Death on the Farm

Today one of the ewe lambs I brought to the farm last week died. This was not altogether unexpected. After the dash to catch and pen the lambs in the trailer, I noticed one had bottle jaw, defined by Merriam Webster's medical dictionary as "a pendulous edematous condition of the tissues under the lower jaw in cattle and sheep resulting from infestation with bloodsucking gastrointestinal parasites." I knew that the seller's farm had wormed the sheep two days before we arrived. I also noted that only two sheep in the flock had bottle jaw. Rather than unloading the affected sheep from the trailer, the owner did not charge me for the ewe until we were sure of good health. Today during morning chores the ewe was not with her flock and by lunch she had died.

This incident brings up all sorts of "farmer" thoughts.  

I am glad that we have multiple paddocks where I can quarantine new animals on the farm. In the next 6-8 weeks I will worm the new ewes again and watch for other health issues.

If the former owner had not offered the ewe for free until proved, I would not have taken her home. My limited experience has taught me that at least. What I had not thought as carefully about was the  answer to the what-if-she-survives question. I had hoped to use the ewe in my breeding program but I do not believe that would have benefitted Lilac Hill in the long run. Adding a ewe that is not resistant or resiliant to worms is not a ewe that should be in any breeding flock. With wormer medications losing their effectiveness against parasites, better management practices, including targeted worming, rotational grazing and multispecies grazing as well as breeding for resistant and resiliant sheep will build the strong flock I envision.

I am glad that I follow an experienced farmer's advice to watch my animals every day. With only five days of observing the new sheep, I knew that something was wrong with the ewe today, even though her bottle jaw seemed to be resolving.

Following Penn State recommendations, we composted the body. Rather than relying on the assistance of a friend and his equipment, as we have in the past, our small skid-steer handled the task. Today I was very glad that we are far along enough in our farm building to know that dead animals should be composted, to own the skid-steer to manage the heavy work and to be able to operate the machine effectively. Having a just started compost pile of last winter's chicken bedding and a few bales of rotten hay at the edge of the property, also made the job easier.

It is a rotten day on the farm when an animal dies. Fortunately, rotten days usually teach me something about being a better caretaker of this farm.

Summer hens on pasture

In the summer the hens have access to pasture grasses and bugs.  Kitchen scraps are also tossed into the net fence enclosure. When I head out to the flock, the Buckeyes run to the fence in anticipation of whatever treat I have for them. Now that it is August and the temperatures are unexpectedly cool, I have turned the open side of the eggmobile to catch more sunlight.

Choosing to raise broilers with organic feed

Another plan hatched during our time away from the farm in July was the decision to raise broilers, that according to Wikipedia, are chickens bred and raised specifically for meat production. Until recently I had only raised broilers to fill our own freezer, particularly last year when we did not process many ducks.

Lilac Hill needs the fertility that moving poultry across a field daily can bring. I have witnessed that one pass with a poultry tractor improves the density and variety of grasses and legumes in a field.

In the next few weeks we will construct a Salatin style tractor. The plan is for a larger and lighter pen than the multipurpose pen with egg boxes and integral feed hopper that we have used in the past. We will start with one tractor and dolly, building more next year if there is a consumer demand for chicken, guineas or duck.

I will buy Cornish Cross chicks, generously made available by a local poultry farm. Thanks to Joe's success I know that his supplier breeds a chick that does well here in central PA. Cornish Cross chickens are a broad breasted hybrid, not a genetically modified organism (GMO), developed for fast production and efficient use of feed. Removing their grain ration at night and making fresh pasture available should moderate their growth and reduce the incidence of overly large birds with underdeveloped skeletons.

As well as grasses and legumes, fresh daily with each move of the pen, I will feed certified organic starter feed and pastured poultry grain mix from Bucky Zeigler. The cost of organic feed is twice that of the local feed mill's blend, not an insignificant amount. I believe that in a bird that grows from a handful of fluff to a butchered out, 4-7 # bird for the table in 56 days, feed and what it is made from matters. I do not want to eat meat that was grown on feed with even acceptable levels of pesticide residues, so organic feed it is.

Eli Reiff will butcher, bag and vacuum seal the chickens in October. For those who wish to cut up  and bag their own birds, arrangements can be made in advance.  I like the ease and delicious taste of one our own roasted chickens. Thanks to the pasture pen arrangement, the meat is not overly fatty and without the industry wide practice of injecting the carcass with water, our birds are as plump coming out of the oven as when they go in.  

