Free Chicken Food (from thin air) MAGGOT BUCKET

Get some grass for the chicks, please. Gideon, I want some greens for these guys.

Little chicks ready to graduate to the chicken tractor nursery.

We just have a broody hen in there that's due with her chicks today. Let's check on that in a second. We need to get them out to get these guys in.

They only need one feeder because they both have lots of green left in it. I just have to like get like one scoop of green.

I just have it there for redundancy.

Nick, how you doing?

Pretty good.

You want this in there?

Yes, sir. The sea monsters. Two-man was 100% successful, you know that? Really? We didn't lose anybody. Normally we lose about 10, 15 out of 100, so he just paid for himself in one run. 100-ish chickens in here. I don't see why there won't be 100-ish at the end. We could probably just use one T-post and hang it on that somehow. Normally I do like a 3-way tripod, but maybe if we see something to length A T-post would work, wouldn't it? And hang it on that metal wire.

Yeah.

Okay, you're drawing a hoe.

There's some wire.

This bit too big?

What size bit is that? I actually think that's perfect. It'd be good for the viewer to know what size bit that is. Drill holes all up in the bottom and all up in the sides. So Beefcake will eat those guts. Mama Pig will eat those guts. Did we give some to the little pigs too?

They have a chair.

Straight up chicken guts. So is that weird to feed chicken chicken guts? You can do it. Maybe, but maybe it's weird. Weird because it's chicken eating chicken. Here's some with the piglets. I don't want to fill the bucket this much. You spoiled They're used to their ice cream all the time. Guts in there. So yeah, yeah, look at the juice coming out. Yeah, chicken gut juice. So you could do this with guts, you could do this with roadkill. Nick has done this with squirrels, lots of squirrels. Why'd you do it with squirrels? For chickens, because there's super maggots in the farm. I've probably killed 200 squirrels and there's like Hasn't made a dent. Has to be during the growing season. Has to be when you have flies, because what's going to happen is the flies are going to go in there, lay their maggots. We got holes big enough for flies. Oh, you're talking to me? Yeah, to get in there later.

Flies get into everything.

We want the flies to be able to get in. I think the lid, a little cracked. The last thing we want is to have that in there rotting and stinking, and the flies can't get in there to lay their larvae. We've just rigged up a T-post. Past, I've done sort of a T-frame teepee, like 3 prongs of sticks, but I feel like a T-post works just fine. Flies will go in there, they'll lay their larvae, the larvae turns into maggot, they'll follow the light to get out, and we'll have a bare spot here because the chickens will quickly figure it out. We forgot wood chips. Hoping the wood— hope you're right, Nick, and the wood chips absorb the Smell a little bit.

Yeah, because when there's so much moisture in there, a lot of times maggots will drown. So this adds surface area for them to climb on.

Nice. Is it dead? No, it's had a rough time.

Holy smokes, something went after him.

That's the goose that was in with the meat chickens. We put them over with the layer chickens.

He's got teeth marks in his neck and on his head.

Oh my gosh. And clean them up.

Do you have Blue Coat?

Blue Coat, it's like iodine. I have some iodine.

The bite mark there and then right on the side of his head. As long as it gets cleaned and the infection gets covered up, we might nurse him, give him some time in this chicken tractor.

If your chicks have hatched, I don't want to put him back in there. The fence is too loose, I think. You got one?

But wouldn't you hear chittering?

Not necessarily if they're laying on her. Okay, okay, so she might be done.

It slipped out of the nest.

Good job, Mama! Another successful chick batch. Could put him in here. We need to get her out. Oh, what if we put the goose in there? That'll work because the goose doesn't need to scratch.

One second.

Yeah, because, uh, I'd like to give her a few days to do these little chicks. This one is broke because I think somebody must have hit the post with the mower. Let's check the other hairpin. How's this one? It looks good. We're looking for a little— okay, that's gonna disinfect it. You're gonna go wash her up. I think he stuck his head through the net, probably got shocked, panicked. Moved forward, got his— got his body stuck in the net, and then something came by and picked on him. Okay, he's walking. Okay, that's good. You sprayed him with iodine?

