Spring Chickens

Approximately, 98% of chickens in the United States are produced by large corporations, the other 2% are made up of local farmers free ranging their chickens. My husband and I are in that 2%.

As I write this, we have 67 Cornish cross chickens on grass. When we moved to our farm, we designated part of the lawn as pasture just so I would feel better about putting chickens on it. I still mow it, but the chickens are happy to roam the area in their chicken tractor.

This spring has been especially challenging. We had to keep the chicks in their brooder longer than expected, which meant keeping them in the garage. Normally, it wouldn't have been an issue, but they got too big too fast. This caused overcrowding and when we did get them outside, I saw some red in their feces. To combat that, I gave them garlic, honey, and apple cider vinegar in their water. The red was gone within a week, we didn't loose any chicks, and we didn't have to resort to medication.

However, the real trouble started when the temperature started dipping into the 30's and 40's at night. When I was growing up, we had to worry about heat stress, so I knew nothing about cold stress. When we started loosing birds, we would find one in the morning, then two in the morning. I was loath to do an autopsy on one, but when I saw one that wasn't going to recover I had no qualms about butchering it. We found a very healthy bird, but a low body temperature. Then when we butchered another one after a cold night, we found an enlarged heart and fluid in the abdominal cavity.

In fast growing meat birds, too much stress can easily be put on their hearts. In this case, the heart failure or hypertension caused the liver to stop working leaving fluid to build up in their abdominal cavity, which was evident in our chicken. This is known as “water belly” or Ascites Syndrome. This is caused when the chicken experiences cold temperatures. The good news is that the weather will get warmer, which carries hope for the rest of our chickens.

My husband and I don't have a chicken CAFO (concentrated animal feeding operation), but after pasture raising meat birds for a couple of years I have come to realize that the Cornish Cross was bred for a CAFO. Their chicken instincts have been nearly bred out of them, so grass foraging is minimal. They grow so fast that any environmental stress on them will likely be fatal. Their legs have to carry such massive bodies and huge breasts that walking and even moving becomes difficult. However, even with the knowledge that they were bred for a CAFO, I still wouldn't put them in one. 

Farmer

It was never in the cards for me to be a farmer. At least, a farmer as I knew it: someone that owned thousands of acres of land with millions of dollars worth of equipment planting corn and soybeans year after year with abundant fertilizer and herbicide inputs, or feedlots filled with thousands of cattle or confinement buildings filled with thousands of pigs. That was my definition of a farmer when I was growing up. That definition seems pretty out dated now.

I grew up thinking that you had to be born into a farming family where the sons farmed with their fathers until everything was passed down through the generations. I wanted to be in agriculture, but I never knew where I would fit in. I spent years teaching it with the knowledge that I wasn't preparing students to farm, but I was giving them knowledge to support the industry. Now I believe I was preparing myself to farm.

With my views of the typical male farmer, I pigeon holed myself into thinking I couldn't do it. That stereotype kept me from trying. The thought of all the money it took or the thought of all the land needed kept me frozen. It took me years to realize that I was completely wrong. My husband and I can run a farm on a few acres with little inputs and make a modest income. This is how we did it.

1. Market your products yourself. Whatever farm product you are producing, sell it yourself direct to the consumer. The more people that handle your product, the more profit margin you loose.

2. Be transparent. Consumers want to know where their food comes from, social media makes that pretty easy.

3. Plan your agribusiness for the year. The years projected costs along with specific dates and goals are included.

4. Think outside the box. Conventional farming is what people do because they can't imagine doing it a different way. My husband and I have been advised to change the way we are running our farm based on the norm. Our intent has never been to do things the way that everyone else does it.

5. Help each other. This way of farming is not just a movement, but it's a way of life. It's hard work that can be isolating. When I hear that someone is interested in doing what we do, my husband and I try to help anyway that we can.

The face of farming is changing along with it's landscape. We are happy to be part of that change, and we are proud of what we can contribute to the industry.

Easter

Easter has always been one of my favorite holidays. It symbolizes a fresh start, so it's only natural that it be during springtime when trees are budding, when daffodils are blooming, or when you can smell the rain coming. Each year our family spends this time immersed in traditions, but this year it was a little different.

The Easter bunny left candy in eggs in balloons

Good Friday afternoon my family met another family at a park. We drove 15 minutes to a tiny town to enjoy the playground made entirely of wood. The park is aptly named Dreamland with it's towers and gangplanks in the shade of the trees. To add to the adventure we planned for an Easter egg hunt. My friend and I walked to the elementary school's playground, which is right next to the park, to hide the eggs we had filled with candy.

After all 50 eggs were put in obvious hiding places, we walked back to the park to see how the kids were fairing under my husband's watchful eye. We kept up conversation while all 8 kids played. After about an hour of them enjoying Dreamland, we suggested going to the school's playground. After the short walk the kids immediately started playing, not noticing our horrified faces. The eggs were laying open all over the ground. Candy wrappers were strewn through the pea gravel. It was an egg massacre, and we knew who did it.

