Joel Salatin - Pastured Poultry Pen - (I did it!)

The chicks are now 2 weeks old and are no longer the cute fluffy birds they once were.  So we had 2 more die and we are at 99.  We have used 150 pounds of feed, 8 bags of pine shavings, and 60 gallons of water.  My wife refused hold my hand the other day because I stuck my hand to the very bottom of the pine shavings to see if they were composting.  They indeed were!  Very warm and had a sweet smell!!!  :)

THESE BIRDS GOT TO GET OUT TO THE PASTURE!!!  So its time to build the Joel Salatin Pasture Pen.

The whole family came out to help begin cutting and ripping boards. 

Almost done!  I hope to get the birds moved to the pasture as soon as I get done.  The pen is used to move the birds to fresh grass everyday.  Each day you move the pen one length to allow the birds to forage, scratch and eat critters.

Pastured Poultry - (birds arrive!)

Okay so I decided to take the plunge and I order a few birds to try this pastured poultry thing...  One of our barns was set up for dog breeding and has five small rooms where the puppies would be kept.  The rooms are about 6x7 and are ideal for our chick brooder.  I can't actually take credit for it...It was Sweet Thangs idea.  Our day old chicks will spend the first 3 weeks of their lives in here until we move them to the pasture.

The brooder must be at least 25 sqft for 100 chicks.  Yeah, I'm experimenting with 100 chicks.  I hope they all make it to slaughter day.  It is important that the brooder is protected from all predators to include rats and have an absorbent bedding.  I had originally put cedar shavings down until I read that the cedar oils and smells could be harmful to the young chicks.  After further research I found that pine shavings were the better choice.  You want to use shavings and not saw dust or chips.  Dust is too fine causing the chicks to have digestive problems.  Chips are too large and won't absorb the waste.

Sweet Thang... looking beautiful as ever (loving the yellow boots...Those are working for me!)  Okay, focus... the bedding here is 6" deep and Sweet Thang has put some newspaper down and sprinkled some grit and (non medicated) chick starter.  The paper allows the day old chicks to get quick access to food and grinding stones.

She's so hot literally... We turned the heat on the whole way back from the post office to insure our chicks stayed at 90 degrees.  I'm thinking that we may need a more farm like dog...

Part of the tribe looking over our new arrivals.  (oldest far left is Cowgirl, youngest boy in Cowgirl's arm is Tumbleweed, our 3rd oldest girl in the middle is Pony Tail, and on the far right is Boots.)  Our middle girl Dixie Girl is not present in this photo because she is busy taking pictures right next to me at the moment.

Our youngest Tumbleweed is a bit timid.

Counting the chicks

106 chicks minus 2 dead in the crate we are at 104...  What's your guess?  How many will make it to slaughter day in 8 weeks?

 From our farm, to your table...  Coming Soon :)

Did you say chickens?

I plop down on the couch and run my hands down my face feeling the fatigue set in from rising at 5:00 a.m.  I quickly notice the difference in my hands as they rub like sand paper against my face.  I feel a bit proud of it thinking back to how soft they were just a few short weeks ago.

Sweet Thang peeks out the primed front door and flips on the porch light as a flash of lightning brightens the sky, "I hope the other cat doesn't get taken tonight.  I'm sad for the girls."  I glance up to her and give a half smile trying to figure out what could have happened to the black and white kitten the girls call Miss Kitty.  Could it have been coyotes or maybe it climbed up in Aunt T's car.  Maybe I should give her a call.

Nothing like an ice cold glass of milk to think over my day.  Sweet Thang just announced she's heading off to bed.  My mind quickly switches on how to get my brooder built so I can order my first batch of chicks.  hmmm... should I start with 50 or 100?  Cornish?

It shouldn't be too difficult to market pastured poultry after reading about what a supermarket chicken goes through.  That's my angle... Get people to see the sad shape that their store bought chickens are in and  our chickens sell themselves. 

