Fieldnotes 1

Just a few notes from the farm. As you may have noticed, the availability of Ecotone eggs continues to be very low. The hens continue to lay less than a dozen eggs per day, total. As I've suggested several times, this is primarily due to the heat, both the early and sustained abnormally high temperatures, and the late and continuing days with average highs in the 90's. For each flock, its consequences have been different.

For the year old hens, I think the stress of the heat triggered an early and prolonged molt. While the Rhode Island Reds and Buff Orpingtons seem to have molted almost entirely, the Barred Rocks just appear to be entering the last half. Egg laying naturally tapers off and ceases during molt, and usually lasts about 4-6 weeks. Many industrial egg farms discard hens as soon as they enter their first molt because it's simply more economic to do so. Not only do they not have to feed them for all those days they're not laying eggs, the industrial hybrid hens they use lay upwards of 350 eggs a year, and have at that point just about laid their productive lives away.

For the pullets, I think the heat has caused a different, more complicated effect. To develop normally, growing pullets need a specific protein to fat ratio in the first six months of life. If pullets are either too fat or too skinny when they begin to lay, their metabolism is disrupted such that they'll never really lay to their potential. As I indicated in Egg Count 9, one consequence of the heat is a diminished appetite. In the summer, therefore, the crude protein of the ration should be increased so that they are eating the same amount of protein even though they are eating less feed overall.

While I learned this interesting bit of ration reasoning a bit late, for most of the hottest part of the summer I did hand-mix cracked, roasted soybeans into their feed to achieve the effect. To determine whether it worked or not, however, we must wait until it cools off. If it did, their delay is a rather superficial problem and should correct itself when average ambient temperatures fall below 85 degrees. If it didn't work, the delay might indicate a more significant problem, which could amount to something akin to a "crop loss" for this season's laying flock. Who knew there could be such a thing in chicken farming?!
In any case, just know that for any day above 90 degrees, it's pretty certain there will be very few eggs. During those few days recently when highs were in the 80s, for example, the hens responded in kind with only a day or two lag in laying. And so as long as such temperatures are in the forecast, I forecast a continuing dearth of eggs. For those who find the craving for eggs insatiable regardless of the season, or for those who receive eggs through the Bells Bend CSA and are approaching the end of the season, there are, then, a couple of options.

First, and above all, if you have an Endless Egg Basket account with us (i.e., if you've paid for a certain number of dozen ahead of time), and would like to begin to get eggs from another source, please know that at any point I am more than happy to refund the balance on your account in full. If you'd like a refund, or just to know the status of your account, please just drop me an email. Second, of course, is the grocery store. Might I recommend a new local food shop on 12th Ave South I recently discovered, Greenlight Market and Deli, which has local pastured eggs of roughly the same quality for sale. Finally, if you're a member of the Bells Bend CSA and would like to continue receiving eggs beyond the end of the vegetable season, know that there will be several similar drop-offs or delivery routes for the winter months.

To all those loyal Ecotone egg eaters out there, thanks for your patience and concern for the hens' well-being! To all those folks who are on the waiting list for regular eggs, thanks for your continuing interest in Ecotone eggs! While I apologize for misjudging the number of eggs that were going to be available this summer, I don't think I could have anticipated such temperatures into the third week of September! But there is one thing on which I'll venture a forecast: when the leaves begin to fall in earnest, the eggs will again begin to roll.

Animal Welfare Approved

On Monday September 13th, Rob Stokes of Animal Welfare Approved came to Ecotone to conduct a first annual audit of our farm and facilities. And while it's not yet official, I'm very pleased to report that we did quite well. With the exception of castration - their standards require 7 days or before, and we did it around 14 days - there were no significant problems. And this, he told me, was especially impressive with our laying flocks. Most folks apparently have some work to do with their chickens before being approved, and all he advised us to do was lower a waterer a bit and not to stuff the nests too full with straw. Below is some information from their website, the link of which is above, that I edited a bit for the blog.

