Awaking from a Long Winter...

The time changed last weekend marking the end of what felt like an extraordinary long winter.  Now it is lighter in the evening and this opens up the possibility of doing more than simple chores during the week.  It is still dark in the morning during feeding time but at least one is treated to experiencing the sun come up during the feeding round.

The place is becoming greener and the animals have a spring in their step - particularly the largest gander who will run completely across the orchard to hiss you off.  A defensive sweep with a trash can lid catching him on the side of the head has not seemed to deter him.  I am actually spending time in the garden!  With the garden being smaller than last year and mostly using raised beds, the workload has reduced significantly.

Here is a shot of the typical menagerie - An escaped (and thus free ranging) NZW rabbit joins some Guinea Fowl and Buff Orpington Roosters for breakfast.  All these creatures live on their own and seem to be doing OK.


This time of year chicks and ducklings abound.  The geese have a nest of eggs they are semi-sitting on and the rabbits have had litters.  Can't tell if the goats or Henny, the registered AGH gilt in with Beau, are pregnant yet.  The remaining hogs born last fall are getting fatter but not ready for the butcher yet.

Lost a few of the White Leghorn chicks over the last few weeks to an unknown culprit.  This afternoon just before dusk I saw a possum in a branch right over the Poop Coop.  Thinking this may be the varmint, I ran off to get a shot gun.  The noise of the shot and the crash of the plummeting possum to earth caused a commotion with the hens.  On inspecting the possum I found six babies still attached to her and one on the ground.

 

Snow in Alabama

On January 17th it snowed about three inches.  Not exactly noteworthy for much of the northern hemisphere in January but a rare event in central Alabama.  Remarkably, so far in 2013 the Birmingham metro area has had more snow than Chicago!  I am sure this will change soon.  As expected, even though there was little accumulation due to above-freezing temperatures, the city shut down with some long delays on the interstates in the north of the state.

The morning after.  A New Englander would probably claim to have had a worse case of dandruff.

Winter Project

Some projects that are supposed to be simple have a nasty habit of taking far longer than expected and trying every ounce of patience.  Adding a simple pen to an existing chicken coop fit the aforementioned description perfectly.

One of the projects on my Christmas vacation list was adding a pen to the Speckled Sussex coop.  In the dead of winter it becomes dark early and with the darkness comes a whole new set of predators that are not deterred by the four foot high 4x2 welded wire fencing.  With a pen, the chickens could be kept in the pen all day if I knew I would be out late.  While Wynn, the Great Pyrenees, has been doing a fine job in keeping intruders away from the farm (including the mail carrier and most other delivery services), I preferred the peace of mind of having the extra security.

The plan was simple:  Build out a simple frame and screen it in with 0.5 inch hardware cloth.  Since the coop was off the ground, the plan was to also screen in the underside of the coop which would practically double the area of the pen.  The hardware cloth was buried about 6 inches deep and ran out for about 2 feet to prevent predators burying under the pen.  The roof was also screened first and then covered with corrugated tin.

While the finished version seems to sound and maybe a little over-engineered, the problems began early with the coop being located on a slope.  When the framing was complete there was not a single right angle in the structure.  I had to add more wood to create a flush surface for the screen (poor planning and design) and then the door had to be custom made to fit the space that looked nothing like any shape I learned about in geometry.  

With the slope I decided to dig a shallow trench around the coop and pen to allow the water to drain away from the structure.  

 The finished pen.  A simple project that took about five days to complete spread over several weeks.

Mystery Intruder

It gets dark around 4:30 PM.  By early Wednesday evening this week something had ransacked everything on the front porch.  In Alabama it is usual to find old inside furniture, a refrigerator (working and non-working), a complete stuffed deer, half a motorcycle, a rusted out grill and a rocking chair on a front porch.  In this case the front porch is equally messy, being full of galvanized trash cans full of livestock feed and some empty feed bags.  Something had knocked a few things over and eaten some old rolled oats that had spilled.  

The Great Pyrenees was nowhere to be found.  This was quite concerning.  Anything big enough to take out a Great Pyrenees and eat raw oatmeal was something not to be fooled with.  At this point the police show up.  Apparently something had tripped the alarm over two hours ago.  It is reassuring to know that the police are only a monitored alarm phone call away.  Seriously, it would have taken Special Forces less time to have relieved the besieged consulate in Benghazi.  So now the plot thickens. 

