Getting Things Done...Even by Truck light

You may have noticed that winter approaches. For us this means getting things done in the dark. The photo below shows Nicholas' work area for finishing the wooden shipping crates the afternoon before our last slaughter. Entergy is scheduled to hook up our electricity at the barn today. We look forward to seeing after 5pm without the constant aid of a flashlight or headlight. 

Winter is coming and with its early sunsets the chickens get to range around. I let the chickens out to roam since I can safely put them away at night now that the sun sets before I leave. Plus, this way they get to enjoy the shock of green fodder rye grass provides. The daily egg hunt is one draw back to their roaming. 

Changes for the New Year

We recently received 100 pullets of mixed layer breeds from Meyer Hatchery. One died in transit, but the rest are doing great. I'll post a video soon. These will start maturing in June/July. I look forward to figuring which breeds we received. 

Yesterday we purchased a trailer for our layer mobile base. We want to build something like the image below that will allow the birds to roam while remaining under protection from hawks. 

The pigs continue to grow and entertain. They run around more than I expected and did I mention earlier that they enjoy having their bellies rubbed? So amusing. Some of you may know that winter truly comes later in Mississippi and that our winters tend to be more like monsoon seasons than anything else. All the recent rain finally convinced the pigs to pile up in their house instead of underneath it. I will try to get a photo soon. They go to bed about the same time as the chickens and my iphone becomes practically useless in that darkness. 

Winter is coming, but I think we're ready. 

Chicken Day

Saturday we will process about half of the Cornish Crosses. For those of you interested in helping, shoot me an email. Slaughter Saturday also means that this is the last week to pre-order. After Saturday birds will sell for the normal $20.

We still have Freedom Rangers ($20) available as well as a few Dark Cornish ($8).

Pig Tales

This week I discovered pigs like to have their bellies rubbed. One in particular likes to be scratched. A couple of others would rather I just feed them.

Nicholas picked up a couple pumpkins a neighbor threw out on the way to the farm. The pigs appreciated their treat!

Over all, keeping pigs is quite pleasant. Though the rains last week led to the purchase of the best farm boots ever: Muck Boot Company boots.

Some may wonder if I'll be sad on slaughter day. A little I'm sure, but these pigs exist to be food. In the mean time I want them to curl their tails a lot and run and lounge in the sun and be as piggy as they please.

Small Update

One of our hens started laying about a week ago. Today is the second time she laid an egg two days in a row. Most of the eggs she laid her first week had double yolks and both rich gold colored and delicious! I wonder if the eggs this week also have double yolks.

Can't wait for the other hens to start laying.

September Summary

September ends with the completion of a few big projects. We moved the chickens from the hoop house to a Salatin Box to protect them from hawks and themselves, rebuilt the brooder, and processed the meat birds on October 1st.

The Salatin Box works great now that I've figured out a good routine. The chickens don't seem to mind the increased confinement much. Catching the birds for processing went much more smoothly, though it inflicted a different set of problems. We still need to find someone to fabricate a dolly for it. At the moment I pull it with either vehicle (the fit is go even on the farm). Over all, it is a reminder that we're still learning.

The re-built brooder now stands alone and better fortified against raccoons while also more accessible for the humans. Hopefully the chicks will arrive tomorrow as planned and let us know what works and does not work. I still need to paint it. Since winter is coming and I tend to become depressed with all the gray in the world, I decided to paint the base white and the roof yellow.  Once Le Petite Poulet has a logo we will paint that on it too.

                                 

Processing went very well Saturday, October 1st. We managed to round up five other people to help. One person had processed before, one volunteer brought their fishing and deer cleaning experience and others just caught on well. We processed about 60 birds between 9AM and 1:30PM. Then we all sat down for lunch, which was tasty thanks to Hal who also provided the driveway and equipment. One dedicated volunteer even stayed to help put away the equipment. Our volunteers rock!

New Brooder: Now a Two Day Project

Whew! We had a full day today constructing most of the new brooder. Perhaps we could have finished today had I gotten up sooner and if we did not have the current flock to tend. One problem still may have stymied us: the lack of a trailer or another strong person.

Nicholas and I moved our basic frame near the cabin in order to use the new air-compressor and pneumatic staple gun (Nicholas' new favorite store: Harbor Freight). Sadly, after adding to the frame, I could not help move it back to the area we want to set it. I know, fail.

So, flatbed trailer just moved up the list of things the farm needs.

