It started with one hen and has increased to five. More than half the nest boxes in the ultimate chicken tractor have been taken up with broody hens and we have decided to leave them alone and see what comes of this madness.

On the next chicken tractor I thought about decreasing the number of nest boxes, but I can see the advantage of the larger number now. It seems the best laying hens are the ones going broody as the amount of eggs has decreased drastically. It could be the broody hens are keeping the other chickens away from the few remaining open nest boxes.

We don’t really need more chickens at this point. We have already increased our numbers this spring, but it is hard to turn down free chicks when the hens do all the work. It is a nice way to increase your flock.

So far we have had 9 chicks hatch. Two of the broody hens are sharing the mothering duty and both have left their nest boxes to care for the chicks on the ground. I moved two chicks from under one of the remaining broody hens to join the growing numbers of chicks on the ground. The other five chicks made the plunge to the ground by themselves.

 

Two chicks have been found dead, one in a nest box and the other on the floor of the coop. I am not sure what was the cause of death. It is a hard life for a chick that strays from its mother.

There are still three broody hens setting on eggs and I think they will succeed in hatching some more chicks. We will probably have 20 chicks when everyone is done. Not a bad way to add to your flock.

 

On another note we have named the Dexter bull calf meatball. He is doing great and has decreased his expeditions outside the paddock. For the most part he stays by his mother who has proven to be very good at her job.

 

 

The paperwork finally went through and I had to go get my heifers boyfriend. He was named Arod by his breeders. I figured they were baseball fans, but it turns out Arod is a word in a made up language from the Lord of The Rings or something like that. In that language Arod means fast, so he is a spry little guy.

We had to go all the way to Tennessee to get Arod. A long but Manageable 600 mile trip. Last year I made a wood cattle rack for my truck when I decided to start buying calves. I made it from used lumber that came from our old house that we tore down. I over built it and it was very heavy. It was also too tall and had some substantial wind resistance at highway speeds.

Back to the drawing board. I made a lighter one from new 2×3’s. It was slightly taller than the cab and worked well. The original rack was used to bring home Keakwa the Jersey steer. I then used it for moving hay several times. The new one was used to bring home my Holstein, Angus and Dexter heifers.

So we loaded the rack and grabbed the minimal amount of stuff needed to get Arod home. It was too long of a trip to make in one day so we stayed the night in Nashville. The next morning we picked him up.

Since Arod was the largest calf I have moved with the small rack we brought a halter in order to keep him from getting too wild. Every corner of a Mazda pickup has a hook and we had a rope going across the front with a steel ring in the middle to attach a lead from his halter. This gave him freedom of movement, but not enough for him to get himself in trouble.

Loading went very well and Arod didn’t get too carried away. Tethering him to the front and limiting his movement was the only way he could have been moved and after about 50 miles he decided he had no choice but to come along for the ride and laid down.

The calf in the back of the truck drew a lot of attention especially going through St. Louis. People seem to forget that most cattle were moved in the back of trucks just several decades back. When we stopped at Arbys for a quick meal several people ended up taking pictures. Maybe it was the small truck doing the work, or the redneck rack I don’t know but there were a lot of stairs and pictures taken.

I don’t have a cattle trailer and have moved half my small herd using this rack. The registered Dexters in my herd were delivered as well as the older cow and her calf. Everything else was brought home in the back of my truck. For moving a calf I would rather use this rack then pull a trailer, and for the time being I don’t have a trailer anyway. The rack gives you more freedom on the road and doesn’t slow you down. You also get much better Mileage with the rack than a trailer.

So if you want cattle bad enough you can figure a way to get them home. In the future I will buy a trailer when the right one at the right price comes along. I am looking for a light weight small trailer for one or two Dexters so I can pull it with my Mazda. I probably will not ever need more than that. 

Arod will be the future Dad of the cow family as my daughter Jade stated. He will be in solitary for awhile before I put the steer in with him to give him some company. I want my heifers to calve in spring so they have a couple months to go before I want them bred. I am looking forward to seeing what my calves will look like next year.

