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.