Friday, December 31, 2010

Electric fencing....the mystery of it all

We setup a temporary electric fencing in the large pasture to rotate the goats on a few days ago. We've lead them out several days in a row now, but inevitably 4-5 of them scoot right under the fence and are free ranging. The entire property is fenced with barbed wire, so I'm not concerned about them making it to the highway. Is the fence working you ask? Well, let's ask our black lab Diamond (Dumband) who stuck her head through it and ran off yelping. Yes, it works. Thanks Diamond for testing it. The neighbors were walking and stopped by last night. I told them my tales of fencing woes. They laughed.

This morning when we opened the coop, a hen ran as fast as she could out of the yard until she was out of sight. Wierd. When we walked around the back of the garage, ward said she was behind some plywood stacked there. I looked and found 4 eggs. SNEAKY HEN! Trying to keep eggs for herself. That is the problem with free ranging hens.

Thursday, December 30, 2010

Welcome to Taylor Farm

Welcome to the Taylor Farm! We are Ward and Jill Taylor and we live in Lexington Texas. We set up residency here in September 2010 and honestly we never want to leave again. We started this blog to share some of the stories of our novice farming activities. We currently have 6 Boer Goats, 21 chickens and a donkey named Annette. We purchased a Kubota L4400 Tractor recently.

The hens are producing eggs at a rate of 8-12 a day....not too bad for winter. We have started turning a light on in their coop before dawn and that has helped boost egg production. They are free ranging hens, allowed to go wherever they want on the farm. This is posing a problem around the house, they are leaving piles of poop and standing at the kitchen door waiting to get in....just like the dogs!

Fencing is our biggest issue so far. Fencing to keep things in (especially the goats) and keep things out. We have a main pasture for the goats with barbed wire and electric fencing. And we have portable electric fencing to move them around the the rest of the land.

We went to Tractor supply yesterday and spent ridiculous money on more fencing for our garden. I figure if we are going to put the time and the energy into a garden, we should try and keep it protected as much as possible. This was a lesson learned early when the chickens dissemated my lettuce, cabbage, brussel sprouts and broccoli. In a mere two days. We will also have to fence a portion of the yard to keep it just for us humans. We need a little space too.

Ward is building a covered tractor shed next to the garage for the tractor, implements and various other things. He has finished roofing the house. It required plywood replacement, even some of the 2x4's needed replacing. it was a big job. The garage still needs to be roofed, but he plans on completing it when he roofs the tractor shed.