I have been a fan of diesel vehicles since my decision to go from high horsepower to high efficiency when I grew up. It was hard in many ways, the first VW Rabbit I looked at didn’t impress me. In fact I thought it was so ugly I almost walked away. Driving it didn’t help either. When you are used to muscle car performance an economy car just isn’t fun. About the only thing I liked about it was the cool factor of the small diesel engine with the big diesel chatter. Since that time I have actually grown to like them as they are hard to beat when it comes to mileage.

Since I had to retire my diesel Mazda pickup an replaced it with a gas extended cab Mazda truck I have suffered from a major drop in mileage. My old diesel truck would easily get 30 mpg in combined driving. If I stayed off the pedal I could push it to about 35. A gas Mazda running real well gets about 25 pushing it. These are my real figures as I check mileage everytime I fill up.

In the long run I plan on dropping a diesel engine in an extended cab Mazda, but that is a ways in the future. In the meantime I needed to push my mileage. My truck runs well but it did need a tune up. I installed new spark plugs, wires, air filter, distributor cap, rotor, and changed the oil to a synthetic blend. I will install a high output coil in the future. I then put full synthetic gear oil in the transmission and rear end. The synthetic gear oil is more than twice the cost of conventional oil, but I have found it pays for itself.

After the tune up and switching to synthetic oils I tested my mileage. I compared unloaded mileage before and after and had a 3-4 mpg gain. The mileage gain was not from just the synthetic oil, some was from the tune up. But I would wager half that gain was from the synthetic oil. That pushes my mostly highway mileage to 28-29 mpg. Very good for the truck. In fact it is the best I have ever got from a gas Mazda pickup after driving several over the years.

It has sold me on the synthetic oils, especially for the rear end and tranny where they can make the most difference for the least cost. It still wasn’t cheap. It took a little over three quarts for the tranny and a little under two quarts for the rear end. Five quarts of oil at $11+ a quart adds up, but over the life of the truck it will easily pay for itself and save some money.

The outcome has convinced me to go synthetic in all my vehicles. I would like to see what would happen in the ton truck that gets 8 mpg or the Jetta that can already get up to 45mpg. Another benefit is the smell. Any mechanic can easily distingiush the smell of conventional gear oil. It has a fragrance that lingers. The synthetic oil doesn’t have that smell.

For the motor oil I went with Trop Artic Synthetic blend. I think it is a good combanation of low cost but still good oil. It is the cheapest synthetic blend in my area, the closest competitor is the Motorcraft Synthetic Blend which I switched from. There may be better oils, but pretty soon the cost of an oil change will add up to the cost of a replacement motor if the better oil really did make that much difference.

The Trop Arctic goes on sale at Orschelns every year so I stock up. The Motorcraft oil runs over a buck more a quart. If I used a Mobil synthetic blend it would be over twice the cost. It starts adding up and I have to draw the line somewhere.

So for anything I do the math has to add up or have another benefit. Figuring a 2mpg gain over conventional gear oils the synthetic oil will pay for itself in under 6,000 miles. After that it is saving you money at the tune of roughly $10 every 1000 miles. Not too bad.

We have completed the remodel of the original PVC chicken tractor. As I have stated in an earlier post we are using it for chicks and rabbits, and it has been remodeled with that in mind. Here is the completed remodel minus the hanging water bucket:

Here is what the original design looked like before the remodel:

 

For a first attempt at a chicken tractor this one worked well. We used it for years and it made the move with us to the new property. Through experience we knew some improvements to add.

The original PVC chicken tractor is much easier to build than the ultimate PVC chicken tractor. It doesn’t have as many bells and whistles but it has the advantages of being easier to build, fewer materials (Less expensive), and it is also a lot lighter without the big coop on the back.

I will be building another of the original style coops this fall for raising chicks in through the winter. I am considering raising chicks through the winter and selling them as ready laying hens the next spring. I figure that a good laying hen will bring $7-$8 and I can hatch them out for pennies. I will actually use my Killawatt and figure out the actual cost for hatching an incubator full of eggs. I will then have to figure what it would cost to feed them.

The upgrades to the original PVC chicken tractor include a wire floor in the coop for the rabbits, fenced feed bowl shelves, new back door design, lighter design with no plywood, and a modification to the frame so that I can hang an auto chicken watering bucket in the run.

