100 DEAD chicks ON ARRIVAL

I thought we were supposed to get Cornish Cross meat chickens today. Sea monsters. Usually, usually the post office calls us by now, so I'm gonna track it.

Friday?

In transit. So it's gonna be the 48 hours. Shoot, I hope they're gonna be alright.

You could call and see.

What's your post office? Hey, this is Justin Rhodes. I was expecting a shipment of chicks. Did they happen to come this morning? All right, I was able to get a hold of Rebecca. They have not come. Randolph's here working on our kitchen reno. We're so excited, he's early. I'm gonna get a lot done today, I'm sure. But we've— we haven't got the cabinets up for him today. He's putting on cabinets today, I do believe. I think I'll come and stack it against this insulation that's been used for the cool room because the kitchen's right there. Kitchen's right over on that other side, and I can go downstairs right here and get them and bring them up. I am under very strict instructions to carry these, one in each hand. Don't bump anything, don't stack them on each other, and get them up there. Can't say I blame her. She's— this has been her life for the last couple of weeks. Okay, I've got some up here. Hopefully that's enough. I gotta go let up Isis. Rebecca? I gotta go let out the ICs. I got about 6 up here. I'm gonna tell them to start using those in the loft.

Okay, I'll start bringing them up myself.

Okay. And I gotta let the ICs out.

Yeah, giddy up!

They're new to that coop, those little guys. I just wanted to get them out as soon as possible. Randolph, up and at them early this morning. No having to go to Lowe's, huh?

I've done that last night.

Okay, what's the plan?

Well, I'm gonna try to get all the drawers in and all the fronts on them and then put doors on, I guess.

Okay. Knobs.

And then I guess we'll try to do them floating shelves.

Okay.

And then the ceiling, I guess.

Okay, cool. Cabinets, but they're gonna be in the loft. We're bringing them up. Okay, you don't have to go very far.

All right, that'll be good.

All right, okay. All right, good. Yep. How are the little guys doing? How are the little ones doing? Well, let's find out. None of those are the little ones. They're in the back. There's a couple. Oh. You guys gonna fit right in? Shoot, I didn't bring no feed. You guys are a little more hesitant, huh? Oh, this is nice, nice to increase the size of this posse to go behind the cows and scratch and spread their manure, eat the fly larva that has been planted in there. They're not sure what to do. They're kind of following along. This is good. Ah, what a beautiful morning with the fog. It's nice and cool. You guys coming? How about you guys? You guys want to wait here while I go get the feed? How was it, guys? Good. They're all still around.

Okay, train them to scratch manure.

And now that's just another confirmation to those little chicks, hey, this coop means food. They're in there eating with everybody else, acting like they've been living here their whole life. That makes me happy. All these chickens on fresh grass, helping us spread this manure, happily getting along. So first it was ripping my hand out, my hand real good. Then it was pulling my rib muscles. Shooting pain went all throughout my ribs. Then it was the infection in my foot.

See?

Swelling now. And now something's wrong with my knee. Just woke up yesterday morning and my knee is strained. I have no idea what happened. It's definitely been the year of physical—

struggle.

Let's hobble around and clean up a bit. Thursday is clean up the house day. I tidied up a bit.

We have—

it's 9 o'clock. We've been milking at 9:30 lately because we only have one cow. We really need to move these forested pigs. All right, Jonah, let's get a brush. Si, here, come here. Loppers.

Some animal got in our skim last night.

Oh really? We gotta cover it up. Randolph act like he might get to these beadboard today.

I know, I have, um, well, we have some already done. These are, these are finished.

Okay.

And then we just have to finish these two steps right here. Yeah, those are ready to be painted, so we'll have it, but it'll be ready for him.

Does that mean Randolph's gonna be done today?

No, because he still has to— well, tomorrow put all the doors on. Let's put the shelf up, doors, shelf, finish the drawers, beadboard, lighting. Yeah, okay, so it'll be tomorrow, probably when we come home from the movies.

Yep.

All right, part of the hustle right now is When you work for yourself as an entrepreneur, you have to really plan and schedule for yourself. And we want to take you guys to the movies tomorrow. It starts yesterday, getting ahead, getting caught up on the edits. All right, so we got to get these pigs— let's at least get their fence up, and then it's an easy move in the morning. Net, scythe, loppers. That ought to do it. All right guys, well you know what, if they finish all their food— is that all their food, guys, or did you feed them in a different location? Hey, why are we feeding them right there? Because that— this is well tilled.

