Sunken Beds?

 As can be seen in these 2 pictures there is currently a lot of open space in my Orchard. This space both receives full sun and is irrigated. 

That got me thinking about how I could put that area to use. At first I tried pulling the mulch back from the area above the  dripperlines. That didn't work out to well because the mulch was so deep that it would migrate back into and cover the cleared area within a day. That was when I thought of raised beds, but in reverse.

I built some 70"x14" frames from cedar fence planks nailed together then reinforced in the corners with L-brackets. 

I installed these in between the trees and on the upslope side of the drip lines. I chose to put them there so that the majority of the water would still move through the mulch bed while water pulled uphill through capillary action would irrigate the crops in the boxes.

 Above is the first bed set into the mulch, in the foreground my Emerald Beauty Plan can be seen leafing out nicely. Below are the first 4 boxes installed between 2 rows of Plums, Pluots, Apricots, and Apriums.

Sweet Corn, Cow Peas, Pinto Beans, and Buckwheat have been sown in these first beds. The Sweet Corn is for us and the rest is for chicken feed and to help break up and improve the soil texture. I am now thinking that the middle row will be setup similarly to the first row but will be sunflowers mixed in with legumes and cover crop while the final row, where there is room for six boxes, I may fill the boxes and use them as true raised beds. The draw back on that is that I will need to irrigate them, the upside is fresh Tomatoes! 

Responsibility

I am just getting ready to head up to the "little house" which is where my Orchard and Chickens are. Looking in on my two babies I noticed that the bindings on my spraddle legged chick have come off. She can stand now and move around the brooder fairly well but her one leg is still turned outward and the foot is a bit clawed. This got me to thinking about my responsibilities as someone practicing animal husbandry even on such a small scale.

If I was a true farmer raising livestock purely for production more than likely this chick would have been culled at a day or two old, conversely if I were a fancier and looked upon all of the members of my flock as pets I would probably have an astronomical veterinarian bill by now. Myself and most urban/suburban wanna be farmers are more than likely doing what we do out of some indefinable inner urge to get closer to the earth and a very conscious need to feel we are doing something tangible to improve the world around us. That age old adage of "think global and act local" is a driving force behind my urge to produce food on my little piece of land. The idea that I can turn leftovers, gleanings, and insects around my home into eggs that are healthier and more nutritious than those in the supermarket is fascinating!

That being said, lately I have been thinking a lot about responsible use of the chickens I am raising. There are ads on craigslist offering 2 and 3 year old chickens free to a good home as long as you promise to not kill my pretty little babies who aren't any use to me because they don't pop out an egg a day anymore. Reading ads like that I think how out of touch and irresponsible some people are, trying to transfer an issue to someone else while avoiding some abstract self imposed guilt. A pet is a companion you love and cherish for as long as your blessed to be together, not just until they aren't able to provide breakfast.

That sounds pretty judgmental and it is! The judgement falls on myself also. While I haven't had to deal with over the hill layers yet, when incubating eggs you ain't gonna get all hens! Hatching out fluffy butts is something I truly enjoy and last years hatching activity left me with 11 roosters that I didn't need or particularly want. Rather than do the responsible thing and process (butcher) them for my families use I took the easy way out and sold them to the feed store for $5 a piece. What are they going to do with them? well they seemed pretty interested in the two big mean bastards with the honkin spurs!

So where does this leave me? I'm committing to myself that come late spring I will be prepared and will butcher my excess roos. And when the time comes to cull my laying flock I'm gonna learn how to make chicken and dumplings (Karen always pines for her Granny's chicken and dumplings). When the time comes I'll document the process' here, both of butchering and of becoming a responsible practitioner of animal husbandry.

Max

Plum Crazy over Chickens

My first babies of the year, above is what they looked like this past Saturday when I got home from setting up my Graywater supply system. Then an hour later when I came back to check on them. It is amazing how fast some chicks hatch, last year I had several that took 7 to 10 hours. Those really tried my patience and I must admit to helping the process along several times. 

Zippin

1 hour later

Mille Fleur

Golden Cuckoo Marans

I kind of went crazy again. My wife Karen has a business, Got Birds? , here in Las Vegas that caters to exotic bird owners supply needs here in the valley. She came home last week from a seed delivery and asked me what a Mille Fleur de'Uccle chicken was, I had seen the name on backyard chickens and when I pulled up a picture Karen started oohing and awing. She then explained that this customer of hers has been looking for a pair for quite a while, in my mind that was a green light to order a dozen hatching eggs from this really nice lady on backyard chickens . While searching for those I ran across a deal to good to pass up on a dozen Marans, 6 Black Copper and 6 Golden Cuckoo.

