Misc. Farm

Leap of Faith

Kat — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 04:04:01 +0000

This should prove to be an educational year!

I’ve been on the “new” Misc. Farm for almost a year now and have had a chance to settle in again. With my current flock of chickens aging I’ve lost a few hens here and there and their production has understandably dropped. I knew if I wanted to continue with poultry I’d need to add to the flock and having raised chickens for eggs and meat for four years with my former spouse I feel pretty confident with them. I decided to take a bit of a leap of faith this year. I’ve been interested in raising ducks, as well as chickens, considering the meat and eggs are both more prized than that of chickens. So I ordered a “homesteaders delight” package from the hatchery for later this spring which includes 10 new laying hens, two ducks, two geese, and two turkeys! I also ordered 10 laying ducks. That should bring my layers up to about 30 total with the extra ducks, geese, and turkeys destined for slaughter. This will be the first slaughter where I’m in charge from start to finish. As with all things, either I’ll overcome my trepidation and succeed or I will have to reconsider my relationship with some foods. I’m thrilled and terrified at the same time. I’m not slaughtering for on farm sales this year. These are purely for my own education and freezer but I suspect it will be a bit more of a community affair. I’m pretty sure I’ll need help with the turkeys just based on their size alone. If you think you might be interested in participating for your own education, or sheer horror, please sign up for the Farm Newsletter or drop me an email at: farmer@miscfarm.com.

I’ll update the Egg Announcement newsletter when the new ducks and chickens start laying. With the day old chicks and ducklings arriving in late spring that won’t likely be until early fall.

Happy Holidays!

Kat — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 22:32:51 +0000

Happy Holidays from all of us at Misc. Farm!

Wild Food

Kat — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 22:51:16 +0000

Who would have ever thought…

The farm is on an open acre+ and it’s not uncommon to see wild rabbits and deer wandering around from time to time. One rabbit had been plaguing the front pasture driving the dogs *insasne*. After a few attempts to bag it, and some serious reconsideration of marksmenship skills, it was getting very at ease and hanging out when I was outside with Jupiter (my Aussie) even. Thank goodness for a well trained dog. Then one night…

So there is a rabbit in my freezer including the pelt. I was determined to save the hide, but I need to read up on tanning now. I’m quite excited about the possibility! I just never thought I’d be harvesting wild game off my own property. There is going to be a very special rabbit dinner sometime this winter.

Spilled Eggs

Kat — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 18:32:10 +0000

Fortunately I seem to have the crow/raven problem in hand. They were definitely getting in to the eggs in the hay loft, not the nest boxes (thank goodness!). By disrupting the nests in the loft I’ve been able to keep the rogue eggs to a minimum. There is one silly Black Sex-Link hen that gets moody when the nesting boxes are full and still goes up there to lay occasionally. I’ve found two broken eggs in the last week or two with the contents slurped out, but the other few I’ve managed to get to before the crows. I’ve also seen far less crow activity around the barn in general which seems like a good thing.

Despite seeing a coyote twice in a short period of time I haven’t had any problems. I think the goats sharing space with the chickens actually works well as a deterrent.

So all is good on the farm front!

Crow, Raven, Pest

Kat — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 23:44:04 +0000

Since my database mishap, my ongoing battle with the crows/ravens has been lost so I’ll regale a bit of that story here with the latest update.

Last spring I had a young flock of laying chickens that I moved out of the brooder house to the front yard with a range house and poultry fencing. This has been the halfway house for two other flocks and works well when they are still on the small side but ready to be out on their own. It’s probably more for my reassurance than their safety, or so I thought.

While getting ready one morning I looked out the bedroom window to see a crow fly down, land on the range house, and then hop in to the little chicken’s yard. He (they are all he to me for some reason) dropped something when he hit the ground which seemed peculiar. Ever being the optimist I called to my husband, ‘There is a crow giving stuff to the little chickens out front. It’s really weird’. He came in to the room took a look and stated that it seemed unlikely the crow was “giving stuff” to the little chickens. We went outside to discover the raven had savagely killed at least one of the little chickens. Later research and anecdotal information from a neighbor reveals that they first poke out the eyes of their prey and then proceed to rip them apart. We’d later see evidence of this ourselves, finding only the feet of another little chicken left behind.

