Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Backyard Chickens in Victoria among other things.....

Well, the chickens have been laying for a month now. They are not giving me as many eggs as I had hoped for, with six hens I has hoping for 30 eggs a week, instead I am getting closer to 24 a week.

The total cost to date has been $280 - at the moment that is about $2.50 an egg. I expect to 'break even' with the hens when I reach about 120 dozen eggs. When will that be? My estimate is that this will be sometime in April to July of 2009. What I need to decide is if I am going to run a light out to them for the winter months to keep them in production.

Meanwhile the cool weather has kept the veggie garden from progressing - the cucumbers, peppers and squash are all doing almost nothing. The lettuce is doing ok. I can see now that the veggie garden needs me to take down more of the cherry tree and change the railing on the sundeck. Both are causing the bed to be darker than it needs to be.

On top of this I continue to have an issue with the soil. Not the typical Victoria issue of clay and bedrock, but nails and glass. I have to sift through every inch of ground I want to use. Slow going. It is going to take two to four years before I manage to get all the beds done.

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