Since deciding to raise chickens for eggs, I have found a new appreciation for compost, and lots of it, and realized in the process that one can easily make outstanding compost all year long if one has access to the right materials...
Cheers!
Nicely done! I keep a separate pile in the tree line for my chicken compost. I let it cook down for 2 years before I use it. It’s powerful stuff!
I’m growing potatoes in grow bags this season; same concept as your raised garden bed...keep adding more dirt/compost as the potato plants grow. Then, tip the whole thing over at the end of the season and you have taters. It’s a freakin’ miracle; I love it! :)
Do you get much scab on your potatoes?
The reason I’m asking is that potato scab, while common, can happen more in the presence of more organic material, like straw. And different varieties of spuds are more, or less, susceptible. So I’m just curious.
I wish that I could build that kind of chicken coop, but it’s too cold up here for too many months and too far from electric company hookups (for heat lamps). So it’ll be larger, insulated, and on a concrete slab with PEX running through it for the solar radiant heating system. ...expensive, eh? But maybe worth it in the near future.
Pictures of my farm & garden, chickens and dogs, etc. :)
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.100778903271032.1705.100000167687175&l=4e9dc84d8f
You’ve got it goin’ on there, bro!
Nicely done.
Nam Vet
Sounds really tough growing potatoes under trees. The tree roots suck up water and get in the way when you try to dig. Plus you don’t get enough sun. Hope you get something.
How rude of me. I like what you’ve done too. I wish I had some planting and growing skills. I can’t even grow tomatoes here.
Your place is so neat and orderly.
Very nice.
I also have 3 ducklings now living with the chickens until a pen can be made for them. My plan was to let them live together in the winter since my coop is big & I would save money with the heat lamp when winter comes. So far I get about 4 eggs a day from 6 laying hens. I was given 2 silkies, but the female is too old to be laying . The rooster is rather quiet & I think they were pets. I was told that my chickens will lay eggs for maybe 2 more years then they are done. Then I will just keep then as pets. Can I give them things like watermelon rinds & corn on the cob? Everyone tells me just to let them wander but hawks are around. I use Diatomaceous Earth inside the coop for lice etc.
I had been just adding the chicken manure to the horse compost pile but guess I better stop that. Everyone tells me different advice. Can you recommend a good book on chicken care?
Nice set-up...
Great photos BC! It takes a lot to make me envious but you have done it in grand style...