our ochre way | a homesteading blog about gardening, farming, and permaculture in north carolina

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Cattle Panels for Bolt’s Fence

We have a new batch of cattle panels at the homestead ready and waiting to be put to use. Cattle panels are a versatile farm tool and can be used for fencing, trellising, flood gates, or even greenhouses. They are 16 feet long, about 4 feet high and have rows of welded 5 gauge steel wire that make 6 or 4 inch boxes. These babies are strong, and with some t-posts, can fence in/out bulls, goats, dogs, and men.

16 foot cattle panels and t-posts will make up bolt’s new fence

We have used these panels as part of our movable chicken coop, and our portable goose enclosure. It’s easy to tie chicken wire or bird netting to the panels as an extra later of protection for small animals and birds. The panels are sturdy enough to stand on their own if made into a small square or circle, but light enough that 1 person can heft them from place to place.

We’re going to use these new panels to fence in a section of our backyard as a dog yard for Bolt. We’ll pound in 6.5 ft. t-posts and create an area that he can safely run around and exercise in. This will also fence in some of our food forest, and form one part of a future garden fence–a chicken moat perhaps.

These panels should last 50 years easily and are well worth the 16-20 dollar cost. They hold their value well, and used ones never seem to sell for much of a discount, so they make a good homestead investment and definitely deserve a place on small farms across the country.

a chick is born: a complete birth video

December 3, 2014 / Emma / Comments Off

i debated about what to post about today, and since so much has been happening lately in chicken-ville, i certainly have a lot of experiences i could write about. and then i realized how worn out i am from constantly checking on the chicks (although i know they should be fine without my constant vigilance)!

baby #1, drying and looking fluffier!

i have so many topic ideas for future posts about my experience with the hatching eggs and the new baby chicks, and we are only on day 4 for one of the babies and day 2 or 3 for most of them! some future posts that i will be writing about the great (and tiring) time we’ve had:

the variation in hatch times and circumstances (chickens being born are working on their own schedule just like humans are). usually, you just need to leave them alone, and let them do their thing like with a natural human labor, even if you think otherwise at first.
the loss of one of our chicks that was born with some of the yolk sac unabsorbed.
the intervention i used yesterday to get a chick out of its shell who was stuck (and had been stuck for over 36 hours)
what the “afterbirth” and broken shells are like
floating the final two, unpipped eggs to see if babies are possibly alive inside

for today i’ll leave you with this 10 minute video that shows the best part of the hatching process. this is the video of our first chick being born!

.:.

Chicken Moats: Permaculture Ideas in the Garden

December 2, 2014 / jason / 4 Comments

I just came across a new concept while researching fencing and it’s pretty cool. Chicken Moats.

A chicken moat is essentially a perimeter chicken run that performs the functions of insect pest control, weed control, deer fencing and protection, trellis, and off course chicken protection and grazing control.

chicken moat diagram from Edible Forest Gardens

The basic concept is to have two fences spaced a short distance apart that encircle a garden or orchard. This creates a laneway where you let chickens graze and scratch. Here they are able to much on bugs, and help control some of the tougher weeds that spread by rhizomes and runners. They are also in a prime location to receive garden scraps, fallen fruit, and pulled weeds and because the two fences create a hallway effect, deer are less likely to try and jump over them, keeping another potential threat out of the garden.

Other benefits include a nutrient flow, where chicken manure washes from the moat into the garden area, or perhaps deep litters are simply thrown over the fence and into the garden as compost. This type of structure can also be used as laneway and set up strategically with gates that allow the homesteader to graze their chickens in certain paddocks at certain times, or even let them loose in the central garden space to clean things up for winter.

an example of a chicken moat in action

Edible vines (kiwis, grapes etc.) and fruiting plants can be planted along the fences of the moat providing both shade and snacks for the birds, as well as pollinator habitat, and fruit for the farmer. Herbs like comfrey and rue can be planted on the edge of the moat, outside of the fence, where the chickens can eat some, but not completely scratch it to pieces.

A concept like the chicken moat is permaculture thinking at it’s best. It demonstrates the principal of function stacking wonderfully, while producing a yield, caring for the earth, animals, and people. As we think more and more about fencing, and multi-species rotational grazing, concepts like chicken moats make me excited to see what our farmstead will look like in the next few years.

