Comments for Greengirls

Comment on Help! My front yard is nekkid! by Jerry

Jerry — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 13:20:05 +0000

Yews will grow back, they can be pruned to bare wood and new growth will fill them back in. That is what makes yews such a great shrub for lazy gardeners that don’t take care of their plants as they should, but the time to hack them back is late winter to early spring before new growth.

Comment on It’s moving day — for chickens by Robyn Dochterman

Robyn Dochterman — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 20:01:42 +0000

Hi Amy. I used guidelines from books for how much space you should provide each chicken. The coop is designed to hold up to 30 chickens (we have 20). But for the actual design of the building, I have Peter Curtis to thank. He’s an architect who designed the remodel of our house last year, so was able to grasp the style I wanted and draw up plans very inexpensively.

Comment on It’s moving day — for chickens by Amy F

Amy F — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 18:45:50 +0000

Wow! How many chickens can it hold? Did you come up with the plans yourself or use ones written up somewhere?

Comment on Mad for morning glories by shruti

shruti — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 18:40:22 +0000

I want a Nelson Heirloom in my garden. Complete with bemused Connie centers.

Comment on It’s moving day — for chickens by Robyn Dochterman

Robyn Dochterman — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 18:19:18 +0000

You know what, Shruti? We’ve got 8 more chicks coming in October. I promise to name one of them after you!

Comment on It’s moving day — for chickens by shruti

shruti — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 17:30:40 +0000

Robyn, this is so exciting! I love the name and the fancy coop! Will you someday name a chicken after me? =)

Comment on It’s moving day — for chickens by Robyn Dochterman

Robyn Dochterman — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 17:20:56 +0000

We do shut the girls in at night and the hatch doors close with two kinds of latches, including a hasp with a carabiner. We leave the upper windows open, but all the windows are protected with hardware cloth to keep out predators. We were going to leave other windows open last night, but I got worried, so we sneaked out about midnight and closed the lower ones. Today, it was a hoot watching the girls come down the ramp to the yard for the first time. It’s so nice to see the chickens do their chicken thing.

Debw, you are a fount of information! Thanks for the explanation of double yolks. It’s a common question and now I have a succinct answer.

Comment on It’s moving day — for chickens by robin

robin — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 17:15:00 +0000

Robyn, boy it sure looks pretty now…give it a year or two of chickens living in it. The you will not even think of it as a possible guest cottage, more like a punishment chamber.

I would also put in a solid border on the bottom fencing, wood or rock. The chickens will dig along the fence line and like Ann says, coons or other animals can slip under.

For protection over the yard, I put up bird netting. If you shut them in at night, you should not have any problems.

For heat in the winter time, I just use my heat bulb that I had used when they were chicks. It seems to do the job. I also take care to order birds that are hardier in the winter time- no frizzles or other fancy birds for me- they will die because of the cold.

Comment on It’s moving day — for chickens by debw

debw — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 17:06:34 +0000

To answer Sarah’s question about the double yolk eggs: when you hold the egg up to a light source you can see a shadow of what is inside ( this is called candling) and can see one yolk, two or if there is a blood spot on the yolk. These eggs are usually from a chicken that is predisposed to twinning and are larger than the other eggs.

Comment on It’s moving day — for chickens by Su

Su — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 15:58:06 +0000

Loved the pictures, and am looking forward to egg pics, too. I assume you shut your ladies in for the night - and doors are latched so the coons can’t open them. You might also consider fencing over the tops of the yards.

Comment on It’s moving day — for chickens by Sandra

Sandra — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 14:45:06 +0000

How will you heat it in the winter?

Remember on Little House on the Prairie, Ma would sell her eggs to Mrs. Olsen and she’d say proudly, “I have 2 dozen today - all double yolks!” and I’ve always wondered how you get double yolks, and how you even know the eggs have double yolks. Answer THAT one, oh Great Chicken Expert!

Comment on It’s moving day — for chickens by Elisabeth

Elisabeth — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 08:13:42 +0000

Raccoons can easily CLIMB chain link fences too. Somewhere I have a picture of one caught in the act. Resourceful little buggers, they are. When I was a kid, our neighbor even caught one hanging from the second floor window screen. Figure that one out! LOL

Comment on Allegedly my greatest gardening thrill ever by gina

gina — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 03:21:52 +0000

I’m gonna have to go with potato thrill too! I planted some in garbage cans and was just about ready to call it a failure and then suddenly there is stuff growing in them. The sweet potato garbage can, too!

Comment on Help! My front yard is nekkid! by gina

gina — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 03:19:58 +0000

rip them out and start over! that’s what I did when the yard guy turned my evergreens to poodles.

Comment on It’s moving day — for chickens by Robyn Dochterman

Robyn Dochterman — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 02:58:07 +0000

Hi Ann. Yup, we have raccoons. In fact, a mama and her three babies comes to clean up our birdseed on the deck every night. I’ve never seen them in the daytime, but I’ll certainly keep my eyes open. Thanks for the reminder.

Comment on It’s moving day — for chickens by Ann

Ann — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 21:58:33 +0000

Robyn,
Do you have raccoons in your neck of the woods? If so, watch your chain link fence, those buggers can slip easily under it and then Coup Deville turns into a Coup de Death.

Comment on It’s moving day — for chickens by Robyn Dochterman

Robyn Dochterman — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 17:09:21 +0000

Thanks for the nice comments! I’m so excited!

Elisabeth, while I was painting the inside of the coop, I started to think it was kind of a shame to give it to the chickens, since it would be a sweet little studio or guesthouse. Alas, we need a place for chickens more than guests (we have a guestroom in the real house). A sign out front would be great, wouldn’t it? I’ll have to look into that.

Sarah, I will definitely take pictures o the first eggs. I’m very eager and curious to see how that goes!

Comment on Mad for morning glories by Elsa

Elsa — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 16:54:56 +0000

Right now I like them, and I’m encouraging them to grow and cover my otherwise unsightly compost heaps (which are just circles of chicken wire). Bad idea?

Comment on It’s moving day — for chickens by sarah d

sarah d — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 16:54:45 +0000

That’s so exciting. I can’t wait till they start laying eggs. Please take pictures of that too. Congrats!

Comment on It’s moving day — for chickens by Elisabeth

Elisabeth — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 16:32:28 +0000

Wow! That’s the fanciest coop I’ve ever seen. Those are some lucky birds.

Are you going to put a little “Coop DeVille” sign on the front? It looks like a little hotel for chickens. Or maybe “Hen Hilton”?