Category Archives: Chickens

Goji Berry Transplanted, Red Mulberry – 3/16/2025

I decided I didn’t like where I planted the 2 goji berry plants. They are in the way of the in-ground garden and one of them was growing so big it was getting into the lawn mower storage area. I dug them up and transplanted them to the area where the chicken pen will be located.

The root system was huge and I was able to separate off multiple rootings that were sizeable. I planted 11 of them around the perimeter of the new chicken pen. My plan is to let the chickens graze on the fruit when it is ripe. The fruit is hard to harvest because it is so tiny… it takes a lot of effort and each fruit is about the size of a raisin, so it is not worth the time, but the chickens are very good at harvesting and they love it too.

I while back, I ordered some trees from cold stream farm. The 2 red mulberry plants are planted on the west border of the new chicken pen. These trees should grow pretty fast and will provide shade that the chickens appreciate. Mulberry trees are messy, their fruit drops and stains the ground wherever they land. But this seems like a good tree to have hanging over a chicken pen… the chickens will clean up any fruit!

Onion and Broccoli Harvest – 5/22/2023

Amber pulled up the onions. Some of there were huge. I think onions are year-to-year the easiest crop we grow. She rigged up some wire fence across a few saw horses and hung the onions on the wire fence to dry for a week or so. He plans on freezing some and storing the rest.

We also harvested broccoli, as the weather is getting too hot. The bugs are eating it up quickly and most of it has already bolted. Good eats though!

The tomatoes are getting really close to being ripe. We picked a few that are starting to turn red because we don’t trust the local wildlife to leave them alone. The bushes are getting really tall, to the point we are going to need to top them to keep them from falling over.

The melons in the backyard are growing well. Sweet corn seems to be doing well too. Okra, not so much. I sprayed it all with a foliar fertilizer (Hasta Grow) and I hope that helps. A big mistake from last year was letting the wild non-edible melon continue to grow. The seed it released is now germinating and I have hundreds of those plants growing, in and among my useful plants. Lesson learned: stay on top of the weeding!

We also harvested a few carrots (meh). The blackberries are starting to get ripe, but they are absolutely covered with moths and wasps. Some of the plums are starting to ripen, but they are all infested with bugs because I didn’t spray insecticide at the right time. And our chickens have been naughty and are hanging out and laying eggs in our raised beds. The local rat snake found the eggs and had a nice meal.

Door and window added to chick pen

We are in the process of integrating the baby chickens with the older chickens. I moved the chick pin outside but decided the two flocks needed to be able to see each other during the day so we added a wire screen window. We’re also going to experiment with a small door. Our idea is the door is big enough for the babies to go in and out but if they start getting chased by the big chickens the big chickens won’t fit through the door so the baby chickens can get to safety.

Coyote Chases Chicken Video

We are bad chicken owners! Our hens have grown enough that they can fly over their protective fence, so they wind up free-ranging during the day. We talked about clipping their wings, but then they wouldn’t be as able to get away from predators.
Turns out they still aren’t able to get away from most predators. Chickens are food for almost everything.

New Chickens – April 10, 2020

We decided it was a good time to get some new chicks since we are all home and it will be easy for us to take care of them during the day. We bought 7 from the Tractor Supply down the street: 3 production blues, 2 brahmas, 2 golden sex link. I’m working on getting a chicken coop built, as I expect it will be needed in a few weeks.