What did you do in the garden today?

[Smokerbill]

Gave my girls another hour of foraging in the yard tonight. When it was time to go back into the run, they responded to me telling them "Go on, go back in". And that's just what they did. I guess chickens can understand verbal commands. I think. LOL

 

[gtaus]

I use plain ol' 4 foot tall 2x3 welded wire fence, but I have it 3 feet away from the tree. I think the circle is probably 8 feet in diameter..? It keeps the deer from being able to browse the trees and works well.

I have a friend that has a small vineyard. The deer were eating all his grapes. Even an 8 foot tall fence was not high enough to keep the deer out. He had to add those angled wires on top of the fence. Looks like a mini prison yard now, but the deer no longer jump over his fence.

Looks something like this...

I don't think a 4-foot-tall fence would stop the deer where I live, and I was not willing to pay all that money for an 8-foot fence with angled wire on top.

 

[gtaus]

Living in the deep south, deep litter doesn't do well here. The litter collects flies and smell too much. I use sand because it is a desiccant. It absorbs moisture from the poop and therefore, no smell and no flies. I have close to 80 chickens and no smell! Plus the sandy poop I get from cleaning the coop does wonders in the compost for our red clay soil in the garden. Win-win.

Location matters. That's why I try always to mention that I live in northern Minnesota, and your results in the south or in the desert may be completely different.

I only have 10 chickens, but my deep bedding works great for me. Just the opposite of what you have experienced. My deep bedding is basically odor free, provided I keep adding fresh layers of litter as needed. Over the winter, I will have as much as 10 inches of deep bedding in the coop by springtime. But my chickens live in the coop during the winter snow months.

Since I live on a lake, that last thing I wanted to add to my compost was more sand. Just goes to show how much location really drives how we care for our flocks and how we use the litter for composting.

A couple of years ago I switched over to using paper shreds as deep bedding in the chicken coop. Paper shreds are much lighter, not dusty, and compost faster than wood chips or leaves that I used before. I shred almost all paper and cardboard at our house for the chickens. Saves me on money for the coop litter and at the same time, reduces the amount of paper products that we have to haul off to the recycle center.

Also, I seriously doubt much, if any, of that paper at the recycle center get recycled into new products. I think it just ends up in a landfill somewhere out of sight. So, it's better that I recycle and reuse the paper at home for the chickens. And then compost it for the gardens.

 

[gtaus]

I truly cannot breathe wearing a mask and go into panic mode.

As a RN, I can tell you that you can get used to wearing a mask to the point where you don't even think about it. It was always part of my job for certain situations, so wearing a mask during Covid was not a big deal for me.

Hopefully there's not a lot of silica dust from the sand being kicked up. That's really hard on the lungs.

I had not considered that with sand. But I am using paper shreds for the past 2+ years. No dust with paper shreds. Still have to contend with chicken dander, of course.

No secret been putting spent coffee grounds on the coop floors. No Dust.

Probably makes great compost as well.

I'm the same with a mask. During Covid craziness, I hardly went anywhere just because I refused to wear a mask.

During Covid craziness, I hardly went anywhere because I did not have to go anywhere. Saved some gas money as well. But I'm an old guy and kind of a hermit, I guess. I only went into town maybe once every 2 months and then late at night or early in the morning when there were fewer people.

Covid only hit 3 people in my extended family. But one died. I was in that age group that was more vulnerable, so I did not mind staying home and avoiding the crowds. I felt sorry for the young people and children. Tough times for lots of people.

If they don't send you into a complete and utter panic attack, yes, I agree. Sadly.....I don't get enough air with wearing them.

Well, you do get enough air wearing a mask, of course, we do it all the time in healthcare, but having a panic attack can leave you short of breath with or without wearing a mask. I'm just glad that we don't have to wear masks anymore for everyday life.

I am a (mostly retired) RN, but at the end of the Covid lockdown in my town, about 95% of the patients with Covid symptoms in our local hospital were people who refused to take the vaccines. Vaccinated people were still getting Covid, but the symptoms were much milder and did not require hospitalization.

At least, if you wear a mask while cleaning out the coop, you can always step outside and take off the mask if you start to feel a panic attack coming on. Wearing a mask to protect your lungs is the better option if you can make it work.

 

[gtaus]

Although I didn’t have a bumper crop of squash this year...

Yeah, strange year for squash for us, too. Lots of squash vines, spreading out all over the place, but not nearly as many squash fruit to harvest as I was expecting. Marking it down as a below average year for squash for me.

