Graduation Day #1

The meaties will be moving out of the Brooder and into the Stress Free Chicken Tractor hopefully right before April arrives.

They currently live within a box that is approximately  2' or 3' x 4'. With each passing day they are steadily filling in the space - with growing chickie bodies and poo. We have removed the heating plate and one of the lamps. As their feathers start coming in they need the heat lamp less and less. Last night I took one last look at them and they were all bunched at the opposite end of the brooder away from the lamp. While I would like to take the lamp down, I think I'll let it stay in the event that we have some cooler nights ahead of us still.

Before we can move the meaties out, we have to come up with a new house for the Magpie Squad. They are currently in the Chicken Tractor and have become quite accustomed to the spacious accommodations. They'll have to adjust naturally and they will get a new not as large home, but one that is custom made by Tom!

The beginnings of the new duck condo

Hopefully more work can be done on the duck house and we can get it in place sooner than later. I'm pretty sure that they will protest a bit, but they adapt fairly quickly. They may even like the smaller house rather than the tractor:

The Stress Free Chicken Tractor being put in service

The dimensions of the duck condo is one pallet wide by 2 pallets long...that's all I know. Much smaller than what the duckies are used to.

The twenty-five meaties will have lots of room to experience fresh grass and with the fence - they will even have the opportunity to explore outside of the tractor.

Premier 1 Supplies has a newer poultry netting that is specifically designed for chicks. I first saw this on the Justin Rhodes channel - he and Premier have a pretty good relationship and he is the reason we use Premier for all of our portable fencing needs. This is the video that he published when he put the fence out for the first time:

The first thing Tom commented on is how tall the fence is. I think the regular fence is the same, but maybe those fence are 42" either way this one seems taller.

Tom went to run an errand so I decided to work on getting the fence set up. It was easy, just like the regular fence, but the prongs would get caught up in the small mesh portion of the fence. 

The meaties will get a preview of outdoor life hopefully this weekend. It would be nice to clean out the brooder and freshen it up for their last week or so in the garage. It's hard to say how they will react once they are on grass. However, I'm sure that they will be curious about the grass and maybe even start looking for things to eat in the grass. The trick will be gathering them back up to get them back into the box.

This fence will change the way our chicks grow up - maybe they will be even MORE meaty than last year's bunch. Last year I really enjoyed hanging out with the meaties and taking photos daily and some video here and there. This year will be no different.

Soon enough they will be out of this:

They have space now, but soon they will be totally on top of each other

Last year the meaties had a small courtyard

In eleven weeks we'll be graduating the new batch of Freedom Rangers to the freezer. Until then we'll enjoy watching them grow each and every day while moving them around the field every couple of days to new grass.

Farm Life is the Best Life - with new(ish) chicks.

Graduated!

The little ladies were graduated from the stinky brooder to the chicken tractor yesterday evening. It was a pleasant evening and the transition was an exciting one. Just watching them jump and run around was worth all the effort that went into building this chicken tractor.

Today's weather has been interesting, the morning wasn't so bad, just some showers. However this afternoon we have high winds for our area. The winds are supposedly going to last until late tonight.

SWELL!

So far the tarp is holding up. It was attached to the frame with zip ties so today's wind will put it the test for sure!

The Javas will live in the tractor in the yard for a little while. I hope to give them their own space out on pasture along with access to outside of the tractor. That will have to wait until next weekend when the flock is moved back out to the field. Then we can use the original poultry netting that was part of the original kit that we purchased.

By then we'll be able to pull it instead of carrying it. Yep, you read that right, we had to carry it. Not a nice and easy, short and direct route, mind you. This thing is much wider than the openings in the fence, so around the garage and through the grass we went. That grass is a lot taller when you are carrying a heavy object and watching your step! Good times...never ending fun around our place.

Also, I am sure that we are an unending source of entertainment to those who live nearby or are driving past our house. So if anyone saw us marching around the garage I'm sure they got a good show. However, I was determined to not put it down! Mostly because if that happened while were in the field, I'm pretty sure that I would not have been able to hoist the tractor up again. Plus, I'm pretty sure that it would have broken and that would have been terrible and I would feel REALLY bad - for a long time!