The Hawk Buffet is Closed

After being greeted by clumps of feather and bits of bird every day the last couple of weeks, Nicholas and I built a Salatin Box. Well, a modified version. I owe many thanks to Rachel Prickett's A Daring Adventure blog and Troubador Farm's flickr. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and experiences!

A normal Salatin Box is two feet tall. We made ours three feet tall to allow more air flow because it is hot here in the Southeast. Sure, we get snow and frost some, but most of the year we worry about keeping animals and ourselves cool and hydrated. When I get around to making another one, I may try to contrive a way to pitch the roof to allow even more airflow.

We lost several chickens recently to both kites, hawks, and yes, even the fence and the chicken's own self-destructive tendency to panic. In fact, while building the Salatin Box we chased off a kite before s/he could kill one of our Dark Cornish.


Below is a photo journal of this past weekend.

 

 

I am a goddess!

Well, at least that's what the Freedom Rangers seem to believe.

About a week ago, after still not having all of the necessary slip-ts to build the portable PVC pen for the layers, and losing some layers to a prying nocturnal predator, I moved the layers to the hoop house.

Then, I lost more layers, but not to hawks or nocturnal predators. It took me a couple of days and five chicks, but after a conversation with my guru, Hal, I figured out that the other chickens killed and ate those layers. He also uknowingly, gave me the solution to the rampant cannibalism among my flock. The chickens crave protein. The towering Freedom Rangers pecked on and then ate the little layers because they're diet lacked sufficient protein. Hal told me about wheat germ and that he started using it almost as a substitute for the pricier fish meal. Wheat germ has the added benefit of being procured locally.

I started feeding it that very afternoon and sure enough, no more cannibalism. The Freedom Rangers now recognize me and come running every time I feed them. It is their crack. But if wheat germ is their crack, then Bluegill guts,skin,and heads are their cocaine.

My landlord kindly left a bucket of unwanted Bluegill remains for me to feed to the chickens. I dumped them out in a row outside the hoop house for them to eat. Unfortunately, a thunderstorm came up not long after and one Barred Rock did get pecked on quite badly so I brought her home. Yet, after the storm passed and I went to fix the fence posts, I could not walk without tripping over Freedom Rangers. They swarmed around my legs in hope that I would rain down more protein to them. Either I am a revered character in their eyes or a meaty treat they just haven't quite figured out how to eat yet.

A Few Changes

We made a few improvements on our hoop house for the second flock. First, we added softball netting to the electric fence to keep the chicks in the fence. The last week before slaughter for the first flock I lost a chicken almost every day, during the day, outside the fence. Something kept killing them one-at-a-time and chewing off the head and neck, which indicates a small mammal. Though one day all we found was a leg thanks to the nature's awesome clean-up crew, black vultures. In order to keep the chickens safe, I put up the softball netting. Unfortunately, the Friday before slaughter we did loose a bird to the fence. *Sigh*, chickens really do look for ways to die.

The new flock more-or-less mind the fence and none have gotten so tangled or panicked to die from it. I have not found any evidence of predation either. The Dark Cornish have found their way out of the fence some and I catch them and toss them back inside, but none seemed to get out this weekend.

 We also added 80 percent knitted shade cloth to the hoop house. WHAT A DIFFERENCE! The chickens lounge inside during the heat of the day and they're cool enough to keep eating. They don't huddle around the ends hoping to catch a breeze under their wings. No, they're spread out, lounging in the grass, walking around some and eating voraciously. I believe the comfort of the hoop house keeps them from wanting to venture outside of the fence too much.

Ask me why I have a chicken in a box on my washer.

Go ahead.
All right.
Nick and I moved the hoop house in such a way that required a pivot yesterday, and one of the poor Freedom Rangers got his leg caught under the left skid. Unfortunately we it took us a minute to realize what happened. This young cockerel is now sitting in a box in the laundry/pre-brooder room.

He walks with a limp, but can move his injured leg and curl his toes. I think with a few days' rest we can return him to the chaos and comfort of his flock.

Another chick got a leg caught today, again, with the pivoting. This time it was just Nicholas moving the house and I think the bird just got caught during the turn without any forward movement to compound his injury. We kept him in the tack room for a while, but before we left this chick walked and even ran with a very faint limp, so s/he went back into the flock.

The Freedom Rangers seem more prone to getting caught under the skids because they lack fear. Dark Cornish chicks stay well away from the sides during the moves, but the Freedom Rangers seem not to always recognize danger. Their lack of fear makes them easier to handle, but more likely to get run over (Keep in mind, we pull our house manually so it is not going very quickly!).

