Chickens - Our first 'Resource Engine'

'FRESH!!' Thats how one of TLC's farm workers describes TLC Farm's Next batch of

 7 week old chickens. (Below)

(Making the most of the morning light as the doors are opened) 

Next week Teusday we will be processsing  200 of them and delivering 150 to a new customer in the North of Johannesburg. 50 will be stored in TLC's freezer for our own use or to be sold later.

The Remaining live chickens will be sold locally. With the price of meat increasing all the time another side benefit of our free range chicken facility is that we supply the local community with an affordable source of protien and a quality product at that.

What A life!!

Now you will probably see why it has been so quiet on this blog!

Things have been moving along so fast that I can abarely keep up.

TLC recently employed a new grounds manager. Now that he has settled in, I'm beggining to get free time to do updates like this!! Please feel free to comment...Got to stay motivated to keep this up to date. It's an important way of letting our supporters know whats going on, and there is SO much going on!!!

My Marketing Assignment Video

As some of you may know, I'm doing the Social Entrepreneurship Certification Program or SECP course at GIBS this year. My sister Pippa did it last year and it has helped her allot. A part of one of our recent assignments was to make a short, 1 minute video. In real life I would get a voice-over professional to speak for me so forgive the poor narration. I thought it would be a nice little thing to post while I round up all my photo's. 

So much to report!

I know, I know. I haven't updated this blog in a while but hopefully things are a little more organised in my life these days and I'll be able to keep the updates coming thick and fast!

I sometimes wonder if people think that nothing has been going on on the farm since I haven't been posting. I assure you it's exactly the opposite. So much is happening day to day that I can barely keep up.

I'm busy filing all the pics from the last few months into the different categories and I'll give you an update on each shortly.

Reading back on my earlier posts it's cool to see how things are actually taking shape and everything I dreamed about and imagined could happen is all coming together and happening right now! :o)

TLC Farm is making TLC's dreams come true and creating the sustainability envisioned from the outset! And yes...I quite possibly have the best job in the world.

Hang in there, I'll be posting in just a little bit!

Our First Batch of Free Range Chicken!

I Know I've been sparse with the news lately but lots of things have been happening as you will soon see. I wanted to start with the latest bit of news first. I'll get onto all the other stuff later

Yesterday morning I took our first batch of 44 Broiler chickens to the abattoir to go and get...processed. It's been an experience to observe what is accepted practice by the chicken industry.

These chickens arrive as day old chicks of about 40 grams. Within about 40-50 days have reached weights of 2 kgs!(4.4lbs) They are able to do this because they have been selected and cross bred to have the genetic predisposition to grow at an accelerated rate.

They have about 400 square metres of range but I'm starting to wonder if they would actually do better to have their movement considerably restricted because as they grow so fast they have begun to have trouble supporting their weight. I had a gentleman visit the farm who used to keep racing pigeons and suggested that the reclining position they take when they are sitting down indicated to him that they may be experiencing joint pain.

These are chickens that, if you were an environmentally responsible shopper, you might buy under the label of 'free range'. To get around, they flap their wings while they run to ease the pressure on their legs but because the bones grow so fast, they are weak and the wing tips get damaged which was pointed out to me by the Foreman at the abattoir.

If you buy free range, these are the types of chickens you eat. and if you don't buy free range you don't even want to know the kind of lives those chickens are forced to live. We eat them too and unless everyone radically changes their eating habits, this is what the average chicken has to go through especially if we want to keep chicken prices under R20per kg.

I don't intend on stopping our broiler production very soon but with the facility we have available and a little imagination I'm sure I can come up with a solution where the chickens we eat get to have lived happy chicken lives before they end up on our plate. If I or anyone else can't do that in a viable way then I think we should all start thinking about the real cost of a piece of meat.

I did read an article recently about some breeders trying to breed slower growing broilers. It's a step in the right direction but most people want to be able to buy what they want at the lowest price, regardless of the pain and suffering of any creature or individual along the way. Those things are out of sight and out of mind.

