We love our fig trees to get the best, and we also want the best eggs in the world, so take a peek at this!  Poor JD is wondering where were gonna put this huge stack!  He'll figure it out!  He's an engineer! :-))

Great info DesertDance. We're planning on chickens later this year and the composting benefits make them even more appealing.

Back in the Rockaways of Queens on top of Apartment buildings, they would raise pigeons.  We would get buckets of it to bring home for the garden.  But that stuff was hot!

I can't wait to get some chickens. Probably 5 years down the road though.

Similar thought. There is a crop x chicken rotation idea where you divide a plot of land in half and have the chicken coop in the middle. One side has the veggies, the other side has the chickens. Then next year, swap. The chickens eat down all the crop remnants, scratch up the dirt, and deposit fertilizers into the earth. On the other side is the crop, where the chickens had free reign of the previous year, making the earth nice and fertile for your crops. Every year - swap!

Rabbit pellets are good for the garden too. I have a rabbit and my garden loves his deposits ;)

OMG!  YOU are the King of Queens?  My favorite show!  I love his innocence and how she drills him in!!

Seriously, chickens can make your compost pile rock, and at the same time give you low cholesterol eggs ....the girls, aren't they so adorable?  I have them named, but that might change when I meet them....  Henrietta, Lola, Brigitta, Nancy

Suggestions?

When I had chickens all of their names were derived from colors or prominent traits. Straight forward, Red, Blackie, R.W.(red and white), Big Yellow, B.B.(broken beak), and then there was Moe and Curly(those Auricana were always a little different).

They free ranged the yard, mowed the grass, and the eggs...oh the eggs. Hours of enjoyment can be had watching the antics of chickens. I miss them.

Here is a portion of my flock.  There are 11 hens total and 23 ducks.

The doc that lives around the corner has horses and I get the stable waste from  then but it is mostly pine shavings.  The hen manure and duck manure from the nighttime make great accelerators for compost.  Get maybe a pickup truck load a week from the horses.  

[IMG]http://i562.photobucket.com/albums/ss63/Bamboorabbit/IMAG0283.jpg[/IMG]

That is some flock!  Is there a lake or a pond or something nearby?  I'd fear the ducks would be in the swimming pool if we had them.  I don't think chickens are really partial to water, right?  Can you tell this city girl has some learnin' to do?

Suzi

Duck eggs are so delicious, I'm trying to figure a way to hide them in the back yard with no one calling the city, maybe I can bribe all the the old Italians with eggs and roasting ducks?

Suzi,

We live on a lake but the ducks get their wings clipped and it is fenced off to keep them from getting to the water.  The gators would make short work of them.  The pool is caged as are most pools here in Florida so while the ducks can see the pool they can't get to it.  They do have a wading pool to swim in that is theirs.  No the chickens are not fans of the water..when the ducks get to splashing around in their pool the chickens scatter.