Panic

Woke up at 4:30 this morning in a panic. Why? I woke up thinking about the date and that Christmas is on Friday. Then I remembered that the goats were scheduled to have their kids sometime around Christmas. As early as this week or as late as the next week or two we could have, if averages hold, 14 kids on the ground in a matter of days or a couple weeks.

Since our return from Disney, I've been sick, so I've not made it to the barns yet (my father-in-law has handled everything and really doesn't need my "help," to be honest). What I don't know: 1) are the pens bedded down sufficiently for the mama goats, 2) do we have ear tags and bands for "castration" of the males, 3) what do we do with kids!!!!! Honestly, I've not felt this under-prepared for something since I took the GREs about 15 years ago...or maybe it was when I became a dad for the first time...or maybe a dad for the third time. So, I'm realizing that I'm as under-prepared to manage a goat kids as I am my own. Well I need to relax because, afterall, almost all of the does have had kids already so they know what to do, right? Right?!!

Chicken Carnage

I received a dire report from my father-in-law yesterday: 9 hens had been killed and at least 2 more looked like they might not make it. Why? Raccoons had apparently found a way into the hen house. My schedule didn't permit me to help, but my father-in-law proceeded to shore up the area he was sure that they had gotten in through and he dispatched of the remains of the dead hens.

By my count, just under half of our hens were destroyed in this vicious attack with 2 or more having uncertain futures. I hope to have a better accounting of our situation this weekend. But that, my friends, is certainly a financial loss considering these hens should lay about 180 eggs each during 2010. Quick math goes something like 1,800 eggs lost divided by 12 (dozen) equals 150 dozen x $2.00/dozen = $300 lost. Well, I wouldn't have got that new car with that amount of money, but that's the chicken business I guess.

While we were away

While at Disney World, our part of Iowa had a blizzard. My poor brother-in-law couldn't get to the animals very well. The water tank froze in the goat barn. Drifts and white-out conditions prevented him from getting to the barn for a full day. The chickens and doelings all did fine, as did the other goats, but these were nervous times. In particular, the 7 does are due to have kids during the next couple weeks. We feared they might have their kids during the storm and what a headache that would be! We were fortunate; no kids yet!

Pre-trip scramble

We took our family to Disney World the first full week of December. We had heard a winter storm could occur during that time so we needed to move our 7 pregnant goats to better accommodations. To say the least, we were under prepared.

I'm learning that hungry goats are easy to move. My father-in-law skipped a feeding the night before we moved the goats so they would eagerly follow our buckets. After getting past their initial fear of walking into the electric fence, which we had disabled, they attacked the buckets we held in our hands. We crossed the gravel road and led them straight into their new holding area; the East end of the family's barn.

We moved a feeder into the area, a water tank, and filled racks with hay. After showing my brother-in-law what he needed to do within this area and with the remaining hens (more below) and 4 doelings, we headed to Disney.

The weekend before we left for Disney we culled our roosters. In total we have 23 chickens culled. Now we're probably not going to end up eating the first 2 or 3 because I have zero confidence that I cleaned them enough. The first bird I killed I tried to pluck it's feathers and clean. After 6 hours fighting weather conditions, etc., I had one bird done. One!

Though I froze it I'm not sure I'm confident enough in my work to eat that one. Because of the enormous time required, we decided to skin the chickens instead of plucking feathers. This was tremendously faster. Over the course of a few days I got much better at it and am much happier with the end product. Looking forward to eating those later chickens!

Chicken Cull: Part 1

Last weekend I attempted to cull my first couple of roosters. If I didn't do so soon the meat would get too tough for the frying pan and have to become chicken-noodle meat instead. My tools included a turkey stock pot for boiling water to singe the feathers for plucking, knives (that had to be sharpened because they were way too dull to cut where I wanted), ice water, freezer bags, and some wire to hang the chickens upside down.

I piled some wood in a concrete bunker and set up my stock pot for boiling. I figured I could kill the chickens and then start the fire so I fetched two roosters, one of which had a bad foot and was not eating and growing like he should because he couldn't stand to eat. I hung the chickens, stunned them, and then proceeded to cut the jugular of each chicken. Word of advice: buy "killing cones" as it holds the chickens in place; wire around the legs does not. Each chicken flopped out at some point and I had to re-hang them.

