Category Archives: Hobby Farming

Plan on growing your own fruit, nuts and veg? Or perhaps getting a few chooks and goats? Big Farmer Trev gives you the answers you need to produce some first class tucker!

Ask Trev!, Hobby Farming

Ask Trev: Grumpy Silkies Problem

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Today we have another chicken question from Maddy in Melbourne:

 

Dear Trev,

Me again, with more chicken nonsense.

Thank you for the very informative and detailed blog post about goats.

Your initial FB post about capturing goats was never enough of the story for me and I feel quite pleased to now have the full account.

I wish you good fortune on your future goat capturing endeavours.

So anyway as you may know I have overcome the little city kid heartbreak of losing ‘livestock’* (*pets) and have decided that contrary to what a teenage boyfriend once declared to me  (I wish I had never fallen in love with you so I didn’t have to feel this heartbreak at having lost you) I can in fact go on to love again. I’ve recently acquired two new hens and did a great deal of research on breeds and temperaments and so on and so forth.

My last girl standing from my last flock is a wee little thing and has become quite dependent on me in her dotage.

Cut to the chase she has two new pals who are little silkies. They’re much younger than my last posse of backyard hens and seem to actually despise me. They’ve only known a small cage prior to coming to Casa Del Madsy but seem entirely perturbed about that whereas my last girls felt this palatial new digs was simply glorious.

Everything I read about silkies is that they’re lovely friendly hens who will tolerate children and sit on your lap and follow you about.

They have blue ears and extra toes and I’ve ruled out the idea I may have accidentally bought bunny rabbits so why do they hate me?

Will they ever come round?

They grumble at me like old men who’ve been woken from a nap in their favourite chair and the greyish one even pecks me when I put treats in their little run. I have them separated from Ponny still but she seems to be happier just knowing they’re there.

So anyway that’s my question: why do my silkies hate me and will they eventually warm to me?

Is there any more I can do to convince them I’m very nice to animals,

Thanking you in advance,

Subruban Madsy.

 

Thanks for all the chicken questions Maddy, keep’em coming!

 

In regards to why your chickens hate you – they don’t hate you.  They hate humans.

‘What are you staring at you damn dirty hairless apes?’

Think about it, they have been locked in a small cage their entire lives.  Pretty horrible way to spend your existence.  And who put them there?  Were they locked in by other chickens for crimes against poultrykind?  Did they voluntarily lock themselves in the cage due to some kind of chicken-agoraphobia, fearing the idea of the outside world?  Were they involved in some kind of bizarre sado-masochistic erotic chook game (involving feathers no doubt) and simply lost the key to their private sex dungeon?

Nope.  Humans locked them in there.  Filthy stinkin’ humans.

So despite them being usually a very friendly breed, these chookies are probably a bit traumatized. It’s going to take a while for them to adjust and even longer to trust.  It’s not like when Apartheid ended that every black person in South Africa suddenly started trusting white people.  Nope, it’s a long road that that country is still bravely travelling along towards a brighter future.  And so it may be with your new chooks.

 

My advice?

 

Spend as much time as you can as possible in your yard with them, but without interacting.  Take a chair and a book and just sit near their enclosure.  This way they will slowly get used to your presence without feeling threatened or that they are about to be shoved back in a tiny cage at any moment.  We have many wombats on our farm and there is a big old bugger at the moment who has taken to feasting in our front and backyards.  At first every time he saw us he bolted.  Now he couldn’t give a crap if we are there or not as we have never bothered him.  In fact just last night he wandered to within a few meters of our dog, who was lying there idly watching him chew.  We don’t bother him and in return we get a free organic lawnmower!

After the Silkies have gotten used to your presence and seem relatively unfazed by you being around as it has become part of the norm of their lives, then you can try interacting a bit.  Chickens are like children – wary of adults until that adult busts out their favourite treats.  Experiment with a few different things to see what your Silkies like best.  Our ducklings are somewhat wary of us, until we come out with sliced watermelon and then we are likely to trampled in a stampede of webbed feet!  There will be something that your Silkies can’t resist, be it a type of grain, fruit, worms or snails or even just breadcrumbs.  When you find out what that special something is, throw a little of it to them from a distance each day, and each day shrink that distance by a few inches.  In no time at all you will have them pecking around your feet without a care in the world.

Will your chookies ever warm to you to the point they want to sit in your lap?  Hard to say.  If they are young enough they may learn new behavioural patterns but if the distrust of humans is ingrained in them it may be the best you can hope for is them clucking around your feet as you potter in the backyard.  Our Frizzle rooster likes us well enough that sometimes he even sneaks in the porch door, but he never wants to be picked up (unless he’s gotten into a fight with the drake that is, then he will sit in my lap sulkily for an hour while I console him on his loss and tend to his boo-boos).  So don’t take it too much to heart if they never become lap-chooks, though with how fluffy Silkies are I know ya just wanna cuddle’em.

