White wing and RA

[Big Muddy rancher]

Check out Dylan Biggs web site. They are into lots of direct marketing of just about every thing you can raise ofngrass. Even Chickens and ducks.

http://tkranch.com/

 

[gcreekrch]

I can envision RA riding graveyard shift and singing Little Joe the Wrangler to a thousand nervous pullets in a thunderstorm. :wink: :lol:

 

[R A]

Check out Dylan Biggs web site. They are into lots of direct marketing of just about every thing you can raise ofngrass. Even Chickens and ducks.

http://tkranch.com/

Thanks! I checked every part of it out when hayguy linked it on the other thread! I think that doing stuff that way is awesome and just GREAT! The pictures they had on that site made me hungry as heck and I was eating at the time..... . I couldn't believe all the options they had and how everything was broke down.

I'm no animal rights person, but would hate to live like some animals live in this world!....especially the chicken and hogs! ....and have been really looking into what all goes on at some of those places and it is plain scary.....or could be scary....since I am not a part of it, I don't know for sure what is all true or not.....still, I am doing a huge change here anyway and we are going to know where our food comes from and what's in it. I hate to knock stuff before I try it....so I am saving all my cardboard boxes just incase it is necessary to add that in the burger to make it work.....lol.

I'm looking forward to trying all that on a small scale this year for sure and see what happens!

I'm shocked right now on everything I'm reading about the corn being grown. :shock: (GMO) I wish I knew what was true and false....makes a person wonder though. Should I be feeding my chickens, steers, and turkeys the corn being grown these days???

Don't mean to seem like I'm going off, ,but I am really looking into all this, getting passionate about it, have lots of questions, worried, thinking about my boys and family, etc.

 

[R A]

I can envision RA riding graveyard shift and singing Little Joe the Wrangler to a thousand nervous pullets in a thunderstorm. :wink: :lol:

I would in a heartbeat if that is what is needed ....I would probably be out there doing it anyway with no storm.... The pullets would all be gathered around comforting a sad bearded mother hen through such a sad song as that and they would feel brave....

 

[Big Muddy rancher]

Guess I missed Hayguy posting the link.

I admire the work and effort they put into it but I don't think I would be able to handle it.

I do like the pasture raised ducks and chickens. My friends used to get some Muscoy ducks to keep the flys down around the corral.

 

[Whitewing]

Guess I missed Hayguy posting the link.

I admire the work and effort they put into it but I don't think I would be able to handle it.

I do like the pasture raised ducks and chickens. My friends used to get some Muscoy ducks to keep the flys down around the corral.

For the record, my hogs live in a 6 acre pen with an electric fence mostly feeding on bermuda and rooting around as hogs are prone to do. They've got their own pond with a structure to provide shade. The area is divided into 3 sections, 2 for the hogs and one where I plan to plant auyama this year (sort of a Venezuelan pumpkin) which the hogs love to eat.

I'll check out that website.

 

[Big Muddy rancher]

Guess I missed Hayguy posting the link.

I admire the work and effort they put into it but I don't think I would be able to handle it.

I do like the pasture raised ducks and chickens. My friends used to get some Muscoy ducks to keep the flys down around the corral.

For the record, my hogs live in a 6 acre pen with an electric fence mostly feeding on bermuda and rooting around as hogs are prone to do. They've got their own pond with a structure to provide shade. The area is divided into 3 sections, 2 for the hogs and one where I plan to plant auyama this year (sort of a Venezuelan pumpkin) which the hogs love to eat.

I'll check out that website.

I think the pasture chickens are in pens on wheels that they move to fresh ground every day. I think Andy from England is managing a place that does lots of pasture to plate marketing.

 

[R A]

I'm doing the smaller enclosed moving them around the pasture everyday pens for my red rangers( like freedom rangers I think) I'm getting. I would go wih the big electric fence netting and move that when needed, but feel airial predators around here would wipe them out....even maybe with a couple geese in there. I'm just getting a few cornish cross...they'll be in a deal by the barn I can move around the yard. Excited to start feeling everything out, experimenting and learn more!!!

 

[Whitewing]

Guess I missed Hayguy posting the link.