Think about it!  Who wants to eat a chicken that has been confined with thousands of other birds.  Given tons of medication like antibiotics, growth hormones, and arsenic to increase their appetite.  Yummy, Yummy meat toxins!  Feathers, eyes, beaks, nostrils - nothing is exempt from the layers of fecal dust stirred up in their tiny confinements.  Not only do they live in fecal dust but that fecal dust gets in their feed, water and lungs.  This filth is why the birds receive as many as 40 chlorine baths.  Yeah, that's right your chicken you buy at the store has been medicated, poisoned, and bathed in chlorine 40 times.  I wonder how much of that makes it into the meat?  Kind of like a good marinade, on steroids...literally!

The chicken processing is even worse.  I won't go into the gruesome details but lets just say the chicken is in filth from start to finish...  I think if most people knew what they were eating they wouldn't give it to their dogs.

But there is another option...  Fresh raised pastured poultry...  I'm reading a great book by Joel Salatin on how to begin a pastured poultry farm.  This guy lays bare his entire system.  I love systems.  Not only that but his model removes all medications, poisons , allows the birds to do what they do naturally (forage) in open space. 

Next time "You are what you eat"  learn about what your chicken eats and why pastured poultry is healthier for you. 

"You going to be much longer?" calls a voice from the bed.  "I'm on my way."  I yell back.

Good Night!

Cowboy Training

Cowboy Training

 

Groundhogs, Fleas, and a .22

Groundhog, fleas, and a .22

One more obstacle to moving in... The house has been infested with fleas since we began working on it.  We have bombed the house numerous times, bombed under the house, vacuumed to many times to count (poor girls this takes hours with our shop vac), called cook's pest out several times, and now I'm taking it to the next level.  After many nights of hanging out on google I believe the issue is critters under the house.  Critters like mice and groundhogs.  I have already caught 10 mice and now I'm on to the groundhogs.

Water Problems - Will this farm ever get going?

Psalm 20:7

⁷ Some trust in chariots and some in horses,
    but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.

My shop door opens, "Hey Dad some lady just drove down our drive in a white truck."  Cowgirl 2 my second oldest child announced still squinting from the morning sun.  I'm still looking over my emails from the previous day and hadn't really listened to what she was saying.  I take a sip of my morning coffee and turn toward her trying to rewind what she said as to not get caught once again not listening.  Somehow I'm able to hang on to her words long enough for them to register.  "Are they still here?" I ask with a sense of relief that I was able to remember what she said.

She casually walks into the shop, "No, she asked if my parents were home and if the old man still lives here?"  My interest perks and I look out the window just behind my laptop but all I see is the long gravel drive going back to our one bedroom house.

I quickly get up and push out the door just in time to see the white truck pulling onto the highway.  What could they have wanted and who was this old man they referred to?  I watched the late model dodge truck drive past our house.  I wanted whoever was in that vehicle to know that I was watching them drive away from my property.  Why?  Maybe as the protector of my home I felt it my duty to puff up my chest!  Anyways, I noticed a small circle seal on the side of the vehicle and I knew they were from the government.

What or who were they looking for?  In that moment I tried to think if the government could be after me for something.  I thought on this for a second and then when back to answering my emails.  A couple minutes later there's a knock at the door of my shop and I can see a heavy set, butch looking woman waving me out.  I smile and try to figure out what she could be wanting.

"Hey how are you?" I ask kindly.  She replies in a more manly voice than I would have expected, "Good, saw you watchin us as we drove off and figured we better come back.  Wanted to let you know that you have a water leak somewhere on this farm.  Noticed it when we were checking your meter."  There's no way their mistaken I thought to myself.  I just fixed a water leak when we moved in a month ago.  She continues to talk but my mind has already taken the mental vacation.  Another expense?  I wonder if I can pull money or if paypal will release enough.  Man I'm not going to get any money making work done today.  God I know your in control.

