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This was like a brew day! Kettles, burners....phew!
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And I think I have a new variety of pepper going on..thank you Mr. Bee and your cross pollination friends!! A sweet bannapeano !! I'll take some seed and see what happenes next year..
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RoadRoach said:
Still had to put the girls in the coop and on the perches last night. They can be so intelligent about some things, but dumber than a bag of hammers about others. I tweaked the setting on the door control to allow it to stay open until it’s pretty much completely dark outside, and the idgit chooks still didn’t go in by themselves. I lifted the door and poked them through one at a time while the missus parked them on the roost. They’re a lot easier to catch after dark for sure.

I made the roosts with some small hickory poles I cut from underbrush so they would be as natural as possible and comfy for the girls to sit on overnight. They’re still working on pecking order too, so maybe not knowing who’s going to get to be on the too roost is part of the problem. They just huddle in a corner and pretend they don’t know where the door is, despite running in and out of it all day. Im thinking I may have to move the feed/water inside the coop so they’re already inside when they’re getting the last meal and drink for the day. Dunno if that’ll do the trick but I don’t really want to be tucking them in every night. Crazy birds.

I did find out which one likes me most, though.

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This one comes to me every time I go in the pen. She gets on my head so she’s ‘bigger’ than all the others. I also learned to wear a hat when I go into the pen. She likes to peck (exploring) my scalp too. I don’t think I want her to decide to change the pecking order for me. They’re a lot of fun when they’re this friendly.
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That one's cute! Looks like her 'daddy'.
 
RoadRoach said:
Turned them loose in the coop again today and instead of coming outside, they just climbed on the roosts and nests after we closed the coop door.. I waited for about an hour and know young chickens aren’t the brightest bulbs in the box, so went out to the coop (which is when I figured out they weren’t coming out on their own volition) and herded them off the roosts to the ramp. They still refused to go out in the yard until I picked them up and put them out. Weird. Yesterday, they came out by themselves, albeit, we were in the coop with them and that probably played at least a part in their decision to go out. (Yes, the coop is large enough for two adults and 8 chickens). The difference today was that we took them out of the‘transport’ box and just put ’em on the ground in the coop, and left them to themselves to decide. They elected more snooze time. Their day/night clocks are probably completely screwed up because we’ve been leaving the garage lights on until we get to bed, giving them a long day instead of a chicken day. I’ve been trying to change thar since we started taking them outside. Having strange temps in the high 60s (F) at night this week, so can’t leave them outside overnight quite yet. That may have been a factor this morning with cooler temps in the coop too. They are growing so fast!
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Checked out the neighbors chicken herd this morning. They are getting big. He says there are 31 of the birds. That is going to be a LOT of eggs.
 
west1m said:
Checked out the neighbors chicken herd this morning. They are getting big. He says there are 31 of the birds. That is going to be a LOT of eggs.
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Most modern breeds that are dual purpose or layers will lay 4-5 eggs per week minimum, some up to 9 eggs per week. Even at 4 eggs per week, times 31, that’s 124 eggs per week, nearly a gross of eggs. That’s 6428 eggs per year. There’s a reason I don’t want more chooks.
 
RoadRoach said:
Most modern breeds that are dual purpose or layers will lay 4-5 eggs per week minimum, some up to 9 eggs per week. Even at 4 eggs per week, times 31, that’s 124 eggs per week, nearly a gross of eggs. That’s 6428 eggs per year. There’s a reason I don’t want more chooks.
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Beware this chicks I posted on another thread all died last night from dogs, the worst is on my front porch drinking water, the point is keep them close at night
 
Ozarks Mountain Brewery said:
Beware this chicks I posted on another thread all died last night from dogs, the worst is on my front porch drinking water, the point is keep them close at night
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My chicken pen is more like a dog pen wrapped in chicken wire. I ran 4’ dog wire around the perimeter before I put the chicken wire on because of the presence of coyotes in the area. It may not stop one, but it’s sure gonna slow them down. I also put concrete riprap around the inside perimeter that will fall into any hole dug under the bottom of the fence. Hopefully that will slow the coyotes enough to introduce them to some 3” 00 magnum buckshot. I don’t think the city will care much if I discharge a firearm if I take out a coyote.
 
