Freedom Rangers 6/23

Just a few shots of the Freedom Rangers taken this morning. They are now 8 weeks 5 days old. A lot bigger than the little hatchlings they used to be, but no where near as big as I'd hoped they'd be at this age. I'm not sure if they are simply not liking the Texas heat or if they are just genetic duds! Maybe I had to high of expectations for them. At any rate, I don't think we're going to be butchering at 9.5 weeks as planned. I weighed a couple yesterday and they were between 4-5 lbs. Sure not big enough to make it worth butchering them. I'm guessing it'll be closer to 11-12 weeks. They better be a LOT bigger by then! I'm starting to think plain old Cornishxrocks don't sound so bad now.

Baby Chicks Hatching!

Well, here I am talking about my chickens again (still!?!). Back on May 21st my broody Barred Rock hen started hatching out chicks. She'd been sitting on a big communal nest. We had 11 chicks hatch out by the 23rd. I borrowed an incubator from a friend anticipating that I'd have some latch hatches. Sure enough, when momma hen got up and was ready to leave with the babies there were still 5 viable eggs left in the nest!


Here are pictures of chicks hatching under my broody hen:


I caught the timing on this one perfectly... it literally hatched out in my hand!






Welcome to the world baby! Good thing you're a girl...we won't be eating you!





After about 48 hours the hen was done sitting on the nest. We have too many cats who like to dine on baby chicks to let the broody hens run loose. So, I moved the whole brood to my small PVC chicken tractor where they are safe and Momma hen has some room to 'range' and teach the little peeps how to be chickens. She's a wonderful momma. Ya know the saying about getting your feathers ruffled? Well, it must have been inspired by a broody hen! She sure got her feathers ruffled when the flock rooster came over to investigate all the peeping. No way was she going to let him mess with her babies!

On the 25th-26th we had three more chicks hatch, all pullets! Two are left in the incubator, one has already pipped through the shell and the other is working on it. That'll be 14 total from this hatch. Phew! MORE chickens, just what I needed (hmm...). So far the running total is 11 pullets, 3 roosters. They are black sex links (Rhode Island Red daddy x Barred Rock momma) so I can tell gender at hatch which is really nice. I am getting GREAT odds right now, I'm feeling so lucky I've debated going and buying a lottery ticket.

Now that this hatch is done I'll have a little break, then in about a week and a half my Jersey Black Giant's chicks should start hatching. I pulled a real switch-a-roo on her and stuck Rio Grande Wild Turkey eggs (from a neighbor who raises them) and some Americauna eggs under her. Poor girl, her kids are gonna hatch and not look a thing like her!

How our garden grows!

Apparently weeds and garden plants can grow in harmony. Perhaps slightly off key, but hey, they all seem happy enough! The problem is, we had a couple really good rains. It made the garden grow like crazy, but alas, it made the weeds really take off too. I keep hacking away at the weeds, but I fear it's a loosing battle. This is a first year garden, so I anticipated some weed issues. It'll be better this fall and even better next spring. I keep the weeds pulled back away from the plants. Everywhere else they are growing I've started referring to them as my 'cover crop' of 'green manure'. Uh-hum. Sounds better than 'rampant out of control weed problem'.

So far we've gotten a couple gorgeous bell peppers, lots of radishes, lettuce, yellow summer squash and zucchini.

The tomato plants are HUGE and covered in green tomatoes. The bell pepper plants have 3 or 4 peppers each. The green beans have little green beans and the corn plants have little ears growing! The cucumber and watermelon vines are trying to take over. The various squash are of course flourishing. Carrots seem to be doing well, but aside from admiring their nice green tops it's hard to tell. Potato plants are up and growing well and the onions are getting very tall. It's too hot already for things sensitive to the heat. I didn't get an early spring garden in because of the stupid pig on the loose. Will grow a bunch of cool weather stuff this fall. I grumble about the Texas heat, but I'm already appreciating our long growing season in a whole new way now that I'm avidly gardening.

