The Brooder Works

The Brooder works, and our first batch of chicks are healthy as can be! I apologize for taking so long to post. Jenn and I are very busy with studies and internships and work schedules, but the farm will not suffer – only our blog. Anyway, we picked up the Black Australorp chicks that Jenn chose for layers this year. They may begin to lay as soon as 8th month, but more likely in 9th month. This means that we can predict more eggs per share next season, and have some extra for sale. But, to paraphrase an old adage, don’t count your eggs before they are laid.
We ordered a second shelter that was needed, this one came through ebay. We have been able to save significantly by using Craigslist and ebay, but be careful, at least of Craigslist. Some things are not always advertised as they should be, or are as they are advertised.
I mentioned chicks above, but one of the great things about kids and spring, and farming, and farm stores, is that the first shipment of chicks marks the beginning of the season. Micah and Rosa had been saving up for chicks of their own, apart from the regular layers. After meeting for worship on the 8th of this month, we had to stop at the farm store to pick up a few incidentals for the brooder. Jenn and I surprised the kids with the announcement that they could be the first to give the brooder a try, and they picked out five chicks of their own. Naturally, those first peepers ended up spending their first night in the house with the kids. That is a more pleasurable experience than brooding 50 broilers in a bedroom. (Yes, that has been done.)
We have also talked with sheep farmer Cary from Alma, and are getting ready to begin that purchase. First, we need to erect one of the new shelters and prepare it for livestock. We then need to erect new fencing. We have already seeded that pasture, and are now praying that God will water and grow what we have planted. However, the simple exchange of emails makes us feel like time is wasting away. The next few months are exciting times of the season, because we are getting new animals and building new projects, and there is always something to do or plan. Drudgery begins immediately in 5th month ; ).
As for shareholder news, we have been able to provide eggs already to those who have become early shareholders. Hopefully, this is a motivator for those who have not yet purchases. We hope to write again sooner next time, blessings, Scot and Jenn and the family.

More winter work

We’ve been getting some things done this week. Jenn is off in Mexico, and Scot has taken the week off from work to be with the kids. What an opportunity to get farm work done. We have already completed the new chicken tractor frames. As mentioned below, we are using PVC pipe this season instead of wood, and we altered the design in other ways as well. All that is left to do is get the frames outside, reassemble them, and add the chicken wire and tarp roofs. Our first broilers should be ordered in April.
March 8 is the date that we will pick up the layer hens. We are getting Black Australorps this season, a brown egg layer and heritage breed. Jenn picked out the breed. As for the new hen house, we were lucky enough to save over $200 by finding the portable garage that we favor for housing chickens on Craigslist. Scot was very excited. We now need one more, and are waiting for it to show up on the same site. They normally cost $360.
We have made contact with the person we are purchasing lambs from, and will probably go with the one-year-old ewes in May, and then add a ram and a wether later in the season when it is time to breed. Along with the lamb project, Rosa and Micah are preparing to buy their own chicks when they arrive ate the farm store. Incidentally, we have decided to make our feed purchases from a local chain store, Family Farm and Home, instead of through the local cooperative. As we have mentioned below, we would rather purchase grain grown locally, but the folks at the coops around here are just plain unfriendly toward us. At FF@H, we have developed relationships with the employees, and the grain comes from Armada, Michigan, over in Macomb County. There was a third choice, Floyd the Feed man, who is very friendly and the least expensive, but he sells Purina Brand feed, which is far from being a local product.
This First Day is Micah’s birthday, and he will get a cake, and probably get to pick out a present at the farm store. As you can tell by the picture above, taken last year, Micah is partial to the John Deere equipment he sees driving along our back roads all year. While we could not ever use such machinery, we did get a used John Deere riding mower, which Micah likes to drive around on with Scot during lawn mowing days. He then rakes up the grass and feeds it to the steer. By the way, this is not an endorsement of John Deere products :)

