Chicken update

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We're back in the egg business.

We had given up last year after the foxes got the better of us - more particularly of our chooks.  In the end they got the lot.

That is the reason we got the Maremmas - see earlier posts.  We started them each with their own small flock of sheep.  As they got a little older we saw the opportunity (as we always intended) to get back into chooks.

Because we are a bit 'gun shy' at this stage we decided to limit our investment by getting some ex battery hens.  I think they're only about a year old.  The man who supplied them said he'd picked out 'the best of them' - and that the shock of being shifted would mean they probably wouldn't lay for a while.

We got 12 eggs from 22 chooks the first day!

They were pretty scruffy when they arrived - not a lot of feathers.  I hate to think what 'the worst of them' must have looked like.

There is a big difference already in this photo - which was taken a couple of weeks after they came.  Tell me these girls aren't happy!  Happy enough to producing an egg each pretty much every day.

As soon as they arrived we put Polo (one of the Maremmas) beside them in a pen made of 5 farm gates.  We then started carefully supervised contact with the chooks - with Polo always on a lead.  Left to himself he wanted to play - except he's 35 kg (and growing) and they are not.

However, I got back from an overseas trip yesterday and - hey - Polo has 'graduated' to being a fully fledged livestock guardian dog.

There he was lying in the shade with chooks all around him.  This photo has him with one of the two that still look a bit scruffy.  The rest a just about as good as new.

I noticed last night that he was barking a bit.  The chooks were locked up, but he's letting any foxes know that he's around.  I'll put up with a bit of barking if I know the chooks are safe.

Polo is still only about 8 months old.  The book says they are not completely reliable until at least 18 months - so we'll keep a close eye on him.

This is a fantastic development though - as we can now think about getting more hens and having more eggs for sale.  And the production we've been getting from the ex battery girls is good enough that they seem to be a better deal at $2-50 / bird than getting point of lay pullets at nearly $20.

We've put a sign at the gate offering free range eggs.  The boss priced them at $5 / dozen without consulting the accountant.  I think they're worth more than that.

My mind is now turning to a Chookmobile V2.0.  The next one will be bigger and enable us to have more chooks - and to follow the cattle.  This is a system developed by Joel Salatin - whereby the chooks act as what he calls his 'sanitation crew'. 

His mobile henhouse follows about 4 days behind his cell grazing cattle.  He says this is just time enough for flies to lay their eggs and for the larvae to hatch - but not enough time for them to pupate and produce the next generation of flies.  The chooks dig their way through the cow pats looking for larvae (maggots) - and, in the process, spread the cow pat about.

This provides quick return to the soil of the nitrogen and organic matter in the cow manure - and, of course, the hens add their own concentrated nitrogen boost.

I already spread a certain amount of chicken manure that I get from a farm over near Riddells Creek.  I was looking yesterday at two parts of my paddock 43 - one half has had chicken manure and other hasn't.  There is quite a difference.
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A Maremma learning his job

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We have 2 Maremma pups that we are training to be livestock guardians.  They are still both very young so they are not physically or mentally ready to protect stock.

They spend most of their time penned up near the livestock they are to be responsible for.  Every day we take them out at least 3 times.  We walk them around the boundary and supervise their interaction with the chickens (for Josie) and sheep (for Polo).

 

Here is a video of Polo with the sheep .  I'm very pleased with his progress.  Polo bounces a bit - especially at the end, but otherwise it's all very gentle.  We have been told to watch for the adult animals accepting him - and for him licking their faces.  You can see both in the video.
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WWOOFing

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Our son has done the work to register us as hosts under a scheme called Willing Workers On Organic Farms.

We now have a host number - VM 259 - and we are waiting for someone to tell us they want to work with us for 4 to 6 hours a day in return for board and lodging.  Someone who does this is called a WWOOFer.

We are not a certified organic property.  We don't have to be - it's enough that we are mainly organic and don't ask our WWOOFers to use any chemicals or non-organic remedies. 

A neighbor has been hosting WWOOFers for some time - and we've had a couple of groups of them around to dinner - just to give her a break.  They were all nice kids.

We have quite a lot going on at present, so it will be good to have some help.  The two Maremma pups take quite a lot of time.  They are fed 3 times a day and taken for a short walk each time.  We're also trying to socialise them to the animals they have to guard as well.

Josie is doing well with the chooks, but still needs to be supervised.  The sobering part is that she will need to be supervised until she 'matures' - which could be a year away!

Polo is also doing ok with the sheep, but we definitely need to supervise his interaction with the ram.  Even the ewes are a bit aggressive with him.  He, for his part, is wanting to run around and play.  When the ram does try to butt him, Polo stands up for himself by barking and 'charging' back in a 'get off me' sort of way.  Having observed it a couple of times I think it's borderline what he should be doing to establish his role as their protector.

People say that it's best to get a pup and train them yourself - but that's a non-trivial undertaking.

Yesterday we drove down to Buln Buln in Gippsland and bought 6 fresian steers from a dairy farmer.  Our reason for doing so is that we just don't have enough cattle to eat all our grass at Moora - let alone at the leased farm at Benson Rd.

We now have 6 steers of about 6 weeks old.  They were advertised as weaners, but are really a bit young for weaning I think.  We have a bag of milk powder / calf formula and have started out giving them 2 litres each once a day.  The farmer gave us an old feeder - which I think was a hint to continue giving them milk for at least a week or two. 