Like a poodle mated with a marshmallow

 

I hope this advice helps Madds.  Remember:

A: Get them used to your presence

B: Find out their favourite treat

C: Slowly lure them a bit closer to you each day until they are comfortable

D: Do not mention Apartheid or eat KFC in their presence and…

E: Remember chickens are like people – sometimes you encounter some grumpy, unsociable bastards where it doesn’t matter what you do.

‘What? I’m funny to you? I make you laugh? Come closer and lets see how much you smile then’

Good luck!  Let us know how things work out in the coming weeks.

Got any other advice for Maddy?  Pop it in the comments section below!

 

Related Articles:

Ask Trev: Chickens – The balance between pets and livestock

Permaculture: Treating Mite Infestations in Chickens

Ask Trev: How to deal with molting chickens

 

 

 

Hobby Farming

Capturing Wild Animals: Feral Goats

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Feral Goats.  Bane of natural forests.

Here in Australia they are classed as an Invasive Animal Species and official pest.  Responsible for financial losses totaling $225 million per year, they cause land degradation and compete with native species for both food and rock shelter.

We’ve had a big pack of feral goats that turn up periodically on our farm from the forest it backs onto.  Except for the odd bit of damage to a boundary fence, it hasn’t been not too much of a nuisance in the past as we currently have no herds of grazing animals.

But now they have discovered our two pet does – twin-sisters Milly and Molly.

Because the Billy’s in particular have such an interest in our two nannies, and indeed twice we have had to go find our goats (who are free range) because they have taken off with the pack, we decided to do something about it.

Not owning a gun, capture was the next best option.  And, especially during a drought, it’s surprisingly easy!  Here is how:

 

Billy Goats are like 18 year old boys

Caught via his own passions

*Its truer than you think.  They smell bad, they’re constantly hungry and they are constantly horny (pun partially intended).  So if you think like a teenage boy then you can lure them in.

*My does are both on heat and have been putting their scent out on the wind.  So we have had all the local feral Billy’s showing up, making it easy to capture one.  First I left the back gate to the does pen open (which I do most days as they free range and come back themselves of an evening).

*Then I made sure there was a salt-lick in their yard and their water trough was full.  During drought goats, like most creatures, are in constant search of water sources.

*I made sure there was some fresh Lucerne in their yard.

*Now think like a teenage boy and think what the scents on the wind are telling the Billy Goat.  They are saying ‘Hey!  You know what?  I know this place we can go!  There is tons to eat!  There is tons to drink!  And there are twin-sisters that are hot to trot big time!’

Look, they even do tabletop dancing!

*So with the promise of free food, free drink and a couple of hotties who are gagging for it, like the 18 year old human male, the Billy Goat cannot resist.  They turn up and quite quickly make their way into the pen.  I’ve caught two 100+kg Billy Goats with this technique this month alone!

 

Capture is easy – containment is hard.

The trouble containing feral goats is that they will throw themselves at the fences, charging full pelt with horns down, trying to escape.  I have enough fencing skill that I’ve put up a few around the farm, but they are certainly not of a professional standard.  The one I built around my goat pen is strong enough to contain our does and proved strong enough to withstand the punishment of a Feral Billy until it gives up and accept its lot in life.  However we encountered a problem…

… a competing Billy Goat.

According to my mother-in-law (I was at work at the time) a white Billy turned up and had a big fight through the fence with the one I had captured.  With two 100+kg Billy’s throwing themselves full force head first at the same part of the fence, it wasn’t long until it gave and the Billy escaped.

Not the fence it once was

However that afternoon he was quickly replaced.  A 3rd Billy (a black one this time) turned up and I was able to catch him using the aforementioned technique.  However as I had only had time to do a slapdash repair on the fence, it was not strong enough and with enough full-force attacks he was able to batter over the damaged fence and escape.

So, hopefully I can get the fence repaired properly before my does go out of heat and try and capture some more.  All I have to do…

…is think like an 18 year old boy.

 

Got any goat-trapping tips yourself?  Pop them in the comments section below!

 

Related Article:

Raising Goats as Pets

Hobby Farming

How to Save a Premature Duckling

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How to Save a Premature Duckling

Though not as popular as chooks, more people are starting to keep ducks.  Some just as pets, some as livestock, or maybe like us to sell the  Organic Free-Range Duck Eggs they produce.  And for anyone that keeps poultry, breeding your birds is great but can lead to problems.

