Short Farm Working Tour

 Working Tour.

Just finished a short working tour and shall make my way home tomorrow morning to keep my family company. Even though it's a short tour, I injured my right hand, sprained my right wrist and had plenty ant bites (even at my buttock). It's too challenging as I had been idle for quite a while, now my whole body is aching. Most of the time, it's mind willing, but body unable. Almost all my target fell short as I was too tired half way through. Must be getting old.

Thanks to my partner, whom had kept things going during my absence. There were too many challenges for us to handle. We had some pretty dry, then pretty wet days, which hinder our access. Left with only 1 helper. Luckily my partner managed to recruit some part timers to tie us through. Had to fine tune our strategy to fit.

The most well kept is Parcel 1 due to it's location. Managed to control the weeds here and even did partial fertilization. We are reverting back to organic fertilizer this time, hope to supplement back some Trace Elements (TE) and Calcium Carbonate.

Had 2 fallen trees, due to termites infestation. We had these treated a few months back, but seems that the woody part had been eaten and with strong wind. Had these replace with Jackfruit trees.

Wild bees are abundant here, still harboring the plan to go into Bees Farming once the rubber tress can be tapped. We brought in lots of rejects papayas to feed the chicken and it attract lots of bees. They also loves over ripen bananas. Shall research more to find out if these are suitable for Bees Farming. I notice there are 2 types and I'm sure the big black ones are not suitable.

The initial Avocado (seeds, not grafted) are doing well. We'll see when can these flowers or I might graft onto these later. Did a check on the grafted Avocados, most of them are doing well, 1 missing, 1 died. Checked on the Soursop that were planted next to the access road. A couple died and some were covered up by land slides. Managed to replaced some of these.

Our Free Range Kampung Chicken is about 60 chicken strong now. We are targeting it to reach 200 before we decide if we want to take it to a bigger scale. These are some of the 2 days old chicks.

Parcel 5, our little farm, had culled some papaya trees. Our market does not accept the yellow flesh and doesn't like the round fruit types. As we still have lots of seedlings, we manage to replace some. It'll take a while before we can replace all. Seeds selection and multiple planting can minimize this. I had failed to emulate the papaya farm into our rubber plantation as the rubber trees canopy is getting large and blocking off the sunlight. We can only do it on new planting / land when the rubber trees are small. Harvesting is also a problem in hilly conditions / difficult access as papaya can be harvested twice weekly. Still Papaya has certain advantage over Banana as a cash crops in Rubber Plantation.

Managed to recover quite a numbers of seedlings / plant-lets. We have about 50 Soursops, 200 Agarwood, 150 Jackfruits, 100 Avocados and 50 Mangoes, a couple of Limes and a Durian. Some of the Jackfruits plant-lets are too large for rootstock. No sure if it can wait as I bought 4 Honey Jackfuits, which I had just planted for scion. Maybe have to plant these first, then do a field grafting. Managed to graft about 50 Avocados plant-lets. Hope that the successful rate is acceptable.

The pruning scissor gave way and I injured my right hand. Had been using this scissor for a couple of months. May had used it to cut too thick a scion. This is the dis-advantage of using forged / cast iron type. Bought a new one of MS steel to replace. MS steel shall bend, but not snap. The old scissor spring (straight wound) always falls off, and the hold (shut) broke off not long after used. The new one compare much better (maybe it's new & sharp).

 One afternoon, dark clouds looming and it rained heavily not long after. Well, had a productive week and I did all that I could, given the circumstances as I'm still worry about my wife. Have a few hours of rest and shall start my journey home, first light tomorrow. Stay tuned.

Free Range Chicken,

Free Range Chicken, keeping of chicken that runs freely. Some call it Day range chicken, as we keep them in the coop during night.
The question now is whether the Chicken came first, of the Egg came first? For us the Rooster King and two mother hens came first. We brought these three chickens to our farm and let it runs freely since last year. The mother hens laid some eggs and hatched them. Unfortunately only one survived till now, and had grown up. The high mortality rate was due to our inexperience and rough geographical conditions. Predators also contributed as this is a newly developing area.

The second batch, we did better, as we are more aware of predators like eagles, owls, wild cats and etc. Also we had kept two dogs now, which helps too. They had also found refuge in our storage hut. Eight chicks survived and grew healthily. The mother hens looks after them constantly.

We had also built some shelters for them, and it offers more protection too. This were 'simply' built, with no plans and drawings or measurements. We keep the young chicks in the coop for night protection. We have plans to increase the numbers and had identified an area to built a bigger coop. Construction shall commence latter.

The eight chicks had grown, three cocks and five hens. We are transferring these to Parcel 4, to start a Free Range Chicken farm. The chicks has to be separated from the mother hen so as to promote faster laying of eggs. The mother hen shall delay laying new eggs if she needs to tend to her chicks.

Constructing a chicken coop on Parcel 4. It also double up as a temporary generator room. Its about 16 feet by 16 feet, to carter more for the measurement of the zinc roof. This was built close to the trees so as to keep it cool during the day. We have plans to built another coop for young chicks.

With the generator in, and the holder for the diesel fuel. An opening was left at the rear for better ventilation of the exhaust. The height at the rear is too short and I keep bumping onto the roof thrust. Have to built higher the next time. The generator is kind of loud too, wonder if it'll affect the chickens.

Finishing off the rear. Since we have some 1X2" lying around, shall just use these to fence up. Note that we do not cut the wood to size, we simply use / reuse what we have / what we can laid our hands on.

Taking a tea break, after a morning's work. Our helper's children came along too this morning. Had some fried noodle.

Making and mounting the door is tough. Had to re-do as one of the frame broke. Mounting was also difficult as we do not have the proper tools and ad forgotten to make the allowance for the hinge. Wasted lots of time to re-do the hinge.

Decided to separate the generator with a divider to reduce the exhaust sound to the chicken. The generator only runs a couple of hours a nite, until electric supply is available. Hope the chicken wouldn't mid too much. Put a thick layer of rice husk on the floor. Fixed up some wood for the chicken to stand.

View from the door. Found some discarded metal bed. Used it as a fence for the lower portion, exhaust.

We're done. The side view of our 'simply built' chicken coop. Still need to do up the drainage as the coop is located at the end of a slight gradient land.

Our new tenant just moved in. We only managed 7 chickens at the moment as one "escaped" while transferring to the box. Shall leave it maybe for the next trip. These chickens seem to love the rice husk and they just takes it on as food. They immediately start scratching for food. Problem when feeding as the corn get 'lost' in the husk. Found a container to house the corn, but their scratching over turned it. Watering is also another problem. Shifted the feeding and water container to the generator side that has now husk.

Rooster King and one of the consorts, still in Parcel 1. He has 4 consorts now. Let's hope that he works hard. This is a tough guy as when rushing for food with the dogs, it pecks the dogs paw until it bleeds. The 2 dogs is rather afraid of him. Dogs eats corn too.

Four eggs now, more to come. Hope that we'll have more chicks to start a new colony soon. We are trying to duplicate these free range chicken into our other Parcel if successful.







Now we shall be able to monitor the temperature and humidity of our coming brooder.

We have some other chicken from the house. Shall most probably shift these to Parcel 4 to increase the strength of our colony. With a strong colony, it shall propagate at a faster rate. Note the pigeon at the back ground. We are also toying with the idea of raring free range pigeon for meat. Planning for a pigeon coop / lofts.