Pastured chickens on a permaculture farm

There are two chicken flocks at our permaculture farm right now. The egg layers and the meat breed chicks live separately, their life paths and destinies diverging. The egg layers are free ranging, while the meat-breed chicks are raised on a diverse pasture, roaming free over a large piece of land, but enclosed none-the-less. Chickens are easy to raise, if  you have some spare space and good protection from predators.

It all begun with little baby chicks arriving via mail order from our local Privett Hatchery. The mail carrier called us to announce that she was delivering the little peeps, to be sure someone would be at home, so they would be received and taken care of immediately. Fifty little chicks, each size of a tennis ball, occupied the box, hatchery-born, unaware of the existence of a mother hen, or green grass, or any part of the big wide world.

At our permaculture farm, we are always searching for ways to reduce our ecological footprint - and our dependence on ecological wealth located outside of our bio-region. Our gardens provide us with bounty of foods, through the seasons. And growing our own raw milk, eggs and meat is another step that makes a lot of sense to us, ecologically speaking. And so meat chicks are here, to be humanely raised and ethically harvested, and to provide us with food that is local and ecologically raised.

For some weeks the peeps were kept in a nursery, a room in the chicken house where they had warm water and protection from the wind, cold and predators. Lacking a mother hen to keep them warm, the chicks spent most of their time under a heating lamp. Once their first feathers appeared, and the spring weather became a bit warmer, it was safe to move them outside. It was really time for some life-giving sunshine and a healthy snack of grass, too!

 

Our chicken house is located at a distance of about 60 feet away from the nearest grassy area. So the question of transportation was to be resolved. Two-week old chicks are too young to understand who to follow - or why. Had they have a mother, they would easily navigate with her help. But raised under a heat lamp, such chicks are basically little orphans, and don't have any instructions provided to them as to where to go and what to do.  Turning them loose would result in fatalities due to many dangers that await baby chicks in life - barn cats, other chickens, dishes of water in which to drown, and obstacles behind which to get stuck and lost. In addition, ravens and magpies predate on baby chicks in day hours. Without a mother, babies must be protected at all times. Enter the chicken tractor - a tight and light enclosure (a large rectangular box wrapped into wire), their destination for the next few weeks. But how do we get them there?

Chicks entered the world in style - hand-picked individually (50 times) and placed in a large Haitian market basket (that is a whole other story) - and then carried out and to the grassy area near the coop.
And here the chicken tractor awaits, safe haven for grazing and sun-bathing.The entertainment factor of a chicken tractor is high, and the chicks are irresistible for all who walks nearby, drawing lots of attention and admiration. Eventually a few escape, after finding a low spot that created a tunnel of sorts - and our own dog, the little fluffy dear creature, killed 5 of them within minutes.

Dog on the leash detention, chicken tractor repositioned, and the life goes on. Chicks are getting bigger, fast. They are harder and harder to catch twice per day, and the nights are still too cold to leave them outside. Plus it is dangerous. Luckily, things evolve on their own sometimes. Chicks outgrow the little chicken tractor in about 2 weeks, but they also fledge out  and thus are ready to face the elements. They also develop some intellect and learn to run towards humans, as they figure out that humans bring their food and water.  That means they are ready to follow! That means, they could be lead places. And here comes their big promotion - a very large (and thus unwieldy) chicken tractor #2, located in the fenced goat pasture.

As ravens and hawks watch from nearby trees, we release the chicks from their little nursery chicken tractor. One of us is equipped with a feeder, and a song of "Chip-chip-chip-chip" that works as a call out, gently leading the chicks to their new location, about 100' away. The other person observes and walks behind the chicks, assisting any that are confused.

The flock quickly forms and follows the lead person, racing forward. All are in within a few minutes, 100% success rate. The door of the chicken tractor is closed and new chapter begins. The birds sleep outdoors. Their night-time protection from coyotes, racoons, skunks and others is a duty assigned to our Great Pyreneese dog. The dog has no idea what is expected of him, but looks and acts like he knows his business. So they all now sleep in the pasture - chicks and the great white dog.

At about 6 weeks of age, chicks are beginning to fight. They are "straight run" birds, meaning that about half is male and the other half is female. The males have territorial disputes and it is clear that keeping them in a chicken tractor is no longer possible. They will terrorize each other.

