The Evolution of Atlas: A Breeding (and Chat) Thread

[1muttsfan]

In cold climates raised beds heat up much earlier in the spring, and stay warm later in the fall. And if you have poorly drained clay soil, or very light sandy soil, raised beds can be filled with better soil allowing better gardens. All my flower and veg beds are raised here, the soil is terrible.

 

[speckledhen]

I have a question. Why are you using raised beds, instead of using the soil beneath the raised beds?

Well, we have burrowing rodents bad around here. The meadow mice are always tunneling. Boxes make that less of an issue, generally, though they still get up in them at times. Plus, it's easier to amend a box rather than a humongous bed. Most of them are not actual boxes, but just long 2x4's to delineate the planting and walking spaces. Tom wants raised beds. He loves the symmetry and order of them. You can sit on the edges to do stuff.

We are planting things directly into the soil, though. On one side, okra is planted directly in the ground next to the fence. On the back, we have crowder peas and greasy short cut pole beans that will climb, both planted directly in the ground. on the back corner, we have cantaloupe, honeydew and crookneck squash planted in the ground, no boxes, just boards to show the rows where they are until they break ground.

The Romano and Contender bush beans are in boxes. The Amish paste tomatoes are in two rows directly in the ground, but with 12' 2x4s on each side. The grape tomatoes and sandwich type tomatoes are also in the ground, just have boards on each side of them, not actual boxes. A long box has both spinach and buttercrunch lettuce. Two smaller boxes each have the bell peppers and the kale.


ETA: A guy on the Facebook Chicken Swap group said he'd take both cockerels if I still have them by Sunday. My only hesitation with that is that leaves Cora with Pooh-bear, who could die any time. Cora will be 8 weeks old this weekend so too young to go in with most groups here, unless maybe I let her range around with the old hens' group and at night, sleep in the dog kennel in the barn. So she would get them used to seeing her and she's big enough to get out of their reach, but she can hang with them most of the time until she is big/old enough to be with Sebastian and his five girls.

And all the garden is planted now.

 

[speckledhen]

Today's drama: Went in the barn to let Atlas out for the 2nd time today. Dru held back as she usually does, but I noticed her feathers on the back of her heat matted down, then saw her beak completely covered in blood. Picked her up and cleaned her some and saw that the back of her comb had a nick in it, which apparently bled a lot. So, then we took her out to where her Aunt Ida and Aunt Wynette were getting settled in a dust bath. That's when I saw Ida's beak covered in blood. Ida is head hen and nobody messes with Ida. She regularly pounds on Tessa and Lizzie and today, her chosen victim was her niece, Druscilla. Geez.

And for those who think they can "borrow" a rooster to mate their hens, think again. Hens don't necessarily swoon in the presence of a rooster. They've been known to fight one, but a rooster doesn't always accept any hen, either. I did not put Athena and Zara back in their pen the other day when I let Atlas's group out, thinking they could range around some more. Remember, they were in with him and Apollo when they were much younger so Atlas knows them both. When he encountered them outside, he ran at both of them and flogged each of them, pushing them away from him and his hens. He made it blatantly obvious that he did not want anything to do with either of his youngest daughters. He's like his grandpa, Isaac, that way. Ike was very particular about his hens, not liking the Stukel Rock hens, pushing them away from the food in favor of his bearded ladies, Maretta and June, and his same breed girl, Georgie.

 

[getaclue]

Thank you for the answer(s) to my question. Very informative. My parents did raised flower beds at their place when they moved to KY. They were in a trailer park, and rented the lot they lived on, which was low, and stayed flooded most of the rainy season. They didn't want to sped a fortune bringing in dirt to elevate it, since they didn't own it. I know their soil was more of a clay, and totally different from what we have here in our area of FL. I didn't really consider the temperatures as a factor, since we don't get the cold temperatures down here, like you do up there, but it makes sense.

It would be foolish to lend a rooster to someone, for a multitude of reasons. They might consider Artificial Insemination. It's my understanding that A.I. is not very difficult. You are correct that hens don't always readily accept just any rooster, and vice versa.

 

[speckledhen]

Thank you for the answer(s) to my question. Very informative. My parents did raised flower beds at their place when they moved to KY. They were in a trailer park, and rented the lot they lived on, which was low, and stayed flooded most of the rainy season. They didn't want to sped a fortune bringing in dirt to elevate it, since they didn't own it. I know their soil was more of a clay, and totally different from what we have here in our area of FL. I didn't really consider the temperatures as a factor, since we don't get the cold temperatures down here, like you do up there, but it makes sense.

It would be foolish to lend a rooster to someone, for a multitude of reasons. They might consider Artificial Insemination. It's my understanding that A.I. is not very difficult. You are correct that hens don't always readily accept just any rooster, and vice versa.

And again, with borrowing a rooster, aside from the antagonism, the disease factor is there. Plus if you did it right, quarantining a rooster for over a month just to get a few matings in, then sending him back seems a ton of trouble to go to.

