Shari’s Gone Country

Mom’s dream has come true! She has her very own hand-raised, fresh chickens in the freezer.

When we were building the coop and ordering the birds, besides wanting fresh brown eggs, she told me she really looked forward to “good, old-fashioned chicken” she could bake. She’s so tired of the fatty, pale, tasteless store-bought stuff.

Sunday, Cindy and James (the neighbor boy) and I dispatched 11 cockerels (young roosters) to the freezer.

Saturday at dusk, Cindy and I selected and captured the “roo’s”, placing them in a holding pen. With only water, and no feed, they’d be much less messy to butcher. Since our “butchering station” is pretty primitive, we thought it better to skin the birds and simply cut away the best parts (each wing, both boneless breasts, and the leg/thigh) and discard the rest this year.

It took about 20 minutes per bird from start to finish. James was in charge of keeping us in ice water, and running the finished birds into Mom, so she could do a final wash, pat dry and pop into the freezer bags.

All in all, the job wasn’t nearly as messy or traumatic as I thought it could have been. One of the neighbors happened by when they saw us “hanging out” by the trees. I think he was impressed. I think I remember him telling Bev to put him on “Mom’s Egg List”.

You see, we’ve promised her that she can have all the “egg money”.

Oh boy… the “monsoonal flow” has arrived.

What’s that mean?

Well, it means higher humidity. Mornings now start out at over 50% and only drop to the mid twenties. That makes the heat index a few degrees higher. It also means afternoon and evening thunderstorms, mostly the “dry kind”.

You see, we have a lot of what is termed “virga”. That’s rain that never hits the ground because the air close to the ground is too hot and dry… it makes the rain evaporate in mid-air.

Lightening, is almost always the “to the ground” kind… and that’s really dangerous, not just because it hit’s things like buildings, animal, and even people… but because it starts fires in our tinder-dry area.

That means we spend even more time watching the horizon, looking for tell-tale wisps of smoke.

I’ve added a “weather underground” widget, so you can follow along with us… look in the left side-bar. Of course, you can all get more weather detail at my Weather “Wunder Blog”

So, what’s with the sheep these days?

We think “Merino” is pregnant. I’ve been giving her a handful of “sweet feed” each morning. That supplements her normal alfalfa ration. If she’s preggie… she should be due by the first of August, as she left the neighboring farm (and ram) in early March.

The rest of the girls “could” be pregnant and deliver as late as mid-October. That would be sweet as we’d finally have a crop of lambs for the spring market.

Algernon, our ram is getting lonesome…

Each time I go out to the sheep pens, he puts his front hooves up on the fence panels wanting attention. He just loves to have his chin scratched, his ears rubbed, and his name called. How do I know? He tells me so with contented (although stinky) burps.

The chickens are nearly grown… I’m having visions of chicken dinners. At least three of our young boys have learned to crow. That means they’re about ready to butcher. I’ve got several years experience, but still find it a somewhat messy job.

All the chickens have learned to beg. “Mom” generally has treats twice a day, so whenever any of us approach the run… they all come “a running”… it’s so cute!

Dusty is growing up so fast.

It’s been some time since he’s made serious attempts at biting any of us. Also, he’s learned that water is “good”, especially when Cindy holds the sponge to his face.

He’s learned that tying means he has to stand still. Fortunately, we’ve not done anything to him to cause him not to stand still… Even placing his saddle blanket and saddle on him was ok with him.

This last weekend, Cindy borrowed a bareback pad and cinched it to him.

Sure, he did a little bucking… and cow-kicking (those are the **** you kicks)… and even got too frisky and flipped over backwards… but soon discovered it was too much effort. That pad wasn’t coming off!

It’s been a while since I’ve posted pics of our little ranchette and the progress we’re making…

First, here are some comparison pics of our chicks. In each case, the 3 wk old pic is top and the 4 wk old is bottom. Now you can see why I said “scratch the junior roost!”

