Like most of you, I was anxiously awaiting the epic conclusion of the Polyface Farms Field Day saga. Unfortunately for me, I was tasked with writing it rather than just waiting to read it. Nonetheless, I believe Diana left off on our quest toward lunch. The picture above demonstrates this as we finished our tour with Joel and headed with the crowd. As you can see, I am on the left side of the picture still in a walking boot. This definitely added to the complexity of the field day. I got good with the boot in the previous six weeks, when on flat ground. However, rolling pasture is a different story. Because of this, we were one of the last to get food. That was not a problem as there was plenty to go around for everyone, but was a problem for us as the two farm-fresh eggs that were consumed at 6 a.m. that morning had been absorbed hours before this picture. 
NOTE: The older gentleman in the orange hat just in front of me is packing an iPad. I thought that was pretty cool!

More drone pics of the Field Day from Darren Doherty.  The first two are of the last stop on the morning tour at the pig glen and the last one is a high overhead view of the lunch lines.

This picture is awesome, again from Darren Doherty. This is the primary 100 acres of Polyface Farms, give or take a few acres.  If we start at the pool in the middle area, that is the Salatin house. Directly left is their new store and chicken processing shed with the large pond behind it. The three grey rectangles are hoop houses where they over-winter their chickens and pigs. The four lines of white boxes are the broiler chicken shelters. Notice immediately behind them it's brown from chicken droppings, but if you follow it back you notice the tracks disappear and the grass gets greener. Another strip of chicken shelters is below them and to the left. In the lower left-hand corner is where we stopped to see the cows. The Eggmobiles and the Millennium Feathernet are all in that area. That grass looks different because of it being grazed. Turkeys were in the very bottom left corner and we continued the counterclockwise walk to the food tents. It looks like the tour was with the chickens at this time. The "parking lot" is usually a grazing area and the cows were in that area up until about two days prior to the event. This is why it is not as green, but I'm sure the 2000 people didn't help either.

After lunch we had a protein coma and viewed some of the vendors that were there.  Not just any vendors, only Salatin approved vendors.  We noticed their "Carbon Shed" which is an area where they dump all of their chicken offal for composting with as much carbon (i.e. wood chips) as they can.  We walked by it and while there were a few flies, no odor was noticed.

The afternoon started with Daniel Salatin talking about his experience with rabbits. Daniel has raised rabbits for meat since he was nine years old and all of his rabbits today are direct descendants of the ones he first received from some family friends. This is called line breeding and essentially, he "ruthlessly" culled rabbits in his first few years to select for the "best" rabbits. Many would think the "best" would be the larger rabbits with more meat, but that does you no good if they don't eat the "free" food (i.e. grass/pasture) and if they aren't hardy. So Daniel selected for ease of transition to pasture and healthy rabbits that had good litters. Good litters means more rabbits. Any rabbits that had teeth problems, sniffles, health issues, poor transition to pasture and a variety of other things were culled out. Now, he has rabbits that do not have teeth problems, do not have sniffles, eat grass the moment they can and have great litters.  

The rabbits are housed in cages that are installed several feet up off the floor in the Raken (rabbit/chicken) House. Chickens are kept at ground level for the purpose of utilizing their handy rakes (feet) to scratch the rabbit poo, which falls from the cages above, into the bedding. Therefore, there is no build-up of rabbit droppings and the bedding is aerated and easily transformed into usable compost.

What we did not know was that he had some breeding pairs for sale.  There was no way we could get some as we had a 12-hour drive home and weren't leaving for two days. However, it would have been fantastic to start our rabbit venture with Daniel's rabbits. 

Diana attended a seminar on their chick brooding.  They have a giant shed that broods their chickens and the pictures show how they send feed on a pulley system and separate out the chickens into batches so as not to have too many together.  This avoids piling up and suffocation. She learned a few pointers from their brooding operation. First, she noticed that the wood shavings used for bedding were of a much finer grade than what we use. Even though the chicks pictured were only a couple days away from going to pasture, the bedding was still clean and there was very little odor, and no new shavings had been added. This led Diana to conclude that we needed to switch to fine-grade shavings for our brooder, since we were constantly having to add fresh bedding to our brooder. She also took note of the clean, convenient method of offering water to the chicks through the use of a nipple waterer and learned about a simple schedule to use for offering grit to the chickens.