We have varied soil here, some loamy, but a lot of clay and sandstone. When we got here, it was all woods. It took years of tilling in poopy shavings and amending the soil to get that garden dirt where it would grow things well other than cow vine. That entire area was a compost pile that sat for over 7 years. And there is 8' past the strawberries you see in the back right that we added on this year, again, tilled in years-old compost pile. It was not easy to get this to where it is now.

 

[dlp40]

1st post here but, I've followed for over a year. My condolences to of of your loss.

I want to chin in on the "borrowed rooster" question. I tried with my EE flock last year. A big strong rooster from my friends flock. My dominate girl whooped his butt in about 5 seconds flat after a 2 week "look but don't touch" period. Once the dominate hen was fully exhausted from dragging this 7lbs rooster around the yard, all 5 of my other hens took turns flogging and kicking him in the face. All of this took place in about 2 mins flat.
From personal experience, a flat out don't do it is my answer for this question.
I have had softer breeds that I could use outside rosters with, sillies and cochins but, I have never seen LF go so smoothly. Usually, the rooster gets aggressive with "defiant" hens but the worst cases are when the hens overpower the new rooster. Not pretty.

Hope this was a fine 1st post to great thread. Now it's time to actually subscribe to your other ones.
Thanks,
David

 

[speckledhen]

1st post here but, I've followed for over a year. My condolences to of of your loss.

I want to chin in on the "borrowed rooster" question. I tried with my EE flock last year. A big strong rooster from my friends flock. My dominate girl whooped his butt in about 5 seconds flat after a 2 week "look but don't touch" period. Once the dominate hen was fully exhausted from dragging this 7lbs rooster around the yard, all 5 of my other hens took turns flogging and kicking him in the face. All of this took place in about 2 mins flat.
From personal experience, a flat out don't do it is my answer for this question.
I have had softer breeds that I could use outside rosters with, sillies and cochins but, I have never seen LF go so smoothly. Usually, the rooster gets aggressive with "defiant" hens but the worst cases are when the hens overpower the new rooster. Not pretty.

Hope this was a fine 1st post to great thread. Now it's time to actually subscribe to your other ones.
Thanks,
David

Welcome, David! Glad for you to contribute to the subject. I remember putting my first rooster in with my 10 month old hens. He was the same age, had been in quarantine for 5 weeks to make sure he had no disease, lice or worms. They had been hearing him, but not seen him. Even with a fence between them at the first introduction, two Wyandottes did not take kindly to him. His comb was bloodied pretty good. He'd never had any hens before that, either. When the third Wyandotte hen came out of the pop door, he immediately flogged her, LOL. Poor thing was probably wondering, "What the heck did I do?" The Rhode Island Red head hen bowed up at him and he raised to his full height and stared her down. From the second day he was the leader, but the first day? It was pretty intense!

 

[robhuncor]

I'm chiming in on garden soil. A good method to improve the soil, and one with much less work, is putting down a thick layer of mulch - really thick, about 6 inches, and just letting it stay there, never tilling it in. You can plant down through it and in about a year it has completely broken down. You just keep adding to the top. I discovered this by accident when I started growing large patches of garlic, which is planted in the fall and requires thick mulching. I planted it in a new area with thin soil and soon the worst soil in my garden was the best. I bring home straw from the muck pile at the horse farm where I work and I also mix in my own used and composted chicken house bedding. I put it down in the fall and by spring it's ready to go. The less tilling the better, both for the soil properties and DH's back and knees! I also am a great believer in cover crops. They act as a green manure and help keep the soil nice and loose. I have even made my own rye straw when I let the rye mature and harvested the grain. Just my 2 cents.

 

[speckledhen]

I'm chiming in on garden soil. A good method to improve the soil, and one with much less work, is putting down a thick layer of mulch - really thick, about 6 inches, and just letting it stay there, never tilling it in. You can plant down through it and in about a year it has completely broken down. You just keep adding to the top. I discovered this by accident when I started growing large patches of garlic, which is planted in the fall and requires thick mulching. I planted it in a new area with thin soil and soon the worst soil in my garden was the best. I bring home straw from the muck pile at the horse farm where I work and I also mix in my own used and composted chicken house bedding. I put it down in the fall and by spring it's ready to go. The less tilling the better, both for the soil properties and DH's back and knees! I also am a great believer in cover crops. They act as a green manure and help keep the soil nice and loose. I have even made my own rye straw when I let the rye mature and harvested the grain. Just my 2 cents.

That's the Back to Eden garden method or the Lasagna Garden. Just pile layers and never till it. The shavings mountain made the best soil for our garden. We piled it on, plus leaves and grass and it just sat for years, then we tilled it in and raked it and it's grown some awesome crops.
Now, we are throwing the buckets in our pasture to build up the soil out there.

Last year:

 

[1muttsfan]

I love compost, and put a few tractor bucketloads of aged horse manure on my gardens each year. Those methods would not work that well here, as the soil is cold late into the spring and gets cold and wet early in the fall, In addition, the soil is just packed with chips and chunks of dolomite rock broken up ages ago by the glaciers and deposited along with pale grey thick clay. Really tough even to get grass to grow much here. My friend up the road has light, poor quality sandy soil, well-drained, and composted gardens would work great there.