My mental vacation is quickly interrupted when she says, "Yall didn't buy this place did yall?"  her face was scowled like she had eaten something sour.  I noticed a couple of her teeth were rotten  "Uh.. Yeah were doing a..."  She interrupts, "I could tell you some crazy stories about this place.  Problem after problem.  Did yall know the old man who lived here before yous?  Well I did and he had all kinds of problems.  Yall know if you have a leak on this property your going to have a huge bill and the water dept. don't really help out with that."  She seemed to be loaded with all kinds of great news...ugh...please don't tell me any more stories.

"So are yall going to do any farming?"  There was a pause, she stopped talking I thought to myself, "Yes were going to give it a try but first we have to finish remodeling this old house.  The people who lived here before us had left it in pretty rough shape.  My wife and I have 5 kids and are living in the one bedroom guest house until were finished.  It gets kind of interesting."  She looked down the toward the one bedroom house and said, "You know they raised camels here several years back?"  "Yeah, I heard that."  She walked over to the truck and asked if I wanted to hear any horror stories to just give her a call.  I smiled one of those fake polite smiles that we do down here in the south and she drove off.

Our little house

I walked quickly back into the shop and picked up the phone and dialed the little house number.  "Hey babe, just found out we have a water leak on the property you want to come down here?"  I hung up the phone and walked out toward the water meter by highway.  What am I doing?  I don't know anything about anything.  I take several deep breaths and  let them out slowly.  I look up and notice the crisp white clouds painted across the bright blue backdrop.  God, I know your in charge and I know you have a purpose in all things.  Help me to be faithful.  Give me the wisdom I need.  I look down at the triangular needle spinning round and round.  I count off 10 seconds in my head and the needle has spun around an entire revolution.  That's 1 gallon every 10 seconds...6 gallons a minute...6 times 6 is 360 gallons an hour... I wish I had a calculator.  I'll figure it up later but its going to be expensive.  I really can't afford a big bill right now.  I need to keep that money turning over in our business.

"Hey babe!"  Something about them boots that are working...  she's walking toward me in a pair of shorts and cowgirl boots.  "So there's a leak?"
"Yup!"
"What are we going to do?" she asked.
"We'll figure it out.  I'm not worried about it."
"I'm worried about it... You needed to get some real work done today."

I took in whole expanse of the farm, the beautiful red barns.  This leak could be anywhere but yet I feel peace.   It took several hours and many phone calls to a friend but were found the leak in the well house.

A little bit more info:

While digging a 4 foot deep hole today looking for a water line and finding the shut off valve right next to my hole it came to me.  I need to blog everything that we are doing on the development of this farming idea.  I am an entrepreneur at heart and have had many different nitche businesses.  I have sold computer parts on ebay for 10 years, started and ran an internet t-shirt business, and several other successful internet ventures, now I'm considering farming... you know since we have 40 acres.  I want to come up with a way to make the land pay for itself.  At least that's the plan.  The thing is that I'm a computer guy so this is going to be fun and funny.

So please take part in journey as our family.  Wait! Wait!  I first need to introduce my family.  My wife Sweet Thang or Babe is my best friend.  She has a great love for the Lord and the mother of my 5 beautiful children with one on the way.  Did I mention we are all living in a one bedroom house on the property...(temporarily that is).  She and I have been sweet on each other since we were 13 and we were married at 18.  We will be celebrating our 15th anniversary this August, Praise God! 

My Children:  My oldest daughter is Cowgirl 1 age 14 (A horse lover) so hopefully we will get some horses, then there is Cowgirl 2 age (12) (A girl who loves to be hugged), Cowgirl 3 age 10 is our third and has a sense of humor like her fathers, Little Man 1 is 3 and Little Man 2 is 1 both keep Sweet Thang very busy.

In my next post I will tell you how we came to make this transition from city to county and my plan to farm... HELP!!  What should we farm?