Chicken sale, planting, and catch up

I haven't made any posts in a long time. Mom died at the end of October, and I had a hard time getting back to normal, but think I'm mostly there. I still get sad when I think of the things she's missing out on, so happy events are more likely to make me teary as bad ones. She was looking forward to having chickens and vegetables around, and she just missed out by weeks. Don't put off those things that make you happy, because you might just lose your chance.

I'm down to 25 or 26 chickens from the 50 I got in November 2008. It is still hard to get the same count twice. They are barred like zebras, so blend in together, and move too quick. I sold my first cockerel back on January 18th 2009 for $5 and some honey. He should be getting close to being of breeding age for the couple that bought him in a few more weeks.

This weekend past (March 7th 2009), I sold 13 more of the boys in Shepardsville. I was hoping for $6 a head, but mostly got $5. If you ever go to a chicken sale, take your own sacks or crates, and don't get haggled down on one chicken, only to have the haggler insist on buying several for the price they got on one.

We've come a long way in building the chicken tractors since my first try. I think dad has come up with a nice design (http://picasaweb.google.com/tompscanlan/LargeTractor), if a little difficult to move. We're still working out new and better things as we go, but I think we'll build a 2 or 3 more like that this spring for the next batch of 150 chicks that are due to arrive around March 25 2009.

Mar 9 2009, I started some small number of seeds inside. I need to go get some more dirt and pots to get more going. Today (March 10 2009) I planted peas and sunflowers. I hope to grow some of the feed for the chickens here, though I haven't worked out how much to plant yet. I'm probably under estimating, at the moment. Hopefully, I'll have enough left over to justify farmers market trips, but would be happy just getting a small income from the eggs and vegies this spring and summer.

Home grown chicken soup

Last week dad came up with a plan for a new chicken tractor, and we slapped it together for around $120. I had a hand from a friend moving them in on new year's day. I've been letting them wander loose, but under a watchful eye recently. They are 6 weeks old, and getting big, but they are still smaller than the cats, and the cats aren't too afraid of them yet.

Today I walked away from the chickens while they were grazing on the compost heap. I spent about 30 minutes playing with a new water setup and then noticed a couple "sleeping" chickens in the field. Looks like one of the cats was acting out a slasher film with them. I thought I had tabs on the cats, but I must have missed one for a bit. I dunno; maybe I should put that cat on the payroll, since it saved me the trouble of killing the bird.

Well, I strung them up, popped off their heads, and plucked one without scalding. I started on the second, but tore part of the skin off, so just undressed it the rest of the way. Since the first one was a pretty bad pluck job, I undressed him too.

I took them inside at this point and removed feet, crop, neck, oil gland, and guts, in that order. Those tiny guys are hard to clean out. Tossed them in a pot whole and we'll have some Asian influenced chicken soup in an hour. Can't wait!

one more

Lost one more chick Friday night. He was half the size of the others and just didn't make it.

That night and the next day I displayed my cat trees in Louisville at BBC Brewing and Le Gallo Rosso. Lots of contacts made, but zero sales :(

Another chick down. That makes 6. No obvious problem except for the part about being dead.

Lost another chick with no obvious problems today. Starting to think it could be dehydration caused by too much heat from the lamps. The chicks aren't making distressed sounds when too warm, they just relocate, to a cooler spot. I think some may get stuck in the heat.

Another good night last night. Everyone was still kicking this morning. My last visit to the tractor before writing this I found one guy that had escaped somehow. They are small enough to squeeze through the 1" chicken mesh, but I've got it covered with tarps and packing blankets. Maybe he squeezed through when a strong breeze lifted the tarp. Who knows.

I found him because I heard him screaming from the the house. I'm surprised the cats didn't notice him first. They go down to the tractor with me in the morning. I have to hiss and swipe at yellow cat to keep her back. She's got the message and generally lays own to watch what I'm doing to her fantasy food. I can't wait until the chicks get bigger and alter the cats' view of their station in life.

Yesterday I moved the tractor about 4'. The little guys are poop machines and are getting good at scratching the ground, so I wanted to get them out of their own waste. I made the tractor using some salvaged 2x2s, salvaged roofing tin, and saplings I had to clear out of a field. It is a little too flexible and heavy to move easily. I finally figured out if I climb in and slide it from the center point, I can move it by myself. Unfortunately, as they grow, I'm not sure I'll want to be inside with the chickens as I move the tractor around.

One more passed today. This one looked to have ben picked open a bit just below the vent. At first I thought it was poo stuck to his down. I cleaned him up a bit and noticed that the mass hanging out went through the skin. I kept an eye on him and since no one was picking at it, I left him in. I checked back often and his energy level went way down. He eventually laid down and didn't get up again.

Last night it got down to 18F, and the little chicks just piled up right outside the focus of the heat lamps and huddled together. I was nervous about their temps, but they kept quiet, so I figure they were happy.

Last night I bumped out the plug to the lamps on my way back to the house. It was snowing and getting dark. I didn't notice for about 40 minutes. Thought I screwed them big time as it was snowing and the temp inside the tractor got down to 60F. They were chirping like crazy. Three chicks were freezing, and not very responsive, so once power was on I popped them under the heat lamps and within an hour the perked back up. I found one more that had a pasty butt,that looked like it was going to blow out. This looks like an early version of the guy with his intestines hanging out. He was also pretty unresponsive. I tried watering the vent and keeping him warm. Switched to using peroxide to loosen the clot. I didn't get it cleared out, but cleaned it several times. On my last check I didn't spot him, so he must be mobile, instead of laying down suffering.

