I would love to see your whole operation when you want to share.  I bet other people would too, if you feel like doing a thread, but that takes more work.

So...regarding termites...you treat the ground? Or you use treated wood for the base to lay the logs on?  Or what?

Here, termites will build mud tubes up to the wood they want..as much as 3' tall. I admit that I had not thought about the termite problem when thinking about innoculating logs.  And are all of your logs oak? (You may have said this before, and I missed it.)

I know certain species prefer certain wood, so this is of interest to me.  Like...nobody mentioned growing mushrooms on Ash, but that's where my mushrooms have decided to colonize, so I know they can.

Also...what kind of trees are they under?  We have black walnut (that's most of our shade) so I'm going to have to find out if the juglone from black walnut is allelopathic to fungi. If so, I'll have to choose carefully where I put them, if I even have a spot.

Just noticed this thread!

Our efforts are mostly limited to chickens so far. We are learning a lot, some through trial and erro.

Bird flu: Have any of y'all had issues?
We have not. I am considering moving both of our flock's waterers in to the coop to prevent wild birds from drinking from their larger, outdoor waterer. But much of their run is covered in large oak trees, and they free range all over the place outside of the run. Wild bird exposure just can't be avoided.
I haven't heard of any folks local to us with chickens catching it.

One tough error we had was introducing 10 new birds to our 27 bird (3 roosters) flock. I bought 6 sexed Welsummer chicks from Tractor Supply, and one ended up being a rooster (Orson). The 2nd night after introducing them to the flock the other roosters killed the new guy in the coop. We think it was our two smaller Silver Leghorns (Zip and Zap) that did it, because the big head honcho guy (Silver Laced Wyandotte my wife named Julian) is actually pretty chill towards the other roosters and he insists on roosting up in a big oak tree at night after ushering his hens in to the coop. The pullets seem to have been accepted just fine.

The one time the Wyandotte got after another was when a blue Andalusian (Kevin) attacked my wife; Julian attacked the larger Kevin and beat him up pretty good (then I smoked Kevin with my suppressed .22, not messing around)

I'm not real big on naming farm animals, but these are my wife's responsibility and she gets a kick out of it. All of her White Leghorns are Betty,...

Eggs: At the moment the 24 hens are averaging 23 eggs a day. My wife has them all pre-sold at $5/dozen to repeat customers.

I wouldn't give up on them yet.

Were they bare-root trees?
i
Sometimes it takes a while for the bare-root plants to absorb enough water to form enough new roots (the roots that actually take up stuff are pretty much destroyed when they are dug and replanted) to begin activity.

That said, did you plant them immediately?  Were they very dried out?  Dried out is not good.

ETA:  I will ask/say this for anyone who might need to know...since I don't know your knowledge or experience at all, this is not suggesting you did anything incorrectly, but somebody else might see it and benefit.  Did you plant them at the right depth?

Planting baby trees (or any woody plant), we need to be careful how deep we plant.   It's pretty important to plant a-where the soil has good drainage, depending on the type of tree and b)-not to plant too deeply, as roots actually do need air.

"Buzzards are always late to the party."

That's really cool that Julian defended your wife!

I think I would take measures to make him roost in the coop though, as he will eventually be toast if he doesn't. Big as he is, there are (at least here there are) sky predators, coons, bobcats and maybe some others who can take him out at night, even in the trees.


To your question, we have not had bird flu, and  unless chickens are confined to an enclosure completely surrounded by hardware cloth, I don't think there's a way to keep wild birds out of them (in a back yard chickens setup, anyhow).  

We did have some coccidiosis for the first time last fall, and I've had to treat two chickens for a respiratory issue.

First time in my life I've had to treat chickens for anything.  I think I have them a little too crowded, and my setup is not ideal, as our main coop is under repair.  Gonna have to address that this season.



Edited  cuz my mouse is dead and I'm using a freaking touch pad and it keeps doing stupid crap cuz I touch it accidentally.

I'm not sure how to go about that, but I agree.
We have big owls, foxes, perhaps some coons, and bobcats. Not to mention snakes. Coyotes as well, but they aren't much of a threat to a bird way up in a tree whereas I've found bobcats on top of telephone poles.
Their run and coop are right next to our ranch hand's trailer, and 20 or so yards from the ranch house and ranch dogs. That does keep some things away.