We got a bad batch of chicken wire with some defects. We bought it years back so we couldn’t return it. We didn’t notice the defect until we had the wire already attached on one end, we also didn’t have any other wire so we went ahead and used it. The defect in the wire made it where this wire didn’t lay as nice as I would have liked, but it didn’t hurt functionality.

This cage is very easy to build and is not very expensive for its size. Here are the materials you would need to build this cage:

1. Chicken wire, I like the 48″ tall wire for fewer seems.
2. 2″ PVC, 5x 10′ sticks.
3. 2″ PVC corners, 4x
4. 2″ PVC three ways, 2x
5. 1/2″ PVC, 18x
6. 1/2″ PVC elbows, 12x
7. 1/2″ PVC three ways, 4x
8. 1/2″ PVC crosses 7x
9. Vinyl sheet 4×8, 4x
10. Wire straps, 110x approx.
11. Wire, re-bar wire is what I use
12. #8 1/2″ self taping screws, 170x approx.
13. Zip ties, 100x approx.
14. Small hinges 1 1/2″ +/-, 4x
15. Medium Hinges 3″ +/-, 7x
16. Some rope for the front pull rope
17. Carabiner clip, 7x
18. Metal eyes, 12x

 

Building it is pretty easy and a buddy will make it go much faster especially when bowing the half inch PVC to make the hoops. I use a chop saw to cut the PVC, but a hand saw works fine as well. You will need a drill and a 7/8 paddle bit to drill the holes into the 2″ PVC to accept the 1/2″ hoops. You will also need a bit to drive the self tapping screws.

If you want to build the support frame for the hanging water bucket you will need another stick of 2″ PVC, two elbows and two three ways. I bent a piece of re bar for the water bucket hanger and drilled a hole into the frame to stick the re-bar in.

The run is 10′ long, I cut the 2″ PVC about 3′ 1″ long for the coop. When elbows are added the coop is a little over 3′ long letting the 4′ wide sheet of vinyl have an overhang on each end.

The 1/2″ PVC is used for the doors and the hoops. Cut the sticks in half for the hoops. I put crosses at the top of each hoop to run a backbone down the top of the hoops. This makes everything stronger and keeps the hoops the correct distance apart. I have also seen others wire a board or pipe to the top of the hoops. The distance between hoops will depend on what wire you are using. I use 48″ wire, so in 46″ I have three hoops allowing some overlap of the chicken wire.

You want some overlap of the chicken wire between sections. I use hog rings to fasten two sections of wire together at the seem. Wire would also work. At the bottom I use the wire holders and the self taping screws to attach the chicken wire to the 2″ PVC frame.

We weave the wires together to attach the chicken wire on the front of the coop to the wire going over the top. When done it is very strong and gives a nice seamless look.

The feed doors are made by putting a piece of PVC between two hoops for the top of the door frame and then making a door of pvc to cover with chicken wire. We use eyes and carabiner clips to keep these feed doors closed. The shelf is made like the door with a frame of PVC and chicken wire covering it. The shelf is connected to the main frame on one edge, the other inner edge has pipe running up from it to connect to the hoops to suspend the shelf. A hole is drilled to slide wire through the end and through the hoop to hold the shelf up. We then wrap wire over the shelf area to limit access.

 

On all openings for doors we make a triangle out of the vinyl sheet scraps you will have to go across the corner. This will keep the door from swinging into the coop and also makes everything stronger.

For the doorway to the coop we made a frame of 1/2″ PVC for added strength. The first coop had no frame for this opening and the vinyl ripped from the door opening.

The back has two doors made from PVC frames with vinyl covering them. The vinyl extends past the edge of the frame and overlaps. We then drilled holes on these flaps to have eyes stick through to keep the door closed.

You can build one of these tractors in a day. They are good and inexpensive. I will be posting through the summer when I find time, but as planting season is here I am very busy.

We knew she was close, and when I saw here laying down this morning I knew there was a good chance my cow had her calf. She did, and he is cute. This is the first calf born here and will be the only one for this year. Here are some pics:

 

We have ran an experiment housing chickens and rabbits together since last fall. We decided to give it a try when we had nowhere to put two chicks we had hatched out. Those two chicks went into the rabbit hutch when they were fully feathered. We observed no problems. Those two chicks were the friendliest we have had in awhile. So friendly they can get underfoot when loose.