My eggs came in the mail on wednesday and I suddenly realized that my whacko step mother-in-law had repossessed my big incubator and all I had was my little one. It only holds 3 eggs and I had just put a load of Barnyard Bastards in it on Sunday!

We had a brinsea octagon20 advance ordered but it wasn't scheduled to arrive until next week! Luckily Karen's friend Nicole loaned us hers. On the left you can see the tray loaded. The darker large eggs are Marans and the smaller light colored eggs are the Mille Fleur. Now the waiting begins, March 18th I will put them in lockdown and hopefully will be posting fluffy butt pics on the 20th!

           
This is my babies today, the light colored one has gone spraddle legged. That's why she ain't standing up, When I talked about culling I thought Karen was going to cull me. So I did some research and found this site:   Spraddle Leg Therapy

 This is Gichael with his brace on

EXTRA!!!!EXTRA!!!!EXTRA!!!!EXTRA!!!!EXTRA!!!!EXTRA!!!!EXTRA!!!!

This is what the girls left for Us this morning!!!!

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Overview

Lorri, my sister, made me this really nice plot plan of my Orchard/Chicken Yard

Currently my chickens and ducks have the run of the whole area. The only interest the chickens have shown in my trees so far is scratching in the mulch and turned over dirt, the ducks love mucking around in the basins around each tree when I'm watering. The plan is to let them free range in amongst the trees, their appetite for insects is voracious and I figure that as long as they don't damage the trees that can only be a good thing. 

I'm not quite sure where this guy came from. He likes to think he's all that but gets his butt kicked regularly by the other roo's. If he was gonna stick around longer I'd probably name him Mark,

 This group of 4 chooks are barnyard mutts and the product of my first attempt at incubating eggs from my own flock!

A cooperative effort

Whatcha puttin in there? 

My Ducken, He was a surprise, I thought I had an
incubator full of chicken eggs. He still hangs with
his nest mates and doesn't want anything to do with
the Kool Krew

The Kool Krew just hang in out!

Eggs & Pomegranates

What a beautiful day to be working in the orchard. My nephew Steven spent the night and came up to the little house with Brian and I this morning to do a little work. Brian dug the hole for my Pink Lady apple and our little flock of ducks, aka the "Kool Krew", helped get all of the air pockets out after I backfilled.

The "Kool Krew" 

Steven attacked the hated oleanders on either side of the gate with loppers and a sawzall. I truly hate oleanders and just can't understand why people insist on planting them, they look fake, are poisonous to livestock, trigger migraines, and are just plain invasive. But maybe those are endearing qualities to some people. We planted 2 pomegranates to either side of the gate along the fence row spaced 4' apart, to the right there is a Sweet and an Eversweet, while to the left we planted Kasmir and Granada.

 Steven also found where my Easter Egger Pullets were laying, and I remembered my little incubator. So in 21 days I hope to have some pics of pippin and zippin!

Slow Day

I had big plans for a full day working in my Orchard/Chicken Run but some kind of cold bug had a different idea. The third apple going in did arrive and I picked it up this morning, it is a Pink Lady. This variety is rated very high out at the UNCE orchard, one of the Master Gardners was able to get 9 shipped in when the orchard didn't receive any this year. When I got there this morning and mentioned I was picking up a Pink Lady everyone got kind of furtive looks and said "oh we couldn't get any this year" but when they showed up it was all hush hush like I was picking up contraband! Kinda neat bein in on the "secret" shipment! Again those volunteers out there are the GREATEST and obviously love what they're doing!

Now for some picks of my Chooks! This is my crazy teenage crowd of pullets takin a dust bath. And a single shot of one of the Easter Eggers I got as 3 week olds last fall.

These girls below all came out of my hens, I'm not sure who each ones momma is, but other than the red one its obvious that their daddy was the big mean white and black rooster I got rid of. 

These 6 Handsome Devils, grrrrr, below are my marans. I was hoping for pullets (young hens) but so far everyone thinks they're cockerels (young roosters) hence the grrrrrrr!

I plan on getting rid of my other roosters and keeping a couple of my Marans Roosters. That way if I do happen to get lucky and some of these are hens I will get purebred Marans. In addition I should get olive eggers out of my easter egger hens.

Hopefully tomorrow will be a productive day!?!