Funny Ducks!

December 1, 2014 / jason / Comments Off

This is a short post today, but these are the funniest ducks on the planet. They are called Indian Runner Ducks, and they look like cartoon characters. Enjoy!

waiting for chicks: the first pip!

November 28, 2014 / Emma / Comments Off

today around 11 am the first egg in the incubator started getting busy! this first chick pipped (poked a hole through) his egg and has begun his emergence into the world… though still, 12 hours later, he hasn’t made any more progress. this is normal so now we just have to wait!i also saw the egg wiggle many times and i even heard him chirping in there once! wow!

the first egg is pipped!

today we finished the final preparations for the chick’s house, and added pine shavings to the floor of the pen and covered that with dog pee pads. this is because the first few days the chicks need a textured material to walk on that isn’t their pine shavings (since they don’t learn what is food and what is bedding until the first few days have passed). we also added their food dish and one of their waterers. it’s all ready to go!

ready for chicks!

now we just have to wait as patiently as we can (yeah, right!)…

.:.

Happy Thanksgiving to All!

November 27, 2014 / jason / Comments Off

We hope that you enjoyed your Thanksgiving holiday and meal! Hopefully it was full of great food, family and friends!

Our’s was great. A nice relaxing day of cooking followed by 20 minutes of gorging ourselves until we passed out on the couch. We used our roaster oven to cook our turkey, and that turned out fantastic. It kept the oven free, and the bird moist and juicy.

Turkey!

We wanted to take this time to thank all of our readers and everyone who follows us on facebook. We really appreciate you letting us be a part of your day.

Also, if your going to take part in any of this year’s Black Friday, Cyber Monday, or other online Christmas shopping deals on amazon.com, don’t forget that you can support our blog by clicking through our amazon link. It’s that easy!

Thanks again and Happy Thanksgiving!

countdown to chicks: building their first house

November 26, 2014 / Emma / Comments Off

our incubating eggs are almost done and the chick hatch is scheduled for so soon… saturday! i originally thought it was sunday, but i forgot to count the first day that the eggs started incubating as day 1 (which you are supposed to do if you started the eggs in the incubator before noon of that day).

needless to say, we’re getting really excited around here, even though we haven’t really checked out the eggs since my day 15 incubating chicks update.

today i removed the turning tray from the incubator and cut the turning motor off. i also added more water to the device so that the humidity will be higher when the chicks are hatching in a few days. this keeps them from getting stuck to their shell as they’re busting into the world! now that the eggs are on paper towels and without the turning try, the chicks will have more room to break free when the time comes.

almost time!

once i moved them back into the incubator after removing the tray, a couple of the eggs started to move, as if to say “hey, i ‘ll see you soon (and quit moving me around!)”

i also set up their first little home that will be theirs for the first weeks of their life. i used opened wine boxes, taped end to end. these were just the right height if i left the flaps on the bottom folded out to help support the rest of the cardboard. i taped more wine boxes together than i needed, which means that when i need to expand their home to give them more space as they grow, i can simply untape one portion of the cardboard circle and make the circle bigger, then retape it into another circular shape. rounded edges are important because chicks can get stuck in corners if other chicks are pressing against them, and they can be smothered and die.

you can see in the pictures below that in addition to folding out the bottom flaps of cardboard, i also taped them to a sheet of plastic underneath (in this case, an old shower curtain) to keep the circle from buckling or becoming malformed. this sheet of plastic should also help with cleanup once the chickens move outside later in the year. in the next day or two, we’ll be adding wood shavings to the floor of the little pen/house to absorb the poop and spilled water and to make the chicks more comfortable.

our quick and easy chick house!

the heat lamp really gets the space nice and toasty. the thermometer reads 96 degrees! perfect for day 1!

the red lamp is a heat lamp, and will keep areas of the house 95 degrees, the ideal starting temperature for little baby chickens. each week we’ll raise the lamp so that the temperature directly below the lamp drops by 5 degrees each week. this allows for the chicks to acclimate to cooler temperatures over time. in the meantime, the light will warm them and the red tint helps them from picking at each other (which can cause open sores and lead to a sick or dead chick).

their water and food dishes will be in the house near the warm, center area and we’ll leave the regular overhead light bulb on in their space so that they thrive and feel safer.

so exciting! only 3 days to go!

