Pest Control

Today, I was still recovering from some miserable bug I got on Friday. Some kind of a food poisoning with stomach cramps galore.... had me sleeping on the bathroom floor. We've all been through this. I felt a little better on Saturday, but without coffee and my favorite addiction Diet Pepsi, I crashed. So, now I am going to try to kick the Pepsi habit. Not coffee though there are too many good things in coffee to drop it.

Anyway, I was re-hanging a sagging gate, fixing a dutch door on my shed and some neighbors stopped by; Dad and two of his three boys. Dad is a botanist with a minor in entomology. He walked through the garden and mentioned how chicken manure is probably the best fertilizer out there, along with rabbit dooky, and then talked about a terrible problem we are having with a moth in the State of California, which orginated in Australia and doing some significant damage out here. He is a super mellow guy with the disposition of a scientist crossed with Fred Rogers. So why am I telling you this? He told me about the coolest sight for us "types"

http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/

Here it is.. managed by UC Davis, it has an answer for nearly any question you might have on pests. Now, it is regional in nature and I am sure other colleges may have similar sites, but this will give you a huge head start on managing your pests and encourage you to seek similar information from your local "Go-To" University.

Check out this site, well worth the perusal.

Creepy...

Besides the fact our chickens have been free to roam the garden since 8 am ( it is now close to 11), they have eaten every spider along "Spooky" fence there is. Yes, we have one of those. You know, the fence that is slightly rotten on the bottom and has spider webs everywhere. Well one of the chickens pulled out a Woolly Mammoth of spiders. It was the size of the chicken. They all wrestled for it ultimately tearing the spider from limb to limb and devouring it in no-time at all. While this a creepy, nothing compares to this...

http://www.duncraft.com/Feeders-Houses-Baths-Foods-W117C202.aspx?gclid=CPvt8aeLupsCFRFMagodmhgHAA

Why do we insist on having talking Avatars, are people too creepy? Too expensive? Too large a file? I think this is Animatronic hell. "Hi buy my bird feeders and they will attract pterodactyls and then you won't sleep cause you'll be thinking about my talking head" ( you need to read this with one tone and a little herky-jerky). Why do people think this is cool? Let's think of the market. Outdoorsy people, farmer-like, gardners, possibly older.... 35+ Do we (me included) think this is a sell?

Anyway, I think my point is... chickens are incredible pest control. I have read where farms no longer have flea problems due to chickens...really this is all too cool. Manure, pest control, food and fun. My Aussie is fun, but leaves a lot of poopy to haul, that is worthless and sheds everywhere. Thank goodness he is scary, cause it keeps the creepy door to door sales people from peddling their $100 a pint citrus colon cleanser.

In The Garden

Those of you who are new to this blog, don't know I have chickens too. Here is a picture of the chickens in garden. They ate bugs, weeds and pooped in the garden.. who cool is this?

So, here - they are free and are acting like Tom Hanks upon returning from his Island Experience, in Castaway, accept they don't appear nervous, pensive or sad because their Rooster married someone else and now have a chick. Anyway, they are happy and eating every bug in the yard, plus they are eating weeds!!!! How cool is this, natural weed control?
Interesting thing happened - they got startled by another bird... Blue Jay and they all hid under the corn and layed perfectly still. I thought they all died at once. With Jacko, Farrah, Ed, Fred Travalena and Billy Mays dieing, maybe the awful trend hit my chicks!!!!
More to come