The Poultry Plunge

Chickens have been a great source of both happiness and tragedy in our lives here. Today, we bring you two stories. One tragic. The other almost magical.

The Carnage

It all began innocently enough with an order to McMurray hatchery for 15 Red Rangers. This bird is an impressive, fast-growing specimen that supposedly yields 70% live to dress weight, and takes only about 12 weeks to get there. The chicks were shipped over night, and the day they came, we got a phone call from the post office at 5 AM to come pick up the package....

Just a couple of days old, under the heat lamp. 

Holding with tradition, we started the birds inside the house, in the pack-and-play--the perfect sized contraption to hold small birds. (When a blanket is draped over the top, it's nearly cat-proof.) Once the birds began feathering out, we moved them into the shop, in a boarded up area roughly 15 by 15 feet.

Our neighbor, Cianna, cuddling a chick.

We chose Red Rangers because they are a natural-looking bird that will "forage" and, well, act like chickens. The more traditional meat birds, Cornish Rock crosses, can reach sizes of 3-4 pounds (dressed out) in as little as 6 weeks. However, their lives consist of sitting by the feeder and stuffing their faces around the clock. They look like hybrid monsters. We just couldn't stomach it. The Reds were an easy win.

A few weeks old now...

Once the Reds grew a little, we started opening the shop door and letting them roam outside, under close supervision.  Until one day...when I got called urgently into work and completely spaced that the chickens were out. You know how it goes. When I got home, it hit me what I had done, and I ran to the shop. I was stopped dead in my tracks by the first lifeless, feathered body lying on the pathway to the shop. In total, we found only three bodies. The shop was completely empty. No scattered feathers. Nothing.

The next day while watering the tomato pots, we heard a terrible screeching noise, and found one bird tucked so tightly behind the pots that she couldn't move. We "rescued" the poor thing and set her back in the shop set up. She'll live the rest of her PTSD-ridden life (about 3 more weeks) in lonely solitude, no doubt haunted by the massacre, and will carry the secret gory details with her, to the grave-y and potatoes.

Seriously though, we were heart broken, and still are, each time we check on our lonely bird.

We are slowly building up courage to begin the reordering process and hope to get a second batch of Reds to try and raise this summer.

In other chicken news, we finally had a success! Read on.

Nontraditional Family

The broody hen is the bane of the egg collector. She can peck to draw blood if you disturb her on her nest, and she doesn't lay eggs, as she's putting all that energy into hatching them. About 2 months ago we got a broody. And then a second. Two Black Australorps decided to take up the nests. After the last devastation with a broody bird (see prior post), I was hesitant, but ultimately decided to try out these new potential mothers. The two sat side by side for weeks, with feathers fluffed, and clucking softly.

After roughly 21 days of waiting, Bill and I found two cheeping chicks in the hen house! (Sadly, only one survived.) BUT, the survivor has two very doting hens...both who will peck your eye out if you even think about getting near their baby. This lucky little chicken has two mommies.

The Broody Breaker

The chicken Blondie turned out to be a wonderful incubator. She sat on her eggs dutifully, clucking angrily whenever anyone approached her nesting box. However, it turns out, she was a horrible mother. Horrible, as in: she literally pecked her chicks to death. Bill and I were heartbroken when we found the first dead chick, pecked and mangled, lying outside the box. I frantically researched options and ultimately, I stole five of the remaining seven eggs out from under mama Blondie, and attempted to set up an artificial incubator. Some of the eggs rocked and "peeped", so I knew the time was close. I carefully set them in a box with wood chips, and angled the heating lamp accordingly to keep a temp at 100 degrees. I dabbed them once in a while with a moist paper towel. That night I sat by the box for an hour and watched. Then I slept for an hour, rechecked. Solid 100 degrees. Then, 2 hours later, the temp was still holding strong. Then I made the mistake of falling asleep for four straight hours. I woke up in a start, ran to the box, and to my utter horror, saw the thermometer reading 137 degrees.

It took me exactly one week to stop feeling so terrible that I could write about the results. No question, Blondie was bad, but so was I. I had cooked the chicks.

I did bring myself to check the eggs and calculate fertility rates. Blondie started with 11 eggs. Of these, only four (36%) had developed almost fully. The two eggs I left under Mama Blondie turned out to be unfertilized.

From beginning (acquiring the rooster and introducing him to the flock), to end, this hopeful-turned-horrible project took about 7 weeks.

