Frugal Farming

Today deemed itself to be a happy hen and rooster day at Cluck Acres!

We made a new pen and large run for our "barn hens"....each of our "barn hens" are actually full breed chickens but they have been put into a pen together because we love watching their personalities together and we do not hatch their eggs. They are our eating eggs and so it doesn't matter what the breed of the egg is. We have Buff Orpington's, Araucana's, White Leghorn, and a Game Hen.

Our Heritage Rhode Island Reds have been moved to the older barn hens run and pen while the Silver Duckwing's took over the Heritage Rhode Island Red pen. 

For those small time farmers, like us here at Cluck Acres, add to and rearrange our hens we often find that they have a short time of not laying. The changing of pens and normal daily behavior affects how a hen lays.

So often, people believe that you must have high dollar pens, coops, watering systems, and this and that to raise chickens, goats, and gardens.

In all honesty, we have bought 2 rolls of wire for goat fence, and 1 roll of chicken wire since we began our farming endeavor almost a year ago. All 3 rolls of wire we bought at a discounted price (and just recently... until the last 3 months we used scrapped material and items we had on hand or given to us) because either a piece was rusty or a corner piece was messed up. We went to our local farm and ranch store, saw the wire, asked the manager to mark the price down. He gladly accepted and marked each item down to 50% off of what it originally cost. 

For all of our goats and chickens we have spent about $100 on materials. This is for more than 200 chickens, 3 goats, and 7 dogs. We have kept our eyes out on Craigslist and our local Freecycle websites for items that were free (fencing, wire, barns that needed torn down, wood, etc) and have been able to make a decent farm life for ourselves with very little out of pocket expense.

We don't have amazingly awesome coops. We have functional coops that are well made, by us, and that we can work with and change around if need be.

The belief that a special coop, a fancy water holder or feeder, or amazingly built runs is NOT how things HAVE to be. You can do this with a few hens, scrap wood, scrap wire,  gallon buckets, a little bit of straw and some elbow grease and muscle.

If you can use your imagination you can find ingenious ways to make things work!

What ideas have you come up with that make your coops, pens, and farm frugal?

The Measure Of A Goat (Photos)

Ahhh, the heat of summer and building goat fences. They are not something that I like going hand in hand...however, when you own a farm, especially a small one and must do the labor itself, it just has to be done when it needs to be done.

Morgan, my husband, Dakota, my son, and Melissa, my daughter, fenced the back part of our acerage this afternoon so that the goats could get out of their pen and enjoy the grass, weeds, and brush that have grown there over the last year or so.

This will allow Choco to range with the two bigger goats. Choco, a Buck Boar that we got and bottle fed, is still small for his age. He is adorable and loves interaction with others. He follows me around when he is out of his pen and if I bend down he will give me kisses.

Choco enjoys hanging out on the front steps.

Charleston, calm on his ride home from Lawton when we bought him, was a little testy upon trying to get him out of the Yukon.

Morgan was finally able to help Charleston to understand he needed to get out of the Yukon.

Charleston didn't really care for me touching him when we first got home.

Daisy Mae (left) and Charleston (right) are pretty good buddies now. They do most everything together. They should be out in their new fence this evening and enjoying lots of grass and weeds.

There is always so much to do when you own a small farm. The job is certainly hands on. I enjoy every minute of it and just love the fact that my animals enjoy seeing me on a daily basis. They have become parts of my family and I never realized how fond of them I would become.

My goats, like my chickens, just need someone to take care of them. They don't ask for much. Food, water, a place to sleep, and a big ole open heart. I never would have dreamed that a goat would show love, teach patience, demonstrate compassion.....however, mine do (and I am sure mine aren't the only ones that do). Something happens when a person opens their hearts to allow animals. Lessons are learned that may have never been learned any other way. I just think it is amazing.

An Eggcellent Sunday Find

Good Evening!

Actually, I suppose I should say Good Night....as it is nearing 11 pm and the farm is still bustling with the chirps of babies.

We hatched 5 Tennessee Red Quail today, another Heritage Rhode Island Red (I expect the final one to showcase it's beauty tonight as it is pipping), several more BB Red Chicks, and one more Blue Red chick.

The Tennessee Quail are just so tiny. It seems unreal that they are even big enough to survive. They are all nestled in their little box with the heat lamp on and learning how to move around and even play a little.

Above are the Tennessee Red Quail. I have never seen anything this tiny hatch before. They look enormous compared to their egg size but so little compared to anything else we have hatched.

