City to Farm and Back Again

Flock Management should be at least 20 blogs. Just spit balling, lets see what we can come up with over breakfast.  Flock Management PLANNING Purpose Space Available Local Laws/Ordinances Flock Size Breed Selection Ejector Operations Acquisition Costs Flock Manager! Layers 0-28 days 29 days - 56 days 57 days - 120 days 121 days - 182 days 183 days+ Plumpers 0-14 days 15-28 days 29-48 days 49-90 days 90-120 days 121 days +  Transition Prep Transitioning Petunias 0-28 days 28-90 days 91-180 days 181 days +  Coop Construction  Size Mobil vs Stationary Durability Functionality  YouTube vs Reality Predators and Thieves - Passive Sales! REAL COST! Laws!  Customer Acquisition Marketing Venues Production Forecasting Production Cycle Efficiency  Storage Daily Weekly Monthly Quarterly Annual Predator Control - Active Food Chain 101 Dogs Electronics Biosecurity Free Range  Coop Cleaning Visitors Vets Prevention Treatment Culling RINSE AND REPEAT There are more than 20 blogs here for sure. These d

  We lost 500 birds in one year. 80% was because we had NO predator control. 10% was because we had the WRONG predator control. And the last 10% was because we had to learn more about biosecurity.  1. Foxes will kill 10 chickens and eat 1/2 of one chicken. Carcases will be left in coop, the ones they eat will not be in the coop.  2. Coyotes will kill every chicken available and eat the heads of the last 10. Lots of feathers, carcasses spread out over a large area. They will eat inside and outside the coop.  3. Racoons will kill up to 5 chickens, 1 will be ripped apart, 3 will be virtually untouched, 1 will have been drained of all its blood. Feathers will be everywhere. They will eat outside the coop if they can remove the body.  4. Stray dogs will kill and eat 1 chicken at a time. Up to 2-3 per night. They are very messy killers. Feathers everywhere.  5. Cats - domestic free ranging or feral - will kill every chick and eat 2-3. Lots of feathers.  6. Skunks will kill 2-5 per night. May

  The "bouquet" that started Terra Shalom looked like these flats. I pack these flats in patterns. My wife knows that this is a low key love note. It is also my way of reminding her that we need more blue and green egg layers. We are challenging hundreds of years of selective breeding by selling the barnyard or rainbow dozen.  Every week we have customers that marvel over our eggs. They have never seen an egg with a green or blue or pink shell. We even have customers who specifically say that they only want either white or brown eggs. We are usually accomodating. We also had at least 1 person that refused to eat the blue and green eggs because the eggs were "too beautiful to crack".   Egg shell color has no bearing on what is inside the egg. The eggs are different only in shell color. Colored eggs are however an indicator of above average animal husbandry. How? Why? Only someone who cares about quality would have a mixed flock with green and blue egg layers. It cost

Blogs arent easy. There is a lot to do outside of the digital realm. Sand wont stay out of the chicken coop. Chickens are beginning to lay in respectable quantities. We desperately need a new coop. We are 5 months behind with 200 colored egg laying hens. We will probably have to begin our own colored egg laying program. It is expensive to operate in a developmental stage for prolonged periods. We will explore these and more as we move along.