Hey Robert, slightly off topic, but I have a question for you, too. I'm thinking of getting some chickens, for my garden. Do you have any experience of chickens?
I do. We have 3 Red Hampshires and a Barnevelder, all of whom are happy hens, laying regularly and a'scritchin and a'scratchin. I've made a netted-run about the size of a 2-car garage, built a house that sits up high on stilts with a ladder made from a 'Y' shaped branch with tied-on rungs and a nest made from a wicker-basket laid on its side. I feed them kitchen scraps, plenty of greens from the garden, especially comfrey, wild turnip, oatgrass, spinach-beet and wild-rocket, plus whole oats. They have a water bowl. They seem to enjoy life immensely.
Curiosity got the better of me and I had a read and laugh over at HP. Tracey wants us to accept that there are ‘blue activists’. Where? They are not very obvious around Dunedin. The DCC asked for public submissions on off shore drilling and received 199 against and 17 for. I put one in. All submissions are online, in the list of names, no Tracey. What do blue activists do I wonder?
Our chickens have a wooden chicken house and we have fenced off an orchard area with 4ft high chicken wire for them to roam in. We clip their wings to keep them in their enclosure because otherwise they eat the vege garden and poo on the veranda. We plan to make a mobile ‘chook tractor’ to put over the garden which would be more energy efficient than the current arrangement of throwing weeds in and then digging the chicken processed semi composted stuff out later. I change the bedding in the house weekly, mostly we use long dry grass (about a wheelbarrow full), but sometimes I buy in straw. We get white, brown, light green and olive coloured eggs, not 100% organic though because we do supplement their feed with chook pellets from the supermarket. They drink a lot of water.
No harm in keeping an eye on the witterings, corokia green. AC's predicted that it'll become a 'tory echo chamber', which aside from his comment, it already has. I'm constantly amazed by their on-going attempts to belittle and shut-down, coupled with their crows of 'you gave up easily - harden up', when we take our leave. I'm enjoying not commenting there and hope you'll maintain your radio-silence as long as I do, just so we can watch how they go about their business without provocateurs. If AC was to extend his holiday too, it'd be even more marked. Keeping Stock still has Edward the Confessor to keep his blog interesting, though I note he banned him this morning - what is it about those people? Oh, fear, of course. And frustration at having a clever commenter like Edward 'dance' about them like a smart-arsed fly :-).One thing that frustrated me was the unwillingness to discuss things at any length. Blog discussions are so perfunctory, usually, and most decent discussions need to to extensive, but the most common criticism I got was for being overly verbose, when in fact I'm usually wanting to say much, much more, teasing out ideas, having claims backed-up, and so on. Not the right forum for that, I suppose.
I saw EtC was banned again. It looks like a "close up the wagons" mentality setting in. I'm a bit surprised you have chickens, Robert, because I don't recall seeing much about them on your blog. There was a post about the PM, once, otherwise it's been are chicken-free zone. Are chickens welcome here? Thanks for the advice, Robert and CG.
I like the chickens, though they're not as appealing as the Guinea pigs.I think it's their habit of clearing ground completely of vegetation that runs contrary to my philosophy, but that's only because they are by necessity, concentrated into a small area. Wandering free as jungle-fowl, they'd have little effect, but when you are raising seedlings and high-value vegetables... I'll nip down now and try to get a photo.
I hope AC keeps commenting there. Most of the commenters seem to think that only 'melons' disagree with things Ele says, so when AC points out the flaws in an argument, it's quite amusing to watch them leap in with 'commie' accusations. Looks like Tracey misses us and would like us to accept the Taliban label and come back so Andrei can talk about me dying again and others can just abuse us. I never dished that out, so don't see why I should 'harden' up and take it. I have teenage daughters, heated arguments are not foreign to me, but I have learnt when to walk away.
We'll soon be forgotten, corokia. Good thing too. There'll be plenty of opportunity to talk about over the coming days. The Chch result would be a good one to bat around, but to me, it's boring. Perhaps I'll do a post titled, "The Nazi Nats". Whadda ya reckon? It won't matter if no one reads it. My blog post titles appear on the side bars of various blogs as I post them, so many eyes will see them and think, "Yeah! Nazis!". That's how it works, isn't it? Hit and run. Ele plays that game, hence our/your disgust. I wonder if she drops phrases like those into her radio interviews, like Matthew Hooten does? Say it fast and loud, move quickly on, call anyone who tries to pick you up on it, "over-sensitive", tell them to harden-up and there you go, politics 101.
I have no reason to stop commenting at HP. Perhaps the conversation will become a bit dull and I might get bored. But really, the posts and comments are so ripe for the picking that I won't be able to stop myself.
I agree with Jordan (jaywondart) about chicken tractors, having built and tried one. Even though it was relatively roomy, that's no way for a chicken to live, as a component of a tractor :-) I'm working on natrifying our hen run up some more - I've an elder planted and growing and a 'breakout' area where they can get into the overgrown weed-garden for some r&r.
We have about 15 chickens of various breeds. I particularly like the Black Orpingtons and what I know as Lavenders (one the kids call Grey Vader) that lay blue eggs.
We free range them regularly and they have a dedicated run about 15m by 5m that they're locked up in during the growing season (otherwise the vege garden suffers and there's not enough rain to wash the poo off the deck).
Rather than build a hen house we purchased an unwanted wendy house/playhut off trade me for a fraction of the cost of materials.
Great to hear about your hens, para. Orpingtons are nice birds. Sad to hear about the unwanted Wendy-house, but good on you for putting it to good use :-)
15 comments:
Hey Robert, slightly off topic, but I have a question for you, too.
I'm thinking of getting some chickens, for my garden. Do you have any experience of chickens?
