The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[Leahs Mom]

Well...when I look at the black breeds my mystery girl looks most close to the Black Australorps from what I can tell. Especially when I compare the shape of the head which is a bit different from the marans.

However...every time I bring up that it looks like a BA, people say the leg color is wrong...? Strangely, this girl has yellow pigmented toe nails.

O well... I'd love it if she turned out to lay those dark chocolate eggs of the marans for a little more "party in the egg carton". I guess we'll see!

What do you think, LeahsMom? Found this pic on the Australorp thread. Mystery solved??

 

[brandislee]

They already love the pile of dirt Vicki I just need it moved so the grass under it can grow back.

The chickens seem to like mountains of things.. I have a compost mountain that is 20 years old at least.. this property was used as a horse carriage trail 20 years ago, and it's a mountain of composted horse manure. It's very rich in worms, but the trees have rooted in it, so it's hard to dig up in places. We just got a tiller, so I'm going to attempt to. The soil looks amazing.

We also just ordered our dump truck of screened organic topsoil for our garden beds. We are building the raised boxes tonight. Tomorrow I took the day off work so we can finish it up and add the soil/compost. I have a bunch of perennials I bought to give the rock garden some colour. Perennials are okay planted before last chance of frost right? I think so..

1) your pictures are all so beautiful.

2) what is that green stuff?

Oh wait, that's grass. Forgot what it looked like.

 

[aoxa]

1) your pictures are all so beautiful.

2) what is that green stuff?

Oh wait, that's grass. Forgot what it looked like.

You still don't have grass yet?! Poor you!!



Here is what we did to the rock garden. Went down to -2C last night and perennials are doing great.. except the spiky one there that Henry decided to sit on. Little bugger!!



Here is the raised beds we built yesterday. We only filled one with dirt (after putting in weed cover). Yesterday was hectic, but awesome. Lots of gardening! This week ahead looks wonderful, and the contractor is starting Monday. The barn plans have changed in the exterior appearance to make it so the chicken part of the barn faces the morning sun.. we were off about where the sun rose... Anyway.. The front entrance is going to face to the right of where the last barn's front was.. So you'll be seeing only windows and no doors from the house. The back will face our neighbours, and the front will face out where the baby barn is.. oh man I'm bad at explaining...

Let's put up a reference..



So here.. the front you see there will be the side. The entrance will be facing the right, and the entire front side (what you see in this picture) will be the chicken area.. all windows pretty much. It will help warm it up in the winter. In the summer, they won't be in there much at all - but it is going to be insulated, so I think that will help cool it off some.

I don't think I'll ever get rid of that platform in the middle of the yard. It is great hawk cover, and they hang out under it a lot.

 

[armorfirelady]

Quote: Mumsy that would be really cool if you had turquoise eggs !!!! Maybe you could remind them their eggs are suppose to match their earlobes??/

What are potager beds? I know you have mentioned them before but I have a heard time getting a visual of them. Are they the same as raised garden beds? P.S. I am a little jealous that you have most of your veggies in already.....

 

[stonykill]

we need rain. Haven't had any real rain in a month

 

[brandislee]

Okay...I don't have a lot of time in the next few days, but I thought I'd put this one link that has several studies and reading material linked out of it. Of course this is in respect to humans, but there are also several studies with dogs, cats and even chickens! This is one of the "modern ailments" that has risen since the consumption of soy, wheat, various legume seeds and processed vegetable oils began to be "marketed" as healthy. So much of the health of the nation has gone downhill since that time and it's really being directed back to some of these practices and abandoning the "traditional" foods, cooking methods, fermentation, etc.

http://www.ketogenic-diet-resource.com/fatty-liver-disease.html



(Okay...I need to get off the soapbox and go to bed.

)

You're singin' my song. I preach this all day long to everyone I know. Unfortunate that only like 1% of people listen... people are so entrenched in the idea of what healthy is and they refuse to listen to anything contrary- I have a friend who is having horrible health problems, and her kids are all having a range of problems, from constant swollen tonsils to food allergies to tooth decay to a heart defect in her youngest. I keep trying to explain what is probably missing in their diet, and she keeps saying "but we eat healthy." But their healthy is deficient in fats and fat soluble vitamins and far too high in "natural" convenience foods and vegetable oils. I finally convinced her to eliminate soy bc of some skin issues her BF infant was having and she's supposed to be eating some coconut oil every day (but I don't know if she followed through with that). It's frustrating to sit back while she goes on and on about all these problems they have and then have her dismiss all the well meaning (and well researched) advice I give her... Eating healthy is NOT complicated- if your great grandma wouldn't recognize it as food, don't eat it.

they are best right now. They get bitter as the year progresses.

dandelion, violet leaves and flowers, red clover blossoms,mustard grass leaves, fresh scrambled eggs, a little wild onion grass and a dash of dressing. Good spring breakfast.

