Pigs 'N Chicks

I realize its been a while since my last post, but there has been a whirlwind of activity around here. It all started last Monday when I and a coworker where talking about raising pigs, before I knew it I was taking ownership of two feeder pigs on Friday. The thought occurred to me "Where am I going to put them?" I did have a small catch pen to house them for a little while, but no permanent pig housing. Panic began setting in, I began work on a small pole barn for the pigs right away, Tuesday I spent all afternoon and evening clearing a wooded area for the barn and dry lot, and cutting and setting cedar posts, Wednesday I finished setting the posts, and started putting sides on the barn, it was about 6:30 pm Wednesday evening when I realized I wasn't going to make it, there was just too much work to be done and the forecast was for rain Thursday, so Thursday was spent in my raincoat setting up the catch pen to hold two rambunctious piggies which meant running two strands of electric fence wire around the perimeter to keep them from rooting out.

         Friday Michelle brought the pigs to their new home, they are Yorkshire and Landrace crosses. We made the decision to get two gilts (that's female in pig language) because we have read that they make for a milder tasting finished product. So, without further a do introducing Ham and Bacon

Ham and Bacon





As most of you know about 23 days ago I loaded up the incubator with 17 fertilized chicken eggs, (we wont mention the first time we attempted it) Well I have been attempting to candle them after day seven without any conclusive results, finally Friday I candled them one more time and concluded that they where all duds, but decided to leave them be for the full 21 days thinking that was Monday.(we won't mention my poor math skills here) Well, when we got home from church Sunday we heard a faint tweet, as we looked at each other thinking some small bird had managed to get into our home, I thought "Surely those eggs didn't hatch? They are not supposed to hatch utill Monday (Again, I stink at math) I ran over to the incubator and.......

When it was all said and done we had 10 brand new babies! Now if you remember we incubated these to have some fresh meat this winter, with that in mind I have told Michelle not to get attached, but I forgot to tell myself. Its going to be hard after watching them being born, but we have to realize that it is all a part of life, even that chicken you buy in the grocery store began as a cute baby chick just like these. We as a society have gotten too far away from our food sources, we see the nice packaging without conceiving that an animal gave it's life for you to eat chicken, in fact, lots of children and an alarming number of adults believe their meat is made in the back of the supermarket. When the day comes, I can say that I will not take it lightly, but with a solemn reminder of the sacrifice of each animal to provide us with a meal.



The Chicken Chores

Today is another beautiful early fall day in Tennessee.The mercury is holding at about 73 degrees, and there is a slight breeze,great day to catch up on some chores. We had rain Sunday and Monday Yay! Over 2 inches according to my rain gauge, thats good news, we needed a good rain, well good news except for the cotton farmers. The cotton is a little soggy.

        I ended up doing my weekly chores today instead of the normal day, Monday. Yesterday after i fed the chickens and collected the eggs, we just stayed indoors and enjoyed breakfast for supper as we like to call it. We had canadian bacon, which in my book is not bacon, but if im going to watch my fat intake (as the doc says) i guess canadian bacon is better than no bacon at all, biscuits, fresh honey, homemade strawberry preserves, scrambled eggs, and tomato gravy, made with a can of our tomatoes. Mm good! Wait I know what your thinking "tomato gravy?" but man is it good, I know what else your thinking " gravy? didn't the doctor  say lower your fat intake?" Hey, I'm A southern boy, what can I say? It's a sin to have biscuits, and no gravy!

                                                   The Weekly Chores

     Ok, back to todays chores. I started out cleaning the old hay out of the nest boxes, this stuff is like gold, it just needs to compost for a while because chicken manure is high in nitrogen and will burn your plants( yep, learned that lesson the hard way) So I put it in one corner of the garden spot to sit for a while. its mostly hay from the nest boxes and under the loafing shed.

Next I put fresh hay in the nest boxes, to which the girls responded by remaking their nests. I am a little messy with the hay, I just shove it in, and watch them organize it into a pretty little nest.

The roosters came over to inspect their work. My wife would say "typical male." but I digress.

I save all my empty feed sacks, learned that from my neighbor Mike, the real farmer (I'm just a wanna be) these things come in handy for every thing. I have used them to store hay in, line the brooder box, to lay on the ground when I'm workin on a car, store stuff in them, provide temporary shade for rabbits, dispose of the occasional dead bird (learned that one from the neighbor too) I even save the little tags on the bottom as scratch paper, (learned that one from the neighbor too). I'm starting to see a pattern emerging here.

      After that I decided it would be a good idea to feed them, since one of them had not stopped pulling on the top of my boot since I got in there. Guess that goes back to my role as Cheif Chicken Chowline Operator (see workforce page for more info) For some reason when I hear that bird talk in my mind (that's another blog) it speaks with  a spanish accent and says"Yo quiero Purina" kinda like the Taco Bell dog.  I know, weird.

After feeding and watering them, I made my exit thinking "am I forgetting something? Nah" And about that time I looked back and saw the basket of eggs hanging off the corner of the shelter, DUH. Don't tell the boss hehe. (refer to workforce page for Michelle's job description for more Info)