An Interesting Weekend...

During a business meeting in Cyprus many years ago, I noticed a large number of houses on the Island had rebar sticking out of the roof.  I could think of no rational reason that could explain this and out of curiosity asked one of the locals.  What I was told made perfect sense.  Apparently, once you have finished building your house the property tax increases significantly.  So, leaving rebar sticking out the top of the house means technically that the house is still under construction and therefore you pay less tax.   

In much the same, when I was a sales rep driving around the rural southeast I was struck by how many people constructed out-buildings out of old tin and blue tarp.  Why anyone would deliberately make their property resemble a shanty-town was beyond me.  Maybe there was some similar hidden advantage known to the practitioners much like the folks in Cyprus with rebar sticking out of the top of their house.  This weekend I was initiated into the tin and tarp crowd (although I had the decency to choose more earthy colors).

No, this picture is not from an Occupy Wall Street squat but of the meat rabbit operation constructed (using the term loosely) this weekend on the lean-to at the end of the workshop.  Before discussing the merits of the construction technique (or lack of technique), it may be worth discussing why raise rabbits for meat in the first place.  Rabbits provide a high quality meat that is low in cholesterol, require little space, are easy to breed (in fact, they breed like rabbits), easy to process (no plucking), easy to feed, make little or no noise (unlike roosters, cows, etc.), no special equipment needed, and their manure can be used directly on the garden without composting.   A slam dunk in my opinion.  

Rather than use the barn, we decided to start out near the house and use the lean-to at the end of the workshop.  Given the four-hole wire cages offer no protection from the elements the lean-to needed covering.  Thinking this may be a temporary affair, it offered the perfect opportunity to practice with tin and tarp rather than something more permanent.  It was relatively easy to cover the cages with some tin (and the required concrete block) and then cover the lean-to with tarp and 4 mil plastic sheeting.  The rabbits seem to be fine.  An operation as small as this (3 New Zealand does and 1 Californian buck) could feed a family of four and can be run in even a small backyard where livestock may not be allowed.

 

The Californian Buck

One of the New Zealand Does

The next picture shows the utility of tarp and something else I thought I would never do.  I built a chute under the cages to automatically collect the rabbit droppings into a container.  Yes, I am really excited by how much droppings these rabbits produce and how this “poop chute” actually works.  One best practice I learned from this experience – build the chute before you put the rabbits in the cages and that way you won’t be working beneath creatures that appear to be able to crap their own body weight daily.

The Poop Chute - Unlike blue tarp, note how the more aesthetically pleasing silver tarp matches the galvanized metal wall and the j-feeder.

Onto the pigs… We finally herded the pigs from their temporary pen on the top field all the way down to the barn.   This was a very unpleasant experience for all concerned.  First of all, getting a rope on a pig was more difficult than expected.  The pigs protested by resisting and squealing all the way down.  One of the pigs escaped by standing on the loose end of the rope (my bad) and it was a devil to recapture.  They made it relatively no worse for wear and it did not take them long to settle in to their new accommodation.  This is much bigger and offers more protection from the elements.  Just have to run some hot wires around the paddock and they have all this area to roam in.  The paddock also has a livestock loading shoot to make loading the pigs on their final journey a smoother process.

The learning from this experience besides tying a better knot - better planning, particularly with large livestock.  If we had planned more effectively we could have placed the pigs in the barn in the first place.

One of the pigs resisting... You'd think she was being led to the butcher's or something. 

The Destination

 Finally made it!  Rabbits are definitely easier to move!

Over Thanksgiving

Several updates over the very busy Thanksgiving holiday period. 

Pigs
The piglets are literally growing before our eyes.  The initial plan was to wire off a garden section with electric fencing and raise the pigs in this area.  Realizing we may need this area before their manure has rotted sufficiently we are now pig-proofing part of the barn and paddock.  While still in their original temporary pen we decided on an impulse to let them out and explore one of the garden areas.  It is amazing how they can be running for their life squealing and then one nanosecond later can be happily rooting and eating - until spooked again.  This temporary freedom seemed like a good idea until we tried to get them back into their pen.  I always wondered where the expression "like trying to catch a greased pig" originated from.  Now I know why.  After numerous failed wrangling attempts human ingenuity prevailed - a line of corn chips caused them to eat their way back into their pen.