Some crashing and banging outside solved the mystery.  Trudy, one of the American Guinea Hog sows had managed to escape from the newly hog paneled pig paddock.   It looks like she had lifted the gate and squeezed underneath. Banging around on the front page must have caused the inside dogs to go wild and trigger the vibration sensors on the windows.  Mystery solved: no swamp creature or alien.  So, Trudy was led off to one of the feedlots in the old garden for a few days while I could fix the gate. 

Trudy in disgrace - a few days in the feedlot

The other part of the mystery - where was Wynn - the Great Pyrenees?  She was attempting to "herd" Trudy.  

Boudreaux the boar is enjoying some solo while the missus is away.  He, of course, is too fat and lazy to escape.

One Year In

The last post on the blog was back on July 4^th.  Already it is Thanksgiving.  Where did the time go?!  Well, the weeks and months in between have been the proverbial hive of activity.  As a result, much has changed on the farm. 

From a livestock perspective, two litters of guinea hog piglets have expanded the porcine population.  Trudy had another litter and Bitsy had her first where she farrowed 9 piglets with 8 of them surviving.  Thing 1 and Thing 2 were taken to the butchers in September.  Collectively they weighed 620 lbs and produced over 450 lbs of pork.  This necessitated purchasing another freezer!  Despite the many hours invested in building the guinea fowl a big coop the guinea flock quickly began roosting in the trees and have never looked back since.  Despite living wild, only two or three birds were lost to predators.

Guinea fowl up in the trees.

This morning three piglets were delivered to their new owners.

New additions to the farm include a pair of Blue American Geese (a medium-large heritage variety) and some American/Sebastopol crosses.  The geese were brought in as plan C to keep the grass and weeds under control in the orchard following the lack of success experienced with the chickens (plan A) and goats (plan B).  The chicken flock has grown significantly and the Orpingtons on the top field have been integrated into the poop coop for efficiency purposes.

American Geese

White Leghorns, Rhode Island Reds and Barred Rocks were brought in as chicks earlier in the year.

The orchard was finally completely fenced with 4x2 wire using wooden posts and T-posts with a number of gates including a farm gate (I finally got the “hang” of the fencing thing).  The fence has helped tremendously.  The ducks and chickens now have two fences separating them from predators.  The fence also means the geese can roam across the orchard (and no further) and the goats can roam outside their pen without eating all the fruit trees.

Fencing seems to be never ending.  Hanging hog panel with number 2 son today.

The garden has undergone the most radical transformation.  The current garden is only 1/6 the size of the original.  Keeping a large garden is definitely labor intensive.  The new smaller area is making use of raised beds and mulch to keep the weeds under control.  Goats, pigs and chickens are occupying the rest of the area that used to be the garden.

In the midst of all the activity going on the one year anniversary in September slipped by without really noticing it.  So, in the spirit of Thanksgiving, now is a good time to look back on the whole Hereward Farm venture.  Clearly there is much to be grateful for; the opportunity to live a long standing dream for one.  A little over a year in and the farm is up and running.  So far it has proved to be an interesting roller coaster ride.  On the cost side, countless hours of physical and mental labor have been invested and the learning curve was (and still is!) steep.  Significant financial capital has also been invested.  On the benefit side, witnessing first hand the natural cycle of life with the land and the animals is a priceless experience.  The early mornings and hard physical labor are actually quite fulfilling ("fun" would be pushing it a bit).  Most of all, however, the knowledge, skills and experiences gained so far are considered important assets for an uncertain future. 

A Busy Month

A lot has happened since the last post back in May.  June was an exceptionally busy month with a lot going on professionally and on the farm.  A consulting trip to Switzerland and a new job made a naturally busy time even busier.  In June we added a trio of Nigerian Dwarf goats, Speckled Sussex hens, and a Great Pyrenees livestock guardian dog.  So, this meant building a fenced in area in the wood for the goats and a new coop and run for the Speckled Sussex.  The pigs got a new paddock with a new shelter and the guinea fowl got a new coop.

 

 

From the left, Jasmine, Rosie and Dandy

The Speckled Sussex Coop

A Speckled Sussex pullet in the feeder

 Wynn, the Great Pyrenees, resting in the partially built guinea fowl coop

The garden has exploded with both crops and unfortunately weeds.  The constraints of time were really noticeable in the garden and the recent record heat wave with 100 plus degree weather compounded matters.   Despite the insult, the garden and orchard have continued to be bountiful although some of the crops planted later in the season did not do well during the heat.  The lessons for next year – smaller garden, raised beds, more mulch, and automate the watering as much as possible.