Pastoral Poultry, Traditional Farming For A Modern Era

[silkiemomma42]

Wsmith I would love a copy of this spreadsheet if you are sharing. How amazing! What a wonderful idea! [email protected] this is splendid information.

 

[wsmith]

Wsmith I would love a copy of this spreadsheet if you are sharing. How amazing! What a wonderful idea!

[email protected] this is splendid information.

email sent. I didn't remove any of my data..you will have to do that yourself.

 

[bayocum]

I can email you a blank version of the spreadsheet I use. I also track temerature and day length, and I can usually predict within an egg or two how many eggs we will get, based on temperatures and day length. Remember, we don't use supplimental heating/cooling or any supplimental lighting. These hens laid eggs all winter long, and we had a mild winter....it only got down to zero without wind chill. We feed high protein feed (with animal proteins) along with our own blend of whole wheat, whole oats, and cracked corn. They also get most of the table scraps and whatever vegetables or fruits that people are trying to get rid of. They love freezer burned hot dogs......
We can't let our free range, as they would become dinner for the coyotes, stray dogs, hawks, and owls. But they do have nearly 3000 square feet of 6 ft wood fenced area to do whatever they want. We'll call it "Limited Pastured"......

That would be great thanks: [email protected]
We treat our birds to a lot of table scraps in the form of veggies and fruits. I tried beef liver once for my Basque Hens...they must not like American beef...wouldn't touch it. We don't use supplemental lighting or heat, but of course this is Central CaliforniaI so we're lucky not to need it. I think your "limited pasture" is pretty good considering the amount of space you have. Thanks for sharing!

 

[wsmith]

That would be great thanks: [email protected]
We treat our birds to a lot of table scraps in the form of veggies and fruits. I tried beef liver once for my Basque Hens...they must not like American beef...wouldn't touch it. We don't use supplemental lighting or heat, but of course this is Central CaliforniaI so we're lucky not to need it. I think your "limited pasture" is pretty good considering the amount of space you have. Thanks for sharing!

email sent.

I've never given mine liver......I bet it would be entertaining.

One of our goals is to (while breeding to SoP) is to get our egg numbers up to an AVERAGE for the year of .75 lay factor. I know that's high.......
Right now we are having some fertility issues, but hope to have them resolved soon. I think our rooster (we only kept one, but thats a whole different story) is still getting up to speed on his "effectiveness" and should be better in a month when the temperatures and weather stabilizes a little.
If you are interested in adding Doms to your repetoire of chickens, I know of a couple of breeders in CA......

 

[microburst]

Thanks for starting this thread! I'm just getting started with poultry on a much larger scale since we bought our 10 acres 5 months ago. Before that I was mostly doing 4-H projects and share-cropping my vegetable gardens with friends who had the space.
Right now I'm raising CX on fermented feed and pasture, but will be acquiring Bresse and Basque soon, while my Araucana simmer in my bator.
Heat is more of an issue where I live then the cold, so I'm more interested in breeds who will do well in hot, dry conditions.
Predators are a big issue for me, and so far my cattle dog has kept the coyotes away, but not the random wild dogs he doesn't care about. One of our neighbors suggested adopting wild burros who she said can be aggressive with predators, and don't cost much to raise.
I'm also raising heirloom produce that I can can and eat throughout the year. Got the baby tomatoes started and trying to work out the best way to plant in our clay, plus deal with gophers...
This land use to be a thriving almond orchard, but was left barren when they removed the trees about 40 years ago. Now I'm trying to learn how to work with and restore it with planting and grazing animals. It think getting it organic certified may be a 5 year process, something I might consider down the road.
The state (California) is pretty laxed about selling meat and eggs, but the feds are not, especially with meat. What I have heard is that to sell meat you have to be a certified processor and have your equipment and setup inspected by the feds. There is only one processor in our area who the last I heard charges $6/bird!
I'm also interested in learning about insurance so nobody tries to take the house claiming they got sick eating one of our products.
Anyway, looking forward to learning and chatting with you all!

 

[silkiemomma42]

Microburst. If getting certified organic is going to be your 5 year goal you can probably be certified natural in 2. Just as an intermediate step. You can be certified natural by local farmers. I can look up more info for you if you would like. Also you may need to do a few seasons of cover crops to re-amend your soil. In the mean tome you could run pretty extensive containers gardens. We've had a lot of success in the past with square foot gardening. We can get high yield with minimal space allowing your other land to be properly infused with micro-organisms and nutrients. I reference the barefoot farmer when seeing what cover crops add which nutrients to our soil. You may find some of his practices interesting! Welcome!!!

