Newbie

Lol nope, she would freeze to death in MN. It's colder there than it is here!
 
Welcome to the forum. Congratulations on purchasing your home and 1 acre. You can grow a LOT of food on 1 acre. Chickens are a great addition to a homestead. If you only have hens, they are fairly quiet and won't rile up the neighbors like a rooster crowing at 3 AM will do! For many years we lived on a small city lot, almost downtown in our little town and I kept hens and gardened. We moved 3 1/2 years ago 160 miles to the Tyler, tx area to be near to our grand children.

These are my suggestions; build a walk-in chicken coop with a dirt floor, large enough for 20-30 hens. Add a good run to it. You are thinking that is a LOT of hens, but when you are raising replacement pullets, there is an overlap for several months. What I used to do was to buy 6 sex link chicks or other breeds, each spring at the feed store. In the Fall, I butchered 6 old layers. So for awhile, I had 18 hens. I kept the hens through their first molt usually at 18 months old, until their 2nd molt at 2 1/2 years old. Then I butchered them. So I had a rotating flock, each spring I got a different color of chick so I knew what breed/color was the old, middle and the new hens. So each Fall, the newest hens would start laying, I had eggs through the winter. The middle aged hens went through their first molt and stopped laying and I slaughtered the oldest hens.

Now for the compost part of having chickens. In the fall, all these nice people rake and bag leaves and set them at the curb for the garbage man. Those leaves are valuable. Pick up all you can and take them home, dump in coop and run, the hens will love them. In a short time, they will reduce them to mere inches in depth, they will scratch them apart and poop all over them. Garden gold! When those leaves are reduced down, add more bags of leaves. I've had leaves up to 3 feet deep before!

I saved all kitchen trimmings except citrus and onions, and tossed them in the coop. What they didn't eat, they made compost out of. Garden trimmings also went to the coop/run. Sweet potato vines, corn shucks, pea hulls, you name it!

This will reduce down to a fine black crumble. I dug mine out a couple of times a year and put on the garden. Sometimes after I scraped it up, the bottom would be a little smelly, I just sprinkled it with garden lime and added more leaves or whatever I had. Sometimes I bought pine shavings (for horse stalls, but not the scented stuff) and sprinkled a layer of those. Your chickens will be a great asset to the garden!

Since you are on a slope, you will want to make sure that water does not run through your coop and run. Wet chicken poop stinks! Plus, you don't want them living in mud, every animal deserves a dry "home" and a place to get out of the weather.

You are wise to start small and build from there. You might want to draw a map of your land and design where to plant fruit trees, berries, grapes, garden, etc. You can always change your mind and move things around.

Most of all, welcome to the forum and have fun on your new adventure. We will have you canning vegetables, chicken and making chicken broth in no time! Start a garden thread, post pictures and we will help you all we can!

You might want to put your general location in your avatar. It helps when you ask for advice on gardens and such. What works for me in Texas might not work for you on a mountain in Montana. LOL
 
CrealCritter said:
I though FEM was in Minnesota for some strange reason <--- OLDTIMERS that's my story and I'm sticking to it.
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Ummmm, and here's where it gets worse....you mailed me corn seeds - to TEXAS!! :) (And, I really appreciate it!)

This southern girl would NEVER manage that far north... I'd turn into a giant popsicle!
 
frustratedearthmother said:
Ummmm, and here's where it gets worse....you mailed me corn seeds - to TEXAS!! :) (And, I really appreciate it!)

This southern girl would NEVER manage that far north... I'd turn into a giant popsicle!
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Honestly, I remember mailing you some seeds but I didn't pay any mind to the address I mailed them too. You know the space between my ears is only so big and it doesn't seem to retain as much as it used too. So I have to pick and choose what gets stored in there :lol
 
Another way of getting improved soil on the cheap is to spread out about a foot of hay~not straw~on your garden areas right now, letting it rot down all winter and also soften the soils underneath. By spring you'll be surprised how soft and black that soil is under that hay. Worms LOVE it, so they work like crazy to pull that stuff into their burrows, softening up your soils without a single drop of sweat from you.

Welcome to the neighborhood!!!
 
Beekissed said:
Another way of getting improved soil on the cheap is to spread out about a foot of hay~not straw~on your garden areas right now, letting it rot down all winter and also soften the soils underneath. By spring you'll be surprised how soft and black that soil is under that hay. Worms LOVE it, so they work like crazy to pull that stuff into their burrows, softening up your soils without a single drop of sweat from you.

Welcome to the neighborhood!!!
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+1

In addition to hay, I also like hardwood leaf litter. Any hardwood leaves is good, except walnut which ain't good. Rake or blow into your planned garden area when you clean up from fall, don't be afaid to make a big deep pile. Then water it down real well and throw a bunch of garden lime lime over top of it. Come spring you'll have some nice black top soil to till into the existing soil underneath it. Reapeat for several years and soon you'll be the envy of all things garden soil.

Of course I'm and old school gardener so I also add ammonia nitrate as needed and only when I notice my plants are showing signs of low nitrogen in their leaves. Ammonia nitrate is cheap, very easy to work with and a little goes a long way. Just observe all percautions when storing it to avoid a fire. I just buy it when i need it and that way I don't have to worry about storing it. Ammonia nitrate stores real well at the store :)
 
Just beware of weed seeds in hay... straw doesn't usually have seeds. But, truth is, I've never used straw - not readily available here.
 
frustratedearthmother said:
Just beware of weed seeds in hay... straw doesn't usually have seeds. But, truth is, I've never used straw - not readily available here.
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More great info there FEM. My "trick" is to wait until the weeds seeds germinate then I till them under, mark my rows and sow my seeds. This seems to work well for my summer garden. My sprng/fall garden is completely differnt story though since I've been known to sow seeds right on top of the snow in late winter (carrots can be sowed this way). I leave my row markers in over winter. Then it's a constant battle with weeds in the rows. I cultivate inbeween the rows so that's a cake walk.

I wanted to add, I know all those expert gardeners say clean up all the dead veggie plants at the end of the season and remove from the garden. I say blah... I use my weed whacker with a steel blade instead of string and chop up the plants and leave them there for a few days then come back and shallowly till them in. Corn for example has a lot of plant in comparison to the ear or two you pick. By chopping up the plants it does wonders for amending the soil for the next year. Plus birds and other animals can scavange the leftovers during the winter. every animal turd helps amend the soil also.
 
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