Liquid Chicken Fertilizer

Ok, so I must admit, I only started writing this post because it's the only thing I could think of to stop me from reading more baby blogs. I've been reading dearbabyblog.com for over a week now. While this woman's life is about as far from mine as I can imagine, I can't help but fall in love with her little family that is filled with all the happiness I hope to one day grow in my own home. She is also a proponent of many ideas I favor, cloth diapering, natural child birth, etc. so I have found her experiences most educational. If you find yourself suffering from a deficiency in cuteness, I recommend taking a little stroll through the pages of her blog.

Now, on to non-baby related topics, POOP. Yes you heard me right, P-O-O-P. It comes out of my chickens and sits there until Jeff or I clean it up. We honestly don't clean the coop out all that often. I had read from another blog/magazine/book (I can't really remember) where one woman says she just throws down a new layer of wood chips every now and again and then does seasonal cleanings of the coop. The new pine chips seal in the old ones and when you clean it out to throw in the composter, the bottom layers have already started breaking down. We have used this same method and found it to be easy on us and the chickens don't seem any worse for wear.

So right about now, as spring starts to take full bloom, it is time for another cleaning. I recently read an article in Mother Earth News which gives instructions for making homemade liquid fertilizers out of the wood chip/poo combination from chicken coops. It also had a fertilizer recipe involving urine (dilute it 1:20 with water and go to town if you're interested), but when Jeff asked, "where do you get the urine?" I figured we weren't ready to take that plunge yet.

So on to chicken poop. You fill a five gallon bucket 1/5 of the way with the chicken poo/wood chip combo and then fill with water. Let the mixture steep for three days (giving them an occasional swish) and then dilute your "tea" 1:1 with water and use as you would any other liquid fertilizer. I'm looking forward to not spending so much on my seaweed liquid fertilizer this year!

Oh and in case you're wondering, "where are the pictures?!" Well, many of you already know what chicken poop in a bucket looks like and would probably rather not be reminded, and for those who haven't you'd probably honestly rather not see it (which I'm happy about since I'd also rather not take my camera near that much poop). Of course there is at least one of you coughHelencoughcough that probably does have a morbid curiosity for pictures. If that turns out to be the case, you are more than welcome to come over next time we need to clean the coop!

Why You Clip A Chicken's Wings

I never thought I'd say this about a chicken, but as much as one can love something with a brain the size of a pea, I love Baby Chick. She's adorable, she comes running when she sees you come out the back door and she adorably shadows you as you do work around the yard. I mean come on. Look at that face.

But Baby Chick has a dark side. A quiet voice that lurks inside of her otherwise gentle body and tells her to do things. Bad Things.

Case and point, look at my beautiful barrel of carrots. Lush, beautiful, still in need of some maturing but holding the promise of sweet roasted carrots this spring.

They had grown so well in fact, that I had to thin them out and enjoy some wonderful baby carrot side dishes.



This photo makes me think of another article I read from a professional gardener who was contrasting what she normally looks like when she gardens, to what she looks like when she appears "gardening" on television and in magazines. The reality might not be pretty, but I think it has it's own charm.

Baby chick has co-existed with these carrots beautifully for months. Never once has she jumped into these barrels to hunt for bugs or lay her eggs. I can only imagine The Voice returned to her. That it used its honeyed voice to convince her to do bad things again. I don't blame her, who could resist such a one as The Voice? This is what I found this Saturday, the dirty work of The Voice.

In order to protect our yard from future possessions of our otherwise docile chicken, we had to clip Baby Chicks wings. I feel bad, she doesn't understand why she must be exiled to the chicken coop when she obviously belongs with us. Well, I felt bad that is, until I found her still mysteriously able to get out into the yard. I can only assume The Voice was involved. 

Hen and Chicks

Our baby chicks are starting to look like sturdy tweeners and with the beautiful sunshine we had earlier this week we decided it was time to introduce them to the rest of the flock. This visitation was of course highly supervised, and if the chicks really needed to escape an angry hen we quickly learned the chicken run was not capable of containing them. I had read a few really terrible stories recently about chicks getting pecked to death by older hens so I must admit I feared a little bit for our crazy baby leghorns.