For the most part, mother nature can look after itself.  And I’ve learned the hard way over the years that human interference can often cause more harm than good.  Many’s the time I thought I was helping with the birth of one of our ducks and, through a misguided sense to do good, actually caused the death of a hatching duckling rather than save it.

However sometimes you do need to intervene.  If you are a professional farmer of ducks, chances are you already know all the tricks and even have the right equipment to handle things (incubators and what have you).  However if you are a backyard duck farmer like me, you have to rely on your wits and what is to hand.

 

First off, if the membrane and yolk sac are still intact – do NOT break them!  Chances are there are still blood vessels attached to the duckling.  Just let it keep doing its thing – it can take up to 24 hours for a duckling to emerge.

If the membrane and yolk sac are broken and the duckling seems unable to free itself, just sit tight for a few hours and keep checking on it.  Again, it will probably get itself out.

Now worst case scenario. It’s been hours since the duckling broke through the egg shell, membrane, yolk etc and its still not getting out.  Here is where you may have to intervene.  Chances are it’s premature and it doesn’t have the strength on its own to break out.  At our place this can be a real concern, as we live on a farm rife with tiny ants and I’ve lost more than one duckling to ants pouring into the hole of the shell.  Here is what you do:

 

1: Take tweezers, or use fingers if you cant find any, and very carefully peel away the eggshell a tiny bit at a time.

2: Once the shell is peeled away, you should be presented with a very wet (and if premature quite small) duckling.  As long as it’s breathing then come away.  Being premature it should take longer than usual for them to get on their feet as it will be very weak.  Keep checking back but try and let the mother duck take over.

3: If you come back and the duckling is still lying in relatively the same spot then it’s time to step it up. Once again, on our farm the ants are horrid so sometimes when I come back I’ll find a poor weak duckling unable to move and covered in tiny little sods all chowing down on both duckling and yolk.

4: Take the duckling inside and prepare somewhere warm. If you have the knowhow then you can try to set up a makeshift incubator with a warm light globe and a cardboard box and pop the duckling in. Otherwise body heat is perfect.  Clean the duckling up as best you can, wrap it in a thin towel and cuddle it to your chest.  If there is more than one person in the house then taking turns is a good idea, as you will need to do this for a while and let’s face it, who has a heart cold enough to refuse to cuddle a duckling?

5: Ducklings often don’t eat for the first 24 hours, but sometimes with premature ones they need some extra strength to make it through, especially if they hadn’t absorbed a lot of the egg yolk before hatching. What I have found works best is to start off with sugar water. Simply dissolve a little bit of sugar in room temperature water. Put this in something tiny and low and hold it under the ducklings beak. Hopefully it will drink something and provide it that little energy boost needed to make it through the coming hours.

6: If the duckling has managed to keep down some sugar water, then you can move on to use a similar technique with chick starter (tiny grey granules fed to young poultry).  Grind these granules up even smaller and once again add to room temperature water.     Once again, it may not eat and drink, but if it does the mix will be perfect for providing it that bit of extra nutrition to survive that it missed out on by emerging early.

7: Despite body heat being perfect, when it comes to bedtime do not take the duckling to bed with you, you might roll over and squash it! Instead take some towels and create a little nest in a cardboard box. Place the duckling inside and very gently lay a light tea towel over the nest.  Ducklings sleep under their mothers wings for the first few weeks and this will be a good approximation.  Having a dark, warm and soft place to rest hopefully should lull your duckling in to having a much needed sleep in order to build up its strength.

8: If your duckling is still alive in the morning, chances are it’s going to survive. Keep an eye on it for a few hours to make sure it is making noise, its feathers have fluffed out and it is eating and drinking.  If so, great!  You should have successfully turned your duckling from this:

Saturday Afternoon

To this:

Same duckling – Sunday Afternoon

Congratulations!  You saved a duckling!  Now perhaps the hardest part of all.  You have to give this cute fuzzy little duckling back to its mother.  The sooner you return the duckling the better.  The longer you leave it, the harder it will be to reintegrate it to its family and the more attached it will be to you (and chances are you to it).  But if all goes well, within a week the duckling should have caught up with its siblings in size and strength to the point you wont be able to tell them apart.

Now sit back and enjoy watching the cuteness abound.

Got any other tips for helping a premature duckling?  Or want some extra advice?  Pop it in the comments section below!

