Another crazy week gone by. We processed 240 chickens, had a health scare with our 'teenage' batch in the brooder which was easily remedied by administering garlic and vitamin E (no antibiotics here, thank you!), moved the teenage batch out to pasture to make room for new chicks, got 51 turkeys which arrived early and got a new batch of chicks. The new batch came with problems which 4 days later, we're still feeling the repercussions of...
I spent Wednesday at the farmers market selling while Nate spent the day cleaning out and setting up the brooder to get ready for the new chicks. It was a LONG day but we were all set up and ready to go. That night, knowing we would have an early wake up call from the post office telling us our chicks were there, we brought the phone into the bedroom.
So the phone rings sometime before 7am and we are utterly exhausted. Nate answers and of course, it's the post office. Unlike other times they've called, I hear Nate say "Oh No!" and "That's awful." Oh great, what now.
Ordering chicks through the mail can be a crap shoot. We are solely at the mercy of the postal service which is, to say the least, not a good feeling. Unless we have the set up needed to hatch our own chicks, which is something we're entirely not ready for, this is the way it has to be. When an egg hatches, the hatchery counts them out, puts them is a shipping box which is square with lots of holes and divided into 4 quadrants. They usually put about 100 to a box with 25 in each quadrant. This way the little guys keep each other nice and warm. The hatchery ships them Priority which takes 2 days. Once a chick hatches, it doesn't need any food or water for the first 48 hours because it's still living off of the inside of the egg.
These little puff balls are super susceptible to 2 things....stress and temperature. Both of which can make or break a life. So far, we have had very good experiences getting chicks with few weather-related exceptions.
So Nate hangs up the phone and says "A bunch of them are dead", "The post office just told me a bunch of bullshit, they're blaming it on the hatchery." Now, I'm sure I don't need to tell you how devastating this is. We feel a tremendous amount of guilt and sadness when something like this happens. Yes, these guys are going to eventually give their lives to become food but we love and respect all of our animals and work our butts of striving to give them the best lives possible. We can talk about eating food grown, raised and handled with good, loving energy as opposed to something treated inhumanely, infused with bad energy but that would be a whole separate post.
So off Nate goes to the post office, not knowing what he's going to find while I head up to the brooder to turn the heat lights on and get the feed ready. When he gets to the post office he sees 2 chick boxes in black garbage bags sitting outside. As he walks up to them, he can hear peeping coming from the bags. The post office had attempted to throw out the evidence, which was 2 boxes with the dead chicks and left some live ones in there! The remainder of the boxes were inside the building. He didn't say much to them because he was fuming. He grabbed the garbage bags, and the good boxes and headed back to the farm.
I start unloading and counting the chicks, dipping their beaks in water, trying to get them to eat and drink as soon as possible. We're still not sure what happened to cause the deaths or when in transit it occurred but somewhere along the way, the postal workers noticed that there many dead and proceeded to take out the lives ones and cram them all into one box. I unloaded 200 chicks from one box. Needless to say, that was way too many for one box. The chicks at the bottom were smashed and barely alive. We had to euthanize a few who were in really bad shape but I spent the morning feeding a bunch with a syringe trying to get them to pull through. So far, including the DOAs, we lost about 65 and amazingly, the ones who made it are doing really well.
We called the hatchery right away and while they know it's not theirs or our fault, they will compensate us for them. And the post office will have to answer to them as they try to track the chicks and attempt to find out what happened. Our guess is that they got left outside by some insensitive ass in the heat or something. I wont even describe the picture of what we saw in the boxes that were in the trash bags. It was awful.
We are more than grateful that the survivors are doing so well and hope that the cumulative stress of their journey doesn't claim any more lives from this batch. As I type this, they are running and jumping around as if they've already forgotten all about it.
And us? Well, we haven't forgotten. We're looking around for hatcheries that we can drive to, to pick up our chicks in the future.
August 2, 2009
July 10, 2009
an art which we're beginning to master
I've been absent for a while. We've been busy with not much to report.
We harvested another batch of 240 meat birds a few weeks ago. Some were sold to a CSA, some were sold off the farm and the rest are to be sold by us at a farmer's market.
