Blueberry Hill

These are three of our six blueberry bushes.  Each year they have produced more and more.  We eat a bunch of them fresh, bake with some, make bunches of blueberry pancakes and then individually quick freeze the rest to snack on throughout the year and to make delicious breakfast smoothies with.  The blueberries have done well in the spot where we planted them.

They have me a little concerned this year, though.  Prior to the growth of the fresh, tender green grasses of spring that have begun to peak up above the soil, we had some marauding chickens that weasel their way through the hog wire perimeter fence and forage through the yard for tasty morsels.  They especially like scratching at the base of the blueberry bushes and have been successful in scratching away all of the mulch that surrounded the bushes for the past several years.  While I'm sure they exposed some worms and beetles and bugs for them to feast upon, they also exposed a lot of the roots of the blueberries.

Chicken Scratch

While I'm no horticulturist, I think that those exposed roots will be susceptible to the hot sun and wind and they will dry out and hurt, if not kill, the plants.

Exposed Roots

Right now the blueberries are still in good health.  In fact they put on tons of blooms and are absolutely loaded with little berries.  We'll see if we get favorable rains and weather that will ensure a bountiful harvest.  In the mean time I need to take care of them.

So the local hardware store had a sale on mulch this past weekend.  Four bags for $10.  Tricia picked up a few bags and after a rain shower, I put some mulch around the base of the plants to replace that which the chickens scratched away.  This mulch should protect the roots and keep them from drying out.  It should also (hopefully) frustrate the bermuda grass that competes for nutrients at the base of the plants.

I did read that you aren't supposed to pile up the mulch too high around the plants and have 4-6 inches maximum.  I think I'm in line with those recommendations.

I'm counting on a bumper crop of blueberries this year from our own blueberry hill to provide some homemade blueberry jelly.  I added an additional 50 feet of 4x2 welded wire fencing that I wired over the hog wire to discourage the scratching, but I'll keep my eyes open for those tresspassing hens.  Violators will be prosecuted.

The Fugitive Hen

We all like our freedom, do we not?  While ultimate freedom comes from our Creator, The Declaration of Independence, The Constitution, and the Bill of Rights are documents that specifically state freedoms that Americans enjoy.  On Our Maker’s Acres Family Farm, our cows, goats, and chickens have no such documents tendering them freedom of movement.  However, they are all free to roam on a 3 acre pasture.  While it is not enormous, the amount of land they have to range is ample for their needs.  They are all healthy and well fed.

There are two hens that feel the need to express their independence from arbitrary borders and fences.  They migrate hither and yon, setting a bad example for their law-abiding feathered friends.  I’ve caught them and trimmed their wings, but it has proven unsuccessful in keeping them within the confines of the territory we’ve established as their free range.  The Aracauna hen roams around the yard and doesn’t really bother anything.

The Barred Rock hen on the other hand, is a real nuisance.  She gets out by a mysterious way that we haven’t witnessed and makes a beeline for our blueberry bushes, scratching away all of the mulch from the base of the plants, searching for worms and bugs to eat.  You can see where she has scratched the area clean below.  I’ve tried to rake it back up, but much of it is scattered and can’t be recovered.  Argghhh!

Doggone Hen!

When I chase her she is small enough to be able to wiggle her way through the holes in the hog wire that makes up our perimeter fence.  She looks back over her shoulder and I'm convinced that I see her smirk, making fun of me while I shake my fist at her.  Well, I’ll just have to cover the holes with a smaller sized mesh.  Obviously, it wouldn’t be cost-effective to do this around the entire perimeter, but maybe if I get 50 feet of fence, and overlay the existing hogwire, that would work?  Let’s see.  Russ and I wired a 50 foot roll of the 2 x 4 inch welded wire over the bigger hog wire as you can see below.  This had a price tag of $65. 

Putting a smaller mesh fence over the hog wire

Did it work?  No.  The darn hen was out again the next day, scratching and generally just causing mayhem.  The trouble is, her scratching the mulch away from the blueberries has exposed the root system, drying out the roots, and is beginning to kill one of the bushes…

Oh No!

Okay, so now I’m mad.  We’ve got to do something about this!  I’m not going to let her kill our blueberry bushes.  First, I need to purchase more mulch to cover the roots.  At a total cost of $9.96, I purchased 4 bags of Cypress mulch.

4 bags of mulch

Benjamin worked to distribute the mulch around the exposed root systems, covering them so they don't dry out anymore.

We have to stop her.  Since we can’t see exactly where she’s escaping, I’m assuming that maybe she’s hopping up on the water trough and then jumping over the fence to get out.  Let’s test that hypothesis.  I have some more of that welded wire fencing that I’ll temporarily block off the section above the water trough as a process of elimination.  We’ll see if that works: 

Temporary Blockade

Did it work?  No.  Our fence is as porous as our Southern Border.  I texted Tricia this afternoon to learn that the fugitive hen escaped again.  Okay, now I’m really upset.  I have one more idea.  The bull pen that we built has 4 x 4 openings.  She can’t fit through there.  But the two gates contain wide spacings that goats and chickens can get through.  I’ll wire the 2 x 4 welded wire over the gates this afternoon and place her in the bull pen.

What happens if she escapes again?  I’ve considered that.  In fact, I was going to go to the hardware store today and purchase another roll of wire, but then reconsidered.  At some point economics come into play.  I fear that the cost of fencing and mulch has already exceeded the benefits of this girl’s egg laying.  Barred Rock hens are known as a good dual production bird.  That means that they are prized for both their meat and eggs.  We’ve experienced the latter contribution she gives us on a daily basis.  If she is unable to be confined in the bull pen and escapes again, we will enjoy the former!

The dead blueberry bush may result in a dead hen...

Barred Rock Hen: You have been officially warned.  Don’t mess with our blueberry bushes again!

If you do, well…  I guess I can best communicate the consequence with a limerick:

There once was a fugitive barred rock hen,

Who liked to escape the fence.

When I saw the dead blueberry bush, it made me really wince.

I spent $74.96 to keep the hen from wandering to and fro,

If the hen escapes and scratches again, she’ll become a nice…

GUMBO!