Reading Materials

Before we started the farm, Jenn and I did a lot of dreaming about how it would look for us to be farmers, and how exactly we would go about it. As such, we read a lot of books and magazines that are dedicated to the type of farming we dreamt of, that being, small family farms. When we started looking for materials, we were surprised. There is a lot of literature dedicated to the vocation of small or family farming. At first, we picked up a lot of books at our local libraries that were pretty antiquated, but still address the critical issue – our dreams. One such book was “Five Acres and Independence” by M.G. Kains. We rarely refer to it now, but it was a great starter book. We gleaned a lot of good information about all kinds of livestock from the “Storey” guides, which are advertized in nearly every farming, homesteading, or specialty magazine (www.storey.com) . Also, there is a magazine called “Countryside and Small Stock Journal” (www.countrysidemag.com) that is always loaded with interesting ideas, though more from an “individualistic” homesteaders point of view than that of a CSA or community perspective.
When we visited our first CSA farm, and asked if there was any good literature that they could recommend, they insisted that “You Can Farm” by the legendary Joel Salatin would be the most inspiring book we could read. Inspiring does not necessarily translate in “how to” but it certainly gets one started in the confidence department. After reading Salatin’s story of success, you will feel that successful small farming is within your reach. Salatin has written numerous other books, he writes for Stockman Grass Journal, and does numerous workshops around the nation. His farm, Polyface, is also open to visitors. In fact, if you google Salatin, you will see that he is the author of many articles and books dedicated to issues ranging from starting your own farm to quasi-rants against government regulation. All of his work contains a lot of truth, and it is not a truth that he maintains between the lines. Sometimes, he can be a little tough to swallow for just that reason.
For basic backyard poultry, and more, find a copy of Andy Lee’s and Pat Foreman’s “Chicken Tractor: A Permaculture Guide to Happy Hens and Healthy Soil.” Even Salatin refers to this book as a classic in small farming “howtoitedness.” Undoubtedly, if you want to start with layer hens or meat chickens, there is an overwhelming amount of literature available, most all of it useful, and available through library systems.
As for magazines, other than Countryside, we read an occasional issue of Stockman Grass Farmer which has PDF’s available at www.stockmangrassfarmer.com, as well as a plethora of small farm and grazier related books for sale. SGF is highly informative, but for our needs, a little advanced, and targeted toward larger scale operations.
I highly recommend “Farming Magazine.” Jenn and I ran across our first issue of this magazine while attending Ohio Yearly Meeting in Barnseville, OH. We fell in love with it, as it is dedicated to exactly the same kind of farming and lifestyle that our family is. We forgot about it for a short time, then googled it and asked the publisher for a sample copy. We then felt we wanted a subscription, but put it off until yesterday, when we were visiting with some Amish friends. They also had a subscription, and loaned us a copy. I ordered our subscription today. It has articles from Gene Logsdon (google his name for some great titles), and has had many contributions from Wendell Berry. It is an Amish publication, but is not overwhelmingly (or even marginally) religious. It is just very simple, very well written, and very in-tune with those who see farming as a vocation. In fact, most every title I mentioned in this blog views farming as a family centered vocation, just as Jenn and I do. Find out more about “Farming Magazine” by getting basic information from a basic website, www.farmingmagazine.net.

Sowing Pasture

We have received our first income for the year, having sold three shares at this point, and the investments have allowed us to begin building toward the season. The first task was to build a brooder for the chicks we will be raising this year. As mentioned before, we have been brooding some of the chicks in Rosa and Micah’s bedroom. You can imagine the troubles created by that arrangement. So, we built a brooder out of wood and hardware mesh. It will be strong enough to keep cats and raccoons from stealing the chicks, and has taller sides to keep the breeze out. We can now start our chicks outside in the garage.
We also purchased pasture seed, which we plan to sown as soon as the winter thaw comes around. We were able to get a locally produced mixture from a small area business. If anyone is interested in sowing pasture, this is what we have found – shop around. Of course, Tractor Supply Company had the most inexpensive mix, but that store is not locally owned, and they don’t have mix in stock until spring. Many seed specialist businesses, whether locally owned or not, are really very expensive. We called the local cooperative as well. They wanted $225 for a fifty pound bag of standard mix. And, last season, when we called a family own seed business I Zeeland, when I asked for an inexpensive pasture mix, I was laughed at for having “crazy ideas” about how pasture should be grown. The dealer also informed me that fifty pounds of pasture seed would cost us $270. This season, we went to Rhino Seed in Bradley, just up the road, and received our fifty pounds for $122. Serendipity baby!
We have money in our account to build the new chicken tractors for the year. This season, we will use PVC pipe instead of wood. I don’t know if it will be less expensive (probably not), but they should last longer. The wooden tractors we made last season, will do well to last one more year.
As an experiment, Jenn and the kids have borrowed an incubator, and placed some of our Americauna eggs into it, hoping they will hatch around the 11th. Of course, Jenn will be in Mexico then, so I will be stuck with the experiment. Fortunately, we gained pretty valuable experience a few months ago after a broody hen hatched a few for us and we had to take over their care.
So long for now, and consider purchasing a share for the 2010 season.

