Chicken Garden Project at Backyard Aquaponics

scotty435

Thanks Faye :wave1:

Charlie

Sorry if its on another thread somewhere Faye but what type of quails do you have?

faye

Japanese quails Charlie, do you want some?
Here is the story in full Charlie http://www.backyardfarming.com.au/forum ... =viewtopic

Charlie

We have your everyday Coturnix quails (I think) and we are having issues with lots of eggs but no babies. I read somewhere if the quails you buy from the pet shop have been artificially raised within a incubator they are born without natural instincts and will not lay on the eggs and self incubate. Just not too sure what to do. :dontknow:

faye

We had good success incubating our own eggs, maybe its worth a try.

Charlie

Did you buy an incubator or the old eggs under a heat light thingy? Ive had a look at incubators on the net and they are quite pricey.

faye

We bought an incubator Charlie, but manual turning them a few times a day does take a bit of time. We found it to be a good experience, we learnt to candle eggs amd check them for fertility and it is very cute to raise fluffy little chicks that grow up to lay eggs.

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The butternut pumpkins are producing fruit and trailing the ground amongst the potatoes, the corn is stil very short but looks like it might be thinking about flowering already. The gardens get regular water and an occasion liquid feed. They do look very green for this time of the year.

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The chickens in the back gardens are growing well and are producing eggs daily, the love a feed of cherry tomatoes and Joker has a hard time rounding them all up.

faye

Just another update coming to you from the Backyard Aquaponics display centre in Jandakot, Taa daa!
The trombomcinis are stil going strong

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Well we dug up 4 potato mounds which were trying to break out of the ground, the plants had died back and condisering that we started with 4 potatoes the return from investment is looking pretty good. The haul so far was about 9 litres. We also harvested the first butternut pumpkin and there are many more to come.

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Joker and Brad Pigg

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Todays lunch is a potato stuffed with hommus, cheese and spring onion washed down by carrot, capsicum, watermelon and celery juice fresh and colourful. What a hard life!

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The corn is starting to form cobs.

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There are plenty of butternut pumpkins and they are doing a gret job of keeping the weeds down.

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This is the new vege garden where the chickens started. We have planted collards, radish, carrots, beetroot, kohl rabi, parsley, leeks, okra, beans, jerasulem artichokes, horseradish and yakon. There are lots of tomatoes and lettuce coming up in that area now.

gazza

Nice harvest Faye! Its been a pearler season for pumpkins around here, we have Jarrahdale and kent varieties and have been living on pumkin bread, scones, soup, chips........

Dave Donley

Nice!

So the one plot was just planted, the chickens live in another, what are the other plots up to? They are rotated every three months?

BullwinkleII

Do you pollinate your pumpkins by hand?

I've NEVER had a successful pumpkin even though I've had tons of flowers.

I'm starting to think pumpkins and rock mellons are a myth, and are actually made by Oompa Loompas.

Dave Donley

I was able to grow a pumpkin and several cantalopes in my AP system in 2008, didn't do anything to pollinate them. There are male and female flowers that have to get together from what I remember. They grow well in AP.

OceanJeff38

Thank you for this thread, and I love all the photos! Makes me wish I had a backyard! And I'm off to find a place to buy that has one right now...

later,

jeff c
:geek:

faye

Hi Dave, you can aee the corn, potatoes and pumpkins in one and the other is coming to an end with tromboncinis, zucchini, eggplant and beans which refuse to produce fruit. Might be time to move the chooks in there now which means we could grow a quick manure crop where the chooks are currently before autumn planting

welshdragon

Hi Faye,
The garden is looking really good and the little piggy is growing also!
Just thought I would recommend an automatic digital egg incubator that we have been using very successfully - it is made in Korea -so you should be able get it in Aus.
Its called an R-Com King Suro 20 made by auto elex co.ltd - http://www.autoelex.com It has automatic temperature,humidity and egg turning ! Ideal for busy folk!

Rowena

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