From Hens to Hay: Why I Love Multi-Purpose Structures

Remember the hen house we built last summer?  You know, the one I neglected to post final photos of?  Well, here it is, six months later, and filled with...

Hay. (Yes, we cleaned it out!)

The side pictured above is for human access.  In the fall we put plastic over the chicken wire to keep the hens cozy during the night.  But in the summer, the chicken wire at each end helps with ventilation.

Other side, with small door for chicken access.

Interior view.  I think we can fit eleven bales of hay in the center aisle.  Notice the roosts and egg boxes.  There are roost bars on the other side of the aisle, as well.

We've pulled it up right next to the garden, where the chickens are spending the winter.  They share a divided hoop house with the bovines, one of whom eats copious amounts of hay (I'm talking to you, Flower).

Storing the hay in the hen house for the winter accomplishes two things.  First, since it is mobile, we can hook it up to the tractor, drag it over to the barn, load it up, and drag it back to the garden, saving us time and work.  Secondly, it saves us from building a structure closer to the winter quarters in order to store hay.  And this is why I love multi-purpose structures.

Any other ideas out there for multi-purpose farm structures?  One of our next projects will be to build a larger cow shelter on skids.  Stay tuned!

New Arrivals

No, I didn't have a baby.  In fact, I don't have a legitimately valid excuse for being such a slacker for the past two months, except to say that we've undergone some major changes as a family.  For instance, my kids are both in public school now and I'm looking into going back to teaching next year.  In the meantime, I'm eating bonbons and not writing blog posts.

Per the title, I do want to share with you our two new arrivals.  Everyone, meet Flower and Rachael.  Flower and Rachael, meet everyone:



Rachael is the baby, and Flower is the mom.  Both are Black Angus.  Both were named by my kids.

Rachael has to be bottle fed for a while longer, so Byron is making friends.  Flower was still nursing another calf when she was born, and the previous owner never separated them.

Flower is still a bit skittish sometimes, but fortunately, the previous owner is very hands-on with his cows, so she doesn't totally hate us.  She also may be pregnant, so that could explain a lot...

Our steers have since gone to the butcher, which was a very interesting learning experience.  They weighed much, much less than we had anticipated and we ended up losing money on the venture.  So our [my] new rule is no more Holsteins.  Though we hear that the meat is great, they don't gain weight efficiently.  To their credit, however, we got an education by raising them.

I'm glad I'm back.  I miss writing as a creative outlet and I miss your insights.  And the spammers have begun their relentless, vulturous descent.  Let's hope as I dust off my blog, they go to the wind as well.

Updates

Yes.  I'm into creative titles these days.

I can't believe my blogging has precipitously dropped off these past few months.  When I was homeschooling both kids, I would oftentimes take a few minutes in the morning to at least start a post.  Now that Akea is attending public school, it's a rush to get everyone out the door to drop her off, and she comes home with plenty of homework, most of with which she needs help.

And having Charlie at home, by himself, means he needs more attention from me.  It's just the way things are rolling these days.

From a homesteading perspective, things are slowing down, but I have been attacking some projects inside the house.  So right now, our life looks like this:

Outside
1. The steers go to the butcher tomorrow.  When we bought them, we knew they weren't pets, but because we raised them from their first week of life, we've grown a bit attached.

2. The younger hens are almost six months old and have been laying small, pullet eggs for about a month.  We're happy that the flocks merged without a hitch, and the goats are enjoying being pastured with them as well.  Our thought is that the goats provide a degree of predator protection for the chickens.

3. The garden has been done for a while.  The no-till idea didn't mix well with my fatigue and the drought this summer, so Byron will till it in the spring and we will try raised beds.  I have a bit of lettuce in pots.

4. We need to prep the hoop house for the chickens, which involves clearing it out, protecting the sides where they'd dug under last year, and making a small access door into the garden.  We want them to be able to go outside when they want, instead of being cooped up (literally) all winter.

Inside
1. I painted the kitchen and large common area at the back of the house, and have begun to work on re-upholstery again.  Soon to come is painting and/or refinishing a few pieces of furniture, then organizing.  Lots of organizing.

2. Byron plans to repair the floor and damaged joist in the downstairs bedroom, and lay hardwood flooring.  Part of the holdup has been figuring out exactly how to reconfigure the bathroom, but I think we have finally made our decision...we're keeping it simple and not tearing up and rebuilding walls.

