Considerations Before the Chickens or the Eggs

Buff Orpington rooster

Posted by: Curtis Utley, Jefferson County Extension

Spring is not quite in the air but this is the time of year that I begin planning my vegetable garden and placing my baby chick order. Chicks are available every week of the year from most mail-order hatcheries but there is something nostalgic and anticipatory about new life in the spring. From a practical standpoint it is much easier to brood chicks in the warming months of spring. Chickens may be a great addition to your yard and garden but keeping chickens is not for everyone. The following is my dissertation on the pitfalls and challenges often overlooked by the impulse buyer.

Housing:

First off, Chickens need suitable housing. Buying or building a chicken coop should be step 1. The coop should be weather and predator proof. Choose a coop layout that is easy to clean; chickens are messy birds. I strongly recommend a slick finished concrete coop floor for the ease of cleaning and to dissuade tunneling vermin.

Baby chicks in fire proof steel horse tank

Brooding:

In nature a mother hen hatches her chicks and broods them herself, keeping them close to her body for the first 6-8 weeks of life. With hatchery chicks, you are the brooder and many buildings have burned to the ground accidentally as a result of a brooder lamp or other heat source causing a fire. Both my cousin and I have had brooder lamp mishaps resulting in property damage so this should not be taken lightly.

Chickens eating prize winning Jack O' Lantern

Free Ranging Considerations:

last blades of grass in chicken yard

Chickens poop everywhere, all the time, everywhere. Unfortunately, chicken poop does not smell like roses, if it did I would not mind stepping in it so much. Chickens can fly, they are birds after all. This feat, temporarily defying gravity, gives chickens access to your outdoor furniture, (did I mention chickens poop everywhere) the roof of your house, your neighbor’s yard, the roof of your car, shade trees, swing sets, etc.    

Blue Andalusian rooster in the now plant-less chicken yard  

Chickens are omnivores eating anything that moves and your prize winning vegetables that don’t.  Chickens scratch the ground looking for worms, insects, seeds, pebbles, grass roots, anything. When you keep chickens in the same location they will eventually denude the ground of every living plant leaving dust holes and mud in their wake.

Predators and Vermin:

Chickens beget mice if you did not have a mouse problem before, you will once you begin keeping chickens. This has more to do with storing chicken feed than the chickens themselves but chickens are messy and if you allow them access to free feed they will spill some on the ground and not bother picking it up since there is more in the feeder. This spilled feed is nutritionally balanced for breeding mice and if you’re really unlucky, rats. Interestingly, chickens love killing and eating mice, unfortunately chickens have terrible night vision when mice are actively out and about.

The deficit in night vision also makes chickens easy prey for predators including but not limited to: skunks, raccoons, foxes, coyotes, owls, mountain lions, bears, dogs, etc. So you have to be sure to close the coop door at night or you may risk losing some birds.

Hens eyeing a tasty garter snake

Chicken Sitin’:

Chickens can easily live for 10-15 years if they don’t get eaten by something first, and chickens, unlike dogs and children are not easily taken with you during your family vacation. Each time you plan to be away you must find someone you trust to come by your coop twice per day to collect the eggs, feed and water the birds, open the coop in the morning and close the coop door after dusk.

Sexing Baby Chicks

Many municipalities have relaxed their code rules to allow residents to keep a few backyard birds and this is fantastic. Within most of these new provisions cockerels and roosters (male birds) are still prohibited. If you are buying baby chicks you will have to buy pullets only, and if you accidentally end up with a cockerel you will have to find a new home for the bird or potentially suffer the consequences of being out of compliance. I have taught myself to sex chicks and I'm correct 50% of the time.

Production Issues:

Most people are interested in keeping chickens because of the prospect of fresh eggs produced in your own backyard; admittedly this is why I began keeping chickens 15 years ago. Baby chicks will not produce their first egg until they are 6-8 months old. Waiting for your first fresh eggs from your first flock of chicks feels like waiting for your 16^th birthday to roll around and you finally gain the freedom of your driver’s license. Interminable.  Chickens need 16 hours of light before they begin egg production so they do not lay well in the winter when it’s dark. Chickens molt all of their feathers once per year and stop producing eggs, often for 2 months, during this time. Most hens are only productive for their first 4 years but live 10-15 years.

