A Lot Done and A Lot to Do...

 

Winding down the work week from my wage slave job over homemade pizza, I have finally been able to carve out some time to give a detailed progress report about our ongoing preparations to begin raising pastured poultry.
 
The framework for the broiler house was completed a few weeks ago. The dimensions are roughly 16' L x 10' W.

Broiler house framework.

This past weekend we installed the lath strips, the galvanized aluminum "R" panels and ridge cap, which completed the roof structure. 2"x4" blocking was also installed between the rafters in 2 places on either side of the house before the roof panels were installed to create a mounting surface for the hanging feed troughs. 

2"x4" blocking between roof rafters to hang feeders can be seen in upper right hand corner.

The feed troughs were fabricated from pieces of 4", schedule 40 PVC pipe approximately 24" long and capped off on each end with a 4" PVC cap, glued and screwed in to place.



PVC feeding troughs.

The feed troughs were then hung with screw hooks from the 2"x4" blocking that was installed between the roof rafters and hung with lengths of chain, allowing the troughs to hang a couple of inches above the ground (just high enough to create an unstable condition to prevent the birds from roosting on them).

PVC feeding troughs being hung.

On one end of the broiler house, holes were drilled through the framework and wheels were installed utilizing carriage bolts and 3/4" spacers between the wheels and framework.  The opposite end of the house was outfitted with a tongue for towing purposes. A 4"x4" was lag screwed to the bottom frame-work from the middle of the house, and allowed to extend approximately 4' beyond the front of the house, which will afford us enough room to mount an 18" length of 4"x4" on either side of the tongue to create a 12" wide platform for mounting the 32 gallon feed storage drum. 



The "tongue" is the white 4"x4" attached to the bottom framework extending from the center of the house to the left.  The 32 gallon feed drum is sitting on the top of the tongue.  It will eventually be bolted in place, which will allow for the entire operation to be moved at one time.

A hole was drilled near the end of the tongue and an eye hook was bolted in place which will allow for the house to be chained to the box-blade of a tractor and easily moved.  5 gallon waterers will also be hung from the middle rafter on either side between the feed troughs, making the entire operation self contained.  Chore time should be minimal, with only the feeders having to be replenished with feed once a day and the waterers refilled every couple of days.

We were able to move the broiler house around my brother's property with the tractor to test how it worked. Everything seemed to work fine except for the wheels. We used galvanized carriage bolts to attach the wheels, and the weight of the house was just too much for galvanized fasteners. We will need to replace those with stainless carriage bolts, which should solve the problem. This was the only problem encountered, so we consider the overall result of the house to be a success.
                                          

Broiler house ready to be moved with tractor.

Looking ahead to processing day, we are of the opinion that slaughtering chickens utilizing the restraining cone or killing cone method is the most humane. Slaughtering is undoubtedly the most distasteful part of processing meat birds, so I won't go in to a lot of detail about it here other than to describe how we fashioned our restraining cones. For those who are interested in learning more about killing cones, you can Google it or search for killing cone videos on YouTube (be forewarned: some images and videos contain graphic content).

Our restraining cones are made of galvanized roll roof flashing purchased from a local hardware store. We obtained directions for one of the many killing cone patterns that can be found on the internet. Once a master pattern was made, we traced out and cut the galvanized flashing accordingly. All edges were rolled over and hammered down to eliminate sharp edges. The flashing was then rolled in to a cone shape and fastened together at the lap joint with a rivet setter and rivets.

Killing cone lap joint attachment with rivets.

 The finished cone is approximately 16" tall with a 9-1/2" opening at the top and a 3-1/4" opening at the base. We were able to fabricate four cones from a 15' roll of 24" wide galvanized roof flashing.

Finished killing cones.

Lord willing, the next step will be to purchase 164 lineal feet of electrified poultry netting and accessories, and 50 Freedom Ranger chickens. Our goal is to have them ready to go from the brooder to the pasture the last week of February, which will give us until the end of May to have the rest of our processing equipment ready to go (transport cages, plucker, scalding equipment, processing table, etc.)

We thank the good Lord for his grace, mercy and provision and welcome any comments or feedback.

Brant Fontenot

Brief Update...

Long hours at my day job have prevented me from updating this space in a timely fashion.  Things are progressing as planned.  My brother and I completed the broiler house this weekend and the feed troughs and killing cones have also been fabricated.  I will share a couple of photos for now until I can properly give a detailed update later in the week.

How We Arrived Here...

Factory farmed broiler chickens never see the light of day. They are raised in cramped, overcrowded broiler houses with thousands of other birds. Selectively bred and genetically altered, their thighs and breasts grow so large and heavy that their bones cannot support their weight (have you ever noticed how big the individual breasts are in a package of chicken breasts at the grocery store?). Their beaks and toes are also cut off and they usually spend their short, miserable lives in the darkness to prevent fighting among the birds.

Several years ago, our family made a deliberate effort to start thinking about the food we eat: how it’s grown, where it comes from. And in the case of animals that we eat, the manner in which they are raised. This journal is not meant to be an exhaustive exposition on the industrial food system, so I won’t go in to a lot of detail about what we discovered, other than to say that we were truly shocked and horrified the deeper we dug in to the subject. If you have begun to question the motives of the industrial food providers, I might suggest watching a couple of documentaries (Food Inc., Super Size Me, The Future of Food) and reading a couple of books (The Omnivores Dilemma, Fast Food Nation) as a starting point.

Disclaimer: We do not contend to be experts on any subject. The main objective of this journal is to record only one aspect of our journey to disengage from the industrial food system: the raising of pastured poultry for meat for our families’ consumption in an ethical, honorable and humane way.

We are two brothers and their families, who by the grace of God have been given the skills, abilities and desire to provide for ourselves some of the food we eat, and in doing so, to be less reliant upon the factory providers of the Frankenstein food products that have inundated our grocery store shelves.

As of this writing, we are in the process of building, acquiring and purchasing the many parts, supplies and equipment to begin the process of raising batches of meat birds on my brother’s small farm. This journal will hopefully be a collaborative effort with periodic posts, updates, photos and video clips from myself, my brother and our wives to record that process - the good, the bad and the ugly - in hopes that you, the reader, might be encouraged to start your own poultry raising operation, or for you to share what you have done differently if you are already raising meat birds.

Lord willing, we look forward to sharing our adventures (and misadventures) with you.

Brant Fontenot