New Chicks!

Sunday we received our Murray McMurray shipment of chicks. Dark Cornish, Silver Spangled Hamburgs, and White Crested Black Polish chicks, plus a free exotic chick make up this recent shipment. The Dark Cornish I plan to raise as broilers like the flock I have on the pasture now. The other breeds I plan to keep as layers.

In our first flock, we received a white crested black polish chick as our free exotic chick. Unfortunately, it died. Nicholas thought it was cute, so when choosing birds to keep around, we decided to get a few of those.

Unlike the last order from Murray McMurray, this one arrived after only a day and a half of travel and I only lost two chicks within the first 48 hours. All and all a success.

Chicks in the brooder with Gimpy.

The Freedom Ranger chicks arrived this morning. They almost tower over the Dark Cornish chicks. All arrived in an energetic state after their two day travel through the postal system. I brought them home and let them drink and eat fruit before heading out to the brooder.

Half of the newly arrived Freedom Ranger flock.

My clever scheme also allowed me time to eat breakfast. The chicks seemed so energetic that I decided they could go straight out instead of spending the night with us. Nicholas helped me pack them back into their shipping box and off we went. Once in the brooder they quickly made themselves at home and began mingling with the other chicks. They also began darting around like pinballs.What a great way to start the day!

Give Me Land, Lots of Land...

Despite the PicknChickn Application's description of the Cornish as lazy, my dark Cornish seem quite willing and excited to explore for food. True, they do not tolerate mid-day heat very well and tend to find a shady spot to sit, but when they do forage about, they roam fairly far. Luckily the neighbor has not complained and having the fresh manure near the barn scratched through is good.

Regalo and Louis appreciate the chickens for a couple of reasons. Their favorite thing about the pastured chickens seems to be the corn/oat mix left behind the hoop house. Decreased flies are their other favorite aspect of sharing the pasture with chickens, though I cannot say the horses necessarily realize the correlation. Nonetheless, I no longer think Louis needs that $80 Baker fly sheet.

Yenti has a Kitten

A few weeks ago we brought Nike home. For reference, the owner of the mother studies Latin and gave them all Roman names, but I prefer the Greek pronunciation Nee-Kay.

Nike seemed like a possible snack to the hounds and pure trouble for Chorni. She spent her first week with us locked in the bathroom for her protection. Nicholas brought her out one afternoon and laid down on the bed with her to read. Yenti also climbed on the bed. While Nicholas read, Nike wandered over to the greyhound. Once Nicholas realized she'd gone around him, he sat up, but found Yenti playing with the kitten. Thus began a friendship.

Chorni still demonstrates that herding cats can be done, sort of. And Jatamer doesn't really care for Nike much, but he doesn't try to eat her. In fact, this whole time, he's been very perceptive that his pack leaders would punish him if he tried to eat the kitten. Nike's initial response to explore instead of run away also helps fight back Jatamer's strong "must eat small furry thing" instincts. If the small furry thing does not run, he cannot chase.

Nike acts a bit like a dog, which will prove good. For instance, she follows the humans around, she comes when called, and she helps Yenti eat her dog food. After all of this, I doubt Nike will spend much time as a barn cat until (because it probably will happen in her lifetime) we move to a farm.

The Devastation of Design Flaws

Last Wednesday I learned the power of the wind.

My chicks roam the pasture near their hoop house with very little disturbance. Their first day or so they had the protection of a mocking bird. That sounds silly, perhaps, but a pair of mocking birds nest in a pine tree near the driveway on one side of the pasture and one almost always sits vigilant on the power line running over that length of pasture. Mocking birds make a great fuss whenever a threat approaches, and I believe this warning protects my flock from raptors. The red blinking lights Hal recommended seem to keep out owls at night and the electric fence, and I suspect, the horses keep out unwanted canines and varmints. However, none of these protections stood against the wind or the stupidity of the chickens on Wednesday.

I arrived that afternoon to find the hoop house a few yards away from the pen. I also noticed something else, which I tried to ignore driving in, opening the gates: silence and stillness. As I walked up the hill I caught the faint smell of death.


 The wind pushed the hoop house over the fence, but the birds did not follow their home. No, instead they remained in the full sun of a very hot afternoon. Their waterers had been smashed by the hoop house, their feeder knocked over. The toppled feeder seemed like a good, shady place to some chickens. Chickens, being worse than sheep at thoughtlessly following each other to death, piled into the feeder.