.:.

Pastured Heritage Turkeys for Next Year’s Thanksgiving??

November 25, 2014 / jason / Comments Off

With Thanksgiving just around the corner, along with the potential hatching of our incubated chicken eggs this weekend, Emma and I have been perusing our favorite hatchery, Murray McMurray, for ideas and inspiration on expanding our flock next spring. With all of the turkey talk going on, we naturally checked out their turkey selection (fun fact: Baby turkeys are known as poults), and boy did we get excited. It’s looking like next Thanksgiving we just may sit down to a feast of pasture raised heritage turkey!

One reason we were so impressed with turkeys as livestock is their size. As you probably are aware by now, having bought your Thanksgiving turkey already, they can reach considerable size. Dressed out, a turkey can be over 20 pounds, and easily 15. Compare this to a 4-5 pound broiler chicken and it’s pretty exciting.

A Bourbon Red Heritage Turkey

Turkeys are also native to North America, and as such are well adapted to our climate and habitats. Wild turkeys are very successful in our area, foraging among mature woodlands, old fields, crop fields, and pastures. I can see turkeys (fun fact: a group of turkeys is called a rafter) fitting in nicely in a restoration agriculture/silvopasture system grazing among fruit trees, sunchokes, and berries.

It takes about 4-5 months to produce an eating size turkey. Heritage breeds take longer, and put on weight slower, but they make up for it with their hardiness, ability to breed and raise young, and beautiful plumage. We’ll definitely go with heritage birds when we order poults next spring, but it will be hard deciding on which breeds to choose!!

chicken egg incubation update–day 15

November 24, 2014 / Emma / 2 Comments

a brief warning for you here… some images in this post are of an unborn chicken embryo, which stopped growing inside its egg after a few days into the incubation period.

.:.

recently i candled the eggs again to double check my candling work from last week and the progress was amazing! during the process this time, you could really see the blood vessels and the larger, wiggling chicken inside a few of the eggs. once again, amazing!

i also decided to check the other 5 eggs that i wasn’t sure were fertilized, still thriving, or alive.

unknown egg #1: the first one was definitely fertilized and alive, and i was surprised and excited to add another potential chicken to our list for the hatch this sunday. so that puts our count at 23 chicks!

unknown egg #2: the next egg i checked was definitely no longer growing, and i could see the tell-tale red ring around the inside of the egg that means the egg was at one point fertilized but the embryo died within the first few days. this egg was pretty much transparent except for the red ring, and i removed this one to crack it open later and check out the contents.

unknown egg #3: this egg was just the same as egg #2 and i removed this one also.

unknown egg #4: this egg had no visible embryo and even though i turned it on all sides, i couldn’t see anything alive inside. there was a very dark section and a very visible air bubble, but the dark patch was different than the dark patches in the fertile and growing eggs and i couldn’t see any blood vessels or other signs of life. so i decided to take this egg out too so that it wouldn’t bust and contaminate the others as time went on.

unknown egg #5: i was still unsure about this egg, so i left it in inside the incubator just in case.

as of now, there are 24 eggs in the incubator and i’m sure (or as sure as a beginner can be) that 23 of them are growing nicely.

the other 3 eggs that i removed became a science experiment…

failure to thrive egg #1: when i cracked this one open i only saw the red ring of small blood vessels around the inside of the egg. there were no other substances inside besides the red ring and the light yellow liquid that was the yolk and white mixed together. that means this one was fertilized too (24 out of 27 points for rex).

failure to thrive egg #2: this egg had the same red ring as the previous one, but it also had a couple thick spots of dark red that could have been the beginnings of the the embryo. it seemed to me that this egg lived longer before failing to thrive. (25 out of 27 points for rex.)

