Multipurpose

What is this?

 

Originally, we had several of those made as battery type brooders.  They are the brooders that are like condominiums. Space saver, yes.  But, hard to clean among other things.  

At the farm, we do litter type (on the floor) brooding, inside the poultry building....that works best for us.

The battery types are kept for emergency brooding, or works well  as isolation pens for chickens and even piglets......and is a seedling nursery, safe from predators ;)

Making Things Lighter

We have always been on the look out for ways and means to make work load lighter for our workers.  The recipe for making Fermented Plant Juice (FPJ) seems easy of you will read it at 2kgs plants and 1k Molasses.  With that, you will harvest about 2.5liters of FPJ.  That amount is OK if you have a backyard of vegetables to tend and spray.  But if you are doing commercial farming of pastured chickens, we ferment about 20kgs of plants almost every other day.

Preparing for an instructional video on making the different concoctions, made me see how our staff is making FPJ, OHN etc on a close up view.  

I took photographs recently on a very sad moment and after that I told Doc Rey that it pays to get a professional photographer in times of grief.  I experienced and saw the sadness of everyone as you frame them in your camera's lens and create a subject.

To cut on time, we had gotten a shredder/chopper for the preparation of the materials for FPJ.  But now that I was taking photos and video for the movie we will make, I saw how difficult it was to harvest  and press the sludge to extract the FPJ, OHN etc, manually.  The OHN was very hot to the touch...imagine all that garlic, onions, ginger, chili etc.  Doc Rey commented on it too, and he was just seeing the photos and the raw videos.  He wasn't present during the harvest.

You just have to ask others, as surely, they have encountered the same problems.  How do we extract and press the sludge, aside from manually?  One said go to a machine shop and have a presser made.  One said they used an old washing machine that only the spinner is left working.  Bright idea!

I told my staff right away and she said she had thought about that too and that she thought of using the plastic net bags to portion them well so not to heavy load for the spinner and no mess as the sludge will be in the net bags.  Yes, just as Jojie said...spinner and net bags :)

Doc Rey keeps old things well...after I called him, he came back with an old , working washing machine.  They set it up high so it will be easy to harvest and drain from the hose.

Ask...don't be shy!  Natural farmers are very generous with time, effort and knowledge :)

Likasaka Manwal

2nd edition now.

The 1st edition is a staple in my bag.  I never realized how used my copy was until I saw the new 2nd edition, that was all clean and no creases.  Had my copy autographed by Tere and Dante who are both true blue natural farmers.

Perfect guide as you learn about natural farming.  The concoctions used to replace chemical fertilizers are well illustrated and easy to comprehend.

A must have for all advocates of natural farming.  A great gift too for farmer friends or for those who want to know the difference of farming clean food :)

PHP400 for pick up in Manila.  For an additional PHP250, we can send by LBC.  Email us at info@solraya.com for orders.

If we send by LBC:

1) Pay PHP650 thru BPI, Acct # 3535-8057-24
2) Notify us of date of payment, your name and address
3) We send thru courier

Study The Area

Natural farming leads you to always be in the look out and to listen to alternative feeds that are abundant around.  Azolla was one that we can multiply fast in the farm and  is very good for feeding livestock, as well as an active ingredient for FPJ.

Read about Azolla here.

Sometime ago, we tried a batch that we got at Earthkeepers in Tiaong.  It either vanished or died and evaporated in thin air.  It was gone.  Got another batch, same thing!  People were talking about how easy it was to propagate it.   I must be so dumb about Azolla that I can kill what is supposed to be a "can't die".

I was so glad that one of the natural farmers in our group distributed containers of Azolla.....here goes again that line that "you can't kill it"....

1st batch again went to this holding area.  A small pond.  Same thing...vanished!  Hmmmmmm  I was starting to get embarassed that I don't just kill it...it can't be found.

Then I saw these group of Sunshines, coming from that "holding area" for Azolla.  They looked like campers happily walking out of the trail....Couldn't the Sunshines be the culprits and had been eating the Azolla even before they can take off and multiply?

Must be!

Oh so thankful that my friends decided to trust me again with a small container of Azolla. We decided to now use a contained area. Net it on top. Meaning, secured it much like brooding chicks :)

The ones who see it daily, reports that it hasn't died, but it was just doing OK and floating around.  At least it was still there.

But for me who saw the container after 2weeks.....HEY SUCCESS!

So it was the Sunshines after all :)  One thing is sure, they loved eating Azolla :)

Water Lily

During the El Nino, when the ponds in the farm dried up, the Water Lily was still abundant and we saw that the chickens went down to play....or so we thought.  After a closer look (I have posted a thread on this previously), the Sunshines eat the Water Lily! 

We searched in it and read that it is edible and had medicinal properties.  We had tons of Water Lily and cleaning up the ponds had been a problem!