Animal Welfare Approved (AWA) was founded in 2006 as a market-based solution to growing consumer interest in how farm animals are raised and desire to know where their food is coming from and how it is produced. AWA grants the use of its logo to farms that are annually audited and found to comply with their rigorous animal welfare standards. Seeing the AWA seal on meat, dairy and egg products gives consumers a way to identify products originating from farming systems that take animal welfare seriously, and it gives farmers a way to show their customers how they farm. Crucially, this certification comes at no charge to farmers. Because AWA is not financially dependent on farmer fees, they are better able to remain unbiased and transparent in auditing and certification.

The AWA standards are the most rigorous and progressive animal care requirements in the nation, and the only requiring animals to be raised outdoors, on pasture or range. Continuously ranked as the “most stringent” of all third-party certifiers by the World Society for the Protection of Animals, AWA standards have been developed in collaboration with scientists, veterinarians, researchers, and farmers across the globe to maximize practicable, high-welfare farm management. AWA’s standards incorporate best practices and recent research and have been adopted only after rigorous review. The basic premise of all the standards is that animals must be able to behave naturally and be in a state of physical and psychological well-being.

To accomplish the goals of the Animal Welfare Approved program, all standards address every aspect of each species’ lifecycle needs from birth to death. Animal Welfare Approved works diligently to maintain a farm’s ability to be economically viable and the standards have been proven to be achievable by the vast majority of farm situations. Animal Welfare Approved reviews its standards annually, updating them as needed to incorporate new research and on-farm findings.

Egg Count 9

The egg count for August stands at 43.65 dozen, or 1.41 dozen a day. Not only is this the lowest number of eggs since I began such an accounting, it also includes this year's flock of pullets, which are now 30 or so weeks old and should be well into laying. That 1.41 dozen per day average, in other words, is from roughly 300 laying-age chickens.

Of course, if you eat Ecotone eggs on any kind of regular basis, you already knew this. For the entire month of August, egg availability was at an all-time low. As I've suggested before, the ultimate source of the problem is the heat. But it's also just part of the deal when you remove chickens from climate controlled buildings and put them outside on pasture. By controlling the temperature and regulating the light, industrial egg farms maximize the number of eggs a hen can lay, which leads to physiological burnout and culling within the first year, and is the ultimate source of cheap, plentiful eggs year-round. Powered by petroleum and seasoned with salmonella, naturally.

But just to give you a sense of the economics of such a month on a small farm, I ran the numbers on feed costs. For chickens as for people, one by-product of the heat is a diminished appetite. Daily grain consumption was down to .15 pounds of grain per hen, or a total of 1,326 pounds for the month. Of course, grain is the same price whether they are laying are not, and given the month's totals, that puts the cost of each dozen eggs from Ecotone at $9.06, or .75 cents an egg. Given how many dozen eggs were laid in August, the feed to egg ratio this month was roughly 30 pounds of grain per dozen, or 2.5 pounds per egg.

Gilt-friend

The last piglet finally found a home! After several folks saying they wanted her but backing out, the final gilt from the first litter moved to Pink Guitar Farm in Bon Aqua, Tennessee. These lovely folks are transplants from California, moving to the glorious southeast for more space, one can only assume cheaper land, and, above all else, plentiful water. Last year, they also bought a pair Narragansett turkeys from us, which they still have and are hoping to raise poults from next year. Here's the gilt talking through the fence to her new boar-friend.

David Bradley Redux

A few weeks ago, after having long grown tired of trying to start the David Bradley to do small chores around the farm, I loaded her up in the truck for a ride. A neighbor down the road had recently placed a sign out front advertising work on small engines, and so I stopped by to see if he could or would work on my old hand tractor.

