On our farm we are constantly improving everything we can regarding care of our animals and care of our land, and one exciting new way we are working to do just that is through the use of biochar. Biochar is simply (or maybe not simply) charcoal that has been allowed to become filled with plant-available nutrition and bacteria. We use a retort we built from recycled materials so that we can heat wood without burning it. This process results in the wood being reduced to pure carbon (charcoal) which we then put through a composting process to allow that carbon to take up all kinds of nutrients for our soil. Once it has been composted, also referred to as inoculated, we will add it to our garden plantings, tree plantings, and areas that will benefit from increased fertility and water retention. We will publish before and after pictures as well as our retort building process so that anyone who wants to replicate our process can. The retort looks like this:
A quick Google or YouTube search will yield many useful and interesting results for making and using biochar. Here is a link that we have found particularly informative: Biochar Resources – The Survival Podcast
This is the kiln built from relatively easy to find materials
This site has taken the time to consolidate many (more than you likely will need) biochar resources into one easy-to-reference page. One thing to consider is that before you bother improving the soil with biochar (or any other amendments) you would do well to stop any detrimental practices you are using such as tilling, spraying herbicides, pesticides, chemical fertilizers, not gardening, etc. As was stated in a seminar we recently attended; “Get the basics down first, then you can worry about the freaky [stuff]”.
This is charcoal produced by the kilnBiochar soaking to break the hydrophbic properties
Another exciting piece of news is our farm was selected to conduct a silvopasture research project by Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (NE SARE). Our project will consist of developing a system of pig rotation and establishing beneficial plants in our woodlot so that we are not only providing the pigs a more diverse and nutritious diet, but also improving the overall biodiversity and wellness of our woods and soils. We will publish our activities and findings frequently so that other farmers (or would-be farmers) can see what we are doing and replicate it while avoiding any mistakes we have already made. We look forward to showing you our progress as this project takes form!
Thanks for reading and have a great day!
Tanya vs farm animal… here we go again. Grab a blanket, get comfy, and enjoy the story.
I will preface this by saying that the donkey did not attack me. Jasper is a good donkey. He is very intelligent. He is also, so I learned yesterday, stubborn when he wants something. Jasper can be a bully.
Jasper has always been very docile. He is a great pet and loves to be near his people getting pet. There are times when he can be mouthy. He tries to grab things with his lips. Behind those lips are big ole donkey teeth so you must be careful in case he gets a little too excited.
We have the chicken tractors in Jasper’s pasture, and this has been working well. However, Jasper has been growing bolder as we go in and out of the pasture with feed and water for the chickens. Jasper likes chicken feed. He likes it a lot. Just recently while CJ was in the chicken tractor filling up waterers, Jasper snuck over to the trailer, lifted up the bucket full of chicken feed, set it on the ground, and proceeded to eat it all before CJ could stop him. Jasper now has a taste for chicken feed.
This is how things went down for me yesterday…
CJ is at work. Isn’t that how my stories all start? It is my job at lunch to check on the chickens and fill waterers. They typically do not need the feeders refilled until after CJ gets home. I load up the trailer with my water buckets and drive the mower/trailer out into the pasture. I take care of the waterers and notice that on this day, they do in fact need feed. I do have a bucket of feed, but its only enough to fill two tractors. I must go back for more. I will add here that Jasper stays away from me when I water, because I keep the mower running and the noise scares him. I am usually quick with my job whereas CJ has more to do so he takes longer. I finish up and drive back out of the pasture. Jasper does not come anywhere near me.
I grab more feed, but I only need a little bit, so I decide to walk it up. No need in driving the mower/trailer up there for just a couple of buckets. I need one bucket of feed and one bucket of grit. You must add grit to the chickens’ feed. I get to the gate and I see Jasper has moved closer to the chicken tractors. I second guess myself about walking up. It is a long way to the tractors, and I do not have the mower to keep him away from the feed. I decide that it is fine. This is Jasper. My sweet, docile, nice donkey. He will not be a problem. I walk to the chicken tractors.
All is well. I feed the chicks and emerge with one completely empty feed bucket and one bucket with just a tiny bit of dirt/grit. Jasper has arrived. I pet him for a little. I see him eying the buckets, so I hold them both up to him and let him see for himself that they are both empty. He confirms this and removes his head from the buckets. I start to walk off.
Now this is where things happen. I walk just a bit and Jasper trots up to me nudging the buckets. I tell him “Nothing in there buddy, I already showed you”, but I show him again anyway. He confirms yet again that they are indeed empty. I walk away again.
Jasper trots up and nudges the buckets. “Dude, there is nothing in there but dirt!”, I say sternly. He stands there offended while I walk away, again.
Here he comes again. I have made some distance this time and I notice Jasper is becoming more excited. He did not trot up to me. He ran. Jasper does not run often; he is a lazy donkey. This time, he is being mouthy. He is being very stubborn. I take note of his stubborn, excited behavior. Large, stubborn, excited, animals give me cause for concern after the cow attack. “Fine, you want the dirt? Here you can have the dirt bucket!” I place the dirt bucket on the ground. Jasper sticks his head in and examines the bucket. I walk quite a bit faster now.
