My Whizbang Chicken Plucker

Here is my newly completed Whizbang Chicken Plucker.


This photos shows how it is wired. I attached a pigtail with a male plug end coming from the motor, then switched a waterproof receptacle box. The motor isn't wired directly to the switch because I wanted to be able to remove it from the frame for cleaning and storage.


This second photo shows the inside of the plucker.


Finally, this photo shows the motor and gear reducer. I got the gear reducer from a coworker. It has a 16:1 reduction ratio so I went with a 3450 rpm motor. The two are coupled together with a Schmidt coupling.

If you want to see one of these plucker in action, here's a video link.

More Lambs

On Sunday, Bunny gave us two ram lambs. One is solid black and the other moorit (brown).
And this morning, Frost had two ewe lambs. One is white and the other is black spotted badgerface.
Out of eight lambs born so far this spring, only four have been normal birth presentations. Two were backwards (hind legs first).This isn't a difficult birth as long as someone is there to pull the lamb. Lambs presented this way unattended, however, usually die of asphyxiation.

The other two abnormal births were twins born to Ingrid. The first had one leg back. Jennifer called me at work and I went home right away. The birth was too far along to push the lamb back in and bring up the other leg up so I gently pulled it with the leg back. After that I did some other work and gave the ewe privacy to bond with her baby and birth its twin. I came back later to find that the twin's head was out and both legs were back. This one was a little trickier. I pulled the head and neck gently with the contractions until the shoulders were ready to come Then, with my outstretched fingers, I grasped the lambs shoulders and stretched the ewe's vulva with the backs of my fingers. The lamb came through the birth canal with both legs back. All are healthy.

Lambs Have Arrived

Two ewes, Coconut and Ingrid lambed today. They each had twins - 3 girls and a boy. Here are pics:

Big and Pregnant

Here is a photo of our ewe, Ingrid. She will be three years old later this month - a "3 winter" ewe in Icelandic terms. She appears to have the largest rumen capacity of any of our sheep. Add pregnancy to the equation and this is what she looks like lying down.

I suppose someone used to an "improved" breed of sheep or someone raising show sheep would say she has a"hay belly." Personally I like hay bellies. After all that's what a ruminant animal should be.

Speaking of show sheep, we've decided to sever our kids' membership in 4-H this year. Sheep magazine has reported that in the 2007-08 season, all kids showing livestock will be required to register their families' premises with NAIS. Given that and the fact that our agricultural values differ vastly from the values promoted by 4-H, the decision was an easy one.

April's Here and Most Is Well

Since we've been engaged in any farming endeavors, I don't think I've ever been less stressed on April 1st. The ewes are shorn and bagging up nicely. Seed starting is on schedule and we have a straw bale cold frame with transplants and seeds about ready to go into it. Our rotational grazing plan is already underway. I don't do much in the way of recordkeeping but I think the pasture is greening up earlier this year. Miller Nurseries will soon be sending us about 10 apple trees, a few pawpaws and about 30 assorted berry plants including blueberries, cranberries, beach plums, bush cherries and a couple lesser known varieties. There are 8 and one-half quarts of homemade maple syrup in the cupboard. That's not as much as we've made in the past but it's not a bad start after not making any for a couple years. I saw a picture of a nice little homemade evaporator that I may try to copy for next year. Finally our replacement layers and first batch of broilers are brooding.

The broiler chicks have been our biggest disappointment. Eight of them have either died or had to be put down because their legs simply gave out. It's not all that uncommon to see older birds hobbling around because their legs no longer support their fast growing bodies but these chicks are barely a week old. My friend recently told me that all her turkeys and geese from the same hatchery died within twelve hours of being brought home. I wonder if the hatchery is having some quality problems with their breeding stock genetics. We've never needed to use vitamin supplements in the water before but maybe we should have this time. I wish we knew of a purebred meat bird whose flavor we liked as well as the Cornish cross. If anyone has any suggestions please let me know.

I attribute our preparedness and lack of stress to a few different things. Our kids are getting older and that frees up Jennifer to do more. She made almost all our maple syrup this year. I'm working a different schedule so I'm at home in the mornings when I'm fresh and able to get more done. Finally I think that we're getting to know our farm after two springs here and our management is starting to bear fruit