We have been considering adding some different breeds of chickens to our farm. We already share our lives with 29 different breeds but have wanted to expand a little and add some more standard size chickens.

Today at the Sulpher Trade Days we found a lady selling hatching eggs for $1.50 a dozen. We were impressed with the price and went ahead and got 1 dozen Welsummer eggs and 1 dozen Standard White Leghorn eggs.

The Welsummer eggs are an amazingly beautiful brown egg. I have never seen such pretty eggs. I loved them so much I ordered 5 more dozen for the lady to bring over the next two weeks. I want to have some time to study up on the breed and learn as much as I can about them while we are waiting for them to hatch.

Above are the Welsummer eggs. The eggs are all of extra large size and have a beautiful color.

The egg above is one of the lighter colored Welsummer eggs in the dozen that we bought, however, because of the size I presume it should hold a double yolk. If it is fertile and is double yolked we will be having a set of twins in a few weeks.

These huge white eggs are the Standard White Leghorn eggs that we got today. These are also of extra large size and should make pretty good sized chicks.

Finding hatching eggs for $1.50 a dozen is almost unheard of so I am thankful we found ourselves a source for some eggs that we could possible be able to expand our farm with. 

I am hoping, in the weeks to come, that I will be able to show some photos of some great looking chicks.

We hope that everyone had a wonderful weekend and that the new week is filled with Eggcitement and Energy.

The Incubator and The Chirp

Over the last few days there has been some serious noise coming from the incubator that we have nestled in the corner of our bedroom. It has an array of different kinds of eggs in it.

Bob White Quail, Heritage Rhode Island Reds, Old English of all kinds, Pharoah Quail, and the list goes on and on. 

There are more than 200 quail eggs alone in the incubator. They are just starting to hatch out tonight so I hope to have some photo's of them. They are so tiny compared to other chicks and it always amazes me that they look way to big to have come from such a small egg. 

3 of the 5 Heritage Rhode Island eggs have hatched. This is a wonderful joy for me as Heritage Rhode Island Reds are rare in the United States. I have a beautiful trio (2 hens and 1 rooster) that I paid a pretty good sum of money for so it makes me happy that the eggs are hatching. Even if only the 3 of the  hatch that is a pretty good hatch rate. I am keeping my fingers crossed that I have 1 roo and 2 pullets.

So far, the rest of the chicks that are having a noise party are Blue Red Old English, BB Red Old English, and Silver Duckwings. There are quite a few of them and they enjoy making noise. 

I love to watch the chicks when they are playing. They use up so much energy so quickly. They often can have a bug in their mouth and be running across the brooder and fall asleep in mid step. They wake up and realize their bug has been stolen. It is as if their reality doesn't grasp the fact that they took a 60 second nap.

The chicks are a joy to watch. I could set for hours and appreciate the playfulness and the excitement that happens inside the brooder.

I must admit that the worst part of hatching chicks is the waiting time it takes to go from egg to chick. The other thing that causes me some anxiety is not being able to tell if they are roosters or pullets for the first few weeks. It is just one of those things that I think about frequently throughout the day. (No I am not sure this is normal behavior outside of obsessive compulsive disorder)

As I close for tonight I will leave you with a photo of the baby chicks that have been hatching.

A Great Idea For Those Who Have Limited Space

Welcome To Our Blog

Welcome To Cluck Acres.

 We are a small farm located in Southern Oklahoma. My name is Barbie. I am about to turn 40 years old (on August 14) and recently quit my job to make farming a full-time endeavor. My husband, Lewis, is a full-time diesel mechanic.

 We currently live on a small plot of land in Gene Autry, Ok. We currently house more than 200 chickens...honoring 29 different breeds...3 Boar goats, 4 Khaki Campbell ducks, 2 boxers, Moose and Rainy, a Pyranese, Spencer, a Rat Terrior, Kisses, a 3-legged Shit-zu, Manly, and a toy Yorkie, Herman.

 We are parents to 5 amazing chidlren, Laci, Tyler, John, Melissa, and Dakota.

The decision to farm and have animals was not one we made lightly. I grew up in a town that had more than its share of crime and things ton do. My husband has always lived in this small town with a little less than 200 people in it.

I have always loved animals and when I finally moved to the country having them just made perfect sense.

I have no idea how my endeavor to be a stay at home mom, wife, and farmer will be but I hope you will follow my journey. I would love for others to share their ideas, dreams, and experiences with me. I am a frugal person and love to make home-made crafts, reuse anything that it is possible to reuse, coupon, and search for amazing deals!

I hope to update daily with photo's and small posts so come back often!