Chicken Coop Extension - Phase One

We inherited an old dog enclosure from a family member and decided to add it to the back of the chicken coop. It would not only extend the area available to our chooks but would put them in and around our twin avocado trees and the super passionfruit. Chooks are great for fertilising shrubs and trees as long as you can keep them away from the roots.

The whole family pitched in and during a beautiful day of family fun we pulled the wire off one side of the enclosure and attached it to the chicken coop. We wired off the avocados and the passionfruit vine and let the chickens in. The portion nearest the coop is an old sandy loam garden bed so the ladies will enjoy hunting for bugs and worms I'm sure. The chook access to the new section is via a small cut out wire section that can be closed off if we feel the plants and grass need a break.

The bottom image shows the wire around the twin avocados which are still going well. In all the others you can see the super passionfruit vine that is fruiting like there is no tomorrow on the bottom of the main coop.

Phase two of the extension is to attach the coop to the side of the mower shed. This is scheduled for the weekend of 21/22 Aug. I will keep you posted.

Passionfruit Vines: Happy Campers

The passionfruit vines are going great guns and are covering the chook pen fences nicely which has the extra benefit of giving the hens extra shade during the day which they are taking advantage of.

We have had to move one of the passionfruit vines (bottom picture) to the other side of the chookpen (the one that was growing up the potting shed (next to the Banana)) to make way for the new Paw Paw Trees. It appears to have survived the transplant though has shed a number of its longer vines to do so.

The vine on the end of the chook pen (middle picture) has fruits the size of double golf balls already so we are expecting a bumper harvest.

Passionfruit Vines: New Residents

Well our single passionfruit vine has reached the end of its life span and has been slowly dying off over the last couple of months. Nature must have foreseen the event though as three passionfruit vines voluntarily emerged in our red pepper pot. We have planted all three out. One where the old vine was and two on the sides of the chicken coop. It has been a little bit of a struggle to coach them to grow onto the wire above the chicken pecking zone but they seem to have manage the feat now.

All three seem very happy where we have planted them though the two on the chicken coop may test the strength of my home built enclosure... fingers crossed they can hold the glorious abundance they will soon support.

Passionfruit Vines: A Bumper Harvest

This is the original passionfruit vine that was here when we arrived in March 07. It is growing on the wall of the potting shed (the wall on the left of it is the chicken shed) and this year we have had a bumper crop out of it.

I am trying to train it across the main chicken fence but I think I poorly timed the move with the start of Winter and most of the luxurious green vines I trailed across have died off.

There is a second vine which we transplanted to right against the chicken fence but again, the onset of winter may not have been the best time and there is little apparent life left in it. Perhaps spring will bring it back to life for us. I have no photo of it to post as it is pretty much just a stick which is not very photogenic unfortunately.

Jayson