Nemo is a machine

Man, oh man, that Nemo girl is tearing through those grapevines and brush around the barn.  Last week while it was raining day and night I kept her close to the barn so she could come in out of the weather, but as long as it has been nice out I've moved her daily along the east side of the barn.  She has it just about whipped.  I think today will be her last day on the east side. Tonight when I get home from work I'll be turning the corner with her and she can start to decimate the north side next.  On Saturday, with my goat and pregnant wife watching, I began pulling down and out all of the dead, trampled vines that she (Nemo, not Becky) had left in her wake.  I ended up getting most of the east side cleaned up on Saturday.  Sometime this week I'll haul the pile of vines over to where I intend to burn them this winter.  I'll get some pictures of the barn up here shortly I hope.
     Well, Becky and I moved our growing batch of laying hens to the field pen that has been sitting vacant since the broilers' departure from the farm.  We did that on Saturday as well.  They are still trying to figure out the morning move and so I'm still having to move it extra slow because one of them gets a leg caught on the trailing side of the pen every time.  They'll get it soon enough.  The broilers eventually did and I'm sure that these hens are smarter than those meaty monsters were.  Once they have been moved in the morning to fresh grass they really go at it.  Their grain consumption is way down from when they were in the brooder.  They seem to really love all of that green grass and fresh bugs.  Mmm, Mmmm, good! Anyway I wanted to get them out on pasture for a month or so before it really gets cold around here.  I'm going to make an honest effort to get them a hoophouse built for winter housing.  The hoophouse acts as a greenhouse and the birds stay nice and toasty during the day which means that they should still lay pretty good for us through the winter.  I'm expecting the first eggs the week of November 29th.  We'll see. Keep your fingers crossed. 

    Above is a picture of the inside of one of the hoophouses at Polyface Farm in Swoope, Va.  Becky and I are trying to model our farm after this one.  At polyface the hens go into these houses and keep warm and clean.  They dust bathe in the sawdust floor and to the left you can see the rabbit cages.  The chickens scratch through the rabbit droppings and keep the bedding composting.  The chickens act as sanitizers for the whole operation and therefore keeps the ammonia smell down to nothing.  In industrial models rabbits are the most heavily medicated animals of all, but at Polyface no meds are needed.  It's amazing what can happen when you work with nature instead of against it.