We also received a tour of their chicken processing station. Past movies have shown the Salatins processing out in a field, but now they have an open air processing structure that is connected to the Polyface store. Not surprisingly, the processing area is well designed and when all interns and apprentices are there, they can process up to 500 chickens in 120-150 minutes. 

We also learned a bit about the use of their hoophouses throughout the year, follThen the day ended with a Q&A event with Joel Salatin, which was both informative and entertaining.

An exhausting day ended with us buying some Polyface bacon to go with the farm-fresh eggs at our rental house.  It was a fantastic day and one that I hope all of you can experience at some point. While the Field Days will not be offered again, Polyface Farms is open 24/7, 365 days a year to visitors.  As Joel states, he desires to be fully transparent and in order to do this, you have to be willing to see people whenever. We plan on going back to a smaller event or just to visit the farm again some day with the kids. 

When we do, we plan on staying at the same rental house again. Breezy Hill was a fantastic place to stay and only a mile or so from Polyface Farms. We felt very lucky to be one of the first families to stay there and to be so close to the farm. 

I could go on longer about what it "felt" like to be at Polyface, or for the Shenandoah Valley for that matter. However, that becomes hard to explain when you talk about "good energy" and stuff.  Just experience it for yourself. While Polyface is a long way away (for us, at least), my guess is that you can get that feeling by visiting any farm that is focused on doing things the "right way" and working to maintain happy animals, happy people, and happy plants.

Trevor
+ Diana

One of the cooler things we have come across in our homesteading adventures is hand-held vacuum sealing. The current process for vacuum sealing usually involves a Food Saver or similar appliance. Almost all of these run on electricity and require plastic bags that are only single use. Pretty wasteful, but still good for keeping food fresh. However, this can be done with a reusable container and no electricity. The following video demonstrates our hand-held vacuum sealer as I use it to marinate jerky:

We found the idea on Youtube and while I explain it in the video, the necessary items are canning jars and lids as your reusable containers, a hand-held brake bleeder, Food Saver jar sealer attachments, and a Food Saver Accessory Hose. While these links direct you to the Food Saver site, go to eBay and buy a kit that has the regular mouth and wide mouth attachments and the accessory hose. We would have saved $5-$10 doing this. We bought the brake bleeder from Harbor Freight and I think we paid $25 for it. For the sake of saying it, I do think a new, in-package brake bleeder would be a good idea here.  Don't go digging in the toolbox for the greasy grimy one you used last year.  

After getting it, I attached the hose that came with the brake bleeder and then cut off an end of the Food Saver Accessory Hose. This cut end fit perfectly in the clear hose that came with the brake bleeder--no sealing necessary. If you do this, I hope it fits great for you too.

Notice that there are no bands on the sealed jars that I am holding in the last three pictures. For the Hershey bars or any already-wrapped packages, you will need to poke a hole in the wrapper. They are already sealed and that air will stay in there unless you poke that hole.

This video demonstrates how crunchy the cereal is after being stored for over ten months in the vacuum-sealed jar.  For some reason the kids were happy to help with this video.

If you have good canning jars with no cracks you can pressurize up to 20 PSI per my research. We try to shoot for over 15 PSI at least.  This will be easier and harder based upon what is in it. A jar of herbs will be almost all air so that will take longer than the same jar full of rice. By harder I mean more elbow and wrist grease to squeeze the brake bleeder.  Good exercise!

Words of warning.  The brake bleeder is not meant for this purpose so please use at your own risk. Some people have been concerned about the brass fittings at the end of the brake bleeder. Our logic is that the brake bleeder is only pulling the air out of the jars and not putting any air into it, so there should be no brass residue. Anyway, we are okay with it.

Also, please research what foods to use. Powders can be used (e.g. flour, dry milk), but keep the level lower in the jar so as not to suck up the powder in the hose. Use only dried materials. Even though the air is out, if there is water in the jar it will still work to cause food to spoil. Also, leave your recently-sealed jars close by for a week or so and check the seals. After a week, if it is still sealed, it will likely remain sealed. No promises though!  Some theories state that if you seal it well, it should stay good for a very long time, perhaps 5+ years as long as that lid is safely sealed on there.  