Honestly, I do not like the looks of the Cornish Cross chickens, they are not sleek and dark reddish brown like my Buckeyes.  Yet in spite of their looks, their chicken pecking and scratching and their prodigious amount of manure will benefit our fields which will in turn better feed our sheep and cows and eventually us.

Contact us to reserve your birds or ask any questions.

Ducklings are hatching

Yesterday three Saxony ducklings hatched under the Buckeye hen. The hen makes cooing noises as she sets on the emerging babies. By tomorrow she should finish her setting.

Starting a strawberry bed/Putting the poultry to work

I want a small strawberry bed, as I wait for the soil to be improved in my planned strawberry patch. Two weeks ago I placed the pens holding the chicks and ducklings between the hoophouse and Barn Pasture fence.  The spot gets full sun, is well drained and has had the benefit of open bottomed poultry pens before. After the birds scratched up the grass, I layered weeds, wood shavings and old hay to keep the fowl clean and add the " carbon diaper," as Joel Salatin says, to catch the nitrogen and other nutrients from their waste. It is almost time to move the chicks out to join the flock, move the ducklings into the next pen, without their Buckeye mother. and plant the strawberry runners that a good friend shared.

Blair should calve near the end of the month

During our week away Blair noticeably increased in girth as she entered her last month of pregnancy. My records note 10/15-10/16 for a possible breeding date and  the added P.S. to watch her again in November did not have any other information so I am assuming that she "took" in October.As you can see Belties ignore prevailing  fashion advice, "any dark color is slimming when it’s placed next to a color that is lighter...It doesn’t matter what color you choose, as long as the darker shade is worn where you are the heaviest you will look slimmer in that area." 

The Saxony ducks have their own pen

While away from the farm last week we "rethought" our Saxony flock. Yes, ducks are still part of Lilac Hill; their comical manner,  thrifty nature, and delicious meat benefit the farmstead.

Building the flock while filling the freezer is slow going. Building a customer base interested in duck eggs and meat is also slow going.

We have only 3 ducks for our two drakes, the fourth duck disappeared late last winter, giving us over a dozen eggs a week. Because the girls will drop an egg whenever and wherever the mood strikes, finding the eggs, when they free range is a bit tricky.

I prefer to have Buckeye hens set the duck eggs.  After hatching the hens are excellant mothers, raising the ducklings on grass in open bottomed pens. With hens I do not need to monitor temperature and humidity for 28 days in the temperamental incubator. Chicken mothers protect ducklings from cool nights and summer downpours and teach them to hunt tasty tidbits in the grass. Encouraging broody hens and buiding pens for setting will be components of our future duck venture.

I usually place nine eggs under a Buckeye to start the 28 day incubation period.  The last two hens have hatched 5 ducklings.  The clutch due to hatch later this week has 6 remaining eggs so hopefully we will have  similar success (but remember the adage," don't count your chickens before....).  The literature recommends that I spray the eggs with water regularly when set by a chicken but I do not like to disturb  setting hens often and when outisde in a pen the ground seems to provide enough moisture. 

The small scale of the duck project during this 'duck-management-learning-phase' does not fill more than our freezer but there are benfits to the duck flock beyond  food, pest control and soil fertilization. Due to their efficient use of feed, their rich dark meat and large eggs are economical. Applying the lessons I learn from this small flock will hopeflly minimize costly errors as we increase the flock size.

Once we decided that ducks are staying on the farm, we needed to come up with a better system for collecting eggs and keeping the ducks out of the pool.  The terraces I carved out of the hill passed the barn are in dire need of fertilizing, especially if the lush orchard of my dreams is to be achieved. So with 20 new t-posts, 100' of 3' high fencing , another 100'+ of scavanged pieces of fence, zip ties and fence staples we created a pen for the ducks.  It is large enough for the small laying flock and with  the addition of duck waste, old hay and pulled weeds  the soil should slowly improve. Because it is behind hi-tensile fence, the ducks and their feed are protected from the attentions of the four-leggeds - donkey, beef and sheep, and I do not have to construct and deconstruct the annual winter duck pen.

The ducks will still free range, but under supervision, at least until the pool is covered.

Returning after a week away

Since Thursday I have been catching up after a week away from Lilac Hill. Preparing the farm before vacation is intense -adding extra waterers, fencing extra pastures and attempting to make farm chores easier for our farm caretaker. In spite of all the preparation, having a caretaker that can manage the unexpected is well appreciated.

A week away without internet  and with the company of Rebecca Thistlewaite's, Farms with a Future , gave us time to think about the future of our farm. We have come up with some plans to better manage our livestock and this bit of ridge in the Muncy Hills.