The tractor door is opened, and the birds are promoted to free range on the 1/3 acre fenced pasture. The dog is there to keep hawks and ravens away. Though he is not aware of this job, the predators back away, assuming an encounter with him is not worth the risk.

And the rest of the summer shall go on, with chicks grazing grass, alfalfa, clovers and other plants at this diverse pasture, catching flies and grasshoppers, finding an occasional earthworm. They are growing into fine organic meat birds. Come fall, harvest time arrives, and birds will become our food. But that is still a few months away.

Here are some practical tips for raising chicks on pasture:
- consider working with heirloom breeds only. They are more predator alert, faster and healtier.
- diversity is everything, when it comes to pasture management. Plant things that will offer a range of forage options. In general fallen berries and seeds from trees and shrubs make a good forage supplement. And alfalfa and clovers offer more protein to your birds than many other plants. Tree logs will host insects, which in turn make a very good snack for your birds.
- chickens are forest birds, in their ancestral memory, and when it comes to their preferences, they will seek cover and avoid open pasture. Plants - trees and shrubs - provide such cover and safety from hawks and ravens. Plant more trees.

And don't forget to share your questions and experience here! I am looking forward to hearing from you.
Best wishes
- Arina
 

Crafting, cooking and winter farm life

 The  sweetness of felted creatures on the fir tree - animals and fairy folk gathered to celebrate the dark of the year. Hiding in the green fuzziness, picking out of the deep nest of fir branches they go from the Christmas tree back to our nature table, to the fairy tale basket, to the pretend farm.

Sustainable Living in August: Hand-dipped Beeswax Candles

 A short introduction to making candles with beeswax a few years back was an inspiration enough to dabble with my own candle dipping project on a hot August day. Honey harvest of the season is in progress, with some coming in July, and the final collection in mid August after which point bees will be left to rest and get ready for winter. Mid August in cold climate is the time when most blossoms will be finished and despite balmy weather, with few feeding options left for the bees to explore. With each honey harvest there will be beeswax (that is if using topbar hives - more on them later), a substance important to the bees but often discarded by the busy beekeepers.

Parenting and Sustainable Living

Gardening, canning, harvesting.... knitting, sewing, building.... working, taking care of the land, animals, plants... keeping creativity flowing, making things and meeting needs. From such creativity arises the basic knowledge on how to live life independently from manufactured objects. Life happily disconnected from much shopping, from looking outside of one's microcosm for fixes such as new toys, new things. Creativity and work keep us able to meet our needs with what is available, what is around us, making our own world "enough".

Candlemas, Imbolc - Life Force is Rising! (Making Beeswax Candles)

Hard to believe on this -18F (-27C) night that transition from winter to spring has begun. We have to trust our ancestors, who saw the signs much more clearly than we can, with our senses protected and dulled by running hot water, central heating systems, space-age fabrics and such. Because our ancestors saw that on this day, February 2nd, a struggle between winter and spring, old and new, death and life took a definite turn towards rebirth and restoration of life force.

Eggs, Greens, Milk - Winter Harvest

Every day, just at dusk, we milk one of our two dairy goats that is still able to produce milk in this cold weather. She does not give much, just about 1/2 gallon (2 liters) per day - enough for us.

Disconnecting - Whole Life Redesign (Part Two)

A boy of seven years age came by to visit. We made a fire in my Russian stove and sat there watching it burn. "Burning trees is polluting to the environment", he said. "But I think it is still better than the other, regular, way to heat your house". Why young children are burdened with this information at an age when they don't have the power to do anything, to make decisions or implement changes in their lives, I don't know. Perhaps it makes parents feel good to have these politically correct conversations with their children.

Is there a better way to introduce sustainability/ ecology/ environmentalism into your life; such as through real practice?

Goat Cheese - Winter Harvest!

 

Mozarella (pictured above) is a good summer cheese - easy to make, fast and highly enjoyable with all the stretchy cheese strings and braided designs. It tastes great with tomatoes, and basil - and I have already written on this blog about my profound realization that many of our beloved classic dishes are actually made not just with components that go well together, but these ingredients actually occur in nature at the same time! 

Mozarella-basil-tomato salad is one of those dishes that speaks about a particular moment in the season, ripe tomatoes, juicy basil leaves, and of course lots and lots of fresh sweet milk. 

