The Chickens are Cold! A story from Joel Salatin

I'm interested in becoming a serious chicken farmer, so I've been studying Joel Salatin's book, Pastured Poultry Profits. It's not a book for everyone, for sure, but I read a little story in it that I thought you might find amusing. (Actually, I have no idea who the heck you are, unless you're my dad, but I thought it was funny...) It's in his chapter called, "The Learning Curve," which is the chapter where he tells you all of the many things that can go wrong, and have gone wrong for him, while farming chickens:

"What else could go wrong? In April of 1990 we had had our first batch of 1200 chicks a week when we received a wet, heavy, 10 inch snow. April snows are highly unusual here, but this one came anyway. Around midnight, the electricity went off. The temperature was right at freezing. The chicks were just a few days old, and suddenly were plunged into darkness and no heat. We grabbed the shipping boxes the chicks had come in and madly began scooping chicks into the sections, trying to stay ahead of the birds as they panicked and piled up inside the brooder house. In an hour, we had all the chicks reboxed and stacked in the house, near the fireplace.

"I slept on the sofa all night to keep the fire going. All the ruckus kept me from sleeping too soundly. By morning, the power was still out and we had 1200 thirsty, hungry chicks in the house. What to do?

"There was no alternative but to turn the kitchen/dining area of the house into a brooder facility. I went to the shed to get a roll of poultry netting which I planned to tie with baler twine to the legs of the furniture, creating a big circle. Newspapers would be okay for litter until the power returned.

"When I came back in with the netting and walked in the door, the lights flickered and came back on. Teresa shouted, "Hallelujah!" We danced a jig, donned coat and boots, and began taking out boxes as fast as we could. In a few minutes, the chicks were all back in the brooders, as happy as could be. The total loss was about 20 birds." (P.151)

Creativity

Joel Salatin wrote that if you ever doubted the creativity of farmers, you should just look at the variety of gate latches they create!

Here is my contribution today:



Yep, yessiree, things are pretty darned exciting around here! No poop stories, though. Not that I mind.

I got the sheep into that new pasture- I finally finished the fence I started at the beginning of the summer. One of the sheep literally leapt for joy as she pranced into the new meadow. I didn't get that on tape, but I did take a picture of them later, happily munching wildflowers (and of Tom Turkey who now believes he's a sheep, of course):



Ah, the life pastoral.

Pickup Lines

I was in Mr. Z's barn last fall. The hay was all loaded in the truck and paid for- he didn't charge me nearly enough, considering the drought last year- and I was wondering in the back of my mind what was expected. How long does one stay and talk with a kind neighbor who just sold me hay? Certainly, some amount of small talk was in order. He was extolling the benefits of grass for the soil, over corn, which is a rich topic.

As he talked, Mr. Z gently leaned into our truck. It was a casual gesture. It wasn't exactly reverent, but definitely respectful. He rubbed his hand over the scraped paint, like the truck was an old friend. I thought, he's touching my truck. Wow.

When it felt like the moment was right, I got into the truck, he stopped leaning on it, and I drove away.

I didn't think about it again until yesterday, when I was reading You Can Farm by Joel Salatin, his chapter on "Being Neighborly," page 169,

"Take time to talk. When your neighbor comes over, lean on his truck. Farmers love to see people lean on their trucks. I guess it's real close to a hug or something. Maybe it's like a cat rubbing up against your leg. Anyway, farmers get fairly lonely out there in the field and they look forward to unhurried conversation."




Now I understand.