The old original PVC chicken tractor has been rebuilt and redesigned as a rabbit tractor and chick rear-er for teenage chickens. It has some design improvements and modifications for rabbits which will be the main use of this tractor.

I have heard a lot of people say that co-housing chickens and rabbits together doesn’t work. We will test this and find out. So far my results show promise. Although I think a key reason our results are good is the introduction of chickens to the rabbits while the chickens are young.

The first experiment went well, one of those chicks is a full grown rooster that was still living with the rabbits until the new rabbit tractor was complete. We then moved the smallest of the new flock of chicks we are raising into the new rabbit tractor. The larger chicks joined the main flock.

The chicks were afraid of the rabbits at first. The rabbits paid no mind to the chicks as they were used to chickens in their cage. After a day they were all getting along great. The rebuilt rabbit tractor has the fenced in feeding shelf that the chickens can get to but the rabbits cannot. That fixes one of the problems I have heard other people mention about chicken feed being bad for rabbits.

The tractor will be getting a new water bucket with chicken nipples at different heights to accommodate the chicks at different ages. The camper shell that has served well as a chick brooder will also be rebuilt with feed shelves and a automatic watering system for the next batch this fall.

We are going to increase the number of rabbits and use the rabbit tractor to mow the grass along the drive. I cannot use the cattle to mow the area as they would be rough on the fruit trees along the drive. My goal this year is for the critters to do the lawn care on the homestead.

I am so happy with the redesign of the original coop we will be building another in a similar style in the future. This style has a price and weight advantage over the other design. I like both so I will build several of each as we increase the head count of our livestock.

After a week in the new tractor we have had no problems with the rabbits digging under the edge. The rabbits are very happy to have so much room with a green lawn outside their house. I am also curious about the amount of feed reduction that will occur with fresh grass always available. I have been moving the cage at least once a day, sometimes twice.

On a side note I have been working on two new pages to my site that I will launch in several weeks. One is frugal living and making money, the other is about tractors.

For those living in Missouri and several other states I wanted to let you know about a great way to feed your cattle, especially if you don’t have hundreds of acres. Missouri and many other states have a simple and completely free permit system to cut hay from the roadsides.

Often times while travelling down a highway I think to myself about the appalling waste of land that the highway system is. I have nothing against nice wide roads to get to your destination in a timely manner but often times there are acres of wasted land between these roads. The good news for those living in thinking states is that you can capitalize on this otherwise wasted land through permits to cut hay from that land.

In Missouri the process is very simple. The permit system is ran on a first come first served way with one twist. The former land owner has first dibs, which is pretty fair in my opinion as it was originally their land that was taken to build the highway. Most areas in Missouri begin giving permits in May and the permits are usually good till the fall. The hay is to be used for personal use on your farm and not for resell. You cannot interfere with traffic and must enter the area you are going to mow from secondary road. You also cannot load hay on the shoulder of the highway, this too must be done on secondary or county roads.

The Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) is the agency in charge of the state highway system in Missouri. County and secondary roads are the responsibility of the county and MoDOT does not have authority over these roads and cannot give permits. Most county roads don’t have the big wide ditches that provide the best hay ground anyway. MoDOT divides the state into seven districts across the state. Each district runs semi-autonomously.

To get my mowing permit I called the district office to find out who I had to talk with. I got the number for the manager of my area and talked with him on the phone to get a permit for Highway 63 which is the closest state highway to my homestead. I live 3/4 of a mile off hwy 63. Unfortunately the median or land between the lanes of highway 63 closest to my place was planted in native grasses and was managed as a no mow area. They did however give me a permit for the shoulder ditch from my road to five miles north. This had some nice areas and plenty of ground that was too hilly to hay.

I baled just under 400 bales of hay from the shoulder of highway 63. That saves a lot of money, and is one way to really stretch your land. Any hay coming from the ditch is hay ground I don’t have to find on my place or cut on shares off somebody else’s place. The grass that I baled was brome, which is good feed. There were some sections that had less weeds than my own place and others that were weedy.

