The hens had an outing yesterday.
Owly is the first to head over to the raspberry patch.
It’s looking really good this year. The winter’s heavy snow cover gave the roots a deep soaking this spring.
There are masses of fruit, which are just beginning to blush a hint of red. Owly was disappointed to find that the berries are not yet ripe. Although chickens seem to eat everything, they will leave green fruit on the vine. Or, at least mine do, as there are plenty of other things that are better to forage for.
Owly and her friends are waiting for that moment of bursting red ripeness. As am I. Raspberries are too precious to share with the hens, They won’t be on free-ranging when it’s raspberry harvest season. Enjoy your time out now, girls!
I discuss how to manage chickens and a garden in a lecture that I’ve created for garden clubs. Check my schedule. Many clubs welcome non-members to their programs. I’m already booking into next year. If your club would like to engage me for this talk, contact me.
Terry my hens will not eat the non ripe raspberry or blackberries in my yard either.
Now, how do you keep the robins from getting them first? They sit on the fence and eye them everyday just waiting for them to turn red or black. UGH!!!
Robins aren’t such a problem, but the chipmunks are. No good solution.
Once I thought that my strawberry plants were fruitless duds until I realized the the chickens were squirming their way past my flimsy blockade. Mine eat blackberries and strawberries green. Voracious animals!
The wild birds get my strawberries. I’ve given up.
The last picture makes me think the hens were having an early 4th of July parade.
Always a bit of pomp and circumstance here :)
My Girls will eat anything and everything given half a chance, so we have a compromise. They have the bottom of the garden all year plus in the autumn/winter they also have access to my flower and vegetable beds and a small area of lawn, in spring/summer they have the other side of garden which has more lawn, a hedge line and large shrubbery which gives them lots of shade. The bottom of the garden is spare ground where I plant all the things I can’t throw out but no longer like, my compost bins, their coop and a couple of covered area’s as our winter’s can be very wet. They control my pests very well and I reward them by growing pumpkins and butternut squash for them. Pretty good life I think !!
Lovely to see the Girls out and about, Veronica says follow my lead……:)
Excellent system!
The first picture here is just gorgeous. What is growing up the side of the barn?
That is a climbing hydrangea. It has white blooms all summer, and it also needs pruning all summer or the vines would pry the shingles off of the coop! I love it, though. It has climbing roses intertwined, however over the winter the voles girdled the rose and so it is small and recovering.