Companion Planting debate

That's the funnies thing I've read all day, JamesCo! And the picture it paints in my mind is so deliciously satisfying.

I do like that idea too, Soferdig. A house of death for slugs. Come on in! Have something to eat! Stay a while . . .

I have to chime in here....
There is only one way to handle slugs.
After the sun goes down you put your hot pink duckies on and head out to the garden with few bottles of beer, a flashlight, and a pair of sissors. See a slug, snip a slug, sip o' beer, an' move on. It's a numbers game you see. Y' might as well be adding organic matter to your garden.
Or..... pick them up and throw them into the neighbors yard.

When I was a kid we use to go out with the salt shaker and sprinkle it on the slugs. I suppose everyone knows about that.

I always had better luck giving the beer to the slugs. That was prior to living in NV, there are no slugs here, at least in my part of the state. Not counting the two-legged variety which are endemic to Las Vegas.

I thought the iron phosphate bait/poison was very safe: Sluggo and others. Not so? Peaceful Valley (favorite catalog) has it, and so does every big home improvement place and garden center.

If it's not truly safe, I will have to make a little chickenwire tunnel around the perimeter of the garden and let the chickens and maybe a duck take over the slug and other invader patrol for me.
me lazy bum

You industrious.

I long for fowl...
the romantic clucking emanating from behind the house and oh!- the fresh eggs each morning...

... and the poop. Ah, the poop...

Romantic clucking. Next time my neighbor complains about my proud hen , I'll tell her that's all it is. It's really not "obnoxious honking".

Honking? Are you sure you haven't a very proud goose, for having tricked you into taking its incognito?

"You know, yer hen kept me awake all night last night!"
"You mean the Romantic Clucking?"
"Whuh?"
"I'll bet you need love in your life, and you are merely transfering this pressure onto my inoocent chicken."

Kenton you are one who has talked to his roosting hens to comfort them in the night. I often go out to my tractor and tell them how much I appreciate them and all the hard work they did today. It helps them to scratch their droppings into the subsoil. You can't just tell them to do it you need to encourage them.

Dang, those msut be some big chickens to scratch into the subsoil- that's at least a foot down, ol' man.

I'm afraid I don't have hens, thus the dreams of them. One of these days when I find some acreage (in Colorado! I don't feel like moving to Montana!).
Or is it the tractor dropppings we are talking about?

Nope, she's surely not a goose. Between 9 am and 10 am she lays her egg and she tells everyone in hearing range how proud she is. I can hear her in the back bedroom of our house with all the doors and windows closed (double pane windows). She's loud! She honks! At times she even sounds remarkably like a bicycle horn, she is quite talented. But when its time to pick a hen for the pot, she's first on the list.

acreage is not a requirement for hens, ya know! We only have a third of an acre and keep 4 very comfortably. There is a lady with a chicken tractor in town that only has a 5 foot strip around her house. Then there are banty hens.

Oh, I know, but- My ideal quasi-self-suffiecient life including chickens requires some acreage. And, I figure, if I've time for acreage, I must be done with school (time devouring) and making enough money to afford life; Then it is a good time to have chickens. Plus, if I had some now, I would have to come up with a colorful excuse for having shot the neighbor's dog that would jump the fence and eat my cluckers.

Yes, I can imagine that would be awkward.

Not in a chicken tractor. I weigh mine down by using 1 1/2" pvc pipe for the structure and fill it with water that the chickens use for sustanence. I also have it built out of 2/4 welded wire so they might die from fright but not by the tooth. My dogs let very few dogs visit in their garden. Actually the scratching is in the topsoil and yes the droppings. What ever you do don't get Banty hens. They will kill your dogs. Hee Hee

Steve that's funny about the banty hens. That is what I have , 1 pretty rooster and 2 hens, they are all at least 5 years old. They keep me in lovely orange yolked eggs, but they don't even come close to hurting my Llaso Apso. After 5 years I've almost got her trained not to chase the banties when they are loose out in the garden.

Is the weather still cold up there in Alaska. 23 degrees here this morning and yesterday, but the days warm u p to low 50s. Took the day off and drove to Wenatchee to their small home and garden show. Was a nice drive, didn't buy much but enjoyed the trip.

DonnaS

I always shied away from the Banties due to their aggressive behavior. They used to keep banties in a hen house to keep out dogs foxes etc. You must have friendly ones. The weather is blah. 34F with cloudy skies. I went to the sauna and got warm now I'm going to take a nap.

Poor fellow.
We all feel horribly sorry for your misfortunes, Steve, assuredly.