All peaceful in the Hen House!

I followed instructions for the vaseline treatment on Rough Reds scaley leg mite , I do it every second night. Shame the dust and dirt sticks to it so much, her legs are dam ugly now!





It seems to be working she is not picking at them as much now. But a word of warning.. don't wear light coloured or good clothing when you do it, the vaseline does not wash off!!!




As you can see the other girls are still very attractive but Red is not getting any better. In order is - Rough Red, Black Betty (doing her head spasm again) Bindi and The Diva in the foreground. The Diva is the same age and breed as Red, go figure!!

I bought a tin of cat food to help Reds' feathers grow in a hurry. They swooped on it and ate it in record time. I isolated Red for a sneaky feed this morning, I don't want to feed them canned food unless its for a reason, they are free range chooks, not fast food addicts!!
As you can see Red loves her dust bath to help with mites (if she has them) just like the others but it's not helping, I wonder if there is a non chemical way of treating mites, I heard that fire ash is good, it's very fine powder gets close to the skin and mites can't live through it.

Black Betty is still alive and is heaps better, not quite the same old bird though! That red back spider left it's mark I think. She has a spongy swollen crop most of the time, a lot larger than the others but her head spasm is leaving her. She is eating well and laying so she is fairly happy.

Everyone is having problems with growing vegies this summer, even the big supermarkets are having a problelm sourcing them, it's so dry, I planted a lettuce in a pot, it was growing well and was quite crisp, but very attractive to possums!!! I only have half a lettuce now!!

All my seedlings are doing really well, maybe I should just give up the garden and grow pots of vegies for the family, they will either look after them and take an interest or have to spend their hard earned dollars on second rate goods...

I have withdrawn the watering to some beans, I can't look at them when I am down in the garden, I almost feel like apologising! but I can't find any flowers on them and I certainly can't 'up the watering' to produce more flowers so they are the first to go :-(

No rain forcast so I am glad I like pasta, rice noodles and the odd spud I may have to live on them till the rain comes.

Glad I can't eat home grown chickens (too strong tasting) !!! Bet the girls are happy about that too!!! :)

Mixed News!

Good news first! Betty is still alive and clucking but not quite the same after eating that red back spider, she has a funny neck spasm that makes her look rather odd when it happens, maybe nothing to do with the spider just a coincidence?



Poor Rough Red is running around ok now, but not very social with the others (bullying I think) my 'house mate' suggested that if I don't like to isolate her I should isolate the other 3 from her!!!!! he comes out with some little gems sometimes!



I picked Red up this morning and she is very light, losing weight I think will get some cat food tomorrow. A site I was on said it provided extra protein the chooks love it..and it encourages feathers to grow...





A lovely natured horse called Jack has revisited the far back yard. There is no grass anywhere in the paddocks around his home so instead of me mowing whats left of the grass, he gets a few days of feed here and I collect the droppings! I am allergic to horses (and dogs) but if I don't have close contact I can cope for awhile.



Had to order more water for the house this morning. It is supposed to rain in a couple of days but I can't go without my cup of coffee and even the chooks would be offended if I didn't shower till then!!!



The vegies survived but some of the smaller seedlings look a bit sad, maybe it is the hot sun and not the manure, the ground is hotter than 'real soil' I put grass clippings all over it and that helps but I soon move into some shade in the middle of the day so I can imagine how a small seedling feels.



I have a new passion during the hotter parts of the day to keep me busy.. collecting seed from vegies, plants herbs and trees and potting them up in the shade. I am having a lot of success and have given my family boot loads of plants herbs etc in large pots. Even put lettuces in big pots and sent them off....I'll let you know if that was succesfull.

All is not well in the hen house!

OOH Dear... it's a worrying time tonight! Rough Red is feelling poorly, she stands in the middle of the yard with her head tucked in under a wing, but she is eating ok and she laid an egg ...she is a worry....and Black Betty hasn't been herself since she ate the red back spider this morning. But if it was going to poison her she would have 'gone' by now...!
I know I have spoilt them, little treats all day keep them following my heels all the time...they love bread so it's not too hard to please them...but when they try and eat my bread coloured gardening gloves (while my hand is still in them)! and never leave me in peace if I have a sit down I think it's time to discipline them and have a designated feed point!!
I was going to isolate Rough Red but other sites have warned about isolating one chook over the others....they will pick on her when I put her back in...and poor thing she gets pecked all the time...not many feathers left now...but I stand there and stop her getting bullied while she eats...

I had some 4+ year old chook manure stored...I put some on the garden. I wonder if it is still too strong because no rain or weather has been on it...oh well will soon find out! :-)

Ran out of tank water to the house last night! now running on the 'emergency supply' seems weird watching Queensland flooding, with life, property and stock loss, while our little part of the world is supposed to be green and lush...but is dry and dusty.
Rain is forcast in about three days so I will go very gently on the water till then and just maybe get out of buying another load.

Now it has rained....!!

Last time I wrote it was

• windy
• hot
• my tank was dry!

So I gave in and bought water for the vegie garden, so then it rained (Murphys Law)! My mum went halves with me because she enjoys eating homegrown vegetables and the rest of the family appreciate them too, when there is enough edible vegies or herbs to go around.

I am still learning how to cope with very little water and sometimes the lettuces etc look a little sad from lack of the wet stuff...

I have black sandy soil that will not retain water so I am big on composting and mulching, with the worm farm set up on the side you would think my garden was perfect...
not so, there are problems with weeds in the compost soil and more worms in my compost than my worm farm, even with mulch on top of the soil the water just keeps flowing straight through to china!!

My girls (chooks) are free range and fertilise everything - except the compost bin or my garden. They are not allowed to scratch around in there after I had to replant a whole bed of lettuces!

I am not one to give up so I will just keep making compost- minus the weed seeds- and spoil the worms in the worm farm more.
My favourite chook Rough Red, is not getting any prettier, she is the ugliest chook I have seen for a long time, but I love her dearly and she knows it!
I noticed her feet were getting worse, the scales were enlarged and lifting and she seemed to be pecking them, she kept comming up to me to get attention. So I 'Googled' the symptoms and she has scaley leg mite...nasty little mites burrow in and annoy her.
Treatment is easy, I don't go in for really strong chemicals but a smear of vaseline should do the trick, it takes a year for the scales to regrow normally poor thing just as well I don't have a rooster she would be embarrassed about the way she looks!!!!
I'm out of here, off to plant some capsicums
cool cloudy day with misty rain (gardeners favourite)

Free range chooks, home grown vegies what a life!

Here it is nearly two years since my last post and its hard to imagine what my life would have been like if 'plan A' had eventuated. I am still in my original home and will stay here now.Now Chooks, vegies, travel and surviving on tank water all form 'plan B'. My chook family keep me laughing and entertained, my vegies keep me healthy and my tank water woes keep me fit as I run around trying to stay ahead of it all!!!!



Let me introduce 'The Girls' (chooks);

ROUGH RED (bush pig) !! BLACK BETTY

BINDI

and we couldn't forget the DIVA (real name Chickadee)

More about these charactors later, all I will say now is that, it is all well in the Hen House at the moment ...stay tuned though!!



THE VEGIE PATCH is up and running and providing goodies, there's a long way to go to feed the hungry of the world !!! but there has been some amazing produce come out of it. You just don't get that home grown taste from the supermarket. I've picked out a picture for you, of when it looked very lush and healthy on New Years Eve.

A Big Thank You to the Girls for all their assistance too!!! Scraps in one end manure out the other! But best of all organic bug catchers (and they keep the spiders from

running up my trouser legs too) !!!

Temperature- 29C

Wind- gale force

Water storage - empty!