Went out to sit with’the girls’ for a bit this morning. My first surprise was the Ameraucana decided to climb up my back and get a little attention. She’s normally very standoffish. No surprise at all when the largest Barred Rock decides my hat is a wonderful place to sit, especially with my head in it. The two Rhode Island Reds were their usual selves and wanted nothing to do with me other than attack the snaps on my pockets.

Suddenly, all 8 stood straight up and got completely still. One chirped and I had a chicken stampede while they all tried to get back in the coop. I looked around, and saw a rather large redtail hawk on the ground less than 10 meters away. I managed to get a photo when she (I think) flew up and perched on a post in my future muscadine arbor. This is a BIG HAWK. Her wing span must be at least 42”. I say ‘her’ because I saw her a bit earlier with a juvenile in an oak close to the house.

Here’s mom looking out the run;
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And here’s Junior in the oak next to our house;
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Both are making the girls a bit paranoid, but ain’t no way they can get to the babies. I love having the raptors around to control the rodents, but they’re gonna piss me off if they don’t leave the girls alone. Then again, the girls could learn to be a little less paranoid.

Gonna shred more pine straw and leaves for the run tomorrow and clean out the run for the first free fertilizer for our veggie patch tomorrow (weather permitting).
 
Not really gardening, unless you consider a complete overhaul of the yard a form of gardening. I had 7 water oaks and one red oak cut down by a tree service yesterday in the yard, and 2 sweetgums, 1 water oak, and a very dead pine behind the shop which is what actually triggered the tree cutting because of its lean and the amount of debris it has dropped on the roof of the shop. The water oak behind the shop was the only healthy tree in the bunch, and was at least 80 years old. It was HUGE. Between root girdling (because of hard clay soil) and a few being sprayed with ‘growth inhibitors’ (which I think might be another term for herbicide) by the power company several years ago, I could see the ones in the yard were very unhealthy and dying. I already had 9 removed about 6 years ago for the same poor health issues, which the power company of course denies any responsibility for. The big pine behind the shop had green needles on it in March, but the decay was far more advanced than I expected thanks to dry weather and pine borers. Now, when turning into our neighborhood, my house sticks out like dog’s balls, meaning inadvertently we’re now the face of Dunham Farms, like it or not. The tree contractor got a little too aggressive with one tree I intended to keep, and before I could say anything, the top was laying in my backyard. I was a little peeved because that particular tree was the morning shade on my deck. Too late to say anything then and I’m pretty sure super glue was not a solution, but after seeing the degeneration of the stump, I’m sorta glad he made the oopsy. I got a free stump grind outta the booboo. EVERY tree on that side of driveway was rotten at the stump and just waiting for the most expensive car they could fall on. Never mind the threat to the house. I now have an area larger than most modern home lots that I gotta finish cleaning and get some top soil and sod for. No choice in the matter because it’s cover the dirt or watch it go down the ditch.

Normally between October and February, I have to clean up leaves in that part of the yard at least 8 times, at 20+ bushels of leaves each time. If I get leaves there this year, it’ll be from the neighbors trees.

I also collected nearly 30 logs between the tree work in my yard and the neighbors yard. I now have the CFO’s permission to invest in a sawmill which should pay for itself very quickly if I can meet the physical demands of owning one. I can feed the mill with trees for a while, but the tree service owner is quite interested in providing me with logs that he otherwise lets folks chop up into firewood. I hate the idea of perfectly usable wood rotting in landfills. Don’t really care if I can profit, but why should the landfill? Of the 30 logs, there was only one that I could not lift with my tractor. That thing is 24+ inches diameter and nearly 18 feet long, and it’s water oak. stoopid heavy stuff.

I now have one large post oak and one cedar in my front yard which had no less than 30 trees when I moved here in 2004. I hate cutting down old growth trees, but I hate them becoming liabilities more. Thinking about planting a few more logically placed spruce trees to watch grow in my retirement years. At least I still have a very wooded backyard with a mix of trees that are all old growth trees. Some of the pines back there are at least 100 feet tall 30 inches diameterat the stump.