That's the distraction.

Okay, well where did you feed them mainly? Okay, so they threw it down there to distract them. That's pretty smart. I hope you threw it in here. I hope you threw it in there. That's what needs to be worked. Okay, so they need to get out of here. Look at their manure pile. They've, they've done as good as they're probably gonna do. I wish we would have maybe spread food in there this morning, but oh well, I can only do so much. Let's encompass this, guys. Put a, put a net around it. I think they're done eating, so we can move them. Oh, this knee. Cut a hole, a tunnel through here. Okay. That's where we need to go with our line, right straight through there.

All the way.

Okay, good, good job. I'm gonna get around you guys and pick up any logs.

They don't like to pick up logs, they like to cut stuff.

Come right through here. There's no path, you're just gonna have to make one. Here, cut this in half. I'm just kind of waiting. I just want to grab the loppers or the Sawzall and just do it. They want to do it. Cut it down close to the ground. Really nothing to do. Let's set up the new fence since they're done eating.

Don't, don't smash the pig.

The pig just got splashed.

We only lack from right there to here for a fence. It's really like the U's, and, uh, needs to make the turn right here. So gosh, it's a shame that's all we lack. We have to use a whole fence just to encompass that one little area.

Papa. You should do a before and after.

Before the cows, after the cows, before the pigs, after the pigs. 9:30. But we're so close, I feel like we just got to do it. Set up our other net.

Don't you hear it?

Hold it steady and back up a little bit. Okay, we've turned on the water. I think I hear it coming.

Let me try.

You can try. Well, let's move the pigs over. It's time. We've got our netting up. All we got to do is open this up right here. Okay, Josiah's gonna go make sure the water's on. Jonah, you got this guy already coming. No feed, no nothing, just curious, wanting new forest. This is when we could use some of them pig boards. There we go.

Come on, grab it.

There we go, there we go, there we go, there we go, there we go. They figured it out. Happiest can be now. We should roll this up and get our shelter over here while we're at it. Still no water.

The water's coming.

It's a trickle, but it works. Hey, let's go mark trees while we're over here. You guys have seen I've gotten behind on clearing behind the pigs. Grass is just jamming. I want it to jam even more. We don't have time, boys. We don't have time. Or physical ability to come in here and clear behind them. So I've hired a local crew, but we need to mark the trees we're going to keep, like this magnificent oak tree. Okay, thanks. Let's save that hawthorn. A locust. You tied it?

Yeah.

Okay, thank you.

I tied it to the top to the bottom.

Okay, you guys like this job, huh? They're into this. You okay? Yeah, we just now got finished with the pigs. We were able to move them over. Oh good. Have you watered these already?

No, no.

Look, they get leggy when they're under here. We have to put them under here so the rain doesn't destroy them. Won't go in without our scoop.

Bribing. I know, isn't that crazy?

Oh, this is disgusting. There's like fresh poop on there. Well, hosed her down. That seemed to work out good. All right, let's get her back out. Uh, I got her in the stanchion this morning and one teat was more firm, and that's one sign of mastitis. The milk yesterday was hard to strain. Which can be another sign. Uh, we took the California mastitis test and sure enough, it is— does look like it's mastitis. She has a temperature.

Yeah, 105.8. Great.

Okay, put that in there. We're gonna be treating her a lot today. Let's just get her out, Jonah, and then a couple hours we'll bring her back in and strip her out again. Strip her out means milk all the milk out of it. That's the best thing you can do for mastitis is just keep the milk out of it. Let's just walk with her, see if she drinks, see if she goes out to the shade with everybody else. She's drinking and eating, which is a really good sign. She's very full, so she's eating. I feel— I'm feeling she's going to kick this really fast, but we're going to be very careful with it. Monitor it, uh, be very diligent about it. I mean, it could throw out all plans, but she's our number one priority right now, and it changes everything. And we're, we're glad to make that sacrifice because of everything she offers this farm and this family. She was going right to Eat. Your buddies are over there in the shade. There you go, she made it to the shade. Head down, eating. Really good sign. That makes my— that makes me very happy. Breakfast time. Rebecca, for those that don't know, what is mastitis?