So to make it easier for the free ranging chickens, the farm help brings up some for the white Sunshines, since they thought that they were "special" and might not know what they are to do.  We all took it that they didn't know how to eat.  We forgot about "instinct" to get what is good for oneself :)

Convinced that it was indeed good for the chickens, we tried using it for FPJ.  This will be a great answer to our clean up of the ponds all around the farm, at the same time giving good nutrients to the pastured chickens.

Too much to clean up and it thickens faster than we can manually chop chop.

To ease up work, a shredder/chopper will be the answer.  A great farm tool.  More on that on another posting.

Air Conditioner

The big poultry buildings use large industrial fans, if they are not tunnel ventilated. That is to give air to the cramped up buildings.

In free range chicken raising, we want to make it comfortable for our chickens too. This size and type of fan is good to lower temperature and give good air circulation for housing and range alike. The rainy season may have started, but then it can get so humid. The fan blows out a very fine mist that cools the air.

Time For Change?

I had been toying with some ideas...not quite sure if it is a GO or not....we'll see in the next days :) This post made me think I should GO and move.

This morning at the farm, I chanced upon a bedding change being done.

When do you change? Better than scientific 1 2 3, let your senses tell it is time:

1) When you enter the housing or when you clean up and feed, if you feel teary eyed...it is time for change.

2) When you pass the housing and there is a foul smell, it is time for change.

3) I doubt if you will taste it :)

How to change?

1) Some have a thick layer of beddings and they just turn over the layers every so often.

2) In this case, they gathered the used rice hull. They will shovel that into an empty sack. Lay a new layer of fresh rice hull. The used sacked ones may be used for your compost pile for organic fertilizer.

Easy Way Out

Make it accessible and simple. It will benefit your caretaker and your Sunshines :) Your caretaker will not miss doing it if it is simple to do. The Sunshines will want to step out earlier and more often when they don't have to go through a maze to find that door.

It is very important that they have easy access to the range outside. That is where they go hunting for their food. That is where they get their exercise and develop their lean bodies.

Pick a design that will work for you. Depending on the materials used for your housing, there may be easier ways to do it.

Necessity

Water is one.

In our visit to Platinum Island Farm, we came from the top and as we were descending the road that leads us to the farm, I spotted this blue drum and told my company that we are near as I see a semblance of a water tank. You know how we have those blue drums as water reserve containers?

I forgot all about that sighting and when we were being toured around the farm and saw THIS! OMG...this was the small blue drum from the top!

You need water for everything...cleaning, feeding. You have to make sure you have a source of water all the time.

Will You?

Who do you think will wear these on their feet? I will, for an obvious reason :)

99.99% of the time, I am in Crocs. Even my wedges are Crocs. I swear by the comfort and have them in several styles. When I find one style I want, I get it in several colors. The rest of the .01% of the time, I am in rubber boots in very playful designs, for farm visits. Even colorful, they are most comfortable as they have arch supports.

Today, I went by a branch at Bonifacio High Street to look for some new styles as it can get boring when I look at my feet. The moment I entered, I saw the Sun shining. It was part of the limited edition for the World Cup and the Sun design was for Argentina.

No second thoughts for me. Asked for my size immediately.

Urban Food

Another topic on the nipple drinker....hahahhaha.....but then it is really practical and thinking out of the box may not be enough. So many usage and ways to use it.

We are spending a lot more time in our urban setting and wanted to have some free ranging Sunshines in our midst. Doc Rey started with seven chicks in May and targeted to harvest it in August. Having fun brooding and planning for urban set up. This is when you get assured that when given common sense care....they survive even when left for several days during brooding. Don't ape that. Only a vet's gut feel and experience can pulloff brooding in absentia!

Before we knew it, they were big already and ready to range :) We get so excited as we get to see them only on weekends in Manila.

We thought that if the farm used nipple drinkers...then why not in the city? Very logical when no caretaker. In smaller setting, you need a smaller water receptacle too. Doc Rey was figuring out how to insert the PVC pipe at the back. I said why not remove the faucet and insert thru that hole.....two heads are better than one!

The water container was set on a hollowblock. It was the right height for now. As they grow, you adjust the height of the pedestal.

Yes, Doc Rey also has an auto feeder for them now. My fruits and vegetables are shared with the Seven Sunshines!

My neighbor saw it and thought about raising some and encouraging the community. I really hope so....Yes, people can take care of their own for food. Start with how many chickens you can consume in a month.

Be There And Observe

Doc Rey is spending a couple of days in the farm. The rains have started to come and he wants to see the flow of work and the water.

The roofs of the housings aren't leaking, but the monitor seems too high and the opening is taking in rain. He made some adjustments. The caretaker just said the houses were leaking.

Some portions near the ranging areas were collecting water. Move ranges? Nope. Landfill. Some shovels of gravel on the area and no more paddles.

Make things easier to haul things....use a hand tractor with a cart, to ferry supplies among ranges.

Rain was so strong today. Doc Rey had a 4X4 with him and was very confident. By dinner time, he calls that he got stuck! Laughs and said that he didn't think the mud will be a problem. There was no need for any pull. He stepped out and placed a rock under his tire.

That's it. Be present and observe. Only way you can solve problems. Remote control is OK only when you know the movements and can picture the scene. Being told of a problem when you are clueless to history and guessing won't work for the long haul.

Auto Feeders

When you are growing, sometimes it is not best to add manpower. I believe in a few good men :) Rather than add labor, decrease work load.

Such was the case in the farm. Recently we need to develop a new area for ranging, at the same time the load of grow out Sunshines in the farm increased to almost triple because of demand. As per previous posts, you have read by now what steps we took in making life easier for the farm helpers.

Why auto feeders? Initially, it was to make feeding easy. You just fill up the auto feeders and that will take care of the adlibitum needs of the chicks. More often, they still want to play outside in their range. Note that most are outside?

What additional benefits?

1) The chicks were not stepping nor scratching on their feeds. No wastage. The auto feeders are hanging and the chicks can't reach the feeds to play and waste.

2) See the beddings of the housing? Clean, because no feeds gone astray.

PS: For the nipple drinkers' advantages:

1) No cleaning for waterers. Boy, that takes a lot of time and effort!

2) So convenient to just open the faucet. Our water is from our own deep wells.

3) No wet floors too, as no waterers are upturned.

Add to that the ease in rearing free range colored broilers! Am not saying that all you have to do is sit to watch the Sunshine Chicks. You have to give it a lot of TLC for it to be robust and ready to face the open range in 21days.

Pro Active

We always think of ways to make it easier for the farmhelp to cope with the ever increasing workloads. Goes with either growth or you get more work when you are lax and you always go back to fix things :(

I want to think that we are always busy because we are growing.

Our ranges have the nipple drinkers as water system for the Sunshine rangers. I don't know why we haven't done it for our brooding area and houses too??? We were meeting on how to make things lighter for labor and talks about motorized curtains so you just flick a switch, auto feeders even in houses, additional water pumps installed, solar panels for lights...and of course why not nipple drinkers in all houses!

A drum is attached to a faucet outside the housing. You just have to open the faucet to let water into the drum. If you need to add some concoctions to your drinking water, it is easily done in this drum. Water is dispensed when the chicks peck on the nipples. As a bonus, they have a perch.

Habits are hard to break and there are still waterers placed inside the housing. The farmhelp will stop doing that once he is convinced that he isn't being eased out of his job.

Eventually we will go into mechanized feeding system for the Sunshines. Not really to get rid of farmhelp...it is so for them to do other things that machines can't do...like plant vegetables and trees :)

No No

Don't wait for this to happen before making a range rotation. It is so depleted and barely any sign of life.

We suggest not to have goats and chickens in the same range as both of them eat grass to bald the land. Sure goats and chickens may co-exist in the same farm, but have a several ranging area.

Caretakers err and we also miss on somethings because of a lot of work and matters in our minds. Like this ranging area...mistake. Common mistake...which makes it worse because it is so easy to to have avoided it.

Range rotation! Think of what is bad for you, it will be bad also for the land. If you get depleted and dry, it will take more than just vitamins to get you up and about. Rest, rest rest and in terms of time, you will have to wait and ride the down time.

It happened to us also. It occurs when you trust too much, thinking that your instructions are listened too.

The above wasn't caused by mixing goats and chickens. It was a case of not moving a batch of layers on time.

Plan ranges. Make it easy to rotate. Set up posts and just move nets.

Took time to dry up that area. It will take time to revive it. Rake and water. Rake and water...rake and fertilize. Soon after you will see bursts of new life. Notice that when you aerate...new kinds of flora comes out. They had been burried, waiting to be unearthed :)

Fencing

It is not the espadahan, it is about fencing as in building a fence. But true, sometimes, several people end up pulling out their swords when borders are discussed and fenced off permanently.

Discussions about our new ranging area had been posted here several times. Dry season is the perfect time for construction as you can segregate and fix irrigated land and identify low areas to zero out development there.

This was a former ricefield so the borders now that are used are just the paddies or the "pilapil". We can't find a reliable supplier for those concrete posts, so we asked a crew to make them from scratch at the farm. They prepared the number we needed. Now we can fence off.

To make things easier for all, Doc Rey advised the neighbors that we will install a fence. The most convenient way was to follow the "pilalpils" that was there since heaven knows when. It gets repaired and widened in some areas, but that should just be negligible already.

