Daily Adventures....June 15, 2013

Stephens County Farmers Market was great today!  Busy, busy, busy....  We sold a little bit of everything and saw a lot of folks.  We gave out free samples of our Pastured Poultry.  I always love seeing the looks on their faces when they taste our chicken for the first time!  The flavor is amazing and they are astonished at the just how much natural flavor these chickens have.  Most people are amazed that we put no seasoning of any kind, not even salt or pepper, when we cook them.

We showed off our Feed Sack grocery bags and messenger bags.  I have even tried making some hats from the feed sacks.  The hat is not quite ready, but I'm on the right track!  It won't be long before you can purchase bags and matching hats from our farm....


When we got back, Knox found a visitor in the hen house...a black snake!  We love having black and king snakes around the farm.  They are great to keep the rats down and keeping the rattlesnakes at bay.  But once they get a taste of chicken eggs, it's time to get rid of them.

The problem was Hubby and I couldn't kill the snake.  We spent quite a few minutes trying to get the snake out.  The hens were going crazy!  Once we got him out, we just couldn't get kill him...so we let him go.

We still have a problem...the black snake has turned into a chicken snake.  How are we going to keep the snake out of the eggs?  So I went to the hardware store and purchased some moth balls.  I put the moth balls under the hen house.  We have used this before.  It seems to keep the snakes and sometimes the mice out of the hen house.  

But since the snake excitement, our laying hens have been going all over the orchard and around the house trying to find other places to nest.  Poor hens are just act so lost!  After a few days, they'll hopefully settle down and go back to their nesting boxes in the hen house.

We'll keep you informed...

Daily Adventures...June 13, 2013

We've finally got some hot weather.  It's also dried out for a few days now but we have gotten a few brief showers...somewhere at about 2 inches of rain.  The hot weather also has brought some humidity.  The one thing that makes it tough on not only humans but animals especially our chickens.

We found one of our laying hens dead today.  Not sure what killed her.  It could have been the heat or more likely she was embedded with an egg.  These hens have a history of this with us.  We find one or two a year that have died.

We also found a dead chick in the brooder dead.  Knox had noticed one limping the day before.  Not sure if that was the same one, but we feel it was.  I noticed today that we have 3 more with some leg problems.  I added some extra kelp to their diets.  I think they are just eating more than usual and are in need of some extra nutrients.  We'll keep an eye on them until we more them on the pasture.


We had a good day at the Stephens County Farmers Market Wednesday.  We are tying to be there every Wednesday and Saturday.  We only sold some grits but we got to see a lot of people and that's a good thing.  Letting people know you are there is sometimes the best advertisement.

Daily Adventures...June 10, 2013

Sunday, it seemed to rain all day!  It didn't start raining until after church, but the rain made it a perfect day for a Sunday afternoon nap.


When we made it to the pasture to check on the chickens, it was so wet.  It rained most of the evening Saturday and again this afternoon.  I haven't checked the rain gauge because it's suppose to rain again tonight!

Since it was so wet, we made the decision not to move the big pens.  Where we are on the pasture at this moment is where Hubby removed a lot of debris and the ground has not got its grass growing really good yet.  Hopefully by tomorrow we can move without leaving a mud trail...


We are still having a time with chicken escapees.  These escapee bail jumpers are just walking through the fence!  Not sure what is happening.  Knox and I spent a good deal of time trying to get the fence to charge, but we're not sure where it's grounding out and not charging the fence.  We're confounded why the fence is not charging!  Hubby is going to have to help with this one.... 

I had to put our layers on a diet.  These hens were getting so fat that they weren't laying.  I was getting only an average of 3 eggs a day.  There are 13 hens so I should be getting a lot more than that!  The newest hens are the fat ones and are barely leaving the hen coop.

Since being on their "diet", they have been laying more.  We are now up to an average of 5 eggs per day and even up to 9 eggs on some days.  We have not only been keeping feed in their feeder, but have been throwing out feed in the orchard.  This is getting the new hens to explore and feed away from the chicken coop more.  They are finding their way to the wheat field and our back porch.   It's taken a month, but the new hens are starting to act like the layers that we want them to be!

Daily Adventures....June 8, 2013

We got another inch and one-forth of rain.  That's how much I emptied out of the rain gauge this afternoon.  And after watching the news tonight, we are in the path system of rain heading our way tomorrow.  Wow...I can just see the mosquitoes growing!  It's just going to be ugly buggy summer...

We decided to move Batch 1 Summer and the goats before the rain sets in again.  Batch 1 Summer are in the portable fence.  Since their pen is so big, we must move them all out of the fence and pen before we hook up to the tractor and move.  The chickens get to roam all over the pasture while we get their "home" set back up in its new spot.

After everything is set up, we have to round up the chickens.  Today Hubby came down to help Knox and I round up.  It's nice to have that one extra person to round up the chicks and head them in the right direction.  

This Batch is getting to be old pros!  We use long staffs that we use to direct the chicks.  We don't hit the chicks, we only hit the ground and the chicks move in the opposite direction.  This Batch as gotten so use to how we use the staffs, that we only have to raise them and they start moving!  It took no time at all to get them all in...well at least the bulk of them.  We always have a straggler or two!

Our big excitement today was we killed a copperhead!  Knox noticed it when we moved the goat pen.  But when we started looking for it, we couldn't find it.  I told him that he was just seeing things.  A little bit later, Knox found it!  It was only about a foot long and probably not real harmful yet but we didn't want to take the chance with the goats or the chickens.

Snakes are good to have on any farm.  We always have a few black snakes and king snakes that we like to see around the farm.  But we will kill any snakes that we see killing our animals or getting our chicken eggs.  This happened this fall when Hubby found a black snake killing our pet rabbit!  Once he killed it we noticed that we were finding more eggs.  It had become a chicken snake and thought the poor white rabbit was a big ole egg!