We cleaned up the body and went back in the house to finish getting ready, unsure what else to do. Then a knock came at the front door. I opened the front door to see one of our neighbors that I’ve only met nearly an hour away at a county extension small scale farming event. He informed me that the crows were picking off my little chickens. My husband and I quickly brainstormed what we could possibly do and one of us ran to the hardware store for poultry netting (the plastic kind). We threw it over the little chicken’s yard and headed in to work, now late.

We came home that night to find only the feet remaining of another little chicken and enough guts and mess that we weren’t entirely sure how many others were missing. The little chickens would cower when anything or anyone came near. We zip tied the poultry netting to the fencing all around even though we were still unsure how the crow(s) was navigating the volumnous netting.

A day later we discovered more bodies and that the zip ties had been broken around most of the yard. We eventually moved the few remaining traumatized survivors to a secure location and I haven’t used the “halfway house” approach since. Oh, and I bought a .22 LR and learned how to shoot

And now… I’ve noticed crows/ravens hanging around the barn where my current flock lives. I’ve even seen them sitting on the barn fence in front of the chicken’s stall and flying in to the hay loft. It concerned me, but I figured (still the optimist apparently) that they were just getting in the chicken’s feed. Not sure there is much I can do about that if the rooster won’t chase them off. But then I’ve started finding broken eggs. First a couple in the hay loft where a wayward hen insists on laying. I just assumed that the hens were doing it, it happens in the nesting box sometimes too. A few days later I found one in the yard between the house and the barn… And a few more days and it was another by the corner of the house… and today two more out on the far side of the yard. All of them have been cracked open and the yolks are missing. Apparently they don’t want the raw egg whites (can’t say I blame them).

I’ve been making sure I pick up the eggs twice a day so there aren’t many sitting around and I’ve disturbed the nests in the hayloft in an effort to prevent anyone from laying up there. I’ve taken a few shots at the crows when it was safe to do so. I guess we’ll see if any of it helps. I’d really like to hit one of them one of these days though. I guess I’m an optimist with an unsaited sense of revenge.

Rebuilding website

Kat — Tue, 24 May 2011 19:30:27 +0000

So in moving things around there was an accident with the database essentially destroying all of the old posts I’m working on restoring what I can scrape up, but there are definitely going to be some holes in the history of misc farm.

Grow baby, Grow!

Kat — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 19:01:09 +0000

Over the last few weeks the garden has really been taking off.

In the backyard garden the peas are waist high and showing no signs of stopping. The mustard greens are starting to bolt and we are debating letting them, to collect the coriander mustard seeds (confusing the mustard with the cilantro that keeps going to seed in the kitchen). The lettuces are all doing well and the cooler weather vegetables are holding in there despite some unseasonably warm weather.

In the front container garden we have several varieties of tomatoes growing. The ones I started from seed got fried in the greenhouse on an unusually hot day so these are from starts we picked up from a random person selling them at the end of their driveway. They were a stellar deal at $1.50 a plant when similar ones were going for $4+ at the farmers market. We also have fennel, eggplant, sage, orange mint and two peppers in containers. Unfortunately slugs got to two of the peppers before I found organic slug bait, but the remaining two and all the others are doing much better now.

We installed a drip system in the container garden that is fed by a rain barrel, although once we got it up we got one or two more rains and it hasn’t really rained since. So right now it’s hooked up to the well spigot. I plan to install drip in the backyard garden too but just keep procrastinating it.

My strawberries continue to do very well in the greenhouse so I haven’t bothered to move them out. We’ve been snacking on them each evening when we close the chicken coop and take the dogs out.

We’ve also have tarragon, 2 kinds of cilantro, and oregano growing in a pot on the kitchen counter for some time.

The salmonberries are coming in all over the property right now and as always it’s fun to watch the chickens eat them. Even the new chickens go crazy for the berries when I toss them in their yard. The goats enjoy the berries too.

Much to our shock and pleasure while weeding around outside the backyard garden fence we discovered a little patch of morels growing. After much research and disbelief we confirmed that they were indeed morels. I can also confirm that they caused no ill effects when eaten either. We have no idea what we did to encourage the morels to grow, but we are hoping that it continues in future years.

I still need to plan squash if it’s not too late and start succcession planting the radishes, carrots, and peas.

