Chick Day!

Little guys LOVE chick time!

Time for our first order of chickies!
We're staggering all our chickens this year and we're going to start with 50 now, and another 50 at the end of the month and see how things are looking from there.

50 +2 little yellow fuzzy bums

They're so cute at first!  My kids are great and being very very gentle with the little chicks, so we trying and make sure the chicks get lots of handling right from their first days. It helps to keep them calmer and less stressed on their last day when they're already used to being moved around and handled.

 Because they've had a long trip, as I remove each from the box I'm gently holding them to the water so they can get a first little drink. About half of them just wandered off while they other half stayed and had a good long drink after I put them down.

 The newspaper keeps the chicks from eating the shavings that are down underneath. This happens sometimes with brand new babies, they don't realise the shavings aren't food, and will starve to death with a full stomach. After only a few days they won't need this any more.

The chick ma-hal! 

I did put the light down a little lower after I took this pictures, it wasn't keeping the chicks warm enough (I could tell because they were all clustered underneath). All the books, etc. will tell you that you want to see some chicks drinking, some eating & some under the heater and then you can tell the chicks are the right temperature. Like most chicken keepers I've noticed my chicks actually like to sleep in big dog piles of chickens, which is how they would sleep under mom so it makes sense.

I could tell the chicks were the right temperature because they slept in a donut shape under the light, so right underneath they would have been too warm, but they were all sleeping where they were comfortable. Right now the light is only a few inches off the ground (there is a cage on it which is an inch or two off the bulb) and I'll raise it a bit as the chicks get bigger.

Last year I kept the chicks in the main part of the barn, but with the new barn kitty putting them inside the coop seemed like a MUCH better idea. It does mean the roosters Nasty & Junior are inside the coop together, but thankfully they seem to just be keeping away from each other, for the most part.

There are 2 too many roosters in that nest box

Can't stop talking about eggs!

First of all, we have duck eggs!!

I hope the gif is dancing
He's supposed to be dancing

Duck egg!

I've been waiting for them to start laying because they are under the lights with the chickens. Winter isn't really the best time for little ducklings to be born, but the coop is quite warm at night with all the chickens in there so I think we can do it. I hope we can.

For now I'm collecting the eggs and we've got a few people interested in purchasing them to eat. I haven't had one yet, but I hear they are richer then a chicken egg, and don't give you the egg burps. I have already heard people who are allergic to chicken eggs can eat duck eggs, but please don't take my word for that one!

The other thing I want to talk about is our Marran eggs. We still haven't really determined that our girls are real marrans, and if they are they are 'poor' quality ones because their eggs aren't dark enough. One BIG bonus I will say about them, over the black/red stars, is that their eggs shells are so smooth!

I don't know if this is a diet thing, or just a genetic thing, but the marran & polish eggs are incredibly easy to clean, the dirt just slides right off. With the black/red eggs, who have rough shells, I have to scrub away at the shells with sand paper to get the dirt off.

We don't wash our eggs for sale because doing that removed the 'bloom' from the outside of the egg. That is a thin layer on the outside of the egg that helps to keep is fresher longer.

Sandpaper marks

Mother Earth News did an egg study showing they could leave unwashed chicken eggs on the counter at room temperature for up to 6 months and they were still edible. Again, don't take my word for it, and please don't try it!

So I gently wipe off the eggs with a dry cloth, sand paper any stubborn dirt, candle, sort & store. I'll do a whole post about this to show my process soon.

Chickens

First Arrived in July

Outside for the first time

Enjoying the paddock

Enjoying the maggots

Coming in for dinner.

Their last day here

Crates from the processor ready to go

 

Off go the first group of 15

And then they came back.
Very impressed with the processor!

Got my weigh station all set up, had to work quick
to get them all into the freezer

Out biggest chicken!!
We had a 2.5Kg for dinner tonight
and put half away as leftovers...

Handsome looking group!

A freezer full of goodness!

I don't relish the death of the meat chickens, but I most certainly celebrate the life they lived. I celebrate that the meal my family shared tonight, we know where it came from, we know it was cared for, we know it ran with the grass between his feet (*sniff, sniff*).

Also it was flippin' delicious!! A little more texture then we're used to, but a downright yummy bird! The dark meat, something I normally hate because of the greasy taste, was just beautiful.

Half way through the meal hubs has to ask "You do realize this thing was running around on the farm yesterday right?" to which my reply was "You do realize it was flapping and squawking this morning, right?".