3. My Nutrimill died!  I believe the motor burned up.  However, I have to give props to L'Equip, the company that makes the machine.  They told me to send it in, and they're fixing it free of charge.  Totally took my word for it that I'm the original owner, too, and told me not to even worry about sending in the receipt.  In all this, a big thanks to my friend, Katey, who has let me borrow her hand mill!

In all this, we are trying to figure out some ways to streamline the homesteading aspect of our lives.  Raised beds will hopefully be easier on me, and Byron would like to set up some semi-permanent electric wire paddocks for whenever we get more cows.  Any by the way, we are going to try to get a couple heifers (young, female cows) that we can breed, which will be much more sustainable than buying calves.

I will be back to update from time to time, but my guess is that it won't be as frequent as it has been in the past.  As our kids grow, they're beginning to show interests in different activities.  For Charlie, it's soccer and guitar.  Akea is interested in basketball and drama.  True, this seems contrary to the homesteading lifestyle to a degree, but we are trying to find that balance.

Livin' the Dream - or the Nightmare

As much as I share about our projects and successes, I like to throw in some of our more relevant failures in hopes that you can learn something from our mistakes/stupidity.  It's all a part of keepin' it real, right?

Let me just say this before you read on: no animals died.  I hope to never have to post about that, unless it has to do with processing chickens!

Mistake #1: When you get goats, someone always warns you that they are escape artists, but you never think your goats would dare escape!  That was until Akea spotted Sugar, the one-year-old female, making her way toward the house on Saturday evening.  Perhaps she was hoping to join us for dinner?   I caught her fairly easily with the dog collar I had bought that day, but not before she had spotted her reflection in the sliding glass door at the back of the house.  She stopped, backed up, and then promptly began rearing, ready to charge "the other goat!"  Tragedy was averted, and as I walked her back, I wondered how on earth she could have gotten out of the electric fencing.  But after returning her to her family, the way of escape became clear, as she promptly gave it a go again.  Akea had to drag her out from under the shed.

She escaped under this shed, as the portable electric fence had stopped at either edge of it.  I promptly re-positioned the fencing to run in front of the shed.

And just to give you an idea of her size, here she is with Akea, who is seven.  Yeah - she's the incredible shrinking goat.

Mistake #2:  Since Byron has had some other responsibilities lately, I've been moving the cows to fresh pasture frequently.  He usually has everything set up for me, but this time, he told me that I had to move some loose fencing outside of their pasture, which I did...but apparently left it within easy bovine reach.  You know that saying about the grass being greener on the other side of the fence?  Let's just say that the expensive portable electric fencing is chewier on the other side of the fence:

I'm shamelessly linking up with the Homestead Barn Hop #60.  Because I don't want it to happen to you!

Out to Pasture

To say we've had a mild winter in the southeast is an understatement.  It's been virtually non-existent.  And because of this, I feel like I've been in spring denial...willfully ignoring the seeds sitting on the counter and the million other things I need to do to prepare for the season.

Until last week, when the promise of spiking temperatures slapped me out of my wintery slumber.  The chickens were still in the hoop house, and we had to get them out on pasture because that hoop house works.  We'd had to open the door when it got into the 50s during the day, unless we wanted fried chicken for dinner!

So on Sunday I planted some spring veggies: snap peas, lettuce, Swiss chard, cilantro, and arugula - which my nephew swears will take care of the evil nematodes that ate my watermelon roots last year.  Then Byron and I moved the chickens from the hoop house out onto pasture.  Since we keep them in an area enclosed with electric netting and move them to fresh grass every couple days, we clipped their wings so they wouldn't escape from their area.

Happy to be on pasture again.

The cows had already been out on pasture for a couple days.

And yesterday I hooked up and levelled the rain barrel system.  The "receiving" barrel gets heavy and tends to tip back when it's full, so hopefully this treated board will do the trick.  I'll have to check for leaks after the first rain.

We also learn from our mistakes.  For instance, we should have buried the boards around the perimeter of the hoop house into the ground a bit, because a couple weeks ago the chickens managed to dig underneath in several spots and escape.  We jimmy-rigged the gaps, but need to amend it, especially if this is going to be our brooder in a couple months.

Are you ready for spring?

Join in the Rural Thursday blog hop at Two Bears Farm and A Rural Journal!

Hoop House III and Merry Christmas

At long last, my final update on our hoop house!  We've actually had it done for a couple weeks, but have been tweaking things as we put the Rhode Island Reds, and now the cows, in for the winter.  If you haven't checked out the earlier posts, click here for Hoop House I and click here for Hoop House II.

