This video above demonstrates what our egg-mobile looks like here at the Bauernhof Kitsteiner. This egg-mobile moves around the farm. Each evening, at dusk, our 120 or so laying chickens climb into it. It's one of these automatic wonders of farming that just makes you smile thinking about how cool it was that God put this instinct into chickens.
As soon as the sun goes down, we can then wander by and shut the door thus protecting our girls from predators who would rather eat them then allow them to live and lay eggs.
If we move the egg-mobile only a few lengths from where it was, the chickens handle this easily and quickly adapt to the new spot that they must return to each evening. However, if we move the egg-mobile across the farm or any significant distance, they are completely befuddled and will not remember where to roost for the evening.
(To read about why we even bother moving the egg-mobile, click here.)
So when we make an across-the-farm-move like we did yesterday, we put a fence around the egg mobile thereby "forcing" the chickens to remember where their home is. We leave this fence up for about five days until we are sure the chickens have "imprinted" this data.
(Chickens are not that smart. They will actually return to the spot where the egg-mobile used to be and lay in the dirt as if that will miraculously make their house appear.)
Yesterday morning our family of six and Mr. Tijmen headed out to make an across-the-farm-move. We do this first thing in the morning when the chickens are still shut up inside the egg-mobile. However, there were three chickens who were out and hadn't made it in the evening before.
These included:
1. Our neighbor's chicken who thinks it is a guinea. This has never been our chicken. But our neighbors got a new puppy who had an interest in eating chickens so she found solace in our guinea coop. She goes there every night and thereby exits with guineas in the morning. We didn't bother catching her as she doesn't believe she is a chicken anyways.
2. One muddled tan chicken. (I can't remember the name of the breed, but Sidge tells me it is the kind that has an extra toe.) He was easy for the boys to catch and they dropped him into the egg-mobile to make the move across the farm with his group.
3. One feisty brown chicken. This was the one that gave us a problem. She was stinkin' fast, and we could NOT catch her. We finally gave up and just left her to find her way home if possible.
We made the across-the-farm-move (we do this by hooking up the egg-mobile to our truck or four-wheeler), set up fence, and left everything well with the world. This morning, however, while I was letting the guineas out for the morning, I spotted our feisty brown chicken. She had indeed not found her new roosting spot and was hanging out right outside the guinea house.
I had my chance. Any time you have a HARD fence, catching poultry is way easier as you can pin them against the fence. I dove. I missed. I dove again. I got her!
Now to bring her to the egg-mobile which was across-the-farm. I opted to drive with her on the four-wheeler. I've never driven a four-wheeler while holding a chicken, but it went very well. I tossed her into the new netting.
I'm continually saying to myself #Ican'tbelievethisismylife. Did I really just catch a chicken and then drive the chicken on a four-wheeler so that it can be with its girlfriends?
I really can't believe this is my life.
No comments:
Post a Comment