All my fears were for naught however, as once again we were blessed by the quiet gentle personalities of our Buff Orpingtons. I must say, the chicks seemed a lot more comfortable moving around the hens then they are around Jeff and I. They quickly integrated themselves into the group and enjoyed their first chance to really run around freely in the great outdoors.

(Yeah its a terrible pic, but getting them to hold still for a photo is like asking the sasquatch to pose.)

While they busied themselves chasing bugs and Jeffry cleaned out their cage, I sprinkled lots of baking soda around the spot their cage had been in the extension and let that deodorize for a bit. Honestly, I didn't think the smell was really all that strong, but I also think I might have just gotten used to it over the last month that they have been our housemates, so I didn't want to take any chances. I will also be seeing if I can borrow a carpet cleaner in the next week or so just to be safe. The chicks are now securely settled in to their transitional home in the garden shed, until they are big enough to be contained in the regular chicken run.

Life Cycle of Snails and Other Stuff

As I am sure I have mentioned on multiple occasions, I have been trying for several years to grow peas. In that time, however, I have never enjoyed a meal that involved peas from my garden. In fact, I have only been able to eat two pea pods in that entire time. Perhaps I am crazy for doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result, but this year I have already planted a crop of peas. They all died. Unwilling to give up, last night I planted a second crop of even stronger looking peas. I only turned my back for a moment and....

Oh hell no. This is what happens when you mess with my peas.

Enjoy your fate senor snail.

I have however, become more interested in snail life since I discovered how much my chickens love eating them, and I'm pretty sure my neighbors think I'm psycho running around the yard in my pj's with a bucket hunting for them. Here are some fun facts I've learned.

1) Snails do not reach sexual maturity until they are about two years old. You will know they are mature because the opening of their shell will have a lip on it signifying it has stopped growing.
2) All snails have both male and female reproductive organs so when they mate, both become pregnant with about 100 eggs.
3) Snails mate once a month, and then the eggs take another month to hatch.
4) A snail can live anywhere from 5-15 years depending on the species.
5) Snails are deaf and almost blind.
6) Snails will hibernate during inclement weather by pulling into their shells and sealing the opening with either a chalky substance or mucus. They leave a small hole to allow air in.

If you say to yourself, "I NEED MORE SNAIL INFO!!!" Well then you’re probably a wierdo, but since I don't judge you for that, here are more sites you can check out:

http://animals.about.com/od/mollusks/ig/World-of-Snails/Snail-3.htm

-has great pictures and general details

http://animals.about.com/gi/o.htmzi=1/XJ&zTi=1&sdn=animals&cdn=education&tm=4&gps=213_680_1004_612&f=20&tt=33&bt=0&bts=0&st=23&zu=http://www.arnobrosi.com/snails/snail.html
-Everything you ever wanted to know about snails, and probably a little bit you didn’t.

http://www.petsnails.co.uk/care/breeding.html
-snail breeding, kinda gross.

Chicken Wings

Allow me to introduce you to our chicken coop. Sure it may not have a living roof (yet), but at least it no longer has "chicas" spray painted across the door. It has also been expanded now so the fenced in area which never quite made sense serves a purpose. It gives the girls a little place to scratch and peck to their little hearts content. This means no more poop all over the patio, chickens flying onto the table during meals or tomatoes getting ripped to pieces by ravenous chickens!

On a side note. Did you know that chickens are attracted to the color red? This seems like a interesting quirk until they are eating your beautiful ripe tomatoes or chase you around the yard trying to peck your freshly painted toes!

Once the girls were granted access to their new run, it quickly became apparent that a 3 foot fence was not tall enough to keep them inside. Jeff finally decided that he needed to clip some wings to keep the ladies in. He clipped Stinky first. She is the alpha of the group, and he clipped the one set of flight feathers right before his lunch break ended (this might seem obvious, but just in case, only clip one wing. If you clip both they will still be able to fly). He went back inside figuring he'd do the rest after work, but to his surprise, no chickens left the pen for the rest of the day. Apparently, without stinky to lead the way, the other chickens were perfectly content to stay inside their pen. So if you ever find yourself with lots of chickens but little time, just clip the alpha and your task is done!

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