Restocking the Flock

A couple of weeks ago we suffered from a chickenocide. Although my spell check doesn't recognize the word my father-in-law should be credited with, our flock has suffered great loss. We awoke to dead chickens all over our yard and pasture, and only four remaining hens, stunned but unharmed. The small door to the coop was open, but the large door was locked. we are still not sure if it was a small dog or a opossum that killed and dragged our chickens across acres of land without actually eating or carrying them off.

One chicken was scared by the invader enough to jump the wooden fence into our backyard, where our own dogs picked up. We have a dog door leading from the backyard to our laundry room, and the next day I entered the laundry room to find a dead chicken and two proud dogs waiting for me. I then prepared to pack my bags and leave for Springfield for good. We already own a house there after all. It was almost too much.

However, after a night of reflection, we cleaned up the yard and began the search for suitable additions to the flock. As always, we found what we were looking for on Craigslist and Josh drove to Seymore for twenty three pullets and two roosters. He purchased a few different breeds, but mainly production reds this time around. We lost two in the first week, from the chickens crowding and trampling in transport and in the coop over the first day or two. The rest seem hearty and brave enough. 

The four big hens and the one duck are still laying and all of these changes didn't seem to affect their stride one bit.

Wow, That's a Lot of Chickens!

Our chicken population has exploded. After realizing we only had a few hens left and they are still a ways from laying, we decided to push forward and buy some laying hens. After perusing Craigslist (the absolute best place to buy farm stuff if you can get past the poor spelling and all capital letters), we found an intriguing ad in Cabool. The gentleman had several different types for sale, and said to make an offer. So, for $130 we now have 10 laying hens, 3 more roosters, 13 more hens that aren't laying yet, and 9 younger mixed-breed chickens. This was a little more than what we had asked for, but they needed to get rid of everything, so now we've got quite the flock!

I love the diversity of our chickens. Here's the breeds we have (in addition to a few unknown crosses): Rhode Island Reds, Barred Rocks, New Hampshire Delaware, Leghorns, Production Reds, Bantys, White Californias, Black Rocks, Cinnamon Queens, Buff Orpingtons, Black Austrolorpes, Peking duck, and an Indian Runner duck. We've got about 45 birds all together and so far everyone is getting along. We still have way too many roosters and will begin culling within the next month.

Before acquiring the massive flock, we added another set of nesting boxes inside the coop and installed hot wire around the top of the chain link that surrounds the chicken run. After the last major predation, we have been much more diligent about putting all of the chickens and ducks in the coop each night. Before the ducks would stay out and several of the chickens would roost in the trees. Now everyone goes in, no matter how big of a pain it is.

Adding to the flock is an interesting transition. There are tons of suggestions of how to do it on Backyard Chickens, but we put all of the new ones in the coop and closed them in at first. At dark, once they were all calmed down we put everyone in the coop together for the night. There will naturally be some pecking order squabbles, but because they are all similar enough in size, that should all work itself out in the next couple

of days. So far, so good.

I wish we could have got some Americaunas (Easter eggers) in the mix, but I think we've got plenty to keep ourselves busy. The big roosters are beautiful, if not a little intimidating! We've already gathered our first six eggs today!

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Ben is thrilled to be sitting up these days. He still needs a lot of help and can't stay up very long.

Poultry Predators

We have been nearly wiped out of our poultry! Over the past few weeks we have lost over half our flock due to predators on the nearby woods. We have witnessed an opossum killing two chickens, the power outage during early storms killed several as chicks (because the heat lamp went out). We have also seen a fox and some stray cats around.

On the first of May we had 44 chicks and now we're down to 14! We've also lost 3 ducks. Josh went out this morning and found a dead duck with its head pulled through the chain link. Gross.

With each missing bird we've tried to make the chicken coop and run a little more secure. We are considering putting hotwire around the top, but that wouldn't stop everything. I'm not sure what our plan is just yet.

Hard Work

As I am reading the book You Can Farm, I reflect on the image of farmers. In the first two chapters, the author discusses the downtrodden, sad, and meager life that many associate with farming. However, it doesn't have to be like that at all, and often isn't. The agrarian life is, like any other, what you make it.

Friends have made both positive, negative, and inquisitive comments towards me and our chosen lifestyle. Most focus on the idea of work. "Wow, how much work is it to keep up with your farm?" "How can you farm and have a job?" "Do you ever leave?"

Admittedly, we have yet to have a child, both work, and run the farm at the same time. So far, we have found our farm doesn't take as much time (or money) as many might think. Josh spends a few minutes in the morning watering the gardens. We have a system of soaker hoses and splitters ran, so he just turns on two spouts outside. He then lets out the ducks and chickens, fills their water and feed and then checks the donkeys water. In the evening he refills the waterers and puts the poultry in.

The majority of farm "work" is purchasing, assembling and maintaining. The expenses and necessities can be divided into existing, start-up, maintenance, and improvements. For example, we purchased our farm with a barn, chicken coop, corral, and fencing all in place.

