Poultry

Pertaining to Chickens.

The 2018 season is starting. 

Jason Brothers M., Chicken, Pastured, Poultry , , , , , , ,

May seems far away, but we’ve already finished our planning and scheduling for the year.  Now is time to open up the CSA orders.

Our CSA is now open.

CSA orders are available now until all the slots are full or May 1st, whichever comes first.  We’re happy to announce that our prices are staying the same again this year; no price increases.  However, we have made some minor changes in the scheduling.

We’ll be doing one larger batch of chickens in the spring instead of the two smaller spring & fall batches as we did last year.  This mean only one pickup day for CSA orders.  Based on last year’s pick-up schedules this should work out well and it helps us give you the best prices by keeping our costs down.  If this does impact you, please provide us your feedback.

One spring batch means you have 2 dates to choose from  to pick up your frozen CSA orders, June 2nd or 9th.

You can still choose to pick up your CSA fresh at our homestead, just arrange a time with us in the evening on June 1st or 8th.

Our quality has not changed.  We’re still raising the same tasty pastured Non-GMO chickens we’re known for, so don’t miss out and order yours today.

 

Click HERE to see our CSA.

 

We’re still doing the Farmers Markets.

Big brother’s not sure about sis helping him.

Look for a new face at the farmers market.  Joseph is stepping aside to give Samantha the opportunity to work with Matthew raising and selling chickens.

 

We’ll continue to be at the Seymour and North Vernon during the normal Farmers Markets season.  We try to be in Seymour every week and North Vernon at least twice a month, usually the first and 3rd Saturdays, until the chicken runs out.

Check out our Poultry Pricing page for normal Market hours.

Follow us on Facebook and we’ll let you know ahead of time where we’ll be.

 

We look forward to seeing you all again this year.

 

-Matthew, Samantha, Jason, and Tricia.

Turkeys – 2017

Jason Brothers M., Poultry, Turkey , , , , ,

 

 

 

 

They’re Here…

 

 

Our turkeys are ready.  These are the same quality poultry as our chickens, affectionately raised on pasture using non-GMO feed.  We only raised a handful as a trial, so our supply is limited.  Get yours to add a special touch to your special occasion.

Price is $4/lb.  Weights are 12-20 lbs. Turkeys are frozen.  Order by contacting us at brothersM.poultry@gmail.com or through our order page .

 

Dual-purpose Chickens – 10 – Moving the coop update

Jason Dual Purpose, Infrastructure, Layers, Poultry , , ,

In fall of 2014 I decided I wanted to raise some dual-purpose chickens.  My focus is on a breed that lays good eggs which can be incubated to raise “panfry” broilers, pre-Cornish-Cross size meat birds.  So how about an update on how I move the coop.

 

I tried to keep the size of the coop minimal so that it could be easily moved.  It’s still heavy and challenging to move.  My initial thought was to add permanent retractable wheels to one end and add some sort of a trailer type tongue to the other end for lifting an pulling.  Due to the weight, the tongue never happened.  Instead I still used the retractable wheels, but also put a sledge under the opposite “tongue” end and pulled it like a sled.

 

This wasn’t optimal.  The coop was too heavy for the retracting mechanism I made for the wheels.  It was also hard to lift the coop to put the sledge under the other end to drag it with.  Additionally, in the spring I had to use the tractor to move it because the garden tractor would get stuck, #1 The Coop.

So  I scrapped the contraption I made for the extendable wheels and  decided to use temporarily attached wheels instead.  I scavenged two more wheels from  the front of a dead riding lawn mower.  For axils, I use 8″ bolts that are the same diameter as the original wheel axils.  I drilled holes through the coop’s 4×4 bottom frame and just slide the wheels and bolds right on.  I added some spacers between the wheel and wood to prevent rubbing.

This works well.  Our winter area can get mucky, as you can probably tell by the picture to the right; however, the wheels still allow us to pull/push the coop by hand.  A small scrap piece of  chain added to one end helps us to pull or allows us to use the garden tractor for longer distance hauls.

 

The main downside of this method is that it requires at least two people to tip the coop and put the wheels on.  You could use a lever or jack to raise each side, but since I have two boys, it takes just a few minutes to tip the coop each way and add the wheels.

-Jason

Dual-purpose Chickens – 9 – Suplemental Light

Jason Dual Purpose, Infrastructure, Poultry , , , ,

In fall of 2014 I decided I wanted to raise some dual-purpose chickens.  My focus is on a breed that lays good eggs which can be incubated to raise “panfry” broilers, pre-Cornish-Cross size meat birds.  So, how do I provide supplemental light for consistent laying?

