The chickens have now tasted freedom and use the pen move to their advantage. The design modifications we made to the Salatin portable pen has a disadvantage when it comes to escaping chickens. However, there is a door built in on the side and it is relatively easy to herd them all back into the pen after the move (especially with new food put down). The chickens tend to stay close to the pen and don’t venture off the plot area that was planted to grass and clover (and now contains all manners of weeds). As they get older I’m sure they’ll get braver and venture off into other areas of the garden.
Archive for the ‘People’ category
moving the chicken tractor
June 25th, 2010new power tool delivers
June 19th, 2010
In one day, this new little tiller has become an essential tool for me in the garden. I was looking for a new tiller and was originally going to get the little four stroke Honda. Turns out Honda sold out of all the tillers and are not getting any more for the season. I started looking around again and found that Mantis now makes a tiller using the Honda 4 stroke engine.
Walking behind this little machine was almost a joy.
Using the cultivator setting I walked about 10 km in one day weeding all the way. The tines have a well defined edge which even allowed me to get in nice and close to the plants without damaging them. Hopefully this little machine will help me keep all the grass under control.
My Grandparents managed to come out to see the chickens. They both used to work for the hatchery where the chicks came from. My Grandma sexed and boxed the chicks, Grandpa delivered. There are wood chips on the ground because of all the rain we had over the last couple of days. Instead of moving the chicken tractor we just added dry bedding for them.
let there be growth
May 16th, 2010
It’s amazing what a little moisture and warm weather can do. Already my radishes are up, beets have germinated, peas have germinated and just today the spinach popped up. I’m not exactly sure when I’ll make it to market but this spring is looking a lot more positive then last year.
The plot I’ve set aside to raise chickens on has also germinated and is growing. I planted the area to a mix of annual rye and white dutch clover. Hopefully the chickens will like it. The metal roofing for the chicken tractor has been picked up and all the parts now are awaiting assembly.