Currently in the garden:

Head and Leaf Lettuce, Mustard Greens, Brussel Sprouts, Red and Yellow Beets, Radishes, Carrots, Walla Walla Onions, Cauliflower, Sugar Snap Peas, Shelling Peas, Green Beans, Potatoes, and Cucumbers

Currently in the container garden:

Tomatoes, Peppers, Eggplant, Fennel, Sage, and Orange Mint

Currently in the greenhouse:
Strawberries, Basil, Oregano, Dill

Currently running wild:
Salmonberries, Alpine Strawberries, and Thimbleberries

Chicken Condos

Kat — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 19:00:37 +0000

I’m going to have to break up my updates in to smaller posts to get all caught up…

After the loss of yet another laying hen we went back to the drawing board with regards to our free range chickens. It was still very important to us that our chickens are able to range and be chickens, but the loses are hard to sustain. With thorough consideration, and following our relative success with the broiler chicken’s house, we decided to build two range houses for the new (and old) layers. The plan was (and still is) to move the layers in to the goat pasture, once we get the pasture fences up. For most months out of the year this will work well for us. For the few very cold months we sometimes get we are keeping the coop down by the house that also has the heater installed. We can relocate the flock during the harsher weather if need be.

We stuck with the same design as the broiler’s range house with some minor modifications. We raised the peak of the roof from 3 feet to 4 feet to create more room.

In the first house we built in as many nesting boxes as we could fit which turned out to be eight. We also put in exterior egg doors as well as hinged the roof as we had planned for the broiler’s range house. Eight boxes is enough to support 24-32 layers so that gives us some room to grow.

In the second house we reversed the side the door was on so we could get the maximum space for roosts. By doing so we could build in three tiered roosts which creates enough roosting space for about 15 chickens, which is how many layers we have in total. On this house we also added heavier handles for mobility. The nesting house shouldn’t need to be rotated often, but the roosting house will need to be moved to prevent manure build up.

We stopped by the local hardware store and picked up some exterior “oops” paint in a bright miami teal green. Once completed and painted we started the task of moving the houses up the hill to where we anticipate the goat pasture to go. We got the heaviest, the nesting house, moved with some serious effort. Unfortunately, building the range houses took longer than expected and we didn’t get the pasture fences up as well. Since then the calendar has kept us busy and we still haven’t had a chance to put up the pasture fences. Instead of moving the roosting house up the hill we moved it to the yard with the broiler’s range house and moved the new layers out in to the yard as well. It’s an acceptable hold over location until we can get the pasture fences up which will probably still be a couple weeks out.

Here’s the cost breakdown:

3/8″ CDX Plywood sheets	5@$8.46	$42.30
Light Wt Door Pull	4@$2.59	$10.36
Hook & Eye Latches	2@$1.99	$3.98
Screws		$8.69
8 foot 2″x2″	7@$1.71	$11.97
5 1/2″ Door Pulls	4@$3.79	$15.16
2 1/2″ Safety Latch	2@3.49	$6.98
Roof Hinges		$4.79
Door Hinges		$2.89
Bolt Barrel Latches	2@$3.29	$6.58
Total		$113.70

We used scraps that we had already, which aren’t included in the price list, for the nesting boxes as well as some of the scraps that resulted from the project .

And for paint and supplies:

“Oops” Ext Paint	$15.00
Paint Roller Cover	$2.49
Paint Roller	$2.29
Paint Tray	$3.99
Total	$23.77

Our grand total including paint and hardware came to approximately $70 per house (plus tax of course). Overall it’s still a very good deal.

Home, home on the range

Kat — Wed, 06 May 2009 18:59:57 +0000

One of this weekend’s projects was to build a range house for the broiler chickens.

This year we are only slaughtering for personal use, but we’d like to be able to consider slaughter for on farm sales in the future. In order to comply with the Temporary Permit to Slaughter Pastured Chickens the chickens have to spend at least half of their life span on “pasture, range, or ground covered with vegetation that is suitable for grazing”. The average broiler raised for slaughter is around 8 weeks of age so we targeted our broilers to go out to range at 4 weeks of age.

The chicken coop for the layers isn’t well suited for the broilers not to mention the full-grown layers wouldn’t look on it kindly. We also didn’t really want the broilers free-ranging since they are pretty fat and slow moving. Our range solution was pretty simplistic, but could be adapated pretty easily for a few layers if you wanted to do so by adding flooring and a nesting box.

