We closed last year’s books and, as was documented here, it was brutal. Just like investment portfolio’s we have to diversify further. I do not think the average American understands how difficult being a small farm can be.However, I cannot help but think agriculture is in everyone’s blood.We were an agrarian society not too long ago. How else can you explain a billion dollar home gardening industry?Whether you are planting annuals and perennials around your house or plant a vegetable garden you are working the soil.For the longest time I introduced myself as a large gardener.I still have reservations about the moniker of farmer because I have too much deference for those that do it full-time.
When you have invasive species, (BMSB) that destroy crops being small makes losses greater,. You need to diversify in order to protect overall income if you are a small farm. However, being small can magnify your losses when you suffer damage in those diversified crops too. We thought by adding fruits, jams, honey and cooking classes that we were diversified enough to avoid the devastation of this past year. We have learned we were not.
There is a tremendous unmet demand for humanely raised, free range, organic chicken in our area. Given that demand, we have decided to get into the meat bird market. We will start with about fifty total. We tried to diversify with fruits, vegetables and eggs but last year taught us that true diversification is not just different fruits and vegetables. It is animals, vegetables, fruits, nuts, eggs, honey, cooking classes and agra-tainment. Using the financial portfolio analogy it is mixing risky and non-risky activities to offset down turns in one or the other sectors.
Humanely raised free range, organic chickens seem to be one of the ways to augment the fruit and vegetable side. It has taken us nine years to get to this point. It has been an arduous journey and emotional roller coaster. I am not proud of this decision; I make it knowing that we need to survive economically. I know what I have written before and I do feel like a hypocrite. However, I did put my money, energy and time where my mouth was but we have no options left if we are going to be economically sustainable.
We grow the best we can, and price so that we get a small profit after expenses. If we had 100 acres of corn and the BSMB attacked the outside perimeter closest to the tree line (according to current research), we would have harvested more than sixty percent. However, because we had less land, the bugs overwhelmed what we did plant and left us with nothing. Sales in spring crops and late fall crops helped us lessen the loss but we ended up with a net loss for the season.
Polling took place of our customer base asking if humanely raised free range organic chickens would be something they would consider purchasing from us. The response has been overwhelmingly positive. The cost/revenue analysis looks promising once we reach the break-even point on startup costs. We are not going to process them we are taking them to a humane processing facility. I do not know what to say or what to expect. I told my wife I would try this one and see how it goes. I look upon this next step as part of my own maturation process as a small farmer. Nevertheless, there is this small voice still inside me screaming to fight to remain a viable vegetable operation and leave animals out. Given what we have learned of the BMSB they are here to stay and either, we fold or role with what we are given.
In order to sell to markets and restaurants, we need certification for on farm processing.We have to submit, plans, process flows, contamination points, process controls and measurement frequency rates and other actions.Then during the day of processing do everything you said you would do in the documentation.There is great demand for free-range chicken and rabbit meat.Each will meet certified organic status.Our processing certification covers both animals.It is a fundamental change but one that will keep us sustainable.In the mean time:
Buy Local: Support your community farmer or start a garden, even if it is two vegetables, it will be worth the satisfaction.
Of the plethora of problems we face with our chickens, one is that the biggest group of layers tends to be too "free-range". I know that might sound counter-intuitive, but any situation that invariably leads to, or creates problems is not good. The layers are supposed to be in a concentrated area so we can maximize their fertilizer potential. Flock three thinks that free-range means they can go wherever they want. We have seen some chickens at least a tenth of a mile from their house. I have read (from multiple sources) that when layers roam they tend to hang around their shelter or within the immediate area.
Flock three, apparently remembered last year when they were by the barn and must think that the grass tastes better or something. We moved them to newly certified land behind the barn. They were on fresh winter rye and hairy-vetch.The trailer is at least seven hundred feet away from the barn and down a hill. They cannot see the barn but, they fly over the electric fence and walk up the hill to the barn. The barn is but one of many stops they will make in the day, they walk around the barn, then past the barn to the house, they walk around the house, then head down the hill in front of the house and into the old abandoned railway. I found this little fact out quite by accident. I was driving up to the house from the street and I see this lump in the middle of what we call the “causeway,” My first thought is terror in that it looks like a small dog. We have already had one dog attack and it was not pretty or easy to deal with.