January means it's time to start farming

Now it is January, and we are beginning to get excited about getting things going around the farm. We have asked a few folks to serve as board members, as we are going to submit paper work in order to gain Michigan non-profit status. This status won’t mean very much for this year’s work, but it may be important a few years down the road when we begin to expand and adjust our goals to meet more need in our community.
After the papers are filed, Jenn and I will suggest a share price, which right now looks to be about $425 for the whole season. We will provide eggs every two weeks, 60 pounds of pork, six chickens, and hopefully, new for this year, turkeys. We are hoping to sell twenty shares this season, an increase over the thirteen we sold last season.
What needs to be done in January, or , what we hope to accomplish if we get some early shares sold, is to make our new chicken tractors (a new design for this season), construct a brooder, and purchase seed in time to plant new pasture during the January thaw.
One of the things we have already done is to file a DBA (doing business as) form with Allegan County. This means that you will be able to write checks to Sandhill CSA as well as to Scot or Jenn. Last year, we had some problem cashing a few checks because of our failure to register as a business. What all of this means, is, we are a legitimate farming enterprise in the eyes of the state, and perhaps, more legitimate to potential shareholders who might be leery of writing a check to a person instead of a business.
As a point of interest, I thought I’d share some of the major points of our non-profit plans with you, so you get an idea of what direction we are presently taking the farm. These are the suggestions we will be taking to a board when it is established:

Article II
The purpose or purposes for which the corporation is organized
A. To foster strong relationships between urban and rural communities through non-profit community farming and healthy food.
B. To educate diverse populations about the importance of locally grown food, family farms, and personal relationships to the stability of local economies and healthy communities.
C. To develop a not for profit breeding program for heritage breed livestock.
D. To educate interested adults and children about the intricacies of micro-farming, and livestock and pasture management.
E. To provide a percentage of Sandhill CSA harvest to low income families or shelters.

Thanks for reading. Now that the holidays have past (The Quakers are not supposed to celebrate holidays), we will begin the work of preparation and be updating you all on the progress we are making as we draw closer to the fun of the farming season.

Snow Days on the Farm

We recently had three great snow days on the farm. More than anything, these days were the silver lining in an otherwise cloudy situation. For two days of the week, I didn’t have enough gas in the car to make the 45 mile drive to my internship in Holland. On the third snow day, the weather was so bad that my supervisor instructed me not to make the drive. So, I lost valuable internship hours and was unable to spend valuable time with clients. Because of the circumstances, it was quite embarrassing.
However, since Jenn was home all three days, and we home school the three youngest children, we were together as a family with three days of unscheduled opportunity. So what happens on a farm during snow days? Well, since we have plenty of food in the house, we didn’t need to shopping or anything like that so we were able to stay home and enjoy the snow. Of course, we had to feed the laying hens and the eight barn cats, but other than those chores, we were able to build snowmen, make full family dinners, do a lot of reading to each other, clean our bedroom, write content for blogs, create art, engage in Bible study, shovel snow together, rescue chickens caught in the snow, feed suet to the winter birds, listen to a music by diverse bands like The Crossing, Talking Heads, and Mudhoney and Motorhead, Taylor Swift, and Parliament.
Snow days are a good time to take naps, and tell stories about infamous blizzards of the past. All of our children were born during winter, so we had snow stories for each birth of the youngest three children. We remember broken arms caused by huge icicles, sledding accidents caused by huge trees, and hockey game cancellations caused by huge storms.
A great thing about blizzards, however, is something rarely talked about on our farm or by others, for that matter. The great things are that we are in a warm place with food, heat, hot water, transportation, and most of all, each other. That is a blessing that many people don’t share. That’s why giving, especially the sharing of time, can be such a blessing to others.

Sandhill's experiment with Broilers

OK, back to farming. One of the new enterprises that was undertaken at Sandhill was the addition of broilers to our ongoing farm experiment. We had raised layer hens for a few years, but we have never raised them for meat (except for culled roosters) until this past year. We decided to try two rounds of fifty broilers each. We followed the suggestions laid out by Andy Lee’s book entitle Chicken Tractor (There is more to the title, but I can’t recall it offhand) and commenced to building the pens that would hold the chickens.

