I got some pond weed and put it in one of the white chickens water bowls to see if they might eat the weed as extra nutrition.
Every experiment needs a control. And the chickens preferred the control. The green water was roundly rejected. the clean water was drunk up.
The white chickens preferred the control. Ah well. Good to know.
Do you see that nasty green pipe?
As well as hanging net around and about to deter hunting birds, I have set up lots of bolt holes for the chicks. So they can hide. When they see a hawk they take cover so I am going with nature and creating cover. (Though these fat chickens would be a heavy lift for most self respecting hawks at this stage).
Anyway, (keeping the ugly pipe in mind), after finishing in town last night I drove through the rain back to the farm then I went to check the chickens on my way to bed and seven chicks had stuffed themselves in the ugly pipe, presumably because of the rain. It was the dark night by then. So I just picked the whole thing up, walked to their quarters, upended it and poured them back into their house. They all slid out like kids on the slide in a playground!
Small things amuse farmers!
How very quickly my barn yard becomes abandoned looking.
Lots to do.
I am looking for the perfect image to place at the top of our new TKG front page.
Do you have any favourites from past posts?
An image needs to tell a story. And our header image needs to have the barn in it – I think. That’s about as far as I have got.
I feel I am coming back to the land of the living.
Have a gorgeous day.
Celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
14 responses to “Green Waters”
I love the visual of you pouring the chicks out of the drain pipe. Glad you are feeling better
Yes! I have had a great few days and the MiL is still improving. What a relief!
Pond weed is full of protein and in some places humans eat duck weed, along with ducks. I wonder if the chicks would eat it dried, though that seems like a lot of work. You can compost it.
They are still avoiding it. I am wondering if they have an inbuilt aversion to dirty water.
True, ducks love it (dirty water), but they probably have immunity to it.
Yes, the barn in the header picture is important and a pig or two as well! Maybe even Mr. Flowers and Quackers and a few chickens as well, with a cow or two looking on from the pasture. But to get the whole gang together to pose for the picture may be problematic!
So happy to read that MiL is improving and that you are spending more time at home!
I will keep creating images until I get the one that is perfect. Just imagine if I could line them all up like that! 😂
My chickens used to love duck weed, but I would fish a big wad out with a stick and give it to them in a pile, not in water. Then we got ducks and we no longer have any duck weed.
I think the dirty water is what they don’t like, just drain off the water and through it in the ground and they’ll likely eat it too!
Yes/ interesting though right. The ducks love it and the layers too but not the meat chickens.
Does it need to be a photo of the barn, or the sea? Just a thought.
No one seems to be buying the pond weed)
Where did you get the duckweed? I think my ducks would love it. My chickens seem to have no aversion to muddy water … part of the challenge of living with ducks in the same paddock. I do keep separate water bowls for them in their coop. But I think sometimes they consider that too far away to walk to!
My chooks will eat azolla, which is the red pond weed (don’t know if you get it there). But only if it’s dumped out onto the ground, not in water. I can see ducks dibbling for it in water, but chickens like to scratch up their food, don’t they? Perhaps dry weed is the answer.