Soren loves stomping through the garden, it's like a jungle from his perspective. Here he is in front of the tomato plants. This was taken about a week ago, believe it or not the plants are even bigger now. How big can a tomato plant get??

I'm getting ready to can/freeze anything extra the garden produces. This year is a bit of a test run. Hopefully next year I'll have the kinks worked out and will know how much of various veggies to plant to provide enough for the growing season and food storage the rest of the year. We're growing 100% organically from the seed up. I really like the idea of knowing just how the veggies my kids are eating were grown!

New Chicken Tractor

My first chicken tractor was a little PVC contraption that has been serving me well, but does have a few draw backs. Not the least of which is that it is very light (flew over our fence during a strong thunderstorm!) and since it's flat across the top with only a tarp for cover it collects rain water badly during a storm. That said, it was very easy to build (like putting together tinker toys) and it's very light and easy to move around. It's already raised one bunch of pullets and is currently housing a broody hen and her 14 chicks. I won't complain about it too much!

I need more than one tractor and since I had to build another one I figured I'd go for an upgraded model. I decided to build a 'hoop' tractor. This one has a bottom frame of 2x4s. It is 6.5' wide and 10' long. The hoops are 3/4" PVC pipe cut 10' long. Almost everything on this tractor is from scrap I had around the farm. Some of the wood is a little warped, but it still works fine for my purposes.

I built the bottom frame, then braced it with two wooden angle braces (one each on opposite corners) and metal 'L' brackets I had stuffed in a drawer. The wood braces double as perches for the birds. If I'd had more thin lumber I would have braced all 4 corners, but I didn't so I just used what I had!


Once the frame was built, I started adding the PVC hoops. Now, this part is a 2 person job. Or one adult and a handful of kids as the case may be! Pre-drill the holes in the PVC (yea, it's worth pre-drilling... ask me how I know!), attach one end (I used washers with the screws to help distribute the pressure of the screw and to prevent the screw from punching through the PVC) then bend the PVC until if forms an arch. Have a child hang from the middle of the arch to pull it down so you can then attach the other end. My light weight 4 year old wasn't quite heavy enough to pull the PVC hoop down enough for me to easily anchor the loose end. Took one of my big boys to help out! Here's Bella posing with the first hoop I got wrestled into place!

In addition to child labor, a few cats thrown into the mix ensures that your netting is pre-tangled and your box of screws gets knocked over.


Here we are with a few more hoops in place. Odin turned out to be the best help wrestling the loose end down. I honestly don't know how I would have built the tractor if the kids hadn't been around to help me! I ran a PVC ridgepole along the top and that really did seem to help with keeping the hoops stable.

Here's the tractor with the door framed out and the netting going on. I used really light weight plastic netting from Wal-Mart over the whole thing (it was very, very cheap!). Then around the bottom I added 18" tall chicken wire for better predator protection. That makes for about 2' of predator protection around the bottom of the tractor (including the board) and then a net covering to keep the birds from flying out. So far, it's working well. I did a combination of stapling, wiring, and zip ties. I drilled holes through the PVC to run wire or zip ties through to anchor the netting well.


Here's a very, very rare picture of me as I was framing out the door courtesy of Odin who says 'But Mom, you have to be in at least ONE picture'. So... here's your one for the year folks! And yes, safety first!!



Here's my more or less finished tractor. I later tucked the loose tarp up and stapled the bottom down to make it nice and snug. The birds appreciate the shade it provides! You can also see the simple plywood door I cut out and attached with some old hinges I salvaged off a cabinet door. Closes with hook and eyes. You can also see the pull rope I use to tug it around the pasture. I think I'm goign to train the pony to pull it... No, it's not that heavy. It's just that the darn pony is so lazy and could really use a job!




I started moving the Freedom Rangers into the tractor a few at a time. I think I have 20-some odd of them out of the 44 in there now. They've been out in the front pasture in the tractor for a week now and are loving it! I feel bad for the few left in the coop. I guess I should rotate them out... I have 44 Freedom Rangers (meat birds) and 8 random layer breed roosters together. Just not enough room for all of them in my tractor!