They arrived as those tiny fuzz balls and 3 months later they ended as these behemoths on our dinner table. It was a wonderful experience (if not, a lot of work) and like our 3 year old, I can't wait for the arrival of more chicks early spring.

I think I'm going to like thing country living thing... The food is definitely better.

Bio Security

Now, I've made it no secret to anyone I've talked to in the last 4 months how ridiculous and unfair the quota rules are. Before I start on another rant about that, here is something the OMFARA is getting really right.

You can get a biosecurity booklet with all their info at: www.agbiosecurity.ca or www.healthybirds.ca.

I tried printing & posting my own sign from
the site, it lasted one rainstorm despite
the protective sleeve

Most of the information is already available on heathybirds.ca (which is really worth checking out of general bird health information, even if you don't live in Ontario). The booklet is a nice reference, although I'm not sure how long the "weatherproof" sign is going to last. 

Biosecurity is really important to the backyard flock owner for a few reasons, not the least of which are

• Even though BigAg productions pose a far greater threat of producing and spreading big scary anti-biotic resistant diseases, we don't want to be passing around avian flu or west nile either, and those are ones small flock keepers are good at spreading around.
• You don't want to your birds getting sick & loosing your time and money investment into them
• It's the law. As I mentioned before, it's illegal to free-range in Ontario because you need to limit access of wild birds (and other animals) to your flock. (Of course there are ways to limit wild birds when your birds are ranging)

Most of the bio-security stuff you're probably already adhering to because it's common sense. Other things are as simple as having a hand-sanitizer bottle in your chicken coop (you can pick up a pretty big bottle at the dollar store). The log book is just in case there is an outbreak, so they can track back who has come to visit, and you only need people who have chickens (or who have recently been around chickens) to sign it.

Keeping your coop, waterers, feeders, and bedding clean will keep your birds healthy and make your job a whole lot more enjoyable. I also really believe in the principal of making the inspectors (should they ever show up) happy by showing we're making the effort and they are going to leave us alone. 

Are you sure those are meat chickens?

If I had a dollar for everyone person that had asked that, well, maybe that would be the best way to make money farming. 

Our birds grew more slowly then your typical meat birds. It wasn't a mix up at the hatchery as we first suspected, although it's possible we weren't feeding them enough around the 4 months mark (my bad!). Quite simply the reason our meat birds don't look like meat birds, is because we let them live.

Out scrounging around

They had a chance to run around, enjoy the sunshine, scratch in the dirt, get into the cow poo, and choose whether or not they wanted to interact with any of the other chickens at any given moment. In return I have a whole lot of chicken poo to clean up around the farm when they are gone, but the grass is richer for it. We lost none to heart-attacks and broken legs despite them getting far older then they are supposed to. They greatly reduced the fly population around the farm, and provided tons of soil aeration to a few spots that really needed it. As well as entertainment for the kids.

For next year we are going to confine them to certain areas, probably with electric netting, just to keep the poo off the lawn. We also have to do this so that we can get a better feed conversion rate, unless everyone wants to pay $10/Kg. I hope we never have to go to an indoor system, to me this seems a far fairer way to raise chickens.

Following me into the barn for dinner

Their date is set for Wednesday. We're all very excited and should be enjoying our first roast chicken from the farm within just a few days. We've already had a ton of friends and family asking for chickens, in fact I doubt we're going to have enough as everyone would like. I certainly hope they all enjoy them too.

Quite honestly I think I'm going to miss those feathery little white bowling balls running all over the place. When they weren't getting directly in my way, or the cockerels trying to bite at my legs, they were quite a nice animal to have around. I'm looking forward to next April when we'll have a fresh crop of little yellow fuzzy bums.

Urban-Proof Roosters

The ultimate solution for urban chicken keeps: sustainable, sound-proof, environmentally sound coops! There are lots of urban areas were chickens aren't allowed, and there are lots of people out there trying to change these rules. There are also lots of people skirting the law by stuffing their neighbours full of lovely home-laid eggs!

Having a few hens in your yard usually doesn't cause much trouble. Hens are usually very quiet, actually they make lovely cooing noises. You can definitely keep hens & have them lay eggs with out a rooster. But if you want a sustained flock, and higher egg production you're going to need a boy. That early morning crowing can get on the nerves of even the most egg-loving neighbour.