Boiled up 1st year burdock stalk with a little butter and garlic...mmmmmmmm, a tasty part of lunch.

dandelion leaf and violet leaf sun tea. Gives me lots of energy and tastes great.

Ugh... I can't WAIT for the stupid dandelions to come up. The violet leaves just started to open up this week... then got covered with 12 inches of snow. I'm going to die if I don't see grass soon.

 

[armorfirelady]

we need rain. Haven't had any real rain in a month

Love the pic Stony....We havent had rain in awhile either except for a little last weekend. I have resorted to watering the veggie garden every few days hoping Mother nature will give us a little rain to help the veggies & fill the rain barrel

 

[brandislee]

Quote:
I agree, I grew up the same way. We had TV, but only got 4 channels (the networks and PBS) and weren't allowed to watch it in the summer, other than during dinner time (when I would watch All My Children while I cooked lunch and dad would watch the news during lunch). My grandma did buy us a Nintendo when we were little, but it also got completely put up during the summer. I'm not saying I have any desire to rid my family of the technology we have- in the winter it's nice when we run out of OTHER things to do, and on long car rides to visit family I would probably die if my kids didn't have movies to watch and video games to play. But I'm putting them all up for the summer, the second this snow all melts, and I've already put the upstairs TV (they aren't allowed to watch the downstairs TV and don't know how to run it) on a timer so they can only watch it a few hours a day.

I find it extremely hard to find any decent info on foraging. It used to be passed down from generation to generation, but it has been lost, and it is such area specific information it's hard to find books on it. I mean, I have plant identification books, but those don't help much. You need to know more than just plant ID, you need to know where to look, what time of year to look, etc. I'm learning slowly- I know several plants that grow on my property that are edible (arctic strawberries, purslane, violets, nettles, dandelions, lambs quarters, sheep sorrel...), but I'm sure there are many more. And I want to learn to forage in the wild, but I don't even know where I can go or where that's allowed.

 

[brandislee]

Hi all,,, for all of you with a dead log you can't move on the property,, here is a nice option.... neighbor has these leading all up her driveway...

Beautiful- I have a log like that by the coop. It's right next to the HUGEMONGOUS stump from the tree it came from- the stump is a good 4 feet across and hollow in the middle, so I'm going to fill it up with dirt and plant something in it. It'll look pretty and help the stump break down faster. I may do this with the log as well. How would you hollow it out- chainsaw? Also, any ideas what to plant that my chickens won't instantly demolish? I know that's a lot to ask, lol!

This photo was obviously taken at the back of your house where the dryer exhaust is located. What you have here is a giant lint ball that came out after a Whites load. If you are extremely thrifty and crafty you can probably make something really cute out of it. Giving it eyelashes and/or a pink bow will make it a girl.

LOL!!!

1st year will look like this. 2nd year is when it gets the "burdocks". It is a biennial.


fresh. pick, rinse and make tea

Just thought I would mention that I also dry these for use later as tea, it's really simple.

It took me some time to read up on the thread today. This post has me wishing. I wish my silkies would lay turquoise eggs to match their gorgeous turquoise ear lobes.

A wonderful 75 degree sunny day here. I weeded the potager beds, planted sweet Banana pepper plants, and watched chickens. A perfect day.

That's a good point... if egg color matches lobe color, why does my silkie lay tan/white eggs? And PS- I hate you. It's 35 here and there's still 5 inches of snow on the ground.

 

[brandislee]

You still don't have grass yet?! Poor you!!



Here is what we did to the rock garden. Went down to -2C last night and perennials are doing great.. except the spiky one there that Henry decided to sit on. Little bugger!!



Here is the raised beds we built yesterday. We only filled one with dirt (after putting in weed cover). Yesterday was hectic, but awesome. Lots of gardening! This week ahead looks wonderful, and the contractor is starting Monday. The barn plans have changed in the exterior appearance to make it so the chicken part of the barn faces the morning sun.. we were off about where the sun rose... Anyway.. The front entrance is going to face to the right of where the last barn's front was.. So you'll be seeing only windows and no doors from the house. The back will face our neighbours, and the front will face out where the baby barn is.. oh man I'm bad at explaining...

Let's put up a reference..



So here.. the front you see there will be the side. The entrance will be facing the right, and the entire front side (what you see in this picture) will be the chicken area.. all windows pretty much. It will help warm it up in the winter. In the summer, they won't be in there much at all - but it is going to be insulated, so I think that will help cool it off some.

I don't think I'll ever get rid of that platform in the middle of the yard. It is great hawk cover, and they hang out under it a lot.

I think there may be grass... it's just buried under all the snow!

What is the platform? Is it just a free floating deck?