2019 Freedom Ranger Project

March 5, 2019

In the last few months I have been reading different books and watching documentaries and YouTube vids on food. I am realizing how messed up the food is that you can buy at your local store. Sure I knew that organic food choices would be better, but until now I couldn't justify paying so much more for food that is not only certified organic, but non-GMO on top of that. I'm not going to go into the perils of the food that we put into our shopping carts and then onto our tables. I'll leave that to anyone who is reading this. This all started with Nourishing Traditions a cookbook with a very compelling introduction. Then came In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan and then to really top things of we watched a documentary called Secret Ingredients. If you have ever seen the "dirty foods" list this film will really make you think. As I mentioned before I will not go into any of the things that are so compelling in regards to our (or anyone's) food journey. That will be up to you - I have included the links for your convenience.

We try to make better choices and we also grow a portion of the food that ends up on our own table. At first it was just a variety of favorite vegetables that are always best fresh from the garden (or the Farmer's Market if you don't garden). I also subscribe to Imperfect Produce to fill in the gaps here and there. Last year we added Butcher Box to have some meat choices in the freezer.

Then in the spring of 2017 when we added our first flock of supposed laying hens and found out by the end of summer that half were cockerels. We had to put a stop to that. We butchered our first chickens the fall of 2017. It wasn't a great experience, but we (or I) decided that maybe we could do this. Raising chickens is quite easy, why not raise chickens for meat?

In 2018 we took our first step toward growing meat for food to fill our freezer and it was not a bad experience. We still have one chicken left in the freezer from our September harvest. The only thing that was not good about last year's harvest...our own inexperience. Growing laying hens isn't much different than meat chickens. A chicken is a chicken and they will eat if there is food to be had. We made a big mistake and fed the meat chickens an evening ration (although not quite equal to their morning ration) and it was not necessarily a good thing. We had a big fail in that the chicks grew so fast that their little bodies would grow like crazy, but their little hearts couldn't keep up. We ended up losing nine chicks to over-feeding. Imagine that! HUGE fail. Even with the fail we were pleased with the outcome. We had put homegrown meat in the freezer!

The changes that we made:

FEEDING SCHEDULE

First we did not over feed the chicks. They received two feedings a day for the first few weeks, up until we put them outside full time. That worked out great! Once they were big enough to handle a little extra food in the evening - which really was a bedtime snack of some scratch. We would throw some scratch into the chicken tractor as a way to get them to go in for the night. Yeah, chickens will naturally put themselves to bed - even the meaties, but it was just easier to do it while it was still light out so we only had one flock to deal with later in the evening. They got used to that routine in no time flat! Extra food for a growing meat chicken, they will not turn their beaks up to that. Also, this year's meaties were able to run around and eat grass and chase after bugs to help fill their bellies throughout the day (spoiler alert we got them a special fence).

GROW-OUT TIME

The other thing we did was give this batch of chicks an extra couple of weeks to get good and fat. So instead of harvesting them at 11 weeks old we did the harvest at 13 1/2 weeks. Even then, in the last few days I thought we would have some fatty's for sure and I was a little surprised that there wasn't a chicken that was six pounds! There was one that was close though. They really were quite large too. Our two littlest meaties were both 3lb 15oz. and the largest at 5lb 13oz. Not too shabby really. All in all we ended up with 115lbs 8oz of meat in the freezer.

Chicks first day on Grass

FREE TO ROAM (sort of)

The last thing that really made a difference would be the Shock or Not fence from Premier1 Supplies. First saw this on the Justin Rhodes channel last year. I saw how they could get their chicks out on grass much sooner than norm. This netting is a real game changer! The chicks were relocated from the Brooder to the chicken tractor at not quite 4 weeks old. They enjoyed days out on grass and evenings in the chicken tractor with the heat lamps on. It was still pretty chilly at the end of March so we kept the lights on them for a few more weeks. During the day they were free to explore their enclosed area and were happy to be outdoors. Last year's poor littles didn't have that opportunity. They had a teeny-tiny space that was more of a courtyard, a tiny one, to come out and look at something other than each other and to pick at some clean grass. They couldn't even get away from their own stinky poo. It would have been nice to have this fence last year, but it wasn't in the budget.