Eggs and Chickens (or is it Chickens and Eggs?)
Quite a few developments with the other half of the egg and bacon equation.  We have expanded our Buff Orpington flock over the last few weeks with groups of birds from several local farms that in turn originated from different hatcheries.  Our thinking is to have sufficient genetic diversity in our core flock.  When introducing new hens there is always the risk of contaminating the existing flock with a disease so the new birds are kept isolated for 2 weeks.

Alfred and Edward are now mature enough to be sexually active.  In fact, they have been going at it with the hens like the proverbial hammer and tongues.  We therefore took a chance and incubated 15 eggs that were set on Thanksgiving.  This batch also includes a couple of ISA hen /BO rooster (Harold) eggs from the other coop.  Not sure what type of throwback will result from that liaison but the offspring should be interesting.

We also brought home 16 Barred Rock day-old chicks from a local farm.  This is another large dual purpose heritage breed we want to try out.  This is not the easiest time of year to be dealing with chicks given the winter temperatures so we are making use of the house.  Right now it is becoming difficult to remember which rooms not to let the dogs into.  To be fair to the dogs, they do sort of resemble a dirty tennis ball.

Odds and Sods

Last weekend was the first time more than one of the feral cats were seen at the same time for a few weeks.  There is usually one cat in the barn at feeding time.  Since all three looked the same when they arrived you never know if you are seeing the same one every time.  One of them is a little less feral and comes up to the house all the time (if the dogs are not out).   The picture shows two cats well camouflaged.  Now we know there at least two cats still here.  Since the one dead mouse found in the barn soon after they arrived the only kill that can definitely be chalked up to the cats was a squirrel found near the barn.

Pumpkins and other gourds were found growing behind the old chicken coop when we moved in.   Judging by the ground this area may have been a chicken run at one time.  Since chickens are often given pumpkin seeds to eat in order to get rid of intestinal worms, we don’t know if these pumpkins were planted here deliberately or are seeds that the chickens did not eat.  This area is very woody so the pumpkins were still green last weekend even though it was well after Halloween.  Here are a few we picked and left in the top field to ripen in the Sun.  By this weekend the larger ones had changed to the familiar orange color.  

Having the mobile chicken coop in the top field and the permanent one in the orchard always meant a long walk in the morning.  With the introduction of the pigs last weekend it has added another step to the morning feeding run.  Applying a process analysis approach to the whole thing we realized that the feeds were in the shed and the animals were spread out in different directions with the shed being out of the way.  The optimal location for the feed was at the house.  So, last week we moved the feed bins onto the front porch.  From a process improvement perspective this move worked really well.  The bad news, the front porch looks more like a barn.  First thing on a cold winter morning dragging feed all around the place tends to favor sacrificing some aesthetics in favor of practicality!

The Piggery

Yesterday we went to collect two Yorkshire/Duroc piglets from Shelby.  While small, these little suckers already weight 25 lbs.  They should reach a market weight of around 300 lbs when they are 120 days old.  Rather than confining them to a small pig pen, the plan is to allow them to free-range among the fields to "poop and root" using a roaming solar-powered electric fence to keep them in desired areas.  The pigs' temporary home is a chain linked dog run.  Last night we were debating whether or not raccoons would climb the fence and pose a problem to the piglets.  More for our peace of mind than the safety of the pigs we moved them onto the front porch last night - much to the disgust of the dogs.

Recognizing that these pigs are being raised for a specific purpose, we spent some time debating their names.  We ended up with the rather bland Thing 1 and Thing 2 after Dr. Seuss' Cat in the Hat mayhem characters.  I had some specific names in mind that were closer to home but all the self-awareness and self-management training over the years has clearly paid off and I remained silent.

Having had no experience in raising pigs the plan is to first try out some common commercial breeds before investing in the rarer heritage breeds.

Thing 1 and Thing 2 in their temporary home:

Undesirable Creatures

Recently ran into some less-desirable creatures.  While moving the chickens' water dispenser there was a black widow spider in the gap between the stones that the dispenser was resting upon.  The red hourglass can be clearly seen.  I am not sure what bothers me the most about these spiders.  The fact that it is the most venomous spider in the US or the fact that the female eats the male after mating (hence the name black widow).  I feel better thinking this one was a virgin.

