So, I decided that I wanted some chickens again

Thank goodness my local TSC don't do 10¢ chicks. The even bigger benefit of chickens to gardening is pest control. You will eliminate the need of pesticides. No tomato worms, no grasshopper, no earwigs... Incorporate the garden waste compost pile into the chicken run. Will provide food and entertainment for the chickens and valuable soil for next year's garden.
 
Thank goodness my local TSC don't do 10¢ chicks. The even bigger benefit of chickens to gardening is pest control. You will eliminate the need of pesticides. No tomato worms, no grasshopper, no earwigs... Incorporate the garden waste compost pile into the chicken run. Will provide food and entertainment for the chickens and valuable soil for next year's garden.

The method I am using more my food forest is the back to eden method, which essentially is thick layers of mulch over everything. No sprays, no pesticides. This is the reason I would love to have chickens. To break down the damaged fruit or some of the left over fruit into something useful. I live in a high elevation desert, so not a lot of common pests. another reason is that I do not want the chickens digging up the mulch beds. I would like to keep as much of the moisture in as possible during the summer when we get minimal rain. Due to the climate, most of what I am growing is berry plants. Raspberries, Currants, Serviceberries, Elderberries, and Gooseberries. I ordered some fruit trees to put in the first part of may to give filtered sunlight to most of the plants that do not like the full summer sun. I think I may put some cuttings in the chicken run if I am unable to give them away. Normally people will take them off my hands.
 
WELCOME! I love your dogs! Soap! I used to foster, and fostered a German Wirehaired Pointer. He was a blast. Pretty smart. I had to keep my chickens in the run while I had him. Hadn't grown up around them. I have the most cool photo of him in the prettiest point you ever saw..pointing my chickens through the chicken wire. :lol: It's just in them. I used that photo on the adoption page. Some folks in the state over from us in Colorado wanted him!
 
F3B3D004-ED86-4C4A-82D2-AEF7BE8F1900.gif

Welcome to BYC!​
 
(1) Are you new to chickens / when did you first get chickens?

I haven't had them since high school and I was at the tractor supply store and they had Turken chicks, so I bought them. They were 10c a piece. Little known fact that after chickens were there for a week they are discounted to 10 cents.


(2) How many chickens do you have right now?


Well, I have 13. Some will get eaten this year, town code is only 6 hens. I am just going to pick the best 6 out of the bunch.

(3) What breeds do you have?

4 Turkens, 4 Easter Eggers, 1 Ancona, 1 White leghorn, 1 White hat polish, 1 silver polish, 1 Golden Wyandotte

(4) What are your favorite aspects of raising backyard chickens?

This is going to sound strange, but I really want them for their manure for my food forest that I am developing. Eggs are a bonus.

(5) What are some of your other hobbies?

Hunting, Fishing, Fantasy Football, Gardening (Food Forest), and Random Projects. Right now the random project is building the chicken coop and run. I am re-fabricating an old shed. Framed the floor over the weekend and will do the roof and the walls this week. Probably do the run next week and finish with installing a solar panel. The solar panel is to fulfill the town requirement of a heating source in the coup when the temp falls below 32 degrees. I figure I will just put in the panel for a light bulb and call it good.

(6) Tell us about your family, your other pets, your occupation, or anything else you'd like to share.

My family lives a few hours away and it is just really me and my dogs. I have a Basset Hound female named Molybdenum who is a sweetheart and a pretty good guard dog. She lets the deer in the area know they are not welcome in the backyard. I also have a German Wirehaired Pointer named Soap. Soap is very sweet and very high strung. He is still going through the adjustment period to the baby chicks being a bird dog and all.

(7) Bonus: How did you find BYC, how long have you known about BYC, and what made you finally join our awesome community? :D

I google a lot of things and a lot of the questions I have come back to this site.
Welcome to Backyard Chickens! Wow, chicks for ten cents? I can tell you ain't livin in California! I bought some leghorns that were 3 weeks old at the lowest discount they would give me which was $1 each!! Enjoy this site and all your chicken friends! :clap
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom