Chickens > squash bugs

Some say this blog is dead. Not true I say! We've just been busy for cryin' out loud! Geesh.

Check out the pumpkins we grew. They came a little early and at least one has been transplanted to the compost pile since this picture.

I think I wrote about the squash bug problem in my last post? I've tried a couple ways of getting the chickens to take care of them. First I tried picking the pumpkins and carrying them into the coop where I would then brush the bugs off into the waiting maws of our birds. This didn't work so well - most of the bugs bailed from the pumpkins as soon as they saw me. Idea two was to brush the bugs into a bag of some sort and then carry that into the coop. Again, limited success. Idea three: bring the chickens to the bugs. Check it out:

This has worked marvelously. The chickens love being in the tractor and scratching about in the melon patch. Any movement by the squash bugs and they are snatched up in a heartbeat. The birds also get to munch on overripe melons and stuff, which they dig.

Seeing the chickens work the melon patch and take care of the squash bugs has given me the idea of letting them spend more tractor time in the garden areas when we aren't actively growing anything. Their scratching works the soil nicely, they clean out (hopefully) pests that might overwinter in the beds, and they add nitrogen-rich poop that will hopefully be broken down enough by the time we get to planting again.

Of course, as I've documented somewhere on this blog, the only drawback to this plan is it means I have to catch the chickens to put them in the tractor. I watch this video to get myself psyched up for that task: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8ZkY7tnpRs (if you need a context for this video check this out this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AoEEPoBwf7Y&feature=related )