Todays funny.

[Firefyter-Emt]

This morning I let the girls out of the coop and shook the feeder, rinsed the water and then went to check for eggs. My six girls have been giving me about one egg a day. Well, sometimes they are later in the day and the kids collect them so I was not surprised at the lack of an egg. However, I do like to look inside the coop just to make sure no one is getting lazy. I walk back to the run door to get the key for the locking hasp on the back door and when I looked in I saw one of the Orps in a nest. I figured she had enough to eat and was gonna get down to paying the rent. Well as I walked back around to place the key on the hook, I hear a "thud". Well I pop open the nest door and sure enough there is a nice steaming egg for me.

I guess I better get a bit more shavings in the nest boxes, Eh? I plan to change the shavings this weekend. My coop takes one bag perfectly and I figure I will till the old stuff and the lower half of my compost bin into the garden while I am at it.

 

[RockyToggRanch]

Be careful not to add too much wood product to your gardens. It sucks up a lot of nitrogen in the decaying process and will effect your plants. You may be able to add enough poop to offset that. It takes over a year for my manure pile to break down enough to use on the garden. But I use the larger shavings, not the fine stuff.

 

[Firefyter-Emt]

Are you tilling it in deep too? Just curious here...

 

[debilorrah]

Ok that PLOP cracked me up. Our chickens shells are so hard they could fall from 4 feet and just plop and roll.

 

[RockyToggRanch]

I till it in as deep as my reartine tiller will go. unless there is still visible shavings, then I only top dress with it, like mulch, around perrenials and trees.

 

[Firefyter-Emt]

Thanks, just checking to see if you were just putting them on top, or tilling them in.

So I should be good tilling them in with this beast, right?

That's my restored 1981 Troy-bilt Horse (8hp model) Nice, Eh?

 

[RockyToggRanch]

Still say "that depends". If you can see actual wood you should not be mixing it into the soil where you expect to grow veggies. The bits of wood suck up the nitrogen that your plants need to grow.
If you can still identify wood....compost it until it looks like potting soil. Use a couple of different piles so that you can be adding daily all of the nice hot chicken "gold" with your shavings and leaves and other greens. While you turn (1-2 times a week) the older pile.

 

[RockyToggRanch]

Yes..nice tiller!

 

[RockyToggRanch]

OOOhhh..my tiller is put to bed for the winter.......way far back in the storage trailer. It's so depressing. Okay..gonna go put the '09 garden on paper..thanks..
cindy

 

[Firefyter-Emt]

My tiller has to come into the shop and have the tines removed so she can run winter duty. Now it is close to time to bolt on the snow blade! (Well, I really still have to shoot a coat of paint on it VERY soon!)

And yes, that is the proper snow blade for it.

And yes, I did get a VERY good deal on it!