Aflockalypse

[Florida Bullfrog]

*Need to get some pics up, just washed off portable dog pens. Now I'm thinking about logistics of bugging out with flock, and how much more tricky it would be rounding everyone up and where to put them. Then what do I do with the geese...? Pickup truck is on the list.

In your scenario, you already have the acreage, you just got to get out there, correct? In other words, your bugout spot is a given. You know where you're going. And you presumably have the place ready for both yourself/family and the livestock. You just got to get everyone there. Is that the question?

 

[AGeese]

Yeah being here was the first step to the next level (whatever that is.) Otherwise no intention of leaving for the near future. But an asteroid, caldera, nuclear war, earthquake, flood, solar storm etc. would get me to reconsider. I may be using one of the dog pens for a quarantine crate. Another thing to consider for a potentially long drive somewhere.

 

[saysfaa]

.. better to get your farm producing now while you can afford to have a long learning curve....

This.

Even things that have shorter learning curves are different when you are stressed. Even assuming you aren't hungry or sleep deprived as you try to learn.

Or doing a lot of them at once; there is a learning curve to managing the timing/prepping for/cleaning up/maintenance/so on of the different tasks as much as doing the tasks. Even just having the necessary tools or at least knowing what tools are necessary has a learning curve.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

Yeah being here was the first step to the next level (whatever that is.) Otherwise no intention of leaving for the near future. But an asteroid, caldera, nuclear war, earthquake, flood, solar storm etc. would get me to reconsider. I may be using one of the dog pens for a quarantine crate. Another thing to consider for a potentially long drive somewhere.

What I'm not understanding is whether you already have your bugout place setup, or whether you'd be gathering everything up and going to destination unknown. What I'm imagining your scenario being is establishing a farm now then picking it up and moving it on a moment's notice in a single trip. I don't think that will be practical.

I can probably help you plan gathering up your chickens. I have strategies for quickly penning and catching mine for when I want to cull, butcher, sell or give away, ect. I could leave the farm right now with probably 20 chickens easily, gathered up within the next 30 minutes (most would be left behind though). But with no other established farm to go to, I'm probably going to fail in establishing a new flock somewhere else. Wherever I'm going needs to be a fully established farmyard, with dogs, predator persecution, water and food sources, cover, roosting trees or a coop, ect. I don't believe a person will likely be successful going out to an abandoned cabin, turning chickens loose, and expecting to maintain a flock there.

Realistically, if we had to flee our farm quickly, I'm turning the coop doors open, turning the electric fences off and throwing some stretches down, and I'm leaving with the family and letting the animals fend for themselves. All we're taking with us are guns, clothes, food and water, and survival supplies.

Everything ought to be able to tend their own needs except the dogs. I presume we'd take the dogs with us but it depends on what's going on. The dogs can feed themselves on a limited basis on wild game and foraging eggs. I know this because I've put them all on a diet before and they worked against it by foraging and hunting (but the foraging still got them in shape). I wouldn't expect dogs to live that way long term and not turn on the other livestock.

 

[AGeese]

What I'm not understanding is whether you already have your bugout place setup, or whether you'd be gathering everything up and going to destination unknown. What I'm imagining your scenario being is establishing a farm now then picking it up and moving it on a moment's notice in a single trip. I don't think that will be practical.

I can probably help you plan gathering up your chickens. I have strategies for quickly penning and catching mine for when I want to cull, butcher, sell or give away, ect. I could leave the farm right now with probably 20 chickens easily, gathered up within the next 30 minutes (most would be left behind though). But with no other established farm to go to, I'm probably going to fail in establishing a new flock somewhere else. Wherever I'm going needs to be a fully established farmyard, with dogs, predator persecution, water and food sources, cover, roosting trees or a coop, ect. I don't believe a person will likely be successful going out to an abandoned cabin, turning chickens loose, and expecting to maintain a flock there.

Realistically, if we had to flee our farm quickly, I'm turning the coop doors open, turning the electric fences off and throwing some stretches down, and I'm leaving with the family and letting the animals fend for themselves. All we're taking with us are guns, clothes, food and water, and survival supplies.

Everything ought to be able to tend their own needs except the dogs. I presume we'd take the dogs with us but it depends on what's going on. The dogs can feed themselves on a limited basis on wild game and foraging eggs. I know this because I've put them all on a diet before and they worked against it by foraging and hunting (but the foraging still got them in shape). I wouldn't expect dogs to live that way long term and not turn on the other livestock.

Yes I agree it won't be practical. I haven't really picked a scenario, so I should probably do that so I can have a better idea of where I could potentially go in dire straights.

Being able to gather everyone up and bugout in 30 minutes would be ideal. Until I know more about where I'd be going to, this is an easy one to improve since I've putt little thought into it.

Not sure if anyone remembers Paul Range and Gloria Haswell from Doomsday Preppers series, but they absolutely inspire me. Their goats are ready to roll with them.

P.S> I just found they have a website where they teach peramculture https://www.oneseedling.com

 

[saysfaa]

...

I can probably help you plan gathering up your chickens. I have strategies for quickly penning and catching mine ...