If there is a leak, the pressure will equalize and loosen the lid on the jar, so if the lid is solidly attached, then the jar is still sealed as the day you did it.

In regards to wasting, another great thing is finding a use for "spent" canning lids.  Since water bath and pressure cooker canning require tight seals, it is always recommended that you use new, unused lids.  For this process, as long as the lid is not bent and the seal is in good shape, it should work.  It's not using heat to melt the seal around the lid, it's sucking the lid onto the jar and this allows you to use "spent" lids as opposed to throwing them out.  

Finally, in case you are new to the world of food preservation and think that vacuum sealing is a substitute for water-bath canning or pressure canning, you are mistaken! Those foods need to be properly sealed through the appropriate canning method--not through the use of a vacuum sealer.

The only downside to this process is that the jars can be expensive. However, just buy all the ones you can find at garage sales (just not the ones we are going to) and start stocking up. Canning jars are invaluable items. Great for storage and canning (obviously), but can be used for any number of other uses, decorations and even for bee hives!  Email us if you need more information on this handy, no waste, electricity-free food storage device.

- Trevor

Originally, Trevor and I were planning to celebrate our 10-year anniversary in Las Vegas, but instead decided to take a short trip to Virginia and attend the 2014 Polyface Farms Field Day. Polyface Farms, a multi-generational farm run by the Salatin family, is a self-described "non-industrial food production oasis" that is known for its holistic animal husbandry practices and its use of perennial polycultures. Polyface Farms has been featured in documentaries such as Food, Inc., Farmageddon, and Fresh, the Movie. Joel Salatin has written nine books including The Sheer Ecstasy of Being a Lunatic Farmer and Folks, This Ain't Normal: A Farmer's Advice for Happier Hens, Healthier People, and a Better World.

We arrived at the farm at 6:30 a.m. prepared for a long day of touring and  workshops. Since none of the scheduled activities took place until 8:00 we had some time to wander around the farm and peek at the buildings, gardens, and animals. It took me all of 30 seconds to get cow poo smeared on my leg.

At 8:00 a.m. we started the walking tour with Joel Salatin and about 900 other guests.

First we visited the pastured broiler shelters. These shelters are also currently housing pullets that just started laying eggs and will soon be replacing old layers in the Eggmobile.

We have studied extensively the Polyface model of raising pastured poultry and were already very familiar with this operation, though it was interesting to witness the perfectly staggered pattern of all the shelters on pasture. We currently have one shelter that is nearly identical to those shown here, only 60% the size.

One helpful bit of information we gathered is that these shelters are held together by a wire that runs across the ground, halfway through the length of the shelter connecting the two sides. We use a 2'x2' for this same purpose but have had problems getting chicks stuck under the 2'x2' when we are trying to move the shelter. The wire also has the added benefit of cutting down on the overall weight of the structure.

The next stop on the walking tour was a scenic 15-minute hike across a walking bridge and up the hill to visit the cattle. The cattle are contained by 2 strands of electric wire in a long, narrow paddock. They are moved to a new paddock every day. It sounds like a fairly simple operation of moving the stakes, running the wires, moving the basic shade structure, and calling over the cattle (who are eager to move to a fresh "salad bar").

Joel Salatin considers himself to be a grass farmer. His goal at Polyface is to properly manage the pasture by introducing cattle to pasture when the length of the grass is in its "teenage" stage--not too short and not too long, and where grazing results in rapid regrowth. The paddock size should be just right so as to graze every bit of pasture once. If there are lots of areas that are left ungrazed, the paddock size is too large, and if there are areas that are grazed a second time and are too short, then the area is too small.

The "Eggmobile" always follows behind the cattle. Layers in this system are free-ranging birds that earn their keep on the farm by working as the pasture sanitation crew. They scratch out the cow patties to help even out the manure load on the pasture and they gobble up bugs, worms, and fly larvae (maggots). The Eggmobile is always three days behind the cattle specifically because fly larvae turn into flies in four days. Eggs from these birds are just a bonus.

