Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Sally PB]

We managed to hand dig small holes next to our rented mobile home, then we added pureed watermelon rinds and other fruit/vegetable scraps. Within a fairly short time I was able to plant some flowers in those spots!

One of my neighbors used to live in Virginia, on hard red clay. The first fall they were there, she dug a trench and started burying her vegetable kitchen waste. By spring, she had lovely, digable, plantable soil.

Tax:

Button checking out my phone.

 

[RoyalChick]

One of my neighbors used to live in Virginia, on hard red clay. The first fall they were there, she dug a trench and started burying her vegetable kitchen waste. By spring, she had lovely, digable, plantable soil.

Tax:
View attachment 3691131
Button checking out my phone.

I live on brick hard red clay and tried that for a little bit. The problem I had was first that the digging is very hard - pickaxe needed. Then, critters would find the newly dug soil and dig up the kitchen scraps and scatter them everywhere.
Worms are some of the most efficient soil diggers on earth so that is how I came up with my approach to heap up organic stuff and let the worms do their thing. Initially I would add worms from parts of the property that had better soil (mainly in the woods as a result of decades of leaf litter). Now I have a healthy worm population so if I am starting on a new area I simply add a shovel full of good soil from an existing patch and I can be reasonably confident there will be worms or baby worms waiting to work for me!

Soil tilling tax: the Pentagonists enjoying an evening snack.

 

[MrsNorthie]

The first fall they were there, she dug a trench and started burying her vegetable kitchen waste. By spring, she had lovely, digable, plantable soil.

That is similar to what we have done. We started composting all coffee and tea grounds, veg scraps, egg shells, grass clippings, fall leaves and now, chicken poop. We uncover the pile when it rains and turn it over a couple of times a week. Within the first year, we had lovely soil.

We did raised beds in part due to the hard SC red clay and in part due to the unpleasant experience of kneeling down and getting covered in fire ants. We did not do bags of commercial soil, instead we got a massive truck load of topsoil and mixed in our own compost, that we replenish every year.

We did the 'lasagna' method, cardboard as a weed barrier, branches from tree trimming, shredded cardboard leaves compost materials and the topsoil mixed with the fully composted soil. In the middle of the bed, we added a tube with chicken wire that goes down to the compost material layer, and we add fresh compost material through the tube and concentrate our watering on the 'tube'. We have had great success with that and companion planting.

I am very much like I was as a child, when it comes to things like rain puddles (water in general..), snow and digging dirt. I love to get my hands in and work with the soil it is almost as therapeutic as sitting with the chickens, but I have 0 tolerance for getting bit up by fire ants. They still get your hands when you are digging in the raised beds, but we don't get covered in them.

 

[Ladies-Eight]

Ex Batts good morning one and all!

The chickens look good.

Temperature is in the 60s mostly sunny.

Have a great day!

 

[Shadrach]

Have you noticed a "cutoff" age? As in, did the cockerels stop dustbathing in dry dirt at a specific age, if they ever do?

I haven't. I wouldn't even hazard a guess.

 

[Shadrach]

Three hours. Cold and dry with sunny spells. It didn't get much above 4C at the allotments.
I put 100 grams of spelt in this mix to try and bring the protein level up given they won't eat the peas; no worries, I'm eating them and the fava beans.
I've cooked up some strange brews with what the chickens are reluctant to eat.
I've made some very acceptable soup/broths/stews using what l bought to try out on the chickens and the last of the veg from the allotments.
Split green peas, fava beans, leeks, potatoes, onion and garlic with roquefort cheese and lots of black pepper. Even used my whizzy stick blender thingy.

Another load of rocks. I've done the worst of it on one side of the fruit bushes now. The top half of the plot I deep dug earlier in the year.

 

[tranquiliti]

Drove an hour away just to look at some chickens.

View attachment 3690575

And guineas!
Very glad you made it out there.

 

[HiEverybirdy]

Glad you are all safe ! It seems now so many places can potentially be in danger of natural hazards, that you could certainly live somewhere much more urban and less beautiful, and still be at risk. But having animals make things a lot more complicated and stressful.

That's true about having animals. If we didn't have the chickens and dogs, We could easily have packed up, turned on some sprinklers, and gone to stay at a friend's.

 

[HiEverybirdy]

Ahhh, I forgot to mention that about two weeks ago I noticed that when Lucio flapped his wings I saw some dark stuff stuck to the feathers underneath. I literally groaned. Just got rid of the lice and now he has mites? Ugh. But when I took him off the roost at night for further examination, there were no mites. No lice either. I looked and looked. No bugs at all. Just clumps of dirt clinging to the ends of the downy feathers under his wings, legs, and underbelly.

So I remembered what you wrote about roosters bathing in moist soil and the next day hunted around in the chicken "hang out" areas. I had to search for awhile because they move around quite a bit. Anyway, I finally found his spa -- a big Lucio-sized hole, obviously made him, in some very soft and clumpy damp soil under a tree.

Did it look like this? Stilton/Mr. November post dustbath:

The video is a couple years old but seemed appropriate. Lots of substantial soil chunks falling off of him, which might be hard to catch without the slow motion.

Funny, the hen Lorraine ogling him in the background still maintains a little crush on Stilton, and he still grooms her through the fence.

She chooses to stay with Merle Hagbird despite having the option to move over with Stilton, possibly because Lorraine and Merle get along quite well...but also maybe because Lorraine's a boss with Merle's Girlz but would have to fight Unquestioned Head Hen Brahma Donna for a good rank among Stilton's Hens.

 

[TropicalChickies]

Did it look like this? Stilton/Mr. November post dustbath:

The video is a couple years old but seemed appropriate. Lots of substantial soil chunks falling off of him, which might be hard to catch without the slow motion.

Funny, the hen Lorraine ogling him in the background still maintains a little crush on Stilton, and he still grooms her through the fence.

She chooses to stay with Merle Hagbird despite having the option to move over with Stilton, possibly because Lorraine and Merle get along quite well...but also maybe because Lorraine's a boss with Merle's Girlz but would have to fight Unquestioned Head Hen Brahma Donna for a good rank among Stilton's Hens.

Great video! I didn't see Lucio shaking, unfortunately. Just his still-dirty aftermath.