Course, if I could get that big bird in the back out of there it might help free up some room!!! He sure eats a lot too!

Potato Pickin' at Sweet Berry

We made another trip to Sweet Berry Farms a couple weeks ago. We went with a friend and packed a pic-nic lunch. The kids had a blast picking strawberries and potatoes. They were totally amazed that you could pull up a plant... and along with the roots came potatoes! Beautiful red skin potatoes at that. I think they picked about 20 lbs. About 6lbs of strawberries and I brought home 3 yellow onions.

Here is Magnus with a bunch of potatoes:

Not to be outdone, here is Odin with a bunch of potatoes as well:

The farm has pic-nic benches set up in the shed. If you look in the background, you can see the chicken coop. The birds are very tame and such beggars! We sat down to eat and suddenly had a flock of very pretty (and fat) Rhode Island Red hens join us. Bella managed to catch one. Actually, I think the hen probably just walked up and hopped in her arms.

Here are the kids playing with the lady bug picture dealy. Silly kids... there's just no way to get a whole group of them to stick their head in a hole, hold still and smile for the camera. Oh well. I tried.

From left to right that's Soren, Odin on top, Bella below him, their friend Hunter and then Magnus.

And that was yet another fun filled trip to Sweet Berry! We're going back again real soon to pick black berries!

Ya know it's a sad day when you're sitting around pondering the lineage of your rooster. But alas, here I am. Sitting around pondering the lineage of my rooster! Big Red is a big boy. I had thought he was a Rhode Island Red, but now I'm thinking maybe not. I'm trying to remember what chickens I bought last year and I'm coming up blank. I *think* we might have had some of those little Easter chicks... ya know... the cute colored ones that all grow up to be roosters. Big Red might have been one of those, in which case, he may not be the Rhode Island Red rooster mistake out of the batch of pullets I bought! Any guesses on what he might be? He's a real nice, mellow rooster. He's wearing out my hens backs though because of his size. poor girls!

Freedom Rangers Arrive!!

The much anticipated (ok, well the anticipation was driving me crazy anyway!) Freedom Ranger chicks arrived via USPS this morning. All 50 babies looked great and were peeping their little heads off. Odin, Soren and I unloaded them into the brooder and showed each one the waterer. They drank a considerable amount, rested, then found the feeder.

In the case of this poor little fellow, the excitement of the trip caught up with him mid-meal. He fell asleep right on top of the feeder! How cute is that? And on the subject of cuteness, it seems really wrong to me that meat birds should be so darn cute! I ordered red and bronze Rangers, and as you can see in the picture above the colors are pretty and variable from bird to bird. Pretty neat!

As we do with most things, raising the Rangers will be a learning project for the kids. We're going to keep track of the cost of feed, how quickly the birds gain, cost of processing, etc. I'm curious to see what the total cost per bird will turn out to be. We're raising the Rangers naturally. They're on a non-medicated commercial chick starter right now. Once they're bigger they'll go outside into bottomless cages called chicken tractors where they can 'free range' in safety. The cages get moved every day to give the birds fresh ground to range on. We will not be using any chemicals, hormones, antibiotics or coccidiosis meds. The end result will be birds that have had a good life, were butchered humanely, and will provide extremely healthy high quality meat for my family. As a breed the Rangers have been bred specifically for organic/natural farmers that need a hardier, healthier bird. If you'd like to learn more about Freedom Rangers visit: http://www.freedomrangers.net/

Cause and Effect: Death of Mr. Evil

We used to have two big Rhode Island Red roosters. We really didn't need two rooster, but I figured as long as the two boys were nice and didn't cause my family or the hens too much hassle then they could just do their thing. Well, a few weeks ago one of the roosters attacked Bella. It pecked a hole in her leg and left a huge bruise. Because both roosters are red, she couldn't tell me which one had done it. The offender got a temporary stay of execution because I didn't want to off the wrong rooster! About a week later, she got attacked again and that time I knew Mr. Evil had done the deed. He got locked up in the coop awaiting butchering day. Which finally came this past weekend.