At least in TLC's little corner of the earth, we can minimise the suffering our human presence causes and teach our children about the real price is of what they put on their plate. If they decide to become a vegetarian we'll definitely support them. Now that I'm beginning to see, practically, what it takes to produce different types of food I think it's not unreasonable for us to at least look at slightly scaling down our use of meat products and consider alternative, more sustainable options.   

On the upside. Everyone is very happy with our 44 chickens in the freezer!!! That's going to be four meals for TLC! The biggest one was just under 2.5 kg(about 5.5lbs) My workers are looking forward to the heads, feet, intestines and kidneys and actually right now just pulled me away so I can dispense it to them :o)

  Lastly, While I was at the Abattoir the week before to make arrangements for yesterday I happened to run into a gentleman who makes pies (which I have also happened to try) and sells them at the local farmers market. He grows all his own chickens for the pies ORGANICALLY! So with the money I saved with these chickens I offered to buy 9 dozen of his delicious pies ( to make it worth his while ;o) and he is coming tomorrow to deliver them and give me a few pointers on growing happier, healthier chickens that are healthier to eat. He also gets his chicken food for less than I do so I'm sure his input will be valuable!

Sorry if the post was a little depressing but it's because the situation is unsatisfactory and we are just beginning down a road to come up with a solution.

Sweeps!

A Goat Gloat.

So last Saturday I took Benji and Keiran down to Bloemfontein, a city about 4 hours from Jo'burg, to buy a goat for the farm. They were having the National Mich Goat Sale so I decided I had better not miss the opportunity to get a good stud.

They actually had to squish in the front most of the way and we were giving Kieran a bit of a hard time

but we all survived.

The auction was scheduled to be at the end of the show that they had at the end of the week. I couldn't make the show, which may have been useful as I might have been able to get some young ewes/does but all the female goats for sale were in milk or not the breed I'm after so I'm looking around for a breeder now to get our man goat some company.

There were 65 lots and the bucks came out last. There was a very impressive young specimen under a year old who had won loads of things. I put a bid on him but he eventually went for R7000!! The most at the auction. My goat, lot 49, had a number of accolades. He's about 1 year and 5 months and his mother and grandmother both had very high milk yields. His mothers lifetime yield by her 3rd lactation was 2539 kilograms and the Grandmother was 6079 kg by her 6th lactation.

Keiran being wierd at a nice chinese retaurant in Bloem.

Benji, Making sure the last bite went down.

 

                                                          Sunrise at the hotel. Time to go!

I'm not a goat auction pro but they seemed like the kind of numbers I was looking for and they were the highest of those details in the whole auction so I was pretty happy with my purchase. I wanted to make sure he had a Friend or not get a goat at all but I had to take the opportunity and I'm working hard at getting him some company. His new paddock is just about ready for him. He's been staying in the new chicken cage over the past week. I tried to put him in a paddock but he jumped straight out.  He seems pretty content where he is but there's not much space to jump around. I've taken him out for a couple walks to exercise him but he is actually very strong and it becomes more of a workout for me.

When I loaded him up I tied a tarp to the front of the trailer so the wind didn't get him the whole way home.

Everyone came to admire him when he got home.

He can get between 80 and 85 kilogrammes when he's fully grown. 

He'll be in his new home by Monday. I'll keep you updated. 

Thanks to Ricoh again for our newest addition to the farm. With thier help I'll be upadating this soon with the arrival of the girls!



Our new Chicken Cage. - The Chook Dome 4000 -

Thanks to the help of Ricoh who is helping TLC reach it's self sufficiency goals we were able to get this chicken cage to be made for the veggie garden. It's an integral part of the design of the veggie bed system. You can read more about the working of the system on the blog post. 'The Permaculture Veggie Patch Plan'

It's designed to fit over the beds exactly.

This new version of the chicken dome can't be moved by one person but we are never short of hands willing to help out at TLC so moving them shouldn't be a problem. I'm putting two layers of shade netting on the roof and I'll have a small section covered with a tarp to keep the chickens dry.

I was very happy with the quality of the work done by a local business, ABC Cages, and I've  paid the deposit for the second cage to be built for the second veggie garden system.

Right now we have a goat living in here, but I'll tell you about that later!