Tickets on Herself

Saturday, February 13, 2016

Counting coop

This coop I bought for too much money is really disintegrating fast. It really does not have so many months left to be of assistance in sheltering the feathered girls.

I keep a piece of plastic over the top as sort of help during rain, but it really won't keep the chooks warm during the winter. Not sure yet what I am going to do to help them stay warm outside there.

When my neighbour and I were transporting this thing, bought second hand, the nesting boxes flew off! I use one of the plastic litter boxes as a nesting box now. It's inside the hutch under the flap seen above.

In this rudimentary hutch-cage arrangement is one of the nesting boxes, with an egg in it, from today's produce. I have at least 6 eggs in the fridge currently, and am happy that the girls are laying two eggs a day (between them).

I love that they are laying! Bought them some extra pellets today and mash. I was concerned that were always hungry but they appear to be happier with the more substantial pellets. Fuller crops!

Le compost

Well that's one way of attempting to put a suave French name to a pile of rotting stuff! Le compost.

When I went to Masters and Bunnings to find one of those square shaped compost bins, some time ago, there were none in stock.

So, because I didn't have much money at the time, I compromised and bought a cheap plastic bin with a lid to put my scraps in, and garden stuff, although I knew it would not hold everything. (I put the extra residue from a garden mow in the recycling bin. One shouldn't...but everybody does).

This bin seems to be holding up well enough, and certainly the stuff inside is breaking down quite quickly. Now and again I upend it all and expose it to the sun and air and chook scratching, and that is good for it. Then I shovel it back into the bin. So far, so good, although I am not quite sure when I should or could use it as mix for the plants in the garden. It looks crumbly and has no smell, which is the way they say good compost is, but I keep adding chook poo to it, and they say that's too raw for plants and can burn them.

I also bought one of those stick-stirrer things (the green stick to the right of the bin in the photos above), but I find I don't use it much as the up-ending process does the job of aeration just fine. It's not a big lot, so I can manage it at the moment.

When the black plastic bin begins to disintegrate due to sun-'brittling', I'll get one of the square ones.

What I would really prefer is a tumbler, like this

or like this

I think I prefer the second one to start with.

Big brown pots

This is what I have done with them (and the extra frangis and bird-of-paradise plants) for the time being.

Jeanette said I should ensure the frangis have their roots in the sun as they prefer that. I think they're doing fine so far, but will, later, raise them onto another plastic pot so they are a bit higher to the rays.

Only one of the pots has holes in the base for drainage. I will have to drill into the other one at some stage, to create holes. I started to collect all the awful stones and bits of concrete that were lying around in the yard, by putting them in the base of the pot with the holes. I thought they would be useful drainage assistance, eventually. But I am so sick of all the bits, there are millions of them still, all over the yard, that I just want to throw the lot out, and remove them completely from around me!

However, I noted with interest on a 'caring for hibiscus' site recently this information:

Old, broken tiles or pots, coarse clinker ash, and rough pebbles may all be used for drainage and covered with a layer of ashes or gravel which will act as a filter to prevent soil blocking the holes.

No one took care of the garden before and I'm doing my darnedest to turn it into a paradise.