But Wait . . . There's More!

For those of you following the saga of the chicken tractor -- two updates. John added upstairs ventilation as the weather is so warm. These plywood and chicken wire panels replace the solid ones of the original design (which, being English, didn't have to worry about the kind of heat we're having.) It also lets a bit of light into the upstairs which we had hoped would encourage the chicks to put themselves to bed when dusk came, as is (or should be) their natural roosting behavior.

Only it didn't. They didn't. We tried putting them up there several times after dark but it was always the same -- the next night they would just pile up in a heap on the grass at one end of the tractor. So we decided to put three of the older hens in the tractor and the babies in the old chicken coop. (Susan B. had worried about the chickens having room to move and I can say that three full grown hens seem just fine. I think we could add one or two more -- but probably not the rooster because he's so tall.)

The plan is to keep these three girls on the garden tier till they scratch down to bare dirt. We'll see how long it takes them to 'till' up the dirt -- then we'll move the tractor.

The biddies, meanwhile, are having a ball exploring the chicken yard. But last night they just piled up in a heap outside and we had to go down and put them in the chicken house.

I hope they get the hang of this pretty soon.

But wait . . . there's more. Down in the garden this morning, after picking beans and corn, I decided to pull a few weeds out of the asparagus bed. Halfway through, I got to a very overgrown bit where morning glory vines were making a jungle. I stuck my hand into the midst of the the vines and leaves, ready to pull them up, and out shot a snake. I leaped backward, letting out the sort of straight-from-the-gut primal scream that it would probably take thousands of dollars and years of therapy to achieve.

It was a good-sized copperhead on top of the rock wall, lying there and staring at me. If I'd had a hoe, I would have tried to kill him -- I'd have felt bad about it, especially since he had been kind enough not to bite me, but I would much prefer no copperheads in the garden.

But since I didn't have a hoe, I reached for my camera. Unfortunately, as soon as I did that, the snake slid back into the morning glory jungle. Morning glories which, I suspect, are going to be left to achieve their full potential.

Chicken Tractor

The chicks have moved (well, been moved, squawking and protesting) into their fancy new chicken tractor, built by my husband John. In the UK it's called a chicken ark and we first saw one in the side garden of a Stately Home (to which we had paid admission) in the Cotswolds a few years ago. We were entranced; John took pictures and we thought someday . . .

It's an elegant system for keeping chickens out of trouble and on green grass. They peck and scratch, eat bugs and green stuff, leave their droppings, and when the grassy spot has been thoroughly worked over, you move the tractor to another spot. (I have a tier in the garden where fat bugs of some sort -- maybe sowbugs -- have wiped out my squash and I'd love to put these biddies there.)

There's chick food and water and at night they can trundle up the ramp to the sleeping quarters (I've removed a panel so you can see) where there's a roost awaiting them. There are also nest boxes at either end when they get old enough to lay.

The chicks are happy to be out of the box and in more natural surroundings and Ali Ali seems to have decided that he's a chicken guard -- he's run off the other dogs when they've tried to investigate.

We still have the chicken house and the five old hens and Gregory Peck, the rooster. As these young pullets reach full size, we'll move some to the chicken yard -- 6 t0 8 is probably maximum capacity for the chicken tractor.

If you're interested in backyard chickens, this is a great solution. More and more communities are allowing chickens in backyards (not roosters, however.) There are any number of websites with plans and advice on chicken tractors. We even found a site where we could buy one just like the one we saw at the Stately Home -- for the stately price of about $1500 -- plus shipping from the UK.

This one looks just the same (John found the plans on the Internet), cost about $150 in materials (including the feeder and waterer), and features some small improvements. It's a lot fancier than it needs to be (here's a cheaper easier one) -- you can find plans for building a perfectly nice chicken tractor using recycled pallets -- but what a lovely addition to the garden of our stately home!