Our fuzzy (yellow) Plan to GUARD the Chickens

At least it wasn't, uh, gunked up shut up this morning. It's getting better. The milk is working. Lily, you going with us this morning?

Yeah.

Are you dressed? All right. Oh yeah, let's go. G-Dog, you going with us? All right, let's go. Here, you got your snacks. What do you want me to do, zip this? Okay, then let's get your shoes. You know where we're going? Yeah, we're getting goose. Close. A goose. Can you say goose? We're getting 2 geese. One to guard the meat chickens and one to guard the Icelandic free-ranging chickens behind the cows. Yeah, we're getting those. Grab your shoes, buddy. You have a present for me? Okay, what is it? Okay, and close my eyes. Open my— oh my gosh! All right, we got a big day today. We got 3 ambitious goals. 1, to pick up these geese. Those are the geese. Put them in with these flocks. Dip his— dip him in. There you go. 2, I had said yesterday I want to put the lambs out on grass today.

Is the goose gonna be the mom?

Yeah, he'll kind of be like the mom, but I actually think they are females. I think they're females, so they're gonna lay eggs. So, all right, they'll be—

you can lay eggs.

Yeah, let's move this into the sun just— I— it's this, this is part of my second goal today. I had said yesterday I wanted to get the sheep out to pasture today, but I realized I need to train them on an electric fence first. They've never been in an electric fence, so that's going to be interesting. I have some ideas I learned from the tour. That'll be fun. All right, give me the— uh-oh, it involves that solar energizer.

Do the baby geese look like a duck?

Absolutely, you would probably think it was a duck.

Yeah, I know what they look like. I was, um, in the— sheep getting the bucket because we forgot it, and they started following me when I started leaving.

That's good. Train them to follow that bucket. That'd be awesome. The third and final thing I want to do is get that mineral sled out to the cows.

No, hubby, you can't use your hose.

Big day. Hey, we got an order for chicks. I'm doing good, how are you? Well, these might be, um, those are the geese. Those are the geese.

I saw one through the cone. I want to read.

Let him see. All right, okay, do not drop it. Good job, guys. Looks like our Icelandics came today too. We expected them today or tomorrow, but it's good we got all our— y'all want to see it? Just give me a second. Give me— let me help you.

I want— I want to hold it.

Hold on. Oh, dropping.

Look, more! There's two.

How cool!

Get that weed in there!

All right, put it in there, Josiah.

I think they have a pack in there. Put it in there.

Let's get them home.

Come on. Oh, not that way.

Wait, don't let them— just hold them. All right, give them a dip in the beak. Dip in the water.

Okay, guys, let's make sure they're not gonna kick us.

On him. That goose is like 1 or 2 days old. It looks like he's as big as the sea monsters.

It looks like he's, um, not getting picked on.

Hey, all right, let's refill their feeders. Look, they're too mean. What?

Oh my God, he's dragging him!

Okay, get him out.

He'll go out here, tax everything.

He's like, he's He's just been out exploring. The sea monsters are too heavy for him yet. It would be better to do it at the same time, but it's not a perfect world. Come here, Josiah. We might— let's try him. Hey, let's try him up on these chicks, see how they treat him. If they're too rough on them, we'll, we'll put them together with the Icelandics. Dip him in. There you go.

Okay, he's not going to get picked on. These are not very big.

No, they're not as big, are they?

Yeah, so he'll be boss. He's so boss. He's boss.

Yeah, they're not gonna pick on— he's almost twice their size. They picking on him?

No, look, they all just like—

we'll reintroduce a goose when they get a little bit bigger. To the sea monsters. Pull them out and dip their beak in the water. These are going to be hard to tell apart. They are little.

He's so little, we won't be able to tell them apart.

There's so many varieties. Get in, hold that up. Look, the goose is, uh, happiest can be playing in the grass. The problem I'm having is these Icelandics are all different kinds of colors. There's black, there's there's brown, and they look a lot— yeah, they are bigger. They look a lot like these guys.

Okay, let me show you. But as they get older, it won't be as drastic.

All right, for now we could tell them apart. So take them out one by one and dip their beak in this water. They just peck right away. This is so good. They're in the right spot, right on grass. Sun shining. Save this box and we'll put them up in that at night. Check them out getting their own water. They seem comfortable.

Look how small.

Nobody seems to be picking on each other.

What about the goose?

