Trace Oswald

Christopher Weeks wrote:I'd be inclined to put down rings of fence and plant radishes, moving and repeating maybe three times per season. But your run has to have enough room built into it to handle losing the space.

I might try that with mangel beets.  It would be great if they would grow to some huge size for the chickens and to break up the pan.

Josh Hoffman wrote:

Jay Angler wrote: I use a garden fork

Based on reading this thread, I got one of the bully tools all steel garden forks. I had been using a pitch fork to turn the hard pan areas of the chicken area. It is 2x as fast as a pitch fork. I have also been using it in the garden.

It is a great investment.

I have that fork as well, and that's what I use for the chicken run hardpan issue.  My broadfork goes too deep for doing it, the garden fork is just right.

Mosquitoes are the only things thriving here right now.

Hey Ryan.  It's a lot easier than you might think.  You can save the eggs on your kitchen counter for a week if you like and then incubate all of them at once.  Just keep them at room temperature until you are ready to put them in an incubator.  If you only want one chick, you can just incubate one egg if you like if course.  You are going to get some roosters, and some eggs may not hatch, so I would recommend doing at least 4 or 6.    

We live in a very rural area in the very middle of 80 acres of forest land.  Our well is, if I remember correctly, 285 feet.  I don't worry at all about our water quality.  I just figure Mother Earth filtered it for me.

I can look at a Salvador Dali for an hour easily.  Something I'm not interested in?  I'm like Burra...

Abubakar Nazir wrote:I’d recommend the ELEY Drinking Water Safe Garden Hose—it’s lead-free, has no plastic taste or odor, and is built to handle extreme heat like you get in SoCal. It’s durable, kink-resistant, and backed by a 10-year warranty, making it a top choice for safe, clean water and long-term use.

Those look like very good hoses, but wow are they expensive.  $187.39 on sale for a 100' hose.  

Has anyone tried Oboz hiking shoes?  I just got a pair and haven't had them long enough to do more than try them on, but the feel is excellent and the quality appears to be, as much as I can tell without really putting them through their paces.  Just wondering if anyone has had any experience with them.  The style I bought:

That's a great build.  Sorry I missed it the first time around.  I could live in that building for quite a while.

Timothy Norton wrote:This however runs the risk of having them aggressive against domestic dogs if not carefully introduced.

While I'm certain there are exceptions to this, as to nearly everything, donkeys and mules in general HATE dogs.  Depending on the donkey, I'm not sure if even the best introduction would make a difference, so for anyone trying this, please, for the sake of the dog, do this very carefully.  

As others have said, if the donkey and the chickens are kept in the same area, I would expect that the donkeys would do an excellent job against stray dogs.