The fire had trouble starting and the breeze didn't help. I then had a wild-ish barn cat show up and start sniffin' around. I couldn't get the fire to start for some time and when it did finally start, the wind blew the heat away from the stock pot. Two dead chickens and an hour later, I had failed!

I packed up operations and headed to my house where my wife put the stock pot on the stove while I set everything else up outside. Forty minutes later the water was finally hot enough. Dunking and plucking took about an hour...for 1 bird! Trying to figure out how to clean it took another hour because I had no idea what I was doing and I was being way too careful. I put one chicken in the ice once it was fully dressed and took its remains and the chicken that had not grown too well to an area 1/4 of a mile from my house and dumped. It was all now coyote food.

Yesterday, Thanksgiving day, I met up with my father-in-law in the barn. We'd decided to skin the chickens instead of pluck them. And my father-in-law was not as cautious as I had been. He started cutting the skin and yanking on it to pull the feathers. He was breaking the bones where needed and once I carefully made the cuts to gain access to the chickens internal organs and my dad reached in and just had at it! He tugged and pulled and in a matter of 20 minutes or so, Dad had skinned and dressed the chicken. An hour-and-a-half later we had cleaned 3 chickens. Obviously this will be the game plan for the remaining chickens.

Fixin' Fences

With approximately 6 acres of graze-able pasture (10 acres with the pond), we think we have plenty for the goats to eat during the winter. But its been a few years since any livestock haunted the pasture. Fences had gone un-mended for quite some time. With beautiful early Winter weather, my father-in-law and I took advantage of our opportunity to put some woven wire up.

Long old fence row to fix...looking across the pond to the barns

Since the farm has been around a few years, we have plenty of materials tucked away. The older goats helped clear enough brush that we found rolls of forgotten woven wire. No need to buy new!

Wendell cut the wire to wrap around the corner post. It was tricky business but we got it done.



It's essential to get the wire tight before attempting to hammer metal staples into posts. Wendell wrapped one end of the woven wire around a small post, hooked log chain to it, and pulled it tight with the tractor. At times it was too tight and the staples would be repelled by the tension in the wire and send a sharp, double-pronged staples zinging towards our eyes. I got a small flesh wound on my cheek from one. We were able to use trees and tree stumps for wood posts along the fence line which allowed us to avoid having to put in new posts...awesome!

We took the fence line as far as we could but we have a new challenge: There's so much debris laying on the fence for the last 1000 feet or so and that part of the fence sits in a very marshy part of the pasture that there would be tremendous amount of re-working required to fix it. We decided to skip fixing this part of the fence and will instead reroute the fence line. We'll soon be driving metal posts to a fallen tree close to the pond, which will serve as a corner post, and run woven wire to it. From there we'll run it back toward the corner post of the original fence. It'll be a lot of work, but less than trying to fix the destroyed fence.

After a long day I followed Wendell and the tractor out of the field, but not before I took a few photos that depict why I country boy. What a great way to wrap up the day!

Sharp corners and the water hose

We have torch-cut cattle panels hanging to our barn gate. The corners are sharp. Very sharp. I've sliced my arms and wrists numerous times just hooking the chain. Tonight, however, the sharp corners attacked!

While reworking my chicken tractor (I had to change out and rehang waterers and feeders because the birds were pooping in the other waterer...) I looked at the barn door and saw a hazy mist filling the backlit barn door. The soggy doorway dripped and then I heard a steady hiss. Then I realized that the hose I had used to fill the waterer must have exploded and was spraying the barn. Ever heard the term "madder than a wet hen"? Well that was our primary concern; soaked chickens. My father-in-law hot-stepped it down the hill. He headed to the shut-off valve while I headed to the barn. When entering the barn, with a showery mist dowsing me, I began working the chain-shut barn gate when it happened. A sharp corner grabbed hold of small part of my scalp and sliced off a souvenir. I might have said something bad but, as I grabbed at my scalp, I noticed a hair with some of my skin hooked to the corner of the gate.

Once the water pressure subsided, and after I got over my flesh wound, I saw a small puncture in the water hose at the bottom corner of the barn gate. That's right, each corner attacked. Me and the hose were victims of a sharp-corner assault. It was like they were in cohoots and planned their attack. They've probably been scheming for weeks and this was their chance. I'm wearing a hat from now on.