The Salad Bar, Please

Well, the first two weeks have flown by. We're ready for the arrival of the second batch on Tuesday!  So, it was time to do some shuffling.

The first thing we needed were wranglers.  They're sort of like cowboys except they're not allowed to carry guns (much to their disappointment).

Previously, we had set the pens out on the pasture, secured the chicken wire, covered the pens (for shade and protection), and set out the feed and water.  We were ready for our guests.

We loaded a few at a time into Rubbermaid tubs and put the lids on.  This keeps them from flying away, but also darkens the tub.  When light is dim, chickens and turkeys automatically calm down.  Then, one tub at a time, we carried them to pasture and slowly introduced them to their home.

It took them a few minutes to acclimate to their new surroundings, but once they did, they passed the feed troughs right up.  They went for the grass...and bugs.  It was a feeding frenzy at the salad bar.

You can do this much faster I know.  But this is the way we like to do it.  Slow and steady.  It's little stress on the animals and less stress on the humans.  Everything is done decently and in order.

Don't get me wrong; we had our share of mishaps and fun. When the wranglers were moving fast and furious through the sea of poultry, there were times the carrier (me) forgot to put a lid on the chickens already in the tub.  So for every bird they put in the box, two would escape.  But that's okay, they got slush's out of the deal (the wranglers got the slush, not the chickens).

In the evening, the lady of the house on the farmland we use was washing dishes.  As she looked out her window toward the field, she saw five chickens running around!  Her son was able to catch them all and patch up the hole in the fencing they'd found.  It happens to every farmer.  At some time or other your livestock will escape.  But for me, it's such a joy to work with people who don't mind helping out.

And really, that's what we're all about; creating Biblical community through agriculture.  How are you creating a community where you live?