The goose seems fine too. Look, it's amazing how quick they just pick up on this. They've never eaten in their lives and they go right to it.

He loves me.

Does he? Does he love you?

Look at this one, Papa. You poke me.

Did that one crawl up there, Lily, or just up there?

I'm looking at it, but did he crawl up?

Hey guys, where's the premier one gate? Here it is. Come here. All right, let's do this. Bring your Energizer, Josiah. This is the future for the lambs. We got to get them trained to an electric fence first. The idea is we're going to set this up inside the pig— the idea is we're going to set this— hold your camera steady. We're going to put this— this is actually a poultry net gate. We're going to put this up in there like that, electrify it. The sheep, out of curiosity, are going to touch it and be trained to electric fence. Hopefully they'll do that today and we'll be trained and we can let them out in the grass tomorrow. Okay, we'll go wash it out.

See, they're following.

Wow, they're following you! That's so good, Jonah. Okay, go, go wash the— wash that out. All right, that one's easy. All right, give me the— uh-oh, will you get me the— shoot, this isn't gonna stay here. It has a post. Yeah, that attaches 2. Couldn't you go get that? Jonah, that's not for that.

You said it was for the sheep, honey.

That's— it is for the sheep, but when we get them out in the field— that's an auto feeder. It needs a hose. Oh, come on, let's work. It feels like it should be attached down at the bottom. Maybe I don't need to figure this out right now.

Yeah, don't worry about it.

Let's just get them shopping.

You should turn it on.

Turn it on. Where's our fittest tester? It's out there, I guess. They have it with this kelp. Oh, it's empty. Can I test it? Sure. How do you test it? Hold the button down. Put that on the thing. Put it on the wire. That's the dead one. I'm pretty sure that's dead. Put it on another one that's live. Oh, okay. It's working. It's working real good. Oh yeah, it's real hot. I'm gonna put on a slow time lapse so that we can monitor them. Sound good? Soon as I started that time-lapse, we just stepped outside and we heard one hit it and back off. So one of them at least tested it. It looks like from the time lapse that maybe one or two others might have touched it. At least they're afraid of it, so the word has gotten through the whole flock. So I think we're good. I think this is working. I'm going to leave it today. We're going to put them out in the grass tomorrow. One last project. Two successful, two projects down. Now we got one more to go. You ready to load this mineral sled, Jonah?

Oh yeah!

Let's replenish the ones— some ones that we have here. Here's some kelp. That's plenty of salt. What is that in there?

Kelp.

You think kelp got mixed in there with it? Yeah, that's kelp. Next up, sodium. We also put phosphorus P in there, trace mineral TA, and iodine. Plus we have kelp and salt already in there. You know what's very special about this system? What's really cool about this system, it's 6 different minerals, and we move our cows every day, so I believe the cows pick up on what minerals they need based on what's lacking in the soil. So say, oh, there's no sodium in this, let's, uh, go and eat some. And they cycle it through their body and it comes out their rear end as manure, therefore remineralizing the soil in that case with sodium. And the next day we move them and it might be something different, but you know, different pastures, different areas will lack certain things, but eventually the cows— we're using the cows to remineralize the whole farm. Jonah, you ready to get this down there?

Yep.

Okay. Hey, wait, Mr. Brown, you gonna help me?

Yeah.

Maybe one day we'll get a harness and Violet will pull this thing.

Oh, you got to hang on, Gideon.

Check them out, checking it out. What is up?

Is that a dango? That's the salt. Oh, that's a new one, Papa! Those are some new minerals.

That is, that's the new minerals. Look, they like it. That's good news, it's working.

Let me show off my trough.

Okay, he's got yet another build. I think he builds something new every day.

I'm watching. Whoa! First I pour out some of my water. I don't pour out all of it. Look at the little grains that float. Whoa!

Okay. You have a lock. You have chains to keep it from going all the way open. You say you have holes in the bottom so the water drips out?

Yeah, some of the water leaks out overnight so it doesn't mold. Then I'll lock it and then the rats can't get into it.

So that's a closed-in feeder, huh? You can close it up at night. Yeah, cool.

Water's leaking out right here.

It's working. Yeah, water's leaking out.

It'll go slowly, so in the morning though it'll be dry and ready. Yeah, and then I just open it and then let them out and then they'll check the water and they'll come eat it.

Time to call it a day, guys. See you again tomorrow. We're letting out the sheep tomorrow.