CCX

[CrealCritter]

Helps if you add the water into the bucket first, then the feed. Easier to mix that way. I found some long handled ladles with holes in them some years back and have used them for stirring and dishing out the feed since then. Comes in real handy for these 5 gal. buckets.

Looks exactly like this one but with a little longer handle...have a black one and a red one, but the red one has a less rigid handle, so I don't like it as much.

View attachment 15190

I'm with LG...my feed mix is like real thick mortar, so not much excess moisture. My CX poops were not runny and seemed like normal black and white stool like any other chicken. Only the cecal poops look brown and liquidy and they stink no matter what a person is feeding.

Thanks Bee, true that they stink no matter what... but some stinks is better than other stinks

Whooo chicken poo

 

[Mini Horses]

There's your garden gold for 2021!

 

[Lazy Gardener]

I have massive quantity of garden gold.

 

[CrealCritter]

Hopfully enough garden gold for a 100' row of onions.

 

[baymule]

I am feeding a steer in the Pig Palace over the winter. He has wasted a lot of hay, pooped all over it, stomped it all to mush, it got rained on. It looks like he is making cow poop adobe. I looked at all that muck and yuck yesterday and smiled at the thought of what little feeder pigs will do to that. Boy, won't they have fun! I think I'll let them have at it all summer, then dig it out for the garden.

 

[farmerjan]

@baymule , is there a way that you can alternate the areas from pigs to garden and back? That's what I did for several years.... had the pigs in the garden for the winter, then grew a garden in there in the summer. It was close to the house and I was a lot younger so hauling water was not that big a deal. But they not only tilled it up but added their manure, and I never had as good a garden.... and the very best cantaloupes ever. Electric kept the pigs very well contained in the garden area.

 

[Lazy Gardener]

I am feeding a steer in the Pig Palace over the winter. He has wasted a lot of hay, pooped all over it, stomped it all to mush, it got rained on. It looks like he is making cow poop adobe. I looked at all that muck and yuck yesterday and smiled at the thought of what little feeder pigs will do to that. Boy, won't they have fun! I think I'll let them have at it all summer, then dig it out for the garden.

Bay, I love your description of the cow poop adobe! I can't wipe the smile off my face, just imagining it. And only on a site like this, do I not feel odd for expressing desire for just such a pile of poop in my own yard.

 

[baymule]

I raised our first feeder pigs in the newly fenced garden and it truly helped our poor soil. Then I raised pigs a couple of times in Pasture #2 and the grass that we sprigged (they rooted up and ate most of it) took off after that. I sowed clover and rye grass and it was 3 feet high, lambs totally disappeared in the lush growth. But the damage the pigs did was a pain to scrape and rake smooth again and there is still low/holes in that pasture. Clover and rye grass has come down to a lower level of growth, but is still better than any other pasture.

I switched from winter pigs to spring/summer pigs because when it is freezing, NOT having pigs to care for is a pleasure. LOL LOL I put a chicken coop in the garden, intending to let the chickens have the garden all winter, but the hawks that sit on the garden gate post killed that idea. Thinking about tearing down the coop and maybe making a link from the Pig Palace to the garden. There is a 3' aisle between the pig pen and the garden. I used no existing fence for the Pig Palace so that if they get out, they are not OUT. I also can give garden goodies to the pigs and they love the treats.

I am working on a small pasture that goes from the back yard to the back of the sheep barn. We hacked and chainsawed it all down and have had 2 grass growing seasons. That is where I raise the CCX, moving their chicken tractor daily. I then sow giant bermuda seed in the poop pads and water it in. On one side of that tiny pasture, there is excellent growth of bermuda, planning on the other side this coming spring.

On the pipeline, we moved the horses round bales to it last year. We move the location with every bale they get, taking advantage of the waste hay and horse manure. Come spring, it will be sowed with Giant Bermuda and the horses will be dry lotted.

I try to make use of all my animal resources, but sometimes it behooves me to just scoop the poop. LOL LOL

 

[Mini Horses]

I'm with you! Chickens are far more gentle as tillers! Pigs can get deep. I have a section that may never get smoothed. I swear, they eat the dirt!

Sometimes my goats or horses are allowed to go in and eat..they don't get roots like pigs or chickens. But fertilize, yes. So, disc and rake it is for me.

 

[CrealCritter]

This morning I sprinkled a good layer of powdered barn lime over the poop and laided down a fresh layer of hay. I also moved up the heat lamps. Then I fed the pigs with wings and snapped this pic. Enjoy the pic, because I can guarantee you, the coop floor ain't this clean now. That roo by the waterer is looking de... licious