Joel Salatin Unboxes his Newest Book, "Polyface Designs"

It is 3:45 in the morning. Got a hardcore friend here. It's early, man. What time did you get up to get to my house? About 3:30. Yeah, I got up like 1:30 or so. And you're the designated driver. Yeah, man. We're on our way to Polyface Farms to film for Joel's newest book, Polyface Designs. We're going to go over all his amazing structures and we're doing this in one day. Quick, Jason, straighten your hat. Look good for the camera. How you holding up?

Holding up good.

I got my coffee. Actually, coffee's done. Yeah, that's it. I posted a picture and I'm kind of looking like this. Jason's all, who's had their coffee? Jason's had his coffee, ready to go. We got a nice sunrise coming in. We're only, what, an hour away? We're planning it out. We're gonna, we're gonna talk with Joel about the various structures. Uh, he's gonna give us a tour of them. Like, I'm hoping for inputs, outputs of these things. Like, how many chickens can you grow in there? How much money can you make off of these broiler pens and other things that are in this design book that Joel and Chris Slattery— I believe it is— he's there too. So the other author is there. That's going to be fun. We'll also create another video as we're, as we're one for the YouTube channel giving a tour, but then another as a bonus when you purchase the book, um, the more how-to. Like, it'll be fun to see these structures, but what if you actually want to do it? Then you're going to want to get the book, then you're going to want the video on, on, on to get a better idea of how these things work. So we just got 48 minutes between us and some of the coolest homestead or homestead farming structures in the world. They're cool. You've seen them. Oh yeah, yeah, it's really good. We just got here. We got here safe. Jason got here right on time. Eric, one of the farm managers, come— just came out and said the truck's coming, like the delivery of the books is today. It was supposed to happen like on Wednesday, I think, but it got pushed back to today. Hopefully that's gonna happen while we're here. Hopefully that's— he thought anywhere between 9 and 10. It's 9:08. Hopefully any minute we're gonna see that truckload of books. That's gonna be big. We're getting our gear bag ready, batteries, extra cameras, anything that could go wrong in the field we can fix it. Getting our mic set up for Joel. Remember how I talked to you about how I have 2 cameras? Yeah. Well, this camera fell off the counter and it's kaput. Gotta send it to the shop. This is the go-to, but I got my buddy YouTuber over there. Muchu Cameras. No camera shortage around here.

No, we got plenty.

We got drones too. No drone shortage. One drone. Where's the other one? Two drones. Two drones. Three drones. Whose is smaller? What is it? Is it cooler to be smaller or bigger these days? I don't know. Just took a potty break. Joel just came out. He confirmed too, between 8 and 10 the books will be here. It's 9:20. So we're gonna look for places close by to document these structures, and that way it's a tractor trailer, guys. And he says hundreds of people. And I know hundreds of you guys have already pre-ordered through me. Hundreds of you are waiting and anxious to get this book. That would be so cool if it arrives while we're here. How cool? And it just so happens that Chris, the co-author, is here. Like, what are the chances? Joel's already got his chickens off the pasture and into the greenhouse. Check it out, guys. When we last came here, it was summer and tomatoes and cucumbers were growing in here. This is what we're going to do on our farm with our new high tunnel, is we're going to put chickens in them on deep mulch, move them out, plant tomatoes and cucumbers, heat-loving crops for the summer. Notice, no, no purchase. Uh, no nesting box. These guys are pullets, I guess, getting raised up and gonna lay eggs soon. Doesn't give them purchase so that they're encouraged to spread the manure, and manure at night in different places each night. I guess this is residual of a summer crop left over. We have some squashes, some corn. And then, and look, it's planted just, you know, down in underneath the mulch to bed these guys, to keep these guys in. It looks like it's just two 2x6s to keep the mulch in, and it's just poultry wire, poultry wire attached to the chute. It's not even attached to the metal here. What's it attached to? Oh, they've got a board. This— there's a board on the other side of this. This is help holding it up that they attach the poultry wire to. Taking notes, taking notes, doing this at home.

