Digging chickens
I’m at my wits end…
I purchased 6 chicken’s last Spring for our house in the city :-) I loved having the girls run around the backyard, but when they started becoming adults they would tear up my terraced flower garden so I had to fence them in around their coop.
Their area included 30′ x 10′ of grass and about 15′ x 10′ of ivy, plus two compost piles and hay pile. In several months the grass was mostly gone in their area and I was careful to remove (or spray into liquid while watering) all their droppings.
The saga continues – I just built a garden fence so the girls could have the whole yard without getting into my flower garden. It is now raining a lot here in Oregon, and the girls are doing lots of damage on what is left of my lawn – yikes!
My chicken’s love to eat grass and clover over their chicken feed, which is how I like it, but in the city I don’t have enough grass area I guess. The way my chicken’s tear things up I don’t think 5 acres would last….. help!
I tried replanting seed and covering with chicken wire in their area over the summer, but I couldn’t get it to grow. Is there anyway to have green stuff and chickens too?
What can I grow this winter here In Oregon (fast) that I could use to replenish my now mud yard while rotating my girls? They seem to like anything green, but I don’t seem to have a strong green thumb for ground cover.
I also heard there is a breed of chick that doesn’t scratch or dig – do you know anything about this?
A dust bowl for a backyard is in our future if I don’t get help!
Jami Ellis
Oregon
You need to read the book Chicken Tractor by Andy Lee. As you’ve found out, chickens can do quite a job tearing up an area. No, there’s not a breed that will not dig; it’s their nature. Simply put, a chicken tractor is a lightweight pen with a little coop on it that lets you move your girls BEFORE they make your yard bald, effectively rotating them. The coop can be on skids or wheels with handles. I had these many years ago for my purebred chickens, allowing me to keep a rooster and several hens of the same breed together for breeding purebred chicks. I only had to move the coops a few feet, every few days on my lawn. The chickens were happy. I was happy and my lawn didn’t look like a battlefield.
Perennial rye grass, mixed with annual rye grass makes a quick, lush repair to such damage to the lawn. And, probably, when the chickens are removed from the area, the existing vegetation will re-grow to some extent anyway. Good luck and don’t get frustrated. It’ll work out well.
–Jackie
Recipes for milo
I’ve got a local NC farmer who grows milo and is experimenting with having some ground to sell locally. (not your typical NC ag product). He’s looking for some good recipes for using his flour. Got any?
Jenny Wilson
North Carolina
I admire your friend for doing something “different”. Farmers often have to think outside the box, in order to make a success of their farming in such weird times. I know I did; I raised dairy cows back in the old days. But I made much more money out of 3 acres of market garden than I did with the cows. And it was MUCH less work! My sweet corn didn’t demand milking twice a day, nor tons of hay and small grain be put up each summer to support it.
Milo or grain sorghum can be ground and used as flour in many recipes, as well as being fed to livestock. Here are a few recipes for him:
Milo Biscuits
1 c milo flour
1 c wheat flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 T sugar
2 well beaten egg yolks
1/2 c butter or margarine
1/2 c milk
Cream butter, egg yolks, sugar and salt. Mix in flours and baking powder. Add milk enough to make a smooth dough that is not sticky. Knead, then roll out onto a floured board to half an inch thick. Cut into rounds and place on a greased baking sheet, just touching. Bale at 350 degrees until golden on top. If you want a soft top, wipe butter on the tops as you take out of the oven.
Milo Brownies
1 1/4 c wheat flour
1/4 c milo four
1 T baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 c cocoa
3 eggs, beaten
1 1/2 c sugar
1/2 c butter or margarine
Mix dry ingredients, then cut in butter. Add eggs. If it is not moist enough, add a bit of milk. Pour into a greased 8″x8″ cake tin and bake for half an hour. You may add chopped nuts if you desire to make these nutty brownies. Sprinkle with powdered sugar if you’d like.
Milo Cookies
1 1/4 c wheat flour
1/4 c milo flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 c sugar
1/2 c shortening
1/4 c molasses
1 egg
Mix shortening with sugar and salt. Mix in egg. Then mix in dry ingredients. Add 1/2 c chopped nuts or chocolate chips if you’d like. Drop by teaspoonsful onto a greased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees until bottoms are JUST browning; do not over-bake.
–Jackie
Horseradish
I am getting ready to process my horseradish. Can you tell me how much vinegar I put into a pint of processed horseradish?
Jerry Akins
California
Put as much vinegar as you like. Generally, I put just enough to cover the grated horseradish, packed down slightly. It’s a personal thing; folks also add sugar, grated beet or a small amount of beet juice to color it red.
–Jackie
Roger
Yep, here we also call potatoes “spuds”; I don’t know where it got the name, but they’re sold here and in the western states as bark peeling spuds!
Jackie
Hi Jackie, i must admit i have never heard them called a peeling spud. i don’t know if it the same in the USA but here in the UK spud is slang for a potato!
Roger,
We have comfrey too for our chickens and goats. It grows very well here and they love it. Both Will and I have used peeling spuds for larger logs with thicker bark and it does work very well. But we found that on these smaller tamarack logs with stringy, thin bark, the draw knife seems to do the job quicker as the smaller logs are harder to keep in place when using a spud. You can even make a spud out of a piece of old truck spring if you don’t have the cash. Sharpened, they work pretty well.
Jackie
Jackie,
When we lived in South Africa, they used ground milo to make a porridge – think cocoa wheat like – maybe a little finer grind. It’s yummy with a little sugar and butter for breakfast. Wish I could get my hands on some now.
Hi jackie would just like to say you are spot on about chickens. We also plant clover and rye grass as a green manure which we let the chickens go over first before turning it back into the soil. I also have a lot of comfrey which does well here in wet and windy Wales. We feed it to the chickens as well as turning the comfrey in to liquid manure. Would just like to say we really enjoy your column and think you and Will are most remarkable people. On the subject of Will I noticed in one of the photos on logs Will was peeling bark with a drawknife. I bought a bark peeler which is like a spade with a flat sharpened head and it speeds the process up no end. I am sure they must sell them over in the USA as I saw them in Canada a few years ago. Saved my back no end!
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