Man, I was nervous about that plug all night... kept running out to check on it every 10 minutes, especially as the temps dropped. Everyone survived the night, but one more died in the middle of the day for no apparent reason. It didn't have a dirty bum, so wasn't the one I was worried about last night.

They got visits today from my sister and her kiddos and the woman I'm dating. She stood out there in the freezing cold in a skirt and funky heels, and waited patiently while I cleaned off a few chicky bums. What a trooper.

new chicks in my life

Just arriving this morning at 7am were 50 new Barred Plymouth Rock chicks. This is a straight run, so I'm not sure how many pullets vs. cockerels there are.

I lost two of them. One just wasn't spunky. He wasn't eating or drinking, or moving around. I kept checking on him and he eventually just petered out on his own. The second I had to put down. His intestine has hanging out of the vent, and other chicks were picking at it. I had to remove him.

Temperature control is my biggest worry. With outside temperatures below freezing, I've covered the chicken tractor and lowered the three heat lamps in side to get at least a few 90F spots for them to warm up in. They squeak in distress when too cold, and it took me all day to figure out the level of noise they make when they are just right temperature wise.


For anyone curious about the brooding conditions; they are being raised in the field in a 4'x12' tractor I made. There are three heat lamps in a 4'x4' section of it, and the whole thing is covered to keep drafts way down. They only use up 1/4 of the tractor at the moment, but I expect as they grow, they will need a second tractor ready in about a month or two.

Outside temps this morning when I put them in the tractor were around 30F, and only getting up to 70F inside. Now, we're running at around 42F outside the tractor and 80F just outside the heat lamp area. Tonight should get down to 20F, so I'm a little concerned about keeping them warm enough, but will be keeping a close watch on them to adjust temps as needed. I've been passing around sugar water to help keep their energy up.

Mini tornado

Half of my neighbor's barn was knocked down by a tornado this past year. I spent part of a day a two weeks back clearing barn wood and roof tin out of his cow pasture that had been ripped from the barn and blown several hundred feet away from the barn.

Today I was ripping apart the neighbor's barn to gather wood for the chicken coop when I heard lots of banging around in the pasture, just out of sight. I looked up, and over the other barn I saw the twisting cloud of a dust devil, or mini-tornado. It disturbed the nice piles of wood and tin I cleaned up out there, and started coming my direction around his cow barn. Leaves and dirt were blowing in a tight twist, and hawks or turkey vultures were riding a drastic updraft right over the spot. Those birds were flying straight one second and then nearly straight up to 100 feet or so. Very odd looking.

So, I'm standing there next to a partially standing barn; the remaining portion of which is leaning towards where I'm working. The twister is heading my way about 500 feet away, when I lose sight of it. It seems to have just dispersed, but about 20 seconds later it hits another dust patch and kicks up a big cloud. It hit the cattle fence around 30 feet, I could tell not so much by the dust, as by the loud whistling coming from the fence. I ducked down at this point, hoping that if any of the barn fell I'd be partially protected from large falling beams by the foundation wall. It vanished from perception again, until about 10 seconds later when the ripped tin on the roof, 30 feet up, stared blowing around wildly. That was it. A bit of wind remained behind, but no destruction. No injury. Just a wild view.

Spent most of today figuring out how I want the trap door (for cleaning out the chicken coop), to work and putting in most of the work for it. I sure hope it doesn't interfere with the walls when I put them up.

I'm making it a lift out/drop in door, that way I don't have to go buy hinges :) It is positioned as far out into the overhanging portion as possible, so that I can position a wheel barrow or cart under it, lift the hatch, and sweep everything out into the barrow. On the other hand, I'm making it as strong as the rest of the floor, so it can still be walked on without fear of dropping out the bottom with chicken poo following right behind.

farm buildings, reading

Another good read from archive.org concerning farm buildings. Covers topics like safe loads for wooden spans of varying length based on the width and depth, considerations of dairy barn sanitary issues, issues of air flow in the buildings, different roof designs, and good use of carpenters square. http://www.archive.org/stream/farmbuildings00fostrich


Only nailed in one more floor board in the coop. Trying to plan out where I want the shovel-out trap door set before I finish off the floor where it will be located. Need to get more wood for walls and roof. Spent a couple hours cutting box wood trees out of the field by their roots.

bottom half of the treehouse coop

It has been slow going, but here are some photos of the supports and floor of the soon to be functional tree house chicken coop. The floor boards haven't been nailed in yet,. The platform size is about 8' x 8'.

All of the wood for this part of the structure (except the two really crooked ground posts) has been salvaged for free from a tornado damaged barn. It only took most of a day to harvest the wood from a field, and a partially collapsed barn. I'll need to go back for more before attacking the walls and roof.

[pictures at Treehouse Coop]

Archive is great

You can never have enough reading material. From the not-Oprah's reading list, the new-as-of-the-turn-of-the-20th-century, now "copiously illustrated": Poultry Appliances & Handicraft.

Started building the chicken coop. Boxing a couple tree trunks for one side. One of the trees will pass through the coop. Slow going due to my lack of construction experience. Broke a hammer, right off, trying to pull nails out of the salvaged barn timbers. Most is old growth oak with copious amounts of super rusty nails.

Picked up another crop of healthy chiggers. They like my ankles and bikini line. *scratch*

Spent a few hours cleaning up part of the barn and the field for David; in trade. Kept a truckload of wood and tin roof from the tornado hit barn for the coop.

Spent more time clearing the forested gully for the chicken coops. Thought more about positioning and layout of where they should be placed. Took 3 more pickup loads of cleared brush down to the beaver den to fill in the washed out area.

Started clearing brush and trees from a gully where I'll put a chicken coop or two.