Fall is here. The
calendar tells me this. And if I didn’t
have a calendar, I could just step out the door. The maple trees have peaked. Their leaves are a solid red and yellow and are
falling continuously like colorful snow.
And while the leaves are falling in the woods, the feathers are falling
unabated in the coop as the fall molt I talked about in Tuesday’s post continues.
One of the projects I work on this time of year is my on-going battle with buckthorn, an invasive alien plant. Buckthorn was first brought here from Europe
in the mid-1800’s for use as a hedge plant.
Buckthorn makes a great hedge because of its long thorns, its ability to
form an impenetrable barrier and its ability to grow prolifically almost
anywhere. It has become a terrible
scourge because of its long thorns, its ability to form an impenetrable barrier
and its ability to grow practically anywhere.
Once it becomes established, it outcompetes practically everything so no
other plants grow and eventually you have a forest of buckthorn. And it’s so thick and prickly that nothing
can get through it—it isn’t even suitable for wildlife habitat. You know the thick enchanted forest that grew
around the castle in Sleeping Beauty? I
think that probably was buckthorn.
Here on the ranch, I’ve managed to keep buckthorn completely under
control on part of the property. There
are other parts where it’s partially controlled—all the remaining plants are
small, far apart, and periodically rooted out.
Then there are about three acres of wasteland—oak forest above with an
under-story of solid buckthorn hell. I’m
in my second year of full retirement and during the last two falls I have laid siege
to the wasteland. It is a battle. This is essentially a three-acre hedge—the buckthorn
plants are spaced, for the most part, less than a foot apart. And the big ones have grown way beyond hedge
size—some are 25-30 feet high. These are
literally buckthorn trees! There’s no way these monsters can be pulled
by hand, but my trusty John Deere handles them.
So with tractor, brush cutter, chainsaw, and the sparing use of
herbicide, I’m making progress. And it’s
not unpleasant work. Eradicating
invasive plants has the aura of important and meaningful work. And it’s the sort of work where I can
clearly see the progress I’ve made. Plus
it’s just pleasant to be in the woods this time of year. Today there was a flock of hundreds if not
thousands of migrating robins poking through the underbrush to keep me company while I
worked.
It's hard to see the trees for the forest, but this is all buckthorn |
My trusty John Deere sits in a cleared area of the buckthorn thicket - This 25 ft. tall beauty is on the way to the brush pile |
Another project that’s underway is the building of a new hen
pen. The chickens in the two coops take
turns, every other day, going into the half-acre chicken run. On the days that they’re not in the big
chicken run, the 15 chickens in the big coop spend their outdoor time in the 450
square foot hen pen. When the 9 chickens
in the small coop aren’t in the big chicken run, the outdoor space they have to hang out in is the 16
square foot “chicken patio”. That space
was fine when it was just Snowball, Emily, and Angitou. But then Courtney came along, and then her
four surrogate Legbar babies grew to adulthood, and then Willow the buff
Orpington was having interpersonal issues in the big coop and got moved to the
small coop, and suddenly the outdoor space that was OK for three small chickens
is embarrassingly inadequate for nine birds.
So I’ve finally got started on building them their own outdoor hen pen. It’s going in along the side of the pole barn,
and since it’s at the base of a steep hill, the first thing I had to do was
excavate some dirt to make a level space.
Next I need to put up a retaining wall and haul in some class five
gravel. Only then can the fence go up. The leaves are falling. Will this project be done before the snow
falls? Stay tuned.
On to the chicken news:
They are all healthy now, thank goodness! But there have been a couple of weird traumas
this past week. On Wednesday, when I was
cleaning the coop I noticed that some of the bedding under the roost was
bloody. Then when I looked carefully at
the roost itself, I noticed a fair amount of blood smeared on the rungs of the
roost—a disturbing situation to say the least.
With all the molting that's going on, I expected that the blood would be from bleeding pin feathers. Pin feathers have a copious blood supply bringing nutrients to the forming feathers and they can become injured quite easily. I gave the chickens a once over and didn't see damaged pin feathers or any other sort of injury. They all seemed fine. It took until bedtime for me to figure out
that the blood was coming from a deep cut on the toe of Carmen Maranda the
cuckoo Marans hen, and that it was still oozing blood. On closer examination I saw that not only was
there a deep cut on top of the back toe on her left foot, but that the toenail
was completely cut off. I decided to
wait until morning before taking any action. And in the morning a good solid scab had formed and it looked like it was on a positive track to healing. And so far there’s no sign of infection.
Since chickens spend their lives scratching in the dirt, they’ve evolved
a pretty robust immune system, and as Carmen demonstrated in this situation,
often an injury or abrasion such as this doesn’t need any outside interference,
but will do just fine if left alone. The
question that remains is how she got cut in the first place. Some random piece of glass or other sharp
object buried in the run? It’s a
half-acre run, but I’ll keep my eyes open.
Carmen Maranda the cuckoo Marans hen: Wounded, but walking |
The other bizarre chicken run
situation happened yesterday. The run is
enclosed with a four-foot high wire fence topped by an additional four feet of
netting. On my way to the coop for my
post-lunch check-in with the chickens (aka “the chick-in”) I saw the alarming
sight of a chicken hanging from the fence.
It was Nicky the Cream Legbar pullet.
Somehow she must have flown right at
the fence and gotten herself tangled up in the netting. The netting had sagged a little under her weight, so she was being
supported somewhat by the netting “pocket” that her body had formed—but mostly
she was hanging by her leg. I quickly
grabbed her and the netting and set her free.
She is fine. The netting,
unfortunately, needed some splicing. No
chicken has ever done this
before. Was this a learning experience
for Nicky? Time will tell.
Nicky the Cream Legbar pullet: Sadder but Wiser?? |
As much as I dislike buckthorn, it is very satisfying to clean it out. I like to refer to it as waging jihad on buckthorn. Hard on the chainsaw and brush cutter blades though. The Stihl dealership on University in St. Paul does a nice job of sharpening. Rick Meierotto has made some things out of buckthorn wood. Its an unusual orangish color.
ReplyDeleteI've never thought of the possibility of making anything out of buckthorn. Mine all just goes onto the brush pile and eventually gets burned. I can only hope that somehow society at large decides that items made from buckthorn are the pinnacle of decorative art and should be highly prized - then maybe people will pay me to haul it away.
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