Garden Journal #9 (and some chickens)

Meet my nemesis: the Squash Beetle. 

Today we waged war against this guy and at least 100 of his friends. Probably more. I armed myself with the following and spent a good hour and a half picking off bugs. 

The arsenal: a bucket of soapy water, a butter knife, neem solution and a whole lot of Diatomaceous Earth (DE).

The Plan: pick off whatever bugs we can, dunk them in soapy water. Shake leaves to knock large quantities of insects into the bucket. Use wet knife to scrape eggs off leaves. Spray the underside of leaves and around the ground with Neem solution, causing insects to flee to higher ground where they can be picked off and dunked in the bucket. Heavily sprinkle the ground with DE to discourage anyone who fell off the plant from climbing back on.

It does seem rather unlike me to use natural and safe products that encourage genetic defects in the target insects. Its a bit like chemical warfare but this way I don't end up hurting the good bugs, like the bees and butterflies and spiders. No innocent bystanders, like flowers, were treated in this process.

And when we finished it looked a bit like it had snowed in our garden.

I moved a few vines off the ground and tried to encourage some trellising with a piece of wire shelving, since it worked well before.

pumpkin, tomato, cucumber and pole beans

 The plants in our tiny space are so very intertwined that getting rid of this pest is crucial to the survival of everything. This particular insect feeds off the juices of the leaves, stem, fruit anything it can stick its needle-like tongue into, eventually killing the entire plant. I only lost 2 pumpkin plants in this battle. I did have to uproot a sunflower that was getting chocked out by the beans and acorn squash, and pull out almost all my mulch. Hopefully that's goodbye squash beetle and not a hello to the grasshopper who loves to lay eggs in bare dirt...

So grateful we have chickens! 

Which brings me to our next project:

A chicken house remodel. The babies' feathers have grown in (the stubs of wattles and combs are showing now! I expect eggs in about 4-6 weeks.) and so they no longer need momma hen to snuggle them at night. This means we have 5 chickens demanding space in a house built to spaciously sleep three. For a while now, Ferdy has been putting herself to bed in the nesting box in the shed. Ella was distressed two nights ago and couldn't go to bed without being pecked. All signs of over-crowdedness. Time to add a wing to the house. 

Naturally the girls wanted to help,

with some safety gear.

Welcome to the luxury nesting area and sleeping quarters:

Again, using only repurposed materials, we added a spacious room to the coop. The girls were apprehensive to climb in at bedtime, but they all had plenty of space once I got them tucked in.

 All that's left is to coat the inside with food grade oil and paint the outside before the next heavy rainfall. But for now, we just needed to get the house in place before nightfall. And we did!

It's a bit dark to photograph after lights out, but you get the idea. The babies are not quite ready to roost while sleeping, but now they don't have to fight for space once the time comes. Nor do they have to worry that they are sleeping under someone. I will have to install the fan next, but that's easy and then everyone will sleep extra comfy and I'll start giving eggs away again.

And now on to more important things, like giant chess.

story in pictures: chicken house remodel

Sorry its been a bit quiet here recently. Our In Real Life has been unquiet and therefore keeping me away from here. Here is just a small taste of what we've up to as we move into a new season for this family: kids in school! (More on that once I get a chance to sit with it.) So on with the story in pictures! 

Last Spring, the paint job!

 

It got cold!

Last week I was chatting to the mister about possibly making some changes to the chicken's set up. Winter is coming. Our first Winter in Texas and I'm not really sure what to expect. I've heard 85 one day, ice layer the next. This got me thinking that the current chicken house is really a summer dwelling, since it was intended to help the girls sleep safely through 86 degree nights. They free range the backyard from dawn til dusk, rotating with the shade and so survived the grueling heat.
Now, about winter... If we owned the garden the shed in the property, we'd modify it and be done. But alas. We rent. We recently had a couple night dip below 40 and the days took a bit to warm back up due to 30 mph winds! I turned my imagination on overdrive and tried this;

The girls seemed to appreciate the snack break out of the wind. I didn't really expect eggs because the weather change was sudden and they get a little preoccupied staying warm on grey days anyway. Fortunately, it warmed up by afternoon for them to comfortably use their preferred nest on the porch. Now we've returned to "normal" Texas fall, a girl on winter egg-strike, and a broody hen who has now started molting. This should be interesting.