"NO"....no way they said. "Have it measured". People always think that when you offer simple solutions...you are going to get the better deal of things :)

Ok, we got a surveyor to do that. Guess what? All around, we earned areas! Now they can't complain and have to stand by the surveyor's report. Because we went through expenses etc, we will want to get what was ours now. Its not right anymore to go back to the original offer. It was theirs to accept but they refused.

I think I heard Doc Rey saying we will assist in rebuilding the "pilapils" although not our obligation, its just sort of teamwork effort.

Borders and territories....are to be kept. So no issues.

Make It Easy

We had planned way ahead and really think of ways to make life easier for all.

This post on clean water had drawn several queries in the last few days.

Timely that we got for ourselves, and we have some to spare for those who want to order too. Very easy to install. You make a hole through the PVC pipe and pry the connector in :)

Not a good shot....but it is simple and workable.

How to Monitor

I have written several topics on the monitor ( you may want to use the "search" button). Remember how I wrote also about eventually graduating to sturdier housing. Sure, let's start small and cheap and grow with the business. We also did. So now we are building notch higher.

Because of the demand for the dressed Sunshines, we have to grow some to make sure the supply and quality is met. Everything fell into place as we are now developing another 3hectares in the farm and have more room to play and rotate ranging areas.

I took these pictures yesterday and when reviewing today for filing, Doc Rey got a bright idea on including building expenses in his seminars. Since he has just received receipts and paid labor, he has a good grasp of expenses.

He now thinks like me....a lay, dummy, non-technical mind. We have developed the seminars from my point of view....I hope it had helped you too :)

The foundations are now cemented, strong and posts are weather proof. See the wood to be used? We saved them from an old beach house in Cavite that we demolished. The beachline was eating it up and we thought that instead of losing it to the sea, we can make good use of the wood. This is great material as time and salt had aged it well. As always and in all cases, foundation is most important.

It gets the morning sun. You know how we expose babies to the morning sun for the vitamins we get and the health benefits? Of course it is good for all too! It also dries up the pens, the natural way :) The wind directions in your property is also taken into consideration. We oriented the side that the wind won't run into the roofs. The resistance with the wind can let the roofs fly away.

Notice also that the buildings are not too high to fight the wind, but not too low that it is difficult for the caretaker to clean. Keep in mind that we need to make it easy for the caretaker to feed and clean around. If it is convenient and easy, plus the fact that he should love what he is doing...then it won''t be work.

Don't worry about predators...yes, it still needs to have steel matting all around. Maybe we won't have that budget for now, then we can have poultry wire or green plastic screen as walls.

See the dog? He is there now to get used to the new area to guard.

Your range fences, are ideally nets.

To Each Its Own Housing

The designs of housing/pens can be adapted from big ones to small ones. You may have it in concrete or in wood. Fixed and posted firm, or movable structures.

Depends on what is convenient and easy for you to handle. Your needs should be met so that it will be a doable project.

For me I like brooders that are in cages. It seems easier for me to clean and pullout trays that catch their waste. Brooding bulbs are for me so I don't need the heat from the beddings. Doc Rey wants litter type. He sees it more convenient to scrape the beddings in one big load. Also, he likes preaching about the heat and moisture sponge from the beddings used. For smaller scale, the most practical will be Jojie's Crib (search on that topic in this blog).

Housing on the range, I like portable pens, or semi movable ones. It gives me the flexibility to be fickle minded and ever changing and change locations....much like moving a loveseat and a candlestick around the house. I don't think its expensive to be constantly changing, as you learn and amend designs, materials and locations with time. You need to change anyway as it wears :)

Location: Brooders have to be near water and electricity source. Water is most important. I like it near the caretaker as he has to give 25hrs attention, 8days a week.....at least for 22days :) Ranging: Anywhere fresh, a lot of grasses, clean air....

When ready to slaughter, we move it near the road/driveway - transport logistics.

This Is The Monitor

There are some people that you like working with or socially. I am one person that the liking for work and socially has to go together. I can't just like you for work. If I was to work with you, I have to like you socially first. A pair we like is Andry and Jojie Lim.

Remember the monitor that I described as a lopsided "T"? As I was going through my Facebook, I saw this in Jojie's photos posted recently.

Maybe the frames that Andry used were ready made and didn't touch it as it may be intended for use again for other applications. If I was to build this now, I will not make it that tall, as Sunshines nor caretakers aren't that tall :) The free flowing air had been answered by the screened walls and monitor.

You need all the fresh air and sunshine to dry and disinfect naturally. Much like you ferment good fruits and veggies to fertilize your fruits trees and veggie plots...you need to give sunshine to your Sunshines!

I remember hearing Doc Rey discussing about what side faces the afternoon sun and he was considering the wind direction. I am not into that data...but will inquire about those again and post it as another topic.