The causeway is an old railway bed that separated one side of the property from the other. As I got close and had a better look, it was three chickens, probably the three stooges, but I did not check, come to think of it, we never did go after them. Sometimes you get into a routine and the unusual goes forgotten. Nothing happened to them and they did find their way back. When we close the layers up for the night, a head count takes place and the numbers were correct. Predation is a major issue for free-range farmers as is when hens start laying outside the nest. When that takes place, you have an old-fashioned egg hunt on your hands. We learned it was vital to get them into the routine of laying eggs inside a nest before letting them really roam. With flock three, the first year of their life, they stayed inside the electric fence without a hint of flying the coop. Today, they epitomize the term free range like none other we have raised. They roam everywhere, as long as they are near the woods, they are relatively safe from hawks, other hazards not so much.
I see things from the layers sometimes that make me think they have memories, decision-making capacities however slight and some have their own personalities. No, I am not anthropomorphizing, as much as pointing out that some of them act different from the others and they remember where they have been. Then sometimes their behavior just has me shaking my head and mumbling to myself. There are now twenty-one hens in the trailer with the rooster and ten nesting boxes. The rule of thumb is two to four hens to a nest. You would think that there would be no waiting when it comes to nesting boxes but for some strange reason one layer will always pick a nest already occupied.
There would be nine other empty nests, but the best nest was the one with the hen inside. When that happens, they start to cluck at each other. I am standing there watching the one hen outside the nest clucking, while the one inside waits until the first one is quiet, then responds with her own. This goes on for a bit until the one on the outside goes to another nest or the one on the inside lays her egg and leaves. Sometimes, one will just go into the nest box even though another hen is there. This is especially true when you have a broody hen; the other hens sense it and lay eggs in her nest. I do not know this to be a rule but when a hen gets broody, we often find most of the day’s eggs are under her.
Memory is another thing. Periodically, we have had to place birds in quarunteen or the hospital pen. It is a stall inside the barn with a window, food, water, nest and roost. I've written about the three stooges and their penchant for staying inside the hospital pen. We have had to have the doors closed at all times this summer because these things just refuse to stay out. Henrietta, as she is called, has some magical gift of hearing. She will be no ware in sight, as soon as I open the front barn door, she appears. That would be fine, but she insists on getting up on my work bench, kicking most of the light stuff off and lays her egg on the wood shaving by the mitter saw. She has also become territorial, she believes her place is in the hospital pen and she is determined to lay claim.
She did spend time in there when we were trying to get her to stop flying out of the fenced area. But that was over ten months ago and she still thinks that is her home.
We do have a very social and inquisitive group of hens, which is great when kids visit, not so great when a worker is here and the bird gets in the van to check things out. We have gotten into the routine of asking people to check their vehicles before they leave the farm. It saves them an unwarranted re-visit just in case.
Buy Local: find a local farm and support your health and your community
We’ve only been raising Rhode Island Red hens for the past four years. In that time we’ve harvested close to ten thousand eggs. Some eggs are perfect in shape, size and look. Smooth brown shells, no blemishes, no extra calcium, no spots. Just beautiful looking eggs if I say so myself. We’ve learned that as a hen gets older the eggs she lays gets bigger.
Flock three has been laying almost five months now. Out of the twenty-five hens in flock three we get anywhere between eighteen and twenty-four a day. The eggs weigh out between twenty-seven and thirty-one ounces a dozen, which is extra large and jumbo respectively. It seems that they are laying bigger eggs sooner then the other two flocks but that is more observation then quantitative analysis.
We’ve had a hard winter this year with upwards of sixty some inches of snow and did suffer the loss of one of our oldest hens, Gladys. We called her Gladys Kravits for Bewitch’s neighbor. She was always in every body's business and starting trouble. When a new hen was introduced it was Gladys that tried to enforce the pecking order. But, she had her special side.
We have a customer that has a child with autism, one day when they were here I asked if David wanted to walk over to the pen to see the chickens. Once there I asked his dad if he wanted me to pick one up so David could see it closer. I got to the pen and Gladys was near by. I picked her up and walked over to David and his dad. I asked if he would like to touch her. His father said he wouldn’t but it was a nice gesture on my part.
He then asked David if he would like to touch Gladys. I was holding her a safe distance from them. Much to his dad’s surprise, David stuck out his little hand and I brought Gladys in closer. He touched her head with his finger. She put her head down some and he touched her again. She would let you pick her up and pet her without squawking or making a fuss. Much to his parents surprise Gladys was the first animal that their son touched and actually petted. Each week when they came back I made a point to take father and son to wherever Gladys was. Once in the pen I’d pick her up and David would pet her. I was just amazed at her, each time she would do this and never did David get scared. She will be missed.