Just to be clear, I am not giving up. And, true to my streak of impatience, I went straight away to Murdoch's ranching store and, against Bill's better judgement, bought the solo egg incubator they had on the shelf. I was determined to hatch some baby chicks even if Blondie wouldn't cooperate.

The incubator I brought home is made by Little Giant, model 9200, which is a still air (no circulation) variety. I added some accessories: an automatic egg turner and a fan, to increase probability of survival. (Eggs need to be turned 2 to 3 times a day to prevent the yolk from sticking to the shell and screwing up chick development. Also, a fan keeps the temp more uniform.) When I pulled the contraption out of the box, I was staring at, basically, nothing more complicated than a Styrofoam container, two pieces fitted together, with two plastic windows on top to watch the incubation progress, and a place for eggs and a heating element inside. Very efficient, but nothing fancy.  

I knew energy would be an issue, but the heating element itself runs about equivalent to a 40 watt bulb. This is do-able when we have decent sun days, like we're having now. So I was ready to dive in again and gather up some more eggs. Bill semi-grudgingly let me scheme and dream along, all the while gently reminding me the energy requirement for this endeavor might be too high. It wasn't until he pointed out that beyond the 21 days of incubation, we'd require probably another 6 weeks of a heating element for the growing baby chicks. That would put us running an inefficient heating lamp into November and December...months when we just don't have that kind of solar energy.

I finally came back to reality, abandoned my immediate plan to start again, and temporarily packed up the incubator. It can wait a few more months to hatch some chicks. And so can I.

Lessons Learned:

• It is extremely hard to try and simulate the conditions underneath a broody hen (I failed miserably). She keeps it 99.5 degrees and 80% humidity. She also turns the eggs several times daily, until the last week of their development, when they do best to stay in the same position to prep for hatching. 
• Not all hens make good mothers. 
• "Time and tide [and sun] wait for no man". But sometimes you do have to wait for it.

The Pressure's On: August Updates

After two years of water bath canning, we dug in and bought a pressure canner today. Nothing against all the vinegary sweets we've created via water bath...pickled beets and dilly beans are still on our 2012 agenda. We were just ready to start putting away more of our garden. And with only 8 cubic feet of storage in our solar powered freezer, canning is the obvious way to go. Right now I'm babysitting a batch of stew that's merrily steaming along in the canner. It makes this really nice, steamy metronome sound as the weight rocks on top, and it's peaceful just to sit by and listen. So, as that cooks, here are some updates:

Straw Potatoes

 The garden went nuts this year. We've had a long growing season, and frost is not in the forecast for the next couple of weeks. A couple people asked about straw potatoes, so here is a more in depth look at the process. Our ground, as mentioned in prior posts, is hard, rocky, and low in organic content. A friend told me about growing tubers in straw. This is my second year, with good results so far. Also, this year, I can really see the straw composting and adding to our garden soil. Here's how:

1. Put potatoes on ground and cover in 12-14" of straw.

2. Water

3. Watch them grow.

4. Harvest by pulling back the straw.

The Pig Debate: Grain vs. Grass

Our hogs went to slaughter last week. Hanging, they weighed 150, 159 and 159. We were pleased, and are looked forward to the maple-brined, smoked hams and bacon. Buying grain, however, is something we didn't enjoy...especially with the price hike this year. Bill and I have been looking into options of grazing, and might be branching out into heirloom varieties of pigs who can sustain themselves on grass. Large Blacks or Red Wattlers are the ones we're particularly interested in....so next year, look for pastured pork in place of pink Yorkshires on Blue Cloud. The grazers won't put on 200 lbs in 3 months like our pinkies did...but we won't be buying grain every week either.

Cock-A-Doodle-Doo!
	We added a new addition to the farm. Our rooster, a gift from a neighbor up the road, is scrawny and his crow is giggle-worthy, but he is successfully fertilizing eggs! (And, he doesn't crow until about 9 AM!) We'll see if broody Blondie (at it again, and determined as ever) can hatch any chicks in about 20 days.

The Gobblers It's about that time of year again. The turkeys are getting big and about ready to be put into the freezer. Bill really improved his gobble this year and has become quite the turkey farmer. See it for yourself. (video coming soon)

Pesky Sheep

A recent speed-bump in our progress came when our neighbor's twenty head of sheep escaped their pasture....and roamed on our land for several days. Our orchard and windbreak got munched on, and, though the damage could have been worse, seeing those nibbled-down, broken, leafless branches, I was immediately deflated...and then enraged. I debated putting lamb chops into our freezer. But Bill, as always, calmed me down. And we put up an electric fence. And crossed our fingers that our neighbors will take care of their pesky roaming fluff-balls.