It's just an infection in the udder.

Where do you think it came from?

Um, I think it came from not milking her out all the way. When you leave any milk in there, there's chance of mastitis. So, because we weaned Bessie and— or only went to once a day milking, that quarter just didn't get milked out all the way and— can create an infection, basically.

Okay.

All right. Actually, we're doing, writing out our protocol and we're like, wait a minute. Don't we have a mastitis protocol? Yes, we do. We put it in the member area when Phyllis had it last time. Worked great. So let's go pull it up right now. Here's your protocol, Becky. Just change it. If you do change it and y'all update it, the folks who have that link can— they'll also get you updated.

Thanks.

I'm about to edit. Rebecca, you're leaving?

I'm trying to.

Wow, you look nice without paint clothes on. Well, you look nice with paint clothes on, but this is I'm getting myself in trouble here.

Okay, well, I am, I am a hoss.

That's right. What do I do at 12:30 for the cows?

You need to—

while you're gone, um, let me just put that together for you. Okay.

And then I'll have the belladonna 200. I'm gonna go pick that up.

Oh, you're going to go— that's why you're going to town?

No, no, I'm going to go to get my insurance.

Okay, go get us her. You'll be back by 2:30 when we need to do something else?

Yeah.

Rebecca's checking it out before she goes. Like the outfit, buddy. My old cowboy outfit. I know, I know, but let's just get a reaction.

It looks so good.

We're holding out for these guys. When you gonna be done, Randolph? That's what he likes to tell us. All he likes now is finishing up. Okay, so maybe end of day tomorrow.

Oh yeah, maybe.

Yeah, it will be. I feel, I feel it.

We'll have a reveal We'll shoot a reveal on Saturday.

Well, it's— I still have to like move my kitchen back.

Okay, next week. Back to— well, I'm just gonna get to start editing. 12 o'clock. I want to edit 2 today so we can go to the movies tomorrow afternoon. Everybody's been working hard. We're gonna go and celebrate, spend some time together as a family. We gotta get it done. Okay, I'm getting a phone call from the US government. That's the chicks. Hello?

Hello? Hey, yeah, this is Jennifer from Pet Care. Hey, um, we got some chicks in and I believe all of them have died.

Oh no.

Yeah, we have them out back right now in the barn, but the, the smell and stuff.

Okay, so what do I need to do?

Um, you would Probably need to come down this aisle.

Okay, the chicks died. Every single one of them, she said. That's crazy. So let's call the beautiful one. I don't know if y'all heard that, but the chicks supposed to come died.

Oh yeah. Hey, hey, what's up?

The post office called. Okay, and the chicks have arrived, but they're all dead.

No, are you serious?

Yeah.

So did you call Purely?

So we have to pick them up.

I still have to go to Asheville and get my pickup. Yeah, and then I can go by the post office. Okay, okay, bye-bye.

Rebecca will go by and get the chicks, and I'll contact the hatchery see what we're supposed to do. Purely Poultry actually just called. They're amazing. They take care of everything. We don't have to file a claim. They'll send us more chicks or give us a refund, whichever one we want. That's amazing. So I'm gonna text Rebecca now and let her know. They just want us to see it first ourselves, not go by the Postal Service. So we are going to pick them up. Wonder what killed them all.

Heat.

They probably got too hot. Oh, how sad. Oh, how heartbreaking.

A lot died.

Yeah, they did. That would be neat if one was alive.

Yeah. Oh yeah, all of them are dead.

Oh, how sad.

Yeah, they had them outside.

Oh my.

They look like they were squashed.

They do look kind of—

they weren't, obviously, because the—

they're cold, so they've been dead a while. Bless their hearts.

I know, it's so sad.

Suffocation or something.

Oh, I know, the guy was really apologetic. He was like, I'm so sorry. I was like, honey, what do you think?

100 chicks dead. You see that? We don't know for sure, but probably got too hot.

I'm get— that's my guess is that it got too hot.

It was probably in some holding area too long.