After some investigating, we had the names of the culprits before we left the park. During the hour of conversation between hiding the eggs and finding the massacre, two boys rode up on their mopeds. In a town of 1000 people, it's not too hard to identify teenage boys that ride mopeds.

So what were we going to do with this information? I was pretty angry to say the least. I mean, who wouldn't be? Some kids gathered up all the plastic Easter eggs, devoured all the candy, and left the carnage for us to find. My 7 year-old, 5 year-old, 3 year-old, and 1 year-old couldn't have an Easter egg hunt because of them.

When I further explained the situation to my kids they were sad and angry on my behalf. Then my 7-year old said that the Easter bunny probably wouldn't visit their house. Then I realized that I didn't have to do anything about those thieving kids. They had taught my kids something that I didn't expect. If you give out kindness, you will get kindness back in return. 

We all still had a great time at the park, and the stolen candy didn't dampen our spirits. After all, Easter is about new beginnings. 

Meat Chickens

My husband and I have raised chickens for a few years. We have learned a lot along the way, so listed below is what we know.

1. Unmedicated or medicated chick starter? We use unmedicated because the chicks don't need the medicine. The medication is used as a preventative measure against coccidiosis, which is an intestinal parasite. If the birds are in a clean, dry environment at all times you shouldn't need it. Also, some chicks are vaccinated for this disease.

2. Electrolytes in the water? Just like sports drinks when you are sick, electrolytes in the chicks water can give them an added boost. However, just like sports drinks it can have a lot of additives that aren't needed. We don't add electrolytes in the water unless they need it. They need it when they are stressed: too hot, too cold, overcrowded. I would also make it myself: 1 c. water, 2 tsp molasses or sugar, 1/8 tsp salt, 1/8 tsp baking soda.

3. Natural remedies: honey, garlic, and apple cider vinegar can be added to the water as a natural way to keep pests, parasites, and bacteria away. With our chickens on grass, it's important to watch for worms or parasites. I put a ¼ cup of honey, ¼ cup of apple cider vinegar, and 4 cloves of garlic into 1 gallon of water.

4. Temperature: The chicks are kept around 95 degrees, then the temperature drops 5 degrees each week of age. So your six week old bird would need to be at approximately 70 degrees. Your heat lamp can be raised each week as needed.

5. Grit: Added grit can help the birds process their feed more efficiently. Grit (small rocks) in their gizzards will crush their food for them as they don't have teeth. The more surface area food can be ground into the better absorption of nutrients. That is also true for humans, which is why your mother told you to chew at least twenty times before swallowing.

6. Sight: Chickens have better vision than humans and are NOT color blind. They will peck at color, so give them something to peck at. When they are bored they will peck at each other. I used to throw Fruit Loops around the feeder to get them all up and moving. We have also fed them Japanese Beetles that my father-in-law caught in a trap.

7. Where to get them: We get them from a local breeder because we don't want the chicks shipped. They are shipped all over the country regularly through the post office priority. After they hatch, they can go 72 hours without food or water. The chick absorbs all the nutrients from the egg just before it hatches to allow for this. However, in shipping, they can get jostled, which can cause chick mortality rates to be high.

8. Ready: Meat chickens are usually ready to butcher at around 6-8 weeks of age. That is the time for the Cornish Cross monsters. Other breeds will take significantly longer. The Cornish Cross were specifically bred to grow quickly and have huge breasts. Most of their chickenness was bred out of them.

All of this sounds like a lot, but really we just watch them to see what they need. They are fairly easy to raise.

Chicken tractor

Chicken tractor at night 

Maple Grove

Every night I read to the kids as they lay tucked into their beds. Since the boys are older, we decided to read chapter books. We started with the Harry Potter series, then after the first two books we moved onto the Little House on the Prairie series. The boys liked Farmer Boy best because his chores were similar to their chores. Everyone perked up when it was time for farmer boy and his father to go to the Maple grove to collect the sap.

We don't have a Maple grove like farmer boy, in fact, we don't even have a Maple tree on our property. However, we have friends that do. In mid March, when temperatures rose into the 50's, but would drop below freezing at night was when the trees started pumping sap. We drilled holes into three trees and set up hoses so the sap would drip into buckets. We collected 25 gallons of sap this year.

We boiled the sap for about 24 hours. I like to use a turkey fryer to boil the sap outside. Keeping a fire going for that long to boil the sap doesn't appeal to me. After a couple of strainings with a coffee filter, we finished boiling it on the stove. We harvested a little over a half gallon of syrup. That half gallon will last us the year, hopefully.

This week I opened our last pint jar of syrup from 2017. We didn't get any from 2018 because I burned the sap when I was boiling it down. It was boiling down faster than I was adding more sap, and I ruined our boiling pot. In my defense, we did have a newborn at the time.