Justin, this is—

yes, Justin, pleasure to meet you.

Good to meet you. Yeah, so you apprenticed here a while ago?

I did.

How many years ago?

It was 14, 15. Okay, I was here, so it's half a decade.

Have you been involved with Joel ever since?

Uh, no.

Okay, um, so how'd this come about?

Uh, kind of interesting. It started all the way back while I was here, um, just my engineering background. Yeah, I just have an eye for building and construction. And, uh, Wendy used to get a lot of phone calls from people saying Hey, how do I build the feather bed? And when I was in the office one day, she just goes, here, hands me the phone. I was on the phone with it for an hour with this guy just explaining things, and kind of became a habit. Every time I was around and she got a phone call like that, she'd give it to me. And one day she joked, she's like, Chris, you need to write a book, like put all these plans in writing because I'm sick of having to try to answer these things. I don't know how to answer these things. So it just kind of stuck in my mind.

Yeah.

While I was on my own after I moved away here, I emailed Joel at one point once things had settled down, and I had said, "Hey Joel, would you be interested in the plan set for the broiler shelter?" And he goes, "Yeah, that's great, but we got to do the feather net, the egg mobile, everything else too." He goes big. This has got to be comprehensive. And I was just like, oh my goodness, okay. And so we started on it. Just one thing at a time. Honestly, it was a project that if I knew it was gonna be 568 pages, what was involved, I might not have started it.

You asked me to write the foreword, you and Joel, and it was fun looking at the book beforehand. It's great, and I can totally relate with Wendy. I wasn't one that called. I should have. I should have called asking for help because you could see the poultry pen, for example, in the book, and I studied that picture and studied that picture trying to build it, but Step by step's gonna make a big difference.

Yeah, and that was something, uh, in my travels after I left the farm here, I had seen a lot of people replicate Joel's things. Yeah, some people do them very well and others completely butcher it. Yeah, like I had seen, uh, broiler pens made out of pressure-treated 2x4s and 2x6s. Yeah, and then the people, they were sitting in the corner growing up weeds. Like, why aren't you using it? It's too heavy.

Too heavy. Heavy.

And when you look at it, it was made out of steel, made out of 2x4s, 2x6s. No wonder you're not using it now.

No.

So, um, they're going to give you a 1-hour story on their hernia operations and complain while Joe's systems don't work. Yep. So there's so much fluidity and flexibility in your systems, but there's some things that are the way they are for a reason, and that's what we're trying to capture.

Is that— yeah, decades, 50 years. Yeah. Let's jump in the truck.

Let's do it.

Decades, uh, this is all business. Decades of experience now given to plans that you can get in a book. It's crazy. Stop number 1, looks like we're at the broiler shelters.

We're right at the end of the season. Yeah, we've got, uh, I think, I think we have 2 more weeks and then we're done. Okay, so, uh, yeah, we're right at the end of the season now.

Every time I come here, the Brothers are here, do you do them every year in this field?

No, no, uh, they're coincidence. Well, it's just coincidence. Yeah, we, I mean, we, we, we covered that whole field over there and then we moved them over here, probably because you come. So, so we, we, we essentially use two fields.

Okay.

And, um, and we do about one and two-thirds of the field every year. So we don't actually cover both fields. We cover one and about two-thirds of the other one. And then next year we'll start in this one, we'll cover this one 100%, and that one we'll only do two-thirds. So we flip the two fields, which one doesn't quite get covered every other year.

Do you repeat? You don't repeat. You would not hit this ground again this year?

No, no, no. One day a year. One day a year.

We got Mike, everyone. Joe's changed his name to Mike. Let's just stick this— let's use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without it, isn't it?

ABC.

All right, we got Jason with a mic on him, and then I've got this mic. Okay, we should be good. Here we are with Chris and Joel talking about their new book, Polyface Designs.

