It's definitely spring in southeast Michigan.  The birds are out and singing, kids are outside playing, and it's raining.  Alot.  But that's okay.  The rain does so much for our landscape.  It's a joy to see green again after the drab colors of winter.

And with spring comes chickens!

We've made progress on the brooder.  You'll remember that the brooder is used to keep the chicks warm and safe for the first two weeks of their lives.  It's an 8x8x2 pen.  The whole structure is pretty simple really.  It's 4x8 sheets of plywood separated into halves.  We put a tarp underneath just to make the clean-up of the bedding a little easier and more sanitary.  In our case, there are some raccoons that get in the barn so we've put a wire top over it...just in case.  This size brooder will fit approximately 100 meat birds for about two weeks.  After that, the birds get quite large and can jump the two foot wall.

We keep them in the barn for warmth.  You could put them outside, or in a lean-to, but remember that keeping them warm and dry is key.  You'll need heat lamps no matter where you put the brooder and under no circumstances should they get wet.  The lamps hang down close to the floor.  It has to stay about 98 degrees for the newly hatched chicks to survive.  Slowly the lights can be raised until, after a few days, they can be removed altogether.  This is preparing them, slowly, to be taken outside for pasture.  For bedding, we're using wood pellets that you would use for horse stalls.  It doesn't mold and it’s very absorbent.  We planned on using wood chips from a tree we're taking down, but it's just not happening right now.  You want to be careful not to use sawdust, or any "dusty" sort of bedding.  It gets into the respiratory system of the chicks.  Even if they live, it will not allow them to thrive.  Also, newspaper, though absorbent, it harder for the meat birds, or "broilers" because they slip on the surface potentially causing leg problems.  The wood pellets are fairly inexpensive (about $7.00 for bag), but anything you can do free is much better.  The feeder you use can be anything from a pie plate to a fancy automatic self-feeder or anything in-between.  You can get pretty creative with this one.  Think of things like lengths of gutter, wood troughs made from scraps, or old fashioned jar feeders.  The material doesn't matter, but make sure you don't lose a lot of the feed.  Also make sure the birds don't have to strain too high or too low when feeding.    For the water, we've found that aluminum waterer's, available at your local feed store or the Tractor Supply store, work best.  When in doubt, a pie plate, or similar item, will work just fine.

When you build the structure, squaring up your handiwork is not necessary.  Even a wood working novice, like myself (pictured on the left...not really doing anything), can put this structure together.  No saw for cutting the boards?  Lowes and Home Depot will typically cut them for you.  I suspect your local lumberyard would do the same.

Here is a list of materials we use for building a brooder:

• Plywood
• Drill/Screwdrivers
• Hammer
• Screws
• Chicken staples
• Chain, cable, or rope (to hang lamps)
• Heat lamps
• Tarp
• Bedding
• Feeder
• Water source
• Chicken wire (depending on your location)

The sizes and quantities you need vary based on the size of your flock.  Traditional breeds and layers often have somewhat different requirements.  Talk with people in your area or search web for more information.  I can't take credit for anything you see on this post.  I shamelessly stole ideas from others who were already making a go of it.  Why don't you do the same?

I would like to recommend that you purchase Poultry for Profits by Joel Salatin .  The book was a big help to me along with the on-line community. Even if you don't plan to raise your own, it's important to be educated.

Any questions about our own practices?  Just ask!  We'd love to hear from you.

A Handshake and a Promise

In a previous post I indicated that we had ordered the chicks and poults (baby turkeys) from the hatchery.  I like doing business with them.  I call up to place my order and talk to a real, live person.  In this country.  Only a few hours drive from my home.  And I ask questions.  And they answer because they are real, live experts on the subject of hatching.  Then they send me a bill.

I like doing business this way.  They send me an old fashioned sheet of paper.  They trust that I will send them a check.  I trust that they will have the birds ready.  There is no on-line tracking system, no exchange of Social Security numbers.  We talk, and we do business.  I have a feeling that if we were closer we'd shake hands too.  I like that.

It turns out that the old fashioned sheet of paper they sent showed that the wrong order was placed.  I was over-ordered by 5 chickens. 

Now, as a consumer, I could get angry.  I could demand better accountability from the hatchery and wonder why they don't have a better ordering system.  Why can't I log into a computer and type out my order, have it verified, and then submit?  That's the way most of us have been trained.  Demand perfection and accept no less.

Instead, I called.  I talked to a very nice lady who changed my order and sent me another old fashioned sheet of paper.  All fixed.

It's not that they don't use technology.  I know they do.  The fact that you are reading this post on-line proves that I do too.  But what I like is that we haven't lost that human contact.  That somehow, at some level, we are involved in each others lives. This is as it should be.  

I was in a discussion at my day job not too long ago.  It's a highly automated environment.  There are still some things, though, that happen off the radar of the company.  Not bad things, but simply things that were not anticipated.  Computer systems don't like things that aren't anticipated.  When asked how those things are accomplished, I said, "Through a handshake and a promise."  The group I was speaking too laughed.  "No, really..." they wanted to know, "..how do they track these things."

