Backyard Farming and a Culture of Guns

by Uncle Dale

My backyard farm and a .22 caliber rifle has been a good place to teach my children respect and safe handling of firearms. They have experienced the satisfaction of sighting in a rifle and grouping 20 bullets (.22 shorts) from the tube magazine around a bull’s eye. I look forward to teaching my grandchildren to shoot. When not in use, my guns are secured in a safe.

I have used a rifle to dispatch that possum that killed my hens and the groundhog that destroyed my children’s patch of beautiful pumpkins. On a Sunday afternoon, when the neighbors came to me with the dilemma of a severely suffering pet dog and no veterinarian available to relieve that suffering, I was able to solve their problem although I am grateful there was a veterinarian available to put down my own pony and pet dog. One day my son called me from the goat farm where he was working. A big buck had got hung up in the limbs of a bush and broken both its front legs with the bones protruding. The farm owners were not around and he didn't know what to do. I went over and solved that problem to the gratitude of the farm owners upon their return. It was not without grief that I assisted my neighbors or my son’s employers. I did not feel bad about killing the possum or the groundhog. I wish I had gotten that fox that killed my turkeys.


When I was a child and shot my first sparrow with my new Daisy BB gun, I learned immediately that I did not share my hero Teddy Roosevelt’s love of killing animals and I never shot another animal without a reason for shooting it. However, I did feel an intense satisfaction when I killed and dressed my first rooster ring neck pheasant for the dinner table. I always wished my father had taught me the real skill of putting barbecued venison on the table and I will likely never have that opportunity nor teach my offspring this ancient art. I enjoy the kick of a shotgun, that sharp crack in my ears, the smell of spent powder, and the vision of an exploding clay pigeon.

Through endless debates in my mind, I have resolved that I could never shoot another person to protect my own life, but I could do it to protect my wife, child, or grandchild. I pray to Heavenly Father I never have to test this tenuous resolution. With my backyard farm being more than minutes away from a peace officer, I have prepared for that worst contingency and I didn't need Joe Biden or the National Rifle Association to tell me how to prepare. The current gun debate is ravaging our country and I wish that common sense could prevail - the common sense that can be gained from experience on a backyard farm.  

My children with their Henry Golden Boy lever action .22 rifles
 (Sarah was not a round for the photo)

Signs of Spring

Signs of Spring - daffodills, crocuses, eggs and ... potatoes?

by Uncle Dale

Last week I frost seeded red clover into the pastures. It was perfect timing because winter gave one last burp on Wednesday with 3 inches of snow which was gone by Thursday. Today, Saturday, the sun greets us with 65 degrees under bright blue skies. The crocuses are blooming with daffodils on the way. This was our first day in the garden this year. I spread compost on the raspberry and blackberry patch and repaired the trellising. I also composted and pruned the kiwi vines. LeAnn cleared last year’s tomato vines off the trellises, weeded the border mums, and planted lettuce in last year's potato patch. She dug up a treasure of a few unfrozen potatoes. Our layers are back to full production after a light production during the winter. Today I got a dozen eggs out of our 14 hens. We have 8 turkeys on order and this week we will order 50 broilers. Spring is just around the corner.     

Debeaking - Cons and Pros

by Uncle Dale

Debeaking chickens is controversial. This is the process where part of the upper and sometimes the lower beak of the chicken is removed with electrically heated blades and more recently with infrared lasers. Debeaking implies complete removal of the beak. “Beak trimming” or tipping is more descriptive as less than one third of the beak is removed.  It is usually done to day-old chicks while they are being vaccinated and sexed. The procedure is most common for Leghorns or Red Sex-link hens that are destined for layer houses. Broiler (meat) chickens are rarely beak trimmed.  

Normal beak

Beak trimmed

Cons

Why is it bad to beak trim chickens? There is evidence that the heated blades cause pain to the chickens. How painful is it? We don’t know. Our friends in various “animal welfare” groups liken it to the holocaust of WWII. Well that is nonsense. My poultry specialist coworkers at the university explain that there are nerves going into the beak so the pain is probably a little greater than clipping your fingernails. On the piercing pain scale, it is probably more painful than an ear piercing but much less painful than a tongue piercing. Perhaps the pain is similar to a nose piercing. On the tattoo pain scale it is probably more painful than that small star on the ankle but much less painful than the Harley Davidson across the back. Maybe the pain is similar to a medium size serpent going up the arm. The infrared lasers appear to cause even less pain.