Jack, of J&R Machine Shop, had recently moved to Tennessee from New York state to help care for his grandson, and was more than willing to have a look at the antique workhorse. And well, wouldn't you know, he immediately fell in love with the thing. He even offered to buy it!

He got the engine running smoother than perhaps it's ever run, and just for fun (i.e., for free!) worked a few days on the aesthetics of the old machine. Here are some photos that show the refurbishments, shiny and sleek, so that maybe - just maybe - Jennifer will begin to think my tractor's sexy.

Egg Count 8

I've finally had a chance to look at July's egg count, which is the lowest since high winter. In total, the hens of Ecotone laid 1,623 eggs, or 135.25 dozen.

At the beginning of the month we transitioned both laying flocks to a certified organic grain ration, grown locally by Mr. Alfred Farris of Windy Acres Farm in Orlinda, Tennessee. Combined with the high quality of this grain, the low metabolism of one flock coming into molt (they pretty much stop laying), and the high heat of summer, feed consumption dropped considerably from previous months.

The approximately 300 chickens of both flocks, that is, ate 1,638 pounds of grain, or 52.86 lbs. a day. If you're following the ongoing accounting, that's 12.12 pounds of grain for each dozen eggs, or roughly a pound an egg. While the shape of these numbers hasn't been as sad since last winter - amid all that snow and silence - the hens nevertheless managed to contribute $66.27 of net income to the Ecotone economy.
Given how little I've been working outside because of teaching and the heat - about half an hour a day for the hens - that's roughly $4.28 an hour for my time to work with these chickens and their eggs. Not bad, really, for the chance to live, work, and learn at Ecotone: an experimental farm in the service of, among other things, a metaphysical riddle. But with the month's seasonal pressures and structural changes (i.e., the organic transition), this fact is in fact a pleasant surprise. And the eggs are pretty good too.

Rules of the Wrangle

Well, all but two of the piglets have made their way to new homes! Over the last two days, folks from as far away as Kentucky and North Carolina came to Ecotone to pick up these fine little hogs, some for breeding and some for feeding.

Of course, catching them in the field is easier said than done. After having several sessions of pure farm folly - picture us running around the pasture trying to catch them by hand - I came up with the idea of a trap constructed with T-posts and pallets. The first person to come by saw the trap function in all its glory. With one drop of the door, I caught all the piglets. The second attempt, however, did not go as well. Here are some rules for piglet wranglin' that I came up with in the hours after the first piglets left, trying to catch the rest.

1) Porcine Patience: Patience is the first rule for dealing with pigs. You cannot force pigs to do anything they do not want to do. Period. Pigs are intelligent. They understand what you're up to, especially if they've seen it before. Now I cannot speak to the capacity for long-term memory in pigs, but I do know that it lasts for at least several days. The second round of piglets were surely aware of what was going on, refusing to go into the trap and making themselves scarce in the bushes. By this time they had also had plenty to eat, and so were that much less inclined to cooperate.

2) Time of Day: If you must wrangle pigs, do so at dawn or dusk. Trying to convince them in the heat of the day, when it's not feeding time and when their preference is to wallow in the mud, is futile. Approach porcine when they're hungry and when it's cool.
3) Have a Plan: Do not simply start working with pigs without a plan. By the time our piglets left, they were a healthy 35 lbs. of pure muscle. If you grab one, have an idea about where you're going, and who's helping.

4) Do Not Attempt Alone: Following the previous rule, it is silly to try to work with piglets alone. The adult animals are slower, and know that you represent the Platonic forms of Corn and Soy. Piglets, however, see humans differently. To them we are unpredictable, strange, and scary. Though sometimes we show up with goodies too delicious to resist, often we show up with other, less pleasant, ends in view.