It seems too much for people to believe that you can shake hands on a thing and trust it will get done.  Oh sure, maybe at first there is a lack of trust.  But over time people learn about one another until there is a trust.  It still happens.  Each time you go to a farmers market and pick your produce, you are letting the farmers know you trust them.  They're not heavily regulated, not necessarily certified, and not audited.  But you trust them.  When you buy at the store (and we all do) who are you trusting?  The farmers?  The Pickers?  The inspectors?  The transportation company?  The store personnel?  There are too many unknown people in that list.  Too many people who I will never know or see.

I'd rather look a man in the face, talk to him, and decide if I like his character.  Then I'll shake  his hand.  This is business as it should be.

Will Work for Food

I think that deep within the heart of mankind is a need to work. Don't believe me? Take a boy and sit him down with a hammer, some scrap wood, and nails. Then leave. Go get some iced tea. Put your feet up. Read your favorite magazine. But whatever you do, don't take a nap. The sound of the hammering of nails will keep you up. They just can't help it. 

 

Now, don't get me wrong. Most of us have been lulled to sleep iPods and television. Our computers keep us up late as they spin tales in our head and delight our senses. But take all that away for a couple of hours and you'll find beneath all that sleepiness a mind and body that long to be at work. 

 

"Ha.." you say "Then why is it that I hate my job and long to be somewhere, anywhere, but there!" 

 

Good question, my friend, and thanks for asking.

 

I suppose we all have a variety of reasons for dreading Monday morning, but I suspect they boil down to a few commonalities. 

 

First, it's just a job. Really, many of us have a job that we have no real passion for. We work it to make the money to pay for life. That's about it. But what about those things you do have a passion for? You spend hours on those things, and though you may grow weary and frustrated, you probably don't hate it. You probably like it. Otherwise, why would you do it at all.

 

I know my logic is stunning you at this point. 

 

You may also miss community. I don't mean living "in a community". I mean living in community. We were created as beings that need other beings. We want to be in a place where we feel needed, respected, and (dare I say) loved. So many jobs, even if they are not manufacturing, have a production line mentality. The goal is to squeeze from you, the worker, as much time and energy (which equals money) as possible. But remember how it felt playing on that sports team at school? Remember the joy of going to band or play practice? Remember how you felt about your friends when you were younger? I think we're really missing that as adults. 

 

Perhaps the biggest problem of all is being repetitive....the very word causes me to roll my eyes. I don't know your exact job, but I'll bet most of you have been pigeon-holed into a role. You know that's the case when you hear yourself say things like "That's not really my area." or "You'd have to go through my boss to get that approved." Likely you do the same basic work day in and day out. Even, in some cases, the faces or places may change, but the work is pretty much the same. Haven't you ever gone out on a beautiful spring day when the sun is high and a cool breeze is blowing in your face and thought "I sure wish I was working with that landscaping crew over there?" Or maybe if you're the landscaping crew on a blistering hot day you think "It'd sure be nice to sit in front of a computer in an air conditioned officed today." I think there are hundreds of jobs that I'd love to do....for a time. But I know that I get bored doing the same thing day in and day out. I don't know that there is any easy answer for people who don't like they're job. But I'd guess that most of us, if given the opportunity, would love to work; we just want work that is satisfying. We want work that involves:  

• A combination of physical and mental labor.
• A varied work environment.
• Working in community with others (at least from time to time).
• Really believing in what we do.

Maybe it's just me.  But if I were a teenager contemplating my future, I'd want to review this list. 

So what about those people who don't want to work?  Let's make the distinction between those who can't and those who won't.  Those who won't are lazy.  It's really that simple.  They somehow anticipate that we, the taxpayer, should feed them.  If you'll allow me to paraphrase the Bible: if a man 
won't work, he shouldn't eat.  Yes, it really is that simple.
I can't sum it up any better than the wisest man to ever live.  "A man can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his work. This too, I see, is from the hand of God, for without Him, who can eat or find enjoyment?"  

And without Him, who would want to?

More Vegetables!

We have an opportunity this year to use a friends land to grow a good sized garden.  Now, we've gardened for years, or perhaps it'd be better to say my wife has gardened for years, and I had always thought of our garden as a good size.

Until my wife canned and froze produce last year.

It hit about January of this year.  The grocery bill seemed to be growing.  I asked my lovely wife about it (very gently...12 years of marriage has taught me something) and she dropped the bomb.

We had run out of the food we had produced ourselves.  We had also run out of the food we'd purchased at the farmer's markets for canning and freezing.

Suddenly that bit of soil in the backyard didn't seem so large.  Suddenly I realized how much food we consume in a given month.  Suddenly I realized that if we wanted to eat what we grow all year long, we were going to need more space.  A lot more space.

I had planned on just putting in a another raised bed in our yard, but that would dramatically reduce areas available for the kids.  So what's a displaced farming family to do then?

You wait on God.

That's when our friends offered up their garden.  They won't be able to grow this year, so they asked us if we'd tend it.  Yes!  In square footage, the plot is bigger than our house (which isn't really saying much) and perfectly situated for us.

So, both garden spots have now been cleared and some cool weather vegetables planted.  Next weekend we'll add compost.  One more step on the road to freedom from industrialization.