I am more utilitarian about the issue of beak trimming. In my backyard, I want sharp beaks on my chickens so that they can forage easier. I want them able to pick at shelled insects, garden refuse, and table scraps. And my hens with sharp beaks take care of the mice in the chicken coop better than cats do.

Pros

So are there good reasons to beak trim backyard chickens? Last year, I had a demonstration flock of leghorns and red sex-links at the University research farm. They were playing nicely together for weeks until one day, when for no apparent reason, all of the red sex-links started pecking at the base of the tail on the top back of the all of the leghorns.  By the time I discovered it just a few hours after I had earlier observed them, the leghorns were a bloody mess. So I had to separate them. A couple of days ago, I found two leghorns who had been pecked to death by the other leghorns. Again, there was no apparent reason. There is plenty of room in the coop and paddock with good feed and water. Chickens just go crazy once in a while, particularly high strung layer breeds.  So I think there are merits to beak trimming backyard layers. It can be argued that it is a good animal welfare practice.

There are diverse viewpoints on beak trimming but I value those that are based on common sense, not sensationalism. 

Backyard Farming Problems

 by Uncle Dale

To manage my pastures better this year I am keeping the horses in a sacrifice lot during the winter so they don’t ravage the pastures. I feed the horses grain in individual buckets and hay from a single manger.  It was going well with Rebel, a gelding and Zula, a mare, until we got a pony for the grandchildren for Christmas. Hershey not only bullied his way to the top of the pecking order, but agitated Zula so they are both picking on Rebel and not letting him get to the hay. The end result is that Hershey and Zula are getting fat and Rebel is losing weight. Our barn and sacrifice lot are not set up to separate them so I built another manger to let Rebel get to some hay. If this doesn’t work I will have to do some creative fencing and building to isolate Rebel and ration the feed better. This is what backyard farming is all about. Problems arise and you have to solve them. What perplexing problems are you faced with in your backyard farm and how will you solve them?

Poultry Expo Recap

The 2nd Annual Small Flock Poultry Expo conducted by the University of Maryland Extension was a huge success. About 400 participants from several states attended their choices from among 24 different poultry seminars. 4H youth showed their birds and participated in knowledge competitions.  Vendors made money selling poultry equipment and supplies. A good time was had by all. 

Uncle Dale explains the pro and cons of different feeders and waterers.

Uncle Dale’s coworker demonstrates how to build a backyard pasture coop. The coop was auctioned off for a winning bid of $300 which was donated to the Maryland 4H Foundation.   

Everyone a Farmer

Uncle Dale teaches a course at the University of Maryland titled Farm Management & Sustainable Food Production. He stresses that everyone can be a farmer through backyard farming. One of his students took this to heart and developed an new innovative product. 

It's called a Nourishmat and according to the University of Maryland's College of Agriculture & Natural Resources website it is a "6 feet by 4 feet polypropylene mat with pre-cut holes, labels and a grid telling would-be gardeners exactly what, where, and how far apart to plant. The UV treated polypropylene cuts down on weeds and is outfitted with a drip irrigation system that works by simply plugging in a hose."

You can read more about the ingenious Nourishmat at http://www.nourishmatbeta.com/.

Join Us At the Small Flock Poultry Expo

We invite all Backyard Farming followers in the mid-Atlantic region to attend the 2^nd Annual Small Flock Poultry Expo organized by the University of Maryland and held on Saturday, February 2, from 8:30 AM to 3:30 PM at the Carroll County Agriculture Center in Westminster, Maryland. Last year’s Expo was a huge success. We expected about 100 participants, but over 400 people showed up from 7 states. 

This year there will be 24 seminars to choose from including poultry nutrition, disease prevention and control, chicken breeds, egg and meat production basics, housing, pasturing, feeding and watering systems, regulations and ordinances, organic production, breeding and egg incubation, turkey production, brooding chicks, poultry in diversified livestock operations, egg grading and handling, marketing and economics, urban poultry, and protecting your flock. 

 

 Vendors will be available with live poultry and poultry related items. A poultry processing demonstration will be conducted. Producers and Extension specialists will be available for technical questions about production practices. 4-H will conduct activities and competitions. There will be a pasture coop building demonstration.  Door prizes will be awarded. Lunch and snacks will be available for purchase.

For additional information and a registration form go to http://carroll.umd.edu/ag/poultry.cfm

 

I would be excited to meet our Backyard Farming followers there.

 ~Dale~