Garden (Page 4)

Radish seeds going in the ground Saturday.

"bird flu cases reported in 2 poultry farms in Kerala"

I'm just trying to help you guys out.  I have no idea where or what Kerala is, and I don't care.  But if your chickens free range themselves over there you could have some trouble. 

You're welcome.

I'm glad to see the garden thread active again!  I'm excited about this year especially.  5 different varieties of potatoes, heirloom tomatoes (4 varieties), will have at least 2 other varieties of 'maters, eggplants, cukes, multiple varieties of peppers, squash.  Brand new for this year will be 6 blueberry bushes, 2 early, 2 mid, and 2 late to ensure a summer of berries!  Also new for this year will be a coldframe in which to grow microgreens, salad lettuce, and to start plants next year.

I will also continue to expand my butterfly/pollinator area.

I've long been wishing I could get a few chickens.  I think I'm allowed 3 per town zoning guidelines.  How messy is the poop, etc.  of 3 chickens?  How hard are they to maintain/keep?

Edit:  I don't see any quantity limitations in the zoning ordinances, all they care about is distance of pens from roads/dwellings, height of pen floors from the ground, and how often they get cleaned.

Most of their poops are pretty solid, don't smell, and are easy to pick up in the yard with a dog pooper scooper. But about every 10th poop is something else, runny and smells awful. Inside the coop, you just need to rake it all out once or twice a week and occasionally mix in some fresh bedding. You can throw a board under their roost to catch the poop.  

They're super easy to keep. A bucket of feed and clean water is all they need. They can eat a lot of your kitchen scraps, and they put themselves to bed every night when the sun is setting. Biggest trouble I ever had was keeping predators out of the coop. It needs to be open enough for to allow for some ventilation, and raccoons seem to find any little gap you don't close up tight with chicken wire. 

They spend a lot of the day scratching the ground looking for insects. They can tear up a yard a little bit if they don't have a big area to spread out in, but you'll never have ants again.