We got our fourth batch of baby chicks last week. With every batch, it seems, we learn something new, thereby improving our system of raising them. They really can be tricky little suckers to raise often looking for any reason to just fall over dead. Keeping them alive and in good health without the use of drugs is not only a science, it's an art. An art which we are beginning to master. And it's amazing how the whole dynamic changes when things are managed properly. Last season the chick-raising part of our operation was often overwhelming and stress-inducing but is now almost enjoyable. It's all about the poop folks. Once you learn how best to manage the manure/carbonaceous matter ratio, it's a whole new ballgame. In addition, we may have just figured out the missing link in achieving almost zero mortality while in the brooder. Still waiting for the results to come in with our latest experiment.
I am constantly amazed at how much we learn from our animals. You can read books and attend workshops but the animals themselves are the greatest teachers.
Our egg production seems to be down a bit as of late and much time has been spent just watching and observing the hens and trying to figure out what the deal is. One guess is that it's the heat. They tend to eat less when it's hot and consequently have less energy to convert into eggs.
Our lambs are doing really well and are still such fun. We move them to a new patch of grass using electrified netting and step-in posts. We move them about every other day and when they see us setting up the new area, they know what's up and they're ready to move.
We'll be getting our baby turkeys (called poults) at the end of the month and have much to do to prepare. The poults have to stay in the brooder twice as long as the other chicks because they're very fragile when young. We will be building a new structure for them to live in once they move outside. We're looking forward to turkeys again because they're really fun to raise.
A new eggmobile for our second batch of little hens is in the works as well. We purchased the running gear and I'll try to document the construction in photos. It will be modeled after our current eggmobile.
More later...
We harvested another batch of 240 meat birds a few weeks ago. Some were sold to a CSA, some were sold off the farm and the rest are to be sold by us at a farmer's market.
We got our fourth batch of baby chicks last week. With every batch, it seems, we learn something new, thereby improving our system of raising them. They really can be tricky little suckers to raise often looking for any reason to just fall over dead. Keeping them alive and in good health without the use of drugs is not only a science, it's an art. An art which we are beginning to master. And it's amazing how the whole dynamic changes when things are managed properly. Last season the chick-raising part of our operation was often overwhelming and stress-inducing but is now almost enjoyable. It's all about the poop folks. Once you learn how best to manage the manure/carbonaceous matter ratio, it's a whole new ballgame. In addition, we may have just figured out the missing link in achieving almost zero mortality while in the brooder. Still waiting for the results to come in with our latest experiment.
I am constantly amazed at how much we learn from our animals. You can read books and attend workshops but the animals themselves are the greatest teachers.
Our egg production seems to be down a bit as of late and much time has been spent just watching and observing the hens and trying to figure out what the deal is. One guess is that it's the heat. They tend to eat less when it's hot and consequently have less energy to convert into eggs.
Our lambs are doing really well and are still such fun. We move them to a new patch of grass using electrified netting and step-in posts. We move them about every other day and when they see us setting up the new area, they know what's up and they're ready to move.
We'll be getting our baby turkeys (called poults) at the end of the month and have much to do to prepare. The poults have to stay in the brooder twice as long as the other chicks because they're very fragile when young. We will be building a new structure for them to live in once they move outside. We're looking forward to turkeys again because they're really fun to raise.
A new eggmobile for our second batch of little hens is in the works as well. We purchased the running gear and I'll try to document the construction in photos. It will be modeled after our current eggmobile.
More later...
June 24, 2009
more farm press
We recently wrote an article for the PA Association for Sustainable Agriculture (PASA) newsletter which just came out. We did a presentation at a recent farming conference and were approached and asked to write about how we started farming.
We have really been working our butts off so when something like this comes along...it's kinda nice.
http://wolflakefarm.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/passages_78_article.pdf
And Nate was just interviewed on our local NPR station as part of a short 3 part series on sustainable farming along with some other farmer friends. Nate's in part one.
http://wduq.org/news/newsaudio2.html
We have really been working our butts off so when something like this comes along...it's kinda nice.
http://wolflakefarm.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/passages_78_article.pdf
And Nate was just interviewed on our local NPR station as part of a short 3 part series on sustainable farming along with some other farmer friends. Nate's in part one.
http://wduq.org/news/newsaudio2.html
June 15, 2009
June 9, 2009
harvesting chickens for food
The 9 year-old I mentioned.... this is the paper she wrote for school about what she learned.