In the winter, a much more appropriate cheese is a hard wheel of Gouda, Monterrey Jack, or Cheddar - cheeses that take months to ripen. 

Herbal Goat Medicine Against Parasites

I am giving this post a long boring name to get it show up on search engines. My own searches brought next to nothing on the subject, unless you count vague statements that such and such herb aids in parasite control without any details on quantities etc. I got my favorite book by Juliette of the Herbs "The Complete Herbal for Farm and Stable", read the chapter on using garlic and went to work. Juliette recommends one full plant of garlic, leaves and all, chopped up and mixed with oat bran, pumpkin seed and molasses. I happen to have all the ingredients in either my garden or my pantry, so after a short time dedicated to chopping and mixing I got the aromatic goo delivered to my two princesses, Katia and Rosa.

Bee Cemetery

"Lovely honey combs" - say my friends coming to visit the house, once they see the line up on the kitchen table. The smell is honey-heavenly, but these are not honey combs but empty combs from my dead topbar hives. (you would not place combs full of honey on your table... some is bound to leak!) -
I assume some contained honey that bees ate trying to survive hungry winter; some were housing for their larvae, some cells are full of pollen. There is a thick layer of dead bees in the bottom of the hives, strange sight. They are dead and and the spring is quiet, one can just pull the hive apart and there is nobody there. Tiny native bees are working the flowers, and orchards are full of fruit, so life goes on - but the our little honey collectors are not involved in the spring chores. I hear, the US lost nearly 80% of honey bees in 2009.

I collected the combs to melt them for wax, to make candles. Broken combs are placed in cookie sheets in the sun, covered with a single layer of glass - slowly melting, with impurities that color the combs in darker hues rising and clean yellow wax on the lower end - or so it will be once they warm up. So far the melting process is very slow and I am not observing any separation of impurities. As always, the ways of living on the land and off the land sound oh-so-simple, anyone-can-do-this-without-trouble, and in reality there more questions than answers; and for sure I have not made a single candle yet! Not to mention honey harvest by the gallon.
Sometimes I wonder if people "out there" think that they can always change gears, plant a garden, grow their own food, meet their own needs - easy - while in reality the learning curve is steep and long and I definitely suggest if you are thinking about starting, start now - see you along the way!

Natural Dyes, Easter

Dyed with geranium petals, black-berry juice, marigold petal tea, onion skins tea - these eggs are edible and lovely. Shine is created by rubbing with a little olive oil.

Cooking in the Masonry Woodburning Stove

This is not a very practical post - not too many houses feature masonry (or also known as Russian) stoves. The masonry stove is a large, very heavy stove made out of stone, which absorbs and holds (and radiates) heat very efficiently. They were first designed and finessed in Europe after it was deforested twice over for firewood and wood in general... You can a Russian Masonry stove from our house in the picture above, right.

Gardening and New Motherhood

well... it is not as easy as I pictured before I had a baby. He is one year old now, and things are still not getting done in the garden, orchard, or various other places including kitchen, house, office etc. This morning I had him in my sling and got some lavender harvested; yesterday I turned him loose in the garden while I pulled the garlic (onions are still there, ready to be harvested). Peaches he grabs from the tree on his own! I love that he knows to look in trees for food - such a natural hunter-gatherer - especially after a month and a half of eating mulberries from a kiddy-size tree. He walks now.

A Meal Made of Thanks - Thanksgiving of the Year, Harvest

The holiday season is sneaking up on me this year. I am a new mother learning to fill my new shoes and navigate this breathtaking reality.

  Meanwhile my perceptions of the time and the calendar are oddly skewed. The cycles of my new life are defined by sunset and sunrise and followed by the vague but joyful awareness of days, weeks and, months. When it comes to dressing the little one for a walk, the concept of seasons is still with me, but not much beyond that; the calendar is just an assembly of little blue squares on the wall that my son loves to stare at.

The life cycles of surrounding land is what keeps me informed in my mommy-haze. The harvest is over; frosts wiped out our garden; the great horned owl has begun its by-nightly winter visits to the chicken house; fall garlic planting took place; the freezer is full of home-grown food. The year is winding down.

One of my greatest joys comes from being able to cook more often with the foods we grow. When I first started gardening 11 years ago, I was satisfied to see a few handfuls of tomatoes and an occasional zucchini. After a few seasons I realized we were still only making very few meals with our own vegetables; I changed my planning approach, and my gardening style, as I became more confident and experienced. Now I plant with my eye on the meals we will prepare long after the frosts of early winter, and then gather our extended family together to pay tribute to the richness of our land.

