2016 Accomplishments

At the beginning of the year I sat out a list of things we were going to try to get done. You can find that here.

As I write this I recognize that I completely and utterly failed on getting gutters installed. Along with cisterns, ponds, and tree planting - though I did order in all the supplies and seeds, so we'll try that again in the spring. I was pretty pissed at what I didn't done until I sat down and wrote out what we did get finished. Overall we moved the ball forward quite a bit this year.

Here's a list of what we did get accomplished:

1. Moved Andrea and the Reds to Texas with possessions and Pug dog intact. A special thank you to Bill and Diane who were gracious enough to drive the Reds to a memorial service for their great grandparents in Michigan, and then on down to Texas.
2. Bill built two spa benches after arriving in Texas.
3. Built Andrea a Farm Table and bought the wood working tools to go with it as a Mother's Day/Birthday Present.
4. Built a kitchen island that turned out awesome.
5. Got a great deal on two top bar beehives and will try to add bees come spring.
6. Found a really good looking registerable, full blooded Belted Galloway Bull.
7. Went in halfsies on a shorthorn steer that will be in the freezer next fall.
8. Bought a Red Wattle barrow and a Red Wattle/Duroc cross barrow. Sold 2 halves and put the rest in the freezer.
9. Got 6 paddocks set up and working.
10. Figured out how to better ground the electric fence and had 0 breakouts this year.
11. 20+ broiler chickens put up.
12. 25+ laying hens raised and should start laying in March 2016
13. Bought and installed a pellet stove to keep the house Africa hot for Andrea during the winter.
14. Bought a large smoker.
15. Bought a tractor, shredder, disk, hay fork, blade, and plow.
16. Bought a cattle trailer.
17. Bought a car hauler to haul our vehicles as they age and inevitably break down. :-)
18. Bought a four wheeler.
19. Picked up a aerator, sprayer, and seed spreader from a generous co-worker.
20. Bought organically grown hay from two neighbors and put up 18 bales for winter.
21. Bought several new farms tools, pull ax, pitchfork, etc.
22. Andrea picked up a used washer and dryer.
23. Let a buddy use my Seqouia and got a small deep freeze in exchange.
24. Worm bin.
25. Put in a clothesline for Andrea.
26. Composted a ton of grass clippings.
27. Picked up a large deep freeze and filled it with meat we raised.
28. Added two additional garden beds for the 2017 garden.
29. Found a compost supplier locally and brought in and spread 8 inches of compost on all the beds.
30. Raised 2 hogs successfully and have greatly enjoyed reading them.

2017 Goals will go up soon.

Everybody Roots for the Underdog

I think every farmer has a runt they secretly root for. I've been around farming long enough to know that most runts won't make it. Nature is cruel and honest at the same time. Survival of the fittest usually involves being bigger, stronger, and faster than the others in their group.

I write this because one of the little 236 hens is about half the size of the rest of her brood, but man is she fearless and plucky. (She's in the top left of the picture.) She fearlessly scoots in and around the hogs picking up loose hog pellets and table scraps. She negotiates the older Rhode Island Red hens with ease and is smart enough to give the rooster a wide berth.

Who knows if she'll make it to laying, but I'm rooting for her, and I'd be lying if I didn't own up to throwing her extra scratch grains from time to time.

Ideal 236 Chickens

On July 28^th we had 55 chickens show up at the local post office. 30 were Cornish Cross and 25 were the Ideal Nursery’s 236. The 236 is a proprietary breed that Ideal has been selling since the 60’s, apparently involving a Leghorn crossed with a couple of other chickens. The 236 chickens will become the foundation of our laying endeavor.

The 236’s on the other hand were all fully feathered by the end of week three. Zero have died of natural causes, and even though their coop isn’t 100% snake proof, I haven’t lost any of them to snakes since week 3 due to their ability to fly and roost as high as they can. The FrankenChickens on the other hand have had 2 succumb to snakes over the last 3 weeks, in part, I think, due to their inability to fly and/or roost above ground level. The other thing I’ve been impressed with since I started letting them free range during the day is how little feed they’re consuming.

We won’t know until they actually start laying how truly efficient their egg production is. That’s the real baseline I’m concerned with is how close can I come to breaking even on my feed costs through selling the excess eggs. They love going outside to forage and as it starts to get dark they head back into the coop without too much prodding. They all sleep off the ground, roosting like chickens should.

Overall, I couldn’t be any happier with the 236 chickens. They have been easy to raise and vigorous growers. 

We’re 5 weeks in and what a difference in the 236 chickens from the FrankenChickens. They’ve been vibrant, active, curious, and healthy. They were the same size as the Cornish Cross when they arrived, and while the Cornish are now roughly 4 times bigger the Cornish look rough, and are nowhere near being completely feathered out.  Yesterday I found one of the Cornish who looked as though he’d just gone to sleep and didn’t wake up. No abuse from his buddies, just dead.