The materials we purchased for the two 8’ by 10’ cages (three feet deep, two deep would have been better) cost us about $80 each, using 1” by 2” boards, chicken wire, and a rather expensive composite plastic corrugated covering. We fastened the sides and top, and the chicken wire with staples and three inch screws. We kept each panel separate in our basement where we erected them until the snow melted and we pieced each side together with zip ties and reinforced that with screws.

Next, it was time for the broiler chickens. We ordered the more marketable White Mountain crosses, which are bred to grow to five or six pounds (or more) in eight weeks. We are still not sure about ordering dual purpose heritage breeds for this year, which grow slower but are more in tune with our farming philosophy). At any rate, when you order fifty chicks of any breed, you have to brood them from one-day-old to the point where they are hearty enough to stand against the cold and other elements. Not having a brooder, and having eight barn cats in our garage, we made the decision to brood these first fifty chicks in our house because the May weather in Michigan last spring was still very cold, especially at night. First, I’d like to state that many people we have spoken with in our community have brooded chicks inside their homes. Secondly, I can tell you that each of us have reported that this is a most unpleasant experience. After brooding the chicks in a plastic swimming pool last season, this year we will build a brooder (To purchase one costs about $290 - $350)and place them in the garage with appropriate protection from the cats. You will never feel the need to clean as thoroughly as you will after having livestock in your house. (On the other hand, 10 or so layers, even 25 layers, are not as bad to brood in the house, as there is less waste to deal with).

Once they were hearty enough, we transferred the chicks out to the chicken tractors, and began to move them to fresh grass every day, and fed them broiler grower twice a day. We fed them a lot, but took seriously the instructions to keep them on feed for twelve hours, and then remove the feed for twelve hours, to reduce complications arising from over eating. We went through approximately 15 bags of feed in eight weeks costing around $13 a bag.

We faced two problems with our two sets of broilers. First, we lost nine chickens to the late July heat, not because they didn’t have enough water, but most likely because they didn’t have proper shade. One thing we know, the broilers will not walk more than three feet to drink water, so, if there is not proper shade, they will be overwhelmed by 90 degree heat. This was a tragedy around our farm, as we felt that if we would have been on the farm instead of working outside the home, we could have better protected the animals. An tarp solved this problem. The other problem was predators. We dealt with them severely, shooting two raccoons that had stolen two chickens from us, and one skunk that had killed two chicks. Predators always return to the scene of the crime, because they know it will be easy pickings. Raccoons, however, tend to come within four hours of darkness, and I only had to wait for a few hours before shooting them an hour apart with a twelve gauge. The skunk took some thought, however, as I was concerned about the release of musk. Skunks come in the morning, and I decided to use a .22 caliber rifle for the skunk. It worked, with minimal smell resulting. Many folks, especially Quakers, are concerned about the hunting of predators, as opposed to trapping them. In rural areas, once predators feel safe enough to approach human homes, they will continue to do so wherever they are released from live traps. To release a raccoon into another homes range is to give other home owners trouble. Also, when we tried a live trap in Ohio once, the raccoons were smart enough to steal the bait from the trap, then proceed to raid our barn for chickens. I am not about to live trap a skunk. As for pacifists having guns on the property, the reality of coyotes, small predators, injured game, and sick and dying animals is a reality of rural life, and hunting weapons, while not absolutely necessary, are a solution to such problems.

Back to chickens. Finally, after eight weeks of feeding broilers, it was time for butchering. There are many ways to prepare a chicken for butchering. I prefer to shoot them in the head while holding them upside down, as it is quick and painless. Killing cones will be added this year, because as the birds flap after death, the wings can break due to the force of the spasms. After they bleed out, I remove the head, then we scald them in 155-degree water that we have added dish soap to in order to ease the removal of feathers from the carcass. Picking a chicken by hand is a time consuming process, and for this year, we hope to build our own chicken picking machine ( A new chicken plucker from a manufacturer costs more than a thousand dollars). It will reduce the time to prepare a bird for butchering from 10 minutes per bird to 20 seconds for two birds. Once the bird is plucked, it is ready for dressing, which, after four or five birds, takes about three minutes or less. However, the first one might take as many as fifteen minutes. It simply takes practice. After dressing the bird, we clean out any remnants from dressing the bird in a water bath, then age the bird for a day or two in a refrigerator before freezing. Our shareholders can pick them up cold or frozen, either way. We have not received one complaint about our birds, and we love them ourselves. They taste great, even better when you raise them yourselves.