We try to keep moth balls around our chicken coop to stop the snakes.  This one had started getting the eggs before I was able to replenish our moth balls.  Ever since, I have been trying to keep moth balls and diatomaceous earth.  This seems to be working but with all the rain, their not lasting as long...  

We'll just keep on farming....

Daily Adventures...June 7, 2013

The consistent rain showers are great for the pastures and garden but are making the feeding and moving of chickens a race.  It maybe a race each day but it's not a fair race.  It's a race that you don't know when it starts or stops!

Today we had to race to beat the rain!  I would really hate to farm without a weather radar.  That's how I saw that the rain was coming.  When I went to get Knox, he thought I was crazy!  The sky was a beautiful blue with fluffy clouds.  Not the sky that was about to leave more rain.  But as we feed and cleaned waterers, the fluffy white clouds quickly changed to dark drooping clouds that brought a cool wind smelling of rain.

After we moved Batch 2 Summer CSA and put the goats up with their feed, the rain started.  Once we got the tractor parked and the extra feed put under the shed, it was as if someone unzipped the dark clouds and let all that rain out!

The day before it rained off and on so much that we made the decision to just top off feed and wait until today to move pens.  So we couldn't let the rain stop us!  And we were just in time!

Yesterday I emptied the rain gauge.  There was one inch in the gauge.  I'm interested in seeing how much there will be after this rain!   

Daily Adventures....June 5, 2013

We now have new animals on the farm.  The boys and I are starting to grow....worms!

We went to a vermiculture class today.  It was sponsored by the County Extension Service.  We learned about what kind of worms to use, what they eat, and how they turn food scraps/paper into wonderful soil amendments.   

The boys got to make the worm house and fix their bedding.  

Hamp really enjoyed picking out our new worms from the dirt pile.  He wanted to play with them instead of putting them in their new home!

We can't wait until we get to put all the "worm poop" on our garden!  This is really good stuff for our plants and especially our soil!  Don't you just love our new pets....

This afternoon we got everyone on the pasture moved just before the bottom fell out of sky!  When we got to the chickens, we found Batch 1 Summer CSA with 8 chicks out side the fence. Thought at first they were getting out because they were eating all their feed.  But when we check, they still had feed in the feeder.  The others were let out and we moved their pen and fence.

Knox and I had a time trying to get all the chicks back in the fence!  They just didn't want to go back!  After running from one side of the pasture to another chasing chickens, we were finally able to get them all back in the fence.  

Once we got them back in the fence, we noticed a group of them gathered around a spot by the fence.  When I went to investigate, I found the chicks were going crazy over a fire ant hill...

We just love watching these chickens go after the fire ants!  When we check them tomorrow, there won't be a fire ant inside the fence...

Yesterday, Hamp and I had a good time at the Senior Farmers Market.  We got to see a lot of old friends and sold a few things too.  We plan on being their as much as we can this summer.

We're bracing for more rain tonight and tomorrow.  Hopefully Batch 2 Summer CSA will be able to make it through any gully washers along with everybody else...

Daily Adventures...June 3, 2013

For the last 24 hours, it has rained on and off.   Our rain gauge read 1 1/4" when I emptied it this afternoon.  Yesterday evening it came a gully washer at one point between the constant on and off sprinkles most of the day.  We made the decision to just add feed and let everybody on the pasture stay put.  This way they were able to keep some dry areas.


With the rain, I forgot to gather eggs yesterday.  So today when I went to do my egg collection, I found 7 eggs!  I have been averaging 3 eggs per day for 13 hens.  Not so great.  After talking with our hatchery, we decided to hold back feed.  Our hens are on a diet!  Yep, we're trying to get our fat hens to be skinny hens.  

Let me explain...we are using Freedom Ranger hens that are breed for broilers (meat chickens).  So they convert feed more into meat than eggs.  Once we hold feed back from them and get them to forage more, then they will put more energy into producing eggs instead of producing meat.  It has been working.  I have been getting more eggs, but still not the number that I would like every day.


When we made it out to the pasture this evening, we found 6 chicks out of the electric fence.  We weren't sure how they got out but realized that some of they flew over the fence as we tried rounding up the escapees.  We think some went under the fence.  As the fence was being put up Saturday, it was hard to put the poles in the ground because of how dry the topsoil was.  The rain Sunday and this morning was enough to soften up the topsoil.  This allowed us to push the poles in the ground and block some of the spots that caused the hens to be escapees.


After moving Batch 2 Summer CSA chicks, we realized that the goats would have to be moved.  The goats would have been too close to the pen and would spend most of the day trying to get on top.  In doing this, the goats could easily damage the pen without meaning to...just trying to be goats!  Goats love to climb.  Since we have them chained (for their own safety) we try to make sure they have enough room to roam without getting choked!  This move was for their safety and the pens safety too!


As I said above, Batch 2 Summer CSA chicks were moved today.  This was their first move!  First moves are always the trickiest.  This move was no different...  It took us twice as long as normal with half of the chicks ending up outside the pen after the move.   What happens is the little boogers start moving around, bending down to scratch and peck.  Once they bend down, the pen goes right over them.  They have complete looks of shock when they look up from eating and notice that the pen is gone!

Knox and I started rounding up the chicks.  We had a little help today...Hamp decided to come with us.  I'm not sure if you would say Hamp helps get the chicks rounded up, but at least he getting better at catching the ones that get away from the round up.  We got them in...all safe and sound!


I picked up 1200 lbs of feed today.  This should keep us in feed for the next month or so.  I hate going on a weekly bases to get feed, so I try to get at least a month's worth at a time.  This helps with saving on gas and my time.  It's worked really good for us.  I really wish we had a feed mill closer....