Kendal got the honors of whacking his head off, mostly just because I couldn't bring myself to do it!

Once that was done, I plucked and dressed him. This was my first experience butchering a chicken all on my own. Honestly, it wasn't anywhere near as bad as I thought it would be! It was slow going as I fumbled around getting everything done. But I did a pretty darn good job of it if I do say so myself! Here are a few pictures.

This is poor Bella's leg a few weeks after the fact. It STILL has a red welt! Darned rotten rooster.

I guess you can say I showed that rooster though! Here he is plucked, all ready to butcher. I didn't completely pluck his wings. The feathers are tough and didn't want to come out. There's so little meat on a wing tip, it wasn't worth the effort. So, I cut them off at the joint. Cut his feet off at the joint as well. I showed the kids how to pull the exposed tendons with a pair of pliers and open and close the feet. That was pretty cool!!

Here is my crew of butchering helpers. So much for herbivores being spooked by the smell of blood. I could hardly get them to leave me alone! Butchering outside was nice though. I threw the scraps over my shoulders to a whole herd of eager recipients that made them quickly disappear (cats and chickens). Thankfully the horses were just being nosy, they didn't actually want to eat the chicken. Ya never know with my horses though...

And here is Mr. Evil today enjoying his

nice hot bath! I figured I'd let him boil a while, then I'll make soup out of him. He's a little over a year old and should be pretty darn tough. Hopefully that'll be enough prep work to make him edible. He dressed out like a typical dual purpose yard bird... huge thighs, not much breast. He's boiling away as a type, sure smells good!

I tell you what, the other rooster has been mighty well behaved lately!!

Trip to The Park

Thursday we went to park day at Johnson Park in Marble Falls. The weather has been gorgeous. Highs in the 70s, lows in the 40s/50s. It actually feels like spring, which is something of a rarity in Texas. People joke about how we have two seasons in Texas: Summer and something horrible (hurricane or tornado or sleet or pick your other miserable extreme event!). Now don't get me wrong, I love Texas and can't ever imagine leaving. Just wish it wasn't three degrees hotter than hades 9 months of the year!! While the weather's nice, we take advantage of it.

Here's Soren playing on a little playscape

designed just for kidos his size. He could climb the stairs, go through the tube, and down the slide all by himself!

Bella had fun playing, she is such a little monkey of a child! She can climb anything. She loves park day because she gets to see other little girls. As the only girl amongst three brothers she starts feeling like the odd duck out. She's taken to reminding me on a regular basis that she wants a baby sister. Hmmm....

Magnus up a tree... as usual! Notice that cute little gap toothed grin. He lost one front tooth, and the other is so loose it should fall out any day.

Last but not least, here's Odin looking entirely to grown up. Did you know he's almost 11? Which means that in just two years he'll be 13! And then three years after that he can DRIVE. Just in case I didn't know all this he reminds me almost every day. I get a running list of what Wii games he wants for his birthday too. That birthday that's in three months and counting.... when he'll turn 11... and then in two more years he'll be 13......... Ugh!!!!

Morning Chores

I love mornings! I know, it's disgusting... but I'm such a morning person! I love the peace and quiet first thing in the morning as everyone wakes up. Today we're going to try to make it to the homeschool park day and then later game day, so I have to hustle (and I'm blogging because I'm nursing Soren, might as well multitask)! Got up and put in a load of laundry. Fed the chicks brooding in the garage and the chicks in my make-shift brooder outside. Baked some cupcakes to take as a treat to the park. Made 1/2 a gallon of humming bird food (1c of sugar to 4c of water), we have tons of hummers this year! They are drinking my 3 feeders dry every day. Odin got up and unloaded the dishwasher for me, so I reloaded then left for the outside chores hoping I could get everything done before Soren woke up!

Threw out scratch grains for the hens, then wondered why only half showed up. Hmmm... something is afoot!