Yeah, he had a couple bite marks under his neck.

Wow, this is the young guy too. Just got him this year.

His brother already died.

Yeah, we gotta keep you. We're already short of guard geese.

Maybe we should get some more.

Yeah, we will, but I don't think we can get more until next year, so all the more critical that this guy survive. We have 3 flocks, only 2 geese. All right, we got him some dandelions. Nick says it's high in iron, and we'll give him some feed. You hang in there. Stay strong. We got a broody hen. I got an idea. I'm kind of thinking this hairpin will be a great broody breaker. We don't need a broody hen right now. We got plenty of the egg layer chicks coming up in the brooder. It'll give the goose company. The hen will have no comfortable place to lay down and get all broody. That's the idea anyway. And it'll take her about 3 days, she'll break her brood, and that's about how long the goose needs.

You ever soaked them in ice water?

Does that work?

Yeah, I've done it.

I've never done that.

Yeah, give them an ice bath.

Yeah, they hate it. It cools their temperature down, so they just completely break. Wow, pasture prime to go. Gonna try to cut hay this year though. We just need a long streak without rain. Is it too high? Do we need to lower it?

We can't.

Oh, you can't?

Why not?

We ordered them.

Oh.

You could lower the—

no, because you keep them all the same height. That's what they're supposed to do.

Come over, let's see if you can see.

What are we gonna do with this window that we own?

The window's too tall. You'll have to just sell it. This kitchen sink window, she thinks it's too high. I'm doing dishes here, I can see out it, but she can't.

I can't even see out of it. So I'm wondering if I just need to order a window like this in the dining room. Just sell the window or use it somewhere else, you know? Do I call Heidi and ask her just to order another window real pass?

Let's ask Heidi what would be the best fix.

I mean, I could see out the top of the window, but I can't see like—

Why don't we just build it down below the header?

Okay.

And can we take— can we bring it— we can bring it down.

Okay.

I thought you were saying you had to have them all at the same height.

Well, no, he said we can bring it down. I thought we had to have them all at the same height.

You don't.

Or should I just order—

Integrity-wise.

Or should I just order one of these windows? You call Heidi and say let's just order one of these windows because she said once I order I can't—

Yeah, get a bigger window if you have the chance.

Because— but how high does the countertop come up? Because I want to have a good amount.

36 inches.

Do we have a thing?

36 inches.

We have a tape measure? To go with the backsplash it needs to be 40.

Yeah, measure up.

You know, so that's 40.

There.

Yeah, that's why you did that.

That's for you.

Oh, so that'll work.

I could have this window, so I'll just call. Yeah, why wouldn't you get a bigger window, one of these windows, and then we'll just put that window— we'll just sell it.

Wouldn't you want a bigger window anyway at the place you're going to be standing?

Yes, I know, that's where you're going to enjoy the view.

Yeah, I mean, I don't— this window, we're going to have actually a mirror covering it, so it's just light going to be coming in the top.

Yeah, privacy. Yeah. Oh yeah, that's true too. So that window though, you're going to spend a lot of time front of the sink.

I'll go call Hayden.

Oh yeah, measure for you. Is our king— is our king gonna fit in there?

What?

So it'll just hang over. We're just gonna have to have a low— we're just gonna have to do a low headboard.

The headboard will be fine because the bed will be on— you just will encroach on those windows. Okay, it's been a week. These chickens must be moved. It doesn't matter if it's raining.

Detective House, up!

Collect the eggs while you're so close to the house.

One egg.

Locust tree is doing great down here. That's good news, turning our pastures into forests. It's working. The maple tree doing all right? Yeah, maple tree is diseased. I'll move the fence line and you mow where it was, okay?

Put your fence up, then you mow, because then you know exactly where the fence is. Otherwise you're guessing where it's going to be and you're going to be wrong. I just realized I can let these guys out. Oh look, they're just hungry. Now chickens are in there, maybe they're— oh, this is the routine.