Would you mind sharing?

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

Would you mind sharing?

So let's first assume you have 24 hours notice.

If your chickens are cooped with traditional poll or plank type roosts, that's the easiest. You just go pluck them off the roost at night. With totes or cages, you should be able to gather them all up in a few minutes if someone is helping you. If they get too woke up they'll get hard to catch and you might have to let them calm down for 30 minutes at a time for every few you catch.

Now let's make them tree-roosting as many of mine do. You can get them one at a time with a long wooden poll. You push the poll up under them and they step onto it. You lower them down slowly then grab them quickly by the legs. If you touch them slowly they often freak out and fly off. Some people put a "T" attachment at the end of the poll. The whole setup needs to be wood though. I've tried it with PVC and they don't like the texture or feel of it and usually won't step on it. It also usually isn't rigid enough for the diameter you'd want to use. I don't find this an efficient way to get a whole flock. But you can definitely get individuals like particular mature hens or a mature rooster you may want to make sure you get.

Now change the scenario to having to catch them during the day.

Again, if they're in a coop, it's easy. Run them down with sturdy nets like the kind you'd catch minnows or butterflies with. With practice, you can catch them up fast this way. They will freak out on sight of the net and you'll have panicked chickens all over. But that is what it is.

A variant of this is to catch them by hand. This takes practice but it doesn't upset them as bad as the net. This is how I usually catch them these days unless it's a mature rooster with long spurs. You can learn to creep up on them without making direct eye contact and slowly moving your hands behind them, then sweeping onto them in a quick movement.

Now if you have free rangers, you can make the scenario a coop situation by training them to feed in a coop. You would daily through them some food in the coop at a set time of day and also use a unique call, word, or sound when you do it. That will condition them to come running when they hear the call and gather up in the coop. Just shut the coop and proceed with a net or by hand.

Or on free range, you can learn to catch them by hand. Habitualize them to be feed as you would in the preceding paragraph to a spot of your choosing in the farm yard. When they're feeding, wade among them. They'll get used to you doing that. Then at the time you want to catch them, call them up, feed them, and wade out into them. Come up behind your chosen chicken while it's distracted picking up feed and preferably while its head is covered by other chickens as they all frantically compete to pick up what you've thrown out. Bring your hands behind them and quickly catch them by the body with your hands covering their wings so they can't flap. You can usually repeat this for several chickens, although the others will see what you're doing and catch on after the first few or several you catch. Regardless, I could catch an entire flock to transport this way in a few minutes, and I often do when trading chickens.

Catching them quickly by hand takes practice. I prefer catching them by the body over their wings so they can't flap. Alternatively I can catch them by the legs, but care must be taken not to only hold one leg. You need to have both legs secure or else the chicken can thrash and twist itself. Maybe even break its leg. I don't like catching by the tail, but some of my Crackers are so wild that's the only way I can get a hand on them. If they twist you need to twist with them so they don't twist their tail bone. You'll mangle their feathers this way so if you like taking pretty pictures like I do, this can ruin a photogenic chicken until the next molt.

Beware a rooster's spurs. I let my mature roosters have spurs as long as they can grow them. I won't tolerate a human-aggressive rooster, but the potential for an accidental serious stabbing is there if a panicked rooster goes to flailing. I usually only catch mature roosters with a net for this reason. Sometimes I can pin one down quickly and push its body to the ground so it can neither run or fly. Then grab it by the legs carefully so I can control where the spurs are and their ability to kick.

Some of my oriental-infused birds are large bodied and can drum me like a turkey. I've had slightly bloody lips before by being struck by the wingbones of big orientals.

 

[saysfaa]

I personally would love to hear how some of you might tackle relocation.

We once lived in suburbia that was several hours drive from my parents' farm. One of the things I did as part of tackling relocation in a bug out situation is map out alternative routes. And then actually try them, preferably during times of high traffic volume.

One of the things I learned is that taking the "back roads" is not necessarily the better option. Although there were fewer cars, the roads could handle so much less traffic that it wasn't better.

It is still worth checking out alternate routes before you seriously need them (and start with normal traffic; not a busy holiday or threat of hurricane or such).

Of course, there are different kinds of "back roads." I tried everything from less used divided highways to one step up from two track seasonal roads (generally in small sections at a time after one very memorable trip where I tried too big of a section of dirt roads). Maps are helpful but not good substitutes for trying the routes.

 

[saysfaa]

So..

Thank you. This is helpful.

Mine know instantly when I'm thinking of catching them, day or night, even when I try not to show it by where I look or how I move. I move around them a lot though, and they spend quite a lot of time under my feet, lol, they know me very, very well.

When I first let them free range, I found pool noodles very helpful to move them back through the gate. They just make my arms longer and scarier so I can move them while I am further away than I could if I used only arms and body. Slower movements by me gets them in faster with this method.

 

[AGeese]

I'm generally able to round the hens up fairly quickly with a 10 ft bamboo pole, and two of those work pretty good for the geese as long as I don't rush them.

Lately I've been preoccupied with other things, but next goal is to take inventory of things I'd like travel with, then I can start thinking about how to deploy.