First up… our new screen door, and how Mindy feels about it.

Chicks with the new watering platform:

Feeder is getting a little crowded… the new, larger one got here this last weekend.

Look Mom, we know all about these roosts!

Oh, what’s this? I know I can find a little solace and maybe some “spilled feed” up here.
Here’s what the chicks haven’t seen yet… their new “run” that’s not complete yet. We still have to put up the fence and netting.

Our other major project has been the new greenhouse. Mom has wanted a greenhouse for years and here, it’s a real necessity. We can extend our growing season to match that of more “normal” areas. Instead of having to wait until almost June to plant seeds outdoors, we can get started in early spring. Also, we we’ll have a place to shelter the late stuff from that “end of August” killing frost.

The overall: 20 feet by 12 feet by 8 feet 6 inches bolted into railroad ties that are dug into the sand. They’ll be “tied down” with six fence posts and long lag bolts.

Here’s our rather crowded sheep pen. Quadrupling it’s size is one of our high priority projects. Along with that, we’ll be extending an underground water line and frost free hose bib.

Aside from that big guy in the middle (our Ram named Aljinon), these are the new additions.

Our “bummers”, Freezer (the black one) and Crybaby (ewe for our flock).
Lastly, here’s Dusty. This is Cindy’s two-year old Thoroughbred “project” horse. When he wants to, he can be very gentlemanly and sweet. In reality… Cindy has way too much respect for him (after being kicked really hard) and he has no respect for much of anyone.

And now for the front of the house…

We’ve had an ongoing project tearing out Tam Junipers, and then chopping/dragging out their roots. Finally, our neighbor who promised to bring his backhoe has returned to construct his home. That backhoe made short work of this mess… will get new pics when the current windstorm dies down.

In the meantime, here’s our first raised bed area and a peek at how nice the other side of the yard looks without the ugly roots.

Don’t need the “junior roost”. The Plymouth Barred Rock pullet chicks have discovered they can fly up to the real roost. I also saw one of the White Rocks… dunno if it was cockerel chick or a pullet.

We’re progressing on the screen door, having cut the lumber. Hopefully Bev will return home from work this afternoon with the brace/connector plates and other hardware.

This morning was a surprise.

Aljinon, our ram had gone over a short fence to join the two little bummer lambs. I was about to enjoy a peaceful morning coffee watching the hummingbirds and orioles when I heard the lambs making quite a commotion.

I knew they hadn’t seen me and were crying for their bottles… must be something different… it was.

Fortunately, he’s a pretty placid boy and didn’t hurt them. He wanted their hay, the big glutton.

I spent an hour and a half moving sheep by myself as Cindy had left for work and Bev was leaving. I’ve found when you exercise patience, they’ll eventually go where you want them.

To secure the little ones, I had to risk putting “Mama” and her twins into the big pen. This shouldn’t be a problem, except that Chiquita (our PolyPay) is a real “bitch”. She even keeps the ram in line.

First I managed to get Mama to move with only a short detour in the unfenced area leading to the hay wagon. Luckily, I managed to corral the twins in their original pen. All this time, the bummers were on the loose. They’re so tame they were under my feet the whole time. Finally, Mama went to the big pen and with extra hay, the bummers joined the twins.

Game on!

Chiquita chased Mama and tried to nip and butt her for about 20 minutes. After a while with some extra hay, they settled a bit. That was long enough for Mama to want her twins.

Now I had to get creative as their not tame like the bummers. And, I wanted only the twins, not the bummers in the big pen. By quickly constructing a temporary chute from the lamb pen to the big pen, and using Mama’s call, the twins got to the big pen safely.

After observing them for an hour or so, it looks like the sheep have settled in and there are no more major territory challenges.

This evening we’ll be making adjustments to the fencing… gotta do that at zero cost as this month’s funds are dedicated to chicken stuff and greenhouse stuff.

