By The Light Of The Moon

It is amazing sometimes how dark it can be outside...we have a street light up close to the driveway at the street and we have a very bright light on the shed that throws light 100 feet around it...that is close to the house but shines out to the drive to the shooting range, the lake and the half of our property up front with the fruit trees and our big red Tuff Shed.  But beyond that, unless the moon is shining, it is very dark.

In the summer when it doesn't get dark until almost nine at night, we leave the poultry out and they pretty much put themselves up...with the exception of the turkey's.  I won't make that mistake again...they put themselves up in the tree.  We always feed them in the morning when they get let out and a few hours before dark in the summer.  That way they go to bed with full bellies.  It makes for happier chickens in the mornings sometimes too...they tend to wake up hungry...who am I kidding?...the act like they are starving to death every time I go out there.  They will come running, and it is like that scene of little dinasaurs in Jurasic Park (the movie) where they all run and start chasing the man and end up eating him!  Ok, maybe not that bad...but they will fly up and land on an arm or swarm around you so bad that you can't take a step without stepping on one.  Anyway, they will jump on the feed bucket sometimes too, if several of them do it it gets to heavy to carry...but there is wall to wall (ok fence to fence?) chickens so most of the time I have to scoot them out of the way with my foot.  We use goat feed troughs to feed them and shallow pans...I ferment my feed these days, so it is wet and about the consistency of oatmeal.

Anyway, we feed several buckets of fermented feed a day.  They love it and it makes the food more bioavailable...meaning it is easier for them to draw nutrients out of it.  It can be a pain to mix at times, and each bucket probably weighs 40 pounds or so...I usually feed two buckets at a time when I feed them.  They don't normally eat it all...but, I don't want anyone going hungry.  They have the ability to free range all day, but a lot of them just hang out under trees or sitting on the side or ramp of the big cattle tank.  I am guess the breeze over the water helps cool them.  We have had a couple of chickens fall into the water, but none of them died...chickens can fly, so as long as they don't get waterlogged they can flap and get out.  We did have one rooster that had to be rescued, he kept his head above water and my husband fished him out.

I got off track a little bit, but it is what happens at the farm.  Anyway, back to the darkness...most nights when it is my turn to put everyone up, I use a head lamp like you may see on a miner.  We installed a few solar lights here and there on the coops, but they really don't give off much light and we have no electricity out there yet.  Some of the group of chickens we call "The Shady Hill Gang" can hide pretty well and I search, woodpiles and rolls of wiring, under bushes, on the patio furniture, in the garden, in the windows of the coop, on the backs and under chairs in the yard...sometimes I go out just before dark and don't wear my headlamp, but when the moon is full and the fireflies are flitting about, making those chicken, duck and geese roundups is kind of nice.  We get to see the fireflies in the darkness and by the light of the moon.