 

 

Related Articles:

Permaculture – Treating Mite Infestations in Chickens

 

Hobby Farming, Videos

Video – Cockatoo vs Goanna

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Living on a farm can be fun in a scary kind of way sometimes.  Not all our native creatures are always friendly, and sometimes they really don’t get along with each other, seeing each other as rivals or, more often, dinner.

Two years ago on my old farm I witnessed a Redback Spider killing a Blind Snake (I was later informed by several leading Australian reptile experts it was in fact a Lerista Skink that the spider was chowing down on).  That was quite the sight to see!

Yesterday on our new farm I saw two other native Australian creatures in conflict that I never expected to be enemies.  These were in fact a Sulphur-Crested Cockatoo and a Lace Monitor.

The Monitor, a solid 2 meters in length, had been sniffing around our duck and chook pens looking for some eggy snacks, but when I approached quickly scaled a nearby tree, where he camped for a while.

​But his belly must still have been rumbling because soon he caught the scent of the nest of eggs the Cockatoo had several branches above and decided to slowly sneak his way up for a snack.

This short video shows the Cockatoo taking issue with this.  Whilst not silly enough to attack the Monitor head on, the Cockatoo did its best to ward this raider off.  It did this by shrieking loudly, flaring its wings and crest and attempting to bite the Monitors tail with his beak.  He eventually does a quick fly-by and gives it his best shot.

So enjoy this ‘Battle of the Natives’ in this video: Cockatoo vs Goanna.

 

Related Articles:

Video – Spider kills Snake: Television News Report

Ask Trev!, Hobby Farming

Ask Trev – Chickens: the balance between pet and livestock

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Dear Big Trev,

No vets in Melbourne know anything about hens. Except for one who is two hours away and deals with prize winning pedigrees and expects you will want to spend lots of money doing anything you can to save a crook chook.

The online forums offer some basic advice but it’s so difficult to know what’s wrong with a sad hen.

There seems to be a fairly common theme of ‘cull her’ amongst the more rural hen keepers.

I don’t want to spend a mint taking a vet to the other side of the city for the best bird care in Melbourne but I’m not a ‘better just let her slowly die while I stand about not caring’ kind of chook owner.

So my question is : how do I find the happy medium between livestock and pets when it comes to my backyard hens?

Thanks, Maddy.

 

Well Maddy first off let me say how sorry I am to hear that you’ve been having trouble with the health of your dear Chookies.  I know the extent you go to provide them with excellent shelters, fresh food and medicine so I can confidently say it’s certainly not a lack of effort and caring on your part that this seems to be happening.

A great little pen for a suburban backyard

As you’ve pointed out, in big cities vets hardly work with poultry so don’t know how to deal with them.  Whilst a growing number of people keep a few hens in their backyard, in capital cities it’s primarily cats and dogs the vets deal with and that’s what they train in.  In the country vets tend to know a bit more about chickens, but as you also point out, there tends to be a ‘cull them’ mentality.  Chickens in the country are not birds people generally make emotional attachments to, and given they are not very expensive to replace most farmers will simply kill a crook chook and get rid of it before it has a chance to infect any other of the flock.

So if country vets are out and city vets are out, what does that leave us with?  The specialist vets like the one you have mentioned which is a two-hour drive away.  And indeed yes they deal with the ‘speciality breeds’ that people have mainly for shows.  I was amazed when attending a poultry auction in Bathurst a few months ago how much 3 small Silkies went for – more than I think I’ve spent on my entire flock combined!  In these cases vets feel free to charge a mint as there is a significant financial loss to the owner if they lose a bird.  What help is this to the backyard chook enthusiast? None.

Online forums can be tricky.  I mean, how do you know if the person who wrote what you are reading has any real idea what they are talking about?  Most loonies and know-it-alls end up on the net these days and will happily preach about that which they know little.

 

So back to your main question: how do I find the happy medium between livestock and pets when it comes to my backyard hens?

Ya can’t help but get at least a bit attached to such lovely creatures

It’s really finding the balance that works well for you.  You obviously have great affection for your chookies but not the same kind of love you would have for say a cat or dog.  I relate completely.  And anyone who thinks people don’t get attached to birds at all should have seen how upset my 5-year old son was when a wedge-tailed eagle nearly killed our Frizzle Rooster, poor little bloke was in tears and insisted on sitting with me in the pen while I tended to the rooster and, thankfully, was able to fix it up.  But if we had lost the Rooster, it would not be the same as losing our beloved Burmese Cat or Shetland Sheepdog.

