What You Forgot To Feed Your Backyard Chickens

Didn't think about latching the chicken tractor roof last night for the winds, and this is what we get. Oh, got her! This morning I wanted to put the piglets out But we're picking up from the storm, I guess.

Here, hurry, hurry, hurry, Papa, hurry!

Sometimes this forgets to get latched. There, that's all it takes. Oh, hold it! Two hands, two hands! Come over here, Teddy, come here, Daddy, come here! Don't put it near the water, or, or do you like Jordan's lightsaber? Do you?

It's better right here.

I'm gonna move this over. Our raised bed staying put. Gonna have to pretty much replace that 2x2. Our cover for our cabbage came off. They're perfect though, they haven't been touched by bugs, so let's cover them back up. These have filled up. I'm starting to think it's so wet Probably not the best day to put the pigs out. What do you think? Yeah, they'll tear it up real easy.

What type of project are we— should we do today?

I think that we should get kelp into the chickens.

Teddy's pooping. Teddy!

Oh, that's okay, that's okay. Okay, you want to take him over to the yard, I guess?

Oh yeah, it's gonna have to come in now.

Hey, let's just take the morning to show our chickens some love. Where's our cloth? Plus, we need to get a shelter for these piglets. We have a shelter for the pigs already. Should we build one of those that you pull, or should we build some sort of shawl?

Some sort of shawl.

Everything must be shawled. So I don't even know why I asked that question, huh? Except the pigs might be too rough on it. Where's Teddy? Come on, come up. There he is. Hey. Come here, come here. Nope, we're out and about in the morning. Can you hold Teddy? You kind of be in charge of Teddy. I don't have to walk through that gate. I don't know if your shoes are washed apart. There's some rain event, but our compost has stayed nice and dry under here. They've started to turn this. We turned this Saturday. Takes them a little longer to turn it at first. It's a little more bulky. You see a lot of hay still in there, but these chickens will shred it in no time. Oh, let's count them. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. We're gonna just keep it slow so we can count them. 11, 12, 13, 37, 38. 39 with a goose, 40. That's a good place to sight that bank. Keep that bank mowed. I want to get these guys some kelp, but look at this. This is for the kelp. I wish I would have put hooks on this thing and then it could hook into this. I'm almost tempted. It's so disgusting. You could sponge it out. I'm tempted more to get the, uh, drill driver and unscrew it and then screw it back in. Putting the food on there to encourage them to till, turn. Okay, so there's 40, Jonah, so you could get away with 10-ish, 11, 12 pounds of feed. Okay, hey, where's your drill driver with your star bit head? Because the, the mineral feeder is nasty. Little boys are taking Teddy on a walk. Our dog trainer told us dogs are going to have the highest energy at dawn, just early in the morning, and then dusk. So far that we found that to be true. So that's when we need to take them on a walk. Let's dare to do this, Jonah. Guys, do not fall. You do not want to fall down in here.

That's because they poop on it and pee.

Do they?

No, they poop.

They poop in this? This is disgusting. Sometimes this work is disgusting. I made this easy to disconnect. Oh well, no. Okay, sure, there's a quick connect on here. There we go. Let's go see what we got. Come on, this problem's just gonna happen again. We need some sort of COVID for it. And we— could we see if there's some way we can hook it?

Okay, there's got to be someplace higher.

Jonah had the idea of just raising it just enough to where they can peck in it but not be so tempted to sit in it. You see them roosting in it?

Yeah, they're roosting it. That's why there's so much doo-doo in it.

Well, we're gonna have to get them a cover probably because they'll just jump up if if it's even— if it's higher, right? We have a support brace to hold it. Can we raise that? Can that be raised? It's, it's got an L-brace there, but how's it screwed in here? It's just toenailed. It's gonna be hard to get to. And then there's that angle that's going to be in the way. So your idea—

so you see how the screw is right here? Yeah, we can just put it on the brace up. See the brace? And just screw it in this one and hold it really— these will hold tight.

It'll— somebody will put some weight on that or something, it'll fall over. Good try. You know, that was in there a long time. We haven't given kelp in a long time. You just want to try it again how it is?

Yeah, with kelp.

Where's the screwdriver? Where's the drill driver? There it is, right there. This is disgusting. All right. Have I said that before? Hold these for me. I think the easiest thing would be to get a hook on this, but I don't— I know I don't have that.

I do have some hooks, Papa, but I'll show you.

You go. Think. Let's go find them. By the way, right next to or remember, this used to be gardens. We used pigs to help level it out, and we planted pasture seed. Look, look at the varieties coming up. It's worked.

Okay, interesting.

Like a black mustard right there. Interesting. Is that part— that might have been part of the pasture seed, I don't know. Looks good. And over there, you can almost not tell we had a garden there. Yeah, so The plan is to get these pigs out of this stall. They're trained to the fence. You know, I wonder if we should do that because we trained them on the fence. I don't want to wait too long now and let them forget. All right, I think we need to do it, huh? No, that's not the kind of hook I'm thinking about. I'm thinking about one that you could— it's almost— there's 3 sides, could mount to the back of that feeder. And it would hook over a 2x4.