Ranch dogs: Stumpy the corgi once went after Julian, but got whipped and now peeks around trees and corners before sprinting as best he can past their coop.

I know the novelty and fun of chickens wears off on people, but a year in and they are still just so much fun.

TURKEYs: A friend of my wife has a pair of turkeys that live with her chickens, and they will be hatching some chicks soon. She claims they are trouble free and personable, and they shimmy through the small coop door just fine. She has offered some to us, and I am all for it. We will see.

More than chickens, turkeys are looking for a reason to die (when they are babies).  So be aware when you take the chicks, that you might need a little more time and effort for them. Still worth it, IMO.

Especially ones hatched from strong parents who are doing well in a small farm/homestead environment!

ETA:  roosting:

I don't have many ideas, other than...feed them in the coop at just the right time in the late afternoon/early evening, so he goes in to eat, then shut the door.  Keep him in there for several days, or make sure to shut him up in there early...meaning feed in the evening before they go to roost, so you can get him.  In my experience, chickens are creatures of habit, and you can reform the habit much more easily than you can with, say, guineas.

Other folks might have ideas about how to do it.

Feel free to post a thread asking, if you don't get ideas here or have success on your own.  Lots of chicken people in our forum.

Well,....
Julian got got a few nights ago. Found feathers but nothing else.

Another tough learning experience. She's hunting for roosters now, and leaning more on her friends with chicken experience from here on out. I had a feeling it would happen, but I'm trying to stay as hands off as possible with my wife's chicken endeavor.

The flock has has a lot of double yolks lately, and she got an enormous 97 gram egg a few days ago.

I'm very sorry about Julian.  I'd hoped y'all could get him in the coop to roost before that happened.

Can you install a cover for the coop?

There was recently a thread where a guy experimented with silver flashy tape that blows in the wind....he kept trying until he came up with a formula that kept sky predators away.

Shoot.  Lemme see if I can find that.

With no top on the run, and no precautions to prevent it, you are going to take losses.  In a small flock, you will feel that.

There is actually a subforum for that!

Let me find it and I will link.

Stand by.

ETA:  Here you go!

Home Brewing forum

ETA2:  OMG...

So wine, not brewing.

shoot.

Hang on and let me see if that is welcome there.

Okay there is also the Wine Cellar forum.

I know your thread would be welcome there (cuz I'm one of the mods.)  BUT..

If you would rather put your fermentation thread here in Homestead, it is absolutely welcome.  You will need to update at least once a week or so...otherwise it will drop into archives cuz we don't have a lot of pages.

You do what you are comfortable doing.  It is welcome here, but things do drop off.   Most folks manage bumping every week to two weeks.  If it's a lot of work, it's hard to see it just disappear (I've lost SO many threads I started, put lots of time into, then got busy).  

All that said, I think a lot of people would find it interesting.  I certainly would!

How did you introduce it to the flock? I always did it where they were still separated by chicken wire/hardware cloth, so they could adjust a bit before getting actual contact.

I was successful at integrating new chickens (but there was more than one) into an existing flock using a method somebody here told me about.   I built a "cage within a cage" basically.  

I used old wire dog crates, put them together with zip ties, and set that up as an "apartment" within the larger run.   The older chickens and babies (these were adolescent chickens) could interact but the big ones could not kill the little ones.  Of course, the little ones had their own food and water.  

When I finally opened the dog crates, I left them in there, with doors open so the little ones could run in one door and out the other, so nobody could be trapped and "ganged-up-on".  

The integration went better than I would have expected. I think because I took a half of a watermelon down there and used that as a distraction.  So the big chickens were all like, "OMGOMGOMGWATERMELON!! And the little ones were suddenly among them before they realized something had changed.

Hey it might have been YOU who told me how to do it!

That's possible. I know I've posted it before. I always had a section of my run closed off for new birds, whether they were adults that I purchased or young ones that I hatched.

I would say to you, raise at least three new ones at a time.  The more the better.

Make sure the "introduction" run section is actually where the old chickens and new chickens can interact, but not hurt each other.   Like "the new ones are here, with us, but we can't actually peck them much."

I have actually started watching yard sales and marketplace for wire dog crates (big ones) for cheap.  They are useful as quarantine pens for a sick chicken you need to get out of the flock, and they make GREAT introduction pens.