If I may make a recommendation, I would stick with the most common and generic breeds of chicken.  They are usually not expensive, and it also means there is a wealth of information out there regarding any issues that may arise with them.  Also look for hardy breeds, in a big city like Melbourne chickens have to deal with a lot more noise and air pollution than they do in a rural setting and can be subject to greater amounts of stress than they would pecking around on a farm. Don’t go for the biggest chooks, they wont do well in a small yard.  Don’t go for the most prolific layers unless you want to treat them completely as livestock, as they tend to have shorter lifespans.  Don’t go for the fancy breeds unless you want to treat them completely as pets, they tend to be fragile and require a high level of maintenance.  For a happy medium between pet and livestock – common and hardy – that’s the ticket!  This will also stop you suffering too much of a financial loss if a chicken is lost.

By getting breeds that fit these two categories, it will mean you can have a few lovely chookies in your yard that shouldn’t get too sick too often, and you should be able to find information on them fairly easily.  Perhaps invest in a book or two about whatever breeds you select.  If sickness occurs you can always try ringing around various vets – you may at least be able to get some advice and some vets will actually give you a syringe of whatever elixir is needed to take home to treat your poultry yourself.  If no vets are helpful and you need to turn to the net, be selective about what sites you visit and see if several different reputable sites will have a consensus about what might be wrong.  Avoid the chat forums – that’s where all the self-professed experts (i.e. nutters) reside.

 

And sadly, to live in that happy medium between livestock and pets one has to realize that sometimes you will lose a bird no matter what you do.  We’ve lost chickens to heatwaves and hawks, and likewise lost ducks to travel-stress and foxes.  It’s always sad but it’s an inevitable fact of poultry ownership – sometimes the feathery buggers check out no matter what you do.  Between the dangers I just listed your chooks also have to deal with dogs, cats, eagles, lice, mites, fleas, ticks, intestinal worms, diseases and sometimes even each other.  Sometimes I wonder how they survive at all!

 

I hope this advice is of some help to you Maddy, and I hope your dear chookies get well soon.

 

Got any other advice for Maddy?  Pop it in the comments section below.

 

Related Articles:

Permaculture – Treating Mite Infestations in Chickens

Ask Trev: How to deal with molting chickens?

Ask Trev: Chicken Care Questions

 

Hobby Farming

Permaculture – Building a No-Dig garden

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Weeding – truly the bane of the gardeners existence!  They steal the nutrients from the soil meant for your other plants, they grow prickles to sting you, spread fast and frankly are a pain in the posterior!  On my last farm I had a 23m x 7m giant veggie patch and while it went great guns the first few years, I spent the last couple of years managing the weeds more than I grew food for my family.

So here on our new farm I’ve decided we are going to be weed free and to that end I am installing no-dig gardens.  I’ve started with two plots for plants I am transplanting from my old farm that need to get in before spring – Asparagus and Comfrey.  The whole idea of a no-dig garden is exactly how it sounds – no digging!  No digging plots in the soil to plant in and no digging endless weeds out over the years.

Though time consuming, no-dig gardens are simple to create and they save a lot more time in the long run as well as providing a nutrient rich patch ready for planting.  I have outlined the step-by-step process I went through below.

 

Note: This process goes through at minimum 5 layers.  I like to do one layer a day.  This means I can give each particular layer a good soaking which results in the new garden getting a good soaking 5 days straight.  This aids immensely in it breaking down quicker.

 

Step 1: Choose your site.  You can really build a no-dig garden anywhere (even on grass or concrete) but I chose a spot that was dirt and fairly bereft of weeds to begin with.  Then your plants have the option of burrowing further if needed down the line.

And thus we start with an almost barren wasteland

 

Step 2: Cardboard and barriers.

And this is why I hoard cardboard after a move

A lot of people use newspaper but I prefer un-dyed cardboard.  Firstly it is much thicker which means it is much harder for weeds to grow through from below, secondly it will take longer to disintegrate and thirdly there are less dyes and inks to seep into the ground.  Lay your cardboard down in the shape you want your garden to be and then use logs or bricks to make some walls around it.  Soak the cardboard.

 

Step 3: Put down a fairly thick layer of straw.  Lucerne is best and pea straw isn’t bad.  Personally I have acres of stubble so I just mowed a ton of that and stuck it in. Wet it down.

 

Step 4: Put in a layer of fertilizer.

Until I can source some local animal bums I have to go back to store-bought

Chicken  manure is certainly the best as it has all the nutrients a new garden will need.  I like to mix it up a bit with some cow manure as well.  Put down a nice thick layer and once again water.

Make sure you end up covering all of the straw by the end

 

Step 5: A second layer of straw – this time a minimum of 20cm thick, 30 if you have the resources.  Wet the straw down.

 

Step 6: Another layer of fertilizer.

More poop!