For some reason it just really tickled me to watch the free-ranging layers out amongst us, scratching for bugs and totally oblivious to the 900 people standing around.

The Millennium Feathernet is a large structure at Polyface that houses chicken layers whose purpose is to produce eggs. The large structure is surrounded by a very large electric poultry net and the entire paddock is moved every three days. We use a scaled-down version of this same model for our layers.

Next, we visited the turkeys on pasture, which are raised in a similar system as the chicken layers. They have a very simple shelter for roosting and an electric poultry net for "free-ranging" that is moved every few days. We learned that turkeys are very sensitive and prone to illness and death while in the brooder during the first several weeks of life, but after seven weeks of age they are hardy birds that can tolerate a wide range of weather conditions on pasture.

Right next to the turkeys is the simple barn that houses cows in the winter and pigs in the spring. The barn is completely open on one side and has many open areas to allow great ventilation for the animals. The cattle are fed hay in the harshest winter months and are kept on a deep straw bedding. As the cattle add manure, more layers of straw and corn are added to the bedding. The deep carbon bedding keeps the cattle dry and healthy, and the corn slowly ferments in the anaerobic bedding. As soon as the cattle are put out to pasture in the spring, pigs are moved in. They root through the bedding digging for the fermented corn, aerating the litter in the process. The bedding is then turned into a nice compost which increases the farm's fertility. Polyface originally acquired pigs with the intention of using their "pigaerator" qualities. Pork was just a delicious bonus.

Pigs are also kept in wooded paddocks and are rotated every 5-10 days. In order to consistently monitor the amount of animal pressure on this land, the determination of when to move the pigs is simply based on when their feeder runs out.

As the pigs have rooted around in the paddocks they have cleared areas in the previously-forested land, which has naturally filled in with grasses, herbs, and weeds. Joel Salatin referred to this area as a pig savannah. What really impressed us was the complete lack of pig smell; it was a beautiful area that had no odor whatsoever.

The tour ended right before lunch. The rest of our day spent at the Polyface Farms Field Day will be included in Part 2.

- Diana

We have been quite surprised that out of the 30 pullets we purchased as future laying hens, none of them have turned out to be roosters. Everyone told us to hold off getting a rooster because two or three of the "pullets" would wind up being cockerels, but that has not been the case. Either that, or we have a cockerel that has failed to display any rooster-type qualities yet. 

We were really hoping to have at least one rooster so that we could hatch our own eggs at some point. So, when we noticed a handsome young rooster listed for sale on Craigslist, we decided to snatch him up. The person selling Charlie (I decided to name him "Charlie" the moment I saw him) had only had him for three weeks but said that he was a year old. He also said that Charlie was a barnyard rooster (meaning he has a little bit of everything), but we think it looks like he does have some Brown Red Ameraucana in him. Either way, he is definitely a good-looking bird. It is hard to see in the pictures, but his tail feathers have a beautiful, iridescent blue-green sheen when the light hits them. 

We have been nervous about how bothersome the inevitable early-morning crowing would be, but honestly we cannot hear him at all from inside the house, and (hopefully) neither can the neighbors. On the contrary, we have actually enjoyed listening to the distant crowing while we are outside working. It really adds to the ambiance and it feels like we are out at a farm. Fingers are crossed that his crowing will continue to be a non-issue.

Currently Charlie is being housed in Baxter's dog cage. I took out the bottom of the cage and bungee-strapped it to the top to act like a roof. He will be in quarantine for four weeks until we can be sure that he is completely healthy and won't infect our otherwise happy and healthy flock of pullets. He can see the pullets from his cage alongside the garage, though, and as soon as I let them out of their coop in the morning he really starts crowing away. I am hoping to get the pullets used to him very gradually so that it will be a smooth transition for him to join the flock later on.

In the meantime, our older group of pullets are just over 18 weeks old, so we really hope to find our first egg in the next month or so. We can't wait!

- Diana

Ants have started to take over the beehives. At first, we just left them alone because we had been told that bees could deal with ants on their own. Eventually, though, it appeared as if the ants had completely moved in to the west hive. There were ants completely covering a few of the top bars and you could see ant eggs everywhere as well, so we decided to do what we could to help.

