Cornish Cross Spring 2019

[wyoDreamer]

Yes, she is composting in the "bad dirt" pile. Which is dirt that my husband has removed from in front of the buildings to add a thick layer of crushed limestone for a driveway. It is "bad dirt" because it has rocks and chipping paint flecks and nails and wood chunks and whatever in it. "Bad Dirt" is for new driveway base and berms - not for gardens.

 

[baymule]

Bee, we didn’t move the coop today, will move it tomorrow morning. I just threw in more hay. They will mostly be shaded. I’ll spread the poopy hay in the sunny areas. Fertlizer for the pasture I don’t have yet! LOL

 

[Beekissed]

Bee, we didn’t move the coop today, will move it tomorrow morning. I just threw in more hay. They will mostly be shaded. I’ll spread the poopy hay in the sunny areas. Fertlizer for the pasture I don’t have yet! LOL

Could be a good way to get pasture! I had spread some hay last year on a large area around the dog runs where the dogs had dug big holes and foot traffic of both dogs and chickens dusting in said holes caused a mess. That hay has since seeded that whole area(most of it in the shade, mind you)to clover....looks like red clover to me.

The same hay in the garden also sprouted me some fine looking clover, so most of the "weeds" in the garden this year has been clover, which is something I don't mind at all. The ducks are loving it.

So, hay plus meatie droppings could really help grow you some good stuff, huh?

 

[baymule]

Last spring we put the CCX in a very poor pasture. I bedded them with pine straw and spread it over the poor ground. Then we spread dead sheep hay, which was rye grass. That poor ground sprouted clover (planted the year before, it reseeded) and rye grass. The sheep have chewed it down to the dirt. Next I’ll disc it and plant giant Bermuda grass.

Where we have them this year was a briar patch, it’s bare dirt. I’ll plant it in giant Bermuda, then clovers in the fall.

 

[CrealCritter]

Bay, are you going to tractor those meaties out on your sheep pasture? Nice build, BTW! I often wonder if the birds get hot in those tractors with the tin roofing on top? Salatin uses tin on all of his too and they have no shade to park it under out in pasture.

My meaties are outgrowing their feathers already....sure hope they can keep good legs until they are full grown. They are only eating a tiny fraction of what other folks feed meaties but seem to be getting fat out on forage, all the same.

They have to share their feed with 17 hens, 6 NH chicks their own age, 7 tiny chicks and 3 foster ducklings....and the whole group get approx. 6-8 c. of FF per day, if that.

The rest is found out in the big green yonder....

Raising your own food is fun, huh?

Had to kill this varmint this morning....Ben had it treed up by the coop.

We have been overrun with possum this year...this is the 5th we've had to kill. And Ben found a den the other day on our walk back on the land, flushed out a female with a hoard of babies on her back....I had nothing to kill them with and Ben isn't a killer, he's a finder. He's 3 and has zero kills to his name.

So, now I'm carrying a machete with me on my walks.

opossums are tick eating machines

 

[Beekissed]

opossums are tick eating machines
View attachment 11158

They are also chicken and egg eating machines. My chickens are tick eating machines...we've yet to get a tick on us while in their range. Same with the dog.

So, let's do the math. Possums eat ticks, chickens, chicks and eggs, as well as the cat food. Chickens eat ticks...and the cat food when they can steal it...and produce eggs and chicks for our nourishment.

Yep....possums gotta go, chickens gotta stay. The cats can hunt their own food either way.

 

[baymule]

WHOO-HOOO!!!!! The chicken tractor WORKS! And I can move it by myself. I lift and shift about a foot at a time. Then go to the other end and repeat. When I got it on clean ground, I lifted the top and put hay in it. By moving it slowly I don’t run over any chickens. I moved the hardware cloth end around so the evening sun won’t shine in on them.

The EE chicks are happy in their little coop.

 

[baymule]

I raise the top gate to toss hay to the back of the coop. Right now we can move the coop every other day, with more hay thrown in.

 

[Mini Horses]

Buy hay that is the type of grass you want to seed there. Most bermudas will have some seed when cut. The chicks will eat some, poop on it, what's left will actually drop the seed and you plant & fertilize at same time. I have often bought extra bales when I see a lot of seed heads, throw on different areas, the animals eat, push it around and I get new pasture. The hay costs less than the seed if you can work thru the wait. If winter fed, Spring brings some great areas of new grass. Bermuda spreads, too. I throw out some clovers and the "on sale clearance" bags of deer food plot seed. Hey, at $50-100 for 50# of seed, you have to be using what works for less.

I have no CCX but, certain some of these chicks with broodies will be roos. Takes longer but, they are here & have no purpose. My broodies are great foragers. 5 little chicks were learning to take a dust bath yesterday. What cute little puffs of dirt! I was in awe of the "training session".

 

[wyoDreamer]

The first year I did Cornish X, I bought 4 when I got a dozen layer chicks. It was one of those "try it and see if we like it" moves. makes no sense to grow out 15 birds only to find out that your DH won't eat the meat because it is tough.
Any-hoo, those little layers taught the cornish how to scratch and they turned out to be pretty good foragers when I forced them to search for food. I made sure they always went to bed with a full crop, though. Didn't want to stunt them too much.