This is a great solution:

http://permaculture.org.au/


Built like a straw-bale house, this is the type of insulation we're considering for our coop. Luckily our roosters are back from the house awhile, I you really don't hear them until I set them out in the morning. At which point they like to start crowing battles, but by then it's a more civilized hour of day.

Chickens are Fighting

Never a dull moment...

This happened a few nights ago, I was putting the chickens in, luckily this one decided to roost on top of the tractor (instead of going in) so I saw him.

I'm thinking it was a little love-tap from one of his brothers, a peril of keeping the meaties around too long, they've starting sparring. They are all in the barn now, fattening up for a week or so then they've finally need a date with the processor.

This little guy got some spray on Iodine (which he didn't appreciate) and healed just fine. Because it was night time and they were all sleeping I didn't separate them, if it had been firs thing in the morning I would have kept him away for the day. 

Pastured to Perfection

Because of the small flock growers laws (grrrr!!) I can't, for instance, put an ad online saying we've got chicken to sell. So when we ordered our first birds we only got 50 because (1) this was our first time doing it and I knew we might mess up (and we did!!) (2) because that was enough for our family for a year and we weren't sure we'd find enough 'customers' for the rest of the birds.

It's amazing who comes out of the wood-work when they find out you've got meat birds. Despite the set-backs we've had with these birds, it makes me feel pretty darn good to hear there is a market for what we're producing!

One of hubby's friends drives past frequently (which is why I really need to stop wearing my PJs to feed in the morning...) and in conversation asked my husband about the meat birds saying "Are you selling any? Those birds out in the field in front of your house? I've seen them! I want some!!"

For the record we actually have none to sell at all right now, in fact we're trying to see if it's feasable to procure any more (most of the hatcheries don't sell birds for the winter) to raise under lights in the barn or something. Come Spring, and once we've got the worming thing sorted out (!!), we'll definitely be getting many more birds for next summer!

Chicken FAIL

I understand that most people don't make back their money on their first round of meat birds, because of the beginner mistakes you make; but I was sure, SURE that I had read up enough, and figured this all out and that wasn't going to happen to us. Not.

Consulted with the processor yesterday afternoon and it's most likely our birds have roundworm. Apparently it's been a really bad year for the worms & that's why they haven't gained any weight. We've sunk all our money into feeding worms, not chickens.

So as soon as we worm they should gain some weight, of course the feed store just ran out! I gave them some D.E. with dinner and we'll go with the commercial wormer as soon as it's in.

I don't know how long roundworm can last in the soil, considering there haven't been animals on the land for years, before us; this really caught me by surprise!

Still feels like a bit of a failure in my part, but we've learned a good lesson! Just glad we started out with 50 meat birds instead of 100 or more!! These birds better be tasty 'cause they were expensive!

Everyone is getting a round of de-worming including the dogs & cats. 

Given a few more weeks of life

Supposed to be going in next Monday!

Had to call the processor this morning to hold up the end-date for the birds (should have called sooner really). The meat birds are still really small, we've got them ranging around the paddocks and they're feeder is full at all times (unless the goats get in there again); but they just haven't gained enough weight.

I'm really starting to wonder if there was a mix up and we have layers now...

Something isn't working

It's very chilly today (well 15C is not chilly for a Canadian gal!) so we had to seperate Mr. No-Feathers from the rest of the chickens, he's freezing. So I decided to grab a few more of the smallest chickens (the ones we have to keep until the turkey go in, they are much too small) to keep him company in the barn. While deciding which ones to separate, I also decided to weigh a few.

My chicken scale covered in plastic wrap

Well... they are all way too small. 700g is not going to make it to the roughly 10lbs we need by early September!

Not sure what we've been doing wrong, but it must be something. They've been getting lots of food, but also running around all over the place (we have very healthy meat birds...). First time chicken keepers, looks like this is going to be our big mistake.

Mr. Ugly and the little guy bunch
(there are 3 all together, one not pictured)

So now, we're just going to have to try to fatten them up! And I have to call the processor to push back their date. Hopefully someone else who booked late will be eager to trade!

Mr. Roaster Rooster on the other hand is 1.5Kg; which is a decent weight for a mostly free-ranging dual-purpose bird.

We think born mid-may

I'm looking into it, but it's possible we/the hatchery/the feed store messed up and we have layers not meat chicks. 

Chicken Terms

 Had a friend ask me the other day 'so your birds are what, free range? but they are in that cage thing'. Well, good point so here is an explanation!
(please excuse my terrible drawing!)

