Poultry Party

There are people how like chickens and there are some that don't.  There are people who like the city and some that don't.  It is all up to that person and how they view themselves and the things around them.  For instance.  Growing up we had cats, dogs, ducks, and chickens.  Oh yes, and ferrets, mice, rats, snakes, and I am sure there are more I just don't remember.  Well, once I moved up here to the farm I had this wild idea.  Lets get chickens.  Now, they would do meat birds every year.  That is buying day old chicks every spring and feeding them all year long and then sending them to the inspector and butcher in the fall.  Next year, rinse and repeat.  The meat birds they would buy might grow well and taste ok, but wow, are they the worst in a chicken I have ever seen.  On average, we would loose 30% of them every year.  You see, if you keep them even a day to long, they start to drop dead of heart disease.  They come having to have medications the first four weeks because they are sick and carrying all types of nasty stuff.  They eat each other.  I am sorry, but after I saw these things, I wouldn't eat chicken for a long while.  I totally lost my want of every having another chicken again.  However, I went to a poultry show and fell back in love with them again.  I like the heritage breeds.  Yes, they take longer to grow.  No, they don't have the double breast of the "meat birds".  No, they don't carry the diseases of the other birds if you pick your stock carefully from a breeder. 

So started my journey to try to get poultry on the farm.  After much arguing and fussing with the older two generations here on the farm, I got my way.  More because they want to prove a point then anything.  But I can be crafty.  I was told in the winter, no electricity other then a light for when I feed and check for eggs.  And no gas!  Now it gets -40C to -50C here.  So, they would freeze to death.  Or so they thought.  I wondered how I could keep them warm.  Well, heat lamps, no.  Put a gas heater in a building.  No, they said no money.  Hmm..  Oh, fire.  Oh, how do I put fire in there without burning down a building.  Well, in my roaming around the farm, it just so happened that there is an old wood stove heater that isn't being used.  YES!  Next problem.  Where to put that.  I don't have time or money to build a building.  Most the other buildings are made of wood.  Too risky for me.  Again, go searching for what isn't being used.  Hey, there is there metal trailers.  Solid metal.  They used to be used as kitchens on the oil fields.  They are no longer used here.  According to hubby, they haven't been used for many many years.  Two require alot of work to be used.  One though, that one is full of very old clover seed that they want thrown away.  So, why not let the chickens work on the seed, have a building, and stay warm all winter.  It is large enough to hold all the laying chickens.  It even has cabinets in one end that with the doors off are great doubles for laying boxes.  So, I grab the tractor, get the trailer hocked to it, moved it down here by the house so I can get to it in the winter.  I put a temporary fence around it.  I close up the windows as there is no glass left in them.  Plexiglas works well for this.  So, it is actually good enough right off to put them out there while I work on the inside when I have time.  Now, left on the list to do is to build a cage in the center that will house the heater so they don't try to perch on it and burn themselves.  To do that I have to dig out the old seed from that area.  Not too bad.  Within a matter of a few days, they chickens were already laying the in straw covered cabinets.  Tearing up the old seed so it can be taken out of there.  You see, seed is grain.  Grain is seed.  All seed/grain up here if it sits too long will get grain beetles.  So, the chickens scratch up the seed to get at the bugs.  It will take them all winter to get through all the seed out there.  But, that is just fine with me.  Extra protein for them.  It may not be pretty, but it works wonderful. 

So, we now have chickens that I raised all year long.  Half of which I hatched out too.  Every morning me and the kids go out for our daily poultry party.  Every morning we feed them and look for eggs.  I say party because they yell and call for us as soon as they see us, they hope around like they are dancing, and as soon as you go in the pen with them, they are jumping all over trying to say hi.  Oh, and the turkeys, they are a favorite, they sing every morning.  Here is to proving that with some hard work, using your brain, and wanting something, you can make it happen.  Even to prove a point!