As spring nears and you are pondering adding a flock of chickens to your yard I hope you find this information useful. I love raising chickens; they add humility and a degree of complexity to my otherwise hectic life.

Addtional Information: 

http://www.ext.colostate.edu/sam/backyard-chickens.html

http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/foodnut/09377.html

http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/blueprints/poultry.html

Voles Invade Macy's!

Tony Koski, Extension Turf Specialist

Vole trails in Macy's lawn - originating in the junipers

OK, not the store…but their landscape. I was walking by Macy’s at Centerra (Loveland) today and saw textbook signs of vole activity on the small turf areas adjacent to the juniper beds near the front entrance. The recently melted snow had provided ideal cover for these small rodents, and fresh signs of their activity were quite evident. While active year-round in our landscapes, vole activity is more apparent in winter and spring when turf is not actively growing. Less obvious is the damage they may be causing to woody plants in the landscape. There are eight species of voles that live throughout Colorado; the one most likely to be found in urban landscapes is the meadow vole (Microtus pennsylvanicus) –  often called the field or meadow mouse.

Cute, yes - but destructive in the landscape

Voles are strictly vegetarian. In our landscapes their favorite food sources include turfgrass and the stems and bark of shrubs and trees. They can also be a nuisance in vegetable gardens, where they will eat seedling plants, as well as potatoes, carrots and other root veggies (voles are excellent burrowers). They will eat iris, flower bulbs, and some perennials (hostas are an apparent delicacy) in flowerbeds. When vole pressure is heavy, both newly planted and older, established trees can be killed by feeding that girdles the trunk. Along the Front Range, junipers frequently suffer from vole damage – probably because they provide both perfect cover and a ready source of food throughout the year.

Voles can totally girdle trees and shrubs

Even mature trees aren't safe from vole feeding

Hosta root system destroyed by feeding voles

Vole populations – and thus the damage caused by them – are very cyclical, with peak numbers occurring every 3-4 years, followed by years where they are hardly noticed. Turf damage is more severe in years where snow cover persists for more than a few weeks – shaded landscapes, the north side of structures, or where snow is piled during removal. Mountain golf courses often suffer severe vole damage on an annual basis because snow cover lasts so long. The above-ground trails seen in lawns will connect to a hole which is the entrance to a maze of underground tunnels.

Voles are more common in landscapes that border natural areas or greenbelts where grass is tall and infrequently mowed. Especially attractive are shrub and flower beds which are covered with landscape fabric (another reason NOT to use landscape fabric in your landscape!).  Discourage voles by eliminating places for them to hide and reproduce (they breed throughout the year, having as many as 5 litters of 3-5 young each time!).  Avoid the use of landscape fabric and pull mulch away from the bases of trees and shrubs. Mow tall grass in “native” or natural areas adjacent to lawn areas in the fall after the grass has stopped growing. Woody plants and treasured perennials can be protected by the use of wire mesh screening to prevent feeding.

Vole damage on carrots

Research with voles suggests that repellents are largely ineffective because they don’t last long and simply cause the voles to move to another area of your landscape. While there are poisonous baits (the anticoagulants used for mouse and rat control in structures) that can be effective, you have to be vigilant in providing the bait and have to be concerned about children, pets and other non-target wildlife when using them (read more about the use of poisonous baits in this fact sheet).

Set traps in the runways: end-to-end,
with triggers on opposite ends - or so
the trigger is directly on the runway.
Baiting appears unnecessary.

