What did you do in the garden today?

[TJAnonymous]

Well I decided NOT to work in the garden today. Instead we butchered 7 roosters. I will can the meat tomorrow. Too pooped to do it tonight. Plus I have a bad headache...

We've also been working on building a new feeding station for the chicken run. It's where I'll put their free access layer pellets. I currently have their feeder inside their coop but unfortunately the goats have figured out how to crawl through the chicken door. I've also got a ton of mice in the coop now.

This idea helps me solve 3 problems in one fell swoop.

1. The doors are automatic. They open at dawn and close at dusk. I had bought them for my main coop but, being battery operated, they are very unreliable when it gets really cold outside. Using them here is reasonable and better than just letting them sit unused on a shelf. Anyway, by shutting down access overnight, it should keep mice out.

2. It's goat proof! At least I hope it is. The door opening is smaller than my coop door and it's not tall enough for them to stand up inside so hopefully that means they won't try.

3. It's also multi-purpose. It gives the goats another platform to crawl and sleep on. And it gives the chickens another place to get out of the rain.

I just have to finish the top tomorrow... The 2 sides with the doors are covered with hardware cloth for ventilation.

 

[igorsMistress]

Thanks for the shout out @fuzzi

@igorsMistress - I really became a believer in the hügelkultur method of raised bed gardening a couple years ago when we had a terrible drought summer. I did not have running water in my main garden. All my in-ground plants and plants in my "normal" raised beds dried up and died. The plants in the hügelkultur raised beds survived with maybe 70-80% normal harvest at the end of the year. That was a big eye opener for me.

Since then, all my new raised beds use the hügelkultur method. The wood acts like a giant sponge, holding water to be released later when the plants need it, whereas normal soil drains out and dries up pretty fast. As the wood decays, it actually works better as a sponge.

The decaying wood feeds the plants from below, but the surface level of the soil drops a good 1 to 2 inches every year because that material is composting in the raised bed. That is about perfect for me as I refresh the top of the soil with fresh chicken run compost every spring to bring the level back up to the top. So, the plants get fed new compost from the top as well. The chicken run compost is also very good at retaining moisture. Another plus.

I should also mention that after that terrible drought summer, I decided to move my garden to my backyard next to the chicken coop and run and within distance of using a garden hose from the house to water the hügelkultur raised beds. Even though I could now water the raised beds every day if needed, I find the hügelkultur raised beds don't need to be watered as frequently as a normal raised bed would, plus the hügelkultur wood acting as a sponge helps to keep the plants more consistently fed with water.

My main gardening efforts are now concentrated in my backyard, but I still have the old garden without running water for extra plants. I will still have some plants that get planted there in the old garden, but they are on their own for the most part.

Here is a picture of my pallet wood hügelkultur 16-inch-high raised beds v. 2.0 that I am currently building in my backyard...

View attachment 3681419

Thanks so much for all this info! I may do the hugelkultur in the two tallest beds. The short bed isn’t deep enough, and I’m using one of the water things in the small round bed.

The wood I have available in my yard is from a giant ficus; I’m not sure it’s good idea to use it. Fire wood here is pine and juniper unless I want to drive an hour to get oak and haul it back in my car. I’m not a fan of that idea. So I’m looking for info on the ficus before I use it. If I can, we’re pretty well set.

 

[igorsMistress]

^^Lovely! Looking forward to pictures of those bins filled with plants, lit by those lights.

Thanks Sally, me too!!

 

[Sally PB]

13.5 hours on the road today. Home safe from Charlotte, NC. I'm quite tired, and still hear "road noise" in my head.

Lots of leaves to rake up, and I'd love to have a few more piles of them in the garden.

 

[Happy hen lover]

I'm happy knowing my girls are too young to stop laying. I thought there was something wrong because I haven't ever raised chickens before so I had to ask. I have almost have 2 dozen eggs that I don't know what to do with. Maybe I can get my neighbor to take them.

You can always gift them, scramble for chickens, leave at senior center, etc.

 

[BirdsBeesTrees]

My husband and I have been butchering chickens the last 2 days. We processed 18 with at a 6 1/2 to 8 1/2 pound range in weights. Glad to have it done, but completely wore out.

 

[chickengr]

we finally had a storm here. it's either drought or storm, normal rain is rare here.

 

[gtaus]

Yes, but I don't have one of those.... Unless I can talk you into coming down South to build me one....

I had a whole write up on the BYC forum on how I built that cement mixer compost sifter. It was not very hard. I took the main idea from a YouTube video but, IMHO, improved it by using a system of turnbuckles and eye bolts instead of drilling holes into the cement barrel to attach the compost sifter barrel. If I ever want to convert it back to a cement mixer, all I have to do is remove the eye bolts and put the original bolts back on the mixer. No holes in the cement mixer barrel to worry about.

When I built my cement mixer compost sifter, I had to buy a brand new cement mixer. That was the major cost. I would strongly recommend getting a used cement mixer to save lots of money. After over a year of looking for a used cement mixer, I gave up and just bought my mixer, brand new, on sale, for a little less than $200. In the end, I probably invested almost $250.00 in that project.

Having said that, I estimated I sifted out finished chicken run compost at the rate of about $60.00 per hour - if I bought bags of compost at the big box store. I covered my costs on that cement mixer compost sifter in about 4 hours. Payback period was just one afternoon!

Every year I sift out hundreds of dollars of finished chicken run compost for my raised beds. Best thing is that I don't trash out my back in the process. I'm at that age where I do just about everything I can to protect my back. I remember the days when I used a 2X4 frame and wire cloth to manually sift out compost. Like you said, it takes a very long time and your back takes a beating. I finally got to a point where I had too much chicken run compost to sift manually. And I'm too old for hard labor like that.

 

[gtaus]

I'm happy knowing my girls are too young to stop laying. I thought there was something wrong because I haven't ever raised chickens before so I had to ask. I have almost have 2 dozen eggs that I don't know what to do with. Maybe I can get my neighbor to take them.

If we have extra eggs, I will make a deep dish quiche, or maybe two, and freeze them in smaller containers to take and eat 2 pieces at a time. That uses a lot of eggs. I also make fresh custard that tastes really good, but only uses 2 eggs per batch. Dear Wife has a recipe for Leche Flan which uses lots of egg yolks, but not the whites. So we scamble up the egg whites for breakfast.

I'm not against giving eggs to charity, but I live in the country, and it costs me about $5.00 just to drive to town and back. So, we first try to use all our eggs at home in any way we can. Having recipes that use lots of eggs should be on everyone's list if you own a backyard flock. Then you never have to worry about what to do with a short term of excess eggs.

 

[MotherofOrpies]

If you are looking for a recipe that uses a lot of eggs, here is an old recipe for chocolate fudge cake ( makes 3) but it’s not for people who are on a diet

Chocolate Fudge Pie

19 eggs
3 cups sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon butter
4 tablespoon vanilla flavoring
6 cups corn syrup
9 ounces Bakers unsweetened chocolate chips
2 pints heavy cream, whipped
3 pie shells

In large bowl mix eggs, sugar, salt and vanilla. Beat until firm. Add corn syrup.

Mix well. Melt butter and chocolate chips in double boiler, Add to first mixture mixing well until firm.

Pour into three 9¼-inch uncooked pie shells. Cook in a 400 degree oven about 45 minutes. Cool in the refrigerator 24 hours. Before serving add whipped cream