The, the single biggest biggest problem that people encounter duplicating this is they make them too heavy, either by using dimensional lumber that's too big or, or material instead of aluminum using steel. All this adds weight and then it's not fun. Don't underestimate the value of this tool right here. With this little tool, in 60 minutes without starting an engine, Without owning a tractor, one person can move 4,500 chickens in 60 minutes. In one hour.

And that's canceling your gym membership too. You don't need that no more.

That's right, you're canceling.

This is our gym here. This is the poultry pen workout.

The emissivity of aluminum versus steel is about 4 times different, meaning that it will absorbs 4 times less heat energy than steel would. So the reflective properties and just the material properties of aluminum, not only does it make it lighter, half the weight of steel, but also you get that heat reflective property.

Yeah.

So you're not baking your chickens, you're not having baked chicken on a hot summer day.

Where are you going to store this tractor-trailer load of books?

Oh, we have a book—

you have a book warehouse?

We have a book structure.

Nice.

Built specially for this.

Is your book structure mobile like everything else?

Yeah, it's a, it's a shipping container.

So we just covered the poultry pen. This is good stuff. They're— I'm pleased. Yeah, yeah, they're, they're nailing it, man. Joel is talking about the different intricacies that you just can't get in the book, like how to lift the lid off and stuff like that. And Chris is talking about the difference, like when you build it, make sure you bring the tin a little bit off the ground so it doesn't drag. Just, just good stuff. Rabbits next. Yeah, we just went over these amazing little lawn mowers here. The rabbit system, growing up rabbits for meat, lawn mowers. That was really good. That's really neat, really attainable. Could have that in a tiny yard. They've made no noise when we're here. I've heard the rooster several times.

Yeah, absolutely.

I haven't heard the rabbits.

Yeah, yeah, totally quiet.

Yeah, and I'm walking where they were 3 days ago.

There's not a better urban, urban, uh, protein, you know, animal thing option than a rabbit.

No, but the neighbor doesn't complain about the bunnies?

No, there's no smell, no nothing.

Often the neighbor— the neighborhood will allow a pet bunny, but they consider a chicken an agriculture. That's right, a chicken crosses the line to agriculture, but rabbit, maybe not. We're in the racking house. This is amazing. He just did the math. The math is crazy. You guys will see it in the real video, but we took what he's doing here and scaled it down to— you could do this in a garage, guys. One chicken per 3 square foot. I forget what it was for rabbits, but working together, the rabbits are pooping, the chickens are turning it in on deep bedding, and this is some of the greatest compost he gets once a year. We're looking for bunnies now. Bunnies are always fun.

Now that one's only— that one's probably no more than, uh, Not even a week old. Not even a week. See, their eyes are closed.

Oh, when are they ready for the field?

When they're ready for the— so we wean, we wean at 6 weeks.

Okay, yeah, nice.

So that's—

yeah, this is, this is Joel's sophisticated door closer.

So when you, when you close the door, it, uh, it'll, it'll pull it back in.

See who invented that?

Um, oh, I don't— it was probably invented, uh, 10,000 years ago.

Yeah.

But, uh, I was on a farm and saw one, and now that's slick.

That is.

I brought it home and did all the—

that didn't break down like a spring.

$12 a piece, or yeah, piece of scrap metal you got laying around. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

That's a bonus for you. That's not even in the book. That's a bonus for you right here, right outside the rack and house.

That one looks like it's, uh, ready for a retrofit.

Yep. This is to get you inside of a feed Feed that feed. Okay, cool. Oh, this is some exciting stuff right here. We're about to talk about the Millennial Feather Net.

The Millennium Feather Net.

We got one huge net around this guy. It's totally open. Yeah, open, uh, concept. We just went over the, the math on this. 1,000 chickens in this, and what was it, a a quarter of an acre every 3 days. Every 3, yeah. Listen, that's neat. Okay, and they were talking about even winterizing this if you want, with the hay bales around and some plastic on the side. We just wrapped up filming, uh, the Millennial feather net and cart. They pull the cart and this feather net all at once. The cart can hold You guys said 3 days worth? No, a month.

