two before you plant. Be careful to leave the paper covering on the bulb and plant it like you would a tulip but about 6-8" apart. I do mine in 50' rows of 3 with about 3' between rows. Do not put chicken poo on them. They are a root crop. They will bloom in the spring and produce a curly scape on top...cut that off and use it in pesto or seasoning etc... Then the bulb will charge. When the plant starts to die...you harvest. Hang to dry then cut the stem and roots off. (plant before Halloween and harvest around the 4th of July)

I encourage everyone to plant as much of their own food as possible. You all are right when you are talking about the quality of your soil. It is a living breathing microorganism. If you think of your soil as a living thing you will remember that it needs fed and watered and taken care of. The better you treat it the better it will treat you. The better the veggies will taste! YUM!

It's also supposed to get real cold this weekend. I will be finishing up harvesting the veggies I still have in my garden today!

 

[Chicken girl 15]

The ones I had roosting in the TOP (can't throw rocks that high) of trees were one small EE (now a excellent broody and my best layer, that lays a olive egg, can't wait to see what her crossed with a welsummer will lay)
and two brown leghorns. I quit free ranging, lost to many to predators, had to put chicken wire on top of their run cause those three kept flying out even with a clipped wing. This spring I free ranged them again and they ALL were in the coop every night when I got home after dark everyday when I let them out every morning. I think some confinement 'lockdown' will help, if '96' hours doesn't, add to their punishment Lol!
I would prefer to free range all the time, lot's of free protein from bugs, grubs, grasshoppers, etc. But I live surrounded by thousands of acres of woods and fields, and coyotes a howling, hawks a flying, fox a running, and even saw the worst IN my HOUSE last winter going threw a hole in the wall of our back room concrete to our cellar, a dang cute little ermine! Weasel! Many have been hit hard by those little things, my Dad lost almost his whole flock of RIRs when I was a kid to one. Keep a eye out for predators. I thought it was fox getting mine, but after coming home to one of my best jersey giant pullets dead outside of a uncovered run this summer not knowing what happened, then shortly afterward had to chase a hawk out of their run as he was attacking the others (had a rifle good thing I forgot to take the safety off cause shooting a bird of prey is a Federal offense even if it is attacking your livestock, can legally shoot anything else) all runs are covered now.....

our run is covered so no problems there .