What do you grow to feed the chickens??

[Arielle]

Chickadooodles-- are you having a drought this year too,

I'm still trying to plant foa fall garden, but I'm running out of time.

In an area that I planted a 100 tomotos plants that were crowded out by weeds, I may let go and relinquish to the sheep and chickens again. Why fight mother nature at this point. lol

 

[chickadoodles]

Chickadooodles-- are you having a drought this year too,

I'm still trying to plant foa fall garden, but I'm running out of time.

In an area that I planted a 100 tomotos plants that were crowded out by weeds, I may let go and relinquish to the sheep and chickens again. Why fight mother nature at this point. lol

Yes we are having a bit of a drought. My soil is all dried up and huge cracks in the soil extending out all over the place. We had a huge oak drop a 10" in diamater limb on our new pens on the end that was still not finished thank God! But it did quite a bit of damage. My 5' wire was smooshed to 1 1/2'. and the top was bent down over the chanties. and that is the 2x4 welded wire. That was the pen for my Buckeyes we are picking up at the end of the month.

Sorry you lost all your tomatoes! The chickens and sheep will love them!

 

[Arielle]

Quote: So glad the BUckeyes have not arrived yet-- maybe Someone was looking out for you given that the pen is not finished and the delivery of the birds had been delayed.

THis weather is making me nervous!! Where is all the water that we should normally have?? ( I"m thinking of your area and CA, and likely many other areas too)

THe Aquafers are being tapped at an allarming rate and have been for decades. THe water bottleing plant down the street closed it doors for a reason unknown to me. THe plus side is that our water tastes good again, back to the taste BEFORE the excessive pumping. We have sufficient water due to the artician well 300+ feet down but I worry about the day it stops.

I"m ok with the loss of those tomatos-- they were free so just the cost of time with my 2 boys planting them. I do have other tomatos in another garden. Two plants have about 40tomatos-- yes I counted!! And no,these are not directly for the chickens; the chickens will only get the scraps!! lol

 

[LindaB220]

So glad the BUckeyes have not arrived yet-- maybe Someone was looking out for you given that the pen is not finished and the delivery of the birds had been delayed.

THis weather is making me nervous!! Where is all the water that we should normally have?? ( I"m thinking of your area and CA, and likely many other areas too)

THe Aquafers are being tapped at an allarming rate and have been for decades. THe water bottleing plant down the street closed it doors for a reason unknown to me. THe plus side is that our water tastes good again, back to the taste BEFORE the excessive pumping. We have sufficient water due to the artician well 300+ feet down but I worry about the day it stops.

I"m ok with the loss of those tomatos-- they were free so just the cost of time with my 2 boys planting them. I do have other tomatos in another garden. Two plants have about 40tomatos-- yes I counted!! And no,these are not directly for the chickens; the chickens will only get the scraps!! lol

For some reason I got ahold of a disaster book about all electricity stopping. It's a good story and tells a lot of things. One is to put up rain gutters and cap each end.
every few feet put a quarter size hole with a plastic size trash can under it. During rainy season it will fill all the trash cans and use these during the dry spells. The book took place in San Antonio, so dry most of the year. I thought it was a good idea. I have more rain this year in Louisiana than I can remember. We had several inches this last week. But we have several storerooms with tin roofs. Might think about it later.

 

[chickadoodles]

Quote: So glad the BUckeyes have not arrived yet-- maybe Someone was looking out for you given that the pen is not finished and the delivery of the birds had been delayed.

THis weather is making me nervous!! Where is all the water that we should normally have?? ( I"m thinking of your area and CA, and likely many other areas too)

THe Aquafers are being tapped at an allarming rate and have been for decades. THe water bottleing plant down the street closed it doors for a reason unknown to me. THe plus side is that our water tastes good again, back to the taste BEFORE the excessive pumping. We have sufficient water due to the artician well 300+ feet down but I worry about the day it stops.

I"m ok with the loss of those tomatos-- they were free so just the cost of time with my 2 boys planting them. I do have other tomatos in another garden. Two plants have about 40tomatos-- yes I counted!! And no,these are not directly for the chickens; the chickens will only get the scraps!! lol
I think you are right someone must have been watching over us.

We were forecast to get rain three days in a row but it went around us each day. The cooler weather last week from the polar vortex was nice but I want some rain!
I hope we will get some soon.
We have plenty of water in our well but I don't want to water the entire property. I don't have enough hose to even do our front yard that is turning brown.
That's great that you have gotten so many tomatoes! I love tomatoes.

 

[chickadoodles]

Quote: I wish we had rain gutters that is a good idea.

 

[Arielle]

Quote: Does it mention how to keep the water from spoiling over time??

 

[Arielle]

I think you are right someone must have been watching over us.

We were forecast to get rain three days in a row but it went around us each day. The cooler weather last week from the polar vortex was nice but I want some rain!
I hope we will get some soon.
We have plenty of water in our well but I don't want to water the entire property. I don't have enough hose to even do our front yard that is turning brown.
That's great that you have gotten so many tomatoes! I love tomatoes.

All green so far . . .I"m waiting . . . . .lol



This summer has beeen rather cool overall. Not as hot as last year-- I do like the cooler weather being from Maine, and we have had enough rain generally.

But sorry that it is pushing the rain out of your area.

 

[Lacy Blues]

Arielle, I just have comfrey right now. I have a bed that I have scattered dandelion seeds into but its been too hot for them lately and they've gone dormant. Once it cools down a bit, hopefully they'll start growing again. In that same bed I put a bunch of old (between 10-12 years) vegetable seeds I had. Some of them actually grew... particularly carrots and those have gone to seed so I have a good supply coming up of very strong carrots for next year or this fall or sometime. Some of the spinach grew as well.

I planted a bunch of "Giant Sunflower" seeds and I got maybe 4 plants. The ants attacked those and one of them is pretty severely crippled now. I knew that soapy water would kill the ants and I had a bottle with the same in it plus a bit of vinegar. Now I know, because I've learned recently, that this mixture will kill your plants

. I didn't realize the vinegar would do that. Poor things had big brown dried up areas on the leaves. At least now, looking on the bright side,I know of a potent weed killer! Not that I would kill weeds, I give them to my birds. We have something that grows wild here, I think it is called rabbit brush, and the chickens love it!

I'm wondering about something to plant NOW that might be ready for the birds by fall? The bed that has the sunflowers in it also has some tomato plants that are rather pathetic. I'm thinking I'll pull the stuff that looks the worst and plant something else in their place. Last year I grew sugar pumpkins in that bed and let them climb the fence (actually I helped them climb the fence) and they grew well. The little pumpkins enjoy their lives slung in little hammocks.

Come winter, after my comfrey goes dormant, I want to dig up the 3 plants that I have and spread the roots around so I have a LOT MORE! The chickens love the stuff. I slice up the leaves and add them to their food, that way everybody gets some, not just the most dominant birds. It's more work for me but I don't mind, my birds are the bright spots in my day that can't leave. My kiddoes are growing up and getting ready to leave home. It's a good thing I have my chickens. They can't replace my kids but they keep me busy and I enjoy them very very much.

 

[Arielle]

I understand the need to fill our days when the kids are away.

Have you thought of peas-- as a nitrogen source for the bed and feed the plants to the birds?? Or a cabage type like kale??? Kale love the cooler weather, and can manage in the shade of another plant. Or at least it has survived when the grasses get high whereas the tomatos quit growing.