We simply took two sheets of plywood and cut a 3 foot x 4 foot section off the end of one sheet to form the front. We trimmed an additional 6 inchs off the 4 foot side so we would have roof overhang on the sides and cut a 1 foot by 1 foot door. For the remainder of the sheet we cut diagonally across from the 2 foot and 3 foot marks creating the two side panels (3 feet tall in the front and 2 feet tall in the back). We cut a 2 foot x 4 foot section off the end of the second sheet to form the back and then trimmed an additional 6 inches off of the 4 foot side so we would have roof overhang on the sides. We used 2×2’s to brace all four corners and for braces for the roof. We also used the 2×2’s for two roosts. We trimmed down the door cut out and attached it with cabinent hinges and added a hook and eye latch. We also drilled air holes under the eaves in the front and back to help regulate the temperature and air flow. With the remainder of the second sheet forming a 4 foot by 6 foot roof we positioned it such that it formed a little “porch” on the front. We originally wanted to do that so we could put the food and water under it, but quickly realized that the food would need to actually go inside.

We put both the layers and broilers in the little “pasture” with the range house while we cleaned out the brooder box and removed the divider before moving the layers back in to the brooder box. You can still watch the Baby Chick Cam. They both clearly liked the range house because after a few hours of wandering the yard they all climbed inside for an afternoon nap.

So far the broilers seem to be doing quite well despite the overnight temperatures dropping to 40 degrees the first night. I stuck a thermometer in one of the ventilation holes and it registered at least 10+ degrees over the air temperature despite it being overcast and drizzly. We open the door during the day, but when it rains they only come out to enjoy the proteced area under the porch before eventually heading back in to the comfort of their range house. It seems to be working great though.

After this season we plan to hinge the roof (we screwed it down) so we can access the inside of the range house if needed. It would also allow us to prop open the roof if the day got particularly warm. We also plan to try to add wheels and handles/supports to lift the range house so we can easily move it around making it more of an actual chicken tractor. We’ve already had to move the house once this week because the broiler hens have been spending most of their time inside generating waste due to the weather taking a turn for the worst this week. You will notice we have a small tarp on top of the range house. The only reason for that is because the hardware store was out of actual plywood and only had OSB which won’t withstand the rain we get in the spring. We plan to replace the OSB with actual plywood and paint the entire range house with exterior paint when we do.

I’m very pleased with how it all worked out and you can’t really beat the cost or the fact that it took less than an hour to assemble.

Parts list:

Two 4 foot by 8 foot sheets of 1/2 or 3/4″ plywood (don’t recommend OSB even though you’ll see we used a sheet) – ~$20 each
Three 8 foot long 2″x”‘ boards – $2 each
Pair of inexpensive cabinent hinges – $4 to $7 total
One hook and eye latch – $2
Draw pull door handle (optional)
Roof hinge (optional)

Our total came in around $60 dollars. If you were to add a single nesting box (good for up to 3 hens) you’d add another $10-15 dollars.

2008 Garden Recap

Kat — Fri, 01 May 2009 18:51:22 +0000

I’ve been meaning to write this up for some time. I actually had written something up for a gardening mailing list I’m on, but then couldn’t find it again and so I kept procrastinating starting all over again. So last year I started almost everything from seed. I also *completely* over purchased seed, in my excitement for a real garden.

Last year’s order from Seed Savers Exchange (all certified organic except the Fish Pepper). Those in italics with comments are the ones I actually attempted. Those in bold I’ll try again this year along with the new seeds:

Pepper, Chervena Chushka
Pepper, Thai Hot – Started okay but didn’t get enough light
Pepper, Rooster Spur
Pepper, Healthy – Started okay but didn’t get enough light
Pepper, Fish – Started okay but didn’t get enough light, I’m just partial to them – don’t know why.
Pepper, Jimmy Nardello’s – Started okay but didn’t get enough light
Cucumber, Snow’s Fancy – Indoor starts only did moderately well (many rotted due to moisture), indoor starts that survived started producing sooner, but direct sowed plants were healthier. Not a high yield.
Cucumber, Bushy
Pea, British Wonder – Indoor starts did okay, but direct sow did much better so why waste the energy to start indoors? Produced well, needed more trellis.
Melon, Early Silverline
Melon, Noir des Carmes
Melon, Minnesota Midget – Small plants that eventually died off, not suited to this area
Watermelon, Chris Cross
Watermelon, Moon & Stars Yellow
Tomato, Austin’s Red Pear
Tomato, Current Sweet Pea – Did great despite the poor summer! Lots of fruits and held over in the greenhouse (making up for the poor summer) until November!
Tomato, Nyagous – Poor summer and not enough light took its toll. Will move to a sunnier location and try again.
Tomato, Hungarian Heart
Tomato, Crnkovic Yugoslavian – Poor summer and not enough light. Produced later than the Nyagous. Probably won’t try again until I have better luck with tomatoes.
Radish, Helios – Okay, grew well but actual radishes were small and very, very hot. Had a tough exterior texture.
Radish, Philadelphia White Box – Grew well and more balanced flavor than the Helios. Larger size and no weird texture.
Bean, Boston Favorite
Bean, Good Mother Stallard – Grew, well… like a bean, but drying beans on the vine proved hard with the moist fall/winter coming in.
Bean, Fin de Bagnol
Bean, Ideal Market – Did great! Would definitely plant again and even more. Probably one of the most productive plants in the garden.
Soybean, Fiskeby
Spinach, Monnopa
Lettuce, Green Oakleaf
Lettuce, Grandpa Admire’s
Lettuce, Gold Rush
Lettuce, Tango
Lettuce, Baby Oakleaf
Herb, Genovese Basil – Did well, held in through the fall in the green house with the tomatoes.
Herb, Cilantro – Died during starting
Herb, Grandma Einck’s Dill – Died during starting
Herb, Chives – Died during starting
Herb, Sweet Marjoram
Carrot, Danver’s Half Long – Didn’t get much. Seemed very slow to mature and never amount to a useful size. Suspect this is soil/light and not the seed itself.
Corn, Golden Bantam Improved – Transplants mostly rotted, direct sow did well but I planted them too late. Didn’t get anything out of it.
Corn, Stowell’s Evergreen
Corn, Tom Thumb Popcorn
Leek, Giant Musselburgh – Died during starting
Onion, Australian Brown – Did well but didn’t realize that onions need to overwinter so were harvested as green onions.
Onion, Borettana Yellow – Did well but didn’t realize that onions need to overwinter so were harvested as green onions.
Squash, Pennsylvania Dutch Crookneck – Small plants that eventually died off
Squash, Summer Crookneck
Squash, Fordhook Acorn
Beet, Burpee’s Golden – Overwhelmed by weeds and died out
Ground Cherry, Aunt Molly’s – Did okay but probably needed more sun. Didn’t produce much.

If that looks like a lot, (it rang in at ~$150) that’s because it WAS! I was completely out of control. I only ended up planting a fraction of it and a lot of them were not suited to our region at all. We ended up being gifted lettuce starts and I don’t recall if I tried starting any of ours from seed. The starts did wonderfully though so I’ll probably try to start some myself again.
Ordered new for this year from Territorial Seed Co. a PacNW based company (I don’t think any are certified organic this year and several are hybrids – generally not my style but I want to take out some of the variables until I get better):

Squash, Cavili – summer squash that is early maturing.
Lettuce, Miners – Actually grows wild here so should do very well.
Cabbage, Parel – Didn’t grow cabbage because I didn’t see much value in it. Now that we eat seasonally the fact that it stores for extended times is a big bonus.
Bean, Soleil – A French style bean in yellow. It looks pretty when canned with green beans.
Peas, Super Sugar Snap – We wanted to do more peas this year so I needed more seed.
Kale, Winterbor – I didn’t think I liked kale until we kept running in to it as a winter veg. Have since realized if it’s cooked right I really enjoy it and it keeps well through the winter and in the fridge.

I still plan on planting potatoes, but there’s a local farm that provides most of the garden shops around here with seed potatoes and I now know I don’t need that many, so I’ll just pick them up locally.

Our backyard plot is something like 15 by 30? I was so afraid of crowding that I planted most everything really spaced out and therefore wasted a lot of space. So this year I’ll work on planting things closer together and thinning when necessary. We also realized that our front yard gets a lot more light. My husband wants to build raised beds out there, but I don’t know if that’ll happen this year. We want them to look nice so they can be used as flower or garden beds and not detract from the appearance of the property, which means they’ll be a little costly and we have to think it through a bit. It just may not happen early enough this year and it’s not our highest priority project. Either way I’ll definitely be moving some of my zillions of large pots out front for tomatoes and things. We just have to keep the chickens out of them.

This year we also have the greenhouse. I may try to grow some tomatoes and peppers in the green house specifically, but it does get quite hot in there during the summer so I’ll have work on that a bit.

Next weekend I plan to start a flat of seeds for the herbs and things to get started. I’ll update you on how that goes.