 

The 3 breeds I’ve raised so far,  Buff Orpingtons, Delaware, and Rainbows, are sensitive to the amount of “daylight” they get in relation to egg laying.  In the seasons when the days are shorter, they stop laying.  I’ve heard some breeds are not as sensitive and will keep laying, but these breeds slowed down and almost stopped on me before I added light to extend their “day”.

 

120Since I do want year round laying, I have to supplement the daylight with artificial light.   When the coop is near an electrical outlet, it’s easy enough to use a standard multi-time timer to power a CFL bulb in the coop.  However, we normally only bring the coop near an outlet in the cold part of winter and the birds still need supplemental light in the fall and spring when no outlets are near the coop.

 

 

 

toteTo solve this, I built a DC light box.  For the light,  I ordered a 12VDC LED bulb that plugs into a standard receptacle.  I took the plug off a hanging lamp and stripped the wires to attach them to unit.  I purchased a $10 DC timer that has 16 programmable on/off times.  And I alternate deep cycle batteries for the power supply.

 

I followed the instructions to hook up the timer; however, the switch on the timer wouldn’t handle the amperage of the light if I ran it through the timer switch.  So instead, I ran a car relay off the timer switch and wired the light through the relay.  I added a fuse in as well, mainly because I already had the female spade connector cramped on and also wanted an easy disconnect in that spot anyway.  It may not be pretty, but it works.

 

 

lightTo run the light into the coop, I disconnect the lamp wire and feed it through a hole I drilled in the coop and another hole in plastic tote that houses all the electronics.

This setup works pretty good.  I have two light cycles programed, one in the morning and another one at night.   I can get at least 5 days off one battery charge running 4-6 hours of light a day.  Below are the descriptions and links to the bulbs and timer I used for your reference.

-Jason

 

(Pack of 2) 5w E26 LED Bulbs, 12 Volt, Warm White, Round Shape, 40w Equivalent, Solar Powered LED Bulbs, Off Grid LED Bulbs

FAVOLCANO CN101 DC 12V 16A Digital LCD Power Programmable Timer Time Switch Relay

2017 Season… It’s here

Jason Brothers M., Chicken, Pastured, Poultry , , , , , ,

It’s Here!
We are officially kicking off our 2017 season. We will have frozen chickens available starting May 27; CSAs will have an opportunity to pickup fresh chickens the previous Saturday. Below are some of the highlights. Visit our Pricing Page for more details.

Pricing for 2017
• $4.00/lb for whole frozen chickens.
○ Average weight 4-5 lbs
• CSA packages – Our best offer
○ Ends May 1st or when all our CSA slots are full.
• Bulk purchase discounts
○ 5 chickens = 4%
○ 10 chickens = 6%
○ 15 chickens = 8%
○ 20 chickens = 10%

We’ll primarily be selling through the Farmers Markets
• Seymour Farmers Market – Saturdays, May 27 – until sold out for 2017
•• Westport Farmers Market – TBD for 2017

Why did we do a separate CSA and bulk discount?

It all comes down to what is Community Supported Agriculture(CSA). Last year was the first year for our CSA and we ended up giving our CSA pricing to everyone wanting to place bulk orders. We did this because we didn’t have a bulk discount. It was a compromise, but I knew this year we needed to change it in order to get back to the true CSA spirt.

The spirit of CSA is not about the discount. CSA is about supporting local agriculture because you realize the value of locally grown food, believe in supporting community businesses, or you want to support someone growing high quality food. While the reasons are your own, it really boils down to you supporting a cause. And one I think is a good one, if I didn’t we wouldn’t be doing this.

We value our CSA relationships. Your commitment helps shoulder our burden and tells us that what we do matters. It’s hard to explain how much that means to us, but we’ve tried to express it by returning to our CSA supporters the best value we can.

We’re looking forward to a great year and each of you are the ones who help make it happen. We hope you like and share our posts and if you’re buying chicken to give us the chance to earn your loyalty. Thank you.

Dual-purpose Chickens – 8 – Winter Water

Jason Dual Purpose, Infrastructure, Layers, Poultry , , , , ,

In fall of 2014 I decided I wanted to raise some dual-purpose chickens.  My focus is on a breed that lays good eggs which can be incubated to raise “panfry” broilers, pre-Cornish-Cross size meat birds.  So, how do I keep the water from freezing?

One of banes of winter is frozen livestock water.  In the past, we’ve use 3 plastic 1 gallon waterers and rotated them throughout the day, bringing the frozen  ones in to thaw.  This was not an optimal solution.

 

I did some searching and was intrigued by an idea of using a tire to accumulate solar heat, and straw and a board inside the tire as insulation.  However, that would not work around here once the temperatures dropped well below freezing.