Now, Hurry Up and Grow

The Tree Team: Dad, Jo, Bill and Me 

As I'm sitting down to type this, it is down-pouring outside and the thunder is rumbling. Rain couldn't have come at a better time. Over the past four days, "The Tree Team ," Bill, myself, my dad and my step-mom Jolynn, planted over 300 trees into our rocky, cement-like front yard. It was, admittedly, exhausting work, and we all ended up with some aches and blisters, but we are pretty proud of those beautiful rows of new little plants...that are now soaking up all that wonderful rain!

We moved efficiently; but those concrete-like clods and ever present melon-sized rocks were something to reckon with. We didn't add any supplements to our soil as we planted, only a few scoops of "topsoil" from a local sand and gravel company (which looked a lot more like organic-starved fill dirt) when we sometimes needed something finer to work with alongside all those clumps and rocks. My dad was a machine, and the farmer in him came busting out, ready to tackle anything and to keep us all moving our shovels.

A Doug Fir, bright green and ready
to grow!

The trees and shrubs came mostly bare-root from DNRC's nursery in Missoula. As I mentioned in the earlier blog, the windbreak consists of 7 rows:




Outside row: Caragana
6th row: Juniper and Honeysuckle
4th and 5th rows: Ponderosa Pine and various shrubs
3rd row: Douglas Fir and Nanking Cherry
2nd row: Green Ash and Snowberries
Inner row: Serviceberries

We pre-dug the holes with the mini-ex a few weeks ago (see last blog post), so the holes were extremely dry and hard to work. Bill and I hadn't planned to put up any deer-fencing, as it truly is rare to see deer (mostly Muleys) hanging around by our place. However, after working to get those trees into the ground, we decided we'd rather not risk it, and we plan to put up an electric fence shortly, in hopes to deter whatever deer are in search of some yummy new growth.

The watering system is not yet in place, but will consist of a series of PVC, black plastic water hose, and emitters for a drip irrigation system.

Other updates: 

We finally conquered the relocation of the hen house! It took some scheming, but Bill figured it out.

The Hen House on rollers.

How to move a shed with an 18V cordless drive...
...oh, and a winch!

We rolled it about 100 feet south, away from our generator and sewage drain field, to a flatter pasture area. Using a 2-ton car jack, we elevated it and stabilized it on two 4x4's.  Then we lifted it again, high enough to slide in sections of 2x4 track and several 5"  "roller" logs. With the roller logs sandwiched between the 4x4's and the 2x4's, we pulled the house forward using a hand winch attached to the back of the truck, leap-frogging the track and rollers as we moved the house along.  Easy peasy!  Thank you YouTube!
We even managed to turn the thing 90 degrees by slowly shifting the angles of the logs and pulling from one corner.




The main reason for the shed move was to accommodate our newest farm addition: pigs!

After the building was in place, we put up fencing to enclose about 1000 square feet of pasture. We opted for cattle panels instead of hog panels to save a few bucks; the hole spacing is a little wider, but it's small enough to contain our 50lb "piglets".  We used some recycled house logs for the corner posts and some left over t-posts to break up the 16-ft panels. To help build the fence we finally bought an iron tamp bar, which made all the difference in digging rocky areas and securing posts. Should have had that in hand when we first moved in.Bill framed in a wall/door to split up the hen house, to accommodate the pigs as well.

Building fence around the "new" hog/chicken house.

We brought our  little piggies to Blue Cloud late last night. They weren't too pleased about the bumpy truck ride to our house and squealed to let us know it, but they seem to be getting along nicely now in their grassy pasture. All we need to do now is build a feeder, and we're set.

We purchased the pigs from a Hutterite colony near Choteau.  I guess the price of pork has gone up drastically since last year, increased from 1 to nearly 2 dollars per pound for wiener pig. But we're sure happy to have them on the farm. After we unloaded them late last night (a tricky affair from the back of our pickup truck), Bill and I stood at the fence panel, awe-struck that we finally did it, and smiling to hear their little grunts as they munched on the grass. Butchering time should be around August. Yum, bacon!

 

The Blue Cloud Bunch