Just one photo this week – of a group of Portulaca blooms which I found beautiful.
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Weekly Wrap Up –
It has been a pretty shit week here thanks to saying goodbye to Red Comb. I’m trying really hard to build a bridge and get over it, and I am making a big effort to super spoil the left behind girls because I know they are feeling this loss too. I bought some cherries so they will receive quite a few of those this next week, pitted, because I am a good chook owner and also a sucker. ;)
All of the girls have gone into a moult – if you look closely at the pic you can see someone is missing *all* her tailfeathers at the top there – compare her to the game hen at the bottom who still has some – I am making sure they get plenty of protein plus it has been hot, so they also are receiving cold lactose free yoghurt and blueberries.
Rosie is out of shot – she has never been great with hand feeding. Usually I throw some stuff her way and let her find it herself. However not long after this shot was taken, she walked right up to me and started taking cherries right from my hand. I suspect this means Rosie has a new favourite food!
Pest Control – Flies
I don’t know if you are aware of this, but chooks poop. There is a creature that loves chook poop more than any other creature and that is the fly. This season has been a particularly fly-full season. I’m not sure why, but so it is.
We’ve been using the Envirosafe fly traps for a few years now. Seriously, these things work like you would not believe. Currently we are cleaning them out once a week, because there are so many flies in there we have no choice! You may catch a whiff of the smell occasionally – it smells to me exactly like chook poop.
The one downside is having to clean them out – it smells really bad once you take the lid off. We usually bury the contents in the small area behind the shed, but on the website it says you can use it for fertiliser. Hmm, I think I will say no thanks to that, anyway!
This time next week, practically all of the green area will be black with dead flies. I won’t post a photo of that here, but if anyone does want to see the end result let me know in the comments and I will put a link to a photo in next weeks post.
There are a lot of flies in general where we live, if I go shopping there is a 99% chance one or more of them will be bothering me on the way back to the car. I wish more people knew about these fly traps and used them – there would be less flies around in general if everyone had a couple of these traps in their yard.
The flowers are gorgeous. I bought two packets of portulaca seeds, but haven’t planted them yet, it’s been too hot. I may plant one packet and see what comes up, if they are successful, I’ll plant the other. If they don’t grow I’ll get seedlings and keep them in the shade for a while before planting out.
I’ve noticed flies bother me more at bus stops and when I’m wearing something scented, like my cocoa butter lip gloss, or the moisturising oil. If I go out without any added extras, they tend to leave me alone. There’s not many flies anywhere else here. Yet.
The flowers are great. Do you think you make any impact by trapping the flies? Yes, I would like to see the trap full.
My heart is with you. Beautiful photos. Thanks for not sharing graphic photos of chook poop and smelly fly corpses.