Trapping can be highly effective for eliminating (or at least reducing) vole populations in the home landscape. The plain ol’ mousetrap (unbaited), placed on vole trails and/or near their holes at the end of the trails, can be used with great success. Drill a hole in the center of the trap so that it can be anchored in the ground with a large nail, to keep it in place. Look for signs of activity on the trails and at the burrow openings  - bits of chewed grass clippings and freshly deposited (they will have a green tinge), tiny pellets of mouse poop (technical term). Set the traps where the voles are most likely to cross the trigger. Because you can’t tell from which direction voles will be traveling on their trails, a good strategy is to place two traps end to end (with the triggers on opposite ends) directly within the vole trail. 

Cover mouse traps with pieces of gutter
to keep pets and children from disturbing the
traps, and to guide the voles to the traps

Cover the traps with a length of gutter or a tunnel fashioned from a half-gallon, cardboard milk carton. The tunnel will keep nosy dogs and cats from messing with your traps and can “guide” the voles into the traps. If you do choose to trap voles, take special precaution with handling and disposing of the  the vole cadavers. Recent research has shown that voles can be heavily infected with the bacterium that causes tularemia in humans and other mammals. 

A good source of more detailed information on voles can be found in this CSU fact sheet: Managing Voles in Colorado

Saving pollinators one garden and one person at a time

Irene Shonle, CSU Extension in Gilpin County



At this point, most people have heard about the dire situation of Monarchs butterflies.  The World Wildlife Fund and others documented a 59 percent decline in monarch populations this year.  Monarchs get a lot of press because of their beauty and the spectacle of their generations-long migration, and their plight helps to also shed light on the issues facing other pollinators.

Monarch butterfly courtesy Dave Cappaert, Bugwood.org

Honeybees are struggling, too, and many native pollinators are in serious trouble, according to Eric Mader, assistant pollinator program director with The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation. Several species of bumblebees in the United States have declined substantially over the past 2 to 3 decades, according to a study led by entomologist Sydney Cameron of the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. The declines are thought to be due to habitat loss/fragmentation, pesticide use, climate change, and non-native pathogens.

Scientists are particularly tracking five declining species of bumblebee, including the Western bumblebee, Bombus occidentalis – and there have been recent sightings in our area! For more information, go here: http://www.xerces.org/bumblebees, or to join a citizen science project documenting bumblebee distribution, go here: http://www.bumblebeewatch.org/.

Bumblebee photo courtesy Whitney Cranshaw wiki.bugwood.org/HPIPM:Bumble_Bees

Protecting, restoring, and enhancing habitat is the best way to reverse the declines in bumblebee populations, and the best thing is that this is a project where individuals in our own mountain yards can actually make a significant contribution!  So often, you hear about one environmental disaster after another, and can feel somewhat helpless and depressed, but here is a win-win situation where your efforts will help the pollinators and make your yard more beautiful.  Bumblebees are gentle creatures (often likened to flying teddy bears), and will rarely sting unless threatened, so don’t be alarmed at the thought of attracting them to your house (unless someone in your house has a severe allergy).

Bumblebees need three types of habitat to survive: plants on which to forage for pollen and nectar, nesting sites, and places to overwinter.  Usually the latter two don’t require much effort on our part (other than leaving them undisturbed); so here are some tips on what to plant to attract our native pollinators:

• Plant a diversity of species (best choices are native) so your yard will provide bees and butterflies with nectar and pollen from early spring through fall.  Great flower choices include Golden banner (Thermopsis divaricarpa), Blanketflower (Gaillardia aristata), Yarrow (Achillea lanulosa), Lupine (Lupinus argenteus), Rocky Mtn. beeplant (Cleome serrulata), Beebalm (Monarda fistulosa), Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta), Harebells (Campanula rotundifolia), Milkweed (Asclepias speciosa), and all Penstemons.  Flowering shrubs can also be good choices – look for Serviceberry (Amelanchier alnifolia), Wood’s rose (Rosa woodsii), and Chokecherry (Prunus virginiana).
• During hot, dry periods, provide water in shallow birdbaths or pools where pollinators can easily land. Some wasps and bees need mud to build their nests, and butterflies like to gather in muddy puddles.
• Reduce or eliminate use insecticides, especially ones that state that they are harmful to bees or butterflies on their label. If using an herbicide, target only invasive weeds, and don’t spray when bees or butterflies are present.