Fed the horses... Snotty is the chestnut in front, Freedom is the big bay, and Honey is our rotten little pony (actually, she's a pretty darn sweet pony, but she still has a bit of the pony attitude, and she's a mare!). We actually have grass up in the pasture so I'm just throwing out flakes from a square bale instead of giving the horses their usual big round bale. More work for me, but it saves a little money.







Taf gets her 'Old Lady Feed'. She's well beyond being able to eat hay, so she gets her bucket of beet pulp and high fat pellets every morning. At 34, she's doing amazingly well! A little wobbly and her vision isn't great, but she's happy.




Then it was off to water the garden. I discovered where a few of the hens were!! rotten birds were destroying the mulch rings around my veggie hills! Thankfully they weren't interested in eating the little sprouts, but in their enthusiasm to sort through the hay mulch they were starting to tear up some of the hills. I ran them out with the garden hose. Chickens don't seem to enjoy getting wet! Imagine that! Some of the flock was out in the pasture just beyond the garden fence foraging for breakfast. A few were in Taf's paddock (which is the front half of the garden, the back half is fenced off for the garden) eating scratch.

Bella woke up as I was just about finished watering and came out to tell me good morning, and to let me know Soren was awake. I showed her the baby bell pepper, and she was so excited! The kids have helped me in the garden since the start and are really looking forward to home grown veggies. We talk so much about healthy food and try so hard to eat organic. I guess it's sinking in because the kids are very dedicated to our all organic garden. We even used certified organic seed! The tomatoes are growing great guns as well and are flowering!

Well, it's about 9:30am and I have plenty left to do today! Soren has since wandered off and I'm sure is up to no good. Odin is finishing off the days school work (oh the power of a bribe... 'Finish your school work today guys and we'll go to the park!!' Suddenly the kids find motivation!). Magnus is still asleep, and Bella is grumbling about how she wants scrambled eggs for breakfast, not cereal. Wonder how many of the cup cakes sitting on the stove to cool have disappeared....

Chickens!

My 1 year old hens are laying wonderfully. So, despite what critics say you can have a wonderfully successful 100% free range home layer flock. I have 14 hens and 2 roosters right now. The hens are: Rhode Island Reds, Barred Rocks, Americaunas, a Buff Orpington and a Jersey Black Giant. One rooster (Mr. Evil) is in permanent lock up until we get around to butchering him. He kept attacking the kids... so that's the end of him! I'm getting more eggs than we can use, and finally sold some today! First time I've sold any of my home grown goodies!! I'm pretty excited about that. The girls are 100% free range, get scratch grains in the AM and all our household food scraps. They get no commercial feeds, no medicated feeds, no 'yucky stuff'. The eggs are fabulous!

Part of maintaining a free range flock is backfilling any hens that go missing. Hey, it happens, and I figure the health benefits to me and the birds are worth a little attrition. I have 19 chicks brooding as replacements for my laying flock. 3 are home hatched babies from the homemade incubator the kids and I built (now that was a contraption! I can't believe we got anything to hatch. Will have to make a post on that). The picture above is of my home hatched babies. I literally hatched them in my hands as they were having a hard time getting out of their very tough shells. The little runt in the back is one of my feed store chicks. Mean little bugger had to go in with the bigger birds as she was picking on the other babies her size. They are a Rhode Island Red (daddy) x Jersey Black Giant and Buff Orpington (at least I think that's what their mommas are!)

Here are the other babies. I have 6 Black Australorps, 6 Rhode Island Reds, and 4 Barred Rocks. Soren and I changed out their shavings tonight and they had so much fun taking 'dust' baths in the new shavings! Soren LOVES watching the chicks.

Here's my little chicken farmer hamming for the camera. We had a whole discussion tonight about many things chicken related. Such as, the heat lamp right behind him is hot (ouch! he says), the claws on the chicks feet are sharp (ouch! he says), when I catch the chicks at his insistence so he can pet them they squawk up a storm (ouch! he says in sympathy). Ah one year olds, it's amazing how one tracked they are and how well they can make life fit their frame of reference.