So I’ve read and been told that we have two growing seasons here, that we can have two summer gardens. So I’m giving it a try!
I planted cucumber and peas and they actually sprouted! I also have some sprouts that I think are arugula (I sort of let the last batch go to seed, and the seeds went everywhere). My rain barrel is empty, so I had to reroute my irrigation system (aka lots of hoses) to run from the well. Having cucumber and pea salad would be pretty exciting!
Snakes? No problem. Beetles? Easy peasy. Cockroaches? I now feed them to my chickens. Worms? Na, I bait my own hook. Spiders? Um. Great big yellow and black garden spiders? Even though they are non-aggressive? Heebie Jeebies. So getting close enough to this guy to take a picture with my phone was a personal act of bravery. Taking down her web by disconnecting the anchor lines and leaving her one line (as far away from me as possible) to retreat was cold steel. But see, I had to get to the other side of her web to put the roosts back up in the chicken run. It was for my chickens. And I’ve learned this technique for dismantling spider webs the hard way; I really, really hate walking through spider webs. Gack. We have so many, many spiders this summer. I have to keep telling myself that yes, there are a ton of spiders, but there don’t seem to be many flies. So the spiders stay, even if I have to pull up my big girl pants and deal with the gentle yellow and black nightmare.
I made some additions to our Grandpa’s Feeder. First I moved the lid into the second week position (the lid doesn’t close all the way, but has some movement when a chicken steps on the treadle, to get the chickens used to the movement). Then, because the movement of the treadle and lid is quite loud, I added rubber shelf lining to the bricks and to the screws that stop the motion of the lid so to deaden the sound a little.
The chickens are very startled by the movement and sound of the treadle and lid. Cloud is still my bravest, and can step up on the treadle and eat, then once she has it stable, the other chickens come to eat too. The problem is that when the other chickens are eating, she also likes to climb on the top of the feeder. I caught another chicken actually leaning over the top to get the food inside, so I made a small awning from scrap wood to keep them off the top.
I installed the awning with a hinge so when it is time to refill the feeder, I can swing the awning up and out of the way.
The chickens are definitely hungry; they peck at me with a little more force than before. The run has been stripped of everything remotely green, and they are even more vocal when I go out to check on them. I hope this is a relatively short time of adjustment. Once they have figured out the feeder and are comfortable with it, it will make leaving them for a time much easier. That is the goal.
I’ve been using carabiners to hang slices of watermelon for the chickens for awhile. It keeps the fruit away from the ants and dirt! I’ve found it also works well to hang cucumber, which is great because the chickens usually flip the cucumber skin side up before they are done cleaning out the flesh. Silly things.
I added some chicken enrichment to one of the runs: a repurposed toy organizer! (Given to me by a friend, thank you again!) I removed some of the rails to give the chickens more room, and they appreciate the gesture. I have seen up to three chickens sitting on this, but wasn’t able to get a photo.
Critters and Craft 