Existing: barn, chicken coop, chicken run, pig pen, corral, fencing, rough trail, pond, flower bed, wild berries

Start-Up: 5 raised vegetable beds, seeds and plant starts, chickens, ducks, donkeys, bought horse trailer

Maintenance: clearing the trail, cleaned out and painted the chicken coop, weeding and mulching flower bed, (paid to have the) field brush-hogged, cleaned up several trash piles, cleaned out the pond, cleared brush, well serviced

Improvements: fruit trees, blueberry bush, compost pile, clothesline

This week we painted the chicken coop and cut down a lot of the overgrowth around it.

Before:
After:

We also weeded and mulched the flower bed.

These were two huge chores and I truly feel like I have "worked" this week in the truest sense. At the same time, we didn't wake up and grudgingly trudge outside and make ourselves finish these jobs. We can 1) easily define what needs to be done, 2) know why it needs to be done 3) clearly look at our finished "work" and know when it's finished and 4) be proud of what we have accomplished. I think that's quite a bit more than most people can say about their "work."

For now, we still keep our "day jobs" and I love teaching and find it very rewarding and I believe Josh feels the same way about his work with the farmer's union.

But work on the farm is very, very different. It is ongoing but at the same time it is concrete, and I find that incredibly rewarding.

*I'll come back and add pictures to this post Saturday. I forgot to get the "after" pictures of the garden we've weeded.


Here's Ben in a lemon-patterned diaper that I traded for on Diaperswappers. I think it's a little more girly than I expected and I think it might go back in the trade pile.

First Year Farming

When asked about who we are or what we do, Josh and I have just recently begun to consider ourselves farmers. We preface that by saying "first year farmers." As in - we have no idea what we're doing, but we live on a farm, a very small one at that. When asked what we farm, I almost always say, "uh..." before remembering, poultry (meat and eggs) and vegetables, for now - and not for profit.

Josh is a dreamer as he is full of energy and ideas. I am generally the naysayer, toning down our plans and questioning what might go wrong. Although a few conflicts have come from this, it works for us.

We hope to eventually have a couple of goats, calves, and pigs. This summer we are planting a couple of raised beds (more on that tomorrow), and maybe some blackberry bushes. Next year we plan on expanding the vegetables and berries and adding fruit trees, someday leading to an orchard. We also want to make the pond much larger, finish the fencing around the south pasture, build a much larger barn, and make our house self-sufficient (solar panels / wind turbine).

With no plans of moving, we can take one step at a time and maybe reach all of these goals.

Where we are at today - two of the three ducks were eaten one evening by our resident fox. We have since bought three more ducklings, including an adorable black one. A few of the chickens died during our power outage from the storm and we don't have a current count. It is now visible which are hens and which are roosters and I am concerned with the seemingly high proportion of roosters. All are out in the coup and the ducks forage in the run but few of the chickens have chosen to leave the coup just yet. We keep a heat light on when we close them all up in the coup at night for now. They are all 2-5 weeks old and would probably be fine without the lamps, but it may help deter predators and they all seem to like it, so it's staying on for a little longer. We didn't end up re-running the old electricity to the coup. We are using an extension cord instead. Next summer we may use a small solar charger instead.

The raised beds are in progress. We are combining lasagna beds, square foot gardening, and companion planting - all based on Josh's extensive research and our stacks of library books on the matter. We will hopefully have the first one planted tomorrow with pictures.

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Ben took a great nap allowing us to get so much done this afternoon.

Out With the Ducks

Enough was enough, so the ducks had to go. Outside, that is. Josh cleared out some of the run around the chicken coup, repaired the fence and readied the coup for the ducks, so out they went. They are almost a month old and plenty large enough to not be able to get out through the chain link. We are going to keep them closed in the coup at night and let them out during the days. At first they didn't understand how to get in and out of the coup and Josh had to help them out so they could get out and walk around and go back inside for food and water. As Josh was out working around the coup the ducks followed him around everywhere like he was their papa.

We also got some tilling done with an old tiller lent to us from Josh's family. We were amazed it started right up after sitting around for quite a while. However, tilling our garden proved to be quite the undertaking, and Josh was only able to get about 1/3 done before it began raining. It has rained so much, it seems we will never get these plants in the ground.

Because we have had so many delays in planting, we have still gone back and forth about raised beds versus planting directly in the ground. At this point, we are leaning again towards raised beds because I don't think it's reasonable to use our tiller can handle the amount of ground we need to cover.

The Future of Our Poultry

I've already been asked about half a dozen times, "What are you going to do with all of these birds?" The sad truth is, some of the chicks probably won't make it to the coup. They are only a few days old, and out of 40 chicks, a few will probably die. From there, we were only able to tell the difference between male and female Cinnamon Queens because the males are a much lighter - gray color and the hens are reddish - brown. The rest are unsexed (i.e. we don't know yet). In all, we only need two, maybe three roosters. Too many would cause problems with pecking order and too we would have a sport that's illegal in our state as opposed to a productive flock in the backyard. Once the chickens are mature enough that we can tell the hens from the cocks, we will save the nicest looking and behaving males and eat the rest. So by the end of summer, we will most likely have about 20 laying hens and 2-3 roosters.