Let's lay some eggs.

Is there garlic? Supposed to cut it where it goes escapes like that, seeds, and it puts more energy down into the roots to give you bigger garlic. Day 2, maggot dispenser. It is raining, so imagine that's affecting our fly population. We do have one fly there, some flies in there.

That's good, and they're laying their larvae.

I see maggots.

Oh, baby maggots, baby maggots, mucho.

They'll start searching out this light as they get bigger and they'll come falling out.

Another rain day and our house is exposed.

They did finish our windows though. That's the infamous kitchen sink window.

Look at that view. Now it's like much lower.

It was just a mistake on our part. Give them some more holes. The maggots are on top of the guts up here. Are they really going to crawl down? I feel like they're going to want to crawl up. Flies are probably 100% getting through the top. These holes could be bigger.

Keeping the rain out.

Bigger holes. Bigger flies. We do have a rainy job, don't we?

I'm afraid we do.

You can rip off the siding.

The old hairpin is working for this.

It's been a nursery for the goose. He's getting better, and it's breaking the brood of the hen. See, she's got no place to get all broody, these wooden slats. How many she ended up with? How many you got under there, honey? Aww, 3 little chicks. There you go, give me back. Look at that.

Don't hurt them.

Good. They can crawl through the crate. Well, the calf's got over this morning. That means we didn't get milk because the calf got over and drank it all. There's our problem. Fence is down. Pretty sure this fence was already like that. That's— yeah, that's not going to hold. A new calf away from its mom. And maybe that's a new breach. It's an old breach, certainly won't hold them in. And this will do it too, having a shutoff off. That needs to be on for electricity to travel from this wire to this wire out there to where it's hooked up. Wait a minute, they weren't over here. They're supposed to be over here. There's no breach for walking through the net. I think they're walking right over it. We gotta go back and put this on fast.

Come on, you know what I want.

Let's go.

There you go. Yeah, he just started to put his neck over it, but he pushes it over. It's not on, it's not shocking him. Just figure that out.

Come on. Later in the day, look at all the fly activity. I don't know if they're after the flies. Or if maggots are actually falling.

You can see all the maggots.

See those things coming out?

They're all just moving.

Papa, the problem is it's too high for them. They're getting something. They're getting maggots. There's maggots on the side of the bucket. Maggots are just pouring out. Dude, I need to lower this down. See them? They're just swarming out now.

They'll be swarming around it.

Look at that, they're just falling out by the chunks. And these chickens are having a heyday. But my theory was wrong. The maggots are having no problem getting out the lower end. Hey, the farm needed us. Josiah and I, let's get a nice haircut. And I really cleaned up Around a lot of rough edges.

I could imagine.

You know what I mean?

There were.

I've been doing stuff in here. Dealing with the rough edges around the house.

Farm needed you too, huh? What are you making?

I feel like this is too small for this. For the amount.

Uh-oh.

Shoot.

Do you want me to get the small service tray?

No.

I'm gonna put it in a thing so that it doesn't overflow.

Baking pan.

There we go.

This is how I feel this morning. I had oral surgery almost a month ago. It's still hurting.

How can we even do that when we don't even have a side-by-side?

Oh yeah, the kids must have the side-by-side. We'll have to walk like the old days. This old metal pan, maybe Winnie won't run off of it. She's bad to run off of the pan. I just gave you your food, cat. And we got to train the little piglets to an electric fence so that we can get them out to the forest very soon.

Okay, Dad, Dad, how you feeling?

Surgery in 5 days. Don't go in there though, okay? Yeah, they officially took our wall. Basically made more sense just to take the whole thing down. I had to reframe for our new wall and door. We have the sidewalls braced. We have our gigantic windows framed in. And look how much taller our roof is. I tried to put these guys in the forest once and they busted out of their fence. That means they need to get retrained. I think it probably— I think I trained them and then took the training fence out. It had been a while and we put them back out, and apparently I wasn't fresh enough on their memory. You won't be new at gnawing that pretty soon. Hey, they're not translating it into the other fence. They're acting like they remember this one, but it's not translating to the other fence.