Just before bedtime last night I was out checking on the chickens and found the culprit that had been digging the small deep holes in the fields.  Clearly this thing had not escaped from a petting zoo nor was someone's lost pet.

The armadillo is one of those creatures that one has a really hard time trying to see the beauty in.  In fact, it is down right ugly.  It doesn't help that armadillos carry the bacterium that causes leprosy.  About 1/3 of the few hundred cases of leprosy a year in the US have been found to come from contact with armadillos.  Oh, and they may also carry rabies - nice!

There is plenty of land for it to forage on so no plans to have it/them removed unless they start coming near the house. 

Planting Garlic

The first of the heirloom garlic was planted this weekend.  The chickens had been depositing rich organic waste material onto the soil of their run for a while.  This was the ground where the garlic would be planted.

The first order of business was moving the chicken coop and run.  The fence and coop were dismantled and moved to the adjacent section of the field to begin preparing some new ground for us. This was relatively simple although I wouldn't want to do this every week.  The only real difficult part was keeping the chickens contained while their world was disrupted. 

Moving the coop:

The old location left some prime well-prepared soil to plant the garlic in:

The soil had first to be tilled and prepared into rows:

That was it for the day.  Had to get ready for the Alabama vs LSU game.  As it turned out there was more crap played during the game than left by the chickens.  Anyway, back to the garlic.  The heirloom garlic bulbs from earlier in the year were broken up into cloves.  The large cloves were selected for planting.  Typically a large clove produces a large bulb and vice versa.  Lot's of garlic left over! The cloves were planted 2 inches deep 6 inches apart.  The cloves go in with the root end facing down (apologies for pointing out the obvious).  A stick marked up for 2 inches and 6 inches works well.

The garlic will winter in the ground and be ready next Spring.  The only step left is cover with about 6 inches of mulch.  We decided on fallen leaves since there are plenty available.

With the recent passing of the tough Alabama Immigration law, casual farm laborers from our neighbors to the South are in short supply.  Being forced to look closer to home the following is a picture of an undocumented Anglo-Appalachian American (son) raking leaves last weekend.  This pile cost me $30!

These leaves came in really handy today:

Nearly 200 cloves went in on this planting. Look forward to some giant heirloom garlic bulbs in the Spring!

Store-Bought Organic Free-Range Eggs versus Backyard Organic Free-Range Eggs

All it took was one free-range egg and I swore I would never go back to the tasteless white eggs that are mass produced in battery operations being fed a whole cocktail of steroids, antibiotics, and God knows what else.  So you pay a little extra but the taste, the peace of mind, and knowing you are not supporting a miserable practice make it worthwhile.  I did not expect our eggs to be much different than the organic free-range eggs that are bought in the stores.  I was pleasantly mistaken.  Maybe because our eggs are fresher (sometimes they are laid the day we cook them) or maybe the hens are more “free-ranging” than in larger commercial operations or maybe it is what we feed them.  Regardless, the picture below shows the difference between a high-end store-bought organic free-range egg (left) and one of ours (right).  Look at the color of the yolks…

Things that go Bump in the Night...

Yesterday was Halloween.  In earlier cultures the precursor to modern Halloween was associated with the end of the agricultural year and a night when the dead were thought to walk among the living.  Here's a few pictures of Hereward Farm with a distinct Halloween/Samhain feel.


First we have the obligatory straw bales and pumpkins.  The Cinderella pumpkins growing near the orchard are not quite ready.

While on the subject of Halloween, this next pic is of a clay face mask that was found in the shrubbery at the front porch when we first moved in.  Leaning over and seeing this face staring up at you was a little unnerving.  I am not sure exactly what this mask is supposed to be but the plan is to bury it in consecrated ground with an ample supply of Holy Water as soon as possible.

The next pictures show what really walks the farm in the dead of night.

The signs of deer have become more pronounced recently.  Given the scratchings I had this image of a huge buck walking the fields.  The wildlife cam caught a picture of a deer recently.  Rather than a large buck this looks more like Bambi with an eating disorder.