Settling another hen

I gave another Buckeye hen a clutch of 10 duck eggs on 6/14. I placed the hen and eggs in the triangle coop under a lilac shrub with morning sun and shade the rest of the day.

The ducks will not stay penned

The ducks' portable coop is in the farm field with the chicken's eggmobile. enclosed with electrified chicken netting.  They have plenty of food and water. After herding them into the enclosure each evening, I find them roaming the farm in the morning. Since they do not cause much damage,although I need to check the young melon plants in the hoop house where I saw them during this morning's downpour, they could stay out, BUT I do need their eggs.

Not sure what the next step is.

Square water tote project completed

Last year I purchased a 275 gallon tote off Craigslist with a vague plan of moving water to the furthest reaches of our pasture. The weight of 275 gallons of water is not vague, but a definite 2293.5 pounds, so my plan needed refining. Our small skidsteer can lift and carry around 650#. Instead we needed a sturdy running gear that the skidsteer or Subaru could pull to the paddocks and we needed a downspout diverter to catch the water coming off the boat barn roof. In a friend's treeline, under a fallen tree, there was a running gear that had carried luggage at an airport which he was willing to loan us. The weight of the tree had done some damage so we trailered the gear to a local machine shop. The repaired gear has a hinged tongue and a receiver for towing.

As with so many farm projects, the short description of a project hardly portrays the actual time, equipment and skils involved.

Here is this project's equipment list of tools that we owned, bought and borrowed: trailer for towing the tote home; round downspout diverter; chainsaw for removing the fallen tree from the running gear; large skidsteer for pulling the gear from the treeline and loading onto the equipment trailer; truck with the appropriate brake and light set up for pulling the equipment trailer; our truck with the correct hitch for towing the repaired running gear home (hitch balls come in multiple sizes and at our place are spread across three vehicles);assorted straps for securing totes and the running gear to the trailers;drillpress and bits for drilling a hole in the skidsteer fork for a hitch ball to move the running gear;and our skid steer.

Living in this community we found a slowmoving vechicle reflector triangle at the farm store and the machine shop was less than five miles away so we did not have to fiddle with our own and borrowed welding equipment.

Without our friend's generous gift of time and equipment we could have completed this project, but its cost and effort would have pushed its completion into another grazing season or two.

Barnyard management

This spring we lambed earlier and had more ewes than last year.  Deep bedding in the barn and barnyard kept the the Katahdins healthy and clean but resulted in new management issues for me. After scraping up the manure/straw/hay layer and piling it for composting, the barnyard was bare.Bare ground is anathema to a farmer on thin ground so I visited Norm's farm store in search of cover cropping seed.Sudangrass is a good choice for summer seeding; it can tolerate heat and drought and can be harvested for feed. After cutting in the fall I may sow rye into the space.The old wheel hoe/plow, that was in the barn when we move here did a good job scratching up the rocky, compacted soil.I broadcast the seed with our yard spreader.Raked the seed in.I used the last of the bedding straw to mulch the seed and waited for the falling rain to do its work.

June 2, 2013

Despite late frosts alternating with 80'+ heat, the pastures grew, even the Hill Pasture, rife with multiflora rose and other invasive undesirables. The Belites ate the tasty forage and left the overgrown, unpalatable stems. With time at a premium, I did not rotationally graze this pasture. The girls ate what they wished, supplemented with green chop from the North Pasture. Our Farmall Cub mowed all but the steepest of the pasture, knocking down the overgrowth and pruning the multiflora before they went to seed. Later this season the cows and maybe the sheep will return to graze. 

Blogging time off

With our event coming up, I will take a break from the blog. Rest assured the Lilac Hill creatures are grazing, sunning, resting under trees and the babies are growing.

New bachelor

The "Wedding sheep" have left the farm and Burgess was left alone in the Bachelor Field.  With an eye to lambing in April next year, Burgess' services are not needed until winter so he must remain behind the sturdy fence. As a herd creature, he cannot live alone so I selected a wethered lamb from this year to keep him company.  Initially I moved one of Maude's twins in with Burgess but Paxton managed to squeeze through the gate.  Mab's lamb is larger and cannot escape so he was my second choice. 

The weaning process is unsettling for the flock so I moved the ewes and lambs within the confines of the barnyard. Last night, the second night of separation, I did not hear the sad bleating across the farm. I believe the ewes will go back onto pasture, and behind two strands of electric twine tomorrow.

Burgess likes his pasture companion; his gentle nature is apparent. When I had observed this lamb in the field, he seemed to inherit his ewe's calm nature which will be a welcome addition to the flock during breeding season.