Oh boy, the little chicks are rapidly becoming young birds. Monday they turned 2 weeks old and got the run of virtually the entire coop.

The coop is 8 x 8 and built on a concrete pad that was already here. Their outside run hasn’t been fenced yet, but will extend about 32′ west of the SW corner and 25′ north of the NE corner and then complete the rectangle. We’ll then divide the pen diagonally back to the NW corner, establishing two separate runs.

I’m finding an inward opening screen door made from 1/2 inch hardware cloth would be a perfect addition. That way I can leave the door open and also when I want to go inside the coop, it will sweep the curious birds inward.

Tomorrow we’re building a “junior roost” to help the youngsters get up the the bigger roosts. I found one dropping, so someone has been working on their flying skills.

As soon as I see birds flying 4 feet or higher, it’s time to clip wings. These are all heavy breeds, so don’t really expect to repeat the process more than twice as they’re growing. After a while, they’ll learn flying isn’t something they have to do.

The final home for both water and feed will most likely be below the nest boxes (which aren’t completed yet).

Our plan is to hold off on a lot of the final construction until we can let the birds outside in about three weeks.

One thing we did learn, and will be correcting is that our big black lab could dig her way into the coop with not much effort. She’s dug into the engineered “plywood” enough to get our attention. Now a roll of flashing is on our list. We’ll be installing it around the coop base and up the corners.

Wednesday morning we got the call from the PO… we have a box of peeping chicks for you.

Bev, Cindy, and I quickly got all the chores done. That meant feed the horse, the sheep, prepare the bottles for the lambs and get them fed, and make sure everything was right for the peeps, including turn on the brooder light to preheat their new home.

The gals at the PO had already “inspected” the chicks. Apparently they peek at each shipment… they’re just so darned cute. They also told us this was the healthiest batch of chicks they had seen come through the Post Office this year.

Our hatchery of choice is Welp. They’re located in Bancroft, IN, but have “satellite” facilities elsewhere. Our chicks originated in Albuquerque, NM. That’s one reason they are so bright and healthy.
We taught each how to drink before moving them to their new home. What a hoot! Mom was inspecting each one before handing them off to either Cindy or myself. Bev was taking the pictures.

Their brooder is in the chicken coop so we never have to fully relocate them, just remove the carboard from around them and spread more shavings. We can even expand the brooder in a week or so when they really become active.
Ok, so what did we get?

We got 5 Astrolorp females and 5 Astrolorp males, 5 Plymouth Barred Rock females, 5 Buff Orpington females, 5 White Rock straight run, 5 Golden Laced Wyandotte straight run, and 5 Silver Laced Wyandotte straight run.

That will give us a good assortment of brown egg layers, as well as some very tasty meat. Mom wanted lots of “color” so we have black, black and white, brown and white, red, golden, and white birds.

The first day we monitored them every 30 minutes and then finally every hour. By bed time, we were pretty confident, but I did get up at 1 AM to check/adjust the temp and then again at 6 AM.

Believe me, our dogs think we’re nuts. We finally had to leash two at a time and take them on a farm tour after the big black Lab (the only one that gets out without a leash) reported back to the rest. She’s still patrolling the coop exterior looking for a way in… I figure she’ll be a great help if we ever have a problem.

Since my last update, we’ve dug a 160 foot trench two feet deep and put new heavy wire into our well, dug out a broken water line, received two more bummer lambs, ordered and received another 2000 redworms to re-start our worm project, and have finally ordered our chicks.

The water line issue was really an emergency. It was supposed to be a “dig, find, and replace” of an old leaky frost-free that’s in our way at the chicken coop. Well, just 8 inches under the soil, we found dripping… that’s never a good sign when you expect the junction at a depth of at least 30 inches.

To complicate matters, the idiot who built this place ran underground electric wire in the same hole. He had both 220 volt and 110 volt. Thankfully our neighbor across the road had a tester so we could confirm it was not hot. What we still aren’t sure of, is whether or not it’s connected to either the main service or our panel.

