Transplanting Cyathea cooperi

 Now the Cyathea cooperi has been in place in its' new position for about ten weeks, you can see that it has recovered from the shock of the move and is growing new fronds.  The three old fronds have slowly withered and the nutrients have moved back into the plant. 

I have not watered it by hand since I moved it, except for a long soaking on the day of the move.  Relying on rainfall and the milder climate over winter, it has re-shot a brace of three fronds and although they are thinner and won't be nearly as big as the previous fronds just yet, it is well on its' way to getting established.

 Just included a shot here of a friendly daughter to add some perspective - you can see how the trunk stands about 500mm emergent above the soil line, and remember there is at least that much in the potting mix around the base.

Here's hoping it keeps going on strong and is robust enough to survive the heat and wind of summer.

 This is a Cyathea planted at the same time as the transplanted one, and demonstrates clearly that tree ferns thrive once established and not disturbed. It is not my usual practice to lift and move plants around the garden for exactly this reason.

Here are some landscape shots of the garden as a whole - it is coming along nicely even though I have left it without any extra watering since February.  I like to let the soil dry out over winter.  I did go this morning and water for a good hour though, as without water everything grows very slowly.  And the winds of August dry things out even more.

And finally, introducing some of the newest members of the flock - some silver lace wyandottes bought from a lovely lady at the Maitland Wyandotte Show 2013.  At three and a half months, they might be a little vulnerable to the rest of the flock but I am offering them protection for a couple of weeks.  Just love that colour!

When Will My Chickens Lay Eggs?

The chickens have an established hen house, are free rage for over an acre of lush woodland, and have great feed pellets supplemented with delicious kitchen scraps. But NO EGGS!

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Someone said that the eggs are being laid, just that we are not finding them - so we have been looking very carefully around the plants and the day roosting areas. Nothing.

Also have noted how rough the chickens are on the landscape in general. The native grasses I planted to stop the erosion have taken a battering and I would estimate we have lost about a third of them to being uprooted or simply trampled.

Down and Dirty with the Chickens

Down and Dirty? You betcha! There is so much more work involved in putting together a simple yet effective chicken coop that I appreciate so many people put chickens in the too hard basket. But with some hard work, ad some creativity we now have a chicken coop! It is such a relief to have the girls out there tonight for their first outdoors night.

Building the fence was a took far more time than planned. I was working with conflicting information about the dangers of foxes burrowing under the fence and even the chickens themselves scratching a hole under the fence. So as you can see the trenches are more like footings and more than adequate for the intended use.

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I back filled the trenches with double bricks the full length of the trench, then shovelled concrete mix over the top. It has set well and has some weight and should do the job intended. This was for a 22 meter perimeter so it required a fair few bricks and bags of concrete.

Then, we bought the chickens - unsexed Black Australorps, which are great layers and suited to the Australian Climate. It was really cute watching the two year old exhaust herself chasing the little chicks around the enclosure. Hopefully the chickens will come to adjust to the constant handling and be tame enough.

Has been a great experience all round and I am proud of how much I managed to do by myself without assistance.

One key thing I would share is that cleanliness and rubbish disposal is very important especially when chickens are concerned. Simply because the chickens themselves scratch and rustle around enough without the owners leaving scraps and off cuts and wire snips all around. I'm sure we have all seen the messy junkyard style chicken coops in our travels.