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I have withdrawn the watering to some beans, I can't look at them when I am down in the garden, I almost feel like apologising!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!!! :)

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)