Jasper does not like the bucket of dirt. This is unacceptable to him. I see him begin to run. Fine, I can run too. Jasper is a donkey. Jasper has four legs. I have two. At the end of those legs are big bulky Muck boots covered in a thick layer of chicken poop. Jasper accepts my running challenge and reminds me that while he may be miniature, he can still run like a big boy. He catches me quite easily. He wants my bucket. “Fine, you stubborn donkey, here, take the empty bucket”. I leave the bucket. I am now empty handed. I decide against running again but walk away quickly. No need to slip with my poop covered boots and get trampled by a donkey.
Jasper does not accept my offering. He refuses it quite quickly and comes up to me. Jasper is upset. Jasper wants a special treat, but I have nothing for him. Jasper is being an ass. He is very excited. He is tossing his head in frustration. He is huffing at me. He is being mouthy. Seeing as how I do not have any buckets for him to be mouthy with, he is nibbling at me. I do not like this. A frustrated, stubborn, mouthy, large, animal can be dangerous. I am out in the open. I do not have buckets to distract him with. If I try to pet him, he shakes his head and huffs at me more.
Ok, I go back for the buckets. I need the buckets. Jasper is with me the whole time being belligerent. I try being stern. I try being loud. This is all to no avail. I grab one bucket then two. I use them to kind of swing out, to shoo him away. This does not affect him in the least. Crap. How do I always manage to get myself into these situations? I do the only thing I can do.
I lock myself in the chicken tractor.
I figure he will mosey on after a few minutes, I can leave the buckets in the tractor, and he will not bother me on the way out. Wrong. Jasper does not leave. Jasper stands outside staring at me. He pushes on the wire (the only barrier between us). He huffs and shakes his head. Then, this incredibly intelligent animal grabs a rope attached to the tractor and starts jerking it! It is hanging right next to the door. It looks like part of the door. This donkey is TRYING TO OPEN THE DOOR! Yep, I am going to die.
I do have my phone with me (a big shout out to leggings with pockets). I call little CJ and tell him that I am stuck in a chicken tractor with an angry donkey trying to get at me. I ask him to bring some sweet feed from the barn and shake it down by the gate to distract Jasper while I escape. He does this but Jasper is to smart for this trick. Jasper does not budge. Jasper continues his antics. Little CJ dumps out some sweet feed and some chicken feed thinking that will help. Nope. Jasper has his eye on the prize. Crap. After a while I tell little CJ to give up and go inside, there is no use. I live in the chicken tractor now. I do the only thing left to do.
I call CJ at work.
“I need a little help here”
“What’s up”
“I am trapped in a chicken tractor and Jasper will not let me out”
Tanya is displeased with her location…
Laughter, I hear laughter.
“What?”
I explain the situation. CJ tells me to just be firm, show him the bucket, leave a bucket for him, etc.
“Yes, yes, I have tried all of these options. Do you not think that I considered all options available to me before locking myself in a stinking chicken tractor?”
“Tanya, I am a half hour away”
“Well, I am not going anywhere. I need you to come rescue me”
This is followed by more laughter, and his acceptance to come rescue me. I flip over a bucket and take a seat. This is what it has come too. Lord have mercy. My phone rings. It is my
Jasper knows there is delicious chicken feed in there…
Aunt. I got nothing but time, so I sit and chat for a while. Jasper does not leave. He walks around the tractor, rubbing, testing areas, pulling on ropes occasionally, shaking his head at me. CJ calls again to check on me. “No, I haven’t made it out yet”, “Yes Jasper is still out there”, “Everything is fine, it’s fine, I’m just sitting on a bucket in a chicken tractor”.
After about an hour of sitting in the chicken tractor, I notice I do not see Jasper. I look out and he is down by the gate eating the chicken feed. I notice little CJ left the whole bag of sweet feed in the pasture. I call little CJ back out to grab it through the gate. That is too much for Jasper at one time. He comes out and retrieves the bag. He calls me. “Mom, book it! Jasper is distracted, go around the back of the tractor and sneak off”, “BOOK IT NOW, GO, GO”.
I unlatch the door and sneak around. I confirm that Jasper is happily eating and begin my escape. I do not run; I do not want to call attention to myself. Jasper starts to turn his head towards me and little CJ yells at him, “Hey Jasper, look at me, over here, don’t look there”. He shakes the feed to get his attention back. I love that kid. I continue walking and eventually make it to the side gate and I am out of the pasture. I am safe. I walk to the other gate and tell Jasper he was naughty. He continues eating without a care. He has what he wanted. He wins.
I have now been beaten by a cow, a rooster, and a donkey. I am seriously lacking in the farm-wife skill department. CJ arrives home moments later and laughs at me some more. I go in the house make myself a drink and contemplate my life choices.
