broiler – Skyline Pastures

Death on the Farm

October 2, 2020

by charles.lafferty Chickens Getting Started with the Farm

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!

Poultry on Pasture — 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 1^st 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.

Farm Life

June 17, 2020

by charles.lafferty Getting Started with the Farm

Things are going great here on the farm!

Cow Cow on the move — Cow Cow likes the attention

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 25^th) 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 — 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.

The Time is Near!

March 9, 2020

by charles.lafferty Getting Started with the Farm

We are getting closer and closer to the chicks arriving on May 4th. The chicken tractors have been built and are on the property waiting to be set up! They were built in sections for easy delivery. We still have some time to put them together as the chicks will be in the brooder in the barn when they first arrive. We should start preparing the barn soon and setting up the brooder as well.

We did check out the Oley Valley Feed Mill on chicken feed pricing and the gentleman there was very helpful and took the time to explain different feeds and what would be the best feed for our broiler chickens. I must admit… I did not expect there to be much to chicken feed! There were so many types and variables to consider: protein amounts, pellets or crumbles, types for specific breeds, organic/non-GMO or no, how early to buy the feed. It was much more informative than I though it would be. I am glad that I tagged along and was able to learn more about the feed. The gentleman helped us find the info we needed and offered to follow up with us the following Monday. I am sure we will be ordering from that specific store. The customer service was outstanding.

On a different note, I believe I have been replaced as the official main chicken farmer here at Skyline Pastures… BEFORE I even began! That’s not going to look good on my resume! It seems the founder of Skyline Pastures (Charles Lafferty) has went behind my back and found a much younger able-bodied applicant and offered the position to this young whipper snapper! This young man goes by Little CJ! My own son has stolen my job! HA!

I found this out as I was talking to Lil CJ about the chicken tractors. I told him that they are quite heavy to pick up and move. I advised that If this becomes a problem for me (I have multiple herniated disks in my neck and the strain of repetitive lifting could potentially cause issues) that I may need him to help me. Lil CJ got very offended suddenly and exclaimed that Dad had offered him the job of taking care of the chickens and paying him to do so. Well, well, the plot has thickened!

All jest aside, I am so glad that Lil CJ has taken an interest in helping on the farm! I will happily give him the job! This is exactly what we had hoped for, for our children to be a hands-on part of this journey. The deal is that he will get up each day, move the tractors to fresh pasture, feed, and water them. He will be paid for his time with the exception that he has to put half of his earnings into a savings account. I will of course be there with him each morning to supervise and provide help if needed.

This does dampen my hopes of becoming super buff, from lifting chicken tractors (providing my neck, didn’t try to kill me first). I will just have to find other ways around the farm to become super buff that does not threaten to make my spinal cord explode.

There are concerns from others that Lil CJ will not want to get up or do the job properly. He is only 13 after all. Teenagers are not exactly known for their willingness to get up early or work ethic. However, CJ has never minded getting up early. He often asks to be woken well before he needs to be up, to allow him more free time. He has done this since he was in elementary school. He knows that there are things that must be done in the morning and if he wants more time, then he must get up earlier. I do not think he will have an issue with getting up early and I will be there to supervise that he is doing the job properly.

This should not interfere with school at all as he does cyber school at home and classes do not start until 8:30am. He will have plenty of time to take care of the chickens before classes. He does not have to worry about getting ready or catching a bus. It works out quite well for him. He will only have to take care of chickens and school for a month as classes end for summer on June 5th. We do not plan on having chickens during the fall when school begins again.

I think this is going to work out well, and again, I am thrilled that he has the desire to help! Instead of being replaced, I will think of it as being promoted from Farm Laborer to Farm Manager. Does that mean I get a raise??? Not likely! I guess I will just have to be happy that death via chickens is not imminent. (I do not have to worry about Lil CJ dying via chicken… he is much younger, has no fear, and can run faster. HA!).

The Ball is Rolling

January 2, 2020

by charles.lafferty Uncategorized

Things were set in motion today! To give our farm the best possible chance at success I have resolved to do something every day to make it a bit better than the day before. Even with no animals, the list of potential improvements is enormous. Today I purchased the first batch of chicks from Moyer’s Hatchery in Quakertown, PA. We pick them up on May the 4^th (cue Star Wars chicken music) but the money is spent, so there is no backing out now. I will spend the next month or so researching brooder designs and watching every video I can to learn from others’ mistakes so that I hopefully avoid high mortality numbers. Many of the farmers I follow note that their highest losses occur in the brooder stage. The chicks are fragile (must be Italian) when they are young and need the perfect temperature, the perfect access to food and water, and a complete absence of predators. Not to mention that their bedding needs to be dry, fluffy, and constantly maintained. These guys are going to keep us very busy.

The current plan is to use one of the horse stalls in the barn to build the brooder. I will be sure to photograph and film as much of the build as possible so that anyone trying to do a similar setup can see what we did. There is power run to the barn that should be sufficient to power the heat lamps. Additionally, there is already a water spigot in the barn, and by May the freezing risk should be long-gone, so we don’t have to worry about busting pipes and making a mess. We are very excited to get the animals onto the farm and start raising the happiest and best tasting birds possible. I will work over the next few days to set up the store page of the site and then please go in and put a deposit on a couple chickens! Without friends and family buying our chicken in the beginning stages of the farm the road will be much more difficult. Thanks in advance!