Yeah, you mean you're totally thinking— oh yeah, I know what you're looking at.

You could maybe use hooks like that if you mounted the, the mineral feeder to the, to like a 1x6 and then hung it that way. Oh yeah, but maybe more flat. So what if we mounted the mineral feeder to something like this. Jonah, do we have a 1x6? So if we mounted it to that, it would look like that. Yeah, but that's— the middle here would have to be mounted to that, and those hooks would be in the way. Bring me the little hooks. Or, or, or do you have some smaller hooks, middle, in between the ones you showed me and those big ones? Very distracted. I need to get— I'm thinking that we ought to get the pigs out, but I'm thinking we might have a solution. If this were thicker, you could cut it, have your mineral feeder on this, and have those hooks and it hang.

I think I did find some smaller— let me get the others to see.

Hey, even just screws. We have short screws, 1 5/8 probably. I think we might have figured something out. 1 5/8-inch screws right here. I guess we're making do or doing without. All right, let's not work in there, huh? Or should we work in there on top of the Chickshaw? All right, that's step one. Get this thing back off. We'll have extra to maybe put a, a roof on it to keep the birds out of it, and then we could mount it to this. This is turning good. This is This is good news, Jonah. Let's take all our stuff.

Why are we going back?

We just need to— because we need to build a, uh, yeah, come on, let's go with it. We're gonna do something like that, so we need to find braces to keep this roof at that angle.

This is what I did on my mini me for like a brace, but it was a different square. What you do is you put it right here and then it's got a slanted roof already for you.

Do you have two of those?

But yeah, I can go get another.

And then, Jonah, this is brilliant. It's almost like we planned this. This is going to be so nice. Now you do that, we have a nice brace.

That's what I did on my mini-me.

Is it? Yes, you're smart.

Those are my braces.

This will protect it from up— from all kinds of rain too, won't it, Kellie? And if we want to get cray-cray, we can put plastic, plastic paneling on this and the back, protect the wood. Let's just see if this is going to work though before we get cray-cray. You want to? We could put sides, we could put more of a siding to protect it from sideways rain. Oh, that's not level, is it?

Just gonna have to be that way.

There's this, this brace. We could put— cut this brace and put it in, and I think that's maybe what we'll do if this works. So but just to try it, can we rig it up somehow like that? Can we just do it, Jerry, like that?

Yes, do it, Jerry.

Okay, this is more than I thought I was going to do on these mineral feeders, but here we go. Let's give them— let's give them a show. So we just kind of put it on there sideways for right now. Look at that, it's kind of nice from in here. It's got to keep keep them out of it. And they— that's right, that kelp will be a nice health boost for them. It's got all kinds of beneficial minerals. All right, hand me my water and we'll be done. Hook this up. Well, still works. All right, you guys are gonna go get the cows. I'll feed the piglets, maybe. Maybe, boys, after that, when I'm milking, you can set up the pig fence here. Pig, pig, pig, pig, pig! Look, they're already here. They know. You guys ready? Less than a week, they're trained to a bucket. Come here, come here, come on, come on, come on! Here, pig, pig, pig, pig, pig, pig, pig, pig! Here, pig, pig, pig, pig, pig, pig, pig, pig! Come over here! Come on, here, pig, pig, pig, pig. So now if they get out, they hear me calling, I come with a bucket. It's gonna be all right, it's gonna be all right. Hey girl. Oh, slobber! Oh gross. Oh, we didn't put our lid on that last night and it got blowing rain in it. You gonna go put up the netting?

Yep.

Okay, it's Monday, you know what that means? Mastitis test. All right, no mastitis. Hey, what's going on? I got it all up. You did? Yeah, electrified and everything.

Yeah, I didn't test it, but it's like you just go plug it in, it's good. Okay, but I had to use electric wire to run it to the grounding rod.

And the— let's test it. Lily, you're gonna come help milk second round?

Maybe.

What is it?

My house.

Tell me about it.

This is me, my husband, these are my kids.

This is who?

My husband.

Oh, my kids. Oh nice, how many kids you got? 4. And is this your farm? You want to tell me about your farm?

My swimming place. Here's the bedrooms.

Okay.

And here's the living space in the And then here's the cows, chickens, the garden, my rabbit pen.

I like it.

My donkey and sheep, and then my more chickens.

Oh, I like it. The seed book building. Oh my gosh, how big is it gonna get, Beck? This is, this is as big as it can get. Any bigger?

Do any cows have 5 or 6 6 teat?

Nope. Well, I don't know. This one's only got 3. It's got one dead teat. All right, but the good news is she's got no mastitis. One dead teat, it's useless. This isn't the first cow we've had like that, and we haven't had that many family cows. Handful. But it's good that she doesn't have mastitis because we're only milking her once a day and the calf is not on her. So our system is working. We're milking her out really good. You letting her out for me?

Yeah.

