Happy Birthday! Have some Compost!
Compost - for ME?
The chicks are 5 weeks old today. They are old enough and it is warm enough (it was over 85 degrees today!) that they can spend some time outside. Since they will be moving outside within just a couple weeks it is a good idea to get them used to an environment other than the warm, confined brooder.
We took them out a couple days ago and let them run around the pen that is attached to the (still-in-progress) coop…and they were absolutely terrified of the wind! This afternoon I put them in the compost bin, which they LOVED.
The Compost Bin
Since they were finding all kinds of interesting things to eat, rotten vegetables and bugs I think, I also sprinkled some grit on top of the compost. They still eat mainly chick feed with some occasional yogurt. Since chicken digestive tracts depend on grit (really, that is just tiny bits of gravel) I didn’t want to take a chance that they’d make themselves sick. Apparently the desire to swallow rocks is instinctive – they went right to it. Easier than baking them a birthday cake I suppose.
Americaunas
Wyandotte
Buckeye
Thanks for the tour from the Louisville folks. Everything you’re doing looks great, and I really like the use of the natural material and the cane. It was great of you to take time out of your busy weekend to share with us.
p.s. I just started keeping chickens last year and find they are a hoot. They will also eat almost anything. Unfortunately, I can’t let mine run, but have them in a large enclosure and find myself digging and pulling treats for them all the time. They love some of my most common lawn weeds, and go CRAZY over comfrey. I’ve heard stories that they’ll eat small rodents too, if they can catch them. I truly believe they’re the closet thing to a dinosaur alive on earth today.
Keep up the good work!!
Ray
We were so glad you all came down to tour the ecovillage…and could actually see value in the mess that is our backyard (I guess ‘work in progress’ maybe sounds better than mess but it’s pretty much the same thing right now). We’d love to hear more about what’s happening in Louisville as time goes on!
I’ve heard that buckeyes specifically are rodent-killers. Pretty crazy to imagine a chicken going after a mouse but I’d love to see it! I have heard that there are wild ferrets in our neighborhood (probably abandoned pets) and they gladly kill chickens so hopefully the buckeyes will be able to take them out if the need arises!
The peeps look like hens now! How cute they are, and how fortunate for them to get a compost birthday cake.