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Got started on our winter veggie garden today. On the left, we have English peas (in the row closest to the house), brussel sprouts and broccoli. The far raised bed on the right has some romaine lettuce, carrots, and radishes. Everything is obviously seeded except the romaine. Next closest bed has cabbage and spring onion. The raised beds are a product from Australia. A company called VeggiePod. Cool boxes that store water between rains. Saves heaps on watering.
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The covers are bug screens but also have clear vinyl over covers for keeping frost off the plants. They’re not so good for veggies that require pollination for the bits intended for food, but they’re good for leafies and roots. Cabbages tend to take too much room to put more than two in each section. Broccoli and sprouts get too tall, but they’re fairly freeze resistant and do well in winter here. Winter is the best time for leafy greens and root crops like turnips and radishes.

Hope we get a few meals from this. The chooks certainly will.
 
my biggest bannana Bunch yet!
and my second bunch actually ...
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look at the size of them bastards! :D
to give that bunch perspective
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big as my hang and as tall as my littlie
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the bats and King parrots have started eating them so down it came today man that thing is Heavy!

will be getting a bannana bag for my next bunch.

cheers!
 
Looking good there Mr. Tallyman!! What's the variety? They don't look like the Kavindishes that we get here in the US...
 
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On the left is broccoli and sprouts with spotty sweet peas near the house on the trellis. Morning sunshine makes everything on the far end grow more. Didn’t realize there was such a difference, but found out the raised beds do shade the left bed during the day. On the right (raised beds)) from the farthest bed, radishes (mostly eaten), romaine lettuce (also mostly eaten) cabbages about the size of tennis balls, replanted strawberries, a pitiful show of turnips, beets, and carrots. Dunno why the turnips did so poorly, even after replanting 3 times. They’re the same family as radish. Old seed I guess. There’s some spring onion in there too but too small to see from the deck.

And the ones benefiting most from the greens. They got BIG. The two Rhode Island Red “pullets” started crowing a couple weeks ago. Paid extra to get only pullets, but I’m relatively certain the farm supply store put straight run chicks in the brooder that was clearly marked as pullets to get premium price for an ungaranteed product. Sorta like buying a new Ford and finding out it’s a Chevy with no warranty. I wasn’t happy. Now I have to try to rehome two roosters that no one wants. If I kill them for meat birds, Makaila will never forgive me and probably never eat chicken again
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They’re close to laying now. The first dozen eggs are gonna cost about $100 per egg (pen construction, feed, water, never mind the labor). Raise chickens they said, it’ll be fun they said. Actually they can be fun. Amazing how much personality a chicken can have. Gonna switch them over to layer crumbles when the current supply of starter crumbles is done. These are some very spoiled birds. They get the regular feed, plus treats like the stuff in the bag, and all the greens from the garden that we don’t eat. Been taking the bottom leaves off the broccoli and sprouts and all the tops of the radishes to them. Watermelon or cantaloupe will start a feeding frenzy like a bunch of sharks.

The speckled ones are the friendliest, the black ones will let you hold them if you can catch them, same with the Ameraucana, but the reds (which would climb up in my hand as chicks) have a rather nasty attitude now. Par for the course with roosters. So far, no complaints from the neighbors about the crowing. Then again, most of them have yapping mutts which make a lot more noise than the chickens.

Figured out a way to make modular panels for the run that I can follow the ground contours without having to dig too much. Doubled the space for the birds in about 2 hours after building the panels. Gonna switch to roof panels too so I can reconfigure the run as the flock grows, and it’ll make the top a lot stronger and predator resistant. Two big red tail hawks hang around all the time now wishing for a chicken dinner. They’re gonna have to settle for chipmunks and squirrels.

The missus starts a new job on Monday at the store (Tractor Supply) where we got the first chicks (including the two roosters). Maybe better luck getting pullets next year if she gets to see the delivery. Just a PITA to raise more chicks this soon. But I don’t have to build anything this time, so there’s that.
 
Zambi said:
Looking great Ben!
I struggle with my bananas, but doing well with the pawpaws
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see I'm the oposite I struggle with the Paw Paw they get some fungus on them just as they ripen !

Dayo oh dayo oh Dayo @Ward Chillington Lady Finger they are. Day light come and I want to go home.
 
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