Almost a month.

A month worth of feed.

That's not quite a month.

I mean, depends on how many chickens you have, but that minimizes soil compaction because you're not having to drive out here with a— with feed, or bringing a machine every day to come bring feed or whatever. You could walk, as you said, you could ride a bicycle. This is a real— this is a really neat thing going on right here. It's something that you could scale down or up, and this is one way to get over one of these electric nets without turning it off.

Yeah, it's a Premier One solar charger, ground rod, simple setup.

That's all it takes. This can go anywhere. Jason just saw the logistics truck go by. Oh my word, did he go by here?

Yeah, I missed it.

Does that mean they're here?

They're here.

Yeah. Hurry, get in, he's gonna leave us. He's been waiting for this. It's Christmas morning with these two boys right now. Can go open your presents. How many books do you get ordered?

Uh, 5,000.

5,000, that's a lot of presents. They're all coming here.

25,000 pounds.

That's a lot of book, boys.

Well, they're— see, they're almost 5 pounds a piece. It's a big book.

The rumor is it's almost 600 pages. It is, right?

Yeah, 568.

When y'all write a book, y'all write a book.

Well, when Chris makes diagrams, he makes diagrams.

We had to cut it. There's more we wanted to put it, but we had to say enough was enough.

Yeah.

Oh yeah.

You have to leave for volume 2.

There you go. Stay tuned for the, uh, the bonus.

But don't ask them for it yet. They've just given birth to this thing.

There they are, folks. There are a few things exciting as exciting as seeing the final product.

This is how it always works for you?

Oh yeah, your book's coming to And a truck? Yeah.

Oh, and you haven't even seen one copy yet?

Nope, haven't even seen one copy yet.

There it is.

Author Salatin Slattery.

That's something. Printed in the USA.

Yeah, man.

There you go, man. Wow, how about that?

That's something. Look how thick it is, almost 2 inches thick.

And see all the different, the different basic animals are all color-coded. Chickens, pigs, beef.

Easy to reference, flip through.

Forward, Forward by Justin Rhodes.

How'd I get on there? Nice. Your first book, my first forward. Oh yeah, there he is. Nice picture. Oh, it's like Christmas morning in here with two little boys. So you'd be blessed with clearing this out for another run soon?

Yes.

All right, we're leaving Polyface. On a scale of 1 to 10, I give that like a 10 and a half. What do you do? What do you give it, Jason?

Yes.

How was it? It was awesome. We could— yeah, we covered like 4 structures. We were just getting done, the, the, the shipment came, the co-author was here, it was beautiful lighting. It's just not dark, starting to rain. Yeah, we got it before the rain came, which is good. This is crazy. This is the same— I feel so blessed. All right guys, I'm wrapping up this vlog. Very special video tomorrow, a tour of all these amazing structures, and we're officially releasing Joel's book. And as you can see, it's there. We're gonna be shipping it next week, like throughout next week. So, um, we are on our way home, 3:45. I've been up 12 hours, more than that, 12 hours 14 minutes. You've been up like 13. How you doing? I'm doing good, hanging in there. You're going good, but you went to bed early, just so people don't freak out. You went to bed at like 7 o'clock. Got 6 hours of easy sleep. Good for you. You feeling strong? Yeah, I'm getting some editing done. Mucho. One more thing before we close out the vlog. If you guys want more of Joel Salatin, no problem, I got more of Joel for you absolutely free. You want to see a digital PDF sample from his book, the first part of building a pastured poultry pen, a broiler pen that was featured some in this video? Well, I got the link for you down in the description, or you can go to polyfacedesigns.com and I give you Joel Salatin's You Confirm speech, a sample from book, and coming soon over the next couple of days, a video on an idea of some tips on how to go about building these things. So more content from Joel, link down in the description. See you guys tomorrow. It's going to be an amazing video, a full tour of all 4 of those structures we visited today.