Our Chores for the Month of May

At the farm, we have been assigned monthly and weekly chores in addition to our daily farm work. These are chores that we are responsible for every day, so if we want to take off for a day we have to make sure someone will cover for us. The chores will be rotated amongst the apprentices over the course of the placement, so we will all get accustomed to working with various kinds of livestock. At first, I'll admit I was a bit put off by this. "I thought Sunday was a DAY OFF!" was my first reaction, but really it still is. The farm family is more than willing to cover our chores on our days off, but we have to make sure to communicate with them about it. I think it's Jen's (the farm manager) clever way of teaching us a bit about the responsibility of farm life. The animals still need to be fed and watered, the irrigation still needs to be turned on and off.

Lisa's Duty (hehe "duty") - Laying Hens (157 birds including some roosters)

Chickens exiting their coop, the "chicken tractor" in the morning

This chore is one of the bigger time-suckers of the monthly chores. It involves:
- 8AM - let chickens out of the coop onto pasture, fill feed & water, cleaning nesting boxes & collect eggs.
- 12PM - check on food & water, collect eggs, wash & package eggs for sale
- 5PM - check on food & water, collect eggs
- Sundown - make sure all chickens are back in the coop and close up the ramps.

As much as it is a lot of responsibility, I am thoroughly enjoying it. I have an interest in having my own chickens at some point for eggs and meat, so getting comfortable with the birds is a big deal to me. Lately the egg production has dropped off a bit, and we are wondering if the recent heat wave has something to do with this.

Lisa successfully collects eggs from the nesting boxes at the back of the chicken tractor

This chore comes packed with chicken-chasing, hen-pecking, cock-a-doodle-dooing and plenty of bird poop to boot.

Derek's Duty - Meat Birds (Batch 1)

Derek with one of the new arrivals

About 10 days ago, 104 tiny fluffy yellow chicks arrived in a cardboard crate and have been Derek's wards ever since.
- 8AM feed & water, rake out the bedding, add new shavings, check for signs of pasty-bum
- 8PM repeat as listed above
- try not to step on anybody

Since their arrival, the chicks have more than doubled in size and in about 8-10 weeks they will be full-sized and ready to eat. In a couple of weeks they will be moved out to pasture in a chicken tractor that is a different model than the one with wheels that Lisa's birds are in, but still gives them access to free roam on pasture and add their "droppings" to the soil. It's a pretty simple chore as the birds are still quite young. This chore may be rotated away from him to another apprentice before the birds get bigger and therefore more of a handful, but it's still fun to have them when they're cute!