failure to thrive egg #3: this last egg at first appeared to be the same as the second egg but when i poured the contents out into the bowl with the other yellow liquid, i heard a little plop. i looked in the bowl and found a tiny, but unmistakable embryo that hadn’t even begun to from its limbs yet,which meant that the egg died sometime around 3 or 4 days into the incubation process. (26 out of 27 points for rex!!!)

tiny chicken embryo

you can see its eyes but it has not yet formed limbs. to me, it looks somewhat like a seahorse!

jason and i have dealt with a chick that was born that died, and chicks that were busted out of their shell by careless hens just a few days before hatching, so this process isn’t new to me… and since the embryo was barely developed i don’t feel sad about the situation, just in awe of it. i am hoping that all of the eggs that are in the incubator now will thrive and hatch well… and i can give thanks for that!!!

i also found a great video on YouTube that shows the growth of the embryo from the beginning until the day i hatches… you can watch the video and think of our embryo-chicks, who are at 15 days today!

.:.

5 Unusual Things You Can/Should Recycle

November 20, 2014 / jason / Comments Off

In our modern world of upgrades, planned obsolescence, and the constant ebb and flow of new and newer products, appliances, and gadgets, we end up having to deal with a lot of waste. I’m not talking about garbage, trash, or food scraps, nor items that we all know are recyclable like glass, plastic and paper, but those large, and/or unusual items like appliances, electronics, and many other household items that we throw away every day.

This list is just 5 of the many lesser known things that are indeed recyclable and do not need to be thrown away into landfills. Some of these items can be taken into retail stores to be recycled while others can often be picked up by junk removal companies.

Tires

Tires can be reused as well as recycled.

Old, worn out, and junk tires should not be thrown away. In fact, most municipal garbage collectors won’t even take tires so that leaves homeowners and citizens wondering what to do with their old junk tires. Many companies exist that will take tires and recycle them into useful rubber products like playground padding, mulch, or road materials. Tires can also be used in earth-ship construction, or as planters in the garden for starting sweet potato slips.

Washers, Dryers, Refrigerators, and Other Appliances

These large household appliances are made of metal, usually steel with electric motors made of aluminum and copper. Metal recyclers can recycle these products and reuse them in the manufacturing process. Some large appliances like refrigerators and AC units contain refrigerants that are potentially dangerous and harmful to the environment. You should always be careful with these and never send one to the dump where it can become a pollutant. Rather, find someone to recycle it, and they can make sure that anything useful gets reused instead of wasted or turned into pollution. Some other appliances that can be recycled include stoves, microwaves, dishwashers, and freezers.

Batteries

There are many different types of batteries, but the ones that are most often recycled are car and marine batteries. These large batteries contain lead, and are recycled in the production of new batteries. Some batteries can be refurbished, and others still are rechargeable. Batteries can contain some pretty nasty chemicals in them, so always be careful if you are storing or transporting batteries. Many places that sell batteries will take them after they are dead, and others allow you to return the battery as a “core deposit” and can even save you a few bucks on your next purchase.

Ink Cartridges

Ink cartridges are similar to batteries in that they often can be exchanged at retail locations for some sort of credit. Office Depot and Staples will often credit $2-3 depending on make/model with the return of an ink cartridge. These cartridges can be refilled and many companies will provide this service and are always looking for more ink cartridges. These companies handle them in a safe way and ensure that no ink residues leach out into the groundwater, an unavoidable fact if you send them to the dump.

Computers and Other Electronics

Computers, cell phones, speakers, keyboards, and phones are all recyclable. The components inside them, including the memory boards, wiring, and heat sinks are all able to be re-purposed, reused, or recycled. This type of material is known as e-waste and there are many companies that specialize in recycling and removing unwanted electronic devices. This keeps the costs of production down and reduces pollution too. Many of these electronics can leach out some pretty harmful chemicals if not properly disposed of, and by recycling them, you can make sure that does not happen.

If we want to be sustainable, then we must take care of our waste streams. These resources need to utilized, whether it’s as compost, biomass, or recycled materials and components.

If you are in the Greensboro/Triad area and have a large or unusual item that you want to recycle, send an email to Jason (at) ourochreway.com and we can come and make sure it stays out of the landfill!

KW Homestead

Pasture Raised Poultry & Edible Landscaping Plants Since 2013