I do. We have 3 Red Hampshires and a Barnevelder, all of whom are happy hens, laying regularly and a'scritchin and a'scratchin.
I've made a netted-run about the size of a 2-car garage, built a house that sits up high on stilts with a ladder made from a 'Y' shaped branch with tied-on rungs and a nest made from a wicker-basket laid on its side. I feed them kitchen scraps, plenty of greens from the garden, especially comfrey, wild turnip, oatgrass, spinach-beet and wild-rocket, plus whole oats. They have a water bowl. They seem to enjoy life immensely.
Curiosity got the better of me and I had a read and laugh over at HP. Tracey wants us to accept that there are ‘blue activists’. Where? They are not very obvious around Dunedin. The DCC asked for public submissions on off shore drilling and received 199 against and 17 for. I put one in. All submissions are online, in the list of names, no Tracey. What do blue activists do I wonder?
Our chickens have a wooden chicken house and we have fenced off an orchard area with 4ft high chicken wire for them to roam in. We clip their wings to keep them in their enclosure because otherwise they eat the vege garden and poo on the veranda. We plan to make a mobile ‘chook tractor’ to put over the garden which would be more energy efficient than the current arrangement of throwing weeds in and then digging the chicken processed semi composted stuff out later. I change the bedding in the house weekly, mostly we use long dry grass (about a wheelbarrow full), but sometimes I buy in straw. We get white, brown, light green and olive coloured eggs, not 100% organic though because we do supplement their feed with chook pellets from the supermarket. They drink a lot of water.
No harm in keeping an eye on the witterings, corokia green. AC's predicted that it'll become a 'tory echo chamber', which aside from his comment, it already has. I'm constantly amazed by their on-going attempts to belittle and shut-down, coupled with their crows of 'you gave up easily - harden up', when we take our leave. I'm enjoying not commenting there and hope you'll maintain your radio-silence as long as I do, just so we can watch how they go about their business without provocateurs. If AC was to extend his holiday too, it'd be even more marked. Keeping Stock still has Edward the Confessor to keep his blog interesting, though I note he banned him this morning - what is it about those people?
Oh, fear, of course. And frustration at having a clever commenter like Edward 'dance' about them like a smart-arsed fly :-).One thing that frustrated me was the unwillingness to discuss things at any length. Blog discussions are so perfunctory, usually, and most decent discussions need to to extensive, but the most common criticism I got was for being overly verbose, when in fact I'm usually wanting to say much, much more, teasing out ideas, having claims backed-up, and so on. Not the right forum for that, I suppose.
I saw EtC was banned again. It looks like a "close up the wagons" mentality setting in.
I'm a bit surprised you have chickens, Robert, because I don't recall seeing much about them on your blog. There was a post about the PM, once, otherwise it's been are chicken-free zone. Are chickens welcome here? Thanks for the advice, Robert and CG.
I like the chickens, though they're not as appealing as the Guinea pigs.I think it's their habit of clearing ground completely of vegetation that runs contrary to my philosophy, but that's only because they are by necessity, concentrated into a small area. Wandering free as jungle-fowl, they'd have little effect, but when you are raising seedlings and high-value vegetables...
I'll nip down now and try to get a photo.
I hope AC keeps commenting there. Most of the commenters seem to think that only 'melons' disagree with things Ele says, so when AC points out the flaws in an argument, it's quite amusing to watch them leap in with 'commie' accusations. Looks like Tracey misses us and would like us to accept the Taliban label and come back so Andrei can talk about me dying again and others can just abuse us. I never dished that out, so don't see why I should 'harden' up and take it. I have teenage daughters, heated arguments are not foreign to me, but I have learnt when to walk away.
We'll soon be forgotten, corokia.
Good thing too. There'll be plenty of opportunity to talk about over the coming days. The Chch result would be a good one to bat around, but to me, it's boring. Perhaps I'll do a post titled, "The Nazi Nats".
Whadda ya reckon? It won't matter if no one reads it. My blog post titles appear on the side bars of various blogs as I post them, so many eyes will see them and think, "Yeah! Nazis!". That's how it works, isn't it? Hit and run. Ele plays that game, hence our/your disgust. I wonder if she drops phrases like those into her radio interviews, like Matthew Hooten does? Say it fast and loud, move quickly on, call anyone who tries to pick you up on it, "over-sensitive", tell them to harden-up and there you go, politics 101.
:-)
Tracey won't comment here, but has put a link up to your post on the by-election. Strange behaviour.
I've lost interest, corokia.
Short attention span, me :-)
I have no reason to stop commenting at HP. Perhaps the conversation will become a bit dull and I might get bored. But really, the posts and comments are so ripe for the picking that I won't be able to stop myself.
Hi corokia, those "chook" tractors are horrible, far better to leave the hens to a fenced off area to call their own :-)
http://www.invsoc.org.nz/hen-home-renovation/
I agree with Jordan (jaywondart) about chicken tractors, having built and tried one. Even though it was relatively roomy, that's no way for a chicken to live, as a component of a tractor :-)
I'm working on natrifying our hen run up some more - I've an elder planted and growing and a 'breakout' area where they can get into the overgrown weed-garden for some r&r.
We have about 15 chickens of various breeds. I particularly like the Black Orpingtons and what I know as Lavenders (one the kids call Grey Vader) that lay blue eggs.
We free range them regularly and they have a dedicated run about 15m by 5m that they're locked up in during the growing season (otherwise the vege garden suffers and there's not enough rain to wash the poo off the deck).
Rather than build a hen house we purchased an unwanted wendy house/playhut off trade me for a fraction of the cost of materials.
Great to hear about your hens, para.
Orpingtons are nice birds.
Sad to hear about the unwanted Wendy-house, but good on you for putting it to good use :-)
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