Last week was a hard week. We lost three animals in the same amount of days. So sad.
It all started on Tuesday night, when CJ went to put the egg laying chickens in the coop. We had been letting them free range around the yard for a while now and have had no issues. They loved wandering around the yard and making dust baths under the trees/bushes. They would follow you around if they thought you had treats. Occasionally the rooster would be a
little jerk and come at me, but I made sure to keep Tank near me to keep me safe from his shenanigans. Betsy the chicken, would get separated from the group often because she was not paying attention, or the other chickens would wander away. It was a little funny because she would start to panic. She would just stand there and scream for her friends. We would have to locate her and guide her back to the group.
The chickens always put themselves to bed at dusk and CJ goes out to close the coop once it is dark. However, that night, he could only find 5 chickens. One was missing. We all grabbed our flashlights and went out as a family to search for whom I was sure was Betsy the lost chicken. There was no sign of her though. We did see a fox run off into the woods. We were worried but could find no sign of her. We locked up the coop and just hoped she was sheltering down in the woods safely somewhere.
CJ saw no sign of her the next morning either. It was only later when I went looking for her again that we discovered the truth. Betsy had been murdered! On my walk, down by where we had seen the fox, I noticed a large swath of feathers. There had been a struggle here and Betsy had fought hard. Walking further down below Cow Cow’s pasture I noticed several more areas of feathers, in sections, quite far apart. One location was but a single feather and a small pool of blood. Oh… poor Betsy! She had wandered off by herself, with no protection, and had lost her life. She had put up one heck of a fight, but she was not strong enough to fight off her predator. It was a sad day.
We assumed it was the fox we saw. However, later that day I was making my rounds and noticed a HUGE vulture hanging out on our fence post. With my chickens very near. Mr. Rooster Gooster (that is his name) was being a lazy bum and not even paying attention! I ran up screaming to scare away the vulture. I will add here…. Those are big birds when they are on down on your level. Holy moly. His wingspan was just as long if not longer than Tank! Thankfully, he flew away. I would have had some serious issues if he had come after me! After saving my chickens lives, I stood there making sure I had all my girls accounted for. Rooster Gooster had been standing by me (with no issues) the whole time. Suddenly, he decides that he is jealous that I came in and did his job for him. He huffed up as big as he could, flapping his wings, and came straight for me! I kicked at him to back off, but he was truly offended this time and proceeded to try and kill me. I ran.
That mini velociraptor was hot on my tail. I ran faster. Tank could not see that I was in danger, and with my brain in full flight mode I forgot about him being outside. I remembered about halfway to the house and screamed for him. He cam running but was too far behind. I ran even faster. I was getting a side stitch. Evidently roosters do not get side stitches as he was never more than two feet behind me. I was close to the back door of the house but then realization hit! I will never get the screen door and the regular door open in time. He is going to catch me while I am trying to get the screen door open and I will die. I spot one of Tank’s toy balls on the ground and swoop down during my run to grab it and throw it at him. Rooster Gooster don’t care; Rooster Gooster ain’t scared of no ball. He never falters. Yep. I am going to die via chicken. Thankfully, right as I reach the screen door, Tank catches up and saves the day. He stands between me and Rooster Gooster daring him to come near his mama. That will teach you, stinking rooster!
We decided to put the chickens in the pasture with jasper and added the electric poultry net back up as well. I do feel bad that they do not get to wander now. I may go out and put some wire up on the gates so they can free range in the pasture with Jasper there to scare away any predators. On a good note, that darn rooster will not be able to come after me again!
They are now double-protected with the poultry netting and the donkey!
That same night, Lil CJ came down to tell me that he thought his guinea pig (named Rat) was not feeling well. I went up to check and it was obvious something was wrong with him. A quick google search of his symptoms made it clear he had an upper respiratory infection. We carried him into the bathroom, and I gave Alayna permission to take the longest, hottest shower ever while I sat with him in the steam hoping it would help him breath a little easier. It was almost 8pm so there was no option of a vet. I tried to look up anything I could to help him, but the only thing that could help him were antibiotics. We made him as comfortable as we could and let him sleep in the bathroom where it was still warm and steamy. Unfortunately, he did not make it through the night.
The next day I dug a small hole next to two doggie graves from the previous property owner and Lil CJ and I buried Rat the guinea pig. We lined his grave with bricks, just like the others and placed a small piece of split wood on top for added protection. It was very sad.
The Day after that, CJ announced that we had lost the 1st meat bird from the brooder. We are not sure what happened. You always expect to lose some of the meat birds, but these were doing so well I had hoped all 100 would make it out to the pasture. It was so close too! We had planned to move them out the following week! Poor little thing. All the others were happy and healthy, so I am thankful we only lost one bird.
That is the hard part of owning so many animals. You always do your best to take care of them, but death is a part of life. We must learn to deal with it as best we can and keep moving forward.
