Chickens for bug control and food recycling.

[Beekissed]

They DID seem to enjoy the blow drying part.....

 

[Nyboy]

I had pigeons and now have parrot, both love bathing. A tub of water was always in pigeon coop just for that. Parrots have a little plastic tub I give them once a week. They bath them selves.

 

[baymule]

Bee, maybe there is more to showing chickens than you realize. Maybe if there had been more of your breed for some real competition, it might have been more interesting. But as the old latin saying goes;

VENI VIDI VICI

I came, I saw, I conquered

 

[Beekissed]

No, I don't think so....it was all the standing around that was the worst. There was simply nothing else to do for hours upon hours while two guys tried to judge hundreds of tiny birds, then many big birds. I could tell my birds were uncomfortable in those small cages, so I worried about them all the while.

Not only that, but there were just no women in this sport....just a bunch of old men and I could tell they didn't like a woman thinking she could compete in the large fowl. I'm an old lady and I'm pretty tuned into nonverbal cues in folks, after 24 yrs of nursing...I could tell it was a good ol' boys club. I've no patience with that level of stupidity in grown ups, so hours upon hours with unfriendly people is not my idea of fun.

The one fella that was asking me about buying my birds, even stating he didn't have any at his place that looked as good as mine, made a snide remark in the conversation about how I seemed to know my birds too well and he thought they must be "pet" birds. Yeah...my wild free rangers who have rarely been handled and have never seen the inside of a cage before this weekend.

I have no time in my life for any and all of that...not even if there were real competition to be had. If that had been the case, they would have probably been even more unfriendly.

 

[ninnymary]

That's sounds just how I feel when I go with my husband to car shows. Sooooooo boring!

Mary

 

[Nyboy]

Mary car shows are never boring

 

[ninnymary]

Mary car shows are never boring

I've learned to take a book along. I don't understand why we have to look at all these cars if we are not buying.

Mary

 

[Nyboy]

window shopping

 

[PennyJo]

I am also thinking I want to take 2 or 3 of my 5
original Barred Rocks putting them in the garden to free range
rid it of pests but not decimate the garden?
I would have to give them a place in the greenhouse as it
would be problematic at night to run them into the main coop
as my pullets will be in the main coup by then

 

[baymule]

Chickens will absolutely destroy your garden in a feeding frenzy that would put a great white shark to shame. @PennyJo if you thinking that they will eat the bugs, yes they will, but they will also help themselves to everything else. Chickens have bad table manners, are greedy, have never heard about Weight Watchers, do not practice selective eating and have never practiced "save some for later" but rather subscribe to the "eat it all now" way of thinking.

I have read about a chicken moat, where a second fence is built around the garden fence, often with a wire top to prevent hawk attacks. This is probably going to be your best bet. You can let them in when you are through for the season and let them enjoy the leftovers and scratch up any larve that might over winter in the soil.