Maybe—

yeah, you guys hit that, buddy. You get hit hard. 7-4. Okay, yeah, I think they're trained to a trainer fence. I've never had that happen where they bust a real fence after being trained to the trainer fence. Hey, stop, stop! Can you take Henry? Where are you going? Oh, okay, good. Hey, you want to go? You wanted to stay with Josiah? Okay, you got him, Josiah. What are you making? This is gonna mount right here, and then when we put the firework in, it's gonna light. It's a rocket launcher. Yeah, Dan's putting up the eggs. Hey John, it looks great in here. When you're living egg basket to egg basket, you can't take any chances. Just bring the eggs back and then go finish chores. Come on, let's go. Even if we do chance getting distracted, apparently she just tried to walk it off. Could you be in charge of getting a feed pan, putting a rubber washer with a screw, and screw it down to like a board she can't carry off? It's so bulky. We're not going inside, okay? He says he wants tea. It's a decoy though. He knows that gets him inside and then he can say mama, but mama's still sleeping. Yeah, that's not gonna work.

Water?

What are you doing? Hot water? That's not gonna work either. I think he's gonna get you a tea and bring it out here. He's so nice. You making a cake today?

Yeah, half is gonna be chocolate and the other half is gonna be vanilla for people can choose if they want chocolate cake. What's that for?

Hey, we're going.

Come on. Are you really gonna stay here and cook?

Yeah.

That's no fun.

He wants to play in Lily's room.

No, let's go do minerals. Back it up, back it up slow. We're gonna get our mineral feeder out to the cows. You're okay.

I know we're sweating, Henry. Mowing the soccer field for the Fourth of July party.

Oh, you want some of your lemonade? What'd you make us?

We got a Dutch baby.

Eggs is the main dish, eggs is a side dish. It might be a homesteader dish.

My famous eggs.

What do you got?

Lemonade.

It's like a tornado and you gotta go screaming for you. Got them all. All right, both these guys have had 3 days. The goose, 3 days to heal. And the broody hen, 3 days to break through. We'll get the goose out when we get the chicks out in a bit. Parkerfield looks good. I want to put our layer chicks in here as a transition before they go in the field.

Go ahead. Is it impossible?

Be glad we don't have smell-o-vision right now. Now wait, why is that rooster picking on her? That could be the dad, cuz she's puffing up. He He's seeing that as a sign of a threat. Oh man, oh man, I like it. It's got a shield. Can you see through that?

Yeah.

How do you know this is the right measurement right here?

We've, we've already tested that.

All right, show me how it works. Wait, how are you gonna— how are you gonna— is you gonna have somebody light it and then— no, show me. You can light it right here. Oh, you put it in, hold it up.

That's why we built that shield.

I think it's gonna work. Well, plans have changed. Rebecca is having onset of mastitis. So we're having to rush to town and get a pump. It's locked up. I remember why I don't come to Walmart. I've been waiting 45 minutes for somebody to come unlock this thing. 1 hour later, we're getting out there. It took 1 hour for somebody to unlock this thing. Rebecca's at home in pain, starting to get a fever. You have a bottle rocket?

Yeah, what's wrong?

It'll hit.

I think we didn't figure that out. He needs pliers to pull the fuse out. See, I hope, I hope the, the, the thing doesn't get caught right there.

We already done—

we did—

we've had this a while.

Okay, hold this.

What do you mean you've had it a while?

This was from last year.

Oh, you've shot this before?

Yes.

Oh, okay. What's new?

The—

this and the lighter.

Okay, and it works?

Yeah. Wait, we're gonna shoot it from right here?

I guess. Well, let's get out in the grass. It fell out of the back. You're lucky. It fell out of the pipe.

Oh, we gotta—

you gotta make something.

Can't point it in the air, you dorks. You about got shot in the butt.