4 Acres and a Farmhouse

I haven't posted much of an update on our meat chickens because, quite frankly, things were so boring and routine and uneventful raising them, I wasn't sure what exactly I could fill you in on. Until now. To recap, we bought our Cornish cross chicks eight or nine weeks ago and raised them with the sole purpose of butchering them for food.  When they were around four weeks old and temps were hovering around 60 degrees each night, Rob built a mobile chicken tractor and we put them out on pasture for the remainder of their little chicken lives. If you recall, Cornish cross is a breed developed exclusively as a meat bird. They typically don't live long enough to lay eggs and grow so quickly that if they aren't processed between 8-10 weeks of age, they'll often just keel over from a heart attack because they can't keep up with the demands of rapid growth this breed requires. When we brought the chicks home and looked at the calendar, we knew the 3rd weekend i...

Our chickens reached the age and size to be able to survive being moved outdoors finally (for us, this was right at 4 weeks old). The night time temps have been hovering between 55-60 degrees and the birds' feathers have finally started coming in so we felt they'd likely survive (and thrive) with more space to grow before "B" Day (#butcheringday #chickendayofreckoning). In all our research and YouTubing, we really like the idea of a mobile chicken tractor, first developed by permaculture gardener and chicken rancher extraordinaire, Joel Salatin. The concept behind the design is an enclosed, partially covered structure that is open on the bottom and sits directly on the ground so the chickens have access to fresh grass and bugs as well as chicken feed as they grow and fill out in preparation for harvest. The tractor is moved daily to a new patch of ground, thus providing the birds with a constant supply of new grass to eat and poop on. In turn, the chicken poo fertil...

We're back at it with a weekly chicken update as we grow a Cornish Cross breed from chick to chicken dinner! We've had our six chicks for one week. The first few nights, we had them in a small/medium sized tote outfitted with a bedding of straw, a feeder, and a water bowl. Rob mounted a heat lamp on a stand above the brooder box, which has been kept on 24-hours a day so they can maintain body heat since they don't yet have feathers. We're doing a 12/12 feeding schedule, meaning they have an unlimited supply of food 12 hours a day and then we take it away for 12 hours. We read lots of opinions regarding feeding methods for this breed and ultimately, there are some who do 12/12 like us and some who give the chicks food 24 hours a day until they're old enough to go outside in a coop.  Toe- May -Toe, Toe- Mah -Toe.  Wednesday, our oldest went outside to feed and change the water and bedding for our brood, and she found a chick standing outside the brooder on...

Ever since we moved to the wilderness 18 months ago, chickens have been on the radar. According to my friends who grow chickens, they're one of the easiest animals to take care of PLUS they return the favor with meat or eggs, depending on why you're raising them in the first place. We've been reading and watching YouTube in preparation for chickens and made a last minute decision this weekend to take the chicken plunge because, not unlike the decision to have kids, if you wait until you're ready you'll never do it.  We're now the proud owners of six Cornish Cross chicks for the next seven weeks, at which point they'll be humanely butchered and provide our family with meat for future meals.  So, what went into our decision to go with the Cornish Cross breed? According to The Google, this is a fast growing, easy breed to grow for meat, typically being ready to harvest around eight weeks and weighing in at anywhere from 6-12 pounds.  We initially on...

As long as I've known Rob, he's eaten way more fruits and vegetables than my picky little taste-buds ever dreamed of consuming. One of the first home cooked meals he made me included venison, buttered spaghetti noodles with Parmesan cheese, and roasted broccoli. At the time, I turned my nose up to everything but the noodles (upon which I smothered copious amounts of butter and cheese to mask the starchy blandness).  I'd like to let the record show my taste buds have since then opened up to broccoli but venison still makes me twitchy. Back to my point: he's a way healthier eater than I am, but the closer I creep to the big 4-0, the more concerted  the efforts I make to clean(er)(ish) eating. In the 17 years since we met, he's always been a big juicer (we call them "shakes"). We've gone through a number of juicing machines, ranging from super cheap to uber-expensive and after deciding he wanted the fiber that juicers eliminate (by the sheer nature of...

In the wood patch behind our house, there are lots of trees, some of which are junk and some decent. In my dreams, it would be filled with walnut, hickory, and oak but that's not the case. Instead, there are several catalpa, some hack berry trees, and a couple small walnuts. Several years ago before we moved here, Rob came in and cleared the wood patch a little because it was overgrown and crowded with rogue weeds and junk. Even so, he wasn't able to take down any of the old, trashy trees then because we didn't live here and he didn't have the time to spend here and take care of the house we lived in.  A recent windstorm jump started his plans for cutting down some of the old trees when it uprooted a dead catalpa, slamming and wedging it in the crotch of a much smaller walnut tree nearby. It hit the walnut so hard it made the entire tree lean and we kept an eye on it for a week before the weather was decent enough to get out there and decide how to safely remove both...