The worst drawback to this hay is trash. This can be overcome with some work, and because I am baling the same land again this year it will be cleaner the second time around. I went through and picked up all the larger trash before mowing. After I had mowed the grass I went back through and picked up everything I could find. After I raked I went along the windrow and picked up anything that I missed. To make the job faster I bun-geed two buckets to and ATC and used a grabber tool so I didn’t have to dismount for every piece of trash. Since this area of highway isn’t adopted by a litter crew and had not been hayed there was a lot of trash. I plan on haying the ditch every year and it will stay much cleaner from now on.

All things considered the trash was a small price to pay for free hay. I have baled fields along highways that have just as much trash. I have seen others not even bother with picking out the trash, but I prefer to keep it out of my hay.

Being as Missouri was in a severe drought last year I would have had to spend $6 a bale for equivalent hay. You can see how this can save some serious money and is well worth it for small farmers who are not independently wealthy.

So if you are currently buying your hay I would look into this as a potential way to save some money. With hay not coming off your property you could even expand your herd. I am surprised more people don’t do this, but it may be because they are not aware of it as a possibility.

I have considered AI for my small herd of Dexters as it allowed access to bulls I could not afford or find. The advantages are there, but the cost is high. I have heard a lot of people on the forums talk about AI as the way to go for a small herd, but unless you have just a couple cows there is a strong case for getting a bull.

 

I found a local AI tech with reasonable rates. I looked at the bulls available and made a choice for the one I thought was the best for my use. For my small herd I am looking for several things besides good health:

1.  First all my registered Dexters are polled, and after having a horned cow I have decided I wanted all future cattle to be polled.The advantages for polled cattle outweigh horned for my use. I think a nice set of horns look good and it is different but it is not worth the price for me.
2. I have a preference for a good dairy line as I intend to get some milk.
3. A2 milk genes are a plus.
4. Red is my color of preference, maybe it is because I have looked at black cattle all my life and red is something different just like Dexters. From my research lighter colors do have a slight advantage in my climate. Color is not a deal breaker by any means but it may be a plus. After talking with several other Dexter owners and looking at prices I have come to the conclusion that red Dexter’s sell faster and are worth more money than other colors. If you can get several hundred dollars more for color why not?

 

As I have seven heifers to be bred the cost of AI breaks down like this for me. $25+ a straw for semen, $7 a head AI tech rate plus $30 a visit. It would probably take three visits in total for everything to be wrapped up for a total of $90. AI is not 100% so I am figuring on two visits for AI and 10 Straws for my seven cows so the AI tech per head rate will come out to $70 for the first visit $21 for the second and ten straws of semen for $250. This may be a high estimate but better safe than sorry. I would also have to pay a shipping cost of $200+ for the semen. $25 a straw is on the low end with most costing around $50 a straw. The AI tech I talked with stores the semen for free. I would order enough semen for two years from the same bull before switching to a different bull to get my future herd sire. So halving the shipping cost I come out to $100+ shipping. The AI tech would make an initial visit to check on the heifers and inject them with a drug to synchronize their cycles so they could all be bred on one visit and have a better success rate. The cost for that drug would be around $15 a head, $105 total. That brings my one year cost to $636+. Not real bad but a bull will do it for free.

 

Here are the advantages of a bull for someone with a smaller herd. You need to think of the initial price as a deposit that you get back, unlike AI where once the money is spent its gone. When you are through with your bull you can sell him to someone else or eat him, either way you get your money back. The actual cost of the bull is the feed and care to keep him. In my case the feed is baled by myself at very low cost. I added up my cost last year and it was well under $.25 a square bale, of course there is my labor as well. I am not at my maximum capacity with this small herd so I only have to feed him in winter. The cost of feed is very low and I could afford to feed him for well under the price of AI even considering my labor.

I needed an ADCA registered bull to go with the registered heifers. If I went the cheapest route I could get a bull calf for $400+/-. I have already listed my shopping list, so the cheapest route was not an option. I figured AI was my only choice to get a bull of the caliber I wanted. I am also limited by not having a good way to move a full size bull. I have brought all the cattle back to my place as a calf in the back of my truck. I am still waiting on a good deal for a cattle trailer preferably a smaller one I can pull with my Mazda.