We used translucent plastic panels for the front.  The door opens into the garden, so on nice days, we let the chickens out.  Inside, we add carbon (shredded leaves, wood chips) to the bedding and expect we'll have some nice compost by spring.  The interior temperature has reached up to 70 degrees some days!  Warmth + sunlight = lots of eggs.

Here is the cows' side, nearly done.  Excuse the netting; it was a temporary safety before we got the fencing up.

Chickens' side, interior.  We removed the roost bars from one side of their portable house and installed them here.

Settling in nicely!

Rhode Island Red rooster.  Did I mention he attacked me a couple times???  Fortunately, he's settled down a bit and we have a mutual agreement to leave each other alone.  As long as he doesn't breech his end of the deal, all will be well (for him).

We moved the steers to their side of the hoop house a couple days ago.  Byron created a little run for them from the field.

Cows' side, interior.  You can see how the hoop house is divided by fencing, and the chickens checking out their new neighbors.  They seem happy, but the cattle were lowing quite a bit yesterday.  They like change about as much as I do.

Hard to resist patting their woolly winter coats!

Finally, my attempt to winterize the garden.  I've so far managed to get compost on one row of six.

I then covered the row with leaves and paper from feed bags.  This is kind of our own invention, and it needs to be tweaked since bags + wind = lots of running around.

That should just about update you on what we've been doing!  Byron has been working like mad on the fence, and I'm gearing up to start on those upholstery projects.  I will be back sometime after Christmas to update you on our progress!

Thank you so much for sticking with me this year.  Looking back, we've experienced several trials, such as continuing to await the sale of our other home and discovering additional problems with this home.  But these were accompanied by several triumphs.  We finally sold our other home in April, and were successful in raising fifty meat birds and twenty laying hens, with minimal losses.  We also have two very healthy steers that we daily moved to fresh pasture during the warmer months, and have beautiful floors in two rooms and the front hallway of our home.  We have much to be thankful for.

God bless you all.  Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Hoop House II!

About a week or so ago, I wrote about the multi-purpose hoop house we're building to house our animals this winter and serve as a greenhouse/brooder in the spring.  Click here for Part I, and click here for the design we're following (remember, there is a link to an improved design at the bottom of that post).  Byron made progress this week, and this weekend I left the house to clean itself and went out to help him.  Here's how it looks so far:

We placed a beam the entire length of the greenhouse for added support, and because you never know when the southern skies will dump 24" of snow on you again.

Byron zip-tied fencing to the PVC on the cows' side in case they decide to get destructive.

Hopefully it will work!

This weekend we put up the structure for the front wall on the chickens' side.  The cows' side will remain open for access to a yard.

We grommetted (is that a word??) one end of the poly.

The super-strong 11 mil poly, which we ordered from here, is draped over the PVC.

We secured it with wooden lathe, screws, and muscle.  The instructions warn to pull this stuff tight and to install it on a warmer day since it will sag a bit in the cold.  Screws are nice because you can adjust wrinkles easily.  What isn't nice is a totally numb thumb after half an hour of pulling.

Cows' side.

Here's what the grommets were all about.  We zip-tied the poly a few inches back in hopes that the little varmints won't chew on it.

Chickens' side, facing the garden.  We are going to add a door and clear roofing panels to this wall to maximize sunlight.  Because more sunlight = more eggs.  At least in theory.

We hope to finish this by next week, or at least before the next cold front hits.  And if you don't hear back from me until then, Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm linking up with a couple blog hops.  Click below to visit:

Hoop House!

Last weekend, Byron began building a hoop house that will be the winter home for our chickens and, we're thinking, our cows.  We're following the excellent plans found on this site, but are tweaking things a bit to suit our needs.  If you end up building one and follow these plans, be sure to check out the link at the bottom of the article to the post about the improvements he made to his original design.

I should also mention that this is going to be a multi-purpose structure, which is how we'd like to build most of our outbuildings.  Beside housing animals, we're planning on using it as a brooder and greenhouse in the spring, since the covering will be a semi-transparent poly that will allow sunlight in.  In the summer, we may roll the poly back and plant directly into the ground (after cleaning out the most recent droppings, obviously).

This is supposed to be a one-day/weekend project, but like everything else around here, it's taking us longer thanks to a full-time job and useless daylight saving time.  But here's the progress so far:

The hoop house will be accessed through the garden, at one end.

The PVC is installed over rebar.

