Natural rearing versus incubator/hand rearing

We've finally integrated ALL of our chickens (except for the three older roosters), into the main coop.  That includes the two chicks that were reared naturally by Miss Connie.

This means they all have access to free ranging, but they almost always stay near the coop and run area.  All of them except for these two;

The two that were naturally raised.  They spent the better part of the day hanging out with the group of us, working on the container.  The others stayed close to coop, or in the coop itself.  These two were duly rewarded for their companionship with some rice and bread crusts. 

They by far seem the most well adjusted.  I don't understand why, they've had very little handling or interaction with us, except for the normal feeding and watering.  It will be very interesting to see how they progress.

It does say something for natural rearing. 

Retrofitting a Walk in Cooler - Container Update

The Moose and I headed to The Compound yesterday to find progress done on the container.  The group, continued the work on the inside, added an additional arch, and finished securing the side uprights with bolts.  Adding the bolts took some time, as the holes had to be drilled, then drilled bigger, and then bigger yet to accommodate the size bolts we wanted to use.

 

Thanks to the Group!  I prefer to use the term group, rather than team.  I'm am so over the word team!  How over used and over rated.  There's no I in team and no We either!  I've rarely been part of a "team" that actually got anything accomplished.

 

The Boys reworking a cooler panel. 
If you couldn't tell, their twins!

Now on to this past Saturday.  Work on the container continued, this time however we were ready to begin the install of a walk in cooler.  Yep, you read that right!  As with all of our projects, they are works in progress, and this was added to our list of must haves a couple of months ago.   The Moose found a used walk in box, and we are working to retrofit the cooler into the back of the container.  It will be run off of a generator, and once installed we'll be able to use the solar panel/battery system as well.



Front set of panels in, including the door frame.

This opens up so many options for us, especially for hanging meat from hogs, deer and gators. The walk in box, needs to be cleaned up a bit, and cut to fit in the space we have.  A normal box of this size approx. 8' x 6' would run between $6 and $7K.  We picked up this not so beautiful one, including the refrigeration for $400.00.  Then what's even more amazing, one of our group's family members installs and repairs refrigeration units for a living, and can help us get it installed too! 

 

The side, back and ceiling panels still need to be installed, and we'll be tiling the floor.  It will be one of the snazziest tiled floors around as it will have travertine tile (leftovers from our home project).  It along with the interior will be painted.   One step at a time...

 

 

 





Help Get LoLa on TV

Dear Followers,

I am requesting your help, as I think the opportunity for us in the blogosphere, that believe in the humane treatment of farm animals (specifically chickens in this case), have an opportunity to help "LoLa" appear in a free Super Bowl Ad.

You can see the video in the link below, and then click on the yellow "vote" button.  They've made it to the second round!  Please re-blog if you can and help this go viral.  It's a great opportunity to spread the message.


http://www.locallylaid.com/help-get-lola-on-tv/