Since the little guy will be on the farm until next year, he will need a name.  Since the ewe lambs from this year are Shakespearian, Portia, Beatrice and Hero, maybe Claudio or Antonio would suit.

Not our first year on the farm observation

On this week's Chicken Thistle Farm's podcast, Kelli and Andy spoke of their second year of farrowing which had me thinking about farming disappointment. I am not talking about the "don't count your chickens before they're hatched" failures, which happen early on in a rural life.  I am talking about disappointing results in spite of the careful implementation of  sound farming practices. On Wednesday I culled #003, born here at Lilac Hill from my friendliest ewe. On paper, she had hardy parents, a gentle nature and respected our strands of electric twine fencing through the summer grazing season. In reality she always looked lousy: her coat was often dirty, her nose was crusty (the other sheep did not have these probems), and she did not breed this year. (Her twin sister did not breed either but, I decided, because of her genetics, temperment and health that she has another breeding season to prove herself.) My study of sheep health, careful feeding, acquisition of quality parent stock and daily observation did not prevent this unthrifty ewe. With my farm goals in mind, I decided "it was time to put on my big farmer boots," and she was culled. Hopefully as we continue on Lilac Hill I will develop the widsom of a veteran shepherd and the the disappointments will not be felt as sharply.

Hens setting-May edition

I have two hens setting, one nest of Saxony duck eggs and the other of Buckeye chicken eggs.

I like to have a hen raise ducklings in an open bottomed pen, keeping the babies warm and tended until they feather out.  An open bottomed pen on grass is so much cleaner than the raised mesh floor in the barn pen and the  mess of duckling splash enriches our thin soil. As long as the hens stay broody this summer, I will continue to set nests of duck eggs. Come July I will evaluate the success of my hen-raising-duck scheme and decide if an incubator full of duck eggs is necessary to fill the freezer.

The nest of Buckeyes is also necessary to hatch replacement layers, roosters and chicks for sale. Broody hens do not lay eggs so chicken eggs are scarce but the ducks keep the egg bowl full for breakfast and baking.

Perhaps I should keep a larger flock of layers next year with an eye towards naturally hatching ducks for our freezer.

Power washer vs. Water tote

ABC's Wide World of Sports:"Spanning the globe to bring you the constant variety of sport! 

The thrill of victory, and the agony of defeat!"

Thrill--Yesterday, thanks to a Google search,I downloaded the owner's manual and read a few engine troubleshooting sites, tried a few suggestions and got the power washer running.  Not sure if topping off the oil or replugging the low oil sensor wires made the difference but the washer works and the barn looks great. Victory.

Defeat--The plan is that this tote will carry water from the downspout or cistern to the Hill pasture across the road.  Until we have a running gear under the tote our small skidsteer can only carry enough for one trough filling.  When I tried to drain the excess water into the ditch to make moving the tote more stable, the handle broke off in my hand. Agony.

Transitioning to growing season mode

As the days lengthen and warm we shift from feeding hay in paddocks and watching for lambs to moving fence  and water to accomodate the rotational grazing of the poultry, sheep and cows. Eventhough our goal of raising delicious meat on pasture remains, the particulars are different each year. This year spring's warming was slow to arrive, especially compared to last year's early heat, lengthening the ruminants' time on hay and off muddy pastures. For the first time we are managing a bachelor pen for Burgess our ram and selecting a wethered lamb to keep him company until December. Blair should  drop her calf one month later than last year, therefore pushing back the bull's visit to the farm. And Lilac Hill will host a wedding reception at the end of May, barring the cows from the North field. (Those cow pies that I check, guaging the health of my Belties are just not a welcome addition to the country reception parking field.) It is a juggling act, balancing the present and future needs of the animals without a crystal ball to  tell me how the weather wil be later this season.

In spite of a long list directing me to move fence and water , clean barns  and plant the garden,home life goes on. A check of the NOAA website can prompt me to do a bit more laundry for the closthesline on clear day or to  clear off the desk on a rainy one. No matter the forecast we need to eat, which is especially apparent at around 7PM. After a week of thrown together meals I bought the ingredients for a few refrigerator staples. It is time to prepare the first of the warm weather grilled vegetable/starch/meat or bean salads that sustain us. This early in the season the salads are heavy on greens from the hoophouse and and frozen red peppers, rosemary from the pot near the windowsill and bits of beef. As the season progresses fresh peas, beans, peppers,basil and tomatoes will arrive from the garden and lamb will be featured from the May butchering.

Apple blossoms

My childhood time spent with Dick and Jane on grandfather's farm never prepared me for the beauty of spring; the heavy scent of crabapple and the thrum of bees searching blossoms.