The next pictures show the distinctive tracks of a raccoon.  These tracks were found around the chicken run on the top field this morning.  Such evidence of raccoons underscore why we must lock the chickens up in their coop every night.

The Poop Coop

So the egg production of the Buff Orpingtons dried up.  One of the hens is going through a moult and the decreasing daylight is also affecting the flock.  Another obstacle is that one of the hens, Rose, turned out to be a rooster.  She (or he) is now known as Edward.  While we are building up the Orpington flock we had the idea of bringing in some additional hens just for their eggs.  So we picked up five ISA Browns from a local place that have their egg laying down to a science.  These birds were just past their laying prime and thus surplus to their needs but just what we were looking for.  These hens are a cross between a Rhode Island Red and a Rhode Island White.  For the last 30 years they have been further selected for their egg production and can lay up to 300 brown eggs a year at their peak.  These hens had been raised Amish style, free-ranging on organic feed without any artificial lighting.

We needed a temporary coop to hold these birds for the two-week quarantine period before mixing them with the Orpingtons.  It turned out that the composting toilet built by the previous owners to accommodate a media event took very little converting.  It was already well-ventilated with the main openings facing East-West which is great for maximum lighting.  All I had to do was cover the vents with 1 inch cage wire and some hardware cloth around the roof openings.  Inside I weighed down the two "seats" to block access by predators from underneath.  I added a simple roost and lots of straw.  Since the hens will only be in this coop for a couple of weeks the original functioning of the composting toilet was maintained (not that it gets any use!).  A short run was also constructed.

 

No eggs yet but plenty of manure... I mean, plenty of manure.  BTW, the golf ball was used to help promote egg laying but it looks like it may have promoted a different bodily function! 

Needless to say, this is now known as the "poop-coop".

Rooster Name Change

Received a complaint that “Orpy” is somewhat of a wimpy name for a rooster (thanks Becky!).  I can’t say I disagree.  In seeking a more appropriate name that conjures the right image, a number of alternatives were considered:

Olav the Stout (Inappropriate - Still looks a bit scrawny)

Ivar the Boneless (Too insensitive given what will happen one day)

Eric the Red (Would suite the former Rhode Island Red rooster that was unfortunately dispatched by Winston, the Jack Russell Terrier, but not a Buff Orpington)

Ivan the Terrible (Did not want to give him any ideas)

After much debate, Orpy is hereby known as Alfred the First, named after Alfred (Aelfred) the Great, the first King of England.  Alfred defended Anglo-Saxon England from Viking raids, formulated a code of laws, and fostered a rebirth of religious and scholarly activity.  He is the only English or British monarch to have been given the epithet “the Great”. 

The pictures show a remarkable resemblance!  Just in case, King Alfred the Great is the first pic.

First Frost

Last night was the first frost of the season.  To be on the safe side the various herbs and fruit trees remaining in their pots were covered.  

The Good News
This presented an opportunity to test out the wood burning stove.  This stove is smallish and looks similar to the traditional potbellied stove only this one must have had a gastric bypass.  Despite being a bit on the thin side, the set up and chimney look perfect with the draft nearly sucking my slippers off.  Another good sign, the roaring fire did not trip any smoke alarms or carbon monoxide detectors.

The Bad News
Somebody has to chop some firewood...

Beavers

So the other day I was minding my own business in my office downstairs when a truck pulls up outside.  Now Hereward Farm is not exactly a place you just happen to be passing.  You have to take not one dirt road but two.  Actually, the second dirt road may not meet the official criteria to be called a dirt road.  In fact, this is almost one of those “you can’t get there from here” places.  The guy in the truck must clearly be here for a reason.  After exchanging the usual pleasantries he came right out and asked me if I would mind if he destroyed my beaver dam.  Well, in my line of work that is not a question I am used to hearing.  The first thought that crossed my mind was that he was from the Environmental Protection Agency and he was trying to entrap me into destroying a beaver family (similar to what the ATF did to Randy Weaver at Ruby Ridge only this time destroying a beaver was involved rather than cutting the barrel off a shotgun).  After nervously scanning the perimeter for snipers, I asked him for some additional background. 