We will probably get another 6 in a few weeks, but will see how these ones go first.  Whereas we grow our Belted Galloways to sell the meat direct to consumers, we intend that the dairy breed steers will be grown through to the end of Spring next year - and sold on the market.

Moora is 57 acres.  Benson Rd is around 100 acres.  I think, with the effort going into cell grazing, we can look at eventually having a herd of 50 Belted Galloway cows - plus the growers that come from that.  Taking the steers through to 24 to 30 months will give us about 125 head.  At present we have nearly 60 - so with a few more calves ... we'll be half way there.
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Good days ... and better

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Yesterday we got our first calf of the year.  The mother is Hargit and it is her fourth calf with no dramas.  I got progress reports by email - including that it was 7 degrees and hailing in the hours after she was born.

It was still very cold when I got home and all I did was look out into the paddock.  I couldn't see it so wondered if it was ok.  There was a different explanation which became obvious this morning.  I went to shift the cattle at 7 am and the calf was there and looking good and strong.  I let the cattle through into the next area that has long thick pasture including phalaris over a metre high.  The calf promptly disappeared.  I could see where Hargit was, a little separate from the others, but from less that 10 metres there was no sign of the calf.  Good instincts if there were to be predators around - particularly as Hargit was keeping a careful eye on me and the dog.   

Thursday was not so good.  We currently have six Dorper ewes.  Five lambed a few weeks ago.  I had begun to wonder whether the other had lambed and lost it as her udder looked full.  Then Kristina came in saying "The last ewe is lambing".  By the time I got out to it an hour or two later, it had two lambs, but both dead.  With only six animals those two were the difference between a lambing percentage of 117% and one of 83%.  I could have gone straight out, but I don't want to have to lamb ewes or calve cows.  I'm prepared to cull for this.  I have to concede to wondering about the longer term wisdom of human obstetric practises.  

We now have a second Maremma pup and are putting quite a bit of time into their training.  Polo has got shifted onto the ewes and lambs - as he is the more confident animal.  Josie is a little bitch - and a bit of a sook.  She has got the chickens to look after.  She was a week or two younger than Polo when she came home - and the first to leave the litter.  Inevitably it must have been a bit stressful going from 6 litter mates to a paddock.  We are feeding them 3 times a day and walk them around the boundaries of their area before each feed - plus a bit of supervised contact with the animals they are being bonded to.  It's quite a time consuming task - and Kristina is doing most of the work.  It's a bit sobering to know that they won't be fully trained as guardian dogs for more than a year.
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What's going on ...

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Haven't blogged for a while - so here are some photos of recent goings on as we head into Spring.

 Spring means new arrivals.  This little sweetheart looks as though her mother had a fling with a Friesian bull.

The cows are now in a separate paddock and clear of last years calves.  Sometime in the next month they'll be looking after new ones.

The second photo shows my daughter in law learning a useful skill.  Elastrator rubber rings are part of family history - with both my grandmother's brother and Kristina's grandfather part of patenting the idea.  They went on to sell a lot of them!

Doing the tail is easy enough, but the castration task needs care.

Not much fun for the lambs, but then ... I didn't enjoy being vaccinated when I was a little tacker.  They lie around for half an hour, but are then up and running again.

 
The first of our Maremma pups is now at Moora.  We've called him Polo - which is short for Napoleon - and the other one is likely to be called Josephine .... Josie perhaps.

He seems like a very bright little thing.  As gorgeous as any other pup, but showing signs of being suited for the work he has to do.

We are gradually getting him used to (and bonded to) the animals he has to protect.  Each day we take him on 2 or 3 walks around the area he has to watch most closely.  At least one of the walks is on a lead.  He didn't like it the first couple of times, but accepts it now.

He is already in the paddock - and isn't allowed near the house.  He has a kennel.  The first night I wasn't sure whether he had worked out where to sleep, but he has now.  The other problem is that it is not going to be big enough for him for very long.  The gates keep him from playing with the chooks - at the moment his only contact with them is supervised.

We've all reading a book produced by a scientist at the Cooperative Research Centre for Invasive Animals.  It's a very useful document.
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Problems ...... and solutions

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Last week we were late locking up the chooks ...... and lost 8 in one night.  With the 3 lost while we were away and a couple of other single losses, our small start to egg production has been brought to a shuddering and distressing halt.  Not that we've seen them, but it has to be foxes.

The loss of these birds hurts us financially - they cost money to buy - and we have also lost the income we were earning from the sale of eggs.  But the sense of having failed our livestock hurts worse.  It is said by farmers that where there are livestock there will be dead stock, but we still owe them the best care we can manage.  And that includes remembering to lock them up before nightfall.

On Saturday morning we took a step towards solving the problem.  We put a deposit on 2 Maremma pups.

Maremmas are a livestock guardian dog - originally from Italy.  One of our pups is 4 weeks old - and the other 6 weeks old.  This is the younger one.

We will bring them home at 8 to 10 weeks just as they are weaned.  They will then begin their training immediately.  I have found a book that describes itself as a Best Practise Manual for the Use of Guardian Dogs.  The author worked in an Australian research institute and our breeder said "She got a few things wrong, but not many."  Sounds like a recommendation.

One of our dogs will be put with the remaining 3 chooks - to bond with them.  The other will be put with a couple of the quieter ewes and their new lambs.  We have to make sure they spend time with the animals they are to bond with, but have somewhere to get away from them, and not be allowed to play with them.  Sounds like a lot for a pup, but 'the book' says 8 weeks is the best time to start.

Once we have the chook pup trained well enough - and only then - will we get another batch of hens.  This will take several months at least.