5) Respect the Sow: Most of these old-style pigs, raised outdoors on pasture, retain strong maternal instincts. Some even build elaborate nests of brush and sticks and whatnot. When attempting to retrieve piglets, treat the sows with the utmost respect. They weigh around 400 lbs. each, and are seriously committed to their piglets. Talk nicely, and try to explain what's going on. But if this doesn't work - and we all know reason has its limits - get the hell out of her way. No matter how sweet she is normally, liking her ears and belly scratched in the mud, when you're trying to get her babies, she's trying to get you. They go for your knees, and with a good bite could really do some damage. So respect her. Thank her. And you'll be back on her good side in a few days. With plenty of food.

Raised Jawbones

On the night of July 4th, Cletus went missing. He wasn't there to greet me at dawn, and he wasn't around to guard the hens at night. He was gone. We assumed he got spooked by all the fireworks, but I saw him late that night after much of the bang had already blown up all those bucks.

After not returning the first night, I began to walk the woods between our place and the interstate, crisscrossing my neighbor's place several times in several ways. Along the way, with Ozark in the lead, we came across a full bovine skeleton. My eye fell upon this bone, which I immediately recognized from a Billy Collins poem I'd read that morning.

This love for the petty things,

part natural from the slow eye of childhood,
part a literary affectation,

this attention to the morning flower
and later in the day to a fly
strolling along the rim of a wineglass -

are we just avoiding the one true destiny,
when we do that? averting our eyes from
Philip Larkin who waits for us in an undertaker's coat?

The leafless branches against the sky
will not save anyone from the infinity of death,
nor will the sugar bowl or the sugar spoon on the table.

So why bother with the checkerboard lighthouse?
Why waste time on the sparrow,
or the wildflowers along the roadside

when we should all be alone in our rooms
throwing ourselves against the wall of life
and the opposite wall of death,

the door locked behind us
as we hurl ourselves at the question of meaning,
and the enigma of our origins?

What good is the firefly,
the droplet running along the green leaf,
or even the bar of soap spinning around the bathtub

when ultimately we are meant to be
banging away on the mystery
as hard as we can and to hell with the neighbors?

banging way on nothingness itself,
some with their foreheads,
others with the maul of sense, the raised jawbone of
poetry.

- "No Things," Balistics (2010)

I found Cletus a few days later through the vet's office. A very nice neighbor had found him on the morning of the 5th, scared and limping, and was taking very good care of him. Everyone, but especially Daisy, was happy to have him come home.

The 11th Commandment

Even though it's longer than all the others combined, I thought this suggestion for an 11th Commandment, quoted by David Montgomery in Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations (2007), was appropriate:

"Thou shalt inherit the Holy Earth as a faithful steward, conserving its resources and productivity from generation to generation. Thou shalt safeguard thy fields from erosion...and protect thy hills from overgrazing by thy herds, that thy descendants may have abundance forever. If any shall fail this stewardship of the land...thy descendants shall decrease and live in poverty or perish from the face of the Earth."

- W.C. Lowdermilk, Conquest of the Land Through 7,000 Years, Agricultural Information Bulletin 99 (1953), U.S. Dept. of Agriculture

Egg Count 7

The egg count for June stands at 179.5 dozen, or 2,154 eggs. That's an average of 5.98 dozen per day. With roughly 135 hens, eating about 50 pounds per day, that's 8.36 pounds of grain per dozen on average.

Even though we're in the midst of the longest days of the year, with rising temperatures the hens have slowed down laying considerably. It turns out that eggs are not simply dearer in the winter, but in the summer as well. Raising animals outside, on pasture and with the seasons, means following its cycles of activity and resource availability. Summer is slow. Take naps. Stay cool.

Some of you may have also noticed that the eggs are a bit smaller than normal, and that their color has lightened significantly. Interestingly, both of these changes are in response to the heat, and should vary throughout the season. I hope you find these variations charming, interesting, and perhaps even meaningful. Every egg is a unique gift from an individual hen, and for me their differences represent this utter specificity of the edible, the radical particularity of food. As Mr. Berry says, "when you quit living in the price and start living in the place, you're in a different line of succession."