It turned out he was a contractor working on the adjacent property upstream of the creek trying to install a culvert for a bridge across the creek.  The beaver had built the dam so high that the water had backed up to the point that he could not add the culvert despite pumping out water.  He insisted in walking down to the creek and showing me the dam.  As it turned out, there was another dam downstream of the farm that had caused the creek to back up so that my beaver had to build his dam even bigger.  This must be the beaver equivalent of keeping up with the Jones’.  To cut a long story short, I agreed that he could disrupt only the corner of the dam so that the water level would fall sufficiently enough to complete their job yet be something the beaver could easily fix.  This evening I finally had the time to go down to the creek and have a look at what was going on.

The first picture shows the dam and the lodge.  The white flags are not the beaver surrendering but where the contractor marked the position where the dam was knocked down.  The level of the creek has fallen significantly as can be seen by all the mud.  Walking in the mud I of course saw beaver tracks all over the place.  These are much bigger than I thought.  The footprint with the Toyota key is about 3.25 inches across.  That’s about just under half of my hand size.  If hand-to-body size ratio is fairly consistent across mammals that means the suckers could be nearly half my size.  Upon that thought I decided to leave not wanting an upset family of large beavers with even larger teeth to mistake me for a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) worker.  The final picture shows the creek downstream of the beaver dam.

So all humor aside, if the beavers are doing no real harm and a simple workaround solution appeared to work, then why not leave them alone?  Of course, if they flood my field I may think differently!

Another Chicken Update

Looks like the Orpingtons have settled in fine.  Found this in the nest box this afternoon.  Apparently they did not like the cedar shavings we placed in the nest boxes and added some straw from the floor of the coop.  Come to think about it, I wouldn't appreciate plonking my rear end on wood shavings either.

Chicken Update

The Orpingtons survived their first night in the new coop.  The wildlife cam did, however, pick up some strange animal trying to gain access to the coop at zero dark something this morning...

Natural Rodent Control

Today was the first day all three feral cats/kittens were seen on the same day since the day they arrived in traps over three weeks ago from a local cat rescue.  The picture below shows two of them eating dinner in the barn loft.  The other cat, who is a little bigger, came near the house earlier.  This is a good sign - was beginning to think we were feeding raccoons!

The feral cats were rescued from a litter that was living in an abandoned house by a local cat charity.  We agreed to buy two of them to keep in the barn to control bothersome pests the natural way.  So, on a Sunday morning just over three weeks ago the girls from the rescue show up with three cats and make us an offer we cannot refuse.  Apparently Sundays must be a buy-two-get-one-free day.  We have been feeding them daily ever since to entice them to stay around the barn.  So far we have found one dead mouse in three weeks. That's a mere average of one mouse per cat every nine weeks! Statistically speaking, the mice are at more of risk from suicide than being eaten by one of our cats.  Financially speaking this is not looking any better:

Cost of cats.......................................................................$50
Cost of feed bin.................................................................$25
Cost of feed.......................................................................$55
Walking down to the barn to feed the cats every day...........Priceless!

Total cost to dispatch one mouse.........................................$130

 Even the Federal Government would be embarrassed by these numbers!

Buff Orpingtons Arrive!

Today the move of the new chicken coop and chain link run to the top field was finally completed just in time for the new Buff Orpingtons to arrive.  Blanch, Dorothy, and Rose along with Orpy the rooster can be seen checking out their new digs. We were pleased to observe the new guests got right on with the job of fertilizing the soil.  After polishing off some 16% pellets and other sundry food, the "flock" decided a communal dirt bath was in order. We are so far very pleased that the chickens took to the coop by dusk without any assistance.

The run needs a few more modifications planned to be completed in the next few days.  We plan to add an area of cover over part of the run to provide shade and shelter from the weather with the rest of the roof being covered with bird proof netting.  We are also building a simple shelter to keep their food dry.  Having experienced some predator issues with the old coop we feel this combination of coop and run will protect the birds from typical predators we find around the farm.  During the day when the birds are outdoors the run should protect against hawks and a wayward dog.  When locked up in the coop at night the design of this coop should protect against possums, raccoons, coyotes, foxes, and other nocturnal predators.  Well, that's the plan!