RIP Betsy, Rat, and meat bird who had no name because I cannot name 100 birds.
Jasper got a little attention here recently. We had the farrier out to take a look at his hooves and he got a nice new pedicure. He was not impressed. We haltered and tied him to the barn.
Jasper was curious to see what I was doing in his grass.
CJ was at his head while the farrier handled his feet. I stood by feeding Jasper apples to try and calm him down and distract him. I am not sure how often he has had this done in the past. He certainly was not comfortable with it. He did behave well though. While he did not like anyone messing with his feet, no one was donkey-kicked in the face as I suspected would
happen. You could tell he was just trying to get away. I was impressed with the farrier’s complete lack of fear with Jasper. It was interesting to watch and he manhandled my donkey quite well. He would take hold of Jasper’s leg and would not let go of it until the job was done, even if it did cause him a few bloody knuckles.
Overall, Jasper’s hooves just needed a little trimming. He did have a slight case of thrush on one hoof that we are treating with peroxide. We will continue the treatment and keep an eye on it.
Cow Cow is doing well and getting bigger every day! I can tell he is lonely and wants to play so I got him a beach ball to play with. He absolutely loves it! I could not believe it! I have CJ go
Cow Cow strikes a pose
in with me (just in case) and throw the ball around with him. He pushes it around with his head, gets excited, and starts bucking all around. Admittedly, I normally run away at that point and then go back when he is calmer. It is so cute to watch him play and it makes my heart happy.
We did set up a better system for delivering water to the pastures. We hooked up enough hoses to reach the pastures. This works much better than carrying multiple buckets. This sounds pretty simple but CJ was concerned that the water pressure would not be able to push the water that far and uphill. I think CJ just enjoys working hard. I however, really do not like carrying buckets, so I tested it out to see. Works like a charm and now is the go to method.
I think CJ and I will be setting up an electric fence in the pasture to where we can get in there and do what we need to while still being separated from Cow Cow. He wants to play and even went to the extent of jumping up while CJ was cleaning out his water trough. Cow Cow had both front hooves up on CJ’s shoulders! Not cool, Cow cow! Bad cow. He is getting big enough to push even CJ around. CJ was able to swat him off and no harm done. However, if that had been me, he would have knocked me down and trampled me to death. This is not acceptable.
Due to his loneliness and eagerness to play, we are discussing getting another cow for him. I am not sure how I feel about this. On one hand I know it would do Cow Cow so much good to have company and another animal to play with. On the other hand, this is more work, more feed, more issues, and I am just not sure we are ready to take that on. CJ is of the opinion that two cows would not make any more difference than one. He often reminds me of my “just do it” attitude. I do not think that he realizes how much that particular attitude has changed! I fear soon I will be the victim of a cow gang. We will discuss the issue further before we make a decision. While we have learned a lot, there is still more to learn and I want to do better than our first cow purchase experience.
We have found another resource with a gentleman that plowed our driveway last year. He is also a farmer, and has stated that he could provide us with hay this winter for the cow and donkey. He also has a connection with a Jersey cow farmer and she is willing to come out to our farm. She is happy to give us advice on what type of hay is best for the cow this winter and any other tips that she can give us. Hopefully she can come out next week. I am excited to meet and learn from her!
The Chickens are hunting for bugs.
The egg laying hens are doing well and back to laying eggs regularly now that the temperatures have calmed down. We did lose the one sick hen. We are still not sure what was wrong, but she continued to decline even though she was isolated from the others and had access to food and water. We are down to 5 hens now and the rooster. The rest of them seem to be healthy and doing well thankfully.
We are gearing up for the new meat birds coming in September and already have customers placing orders! So exciting! So proud of CJ and his crazy idea of farming. When he sets his mind to do something, nothing can stop him! He is achieving his dream! I love experiencing this new adventure with him, even if most of it is spent with me running from the cow!
Cow Cow is still improving and doing great! We almost had an adventure here today, but thanks to my quick thinking (ok, maybe more like begging God to have mercy), the crisis was averted!
My ribs are no longer showing 🙂
Today brought a slight issue with me being able to check on Cow Cow while also not going into the pasture. Mother Nature decided to bring the rain. It was bound to happen. Typically, I keep his feed bowl right by the fence so I can keep track of how much he is eating and refill easily. I can not do this if it is raining. His food cannot be out in the rain. CJ moved his food bowl into the shelter. This means I must go in there to check on it.
Since his recovery, Cow Cow has much more energy, and for some reason only acts up when I am in the pasture. He also will not listen to me if I try to get him to stop acting up. Basically, he is a toddler. He acts like a little crazy, rambunctious, little demon for Mom, but then acts all super sweet for everyone else. I do not think he is being aggressive. I honestly think that he is trying to play. I am the one who cuddled him, gave him love, and cares for him. Now that he has energy, he just wants me to play with him. While I would love to play with him, I cannot allow him to play in that rambunctious manner. When he is grown, this could be very dangerous. Since (like a normal toddler), he pushes the boundaries, and does not listen very well, I think that it is best that I stay out of the pasture until I can get him to respect me and my personal space. Also, I do not want to die via cow.