These meals I call the Meals Made of Thanks; they fill my heart with pride and gratitude for the gifts that come from the good land. Thanks be to the savory pumpkin soup made with spinach, onions, goat milk and a touch of garlic; to the goat cheese with dill weed and sundried tomatoes; to the fresh salads out of the greenhouse; to the sautéed winter greens served with Jerusalem artichoke roots; to the omelets slathered in tomato salsa; to the fresh goat milk and dried apples in my morning cereal; to zucchini pancakes with prickly pear syrup; to the pumpkin bread; to the goat stew.

As we will sit down for a meal to celebrate this holiday season, each bite will remind us of the wonderful gifts the earth has given us. Remember, how our Mama Turkey sat on someone else’s clutch and hatched eleven baby guineas? Or how the goat kids used to make a terrible ruckus every evening at milking time, protesting the loss of what was theirs? Or how a horned owl moved in and took away two guineas? And our pumpkin patch that actually formed a patch for a change, instead of a few skimpy plants – and how good the scalloped pumpkins taste with a rack of ribs? To all of them - plants and animals – we thank you at every meal, because every meal means more to all of us now, after we raised our food and shared our stories.

Annual, Perennial

Tall and fragrant, white flowers are reaching out to the sky filled with promise of more rain. Shaped like little umbrellas, these are carrot flowers, beautiful and stately enough to celebrate a wedding or birth. A cloud of tiny beneficial wasps is working the blossoms, pollinating them into future carrot seeds. Come September, the flowers will turn dark brown, with thousands of seeds spilling over onto the ground, ready for next year’s sunlight and moisture, repeating the cycle of procreation.

The City Chicken, The Country Chicken

If the idea of getting a few chickens has been on your mind, now is a good time for making preparations and starting on your back yard poultry project. Keeping chickens is fun and easy, and it is not against the law in many urban areas. To see a partial list of US cities and towns and their respective laws on keeping farm animals within the city limits, visit http://home.centurytel.net/thecitychicken/chickenlaws.html

Thanksgiving Meal

Last week I took our young male goats to a butcher – an end of a short and eventful era on our farm. The butcher, Mark Padilla of Arroyo Seco, is exactly the kind of a person one would want to help with the task. Mark moves slowly, he just exudes kindness and comfort, and he handled our two upset wethers with calm respect. I did not stay at Mark’s to watch. He called five days later and told me to come and pick up the meat. Two boxes full of home raised meat, with cuts wrapped in nice white paper was what remained of Jesús and Moses.

All summer long, as the kids were frolicking in the pasture, I have been receiving various suggestions regarding how to raise meat goats best. Most of the advice had nothing to do with their nutrition, but rather focused on how to protect myself emotionally from the fact they were born to finish their lives under a butcher’s knife; that their destination was to nurture us with food.

Don’t name them, don’t pet them, don’t touch them, don’t get attached to them – was a litany of clever tricks. For a fleeting moment, I considered these ideas. One day, the kids got wet in a torrential summer downpour. As I was sitting in the barn, trying to comfort frightened and whimpering kids, both on my lap, I realized that I would be robbing myself and them from a relationship in which they are recognized by names, hugged, petted, loved and treated as if they really exist! This was a turning point. I did not make house pets out of them, nor have I subjected them to an unnamed, somewhat mechanical upkeep without acknowledgement. In fact it felt important that I may experience emotional discomfort when the time comes to let go. That sadness became part of the payment for their sweet, goofy lives that they gifted to us.

As I looked at the boxes filled with their meat, I wondered – which one is Jesús, which one is Moses? Why would it matter I don’t know, except to acknowledge one more time – thank you, Moses – you were a simple-minded sweet creature, you only cared about food and a good belly rub, and you were very handsome with your pink nose and salt-and-pepper ears. Thank you, Jesús – you were very smart, and inventive of new tricks, you loved freedom, and you too were very handsome!