The ducks we are keeping only for eggs unless two are male and one is female. Then one male will need to go to protect the female from being overly pursued.

About the Breeds:

All of our chickens are dual-purpose breeds meaning they are bred for both meat and eggs, although some are better suited for one over another.

Rhode Island Reds – dark red, common due to good egg laying ability and hardiness, brown eggs


Australorpes – Australian chicken breed, black, similar to Orpingtons, light brown eggs


Cinnamon Queens – red and white, quicker to lay than most, brown eggs


Barred Rocks – black and white striped (barred), light brown to pink eggs


Buff Orpingtons – light rust colored, very light brown to white eggs



Pekin Ducks - We believe this is what our chicks will look like as adults, but we aren't sure. Like our chickens, Pekin ducks are raised for both meat and eggs. Their eggs are large, white, rich eggs and are great for baking.



sources: Wikipedia and Backyard Chickens

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Cousins Sam and Garrett came over to see the ducks and chickens.

Ducks!

The first grade classrooms at Eugene Field Elementary School in Springfield incubated duck eggs and then cared for the baby ducks by letting each of the first graders have a "sleepover" with a duck. Today I met with one of the first grade teachers and a few of her students to pick up the ducks to take to our farm. The girls were sad to see the ducks go, but I promised I'd email pictures of the ducks on our farm and write the class a letter about our farm.

The ducks were filthy when I picked them up because they had been in a plastic tub and slid all over the muck on the bottom, so they took a bath first. It was hilarious to watch them swim and splash around in the tub.

For now the ducks will be staying in our dining room. Because they have been handled by kids every day and are used to living in people's homes, we are going to wait until they are a bit older before we let them run in the chicken coup and surrounding area.

Last night was a rough first night with the chicks. The garage was cooler than we expected and five got a little beat up and trampled as they all huddled under the heat lamp. We took those five out and kept them in the bathroom. Josh held and blow-dryed each of them (on low), we fed them a little sugar water and they are all doing better today. We are still keeping those chicks in "the infirmary" until they are a little stronger. We bought additional heat lamps and spread the chicks out more by using our dog crates. We moved the whole operation into the basement because it is supposed to be in the 50s for the next several days.

The Rhode Island Reds are three weeks old and starting to get their feathers, but the rest are only 1 or 2 days old. We are still researching the best way to integrate the different aged chicks, the slightly beat-up chicks, and the ducks once they are all old enough to be outside.

New setup in the basement:
We had to put cardboard boxes all the way around because they can squeeze through the openings in the crates. The green tub is the "infirmary."


Chicks in the infirmary:
They could all probably go back in with the other chicks except for the one with missing feathers. I can't believe he made it through the night. We are waiting until they are all well before we integrate them because they will be picked on too much if we move them individually.


Ducks in the dining room:
They are eating all-purpose poultry feed and hard boiled eggs for now. Talk to us in a couple of days and we'll let you know how the duck poop / smell issue is going. If the weather improves they may go to the garage.


Always happy Ben:

Chickens!

Today we bought 44 chicks from a farm in Humansville, Missouri. Josh picked out 30 something, and the crazy bird lady kept throwing extras in the box. We bought five kinds: Rhode Island Reds, Australorps, Cinnamon Queens, Barred Rocks, and Buff Orpingtons.


Chicken materials:

Brooder - Any box or cage where chickens will stay the first couple of months. We've got a couple of larger cages and we may use our dog crates if they need to be separated because of age. In the pictures it looks like they have no room and they're on top of one another, but we had just turned the heat lamp and they were trying to warm up. Below is a picture of the brooder with all of the chicks huddled on one side.

Heat lamp - Needed to heat the brooder until chickens have feathers (sometime in the second month).

Waterer and feeder - We're using medicated chick feed for now, and we'll switch to high egg yielding feed later on in the summer.

Flooring - We're using shredded newspaper (friends, keep saving your newspapers for us).

Chicken coop - Ours was here when we moved in. Josh recently cleaned it out and it needs a paint job and we need to do some weed eating and fence repair in the chicken run surrounding it in the next week or two. We've got 10 metal nest boxes with roosts below, and a wall of 15 wooden nest boxes with no roosts. We aren't sure how the previous chicken inhabitants got to the upper two levels of nesting boxes, so we're going to need to build roosts or something to get them to the top level. The coup also has electricity, lights and an outlet, but the power has been disconnected and we haven't decided what we're going to do just yet.

Roost - A roost is a thin piece of wood or dowel that the birds stand on or use to get from the ground into their nest boxes. We may use a couple of rickety old wooden ladders for ours, if we know anyone who has one around.


*I wrote all of the chicken information assuming most of my friends don't know a lot about raising chickens. I am still learning, and I'm sure this post looks silly to anyone who has actually raised chickens before.


The ducks are coming tomorrow and we will use the same method and materials for them. They are going to live in the chicken coop with the chickens, but we will set out a kiddie pool for them to swim in. We may also take trips to the pond, depending on how easy the ducks will be to catch.