Injured Chicken

We were driving home the other day and as we pass the main road field, which is where our meat chickens are, we could see something odd going on inside their pen.  Upon investigation, I noticed the chickens torturing one chicken.  I don't know how it happened, but this chicken had a bloody head and it looked like it had a decent gash on the top of it's head.

Head Injury starting to heal

I watched for a while and sure enough, there was no way that chicken could stay in there.  So I put it in with the 5 layers we have.  Those chickens didn't peck at it's head, but they didn't want this new chicken in their area and they let him know it.  They basically stayed away and I figured after a couple of hours, they would all be used to each other.

I went out right before dark to check on things and the injured chicken was gone.  Disappeared.  We looked all over for it, but couldn't find it and eventually figured that it decided to go to a neighboring farm.  The next morning, he was back, inside the pen, as if he never left.  A couple hours later and he's back outside the pen.  So I captured him and wanted to see if he could go back in with the other meat chickens.  As soon as he went in, the torture started again.

So, I had to put him in the barn.  He's now living in the same kennel that they all lived in until his head can heal.  I know he would rather be outside, eating grass & bugs, feeling the breeze, but at least he isn't being eaten by other chickens.

Life in a dog kennel

I guess this serves as a lesson to make sure you have a "triage" area to put injured or sick chickens away from your other birds.  I thought about making a small moveable pen that I could use as a triage area.  But the dog the fold-up, portable dog kennel is fast, easy, and stores in a small space.

Bushels of Scapes

After playing 6 games of baseball in a tournament, my son still had the energy to help me pick the scapes this evening.  Almost 4 full half-bushel baskets.  We'll be busy making pesto the next couple of days and hopefully sell a few.  Time to find a farmer's market!

Garlic Scapes Pesto

9-10 garlic scapes, knobby seed-pod removed
1/2 cup slivered almonds
3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Salt and Pepper to taste

Rinse scapes in cold water
Chop into 1/2 inch pieces
Pour scapes and slivered almonds into food processor
Blend 30 seconds, or until texture is smooth
Scrape sides of bowl.
With the processor running SLOWLY add olive oil and process until thoroughly mixed (about 15 seconds).
To chill place pesto in a glass bowl and cover tightly with plastic wrap


Yields about 2 cups

Weeds and Scapes

The weedeater worked decent in between the rows.  We finally got everything weeded, just in time for the scapes to come on.

Kids running in the weeded garlic field

Andromeda helping with the weeds

We are working on a price for the scapes.  Since they are really a by-product of growing hardneck garlic, I'm not looking to make much off of them.  I might have my wife call a couple of upscale restaurants and see if she can unload them in mass.

Garlic Progress

I am extremely satisfied with how well our garlic is growing, considering this is the first year growing a mass amount and not in 4x4 raised boxes.  That said, we messed up by not mulching the garlic in the spring before the weeds started growing.  So now we have a large task of weeding ahead of us.  Since the garlic is planted in raised beds, we are going to try weeding the beds and in between taking a weed-eater through at ground level.

We are on track to weed 1 row per day in the evenings when it's not too hot.  Hopefully we'll only have to weed 1 more time by harvest.

Below are before and after pictures.  You can see the first three beds on the left are weeded down the slopes and there is still a large mass of weeds in-between the beds.  Since our field for next year is twice the size, it will be imperative that we mulch in the early spring to get on top of the weeds.

Before

After

Chicken's New Home

We decided that our chickens needed more grass.  We have been letting them out of their run to walk around as they want, but they are too interested in the garden.  So I marked out a 40'x50' area next to the garden for the chicken's new home.  After pricing out fencing, I decided on welded wire fencing and NOT buying the T-posts, but to use the posts from the split rail fence we had lying around.  And since we were using the posts, we figured we might as well put the rails in too and make it look nice.

I dug 5 holes the first day and set the posts.  Then I decided to invest in a 3pt post hole digger.  After that, we got the rest of the posts set in just under 2 hours.  With the split rail fence up, we set out putting up the welded wire fence.  I went with 4 foot high fence and made sure that the coop and waterer were far enough away from the fence that the chickens couldn't jump/flap to the top of it.

The chickens love their new home, with all the grass and bugs they can eat.  With 2000 sq.ft. of space for 5 chickens, I don't expect that they'll be able to mow this area down to dirt.

Meat Chickens in Moveable Pen

After swearing to not raise meat chickens again, we decided to have another go.  Only this time instead of raising the Cornish X, we went with a more traditional breed, White Rocks.  Yes, they take longer to grow out, but we aren't running a meat factory.  Our purpose, and likely most people raising meat chickens in their back yard, is to raise chickens without chemicals or antibiotics, and to allow the chickens access to grass and bugs. 

So we bought 25 chickens at the local Tractor Supply, put them in the large stock tank that we have as a brooder, and got ready for meat chickens, part 2.  The 25 chickens outgrew the brooder fast, so I set up a portable dog kennel in the barn until they feathered out and could go outside.  In the meantime, I started on a chicken tractor using only what we had laying around. 

My idea was to build a 10x10 moveable pen, half covered with metal roofing and the other half in wire.  I started with two 10' treated 4x4 posts, cut the ends at an angle so that they worked as skids.  I then ripped a couple of treated 2x6 and 2x8 into 8 foot long 2x2s.  I couldn't dig out enough 10' pieces, so our pen wound up 10x8.  I some of the 2x2s into 2 foot long pieces for the sides, with 5 pieces down each side and 2 on the front and backs.  I then too 5 longer pieces built the roof supports, connect the uprights from side to side.

We had some extra roofing material in the rafters of the barn from when it was built.  I cut several 2 foot long pieces and screwed them to the sides and back.  Then cut 5 foot long pieces for the roof.  We had some welded 1x1 wired that I wrapped around the sides and front on the front half of the pen.  Then took some chicken wire we had laying around and attached it to the top.  For an access door, I cut a 2'x2' square in the top of the chicken wire and wired a screen window to the frame.  Then I realized that I needed access to the roofed area to put the food so that it wouldn't get wet, so I cut some wire and took a loose piece of siding and just lay it on top.

So we wound up with a rather sturdy moveable pen and it cost absolutely nothing.  Everything was already on our property, including the nails (we have 5 gallon buckets of nails from the previous owner).  All of the wood came from when we tore down the old deck, and the roofing/fencing was in the barn.

Here is the final result, with 25 chickens enjoying the grass and fresh air.


Chickens in moveable pen

This specific pen is kind of heavy and moving more than the 10 feet that we move it every 2 days, is pretty tough. The 4x4 posts on the bottom are the main weight issue and in hindsight, they could probably be replaced with 2x2s or 2x4s to cut the weight drastically.  If we stick with this pen, we'll likely end up drilling holes in the back to attach wheels when we need to move it.

Our chickens are extremely happy and with the grass & bugs, they are only going through 1 gallon of feed every 1.5 days.  If everything continues to work out well, we have already discussed raising another 25 or 50.