Modern

 

This is what we would call "modern" style of chicken raising. You've got many birds crammed in tiny cages where they can't move. Their beaks are clipped short to prevent canabalism. This allows large farms to produce a great amount of chicken meat in a short time, and it is most likely this is the way your grocery store eggs were layed.

A miserable existence. 

 Free Run

 

Ah free-run the new buzz word! Just enough "free" in there to make you feel less guilty!  Free run are raised in a barn and don't get to see the sunshine either. Their breaks are also very likely clipped short. 

Much nicer then the modern method at least.

Free Range

 Free range means the chickies get to bathe in the sunshine, and probably eat some grass & bugs!

Traditional coops & runs work as free range, that is how we have our layers. Keeps them safe from predators but allows them as much exercise as they want.

Tractor! Also counts as free range! They are out in the sunshine, eating all the grass and bugs they want, digging in the dirt being chickens.

You should never have to clip beaks in any free-range method.

 Truely free-range, no fences to keep them in... or predators out.

Well, there goes dinner! 

There are two other relevant terms here. 

Organic is a process of certification, there are steep dues to pay and lots of rules to follow. Not really attainable for most small farmers. 

(Although there are some weird rules about producing small amount you can still call them organic... I'm not sure)

Pesticide-free, no-hormones, etc. Mean exactly what they sound like; but beware, big companies like to use things that are illegal anyway to promote their products! It's great to call your milk hormone free, but you can't give hormones to dairy cows in Canada anyway!

Don't Count 'em Out, Till They're Down

Poor chickie!

When I moved the tractors this morning I had one that was very pale, frazzled, and sickly looking. It happens with meat birds, they get too big for their hearts and just fade out. So I took him to a quiet shady spot beside the muck pile to let him live out his last moments... so I thought.

Go to check on the chickens 4 hours later, and guess who is sitting outside the tractor waiting to get in? Glad I didn't put him out of his "misery" this morning! Guess he just needed a nap because he looks much revived!

Evening update:  He did eventually expire today. I picked him up again and noticed how under-weight he was compared to the others. I've been trying to find some time to weigh them and will hopefully get a heads up if any others are that underweight. As it is there are 2-3 that are way too small to go in 3 weeks. We'll probably hang onto them until the turkey go (end November/early December).

I assume there was just something wrong with his system, happens a lot with these meat birds. In the tractor they all have equal access to any food; plus I've still been feeding them grain by spreading it out all over the ground when I move it.

How to Carry a Chicken

This is the best way to carry your chicken. Create a V with your fingers, slide under the breast and lift. I you've got a flapper you can move your finger tips over the tops of the bird's wings, or place your other hand over them, or put them against your body.

Alternatively, if you've got lots you need to move quickly, or have an aggressive bird you can pick them up by the legs. You should grasp them gently as close to the knee as possible. They generally don't like being turned upside down, but once you get them down they will go into a trance-like state where they won't flap or move (but they do still squawk so I wouldn't believe anyone saying they have a hard time breathing).

I find this is a good method if you're moving birds around at a sale/auction where they might become frightened. Or when you have to get 45 or so birds between the barn and the tractor. Quick trip, won't hurt them in the least, and this is something farmers have been doing for centuries.

It's also probably the way they will be slaughtered. I know Dr. Temple Grandin did a paper which explained that cattle who had been handled were calmer at slaughter and gave better meat. There is no escaping the fate of these birds. By handling them often and exposing them to loud noises, etc.; we'll make every facet of their lives, including the end, just a little easier.

Wheelbarrow Chicken?

Feel the need to issue a public apology to my husband for calling him crazy for suggesting this; but moving the chickens in the wheelbarrow at night did, in fact, work.

Big storm coming so we had to bring all the animals in. Chicken tractors can tip in high wind (why you need to weight them down) ours hasn't been tested yet, and I wasn't looking forward to testing it in the middle of the night by letting all the chickens out! So instead we brought them in with the other animals and left the tractor out by itself. Now if it tips, we'll know, but not loose any birds!

The chickens were all sleepy when we moved them so we did one big trip by throwing them all into the wheelbarrow and taking them into the barn.

Can't believe that worked! And I really wish I'd brought my camera out with us!

Chicken waterer

Should have been wearing my 'genius at work' T-shirt at the barn... yeah, maybe not. But I did make this nifty water-er for the chickens!