Processing day was fairly uneventful and we were able to finish the job with the help of our neighbor/friend in about two and a half hours. It took two hours for Tom to complete the killing, scalding and plucking and a few minutes longer for Julie and I to finish up the evisceration. I had a couple of other people who said they would come, but they didn't show. Which is fine, but it would have been nice to know that they would not be coming. In the end just having the three of us was nice as we didn't have to do any sort of instructions at the beginning - that would have definitely slowed us down. We'll be ready next year for new peeps though. Last weekedn I chatted with a friend of mine who asked me if this was something that she should do. I told her it's not for everyone, but at least knowing how the chicks are raised and observing the process wouldn't be a bad idea. We'll see - next year might be the teaching year.

With the changes that we made from last year's big fail, we ended up with 24 plump chickens. All brined, bagged, weighed and sitting in the freezer for a future meal. HUGE WIN!

Twenty-Four Chickens ready for the freezer.

Having no meaties to take care of in the evening is both good and bad. Good in that we are now not spending the extra money to grow them out. Bad because I got used to hanging out with them and watching them while they were out in the field. I'm not going to lie, it is bittersweet. The first kill is a little sad, but then as you move forward you have to remember that these chicks were raised for a purpose. To put good, clean food into the freezer and then onto our table.

June 8, 2019

New Babies!

A month ago we stuck some duck eggs under our broody hen, Betty...go HERE for that post.

Last Friday morning as I started to do the morning chores I decided to check in on Miss Betty and I saw this:

So exciting! Our broody-hen-hatching-duck-egg experiment worked! Well, I didn't doubt her ability to sit on the eggs until they hatched...just what she would do when they actually came out and they were NOT chicks.

She seems to be doing alright with them and is very protective, because they are her babies. However, I have observed her clucking at them as she would if she had chicks instead and they are not responding. It would be nice to know if she thinks that this is weird or not. She's just doing what comes natural and the ducklings are doing what comes natural to them. Maybe I'm overthinking this whole thing for her.

The ducklings are doing fine and they spend time underneath momma when they are in the garage - they do play around a little too. They are both quite active and got to spend the majority of the day outside with Betty yesterday. She does a good job at protecting them. Even with the ducks and goslings hanging around.

It will be fun to see how they progress over the next few weeks. I hope that they will transition to being part of the flock when the time comes. That should be in a few weeks - they are only 4 days old at this point.

Betty my be our ticket to more Magpie Ducks! A couple of weeks ago Miss Bernadette thought that she wanted to be broody and spent one day - about 8 hours - sitting on some eggs. Toward the end of the day, her empty stomach won and she left the nest and hasn't gone back.

Little Stinker!

It would have been nice to have one of the Magpie Girls sit on eggs, but evidently that is something that is not a part of their constitution. Good thing we have a surrogate in Betty. We'll increase the Magpie population yet!

Farm Life is best with baby waterfowl!

Been A Little Distracted

A week ago we added a couple of babies to the farm/homestead. So I've been a little distracted and doing the most minimal possible around the farm. Actually, that's not true - I've tried to incorporate these two into a routine...

These two came home on May 1 and oh baby...they are so much fun!

Starting on the weekend these two would be liberated from jail (the brooder) and hang out nearby while I worked in the garden in the early morning on Saturday. Tom who is the breakfast king went and got breakfast ready while I supervised the mini-hoodlums.

Since the weekend I have been going about my business and doing the chores as usual and they had been doing a pretty good job at sticking close to me. In the last couple of days they have gotten even MORE independent - which is fine - but they have been lagging behind whenever I am interested in them following me to a different part of the farm. Little stinkers!