So, I came up with a plan. I filled his milk bucket with water and just enough milk replacer to give it flavor but not too much that it would cause any harm through over-feeding. I had
The gaps in this fence are enough for a calf to fit through
Alayna feed him over the fence as normal, while I ran in the pasture and refilled his food. This worked well, I was able to get in, do my thing, and get out. Once out of the pasture I took over holding the milk bucket for Alayna and she walked back to the house. Cow Cow finished, I took the bucket away, and started walking away. Cow Cow decided to test his boundaries at this point and was pushing THROUGH the fence. To get a better picture of this moment that sent panic throughout me: the fence was in the active process of giving birth to the cow and he was about to be outside of the pasture and running free in the wilderness.
There are many things that went through my mind in this moment. Some I will not type here, because, well… CJ would frown upon it. But the general idea, is that I was about to have a rambunctious cow on the loose. I was going to have to chase this thing all over. I do not know how to catch cows. I do not know how to catch them with a leash, or a rope, much less my bare hands! I panicked for a moment. He had most of his upper body through the fence and I saw the realization on his face. There was that moment where it went from “I am going to try this” to “Hey, this is actually working, I can do this”. He had but take a step and he would be free.
My heart dropped and my mind sent up a prayer, an oh crap, and a here we go, all at once. I puffed up my chest, bent my arms inward (kind of like a body builder flexing), jerked forward in the most threatening manner I possess, stomped, and bellowed in the most aggressive, deep voice that I could muster: “Get back, Back, don’t you even dare, don’t do it, back, go on, GET BACK IN THAT FENCE!”
I must have sounded somewhat threatening, because Alayna came out yelling “What is going on, are you ok?”. Cow Cow stopped and had a look on his face that said, “What the heck was that”. I continued my jerking and bellowing for him to get back, and thankfully it worked! He started to slowly back up. Even if he did look at me like I had gone bonkers. I do not care, it worked!
Lord, have mercy. I thought I was going to have to chase a cow! I can, not, even! However, the crisis was averted, and all was well in the end. I will have to use my newfound threatening skills when I am inside the pasture to see if that works on getting him to respect me. Of course, only if CJ is in there with me, should he not find me threatening enough. HA!
Fixing that fence, has now moved to the highest priority. It shall be done. We will also have to come up with a better way to handle feeding during rainy weather.
As you can see, he has his energy back! He is eating great! He is getting more used to eating the dry feed and eating the amount that he should be eating. He has gained a little weight, I think. I did buy a cattle weight tape so we (I mean CJ) can get an idea of how much he weighs, and we can track how much he is gaining each week. I believe he needs to be gaining at least 2.5lbs/week. He may be a little slower at first due to him trying to catch up to a healthy weight, but we will get him there!
Cow Cow is doing much better and getting heathier every day! Once his nutrition is under control, we need to move on to other things with him. At some point we will need to bottle break him and get him to drink milk from a pail instead of a nipple. He knows how to drink water from a pail, so you think this would be easy. Wrong. He refuses. If it is milk it must be consumed via nipple. There is no other way in his mind. Set the bucket in front of him and he will just continually search for the nipple. We will also need to get a halter and halter break him. He has a large pasture to roam freely and a shelter to bed in, but there will be times when we may need to get him from the pasture to the barn, or from point A to point B. We have some time before these things need to happen, but it is something I should spend some time researching now.
The broiler chickens are doing great! They are living life out in the pasture in their chicken tractors. They get plenty of fresh grass each day and fresh bugs to eat. They are getting bigger each day. I do not think we will have any problem reaching our weight goals for these guys. Butcher date is approaching soon (June 25th) and so far, we have only lost 4 birds. This is much less than we expected, especially being first timers! I believe it is typically expected to lose about 10% of your flock before butcher date. So, we must be doing something right! We are getting everything lined up for butcher day and are looking forward to seeing everyone at pick up!
Little CJ has done a great job of helping with the chickens. I am so proud of him! It is quite difficult to move the chicken tractors in that pasture as the grass is taller and much bumpier. The chickens add to that by being lazy. They do not move quite as fast as our larger egg layers. Those chicken tractors are heavy and with the birds not moving as fast when you drag the tractor, it can be very easy to accidently run over a chicken. For these reasons, Dad has been moving the tractors each morning. Then, Little CJ goes out to feed and water all tractors. Little CJ checks on them throughout the day and goes back out at 3pm to feed and water again. He is also in charge of checking on the egg laying birds during the day and collecting eggs. He gets up with Dad around 6-6:30am every morning and does his job without complaint. I cannot express how impressed I am with his commitment to help!