Um, that's my guess. Like, when we looked at the tracking, I felt like earlier in the season we— they shipped on Tuesday, we got them Wednesday morning. Like, they shipped Tuesday morning, we got them Wednesday morning. Like, it just seems like something happened that was— it just felt wrong. How long they were at places.

Yeah, so they're gonna send us another batch, no cost, when— or give us our money back as soon as they can.

Nice.

Which is actually okay.

We're not in like a terrible hurry for them because we got these out here.

Yeah, these are slow growing, growing slow, which the ones in the pasture are catching up. They're 48% behind instead of 60, so they're gaining weight. Yeah. And that's just in a week, so they're gaining. All right, next up. Boy, when it rains, it pours.

All right, let's milk her out.

Okay, so she feels real warm. She is eating though, her belly's full. I got a technique this morning that worked Pretty good.

There we go.

Papa can't drench her. You hold her, I'll drench her.

She's on to us too from this morning.

You're going to rope— you going to put her in the rope halter? Then that is—

got those teeth gritted. That worked nice.

No.

Can you do that by yourself?

Oh, gotta turn it on.

Okay, just hold it there.

It lowered.

It is lowered, Rebecca. 103.5.

Yeah, that's good.

Drop 2 degrees.

103 is considered a fever, so she just has a—

you have a very slight fever. You're already kicking this girl. All right, we gotta milk her out.

Yeah, and then we'll put her some—

we don't milk all the teats or just the one?

Just the one.

Okay.

All right.

Yeah, if you get close, if you get close, it doesn't hurt as bad.

All right, so I don't think it's like already— all right, we're gonna try the old Hold the tail up because she's kicking. I mean, it worked to put the insert into her teeth. That was amazing. I never dreamed we would be able to do that to Flossie. Oh boy. Wow, you hold it way up.

I'm trying to.

Yeah, there we go.

There we go.

All right, next up, Grandpa's hobbles. Wow, I figured out Grandpa's hobbles. My grandpa is no longer living, so it's not like I can ask him. But I think I got those— I think I got her hobbled. Now hopefully she doesn't fall down. Okay, please don't, just don't.

Okay, she's gonna hurt herself.

Come on, Plessy, stop. Chunky. Okay, she's pooping. So what's the hot water do?

It just helps loosen the clog, the infection, just kind of— it's the same thing for You could just hold it on there. Um, it's just when a woman— it's basically the same thing for a woman. Um, heat, it just can help because there's a clogged duct in there.

2, 3, 4, 5. Got one out on the 6th.

There's a ball right there.

Buttercream.

You guys got this beer from Phyllis's mastitis.

Yeah. Oh, was that for mastitis? Grandpa's hobbles worked amazingly. We also injected— we also injected some of this Synergy Animal Products organic into her teeth. This is flossy, y'all. I'm gonna have to show you. I don't know why I didn't film it, but I'm gonna show you that this evening. This is Flossie. We injected something into her teeth. It was just right here. She clambered through a gate. What is this, guys?

This is for the light.

Okay.

They're very long.

Are those extensions?

Yeah, if we wanted them to be extensions. So it would just be 12 feet then. 12 inches. We're just gonna do one. One extension.

Okay.

I didn't get very much.

It's gonna look good. Going back at it. Finished one vlog, going on to the next. Today's gonna start editing today's. All right, editing. One of the members just texted me and said, what are you gonna do when you're in with those chickens for 24 hours? That's right, we got to 500,000 subscribers. I'm gonna live with the chickens for 24 hours pretty soon. We got to get this kitchen wrapped up enough that Beauty can handle everything for 24 hours. What am I gonna do? I got some ideas.

What?

One thing I gotta do though is order a chicken suit, because when you're gonna stay with chickens for 24 hours, it's always a little more fun when you dress up like a chicken for at least some of it. Should I get one that covers my face or doesn't cover my face? Or should we get a white chicken? I kind of like that one because chickens aren't really yellow when they grow up. All right, let's get the Rockin' Rooster. Okay, I just ordered the Rockin' Rooster. Should be here Saturday. So just in case, we're gonna like do this 24-hour camp out with the chickens next week. I hope so. Randolph, you get all your goals accomplished today? I believe it is. You got the shelves up, the floating shelves, the knobs, the dresser drawers. Okay, I see you got the The light ready? Electrical ready?

Yeah, I gotta move this light over there to right here.