2014 “Top Performer” Perennials from the CSU Trial Gardens

Posted by: Jim Klett, Extension Specialist

The results of the 2014 “Top Performer” perennial trials have been chosen.  A perennial entry is only considered for the “Top Performer” award if it has been in the ground for two winters and three growing seasons although the “Too Good to Wait” award is used for an entry the evaluation committee is confident is superior even after one winter and two growing seasons. For a full list, visit: www.flowertrials.colostate.edu 

The 2014 “Top Performers” include:

Blue Boa Agastache from Terra Nova® Nurseries

(Agastache x hybrida 'Blue Boa'^PP24050)

 Non-stop flower power resulted in a season long splash of bright lavender color that covered the plant in blooms from top to bottom.  Excellent vigor and a relatively large growth habit would make this a good choice for the back of a perennial border that needs color.  Besides all the beauty, this plant is also recommended for its drought tolerance and ability to attract bees and butterflies.  Planted in 2012.

Leilani Coneflower from Terra Nova® Nurseries

(Echinacea spp. 'Lelani' ^PP23526)

Tall, vigorous plants "wowed!" visitors with the prolific display of "warm, buttery yellow" flowers.  Blooming occurred over a long period and the plants maintained superior controlled vigor for good uniformity and overall appearance.  Planted in 2012.

Profusion Coneflower from Eason Horticultural Resources

(Echinacea purpurea 'Profusion')

Flowers had a unique appearance and overall shape due to many petals with a nice shape and a large, dark center.  The dark stems also complemented the flower petals and dark center.  Plants were compact but flowering was very profuse.  The light lavender petals also faded nicely into a "antique" lavender color that was also very attractive and extended the bloom time.  Planted in 2012.

Georgia Plum Coral Bells from Terra Nova® Nurseries

(Heuchera x hybrida 'Georgia Plum'^PP24507)

Plum colored foliage was impressive all season and did not show any signs of fading.  Besides the plum color, foliage also had a nice silver sheen for good color impact throughout the growing season.  Plants were very uniform and had excellent growth habit.  Predominantly grown for the foliage, the light pink/plum flowers were few but still attractive.  Planted in 2012.

Midnight Marvel Hibiscus from Walters Gardens/ Proven Winners®

(Hibiscus x hybrida 'Midnight Marvel'^PP24079)

The flowers and foliage made a spectacular combination.   Dark bronze foliage made a perfect backdrop to the beautiful red flowers.   Many flowers came into bloom together and created a good visual impact.  Plants were vigorous but maintained a nice size without getting too large.  Planted in 2012.

 

 "Too Good to Wait" Winners

 Electric Avenue Coreopsis from Creek Hill/Eason

(Coreopsis verticillata 'Mayo Clinic Flower of Hope'^PPAF or 'Electric Avenue')

Bright yellow flowers were very showy and flowering was solid all season.  Plants were vigorous, uniform and maintained good stature from spring to fall.  Fine textured foliage and a nice flower shape contributed to a very pleasing overall affect.  This is good plant for attracting bees.   

  

Beyond Blue Fescue from Skagit Gardens

(Festuca glauca 'Casca11' ^{PP #23307} )

This fescue is considered to have the best "blue" color out there!  Plants  maintain a nice "ball" shape and do not open in the middle.  Flower stems fade and disappear amongst the foliage for a superior appearance.  This is an improved variety over older ones for foliage color.

Sunrosa™ Red Rose from Suntory® Flowers

(Rosa x hybrid Sunrosa™ Red)

Constant red flowers and impressive growth habit make this plant attractive all season.  Glossy dark green foliage had no signs of chlorosis or disease.  Red flowers bloomed steadily from mid-June through October.  Small foliage and a dwarf compact growth habit make this a good choice for the smaller or mid-size landscapes.