Oh, that project took over 10 hours and we had to call more neighbors in to help us… Not a fun day!

The electric wire to the well was to solve a safety issue. For whatever reason, the previous owner allowed a contractor to run 14/3 wire 160 either just a few inches below the ground or on the ground, up and over the wall to the well. Last year the pump had to be replaced and this is most likely one of the causes.

We were finally able to get the project done correctly, digging a two foot deep trench, and encasing 10/3 wire in plastic electrical conduit from the point of exit at the house to the well head cover. Strange but for whatever reason, with the turning on and off of the water… the hot water heater is now screaming for replacement… does it ever end?

The chicken coop is nearly ready for the chicks. All that’s left is to temporarily close off all the “ventilation” and build the rest of the brooder. Cindy and I will get that done this weekend.

Freezer is growing fast. I’m starting to wean him now as he’s getting more than enough nutrition. He’s so funny when I let him out to play. Since his pen is only about 8 by 16, I like to let him run around when I’m working outside.

Our little female bummer is a screamer. She’s so loud we had to move her to the garage, just to get some sleep. She screams for attention… not because she’s hungry. Here she’s meeting Sarah.
Last night, a neighbor brought us a crippled up bummer. Now, this may sound cruel, but we’re using him as a “bed warmer” for her. He wants to live, but will never be able to stand. I’ll keep him for about five days or so, and then return him to the sheep ranch to be put down properly.

Cindy has re-started the worm project. We had a 100% total failure that may have been caused by our alkaline soil. Our worms disappeared… and no, they didn’t go walkabout. We frequent a forum of worm raisers and the only things we can identify are perhaps (no way to measure) a high ph and or salinity, and also not enough moisture.

This time, the worms are being raised in shredded paper, and are living in her bedroom. The temp is about 9 degrees warmer, so that should also help.

Our 35 chicks will arrive this week. We scaled the project back a bit to better fit our house as well as our budget.

Ah yes, it’s been 10 days since I sat down to update this blog. I’ve found myself on the “business end” (that’s the handle) of shovels, hammers, and other assorted hand tools as we continue to finish the chicken coop.

We’ve now prepped the “yard” and will plant grass seed this next week. At the same time, I expect to order our chicks (just waiting on some commission payments). There are a few little details to finish… “bird doors”, a window in the man-door, as well as a vent. I need to construct the cardboard brooder guard and we have to finish the electricity. That could be as simple as using the outdoor extension cord, or maybe getting the actual line completed.

Monday we cleaned the sheep pen. I could smell rotting greens of some kind. When we had lambs in there last fall, they were very wasteful, not wanting to eat the alfalfa stems, so it would get tossed about the pen. With the frozen ground, snow and small flock of sheep romping and stomping about, it became quite compacted.

Cindy and I got it all raked and shoveled out. I must tell you that shoveling dry hay and pretty dry manure in a 15-20 mph wind was quite a challenge. Now they have a very clean pen. We also replaced the “lamb manger” with a large barrel. Voila! No waste… these animals eat everything.

Tuesday, I built our first real compost pile. Now… I’m taking this as a personal challenge since Cindy mentioned she’s never built a successful compost pile.

This is an area where you have to ADD water instead of protect from water. To build it, I first layed out an area about six feet in diameter and built it up about 9 inches. Then I watered it well.

We have some extra cardboard strips left from the worm bin, so am using those, too. I placed just a single layer, watered well, and then added another 9 inches or so of manure/hay mix. That process continued until I ran out of the mix. By the time I was done, my pile was about 3 feet high. I watered it well to hold it in place and left it for the night.

Now, I didn’t measure it directly after building it, but can easily estimate the starting pile temperature to be less than 70 degrees. Within 72 hours the pile temp is now over 112 degrees.