The Hen House Gets a Face Lift

Our girls have been blissfully enjoying a cozy home in the shade throughout this HOT Texas Summer. With the change in Seasons upon us, it became evident that vegetable oil stain and the bare roof needed a little love if we expected the house to survive the downpours.

 Finding half a package of comp shingles in the garden shed, the roofer reappeared.

When the heat and humidity became close to unbearable (early July), the girls had begun preferring the lower tree branches to the safety of the hen house. So I (sorry Planet!) ran to Wal-Mart and purchased this $7 battery operated fan and installed it with cable ties to the ceiling. It points away from the access door toward the screened, vent windows in the opposite corner. The girls roost bar, barely noticeable behind the fan, is positioned at a angle, to accommodate all of the them, between the fan and the windows. As long as it is on when they head to bed, I don't have to pull chickens out of the tree after dark! 

(That's Fluffy, being all broody and grumpy on the elevated nesting box. She's generally the only one who uses this box. We have 3 'momma approved' nests around the yard.)

Originally, E and I 'painted' the house with a coating of vegetable oil to seal the wood. I was told in Backyard Chicken Class (offered at the Zarrow Regional Library in Tulsa, OK) to be mindful that cooped chickens will peck at the wood enclosing them. Therefore it would be safer to seal the wood with food grade oil instead of staining or painting the interior.
 














Using leftover paint from various other projects, E and I gave the exterior a little face lift.

That precariously perched board is placed there to ensure the the feeder stays dry and in the shade.  The opening below is covered with chicken wire. The outside of the run is covered with 1/4 inch hardware cloth.

Still to be done: frame the outside of the windows with a matching trim and replace a few grips on the ramp.



Even with the To Do list not thoroughly completed, the ladies seem pleased with the new look of their house.

All photos taken by Sara Dalton-Busch

Chicken frustration

So the girls do, basically, whatever they want. They jump the garden fence, steal each others eggs, and get viciously cranky when broody.

My first broody hen acted exactly like I expected. She stayed in her nest for days squawking at anyone who came within feet of her. We swapped out her real eggs for plastic ones, forced her off the nest to eat, politely gave her space when sweeping up the poop, and looked out for large land mines when she came out for a dust bath. We finally got her off the nest by placing a ceramic pot in there while she was off bathing. She was done with brooding straight away. Thankfully!

The next day another chick showed the beginning signs of broodiness: cranky, egg-stealing, and aggressive.

Thankfully, it only lasted a day.

After the hens go through this they take a little break from laying while their hormones return to normal. They returned to normal in the middle of the night last night.

The girls like to cuddle upon a roost bar over the closed ramp at night. (our coop is small and portable. They don't seem to mind as they are only in there at night and maybe to lay.) Because its a ramp and not an actual floor, there is no padding or nesting material to catch eggs that fall during the night. So they fall, split open, are never snuggled to hardness, and result in a required thorough hen house cleaning. This has happened before when a couple days of dark storm clouds alters someone's schedule. But double eggs with a layer of poo in the middle is not my favorite "good morning" present. I'd rather have scrambled eggs, that have been cooked by a human, while laying in bed.

Plus I'm out two eggs and needed those to pay for my borrowed lawn mower later this afternoon!

This is frustrating, but not as frustrating as the fence jumping.

We have a high fence along the back of our yard. Like 8 feet tall. Yesterday I only saw three chickens in the middle morning hours; the two recovering brooders and Minerva. Ferdy, who got the worst of the pecking and egg stealing, was missing. I quietly check everywhere, trying not to wake the neighbors. But in frustration I started asking the chickens where'd she gone. Had they seen her? I cluck as if I was sharing treats and hear a ruffle of feathers, some scratching and the rustle of some leaves. Ferdy appeared on top of the back fence next to the fruitless pear tree! I quickly grabbed her foot and got her back in my yard. The rest of the day was spent double checking she was still around and trying to be grateful that she was honoring my desire for her to stay out of the garden...

Oh that garden and those chickens don't stand a chance of existing together if the hens can clear 8 foot high fences!

The day we managed to do it all

I'm never sure if I should love these days because we got it all done, or hate them because they reinforce my belief that I can do it all. 

 

Not pictured: Mickey's Clubhouse viewings (current favorite), laundry, dishes, cleaning the inside of the coop, Play-Doh fun, frying and eating of the Black-Eyed Pea cakes (recipe in Southern Living's Farmers Market cookbook available here),  bathtime, grilling of chicken for the freezer, and many other things.