At my last farm I had a never-ending supply of fresh animal dung but here I am having to buy it (until my goats and poultry drop enough for my gardening needs) so I went a cheaper route and mixed it with a bunch of potting mix specifically intended for raised garden beds.  Once again water.

150L for $20 – fairly economical

 

Step 7: Let all this break down.  The longer the better.  Personally I only had a week to let mine do so before my asparagus started coming back to life and needed to get into the ground.  But even in that short period you will see the height of your no-dig garden lower as the straw starts to decompose and it will be ready for your plants.

The finished products!

 

And that’s it!  If you would like to add more layers feel free – the more the merrier!  Personally I will be adding some more potting mix around my plants when I put them in and then some straw around that to act as a mulch which will result in 7 layers all up.  But to start off, simply follow the above instructions and you will have some nice new patches ready for planting.  Once again, you can build anywhere you like and the best part is you don’t have to lift a shovel or pull your hair out over weeds down the line – happy gardening!

 

Got any other tips about no-dig gardens?  Would love to read them in the comments section below!

Hobby Farming, Tales of the Trev

A letter of thanks to my former farm

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My dear former farm,

Though I have left you, I want to thank you for all you did for me over the past 6 years.

You taught me many things about caring for the land.  How to put back more than I took out.  The art of growing a tree in the right kind of dirt, the ways of composting and mulching to improve and protect the soil.  The planting of windbreaks, of nut trees, of fruit and vegetables for my family.

 

The necessity of you made me do something that my family had tried in vain to get me to do when I was a younger man – learn to properly use tools.  When you need to constantly build fences and animal enclosures, pirate ships and cubby houses, scarecrows and fire pits it forces you to finally learn how to use drills and circular saws and everything in between.  As for farm equipment, everything from the use of a humble shovel to mastering the subtleties of tractor usage became a daily activity.

 

You provided me the true experience of food.  Just how incredible so many things taste when they are straight out of your garden and grown by your own hand, rather  than having been grown on another continent and then shipped thousands of miles, put in cold storage, handled by dozens of people etc etc.  I never knew just how intense simple things like watermelon or mandarins could taste when it’s so fresh and been grown right!

 

You brought back to me the pride of properly caring for livestock.  To see the ducks growing, the chooks laying and the goats frolicking in their field in their thick winter coats – all given plenty of food, water, space and shelter to keep them at the peak of happiness and health!

 

You reminded me of simple pleasures that I had forgotten from living in the big city for so long.  Things like there is a night sky absolutely full of stars, the joy of swimming in a dam on a hot day or climbing a tall gum tree, the relaxed freedom of rambling around a paddock in a clapped-out ute.

 

You were the first farm that was truly mine.  When standing upon your ground everything felt right, I felt truly at home.  I felt a connection to the land that fellow farmers and country folk can relate to but rarely speak of, something almost spiritual.  Something sadly that your average gardener of city-dweller can never truly understand.  Just like someone cannot truly grasp the feeling of parenthood until they become one, nobody cannot truly grasp what it feels like to stand on the ground of your own farm, feeling the earth beneath your boots and surveying how you have shaped and changed and molded the land around you for the better.

Thank you for everything you taught me and gave me.  And most importantly thank you for giving my two children a safe place to spend their first few years of life – no matter how far away we may go there will always be some Mallee dust in their veins.

 

It broke my heart to leave you, but I know we leave each other better than we found one another and I never forget the life lessons you taught me.  You will always have my thanks and my love.

Ask Trev!, Hobby Farming

Ask Trev: How to deal with molting chickens

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One of my favorite readers is Madds whom I have greatly enjoyed watching grow into a fully-fledged chicken-fancier.  Once again we have an ‘Ask Trev’ question regarding chooks from her – this one regarding the molt:

 

Dear Farmer Trev,
Yep, me again seeking more chook advice please.
My girls are losing all their feathers!
At the start of winter!
They’re grumpy, sensitive and edgy, picking on each other, all off the lay.
The place is bedlam – feathers everywhere!
It has been suggested to me that they are having their first ‘molt’.
Is this a thing? Why are they so grumpy?
Why are hey molting in the cold weather?
What the hell do I do with all these feathers?
How long will it last? What can I do to help them?

Thanks Big Farmer Trev,
You noob chicken pal, Madsy.

Worry not sir – just a routine feather inspection.

Well Madds, I will answer your queries one by one:

It has been suggested to me that they are having their first ‘molt’.  Is this a thing? Why are they so grumpy? The molt is most definitely ‘a thing’.  In Australia chooks tend to molt most often in Autumn between March and May so them losing their feathers near the end of April puts them slap bang in the middle of that window.  As for being grumpy, imagine someone nicking your nice warm coat as you were about to traipse off to work on a blustery cold day – you’d be a bit pissed too!

