Fred CTX
In the Brooder
Today is May 20th and I have 70 chicks ordered that will be shipped on June 10th.
This could get long so go ahead and skip this post or go grab something to drink, sit back and enjoy.
To start I will give a little background, the short version, about my family and howwe I got us into this situation. At home it's my wife and a 15 year old son and myself. We also have a 21 year old son that is out on his own trying to figure out what he wants to do when he grows up. About 3 years ago I started looking at how my family could start eating healthier. We were also looking at building a small home on my wife's family land. The idea of moving to the farm brought the possibility of raising animals for meat and planting a garden. My in-laws own 80 acres in the middle of Central Texas farm country. I knew going in that I wanted to raise our animals and grow our food as naturally as possible. This lead to months of research and I wound up taking a permaculture design course. After that there was no stopping me. Well my wife could have stopped me but she likes the idea of where this is going so she is mostly supportive.
We call it Hidden Acres Farm because my in-laws have owned and lived on these 80 acres for about 40 years. My father-in law has never used the back corner because of a creek that cuts it off from the rest of his land. When I first approached my wife with the idea of building our farmstead there she did not even realize that they owned it. My father-in-law gave his blessing and the work began. My wife did not see my vision at first. All she saw was a bunch of over grown trees and 6 foot tall weeds. I explained that, that was what made it perfect. It's basically untouched land. We could design and mold it into whatever we wanted.
Current events;
The house is started and is a work in progress. We are paying cash and building as we go.
I built a Bunny Barn and currently have meat rabbits (for us and for sale) and bunny berries for fertilizer.
Thanks to Craigslist my son has a free 1 month old bottle baby Brahma bull calf. (there's already a few cattle on the land so he may be the next heard bull. We are past the possibility of sending him to freezer camp)
Now the chickens, the reason we are all here.
My family had chickens when I was a young child and I was around several family members who always had chickens so I do not consider myself a total noob. BUT I know that I have a lot to learn about raising healthy happy chickens.
One day I had the idea that it was time to go ahead and get some chickens. 4 days of planing and building and we had a coop.
I went into the build with the following ideas in my head;
I want to move it every couple of days to fresh grass
Needs to deal with heat (remember Central Texas)
Needs to hold at least 10 chickens comfortably and securely
I had an idea something was going on with the availability of chicks because I'm in my local TS at least once a week. I had not seen chicks for sale since before Easter but did not think much of it. After searching for pullets and hens I started looking for chicks locally. After that search failed I talked to my wife and we decided to order a few chicks.
Part of the farmstead vision and long term goal is to educate people on how to provide at least a portion of their own healthy food. Also we would like to support ourselves from the farm. The current pandemic might end or at least ease in the next few months but due to other reasons I believe the food shortages are just beginning. I see this as a time to get serious about educating people and assist them with becoming more self reliant. I ordered so many chicks because I intend to raise them to healthy pullets and then try to sell them. I want to be a "Chicken Flipper" at least until I can get my own flock established. If that fails we will have freezer full of chicken. This also gives me the opportunity to start the education part of the vision. It also means that I have to build a large coop and run.
This could get long so go ahead and skip this post or go grab something to drink, sit back and enjoy.
To start I will give a little background, the short version, about my family and how
We call it Hidden Acres Farm because my in-laws have owned and lived on these 80 acres for about 40 years. My father-in law has never used the back corner because of a creek that cuts it off from the rest of his land. When I first approached my wife with the idea of building our farmstead there she did not even realize that they owned it. My father-in-law gave his blessing and the work began. My wife did not see my vision at first. All she saw was a bunch of over grown trees and 6 foot tall weeds. I explained that, that was what made it perfect. It's basically untouched land. We could design and mold it into whatever we wanted.
Current events;
The house is started and is a work in progress. We are paying cash and building as we go.
I built a Bunny Barn and currently have meat rabbits (for us and for sale) and bunny berries for fertilizer.
Thanks to Craigslist my son has a free 1 month old bottle baby Brahma bull calf. (there's already a few cattle on the land so he may be the next heard bull. We are past the possibility of sending him to freezer camp)
Now the chickens, the reason we are all here.
My family had chickens when I was a young child and I was around several family members who always had chickens so I do not consider myself a total noob. BUT I know that I have a lot to learn about raising healthy happy chickens.
One day I had the idea that it was time to go ahead and get some chickens. 4 days of planing and building and we had a coop.
I went into the build with the following ideas in my head;
I want to move it every couple of days to fresh grass
Needs to deal with heat (remember Central Texas)
Needs to hold at least 10 chickens comfortably and securely
I had an idea something was going on with the availability of chicks because I'm in my local TS at least once a week. I had not seen chicks for sale since before Easter but did not think much of it. After searching for pullets and hens I started looking for chicks locally. After that search failed I talked to my wife and we decided to order a few chicks.
Part of the farmstead vision and long term goal is to educate people on how to provide at least a portion of their own healthy food. Also we would like to support ourselves from the farm. The current pandemic might end or at least ease in the next few months but due to other reasons I believe the food shortages are just beginning. I see this as a time to get serious about educating people and assist them with becoming more self reliant. I ordered so many chicks because I intend to raise them to healthy pullets and then try to sell them. I want to be a "Chicken Flipper" at least until I can get my own flock established. If that fails we will have freezer full of chicken. This also gives me the opportunity to start the education part of the vision. It also means that I have to build a large coop and run.
Last edited:
