I like to call it the Pig Jig

A lot has happened lately but I've let myself get caught up in my work and haven't stopped by here to update. And while there's so much to say, I just don't have it in me to write it all out. Lucky for me, pictures and videos exist!

We moved the pigs into their pastured area and this is how they felt about it:

Don't worry, this video was a first attempt. I will have a better version up when I get around to it...

We've also been digging in the garden. We got in all kinds of leafy greens, beets, radishes and carrots a while back. A second round of those and some strawberries, peas and asparagus. (I've also transplanted the eggplant, tomatoes, and peppers as well as planting the basil and beans since I drafted this.)

Here's our first spring garden bed. We did raised beds this year with straw in the aisles to prevent weeds and spinach on the sides to prevent erosion. So far, it's looking great.

 

I think the actual plant pictures are better though:

Deer Tongue Lettuce

Mixed Spring and Italian Greens

Seeded Simpson Lettuce

Baby Spinach

Grown Spinach

View of Wonderful Texture   ; )

Baby Carrot!

               

We also already planted our cover crop on our "resting" bed. I took pictures a little later than this entry suggests, but doesn't it look cute now?

 

And because we all know by now that I love closeups: 

My secret garden guards are watching you.

Aaaaaand, we got our meat chickens and guinea hens:

Guinea Keets

Meat Chicks:

Meat Chick stares you down

Curious Meat Chicks

Hungry, Hungry Meat Chicks?

Piggy Updates

Having the pigs has been great. They are adorable. Actually....they're very much like dogs once they get to know you. They come to the door, they wag their tails, they snort at you. It's so cute.


I won't lie though, I have spent a good bit of time in the pen earning their trust. We have come far together. They've gotten comfortable with me, they'll let me pet them, I've taught them how to drink with their nipple waterer and just recently we've been practicing with the feeder flap.

And today, I managed to record Salchicha as she got her first win on the feeder game. Join us for this exciting moment in Rogue Fox Farm history:

We're Officially in Hog Heaven!

Ok, technically, they're not big enough to be called hogs yet, but you get the drift.

We bought four: Tocino, Prosciutto, Salchicha, and Pancetta. But before you tell me I'm a sadist for naming them that, know that if I don't call them by some type of food product name, I will never be able to follow through when it comes to the end...and I simply can't have four 400+ lb. sows running around next year.

That being said, they are adorable. Just look at them!

Here's the piggies in my truck. That's a pig panel I bent up and tied together at the corner. They were all snuggled up in the straw and loving it!



After the first day, we decided they were having a little trouble adjusting to their new home, so to entice their appetites, we brought them each a little chunk of apple core and 1/4 of a scrambled egg. Boy did that ever work! It took some goading on my part at first but by the end they were checking my hand for any and all scraps. (This got a little scarier when I ran out of food, haha. No one tried to bite, but I've heard that if you feed them by hand too much they associate your hand with food and, well, you know where that story goes...) But, all went well, the piggies feasted happily after that.

More pictures!

But to anyone who might stumble upon this in search of answers about setting up pigs, here is what went into my setup here in southeast PA:


Housing:
-Currently, they are in an 11' x 12' stall in our barn. Eventually they will be moving to a Port-a-Hut (~$300) so they can be moved more readily around the pasture.

Food:
-We bought a one panel hog feeder for the four of them. They're fighting over it a little bit today (now that they figured out where it is) but I'm hoping that settles down. (The lid needs to be strapped open the first couple days so they get used to where it is, then you can let them figure out how to work it.)

Water:
-We used a generic nipple waterer. (They bite down on a stick and the water comes out.) We had to get a metal pipe to attach the nipple to (because if it were directly connected to the hose, they may very well destroy the hose). This pipe is fitted with two nylon fittings. One reduces the size of the hole, the other goes from threaded to hose-fitted. On top of the hose fitting, I put a sawed off hose and a metal pipe clamp. Remember that if you're connecting threaded tubing for water, put the teflon tape around the threads to protect against leaks.  (Can you tell this is where I struggled most?)

Fencing:
-We are using electric fencing. Right now, it lines the edges of the stall so that they get used to how it works. According to my research, pigs are one of the few animals that will try to plow through the fence (depending on where they get zapped) rather than back away. So, to teach them the proper way to deal with the fence, a hard wall needs to be on the other side for a while so they learn that the can't plow through it and must back away from it. So far, it's been working well. Ask me again once they're in the field, haha.

Bedding:
-We are using straw.

Heat:
-We have a heat lamp about 3' up. It could probably be lowered. I'm going to work on that. (The high today is 45°F.)

Frustration

I knew that this whole pig setup was beginning to feel too easy.

I've been working on this watering connection for two days now, lost $75 dollars to wrong sized hoses (due to the salesperson's lack of attention to detail) and am now dealing with trying to find a good connector because the connector he sold me <i>also</i> is the wrong size.

::fumes::

♬ Spring is in the air, everywhere I look around...♬

So, things are starting to pick up again around the farm. the meat chickens and french guinea fowl have been ordered and will arrive May 5th. The pigs (2, possibly 4) are ordered and will be ready for pickup at the end of the month/beginning of next month. The rabbits are happily housed in their new living quarters in the barn. And the laying chickens have a new pasture to explore now that the ground has finally unfrozen enough to get the fence posts pushed in again.

In general, things are moving and shaking!

Some upcoming projects include:
  -getting the ground ready and the peas, carrots, radishes and leafy greens planted
  -starting warmer loving plants indoors
  -getting the grounds machinery up and running
  -washing and vaseline-ing the chickens legs to protect from leg mites
  -building the chicken tractor(s) for the meat chickens
  -setting up the electric fence for the piggies

We are busy, busy beavers over here. But, it's nice to finally be able to do some solid work. I feel very accomplished. That's always a good feeling!

Rogue Hawk Farm

Perhaps that would have been a better name choice for our farm since we recently experienced a miniature chicken massacre by hawk. I will spare you the pictures, but give you the damage report:

-one chicken died (and in a sad, sad way too)
-one chicken lost the skin on its back
-one chicken broke a foot
-one chicken is limping

We have the isolation tub in use right now. And lots of splits and neosporin (or at least the chicken equivalent of it.)

Now the question remains: What do we do about it?

We may possibly get a second coop and have 2 going at all times. That way, if the numbers dwindle too much in one, we can have a second group maturing to laying status so that our egg production never goes down.


Now if only farms didn't have so much upfront capital....

Superchickens!!! (and their capes)

A month or so ago we started to notice that the chickens backs were looking strange. Then, we noticed that one was missing a little patch of feathers. Thus, we launched our investigation.

Chicken health books said it could possibly be mites, fleas or other feather eating bugs.
We checked with friends who said they might be pecking one another.
Nutrition only dictated they get extra protein to rebuild the feathers they were losing.

As per usual in this family, we attacked it from every angle.

For the bugs we bought special eco-friendly debugging spray, completely cleaned out the chicken house, scrubbed the walls and roosts, sprayed it down, rinsed it off, let it dry, sprinkled diatomaceous earth and then replaced the bedding with fresh straw.


For the potential pecking issue, we made the chickens who were suffering from it little chicken capes.

They are certainly not the easiest things to get on, but once they're on they do a very nice job of protecting the bald spot. Here's one of our Ameraucanas showing off her new wardrobe accessory.

They look like little super heroes...especially when they fly. haha.





Now that we've had some time to see how everything worked, we're pretty sure they were just pecking each other because we had a lot of snow and they were cooped up for much longer than they're used to. I'm starting to think they're becoming mean chickens from all this snow because a few more have gotten pecked. I'll keep you posted once the snow finally melts out of their grassy area.

Roosterkas

So, as previously mentioned, the rooster (lovingly referred to as Stockpot) got eaten.

Now, one might ask, "How could you do that?!"

Well, it comes down to this. I had two options: 1) get attacked nearly every time I needed to take care of the chickens  or 2) have a delicious meal made from food that was grown safely and lovingly. Now ask yourself, what sounds like the better choice to you?

So, we butchered our first animal. Okay, well, maybe we didn't butcher him, but a very kind amish (or possibly menonite) family prepped our bird for a small fee. Much easier than getting everything set up ourselves for just one measly little bird (trust me, I've done 10-15 myself before).

Out of this whole experience came: 

Roosterkas

(our take on a traditional family meal of Chicken Paprikas, pronounced pah-prih-kahsh)

We even made the dumplings with our fresh hen eggs. The rooster and his hens were reunited for one last time!

Remembering Season 1 on the Farm

I am starting a blog to document the exciting goings on that occur at Rogue Fox Farm. It is officially the beginning of our second season here, but let's quickly recap last season:

We were a suburban family trying to learn the ropes of a farm. Given that, I'd say we did pretty darn well. We had a few disease issues - early blight with the tomatoes, some nematode issue with the rutabagas and possibly fusarium something or other with the okra...but I'm still not sure about that one. That being said, we got a ton of produce out of our 'little' garden. We grew a number of things including tomatoes, cucumbers, corn, squash, eggplant, okra, peppers, beans, rutabagas, lettuce, kale, swiss chard, etc.

We also tried our hand at animals...the easiest animals available: laying hens. We built their coop and raised them from chicks. There were 19 hens, 1 rooster. The fox, over the course of the winter, got 2 hens from us and we got the rooster (he had begun to get aggressive).  More to come on that.

And because pictures are much  more entertaining than words will ever be:

Gardens

Here you can see our lower garden through three stages. The dots correlate to the same plants in different stages. Red are the tomatoes (note the fence they're growing on disappear), Yellow are beans, and Blue is the okra.

 

Here's the middle garden. We only got one picture of it that season...I was lazy. And nevermind the Spanish labels.

  

While we're on the topic of gardens, why not show you our beautiful produce?

Produce

 We got quantity alright!

 

And variety...

 

And quality (usually, haha)

 

 We also got eggs for the first time. Cute ones at that. They are brown, blue green, cream and occasionally pinkish.

  

Chickens

They start out cute.

We made them a little halfway house to live in before the coop was finished.

And finally...there was a chicken coop built with love. LOTS of love.

Here's the montage of the creation and its residents in their full grown stage.