The last couple days, Cindy and I have been “hanging out” at a neighboring sheep ranch. It’s lambing time, and by being there at the right time, we get an awesome education, as well as can get another “bummer” or two.

Lambs are being born almost faster than helpers and the head shepherd can get them moved. Our “job” yesterday was to watch for pregnant ewes in the big pen who were going into labor. Imagine this, you’ve got a pen of over 100 spooky pregnant ewes and you only want to move the ones who are going into labor.

Here’s one gal that did make it to the small pen. If you look, you’ll see the “water bag”. Within five minutes the next little bundle (the bloody white newborn) dropped onto the straw.

Believe me, there were many more lambs born in the big pen and then moved, than ewes who were herded to the lambing pens. The trick with the one’s born in the big pen is to get to them before the other ewes… if a newborn lamb is cleaned by an “auntie”… the mother will most likely reject it… creating an immediate “bummer” for us.

We prefer they have at least been cleaned and have had the first of “mother’s milk” so they can get the important anti-bodies into their system before they have to be bottle-fed.

Mother’s get a little tired of the constant need for milk. We got this shot shortly after feeding time. Several ewes have discovered they can shuttle the little ones into the manger and get some rest… this nursery contains at least 3 sets of triplets.

As for “Freezer”, he’s growing up. We moved him to his larger pen in the garage. He’s getting three full bottles (20 oz soft drink type) a day now. When I go out to work, I let him out of his pen and he follows me around like a dog. If he’s listening, he even comes to my call.

We’re nearly finished with as much of the chicken coop as necessary before we order our day-old chicks.Got the roof on, and have nearly finished installing the roosts. Window are cut and the only thing remaining before ordering our chicks is to screen in the windows, and screen in the sofit area.

Dixie stopped by and commented she has “brooder” lights. We also have wrangled a small brooder, which will hold 50 chicks for a couple of weeks. Our plan is to put the chicks straight into the coop in their “warm area”.
That way, they can become used to humans and noise as we continue working on the exterior. They’ll live in their little area for about a month before allowed outside in their daytime pens.
While working on the coop, we had the little bummer out. He’s so cute in his little red harness. This weekend, we introduced him (very carefully) to the ewes and ram. He’s way too little to go into the pen by himself.

This morning I took him to the feed trailer while I fed the flock. He had his own little pile of alfalfa and was a happy little guy. He jumped and ran back and forth between the pen and the trailer.

No problem getting him to follow me… he really believes I’m his “mother”.

That’s all we’re hearing from Cindy’s Mom, who just can’t wait to have truly “farm fresh” eggs and chicken.

We have the “perfect spot” for an 8×8 foot coop, a concrete pad that has both water and electric (currently not functional) to it.

The coop is being built on the pad to the right, and the outside runs will be towards the tree and to the right (towards the sheep pen).

Bev and Cindy both have considerable construction experience, so aside from allowing me to pound nails into the plywood, I was “the mule”… You know, carry this, hand me that, wait for me… Geez, I got tired just watching them work.

All Mom will have to do is come out the back door, cross the driveway and walk about 60 feet to get to her chickens.

We’ll have a “peaked” roof… slope is 4:1, so not real steep, but enough to handle the snow load. This next weekend, we’ll have the roof on, and be ready to order our chicks.

Mom wants eggs. We figure as long as we’re going to have a hen or two for her, we might just as well have some brown eggs to sell. Total chicks on our list is 50. That should yield about 20 hens. Another neighbor aka “The Egg Lady” told us she has 15 hens and is getting about a dozen eggs a day.

I’d be thrilled if Bev could take orders in St. George or even Cindy taking orders in Enterprise to sell 10 doz eggs a week. With the price of eggs rising… and brown eggs on the high end, we could pretty much cover our costs and make a little profit.

We got the nest boxes installed (full of tools right now), the door, and a few of the rafters up before the wind got too bad. Time out for a couple days as the weather is pretty “iffy”… forecast for better than 30 mph wind and thunderstorms.