 

[bayocum]

Microburst. If getting certified organic is going to be your 5 year goal you can probably be certified natural in 2. Just as an intermediate step. We are certified natural by local farmers. I can look up more info for you if you would like. Also you may need to do a few seasons of cover crops to re-amend your soil. In the mean tome you could run pretty extensive containers gardens. We've had a lot of success in the past with square foot gardening. We can get high yield with minimal space allowing your other land to be properly infused with micro-organisms and nutrients. I reference the barefoot farmer when serif what cover crops add which nutrients to our soil. You may find some of his practices interesting! Welcome!!!

Jin,
Do you use/read John Jeavons at all... His book, "How to Grow More Vegetables than You Ever Thought Possible..." has been a great guide for us. Just wondering if you have any experience with his methods.
-Brice

 

[bayocum]

Thanks for starting this thread! I'm just getting started with poultry on a much larger scale since we bought our 10 acres 5 months ago. Before that I was mostly doing 4-H projects and share-cropping my vegetable gardens with friends who had the space.
Right now I'm raising CX on fermented feed and pasture, but will be acquiring Bresse and Basque soon, while my Araucana simmer in my bator.
Heat is more of an issue where I live then the cold, so I'm more interested in breeds who will do well in hot, dry conditions.
Predators are a big issue for me, and so far my cattle dog has kept the coyotes away, but not the random wild dogs he doesn't care about. One of our neighbors suggested adopting wild burros who she said can be aggressive with predators, and don't cost much to raise.
I'm also raising heirloom produce that I can can and eat throughout the year. Got the baby tomatoes started and trying to work out the best way to plant in our clay, plus deal with gophers...
This land use to be a thriving almond orchard, but was left barren when they removed the trees about 40 years ago. Now I'm trying to learn how to work with and restore it with planting and grazing animals. It think getting it organic certified may be a 5 year process, something I might consider down the road.
The state (California) is pretty laxed about selling meat and eggs, but the feds are not, especially with meat. What I have heard is that to sell meat you have to be a certified processor and have your equipment and setup inspected by the feds. There is only one processor in our area who the last I heard charges $6/bird!
I'm also interested in learning about insurance so nobody tries to take the house claiming they got sick eating one of our products.
Anyway, looking forward to learning and chatting with you all!

Hey there microburst....looking forward to delivering your chicks this weekend! If you're interested in the meat selling end we can direct you to some info we've found, but basically in CA the exemptions to inspection are found in CA Food & Agri Code, Div 12, Art. 3, Sects 25021-24 (Chris...don't judge me on by Bluebook skills...ha ha). Here is the relevant information:
Universal Citation: CA Food & Agri Code § 25023 (through 2012 Leg Sess)
(a) This chapter does not apply to poultry meat which is derived from poultry which is produced upon the premises where it is slaughtered if the poultry meat is sold by the producer in any of the following ways:
(1) At retail on the premises.
(2) At retail by the producer of the poultry meat off of the premises, either direct to consumers at their homes or at a retail stand which is operated by the producer in a farmers market.
(b) As used in this section, producer includes only an individual producer who does not employ, except in unforeseeable exigencies, any person except members of his or her immediate family.

Universal Citation: CA Food & Agri Code § 25024 (through 2012 Leg Sess)
This chapter does not apply to poultry meat which is derived from poultry which is slaughtered, dressed, and sold on the premises where it is produced for purposes other than resale, if the entire poultry meat output of the producer of such poultry is so sold.
That said, I believe another area of the law exempts you from USDA inspection if you're processing under 1,000 birds a year. So putting these together should give you some idea of what you can and can't do.

 

[silkiemomma42]

Brice, I can't say that's have read Jeavens but you can rest assured I will be doing some research this evening! Thanks for the tip!

 

[FROMWHITEDOGHILL]

Hey Brice..................just read the whole thread and looked at some webpages. Lots of good information, from some folks that obviously know what they are talking about. I'm kinda a new guy...I got my first White Leghorns in 1957. I too raise Basque Hens. I thought I had seen your screen name before either on The Basque Thread or EOCF. I have breeders that I purchased from James at Skyline and I was able to purchase some of their breeders last year when Greenfire Farms sold out of Basque Hens. Over the years, I have had LOTS of breeds of Chickens, but have never been as happy with any as my BH's. My mature hens all measured well according to COTH measurments for egg numbers. I also raise Buckeyes, Lemon Barred Orphs, Black and White Breese from Greenfire, Blue and Black Breda, and Cottage Hill line of Wheaton Marans. I also have Midget White Turkeys and Regal Red and Harvest Gold Turkeys.............other than that........I just mess around a little with chickens. I am trying to replicate the production of Bresse like the French did. Planting Clover this year and just now hatching lots of birds to feed out....I am curious about the taste to see if it really is different. I KNOW they lay exceptionally well.........I have lots of little blue legged, yellow babies running around!!! Congratulations on your thread........glad to see a thread with dedicated chicken folks.........I know people use BYC sometimes just to vent their gripes.........but it is nice to read about real chicken people with real chicken issues and getting real chicken answers......KEEP IT GOING.........................Mike