Okay, good. That's tomorrow? Yeah. Okay.

Yeah, I gotta get a little box.

Okay. Yeah, you're going fast now. Thank you, it looks good. Yeah, all right, you're welcome. All right, Randolph did a real good job there. Can't wait to show this to you guys. Hang in there, it's coming hopefully next week. Wow, that was so good! One of my favorite meals. Totally forgot to even show you guys. Chicken— some sort of chicken casserole. Everybody's eating it. I can't, I can't, uh, give it a try. But those 100 chicks though, that's unbelievable.

It was awful.

I've never had anything happen like that.

What happened to them?

I think they just got like in a place that was too hot and they stayed there for too long.

Maybe fumy. Maybe, I don't know. It's like they— every one of them are dead. And it wasn't like a long ship time.

So I was thinking too that we shouldn't feed them to the pigs because what happens if it was fumes? That would kill them.

Yeah, so we end up feeding them to the forest. We're getting some more next week. Purely Poultry has been amazing about that. No questions asked. If something happens to the chicks within the first 48 hours, they take them back, they send more.

Well, they do that, but I mean, these were dead on arrival. Like, we didn't even have a live chick.

No, that one.

Yeah, that one.

And they handled the post office claim too.

Yeah. All right, Mom, you gotta paint. I'm gonna go edit tonight so that we can go and have a good time. Tomorrow afternoon, bead board. You went and bought more. What are you doing to yourself?

Well, Randolph only did the bubble.

Okay.

He didn't account for this extra here.

All right.

Which—

right there.

I don't want just the bubble done. I want the whole thing.

Okay. All right.

Could you bead board my back?

Third checkup with Flossie. How you doing? You kick this temperature?

Hmm?

Have you kicked it? Come on, we're gonna kick this mastitis, aren't we? Hey, it looks like we sold your calf. Supposed to come get them tomorrow, tomorrow afternoon, your calf besties. And then Nellie's leaving Saturday. Vitamin C. Yay!

10, 20.

Wait, hold on, keep it in there. Don't keep pushing it. She clenched. What, a 3.1?

So she barely has a temperature.

Yep, and it's going down. Yeah, that's good. I'm hoping and betting she's going to be kicked the temperature by tomorrow morning. Oh yeah, it's gonna be cool in the morning. Are you gonna kick this, Miss Thing? Are you gonna kick this?

I'm talking to Mama.

You like that? You like that, right? This next part I'm particularly interested in showing you guys because I'm actually gonna insert something into that tee, and, and this old lady, she's gonna behave herself. All right. Oh, sorry, I thought you were wearing your pink clothes.

Wait, tilt it up just a little bit. Can you tell me when I get to 30 milliliters?

Okay, you got the tail now?

Yep.

Okay, I'm gonna put it in there and you're going to squeeze.

That's what we like to do on a Thursday night.

Go ahead.

Slow. I'm trying to do it slow. Okay, difficult.

Working.

Was that not impressive? This wild gal getting a, uh, teat injection. In other news, we have some happy, happy chicks. They are here. They've decimated the manure, spread it out. Everybody's here. There's one person out way over there that needs to get back in, but they're trying to get back in. That's the point, so they know this is home. And they will get back in before dark, you know, jump or go back under or whatever. That's a win. Let's check on the breakfast posse. Has this fortifying of this net worked? All the tomatoes are intact. We don't have to move them. Hey, you guys, some— somebody was wondering, I thought you moved your chickens. Those guys up there, we move almost every day behind the cows. To scratch the manure, eat the fly larvae, spread that nutrients. These guys are spreading compost on a future garden bed. Guys, you wonder how these gardens have jammed? So I'll give you the answer right there. This is the animal garden miracle. Yeah, prepping gardens, staying there till they get the job done, and then moving them out. Evening chore time. The question is, did the icy pollitos— no, no, keep that covered. Did the icy pollitos get in their coop? It looks like they did. Can you go in there, Waddle? Come on, Waddle. Wait, let's get Waddle in there. Okay, they're all in there. Puddled up in the bottom. All right, Gideon, all's well here. Let's move this forward. Hold on, watch out, watch out. Move this forward for tomorrow.

Okay, tomorrow.

Okay, good. All right, let's go.