I admire the work and effort they put into it but I don't think I would be able to handle it.

I do like the pasture raised ducks and chickens. My friends used to get some Muscoy ducks to keep the flys down around the corral.

For the record, my hogs live in a 6 acre pen with an electric fence mostly feeding on bermuda and rooting around as hogs are prone to do. They've got their own pond with a structure to provide shade. The area is divided into 3 sections, 2 for the hogs and one where I plan to plant auyama this year (sort of a Venezuelan pumpkin) which the hogs love to eat.

I'll check out that website.

I think the pasture chickens are in pens on wheels that they move to fresh ground every day. I think Andy from England is managing a place that does lots of pasture to plate marketing.

I don't think the pens on wheels would work for me at this time. What I am doing with the ready-for-market chickens is that when they arrive I sort them according to size and "eye appeal". The bigger, better looking birds are kept on hand longer and I start them on a mix of commercial feed, whole corn and ground corn. After a week or two they're eating just the whole and ground corn and are then ready for market.

I'm sure their growth rate slows some, though they still continue to gain weight. I weighed one for a buyer today and he was almost 9 pounds. :shock: BTW, that same guy told me that his wife sent him out to buy a chicken and told him she wanted a chicken from "the gringo" because he has big, healthy, clean birds. I was glad to hear that because it sort of confirms that my sales pitch on those birds is taking hold.

Last Monday when I set up at the local market, I had the birds in the back of my Ford 350 truck. I put a row of bales between them....big birds on one side and the smaller birds on the other. I sold most of the big birds before anyone went for the smaller ones. Again, they just look better, cleaner, healthier as they've had more space and a bit more exercise.

While most Venezuelans are looking for a bargain first and foremost, the concept of buying something like "organic" does seem to have its place here.

I'm having fun.

 

[Big Muddy rancher]

I'm doing the smaller enclosed moving them around the pasture everyday pens for my red rangers( like freedom rangers I think) I'm getting. I would go wih the big electric fence netting and move that when needed, but feel airial predators around here would wipe them out....even maybe with a couple geese in there. I'm just getting a few cornish cross...they'll be in a deal by the barn I can move around the yard. Excited to start feeling everything out, experimenting and learn more!!!

The pens I saw somewhere had wire mesh tops
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5xZbq1p2TI

looks like lots of info on Youtube.

 

[R A]

I'm doing the smaller enclosed moving them around the pasture everyday pens for my red rangers( like freedom rangers I think) I'm getting. I would go wih the big electric fence netting and move that when needed, but feel airial predators around here would wipe them out....even maybe with a couple geese in there. I'm just getting a few cornish cross...they'll be in a deal by the barn I can move around the yard. Excited to start feeling everything out, experimenting and learn more!!!

The pens I saw somewhere had wire mesh tops
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5xZbq1p2TI

looks like lots of info on Youtube.

That's exactly what mine will look like! Joel Salatin has kind of a formula for birds to space ratio that he likes. I'm going a little more sq footage per bird than that at first just to see what happens.

Yes, lots of stuff on youtube! ...spent many hours surfing and hopefully am getting back all the brain cells I killed in high school.... :shock: ... ....and have been crashing the chicken sites...

I've taped the Farm Kings show off of GAC and have learned a lot from it also. They live by Joel's methods. I've put those tapes in the ranch tape line-up I play all the time.

Oh, and I appreciate you starting this thread and linking that again and inlcuding me in on it! If I would of missed it, I would of loved to of seen it! Thanks!

 

[R A]

I can envision RA riding graveyard shift and singing Little Joe the Wrangler to a thousand nervous pullets in a thunderstorm. :wink: :lol:

Your post here reminded me of all the hours my little buddy and I have spent night-hawkin'....

These were taken on June 25 while we were checking some of our "March" calving cows we bought back in feb.... We had two that night. This was before I started taking very many pictures.....and before I ever had a flashlight that worked.... ....I used the flash of the camera to get tag numbers and see how things were going better...just looked at the taken pictures after taking them....

edited to add....still don't ever have a good flashlight... ...and my boy would sleep while riding around like that. You can see he is about to nod off in the one pic.