First, we simply scraped out as many of the ants and eggs as we could.

Then, we sprinkled cinnamon between the top covers of the beehives and all over the table on which the hives are sitting. Apparently ants abhor cinnamon and will avoid it at all costs, yet it doesn't seem to bother the bees too much.

We also pulled away all the weeds around the hive so that any new ants are forced to enter the beehive by crawling up one of the table legs. We also sprinkled cinnamon on the ground around the legs of the hives and smeared petroleum jelly around each of the four legs of the beehives to trap the ants. Our hope is that we gave the honeybees enough of a head start to allow them to remove the rest (or at least most) of the ants on their own. 

UPDATE: I did not notice any ant activity during a cursory check of the outside of the hives a few days later. (We don't like to bother the bees by opening the hives any more than necessary.)

During the same hive inspection when we were removing ants, we confirmed that we did lose a swarm of bees from the east beehive. A week or so earlier we had seen swarm cells in that hive (capped queen cells that look like peanuts hanging off the edge of the comb). Even though we are still very new to this process, we knew that queen cells in the hive meant that the bees were preparing to swarm. The bees will start to raise a new queen, and before she hatches many bees will take off with the old queen in a swarm until they can find a new home. 

In order to allow the bees to follow their swarming instinct but still capture the bees, we needed to identify the existing queen bee and take her and several other bees to a new hive. Unfortunately, after several hours of searching, we were unable to locate the queen. 

Fast forward to the hive inspection where we removed ants, and it was very clear that the bees had swarmed. There were significantly fewer bees in the beehive and the queen cells were gone. We will give the new queen some time to mate and start laying new eggs before we bother that hive again to check on her progress.

In other news, we did happen to notice the queen bee while removing ants in the West hive, so it was very encouraging to know that we did have the ability to find a queen after all. Below is a picture of us pointing out the queen to our boys.

- Diana

About 2 weeks ago we started fermenting our chicken feed. In all honesty, the initial motivation was to cut down on feed costs without sacrificing nutrition. I remembered stumbling across Garden Betty's article, "Why And How to Ferment Your Chicken Feed" and decided to give it a try for myself. 

There are a lot of great resources that explain the benefits of fermented foods, but I won't go into detail here. Basically, fermented food contains Lactobacillus, which is a live, beneficial bacteria that aids in digestion, is rich in enzyme activity that helps us absorb more nutrients, and leads to a stronger immune system. For more info on the benefits of fermented foods, check out article "Fermented Foods Bubble With Helpful Benefits."

I couldn't find any definitive proof that fermenting the chicken feed cuts down on overall feed costs, but some sources claimed that chickens will eat about 50% less. With all the other benefits, I figured it was worth a try. Since this is our first time raising broilers, we don't have any data to compare, so it is difficult to say if they are eating less, and if so how much less. Also, most of the information available on fermenting chicken feed is directed at layers, not broilers. Since broilers are generally given access to food 24/7 and spend a good chunk of their waking hours eating, it has really been difficult trying to determine how much food to give them. The benefits of fermented food diminish quickly, so I have been feeding them fresh feed 5-6 times a day. Every day they just get a couple scoopfuls more than the day before.

If we end up with underweight birds at our processing day next week, then we will know that they weren't receiving enough food and will have to make adjustments next time. I have also decided to start feeding the chickens fermented feed only in the morning at night, and then go back to offering them their dry food free-choice throughout the day. First of all, it is too much work to feed them every couple of hours, and secondly, I believe everything is best in moderation, so feeding the chickens solely fermented food may not be the best choice. On the other hand, the choice to reduce fermented feed has nothing to do with observation, because the chickens look fuller and healthier than ever!

To start we just filled up the fermentation bin halfway or so with the dry chicken mash, then covered it with several inches of well water (it needs to be chlorine free), and stirred. The feed was already bubbling away 24 hours later. Now we just scoop out the feed with a slotted spoon and fill the 5-gallon bucket to take to the chickens. I put a few more scoops of dry feed in the bin, cover it with more water, stir again, and cover. I am constantly subtracting and adding to the same bin so that it is never empty. That way the bacteria will stay alive and happy--as long as it is stirred regularly and kept covered with water.

- Diana