We used 20' long 3/4" outdoor (schedule 40) PVC for the structure, which is supported by rebar. We have about 30" of rebar in the ground and about 15" above. Obviously, the rebar will not last forever, but it's a cheaper fix than ordering a multi-thousand dollar catalog greenhouse.

The perimeter is treated 2x12s.  We used deeper 2x's since we'll be housing animals and want to be able to add bedding throughout the season, as needed.

A surprise visitor came to check out the progress.  Our rooster spotted this eagle from several hundred yards away!

You may have noticed the cedar post in the middle of the structure a few photos ago.  Three posts will serve as columns for the 2x6 ridge board we're adding to support the hoops.  .

Installing post #???? on the property!

The posts at either end are about 2.5' from the ends, which will allow access but will mean that the ridge board will cantilever a bit. I'm pretty sure it will be fine; we don't anticipate major snow loads since the heat from the animals inside will (hopefully) cause any accumulation to melt and slide off quickly.

The end of the hoop house closest to the garden will be closed in with plastic panels and a door, and the other end will be open to allow the cows to come in and out as they please.  We'll build up a "wall" of hay bales and chicken wire to separate the chickens and cows, and we're going to reinforce the cows' end of the hoop house with wire so they don't destroy the poly.  Frankly, I'm a little nervous about the cows making their winter home in here, since they did this to their portable shelter:

Bad cows.

But then Byron reinforced it with leftover wire fencing from the garden:

Good cows.

Check back soon for more updates!

What I Would Ask Laura Ingalls Wilder: Green Acres Weekend Update

Our big dilemma this week has been when to wean our 6-week-old calves off milk replacer.  Last Saturday we took a 20+ mile drive out to a co-op to buy three more bags, and found that the price had gone up $12 per bag!  While we don't want to skimp and want to ensure that the calves get the protein they need, we also need to consider the financial viability of raising beef cattle in this manner.

From all the research we've done, the industry standard is to wean the calves at around six weeks.  By this time, the calves should have been on something called "calf starter," which is grain, and cheaper than milk replacer.  After they're weaned, their calf starter ration increases and continues until they're about six months old, at which time they're put on pasture.  The crux of this method seems to be the claim that the calf's rumen is not fully developed at birth, and they are therefore not able to get the nutrients they need from grass.

So the questions that remain are:
1. When is a cow's rumen "developed" enough to put them on pasture?  I couldn't find a definite answer anywhere.  Our calves have been eating grass since they were about two weeks old, and they're very healthy.
2. When can we wean them from milk replacer?  Cows are not designed to eat grain, so we're not going the route of calf starter.

In one of the Little House on the Prairie books, one of Laura's chores is to milk the cow and then reserve some of the milk to feed to the baby calf, who has been separated from the mother so that the family can have milk, too.  This is a method we are thinking of implementing at some point, but no one does this anymore.  Left with the mother, a calf might nurse for a year!  But how long did Laura go through this process?  I imagine they didn't feed the cows any grain back then, and cows can get protein from being on rotated pasture (another method used in the old days...in the form of picket lines instead of portable electric fencing).  It's unfortunate that these ways have been lost to current generations.  Since Laura and those of her generation have all passed, we feel that these methods need to be rediscovered by those of us without much experience or animal science degrees, but who believe that cows are designed to eat grass, not grain.

If anyone out there has been in our shoes, I'd love some advice!

This week we also completed the portable hen house, which we're currently using as a brooder:

At 4:00 a.m. Sunday morning, we discovered a couple roof leaks.  I picked up some metal roofing caulk yesterday, which we hope will remedy the problem.

Speaking of chicks, they are one week old now and are developing adult feathers and getting big, especially the Cornish Cross.  In fact, these meat birds are so lazy that they sometimes sit down while they eat!  We also think we found a nice home for Napoleon...we'll be transferring him to his final place of exile on Wednesday.  And despite the brooder lamp burning out sometime early this morning (always have an extra bulb or two!), we've only lost one Cornish Cross, who just dropped dead for no apparent reason the second day we had them.

This week I will try to sneak in a blog or two about the rain barrels.  We got 2.5" of rain the other night, which FILLED THE ENTIRE SYSTEM...220 GALLONS!  In fact, the intake barrel got so heavy that it tipped back against the house and I gave myself a nice slap on the hand for blowing off installing the overflow spout.

I've also spent some quality time trying to eradicate squash bugs and their evil little eggs in the garden...more on that later.

I'm linking up with Homestead Revival's Barn Hop...click the button below to check it out!