Why are they molting in the cold weather?  So they can get rid of old feathers and start to grow thick luscious new ones to keep them warm when the really cold weather hits in 6 weeks.  They wont lay eggs during this time as all the protein in their bodies will be geared towards new feather growth rather than egg production.

What the hell do I do with all these feathers?  Sell them to a hippy tribal shop to make dream-catchers out of or perhaps stuff a pillow like my mother used to do with all the shed hair from her Shetland Sheepdog.  Otherwise throw into the compost along with the rest of their straw bedding or simply in the buggers.

How long will it last? What can I do to help them?  How long the molt lasts depends from chook to chook and breed to breed but usually goes for a few months.  What you can do to help them is feed them protein-rich foods.  It takes a helluva lot of protein to grow new feathers so they are going to need a lot right now.  Of course don’t feed them an all-protein diet – they still need variety in their tucker.

The best ways to boost protein for your chooks is by feeding them the following:

*Scrambled egg:  Eggs are a rich source of protein and they will chow down on scrambled eggs in jig time!  Don’t give them raw eggs as that will encourage them to eat their own in the future.

*Starter Feed/Shell grit: As I mentioned in this article, starter feed is great for young chooks before you move them onto laying pellets.  However starter feed/shell grit has more protein in it than laying pellets so it’s ok to move them back to it for a while.

*Some fish: Get a big can of tuna or sardines and pop that in for your chooks – they will go mad for it!  Make sure it’s fish in spring water though, not oil or brine.

*Pumpkin Seeds: I’m loathe to mention this as we all know that pumpkins are a filthy disgusting vegetable that deserve eradication from the planet.  But if you are one of those nutjobs that actually likes pumpkin and cooks it from time to time, scoop out the seeds and throw it to your chickens.  This also has the benefit of making sure those seeds don’t go on to make new pumpkins – bastards of things!

 

A combination of the above should certainly help your chickens start regrowing their feathers in time for winter.  But again, make sure it’s not all you give them.  You don’t want them to have a nothing-but-protein diet as that won’t do them any good either.  But their normal diet with some extra protein added should have them starting to get all feathery and happy again by the time winter hits. Hope this helps Madds my friend!

 

Got any other tips for Madds or other hobby farming questions?  Would love to hear them in the comments section below!

Hobby Farming

Sustainability Tip – Don’t let your green waste go to waste!

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Some Councils are looking at introducing green bins for their residents.  These bins will serve the purpose the same way your current recycle ones do – separating items that can be reused in some fashion rather than it going into the landfill.  In this case, green waste.

That might be fine and dandy if you live in an inner suburb in a major metropolis.  If you live in a house that has a big garden or like me, you have a hobby farm – then why pay to have this valuable stuff to be taken away?  You can use it all yourself – and I do mean all!

 

On my farm I get five main kinds of green waste:

  • Kitchen scraps: Fruit peels, old bread, vegetables my children once again refused to eat at dinner.
  • Garden waste: Plant and bush pruning’s, mowed grass clippings.
  • Wood waste: Fallen branches, tree pruning’s.
  • Weeds: Milk thistle etc from garden beds, bindi-eye and so forth on bare ground.
  • Animal Waste: Not their actual waste, more used straw from bedding.

 

Well all of this can be reused and put to use on your property, so much so that it will can reduce your costs in other areas such as buying compost or animal feed.  Here are the various ways I use all of the above in a Permaculture fashion.

 

Use 1: Compost

mmmm…. composty goodness!

Every good gardener should have some compost heaps.  I will be doing an in-depth look at composting on my blog soon but until then here is a rough guide to what you can and can’t put of your green waste in there.

Yes to:

  • Fruit peelings
  • Vegetable peelings
  • Grass clippings
  • Egg shells
  • Small twigs
  • Soiled straw animal bedding (including all poop, feathers and hair)

No to:

  • Citric fruit (oranges, lemons etc – put them at the base of your trees)
  • Weeds
  • Grass with root systems

 

Use 2: Animal tucker

We don’t need lucerne today – we be fed already!

Different animals will like different foods and what you can reuse depends on the animals you have.  If you own omnivores like pigs you can give them most anything.  Sadly I don’t but here are the animals I do have and what green waste I give them

  • Chickens: My chickens will happily gnaw down on kitchen waste that hasn’t fully been used up. This means things like corn cobs with some kernals still on them, watermelon rinds with some fruit left, half eaten stone fruit and any and all bread scraps.
  • Ducks: My ducks love leafy food so wilted spinach leaves, old silverbeet plants, browning lettuce and so on go to them to fill their tums.
  • Goats: Goats aren’t omnivores but when it comes to plants they are close. To my goats go things like grass (not mowed, it can knot in their stomachs), leafy tree branch pruning’s, most weeds (prickly is fine – ones with actual prickles such as bindi eye and three-corner jacks no) and clippings from bushes such as roses.

