Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

So far I've got hawthorn, rocket (the chickens have eaten some when I've grown it), primrose that may survive a transplant, wild garlic, rosehip, choisya, fennel and hopefully a branch cutting from the bush they are fond of sheltering under whose name I forgot a second after I got told it. If the branch cutting doesn't work out I've got the option of taking cuttings and rooting them. I'm taking the branch cutting by making a diagonal cut in the branch deep enough to bend the cut open, pasting rooting compound with ash into the cut, and wrapping the lot in some compost in a piece of cotton.
Some people use plastic but I've had more success with a cotton wrap.
Are any of the branches long enough to reach the ground, with some to spare?

If so, you can make that cut in the branch where it can easily touch the ground, add the rooting compound, and pin it to the earth, either with a landscape staple, or by making as X of two small stakes, just enough to keep the cut portion of the branch in constant contact with the soil. Keep it moist. It will still get nutrients from the mother plant while it roots. You should be able to root it this way, if you like.
 
Three hours today. Warm and sunny. This is the bush that I want to get a branch cutting from.
P4280905.JPG

P4280906.JPG
P4280907.JPG


Hawthorn. See what survives.
P4280908.JPG


I cleared a small patch and sowed and watered some clover seeds and covered that. Again it's see what comes up.
The dead nettles are fading and the stinging nettles growing in the more shady areas. I did pick some of the new leaves from the dead nettles a while ago and made a soup...an aquired taste is I think the correct expression.
I got the heavu duty weld mesh panel cut which I'm using from the last post to the gate post on both sides of the gate. I'll use penny washers and screws to attatch the weldmesh to both post and gate post. This should lock the two together. Unfortunately the gate posts will need concrete.None of the fence posts are concreted in.

Fret, Mow, Tull and Sylph had a couple of hours in the field having spent the first hour in the extended run. An observation is chickens seem rather keen on agricultural management on a rough scale. Dig and one has company. Dig a patch one day and the chickens will be on it the next.:D This of course makes trying to establish anything generally requires it to be left alone with some sunshine and water. Books on regenerative growing and animal husbandry do point this out, while the more gardening orientated books don't.

They seem to be settling down a bit now. Fret is calmer, Mow wanders off from time to time. I think she like different forage to the other three. Tull from what I've seen is a little less bossy towards Sylph. Sylph jumped onto my lap again today. She's not after food. It may be some kind of reassurance.:confused:
I did frets legs with the oil LaFleche recommended a while back; she hates me.:p She doesn't have any SLM and I don't think she ever has.
P4280909.JPG
P4280911.JPG
P4280912.JPG
 
Are any of the branches long enough to reach the ground, with some to spare?

If so, you can make that cut in the branch where it can easily touch the ground, add the rooting compound, and pin it to the earth, either with a landscape staple, or by making as X of two small stakes, just enough to keep the cut portion of the branch in constant contact with the soil. Keep it moist. It will still get nutrients from the mother plant while it roots. You should be able to root it this way, if you like.
I do that with gooseberry bushes and some other berries but the diameter of the branch I want isn't flexible enough to pin underground and probably not long enough.
 
I've been reading articles about small farms and hobbyists here in the US trying Breese and other dual breeds for meat production instead of the Cornish cross types.

I am not yet ready to eat my chickens.

Raising bantams keeps them relatively safe.
We keep thinking we want raise chickens for meat too, but I am a horrible farmer. I get too attached to animals.
 
My raised beds started that way because the soil in them was what was excavated for the septic tank. Way below topsoil. Nasty hard stuff. It is amazing how little I have really had to do to transform them. The chickens have been a big help with scratching up the surface and I just top dress with leaves and chicken muck each year. Now I have a really thriving soil that is full of life.
The soil here is mostly yellow clay. When I try to start a garden I often have a hard layer of dry clay on top. I place sheets of cardboard on the ground, sometimes with shredded leaves and yard clippings below, also above. I give it some good waterings, but mostly leave it alone. In just a couple months the cardboard is almost gone, and the soil underneath is loose and loamy.

Where the trees were removed in my backyard the soil was compacted by the heavy equipment, and as I am loosening it with a shovel I have noticed there are a lot of hard clay clods.

Now that the berry bushes are all planted I am working on the area surrounding them. I have started dumping older/aged litter from the chicken runs on top of the clay clod areas. I'll let you know what happens.
IMG_20250427_190912137.jpg


Joanna for tax:
IMG_20250421_170334948~2.jpg
 
Unfortunately when it comes to elections such issues don't feature in the manifestos. I'm not seeing a lot of words to action on this subject. There have been a few minor improvements in what's specified as adequate for laying hens (it's called cage enrichment:rolleyes:) but the regulations are not well enforced.

I'm about to pay £40 for a Light Sussex cockerel that's ranged from dawn till dusk, killed at three months old; lucked, gutted with all the bit included in the price. That's cheap from a friend. That £40 would have been soaked up in feed alone.
Tell someone you paid £40 for a chicken carcass around two thirds the weight, if that, of a Cornish X and they'll roll about laughing and suggest you see a mental health professional.
I haven't had what I think chickens should taste like since I left Spain. This friend has got eight cockerels to eat so far this year. Like me, he won't entertain rooster flocks.

I've been selling most of the eggs this year. I ask for £2 per half dozen. A couple of my regular customers give me £3 even though I ask for £2. £5 for six eggs might just be a more realistic price. I can't see people paying that.
We started selling ours, for $3/12, a year ago (and didn't raise prices with the egg shortage. We have some regulars that buy 3 dozen / week. This on top of the ones we are giving away to neighbors, leave us plenty for our own personal use. We are definitely not making a profit LOL but that was never the point of keeping chickens and we will pay our property taxes this year on just egg sales.
 
Yesterday eleven out of sixteen birds, the two boys included, from the Tsouloufati group turned one :).View attachment 4109431 Settled on a name for the mixed rooster. Elrond. Following his mother’s theme, I thought an Elven name from Tolkien’s universe would be a good fitView attachment 4109432
He is a very handsome lad! Lord Elrond is a great name for his stature!
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom