Hi, Andrew here,
Happy Summer Solstice.
Happy Christmas if we don't post before then.
The lunar eclipse was clouded over so we couldn't see it but still, pretty cool having it on the solstice.
We have a couple of visiting chickens for the holidays. I missed having chickens.
I'm not sure if people are aware enough of the awesome usefulness of chickens.
Most think of them only as they lay eggs. Which is probably their main job.
But they also eat everything green they can get to. This is usually looked at as a problem. But it just means fencing them in to destroy what you want. I know of no faster way to clear grass to a new garden bed. They are fantastic weeders, you just need to a little fenced 'tractor' area.
Not only tractoring but compost processing. Pile grass clippings from mowing and weeds in their pen. They eat them, spread them, eat seeds, poop on it. You take that flooring out with each change and dump on the compost bin and it vastly speeds the breakdown. Chook poo plus worms I find a fast, easy way to process compost.
While I wax lyrical about pet poultry. Ducks are cool too. Frankly their main job is being comedians but they do lay eggs, about 1 per 3 days, not as quick as isa browns admitedly but they do throughout the year more consistently than chooks.
A famous permy proverb is "You don't have a snail problem, you have a duck deficiency." With the recent mad December summer rain there has been a snail explosion. Which the ducks and I are finding great fun.
Every morning walk to let the ducks out I go past garden beds and berry bushes. I pick off a few snails and put them on the ducks breakfast. Rather than going 'eww' when I see a snail when I move a pot I throw them to the ducks and they compete racing for it. Or if they've had too many for the day (a concept they don't believe) it goes into the duck's snail bucket.
Of course they also go for ducky adventures and eat the water lilies but you can't have everything.