Up until a couple of days ago the routine was to get them out early in the morning to let them forage a little and run around a bit then back into the brooder. A couple of days ago while I was in the hoop house they were with me just nibbling on the greens in the garden bed. Right then, I had the thought that they could just stay in the hoop house during the day. I was starting to feel bad that they would have to go back into the stinky box. In the dark.I'm a thinker...

They LOVE the hoop house and all the space. Most of all I'm glad that they have fresh air and some sunlight to keep them warm - although today is a little too warm with outside temperatures in the 80s and the hoop house temps are usually much higher. Even for a little stinker who can hide in the shade. Even though that is an option, I don't think that they are THAT smart and probably don't sit under the bench.

Anyway, we got new babies and I've been distracted. I'm doing my best to incorporate them into the morning and evening routine so that they know that things happen. So far they are not affected by noise coming from a string trimmer or a lawn mower. They are pretty chill and do their own thing...until they figure out that someone has left. That someone is usually me. This was confirmed the other day while I was scrooping up some wood chips they realized that there was no one around. Tom came walking up and they walked toward him for a second and then realized that I wasn't him. They started crying again until I called out and then all of a sudden they both came running to the chip pile.

It's good to be popular :)

I'll have to actually buckle down and get to work on the garden (boxes and free range). This means that the Goslings will need to either be locked up or penned up. I'm not wild about either option, but it will have to happen that way. Otherwise the distraction will continue.

The littles made short work of my greens in the hoop house.
I'll have to let them clean the hoop house bed all of the time!

This farm life is awesome!

The Harvest of...

animals....more specifically ones with feathers.

A few people are aware that we raise chickens for meat and that the piglets that may come will also become bacon and ham.

The reactions are varied, but mostly whoever we might be chatting with will undoubtedly say "Oh, I couldn't do that!" Well, we usually aren't asking anyone to participate in our crazy ways unless they show a little bit of interest. Also, we try to steer the conversation away from the chopping the head off of a chicken and try to explain the humane way of doing the deed. Still no one wants to hear that there is a better(?) way.

You know, I have to say that I probably would be that person too. However, when you grow up with chickens and ducks inevitably one or more of those birds will end up in the soup pot. Which they did and my mom was tricksey about it and didn't say so ahead of time.

OH MY GOODNESS....

Well, the old chickens have to go sometime right? I imagine that his one had outlived it's productive tendencies and was just taking up space. Back then I never thought about it. It was just something that my mom did. At that time I don't think that I had much to do with the process. I think I may have been present for one of the slaughters...but I don't remember.

So fast forward a lot of years and here I am growing my own food. We (Tom and I) are growing a lot of our food. Not all though and I will be the first to say that we could do better, but we are growing more than we ever used to.

We are more that halfway to the next Freedom Ranger harvest date. On June 8th we'll be harvesting our 24 Meaties. Over the next several weeks I'll be testing the waters and looking to see who we might recruit to help with the big day. I already have a couple of people who are interested, but more hands is always a good thing.

There is no delicate way to ask someone to join in the experience. When we do just ask out right it's fairly easy to tell which camp someone is in. If we hear "Ummm...no...I couldn't do that." or just a adamant head shaking. Okay, that's probably a no. Then there are those who say "Yeah, that would be interesting I'll come watch." I also know who NOT to ask - I do want to keep certain friendships intact.

You get the idea.

So I do have a couple of neighbors who I hope will be able to come help. One is a woman who helped us last year and she was all over the evisceration of the chickens. The other is a neighbor down the street from us who is very curious about raising chickens for meat and would like to come and learn. If he has done what I suggested, maybe he'll have a couple of his own birds to harvest also.

I'm very excited that we have gotten to eight weeks with 24 chicks. I am optimistic that we will get through the next five weeks with 24.

Farm Life - it's not so bad...in fact it's awesome!