Well sometimes you get lucky and I found a bull calf that is the correct age to be mature in time for my heifers and he is still small enough to bring home in my truck. Both his parents are polled and he is ADCA registered. He has good parents and is healthy. So now my choice has been made. When I get him home I will test for A2 status and decide if I need to keep my eyes open for another bull, but in the meantime I at-least get a calf crop and build my herd.

 

We were too busy the first year to have a garden but we did work on clearing the future garden area. We broke ground that summer in preparation for planting wheat, one of the only things we could plant that late. At that time the only plow I had was a dearborn two bottom plow. There were roots in the field and they would bring me to a dead stop sometimes. I would have prefered a one bottom plow to break the sod, but you use what you have.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In order to harvest the future crop I wanted a combine. I thought about buying a self propelled old combine which can be picked up pretty cheap, but my sights were soon set on a Allis Chalmers All Crop pull behind pto powered combine. The advantages were the ability to harvest almost any crop, no engine or drivetrain to break down, and they are smaller in size. The best model was the AC 72 with a 72″ head and no canvas drapers that wear out and must be removed each season.

I figured the likelihood of finding a good Ac 72 that I could afford was small, so I broadened my search for any AC All Crop. As luck would have it I did find an AC 72 for sale in far north Missouri at a dirt cheap price. The previous owner last used it in the 90’s and he said it was working fine when parked in his shed after it’s last harvest.

As soon as I had the time I made the trip to look at the combine. I found it was just as stated, sitting in the corner of a shed ready to come to a new home and be put back to work. I looked the combine over thoroughly to make sure it was usable. The combine was in great shape and I was sure it was worth the price, so I bought it.

With everything in place we were prepared to plant wheat. The soil was prepared but we didn’t have a drill or a spreader. Since it was only an acre we spread the seed by hand. We grabbed a handful and tried our best to spread the seed evenly. When we had the entire field spread we used an old bed spring pulled by an ATC to cover the wheat.

The wheat came in well. We were ready to try our luck with the combine next year. It was still undetermined how well the 8N could run the combine. The combine manual called for a 3 plow tractor, and a 8N is a two plow tractor. Worst case scenario we would do it by hand.

Our plan was to put in a second crop of Peredovik (Black Oil) sunflowers after harvesting the wheat. We had picked up a four row Oliver planter to use for this purpose.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When it came time to harvest the wheat I spent a day servicing the combine and cleaning it. The amount of greese zerts on one of these combines is incredible. If it moves it can be greesed. The 8N and the AC 72 worked very well together. The 8N had plenty of power for running the combine. The combine did its job as well as any modern combine, maybe better. I was so proud of the rig I made a video of running it for youtube.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is a link for the youtube video of my 8N running the AC 72 (turn your speakers down, its loud):

 

Youtube AC 72 Video

 

That winter was harsh, we had frozen water and sewer lines. Temperatures stayed well below freezing for weeks,  it was something I don’t want to relive. We paid for moving early.

After winter work continued on cleaning up and finishing our work. The acre field next to the house was cleared and brush hogged in preparation for planting. Because the place was formerly a saw mill there were pieces of logs scattered throughout the fields. They would remain well hidden until you ran one through the brush hog.

The shops on the place were missing all the big doors, but did have nice concrete floors and potential. The biggest shop is roughly 30×60 and it has two levels which divide it in half. The bottom half had a foot of dirt over the floor with tree roots growing into the shop. On the back of the lower level there is a 30′ addition to the shop.

 

 

 

 

 

Cleaning the trash and dirt from the shops took a lot of work. Trees had grown around all the shops and had to be cut down and cleared. There were logs hidden everywhere. It takes a lot of time to clean up land. Luckily I had already been down this road before on my other piece of property and had a good chainsaw and tractor to get the work done.

That summer I tried to get someone to bale my place on shares with no luck. I could not find anyone who was interested in baling it. With no luck we decided to invest in the equipment to bale it ourselves. My long range plan was to add cattle to our homestead, but I wanted to make sure I could be providing the food for those cattle first.

I already had the tractor, what I would need to bale was a baler, mower and a rake. Through craigslist shoping I found everything I needed at a good price: