Look at that pile of wood chips! Kelly and I have been busy fencing the perimeter of the property to help contain those persnickety chickens. In the process we’ve accumulated piles upon piles of brush. We’ve tried burning the brush. Burning green brush is not fun and the number of times you need to handle the brush before it is burned is at least 4 by my count (1 to cut, 2 onto a wagon, 3 off a wagon, 4 into the fire). You simply cannot build a big enough fire (legally) to burn it in a reasonable amount of time. Chipping the wood is definitely the way to go, before the trees hit the ground you can have them chipped. We have enough wood to chip to run the chipper for a month straight! We picked up a Wallenstein BX42s and it works really well. The chips certainly won’t go to waste, we’ll use the chips for bedding in the coop, a riding trail around the property and in the gardens.
I posted a comment a week or so ago and I noticed it gone. Oh well. Silly cyberspace.
I’m so happy you guys got the chicks. How many chicks/chickens do you have total?
The wood chipper is really cool. Just an FYI- I don’t know if you’re planning on using any of your chipped brush for mulching the garden, but you shouldn’t because it will suck the nitrogen out of the soil and cause a deficiency for the plants.
Yeah, I accidentally deleted a few posts lastnight. I was cleaning up the spam and accidentally selected a page of non spam :/ I’ll need to put a spam filter in or the graphic text so we stop getting so many spam posts. Luckily only people with previously approved posts show up automatically on the blog… the reset I have to sort.
We have 18 layers and 1 rooster from last year. We have 25 meat birds and 16 fancy chicks. I’ll leave the math as an exercise. I suspect we’ll have a few more soon as one of the hens seems to disappear once in awhile and I think she is sitting on eggs somewhere.
Good to know regarding the chips. I recall reading that before that it will lock up the nitrogen.
Wow 60! How many eggs do you average a day? I’m not sure if you need/want them, but I’ve been saving our egg cartons for the next time we have Steve down.
Do you plan to get ducks/geese/turkeys/guinea fowl this year? When will you get your pig?
We are getting about 15 (that we find) everyday from the 18 active layers. We can always use egg cartons
I think we are all fowled out this year. Maybe next year we’ll look at getting some geese ducks or maybe even swans to keep the weeds down in the pond. It would be cool to raise all of our festive meats ourselves, turkey, ham, goose
We still have to find a source for the pigs, ideally we’ll have them before June… which reminds me, I need to make a list of breeders to call. Worst case we pick something up from the Mennonite down the road. I always hear the pigs when we ride past on the horses.
If you use the chip for a garden permeter, that will keep the weeds at bay. Next year, you will have the chip decayed enough (?) to now feed the garden. Wouldn’t the chip be benefical as a topping between the rows, again to control weeds and prevent moisture loss. Just a thought.
I have LOTS of dead/ dying trees around my acreage that I would like to take advantage of other than just camp fire fuel.
I’ll definitely check into the pricing to see if I can put it in the budget. maybe I’ll see if I can rent one….
Just a quick note, I would be sure that IF AND WHEN you run out of the things tofeed the chipper, that Xmas trees and neighbours brush could possibly help pay for the chipper…..
Funny you should mention chipping xmas trees. That was one of the first pieces we chipped
Another good use mentioned to us by a friend is generating chips for smoking meats. He already has a few logs from an apple tree for us to chip