 Several died in the feeder. Some apparently died from being run over by the hoop house, and others remained near death's door due to heat exhaustion from what I could tell. Panicking, I decided to water them first, and then retrieve the grove tent. After what felt like an eternity of fumbling with the tent in the wind, I gave up and went back to the barn to get a box. I called Nicholas and began sobbing. The challenge of trying to save the rest seemed overwhelming. I felt the worst sense of helplessness and guilt. Nicholas left his office and headed for the barn, a trip that would take at least forty minutes.

Feeling some relief that reinforcement was on the way, I collected my wits and grabbed our chicken crate (very large Amazon.com box) and went to gather survivors. By this point, those relatively healthy drank water and rested. I began gathering the ones not strong enough to stand. I chose a couple very bad off ones, and after delivering the first load to the hoop house, I made the decision to only gather birds I thought might recover.

At this point a few thoughts went through my mind. First, if the hoop house looked like a covered wagon and those were compared with ships on the prairie, then this seemed like a ship wreck without a lifeboat. Watching the ones barely alive made me wonder what shepherds carry to quickly kill suffering sheep. Did they carry something like the ax of the Royal Cavalry's farrier? I wished I had a sharp thing like that to quickly end their pain. 

When Nicholas arrived (still in a tie, btw) I stood in the doorway of the hoop house, keeping the wind from blowing it anymore with all but about six of the surviving birds. Six left out had water and some shade, but were well enough to evade me. Instead of chasing them and making them more hot, I decided to leave them and round them up later.

We modified the house (cut a door on the other end) and weighted it down with a bag of gravel at each entrance. We also hung the feeder so that if the wind does move the hoop house again, the feeder will not topple over giving a false sense of security to any hot chicks. Then we set about gathering and counting the dead. One bird seemed about to die for over an hour, and Nicholas suspected the hoop house ran over it. Nicholas did what I'd cowardly avoided, and finished the bird with a knife. We lost nearly 40 birds out of about 98. To avoid attracting vultures, we buried them in the compost pile.

I am relieved to report that despite the very weak state of some chicks that made it to the hoop house that afternoon, no more died that night. We did not lose another bird from those that initially survived.

The lesson here, dear readers, is to take the extra time and think about how your design will function, even in the wind. Honestly, we thought the structure too heavy to move like that, but the plastic provided enough area for the wind to exert force and move the house several feet. Another lesson may be to show humbleness. I felt punished for my hubris thinking myself clever for not losing any chicks to varmints after so many people talked about coyotes and owls and skunks. Only one person warned of wind, but very subtly.

Moving Day

Nicholas and I moved the hoop house from the barn yard to the pasture proper. Unfortunately, this involved dragging it quite a ways because it would not fit through the narrow gate directly joining the enclosures. The already too long journey was made worse by the heat of the early afternoon.

We managed to catch/herd most of the chicks to the new hoop house location. About thirty holed up under a cedar tree along the fence line. After HOURS of attempting to catch all of them, twenty still remained. Hot, dehydrated, hungry and generally irritated we drove home for a couple of hours. Nicholas inquired with Hal as to the chances the chicks might find their own way to the new location. He shared his doubt that the chicks would be "inclined" to find the hoop house on their own. 

Nicholas and I drove back around dusk and found the chicks much more willing to leave the cedar tree. Working in tandem, we drove the chicks up the hill to the new location. Only one proved to be dim witted, even for a chicken. After a few minutes he finally managed to find his way through the fence. The day ended with all of the chicks with the hoop house on fresh pasture.

My only regret is not having a camera to capture Nicholas' absurd crouching posture he assumed to herd the chicks. At this point, I also think the story would do well with illustrations akin to the wonderful Hyperbole and a Half blog.

Week Four

I ordered dark cornish chicks from Murray McMurray in April. After a bit of a rough start, we have around 98 chicks running amok in the brooder. With a lot of help, tried and true advice, and some luck, this will not be my last pastured flock.

The older chicks started playing King of the Waterer last week. This week more joined in the poultry games. The older chicks turn 4 weeks old Friday. We originally planned to turn them onto the pasture this weekend, but our plastic sheeting will not arrive until next week. Ah, delays.

The hoop house frame looks great thanks to Nicholas' hard work and Hal's wise advice. Once we finish the hoop house I will write a post showing each step of the construction.