I live in a small co-housing community in Jacona, NM. Next week, my husband Scott and I and our neighbors will all sit down for a goat stew meal to celebrate this summer, with its stories of the wonderful things animal and plant worlds offered to us. Remember, how our Mama Turkey sat on someone else’s clutch and hatched eleven baby guineas? Or how we got oyster mushrooms growing on an old cottonwood stump? Or how the goat kids used to make a terrible ruckus every evening at milking time, protesting the loss of what was theirs? Or how a horned owl moved in and tried to take away a chicken? Or how our tomato plants just kept producing until we did not know what to do with the fruit? To all of them, plants and animals, our thanks go with every meal, because every meal means more to all of us now, after we told our summer stories and said good bye to two goofy, beautiful and joyful goat kids.

And Who Is Your Mama?

This has happened before on our farm. A nesting female gets a bunch of eggs added to her clutch, by other enterprising females. Leading in this mischief are our guineas, dropping their future progeny under turkeys and chickens (I am sure they would have dropped them under any other bird, if we had them!). Guineas are not opposed to sit on their own eggs, but sharing the task is so much more fun! Our only remaining Bourbon Red Turkey (http://www.albc-usa.org/cpl/bourbon.html) who is listed on the Watch List by the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy (a great organization, BTW) has diligently sat on her nest, only to hatch 11 baby guineas, and not a single turkey! So much for the recovery of the breed. Her unlucky boyfriend, who already has a bad rap due to his aggressive nature, is now really walking a very thin line. Not a single baby turkey combined with bad temper! Someone is headed to the pot....
What is even more interesting, we have a number of lavender guineas (light-colored ones), and a single very elderly black polka-dot guinea. And the chicks are mixed-colored - so the senior has finally passed his genes on!
The mom is very happy, strolling around with her family. While chasing after her with a camera for this photo, I noticed that her one-week old infants are already catching and eating grasshoppers. The hoppers are about half their size, so these kids are fearless and quick!

Grasshoppers - Not in My Garden

Looking out my window at the incredible diversity of pollinators floating in an amorphous cloud around the deep Georgia O’Keefe pink Hollyhock blooms reminds me to be grateful for the gift of good healthy land – a land without grasshopper problems. It is not that I don’t have them around - the hum of life in the garden is composed of many sounds, and one of them is that of a grasshoppers’ chewing. But their damage is minimal, and their presence is hardly noticeable and our place is a little green island of few grasshoppers thanks to thirteen vigilant Guinea Fowl.

Noisy, untamed and funny looking bird, guineas have a preference for high protein foods – grasshoppers, caterpillars and larvae. The chicks hatch midsummer, and are available in feed stores. Guineas work great in the country side, where they patrol large territories without much regard to property boundaries. If there is a grasshopper to be consumed over a fence, the guineas will cross over and have a meal! Turkeys do much the same, except they are more prone to predation by dogs and coyotes, while guineas escape time after time with just some feathers ruffled. For urban dwellers - invite songbirds to your yard! These charming vegetarians feed their chicks exclusively protein-based diet, which means grasshopper-free gardening accompanied by a song of a bird.

Raw Milk CSA

My small Raw Milk CSA (short for Community Supported Agriculture - a subscription system linking farmers and customers) is blossoming. After doing some research online, I found information about a failed legal action to prevent small-scale farmers from selling shares in their animals. One cannot legally sell milk without a certified kitchen and a license - therefore folks sell shares in the animals instead. This is called Herdshare, and the story can be found here: http://www.newfarm.org/features/2007/0307/rawmilk/cox.shtml

I have several Herdshare members, with more banging on the door every day. I am catching myself on considering more animals! However, that can only happen once I eliminate last few outside inputs for my goats, namely the grain. Organic as it may be, it must be purchased and driven some distance, and it contains corn which is not a good feed additive to a ruminant's diet. I hear one does not need to add grain to their diet, it is done to increase milk production and it taxes them too much - I am planning on slowly weaning them off grain and replacing it with sunflowers (easy to grow!) and dry apples (already growing!).

The milk is sold raw - which is big deal in the US. Back home, in Belarus, that was the only milk one would accept when visiting the country side. It tastes differently, and we used to pay more for milk that was still warm, has not been chilled (in Russian, it is called Steamy Milk, and it is delectable!). I searched for the backup information on why goat milk is considered healing, and found that its high butterfat content is the secret. Apparently it is loaded with things that are good for health and the good place to read more is http://fiascofarm.com/dairy/rawmilk.htm

Meanwhile, my two girls are sustaining six people with raw milk and raw milk products.