Want Less, Live More has a great DIY chicken feeder, and I adapted it for water.

I started off with the bottom of a dog treat container, you want to make this part fairly deep. I cut two tabs into each end to string it up with, but I quickly wished I'd made four (it wasn't stable enough with one string). Then I took an old ice-cream container and cut the tiniest hole in it and just put it in the dog treat bottom. Then I ran some binder twine through the holes & voila!

The piece of wood floating should
hopefully prevent any chickens from jumping
up on the rim then drowning in the
water; and I can still
fill it up from outside the tractor.

Now it's not fancy, but it certainly gets the job done. Plus now I can move the tractor with out having to first remove the waterer (which always ended up in escaped chickens). I've actually been able to move the whole thing over a few time now with out loosing any chickens at all!

Moving the Tractor & Poo

Moved the chicken tractor to another part of the field this morning, it was a distance so I had to let the chicks out first (insert more Yakety Sax...).

Thanks Crows!

I was just starting to think that you could argue that you were ensuring your birds were not contacting wild birds (and thus could "range" them) by either watching over them, or having some sort of bird-scarer. When I looked up and noticed the giant hawk circling. I wouldn't have even noticed if the hawk hadn't flown too close to a nest and pissed off two crows who were busy dive-bombing it and kept it right away from my chickens!

So the kids and I very quickly started running around collecting up all the little chickens.

This horse poo is a few days
old and in just a few moments
the birds have spread it all over
looking for tasty fly larva

This picture depicts the biggest benefit of ranging your birds.

1. Any worms that may have been in there have now been killed. Part of the worm cycle is for the larva to be ingested by a new host, or even original host, to live and reproduce in their digestive tract. This happens when the host grazes near manure and snuffles the worms up with the grass. Spreading the poop out like this kills the larva by exposing it to sunlight. I frequently go into the fields and do this manually with the rake.
2. Fly control! Maggots can't hatch into flies if they aren't around to do it.
3. Free food for the chickens. (I'll do another post about costs)

 The chickens don't need to be outside the tractor in order to go through some nice cow-pies. As a warning, they do get really dirty pecking through there!

Little tip on the 'tractor

I'm getting better at moving the tractor without loosing any chickens along the way, but little tip. Make sure if you move it over a cow pat, it IS an old cow pat. Otherwise you may be throwing poop covered chicks back into your tractor as fast as you can grab them.

Should not have worn a white shirt in the barn this morning...

The chicken tractor

There are tons of benefits to having your chickens outside, but per Ontario law, we're not allowed to free-range the chickens (plus with dogs/predators probably not a great idea). We're quite close to the road, with a pretty clear view of the pastures so decided to play by the rules (For now, I'll talk about that in another post).

So hubby built this fantastic chicken tractor!

 The whole thing cost us less then $15 because we built it from all the materials left by former owners. If I had to guess, I think we did it for under $100.


The frame is made by 1x6, re-enforced by L-brackets in each corner, and nailed together. Then we use electrical conduit (really any flexible plastic conduit would be fine, I've read using UV protected stuff is a really good idea) to create the three arches. Then stretched small-gauge wire from one side to the other, and on the ends. There is a door on this end (made out of wire so hard to see). The whole thing is very nice and light! You can see the handle, there are also wheels on the other side so we don't need to carry a dolly.

Right now I've been moving it about 2-3x time a day. Slowly getting it out of the sac paddock and into the main paddock to travel around. The chicks do a pretty good job of chewing up all the vegetation. We're also giving them some feed because we want them to be nice and fat ! Although we may stop doing that, depending on how things are.

This is a slightly smaller coop then you'd want for 50ish birds, but it's a good idea not to give them too much space or they run around and loose all their weight. If it turns out later that it isn't enough room, "we will not be free-ranging them. "

We need to make some hanging water-ers to make it easier to fill them/move the coop. Right now I feel like this song should be playing every time I try to move the chicken tractor...



Gotta be really careful not to run over any of the chickies!

He's Dead Jim.

Okay this one was my own stupid fault. The chicks have been drinking & eating a LOT (since that is pretty much all they do, eat, drink & sleep). So I thought I'd put in a small dish of water, only 2" so they could stand in it if they did actually fall in, and no one would drown and they'd have extra water.

Nope. So we're down to 50.

Proper waterers

The rest of the chicks now have a date of September 12th to be processed.