Hatches, Harvests, and Harrowing Escapes

Greetings friends of the farm!

We've received many prods and goads for further farm-updates over the last several weeks, but have not had the time or creative energy to post. Like a friendship slipping away, the longer the time between posts went, the more that had happened and the greater the burden of catching up. Our apologies!

Nevertheless, without further adieu: catch-up.

In addition to the regular chores of hauling water and feed for the animals, watering, weeding, planting and harvesting in the garden, and keeping the yard (roughly) in order, a number of exciting events have taken place here at Magdalen Farm over the past month or so: my parents came up for a brief visit; we brought 48 of our 51 meat birds through to maturity and butchered them on two separate weekends; we welcomed 15 chicks to our laying flock through purchase and another 5 through happenstance (more on this later); our pigs proved the inadequacy of our fencing on a number occasions, and we harvested the first food from our garden.

Let's start with the visit. Last winter we had a number of occasions and opportunities to travel southeast to Chicago to visit with the Hurtubise side of the family. But, on account of our increased responsibilities here at the farm, visits in the spring, summer, and fall will sadly be a rarity. Accordingly, my parents graciously offered to come up for a few visits this summer.

Much like me, my mom and dad both grew up in suburbia and had experiences with livestock limited to an occasional state fair and our St. Bernard, 'Big Mol'. As their visit drew closer, Stephanie and I were very eager to introduce them to our pigs, turkeys, chickens and Hildy. They were delighted to meet the animals, tour the garden and spend a few days adjusting to the serenity of life here on the farm.

Mom visiting with Hildy

Mom visiting with the piggies

Sunday of that weekend was truly wonderful. In the morning we went to Mass and to Mike and Sue's church, where Mike was sermonizing on James. Then, having lunched at the drive-in in Milltown, we returned home to an afternoon of lounging in the beautiful sunshine and relative cool of a Northern Wisconsin summer day. The highlight of the day, however, was giving my parents a crash course in firing a shotgun. We'd gotten one when we were in Dallas and my parents were eager to give it a shot--pun very much intended. They both enjoyed it thoroughly.

Best Picture Ever!

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As our meat birds, which Stephanie posted about most recently, were nearing butchering weight, we set about building an apparatus to assist in the slaughtering process. Like the chicken tractor, our only constraint for the project was that it be free. Thanks to our cache of old deck boards and a pile of scrap duct-work from old contracting jobs of Mike's, we had everything we needed. The 'apparatus' that we set out to build is what is known as a 'bleeder'; it is quite simply a contraption that holds the birds in a position of relative tranquility (and stillness) while they bleed out. The benefits of using the bleeder are myriad but the two that spurred us most of all are : 1. In the bleeder the birds can't flap about, bruising their wings or breasts and, 2. The blood flow is neatly controlled and contained--for the most part.

The beginnings of the frame

Cutting out the cones

Folding back sharp edges

The finished product

"Ummm, could we have a snack while we're waiting?"

Ready for action! 

The butchering station

I think I'll spare any unwilling readers the details of chicken slaughtering, but those interested in the gritty details need only ask! Many, many thanks to Sue and Cindy (a friend of the family) for all their help -- thanks to them, butchering was a breeze and we now have 48 birds stored away in our chest freezer in the basement!

(Anyone interested in buying from us is welcome to: we have about 20 birds for sale.)

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As the demand for farm fresh eggs has continued to increase (thanks to our growing clientele in the Twin Cities), we decided to increase the size of our laying flock. So we ordered 15 more hens. They are going to be heavy layers like the other breeds we already had, some red and some black. 

The chicks arrived a couple of weeks ago now, while our good friend Kate Janke was visiting from Louisville. She and Stephanie helped get the peeping little brood settled in with one of our 'broody' hens who had been sitting on a clutch of plastic Easter eggs for a couple of weeks. The hen accepted them as her own and has raised them all healthily thus far.

Playing on Mom's back

Learning to eat and drink

[Nota bene: when a hen decides it is time to sit on her eggs, one is left with only a couple of options. He can: a. Let her sit on them and hope that some hatch and by raising them she gets over it; b. lock her in a shed for a few days where there is nowhere to nest; or c. cook 'er up and have chicken soup for dinner. In this case we decided to go with 'a'. We have since tried 'b' with some success on other hens but have not, as yet, decided to impose so draconian a discipline as option 'c' on these hens for simply indulging their mothering instincts. Though with more than 40 hens in the coop now, it's surely within the realm of possibilities.]

Last week, perhaps the most interesting and exciting thing that has happened to us to date occurred. I had gone out to the feed mill in nearby Luck, WI to get food for the pigs, turkeys and hens and when I got home there was a hen with 5 baby chicks meandering about the barnyard. I figured that 5 of our chicks had somehow escaped and that this other hen had stepped in to protect them and give them a tour of the facilities. Much to my surprise, upon investigation, all of the chicks were in with their broody momma. These five were in fact chicks of the hen that was with them.

We had had a fox in our field a month or so ago and it had scared two of our hens away. Both came back eventually, but one continued to roost somewhere outside of the coop every chance she could. It turns out that she had a clutch of eggs in the garage in a pile of scrap metal and was sitting on them. 

We caught the hen and the chicks and placed them safely in a brooding box inside the coop where we are now feeding and watering them safely and getting the chicks acclimated to life near the flock.

So, with the 15 we purchased and the five mystery chicks, we now have 20 more chicks to augment our flock of 21 hens and 1 rooster. The 15 we bought were 'sexed' and are sure to all be hens. We're hoping that the others are all hens as well, but only time and more mature anatomies will tell.

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In other news, our turkeys are really cool. They have very different habits and instincts from the chickens; they tend to be more flock-focused, running and flapping about like a flock of land-bound seagulls or something. 

Also, apart from being really hot, the pigs are doing wonderfully. They have really fun personalities and for the most part are a pleasure to take care of. Hildy has come to be very fast friends with them and seems to be 'one of the guys' when she finds her way into their pen. It's a very symbiotic relationship: she likes to chew on their ears and they like to have their ears chewed on--everyone is happy. She will be sad to loose her dear friends this fall.

As alluded to earlier, the pigs have found that unless we take every precaution to prevent it they are very much able to escape their pen. So far, it has happened three times. Each time Stephanie has been out there when it happened and was able to coax them back into the pen relatively easily (if nervously) after a happy romp around in the grass of the barn yard. We will be taking measures to make their gate a bit more sound before they get any bigger. Unfortunately, the last thing on one's mind will strategizing a means to get a 150 pound pig back into the pen is to grab the camera... Alas!

Finally, we were delighted to complete the transaction of purchasing Stephanie's grandparent's truck. It is in great shape and only has something like 70,000 miles on it. So hopefully it will be a feature of life on the farm here for many years to come. It has already come in very handy, hauling this and that around the farm and helping us get the garden fence finished.

Built Ford Tough

Well, that's it for now. Now that we're caught up to speed hopefully we'll manage to get posts put up more regularly! Thanks for checking in!

Hildy keeping watch