Alayna does not have such an interest in the farm yet. I was hoping she would with Cow Cow, but since he went all crazy that day, I am hesitant to have the kids go in the pasture alone to help with him. He will get bigger one day and I do not want them to feel overly confident and end up getting hurt. I am thinking of having her put her artistic skills to use and design something for us. Even if its just labels for the shrink-wrapped chicken. I want to find a way to include the kids on the farm, but I also want it to be something they enjoy doing and take pride in.
Jasper the donkey is doing great! He is very low maintenance. Grass, water, and an apple treat each evening is about all he needs to stay content. I do try to include the kids when giving treats in the evening. He is a little jealous of the cow. I have been spending quite a bit of time with Cow Cow up at the other pasture, and Jasper has noticed! If I spend too much time over there and do not give any attention to Jasper, he will run to the gate braying as loud as he can, ending in a big ole huff and puff! He demands I come give him some loving and I always oblige. He is a good donkey.
Jasper smiling for the camera
The egg laying birds are doing great as well! The new coop is working great out in Cow Cow’s pasture and they get to free range in a large area each day. Today they rewarded us with 7 eggs! We only have 6 hens! Guess someone was working overtime! HA! The rooster is settled into his routine and is doing well with the girls. He is a talkative fellow and crows quite a bit during the day. They have a poultry net fence that surrounds their area to protect them from predators. It is charged by a solar powered battery that connects to the fence. Cow Cow decided they no longer need this since he was there to protect them and chewed through the battery wire. I have no idea how he managed to do this as the wire was live and would have been shocking him. At least CJ thinks it was Cow Cow, we do not have proof that it was him. Either way, thankfully, CJ can fix the wire so that we do not have to replace the battery. We will have to come up with a way to protect the wire from future chewing though. We may end up just blocking off one end of the pasture so Cow Cow can not get to it. We shall see.
All in all, things are coming together nicely here at the farm! It is not always easy, and things go wrong (almost always for me), but we are taking things one day at a time! We can do this!
Did I say we? I totally meant CJ… I will be in the house not dying via cow.
Cow Cow has improved significantly in only a matter of days!
We started off with 2 quarts of milk, twice a day. I do have to mix the formula carefully, since the milk replacer is so rich. We do not want to upset his stomach further after being deprived of the milk. We will get him up to the proper mixing proportions as soon as we can. Right now, he is getting about a third of the normal amount of milk replacer, mixed with water to equal the 2 quarts at each feeding.
The calf feeding bucket I bought is working out beautifully! CJ put up a board on the fence to hang the bucket and it works great! Sometimes Cow Cow can be a little aggressive with it, so we must stay near incase he jostles it too much. He knows where his feeding station is now and will come right on up when he sees the bucket. He is still learning the routine and often comes to the station begging when we walk near that section. I know he wants more, and my heart wants to give him as much as he can eat, yet we must continue to take it slow with him. We do not want to overdo things and make things worse!
He also gets free choice of calf feed throughout the day. We must be careful of how we do this as well. While he can eat as much feed as he wants during this time, he needs to eat it in smaller amounts. Again, its all about keeping his stomach settled. I give him about 1 – 2 quarts at a time and go out about every hour or so to check if he has eaten it. If he has eaten most of the feed, then I will give him more. If not, we check back in the next hour and go from there. He does not enjoy the feed as much as the milk. He does not seem to have a routine yet either with how much feed he is eating daily. Sometimes he gobbles it down, and sometimes it sits almost all day. I created a feeding chart for him, and it now hangs by the back door for me to be able to keep track of exactly how much he is eating and when. I feel like a mom with a newborn all over again! At least this one lets me sleep at night!
I am comfortable that we are on the right path as he has turned into a whole new cow! I cannot believe the difference in him! He has so much more energy. When we first came to us, he stayed in the shelter and hardly moved. Now he is up, moving, and roaming around the pasture. If he sees you outside the fence, he will come up to the feeding station. If you do not give him milk, he will follow you all along the fence line, mooing, as if to say “um, hello, maybe you don’t see the hungry cow here!”. Yesterday I saw him even run! I had no idea cows could move that fast! Imagine a young deer running through pasture, at full speed, that is what he looked like!
His behavior has improved as well. He is calmer; however, he can still be a little pushy when he is hungry. He associates me now with food. I am mom. I am the milk bringer. He perks up when he sees me. This also means, when I do not have what he wants, he can throw a little tantrum and try and get pushy with me. I have seen what this little guy can do, and I no longer underestimate him. He has my respect (and trepidation). He does not behave this way with CJ (of course). He is always on his best behavior when CJ comes in the pasture. At first, I fully believed that the little stinker was trying to make me look foolish. Encouraging CJ to continue to believe that I exaggerated the cow attack. (I most certainly DID NOT!) I no longer believe this is the case, even though I swear, I can see him laughing when CJ is not looking. He just knows that I am mom and I have control of his food. Just like my human kids, when they are hangry, I get the brunt of their meltdowns. I am cautious around him because of this and make CJ go in the pasture with me now just in case I need saving.