In Farmer Boy, they made their own sugar from the sap, maple sugar. It's the same process, they just kept boiling down the sap until they got the sugar granules without burning it. The boys got excited when farmer boy drank the sap just like they had. I feel pretty grateful that my kids can relate to farmer boy who lived in the 1860s. It doesn't make what we are doing seem so crazy.

Love Letter

The first of April marks seven weeks since our baby turned one. His first birthday party was a Boss Baby theme complete with a balloon arch and black ties. He even wore his tie and vest for the occasion. I made homemade chocolate cake with an ultimate milkshake bar. However, with all the decorations and cake comes our birthday tradition.

I'm a writer, so I write my kids a letter on their birthdays. I don't share it with them; I put it with their baby books. It's a stack of love letters for each of them. Below is the letter I wrote for our sweet baby boy on his first birthday, February 12^th.

My Beloved Baby Kaiser,

On this day a year ago, your birth day, I waited for you to come. I imagined your sweet smell and your little hands and feet. I imagined your strong cry and squished pink face. I imagined the feel of your soft skin against mine. All that imagining was made a reality when you joined our family. In all your perfectness, my imagination could never have created something so great. In that moment, all the world couldn't have intruded on our blissful meeting.

Your brothers and sister saw you as something special made just for them. Your connection to them was cemented when we brought you home from the hospital. They took turns giving you Eskimo kisses and singing you songs. They kissed your head until it smelled like them. They brought you toys to play with and painted you the most beautiful pictures. You were patient with them and never uttered a sound of upset.

The first month of your life, we were at the doctor's office every week for weight checks. You were a linebacker born, but acid re-flux saw you more as a pianist. However, you never complained. You were content to look up at me with those magical blue eyes as if to say, “Mom, just feed me again.”

I'm so amazed by all that you have accomplished in just a year. Your sitting, crawling, walking, eating, and climbing are such intense feats. But your little details gave me so much more: your excited smile when you look at me; your hand holding mine; your wave for me to hold you; your bottom lip pout. As I'm writing this, I can hear your even breathing and your occasional sigh from your crib. I will hold onto those sounds forever. I will hold onto the feel of you in bed next to me when everyone else is asleep, and it's just the two of us. I will hold onto the feel of your drool in the crook of my arm when you use it as your pillow. I will hold onto the sweet sound of mama said for the first time. Those are your gifts made just for me.

I'm so grateful that God saw fit to make me your mother. You are an amazing child that gives me excitement for the future. I will be here to catch all of your smiles and tears and everything in between. Your family will always be there for you and love you unconditionally.

Happy Birthday My Darling Kai!

With all my Love,

Mom

2019 Farm Plan

I despise getting groceries. I like to cook and bake, but the thought of maneuvering a cart around endless aisles packed to capacity with food sends me to the deep freeze to imagine up some wonderful dinner. This is one of the many reasons that our family strives to be self sufficient.

I grew up on a farm where we grew our own food. My parents farm was very self sufficient. We had eggs, meat, milk, butter, fruit, and veggies all from the farm. My mom even plucked and processed goose down for pillows that she still has. In the early 90s, it seemed weird that my parents had all that going on and their full time jobs. Now, it's finally catching on and it's trendy to grow your own food and be self sufficient.

I recently made our farm plan for 2019. I based it on what we eat for a year. For example, we eat a quart of applesauce a week. So I will need to can 52 quarts of applesauce in September. We eat half a beef, one and half pigs, and 30 chickens in a year. We like a head of lettuce every 2-3 weeks, and a fourth of a pound of cherry tomatoes every week. We would easily eat a dozen eggs a week. (If only our ladies would produce that much in the winter. More hens will arrive this year.) These numbers will only increase throughout the year as my baby giants grow. They eat everything.

Working backwards really let us see what and how much we are eating. With our plan mapped out on a 2019 calendar, I know when I need to plant, harvest, and re-crop to produce the amount of food that we need for a year. I know when we will have baby chicks and when they will be ready for harvest. Now I just need a little sign that mother nature will be ready for chickens outside in March.

Now I'm looking into how to preserve all this food. The meat goes into the freezer. The applesauce will be canned. The eggs will be gathered daily from the coop. But what about the lettuce? What about the tomatoes, potatoes, onions, carrots, radishes, and broccoli? Storage trays in the basement?

While I've been brainstorming storage ideas, I actually drew up plans for my window boxes and my vertical garden for the south side of the garage. If I can think it, we can build it...........well, maybe.

My 2019 farm plan doesn't include beef, which we purchase from family. It also doesn't include dairy. I don't think we are quite ready for that.

While I dream of the lush green grass outside with pigs, chickens, apple trees, and our abundant garden, all I can do now is plan. If you are sick of looking out the window to snow drifts, start planning your garden or your new tree plantings or your chicken tractor.