What you doing, babe? Drop the milk off. You coming with Lily? You want to come help me push luchadors? Yep. We haven't been able to mow yet because it's so wet. This is the spring rush for us. 10:50, 10:20. I hear the creek calling me though. But we gotta move the luchadors, feed the lady pigs, and get the piglets out to pasture. Maybe we'll wait till this afternoon and get the piglets out to pasture. Look how tall this grass is, Rebecca. It's like 3 feet tall in some spaces. This is thanks to Sea Monsters. Nowhere else is our pasture like this. 2, 3. 1, 2, 3. Okay, 1, 2, 3. We got them half. It's too hard. We got a popped tire and the grass is too tall and it's uneven. I think we only have 3-inch clearance back. I think we're gonna need more. Good morning, ladies. Do we want a sled shelter like that? It's a little more sturdy. Or a pig shaw? What do you— what do you prefer, Rebecca? We could try a pig shaw. See, we're the shaw people. This is sturdy, a little easier to move. Well, no, it's not easier to move. Maybe a little easier to build, not as expensive because you don't have to get the wheels, but it is harder to move.

You don't have to buy wheels.

Okay, do it. They waste no time chilling, do they? Just a couple days ago we moved them. 3 days. Huge. That's crazy. Okay guys, I've edited. You ready for afternoon chores?

Yeah.

Yeah. Where's your mom? Beautiful but windy day again. We have more to do than we have time. Gotta move animals, we gotta get the pigs out, we got to mow in front of the luchadors, we gotta mow behind the animals. Should I keep going? This is when we got to figure out our priorities. The animals have to move, and then we, we put up the house.

We're done.

No, and we need to get the fence hot to the cows. That's mega priority.

We're gonna be doing this until like midnight.

We could, and we still wouldn't get done. So we gotta prioritize. How about get the pigs out and move the animals? All right, the reason I want to do the pigs first is it'll give them some time out in the fence where we'll still be out and about and can do something if they get out. Oh, these are so— oh shoot, I was hoping you You would have used the piglet fence. This is too broad for these little guys. Will you roll it up? I'll go get it. It won't keep them in. It's okay, that's for bigger fence. We have a net that's for piglets. That little— that umbrella is going to go to the creek. Oh, thank you, man. Have you tested this?

Yeah, I was hitting it too.

Okay. Come on, come on, come on. Here, pig, pig, pig, pig, pig, pig, pig. Here, pig, pig, pig, pig, pig, pig. Daddy, you're not helping. Come on, guys, let's get out in the sun. Oh, you got shot. Pig, pig, pig, pig, come on, pig. Let's get out in the sun. Come on, remember that? Remember the sun? Come on. Pick, pick, pick, pick, pick, pick, pick. I'm gonna let you have it right there. No more movement. All right, we'll leave them here. We'll go to our chores and check on them. Would you play with them, Teddy? Would you play with them if they'd have it? Are you up for helping the boys move the sheep and cows? And I'll, uh, come on, Teddy. And I'll, uh, go start going down the field. Fence. Our Energizer source, it's off. Let's make sure it's not hitting anywhere, Lily, or anything. Make sure no brambles touching it through here. Mama, where have you been? The goal here is to get things hot. Like, that's not gonna work. Let's continue to look for problems. We're right here. Let's just band together for a little bit, get these chute moved, and then we can all work on that. Come on. Glad I stopped to help them because we got 10 minutes left till supper and that had to be done. This fence— hot, although that's very important— doesn't absolutely have to be done. Is that broken? Oh, it's Super Jerry. You work on that, I'll get the others. So we're just getting it hot today. Another day we'll repair it. Repair it. That's what we're looking for right here in joints, man. That's looking sharp. This really needs to be mowed down and off of it. Yeah, see that way up here? Not too many briars on it. Let's see if it ends well up here. It ends well without touching. Briars aren't major like if A— if it's touching metal, metal is just a grounding rod. Stick falling down on it, holding it to the ground, will ground it out. I think we got it. What do you think, Jonah? Sweet. I just realized if the cows are right there, they're going to be here very soon. We need to— we got to put up our new perimeter around our silvo pasture. Look who just stepped over that fence. It's worked for us for years. Literally, they figured it out though. Oh, there she goes. Can we rig it up there somehow? Put this up as a dummy fence. Well, go, go all the way across.

Can I?

Yeah. 6.9, 6.8. We didn't work on growing chickens today, but that is the fruit of our labors last year.

Yes.

You tired?

Yeah.

You gonna sleep good tonight? I know I didn't sleep good last night. We had this— that storm kept us up last night. Storms, wind and rain and power outages kept waking me up. Supper's over. Check on the Piglets, they're out and about enjoying the sunshine. Do they graze and not tear up the place, or do they tear up the place? We can use either one. We could follow behind the cows 3 days and you could get the fly larva. If they do tear up the place, they can make silvo pasture. All right, here we go, guys. You think we can move them now? We've mowed. What? Uh, it's so hard to move the rope. The wire came undone. Okay, we need everybody, all the kids on that side, please. 1, 2, 3. 1, 2, 3. 1, 2, 3. It's easier.