Once he is settled in his feeding routine, and knows that he will always be fed, I expect him to calm down even more. He is still a hungry boy and you cannot blame him at all for that! He is obviously improving and getting healthier by the day. That is all that I need for now.
The chicks are almost ready for the pasture. Their feathers are coming in and they are no longer the fragile little yellow chicks we picked up just a couple weeks ago. They will be divided up amongst the three chicken tractors we built and moved through the pasture under the supervision of Jasper the donkey starting next week. In the meantime, we needed to build another structure for our 6 egg laying hens to live in since they have been living in one of the chicken tractors for the last month.
Initial framing of the mobile coop.
Enter the mobile chicken coop. We purchased an 8×10 utility trailer and built a chicken coop on top of it so that we can move the birds throughout the pasture allowing them to range out and gather more of their own nutrition. They will not have overhead cover, so hawks could be a problem, but in anticipation of that potential predator, we are picking up a Jersey Giant rooster to watch over them. The mobile coop has plenty of roosting space as well as nesting boxes with outside access which should provide ample space and protection for the hens while allowing us to collect eggs without disturbing them. We just have to install the door and then the coop is ready to go.
The hens have been providing more than enough eggs for our family and we are excited to get them ranging even farther out into our pastures to eat pests and spread fertility!
Here you can see the access point for the nexting boxes.
Our initial setup for the brooder based on guidance from Darby Simpson
Today has been a day, let me tell you! This post is long. Just like my day. There is just no short way to describe it. Buckle in and enjoy the farm life ride….
Tank is laying outside the brooder waiting for the chicks to arrive.
Yesterday we picked up the adorable little chicks! We brought them home and set them up in the brooder. They seemed to be doing great! We hung out with them for a bit and then let them be. Checked on them before bed and in the morning when we woke up.
I actually didn’t sleep well last night because I kept worrying about them or dreaming bears got into the barn and ate them all. We don’t even have bears here…but a mama’s thoughts always go to the worst case scenario! I woke with CJ at 6am to come out and check on them. This is very unlike me! I don’t get up early if I don’t have too! But I needed to make sure they were safe.
Upon checking on them we found that they were safe. Although, we did lose one chick. He had a difficult time in transport and just didn’t recover. All of the other 99 chicks were safe though.
We did notice this morning that the temperature was dangerously low in the brooder. It should be 95 degrees, but it wasn’t even reaching 80 in there. CJ placed a foam board outside the brooder and some wood on the outside of the barn to help with the draft. He had to leave for work so advised me to keep an eye on them. As I checked on them the temperature was not coming up. We have two heat lamps in there. One is a regular heat lamp that produces a red glow, the other lamp provides heat but no actual light. Under the regular heat lamp, the chicks looked comfortable, moving around, not huddled up in a pile. Under the other lamp though, they were huddled directly under it, trying to stay warm, often piling on top of one another.
I tried to get in touch with CJ, but as life with an Army guy would go, he was working in an area with no cell reception and I am all alone on this one. This dream of his is now in my hands… this dream, these chicks, that he has told me will absolutely die if they get too cold and I don’t know what to do.
I know what I’m not going to do though… let those chickies die! Commence Operation Warm Up! This is not the 1st time I have been left alone with little ones depending solely on me for survival… I do have two real children, they lived. I can do this.
The Chicks are finding the most comfortable place under the lamps
First, I join at least 10 chicken groups on Facebook. Use what you got! Posted pictures and asked questions. I did get some good help there, it was unanimous that I close up the brooder area. CJ had used a square area that was walled on two sides. He enclosed only the bottom of the other two sides with wood to keep the heat in. However, the top on two sides were still open with nothing but hardware cloth (which is just wire to keep predators out). It was NOT holding heat.
Ok, so I look around trying to find anything I can to enclose the area. A boogie board, random piece of foam board and a wood board. That made the one side a tad taller and did raise the temp to 82, progress but not enough.
Ok… new idea… Blanket fort here we come! I run in the house and get two old comforters. Now I am a short woman, and I knew this was going to be difficult so I got the kids out there to help me. Lil CJ climbs up on the top of it, (there is space above for storage) and Alayna and I throw the blanket up. He moves all of the items up there in a rather haphazard way (sorry CJ, lives were at stake here) and places some heavy items on top to hold the blanket. On the other side of the brooder there were some nails already up so Alayna and I draped each end on a nail and hung something heavy over the blanket/nail to hold it on. I have no clue what that heavy thing was, Alayna guessed something to do with putting horseshoes on horses??? I just know it was heavy, metal, and it held the blanket. Use what ya got! This raised the temp to 84. More progress but still not enough.