Harvesting Chickens for Food
By Blue Park
First, you put the chicken in a cone, not a ice cream cone, upside down.
Then, you cut off the head.
Next, hold the chicken in the the cone until the rest of the body stops shaking. It doesn't hurt the chicken because it happens so fast.
Then, you stick it in hot water that helps the feathers come off more easily.
Next, you stick the chicken in a plucker that takes out the feathers.
Last, you take out the insides.
When you go to a farm you can learn a lot. This is one thing I learned.
Harvesting Chickens for Food
By Blue Park
First, you put the chicken in a cone, not a ice cream cone, upside down.
Then, you cut off the head.
Next, hold the chicken in the the cone until the rest of the body stops shaking. It doesn't hurt the chicken because it happens so fast.
Then, you stick it in hot water that helps the feathers come off more easily.
Next, you stick the chicken in a plucker that takes out the feathers.
Last, you take out the insides.
When you go to a farm you can learn a lot. This is one thing I learned.
- Future farmer, Blue
June 3, 2009
the cycle continues
We are beginning to recover from last week.
We completed the HUGE job of harvesting over 200 chickens which we did in 2 days. There's no way around it, it's part of the cycle and it's really hard work. Some very good friends generously donated their time to help us. One of our friends brought his 9 year-old daughter as it was the only way he could come.
She has been to the farm several times and the plan was for her to hang out with another adult elsewhere so she didn't have to witness her cute little chicken friends meeting their fate. We have been amazed so far about how much she 'gets' this whole farming thing and how she understands why we do things differently than most commercial farmers. But she really surprised and impressed all of us by asking if she could watch the slaughter/processing and then being totally cool with it. She was full of questions about the process and completely understood that this was necessary to turn the chickens into food for people. It was fascinating to watch the light bulb above her head as she thought "Oh, so that's how they get to look like food." She even wrote a report for school about how to harvest a chicken humanely. With her and her dad's permission, we might share that report someday in a later post.
And so the cycle continues. With that batch gone (batch #1), the "teenage" birds (batch #2) who are currently inside need to be moved out to the recently vacated outdoor pens. This must be done to make room for the next batch of baby chicks (batch #3) arriving Friday.
Now, if we could just get a break from the rain....
The lambs are doing well adjusting to their permanent outdoor status. They're starting to figure out how to use the shelter to get out of the rain. We're using electrified fencing that is move-able with step-in posts. We're now moving them to a new patch of grass about every day. They're like little 4-legged lawnmowers!
We completed the HUGE job of harvesting over 200 chickens which we did in 2 days. There's no way around it, it's part of the cycle and it's really hard work. Some very good friends generously donated their time to help us. One of our friends brought his 9 year-old daughter as it was the only way he could come.
She has been to the farm several times and the plan was for her to hang out with another adult elsewhere so she didn't have to witness her cute little chicken friends meeting their fate. We have been amazed so far about how much she 'gets' this whole farming thing and how she understands why we do things differently than most commercial farmers. But she really surprised and impressed all of us by asking if she could watch the slaughter/processing and then being totally cool with it. She was full of questions about the process and completely understood that this was necessary to turn the chickens into food for people. It was fascinating to watch the light bulb above her head as she thought "Oh, so that's how they get to look like food." She even wrote a report for school about how to harvest a chicken humanely. With her and her dad's permission, we might share that report someday in a later post.
And so the cycle continues. With that batch gone (batch #1), the "teenage" birds (batch #2) who are currently inside need to be moved out to the recently vacated outdoor pens. This must be done to make room for the next batch of baby chicks (batch #3) arriving Friday.
Now, if we could just get a break from the rain....
The lambs are doing well adjusting to their permanent outdoor status. They're starting to figure out how to use the shelter to get out of the rain. We're using electrified fencing that is move-able with step-in posts. We're now moving them to a new patch of grass about every day. They're like little 4-legged lawnmowers!
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