Once the wheels are usable it will be easier to pull it from place to place. We can start by practicing in the yard!

For more information on this chicken tractor visit Farm Marketing Solutions HERE.

One chicken tractor done...number two will wait 'til next year!

Back To Reality

This is it...last free day before heading back to work. I wish I could say that I'm ready to go back to my job. What I miss is a routine. However, I could totally make my home routine my thing, but just knowing it has to end makes me want to maximize the time I have off and accomplish as much as I can. I imagine that life away from work outside of the home wouldn't be so full of things to do during most of any given day. It just would be nice to not have to make everyday a busy day.

Today after worship, we ran a couple of errands to look for some fittings for the pipe that we are not going to use as bent frames, but as cut pieces to make perfect angles. If I'm honest, I'm glad Tom came up with an alternative. I would have spent the few hours we had left just fretting about getting the bends right and not enjoying the day. The bender was due back at Parkrose by 2pm.

The solution to the problem we ended yesterday with was to cut the stock we had and use the fittings to do the frame of what will be the roof.

The Chicken Tractor as of earlier this afternoon

This is a lot like how we ended vacation week last year...with an unfinished project. It's all good though, we'll work on it in the evenings as long as we don't have anything else going on. 

So, really in the last week we worked on the chicken tractor, I got a bunch of soil blocks made and seeds sowed...sowed some spring greens and bunching onions into one of the garden boxes and hosted some friends for dinner. Also got out to try to get I to a running routine as well. 

The week has been full and I am satisfied in that. 

It's Saturday Evening?!

What happened to the day? It was cold, Cold, COLD today!

Yesterday was my day to cook Indo food for a chosen few. It's my way to end my vacation week, hanging out with friends.

Progress on the chicken tractor project slowed down a little bit. There is a door frame in place along with the panels that we put together a couple of days ago.

The thing that we are stuck on currently would be bending the EMT conduit. In the Stress Free Chicken Tractor book it says that bending the conduit can be "tricky." Yeah we got tricky down...

This wasn't accidental - just trying to figure out how the bender works

Oh - we rented a bender at Parkrose -

This did not come with instructions

Tom took some time this afternoon to try to get the tubing bent in the right places and the right angles. He got frustrated and declared that all 5 tubes would not work and went back to Parkrose to get more EMT. After he returned - I decided to take a turn with this seemingly harmless device.

I studied the section on how to prep the tubes for bending...then tried to make a bend. Well, I found out very quickly that my short stature would make this task a little difficult. The tubing is ten feet long...TEN FEET! However, I had to do it in my own to figure out what needed to happen to get things set up. After some moments of being annoyed and stretching and twisting AND stepping on one end of bender to make it work...I DID get it to work! Since I was just goofing around I made a sculpture instead. Oh well....I got a better understanding of how to accomplish the task. The instructions in the book helped, especially the illustrations.

We will have to get busy on the project as soon as we get home from church tomorrow morning since the bender needs to go back in the afternoon.

NO PRESSURE.

One of the EMT tubes that Tom formed

After I played around with my first bended tube I took a look at Tom's "rejects" and did a minor adjustment and it seems to work out okay. It won't be like the book says, but it will work. All we need to do is get three more to match it as close as possible - perfect is too much to ask for. This is a chicken tractor after all and the chickens aren't going to complain.

It's a hobbity sized door!

These little chickies are just over 5 weeks old!

Once the Java Girls are old enough and the weather stays at a reasonable temperature they will be the first to take up residence in the chicken tractor. They will need to go out in about three weeks if not sooner. The Magpie girls should be arriving by then! Then when the ducklings outgrow the broader they will move into the tractor next. I'm hoping that we'll be able to integrate the Javas in with the Jerseys and Aussies when that happens. It shouldn't be too difficult as they will all be in the same area, but separate. So, until further notice their is no vacancy at the Chicken Tractor Inn.

My morning project - making a loaf of Egg Bread...SO GOOD!

Ready for the oven

This shape is the most interesting yet!

One more day away from work...sigh...