More looking around outside for random material. I notice we have some aluminum sheeting that’s nice and toasty warm in the sunlight. I also notice that there is light coming through the outside wall of the barn allowing draft to enter the brooder. I have a plan. I go to lift six of the sheets to move over there. Ummmmmm…. These things are pretty heavy for thin sheets! Also, again, I am short so I can only lift them so far off the ground. Ugh. So I have to move 2 at a time, I get them there though. Only to find, of course, that they are too long. There is a wood stack in a metal holder in the way. Why can’t anything be easy? I know what I have to do. I unstack most of the wood and call Alayna out to help me. I slide the metal frame out just enough that we can get the sheets behind it to fit the area. Alayna has to hold each flimsy sheet up with her butt while I get the others. Once they are all there, we realize that we don’t know how we are going to keep them there. Oops. didn’t think that far ahead. Alayna has the easy job of standing there butt holding them while I brainstorm. I can’t drag the metal holder (still has enough wood in it to make it too heavy to drag) and even if I could Alayna would be in the way, if she moves, they fall. Sooooooo I slide it back over just the end of the sheeting and Alayna uses a tall board and Tanks 5 gallon bucket of water to hold the middle. That worked surprisingly well so we added some more boards and water buckets. Of course the water bucket I chose had holes all in the bottom that I did not notice until it was full and leaking everywhere. Ugh, thankfully we have a surplus of random buckets here on the farm. This works great and increases the inside temp to 86. UGHHHHHHH…. Still not enough!
Ok, I can’t enclose this thing anymore than I have. Something else has to change. The source. It’s walled, covered, and still not enough, let’s look at the source of heat. They are still huddling under that one bulb. I don’t like that bulb. I get out a ladder and go climbing around the storage area of the barn looking for more bulbs. Of course, I find more of the bulbs I don’t like and none of the ones I do like. Fine. In the car and off to Ace Hardware I go. I buy another bulb.
On the way home I listen to (or rather blare) “Staying Alive” by the BeeGees and changing the words to “ I I I I will keep you allliiiivvvvveeee” and emphasising “somebody help me, yeah”. I can admit this. I was stressed.
Just moments before I get to my driveway, I get a notification on my phone that a package was just delivered from Amazon. Pull in and yep…. Can you guess what it was???? Replacement bulbs for the bulb I just bought. Seriously?
I get in the house, grab the gloves that we keep by the wood stove (to handle the hot bulb) and head out to the brooder. I unplug the heat lamp, wait a min or too and go to change the bulb. Now I know that it is a heat lamp. I know that bulb is hot, BUT I figure these gloves that we purposely keep by the stove are designed for really hot things. They are not. Not at all. Smoke forms, and I feel the heat. Gloves are burning. This is my life. Ok, I wait a little longer. I chill for 10 minutes or so playing with my chickies. The bulb is safe to handle now. I do set it outside the brooder on the concrete just in case though. Change the bulb. Now we wait. No use going back inside the house. I’ve already got so many pine shavings stuck to me that I look like a chicken myself. I need to make sure the temperature rises and holds. It takes about a half hour for the temp to rise to 95 and another half hour of it holding at that temp.
Operation Warm Up is a success!!!! I have single handedly saved the lives of 99 chickaroos! I shall henceforth be known as Chicken Master. I saved the farm! I am incredibly proud of myself, in case you didn’t notice.
CJ arrives home and I advise him of success, my name change, and inform him that these are now MY chickens. I also inform him that I really really deserve that new Samsung fridge with interactive display that I have been wanting! (can’t hurt)
CJ staples in the 1/4″ hardware cloth to keep out even the smallest of predators
It has been a very exciting few weeks here at Skyline Pastures. We have constructed a predator-proof (we hope) brooder in the barn out of ¼” hardware cloth. We took extra care to plug every hole and ensure the sheets of hardware cloth overlap so no rats, raccoons, or anything else that can eat our chicks can get through. We are three weeks out for their arrival, and everything is ready. We even have a small generator with sufficient power to handle the heat lamps should the power go out. Then next thing to research is some sort of alarm to notify us if the power should go out in the middle of the night. It would be terrible to wake up and discover that the chicks died from a lack of heat simply because of a power outage. We are working on the e-Commerce portion of the website so that customers are able to place a deposit on their chicks. Our intent is to only sell 60 of the first batch of 100 to allow more than enough wiggle room for any losses due to the learning curve of raising chicks. Once it is up and functional, we will be sure to let everyone know so you can log in and reserve your chickens!
We have also added a miniature donkey named Jasper to our Farm Family. He came from a goat farm but once their goats had babies, he got jealous and needed to be separated. He is doing well on our pasture, although we wish he would eat more grass because he is not keeping up with the pasture’s growth. We will be getting him some friends (likely sheep) in the near future to both keep him company and add to our pasture maintenance plan.
With all of the grocery stores running low on items, including chicken, we see this as a prime opportunity to encourage people to stock their freezers with some of the best chicken possible. Who knows what lies down the road and having good food for our families stocked at home gives us one less thing to worry about! We look forward to keeping everyone posted on the chicks’ progress as we raise the up in the brooder and move them out to our pasture. Hopefully Jasper approves of his pasture-mates!
Jasper will help keep the pasture mowed while spreading fertility