 

The idea I settled on was to use a concrete block with a light bulb inside, especially since the coop was going to be close to a power source.  It was easy to make.  Just an extension cord, a plugin light receptacle, a cooking tin, and a concrete block.  Put the cord, receptacle , and light bulb together and slid them into the concrete block.

base    light

To keep the block sitting level, either chisel a grove in the concrete block or sit the block on two pieces of wood and run the cord in-between the two pieced of wood.

Grove

And cover with a tin pan, to keep moisture away from the light.  Although I have metal waterers, I’m using the plastic ones as I think they handle the water freezing better.

waterer

I’m using a 60W bulb an it has worked pretty good.   So far this year,  most days stayed above 20 degrees , but  a few days were close to zero.  These days produced some frozen “rings” higher up in the waterer;  however, the tray stayed unfrozen and the chickens had unfrozen water to drink.    One thing to watch out for is that when the water gets close to being out, the waterer is lighter and easy to knocked off.

-Jason

Dual-purpose Chickens – 7 – What’s next?

Jason Dual Purpose, Layers, Poultry , , ,

rainbowIn fall of 2014 I decided I wanted to raise some dual-purpose chickens.  The main focus was on incubating my own birds to raise as “panfrys”, traditional meat birds frequently used in pan frying.  So where do I go from here?

 

So the questions I still have are what breed(s) do I want to continue working with and what size flock do I want.

 

 

For the breed, I’m not done trying different breeds.  I’m still looking for meet and eggs.  I’ve read that modern breeders are mostly focused on ‘show bird’  traits of the bird’s breed, and not on the functionality of the bird, such as egg production and size.  So, this year, I’m going to try buying my dual purpose birds from the hatchery I use for the meet birds.  The breed is called Rainbow and no two birds look alike.

 

As for the size of the flock, I’m still undecided for the long run.  A lot depends on where I want to go with these birds.  I think this year, I’ll stick to my a flock of 9-10 plus a rooster.  That way I won’t need to build a bigger coop.

 

The flock size brings us to the main question we get asked. “are you going to sell eggs”.  The answer is I don’t know.  It’s a possibility; however, this year it’s definitely going to be along the lines of a “when available” adjunct to us selling our chickens.  If we build a bigger coop, incorporate some egg only breed(s), and figure out some portable lighting for the coop, I’ll look more seriously at selling eggs in the future.

-Jason

Dual-purpose Chickens – 6 – In Summary

Jason Dual Purpose, Layers, Poultry

In fall of 2014 I decided I wanted to raise some dual-purpose chickens.  The main focus was on incubating my own birds to raise as “panfrys”, traditional meat birds frequently used in pan frying.  So how did 2015 go?

 

Overall I got what I expected.  Layers producing at around 60% egg to chick ratio and broilers weighed 3lbs dressed; both good foragers.  The main learning point of this experiment was the evaluation of breeds.

 

My Delaware chickens caused me much distress.  It seemed they all ate eggs.  Because of this, it was hard to judge egg production.  I’m  going to give them the benefit of the doubt and say it was equal, even though my gut tells me it was less.   And the final straw was a psychotic rooster.

 

I am pleased with the Buff Orpington hens.   To date, I’ve not found them to be egg eaters and they have a steady egg production at about 60%.  The one drawback is that I’ve still not been completely successful in breaking my broody hen.  That would be a bonus if I didn’t have an incubator, but since I do, it’s just a nuisance.

 

Overall, I see why Buff Orpington is a more popular homestead breed.  I’ve seen several people praise the Delaware breed, which is why I tried them, but my experience wasn’t favorable.  Of the two, I choose Buffs.

-Jason

Dual-purpose Chickens – 5 – Where’s the ‘beef’?

Jason Dual Purpose, Pastured, Poultry , , , , ,

In fall of 2014 I decided I wanted to raise some dual-purpose chickens.  The main focus was on incubating my own birds to raise as “panfrys”, traditional meat birds frequently used in pan frying.  So how did the “panfrys” do?

IMG_0435

They were good foragers, which IMHO adds to the taste.  I don’t have hard numbers on how much they foraged vs feed,  but they were very light on the feed compared to normal meat birds.

 

The birds were an average of 2lb dressed weight at 13 weeks and 3lb average dressed weight at 16.  That compares to the size of 1950s US Broiler Performance.  Next year I’ll try and get hard numbers on the feed ratio.

 

One limitation is that I averaged 20 chicks per incubation cycle.  Since I don’t do a lot of processing myself and the processing place is 70 miles away, it’s better to have larger quantities.  It’s feasible to raise two cycles together; however, to get a minimum of 3lb dressed weight, the older cycle will be 19 weeks old.  Roosters fights may be a problem at that age.

 

I plan on continuing research into the dual breeds for meat.  Three pounds is an ok size, especially for a tasty bird.  Hatching our own birds cuts out some costs and I’ll work harder next year to get good numbers on the feed ratios to determine what the actual costs per pound are.

-Jason