 

[gtaus]

I used to have a fan (several, actually) in there but the dust inevitably makes them quit working after a few months. I haven't replaced the last one that died.

Do you have barn fans made for all that dust, or are you using average house fans?

you can can up boiled peanuts, but that's an aquired taste. Like eating slugs.

I have eaten boiled peanuts, but not slugs. The boiled peanuts were OK. I don't think I would like to eat slugs.

Boiled slugs is about accurate. I discovered I'm not a an.

Salted, roasted peanuts in the shell on the other hand....

Dear Wife is a Filipina. Boiled peanuts are a thing for them. They prefer boiled peanuts to roasted peanuts.

If you like peanuts, but don't have good teeth (like so many of us old folk), the boiled peanuts are softer to chew and I guess that might be an advantage. You can still enjoy peanuts even if you have dentures.

FWIW, it took me a while to get used to eating boiled peanuts as well. I think it might be an acquired taste. But they are not bad once you get used to them. I still have good teeth and prefer the hard roasted peanuts, but I don't shy away from a handful of the softer boiled peanuts if that is what is offered.

Peanut butter is soft, but I would not equate that to mashed slugs. Just saying...

 

[CNJ]

I also repotted 3 of my 6 pineapple plants. Put them in 5 gallon buckets this time. Hopefully it's the last time I'll have to transplant. They were pretty root bound. I have the other 3 to do but not doing tonight.

I got some pineapple plants struggling in 1-gallon pots for over a year. I also have some in 3-gallon pots and they are much bigger, so the size of the pot makes a big difference. I need to transplant my plants if I want to see any fruits.

I should plant them where I stuck my worm feeding bucket. However, I haven't decided how I will water them. The pineapple plants that I saw in the fields when I was growing up were in rows and each row was lined with plastic. I think they did that to prevent weeds from growing and to retain moisture.

I am thinking about leaving a big square hole in the middle of my 6ft x 6ft raised bed, so I could pump my fish poop water into it.

 

[BDutch]

Gave my girls another hour of foraging in the yard tonight. When it was time to go back into the run, they responded to me telling them "Go on, go back in". And that's just what they did. I guess chickens can understand verbal commands. I think. LOL

Are you sure you don’t have any scratch in your hands when you usually say these magic words?

And I wonder: where do you live?
Big egg town is Barneveld in the Netherlands for me.

 

[MotherofOrpies]

As a RN, I can tell you that you can get used to wearing a mask to the point where you don't even think about it. It was always part of my job for certain situations, so wearing a mask during Covid was not a big deal for me.



I had not considered that with sand. But I am using paper shreds for the past 2+ years. No dust with paper shreds. Still have to contend with chicken dander, of course.



Probably makes great compost as well.



During Covid craziness, I hardly went anywhere because I did not have to go anywhere. Saved some gas money as well. But I'm an old guy and kind of a hermit, I guess. I only went into town maybe once every 2 months and then late at night or early in the morning when there were fewer people.

Covid only hit 3 people in my extended family. But one died. I was in that age group that was more vulnerable, so I did not mind staying home and avoiding the crowds. I felt sorry for the young people and children. Tough times for lots of people.



Well, you do get enough air wearing a mask, of course, we do it all the time in healthcare, but having a panic attack can leave you short of breath with or without wearing a mask. I'm just glad that we don't have to wear masks anymore for everyday life.

I am a (mostly retired) RN, but at the end of the Covid lockdown in my town, about 95% of the patients with Covid symptoms in our local hospital were people who refused to take the vaccines. Vaccinated people were still getting Covid, but the symptoms were much milder and did not require hospitalization.

At least, if you wear a mask while cleaning out the coop, you can always step outside and take off the mask if you start to feel a panic attack coming on. Wearing a mask to protect your lungs is the better option if you can make it work.

I am not a mask fan either, during my education as a rn I had a 6 weeks stint in the operation area, we had to wear masks there ( about 34 yrs. ago) and I really had trouble breathing and was always a little panicky! During the years of the pandemic, I kind of got used to masks, at first, there weren’t enough to go around anyways, and I sewed some, then light masks were available, and then, after a year you could get ffp2 masks, so after 2 years, I no longer got panic attacks wearing ffp2 masks
Netherland isn’t that far away from me ( I think about 600 km, I just looked it up ) I would love to drive up there some time and visit Barneveld

 

[BDutch]

Netherland isn’t that far away from me ( I think about 600 km, I just looked it up ) I would love to drive up there some time and visit Barneveld

It has a chicken museum as well. (Never been there myself).

And ‘Peeps in Europe’ is a thread were you can chat/ ask things related to Europe.