 

Use 3: Firewood

I got wood

Those big trees you cut down?  Chop’em up!  Those big branches you cut down?  Strip the smaller stuff off them and cut into the sizes you need.  Come next winter you wont by buying a single bag of kindling because you will have all you need!  Of course, if you own a woodchipper (which sadly I don’t) you can always turn your wood into mulch.

 

Step 4: Bonfire

Great for both your garden and to drink beer around

All other green waste that you can’t use in the previous three ways put on your bonfire pit.  Whats that you say?  Burning them is bad?!  It releases smoke into the atmosphere?  Well it’s a trade off.  Yes you are releasing a bit of smoke but its smoke from plants, not harsh chemical smoke.  And instead of all that otherwise unusable green waste going into landfill you are burning it off and getting something great in return – ash!  Ash is awesome stuff! All compost heaps love a bit of ash!  You can brush ash onto your plants to get rid of small bugs and onto your chooks to get rid of mites.  And all that leftover ash can go around the bases of your trees – they will love you for it!

 

So don’t let your green waste go to waste.  It’s just too useful in too many ways.  Do yourself and the environment a favor. It’s truly a case of – if done correctly – everyone wins!

Hobby Farming

Sustainability Tip: Get your mulch for free – from the tip!

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Mulch – wonderful stuff!  Serves three main purposes around your garden:

  • It keeps the moisture in the ground by preventing direct sunlight hitting the soil
  • It helps to prevent weeds growing by covering bare earth
  • It beautifies an area by putting down a layer of woodchips rather than looking at either the ground or weed matting

And of course you can pick mulch up most anywhere.  If you have a tiny garden, then maybe it’s economically feasible to just grab a bag or two at Bunnings or your local garden center.  But what if you have a big garden, or even like me a hobby farm?  Suddenly a few bucks a bag doesn’t seem so cheap when you would need about 50 of them!

Well, good news!  There is a place you can go where you can not only get as much mulch as you want for free, but you will be helping the environment by doing so.  That place is your local tip.

The majority of tips practice recycling in a big way.  Our local one has bays where you can drop of cardboard for free, aluminum and glass for free and has some absolutely huge bays for green waste which can be dropped off for a relatively modest fee.

What happens to all that green waste?  Well all the wood and huge tree branches get taken out, put through giant chippers and become great big hills.  And in order to keep those hills from becoming mountains, the majority of tips will let you come and take as much as you like for nothing!

 

So here are some tips for using the… er…. tip.

You will need:

  • A ute or trailer
  • A pitchfork
  • A tarp and rope

When you go there the staff will direct you where to go.  When you reach the mulch hills you need to look for the freshest looking piles.   Because some of these piles sit there for so long in the elements, they might seem fine on top but dig underneath even a few inches and what you will find what was once mulch has turned to compost.  Usually this will be a black or dark grey colour and will smell pretty pungent.  You do not want this stuff.  It’s useless as mulch, lacks the nutrients of regular compost and all it will achieve in your garden is to make it ugly and smelly.  So look for the freshest heaps.  Even these heaps will probably have been poured upon older heaps so as soon as you get deep enough that you hit the grey and smelly stuff, move to the next area.

Magnificent Mulch!

After you have loaded up your ute or trailer with mulch using your pitchfork (shovels are useless for mulch) make sure you tie a tarp over the top.  Most councils will fine you if you have stuff flying out the back and it will defeat the purpose of getting it for free if you subsequently get pulled up by a copper and get handed a massive fine.

Once you get it home, how you use it is up to you.  To stop weeds you usually want your mulch to be at least an inch or two thick on the ground.  Make sure when placing it around plants you leave a bit of space around the base of each plant or the trunk of each tree.  It allows the soil at the base of the plant to breathe and otherwise when your mulch eventually does rot it will be rotting against your plant.  This could cause damage to your plants or even kill them.  But used properly, mulch can turn an area of your garden from this:

 

Ew!

To this!

Ah!

So take the tip and get your mulch from the tip.  You are helping the environment from doing so by using mulch that would otherwise rot and eventually go in to the landfill and more importantly you will be getting as much mulch as you want, for free!

 

Got any other mulching tips?  Would love to read them in the comments section below!