With all this snow, we had to shovel around the houses so the hens could get out. They can get cabin fever too. We laid down pine shavings so they’d have traction and some protection for their feet. We put heat lamps inside the houses so they get some warmth at night and that seems to have helped tremendously. They get let out of the houses everyday and closed back up at night. A lot of times they will not come out unless the sun is out, their no dummies. Flock three, on the other hand, is in a converted horse trailer and no matter the weather they come out, it must be youth.
So out of ten thousand eggs we’ve seen some anomalies; like extra swirls on the shell, knots, spots, soft white in color, no shell at all, odd shapes like ovals and points on both ends, different shades of brown you name it, we’ve seen it. Sticking your hand into the nest is always an adventure when collecting eggs. Sometimes you get a soft surprise others are just to gross to describe. Just recently I was collecting eggs when I felt a large egg. It was dark out so I couldn't really see the size of the egg but by its heft and girth it had to be the mother of all eggs. That egg was huge. I mean off the charts huge. The amount of space it took up in the palm of my hand was incredible. I ended up cutting a hole in the box to close the lid of the egg carton. We took it on the road showing anybody interested and eventually sold it to a long time customer. We took a picture of the egg with eleven other jumbo eggs (below).
We can't take any credit other than providing them with a stress free, healthy environment. They do the rest and I'll let the picture speak for itself.
Buy Local - From a farmer you know and trust, not a chain profiting off the concept.
Okay, maybe this is another rant against the industrial food complex, but I was brought up to stand up for what is right and not to sit back when someone was in trouble. My parents raised all of their kids to treat everyone equally regardless of skin color or religion. Besides, I like to think of it as educational more than just a rant.
We all know that our food supply has many flaws, often we get to read about the major events when they happen. What we don't get to read about unless you dig deep is the smaller stuff. Like how the IFC is able to sell chickens labeled as "free-range" even though the chicken has never been outside on grass, ever! I got to give them credit, it takes a certain kind of sleaze to take a regulation that is meant to be beneficial to the consumer and use it against them.
On their website the USDA defines free range or free roaming thusly: Producers must demonstrate to the Agency that the poultry has been allowed access to the outside.
Now to you and I that means the chicken should be outside on grass. The USDA has found that there are broiler houses that hold tens of thousands of chickens that are being labeled and sold as free range even though they have never been outside. Why? Because the houses have a door at one end and they can open them to the outside. It doesn't matter that the door opens up to a cement pad or to dirt or the best case, grass. Never mind the area outside wasn't large enough to hold all 10,000 birds; the producers will tell you they meet the USDA definition.
I've only been raising layers for the last three years. I am not a knowledge expert by any means. What I do know is that we get chicks at a day old, raise them indoors until they can handle the weather outside, usually 8-10 weeks. We move them to a moveable house that has no bottom and is surrounded by an electrified fence. The fence is to keep predators out not the chickens in. They can fly the coop, if you will, pretty easy. As they get older they hardly ever do. They get in a routine and it doesn't seem to change.
Most broilers are processed between 12 and 15 weeks of age. The sooner a broiler is processed the more tender the meat. 10,000 birds raised in a closed environment will remain in a closed environment when a single door is open. It's not like the door is a garage door either, the USDA found that some of these houses had one door leading to, you guessed it, a cement pad.
The USDA is changing the rule because the IFC took advantage of the current regulation by calling housed chickens free range. What we've read and commented on from the USDA helps to clearly define FREE RANGE. Until the new regulations are put into affect the monoliths that feed the IFC will continue to label and sell housed chickens as free range.
You're asking "now what? How do I know which company really has free range chickens or chickens just labeled as free range? It is easier than you think. Just buy local. Find a farmer that raises free range chickens in your area. Go to the farm, talk to them and see for yourself what their free range practices are. LocalHarvest has a great search tool to find them.
Your buying habits will need to change somewhat in that you won't be able to just go there and buy a chicken, you might, and it depends on the farm. In some cases you'll need to order the bird before hand and you might need to buy in quantity in order to have chicken whenever you want. The trade off is you get fresh, tasty, real free range chickens and eggs. If you don't believe me, buy a store bought chicken and a local free range chicken. Cook them the same and give your family and friends a blind taste test. Not only is it a fun activity you'll get to see for yourself through others taste buds.
BUY LOCAL - from a farmer, not from a chain hard selling the fact.
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