Parcel 1, October 2013

Parcel 1, our model farm.
Our vision for Parcel 1 is getting clearer by the months. Our rubber trees are measuring up to 420 mm in diameter. Very close to our targeted measurement. Of course not all trees grow at the same rate. There are some that are still very skinny and some are planted on a latter date. Overall the rubber trees are doing great.

One of the bigger tree, 420 mm.

Our vision for Parcel 1 is an integrated farm, having rubber trees as the main crop. Then we shall have supplementary crop of fruit trees. These are further supplemented with livestock, chicken and bees (much later).

Here we had planted more than 30 avocado trees, 80 soursop trees and more than 70 agarwood till date. On a smaller scale, we have some papaya, about 10 durian trees, 2 jackfruit, 4 mango and a breadfruit. We still have some bananas which we are phasing out and some pineapples. My plan for the papaya did not worked out as the time difference between planting was not right. Also at a long period, we didn't have any helpers at site. Anyway, as a fall back, we can always feed it to our chickens.

Chicken we have about 70 around, big & small.
Apiculture had not been started yet. It shall most probably be the last phase of development. I guess we can put in easily a couple of tens of beehives. There are so many plants here, rubber, palm oil, fruits, wild plants, unlimited resources of nectar.

Agarwood, planted on the inter rows.

Agarwood, planted on the inter rows.

Blame it on our government, even the chicken are racist. The blacks & the whites do not stay together.

Mango flowers.

Rooster.

Mango, already fruiting. Trying to identify what variety this is. Maybe can use this as a mother tree.

Our isolation new coop.

Newly planted soursop.

Another bigger tree.

Some of the trees during March.

Our hut with agarwood by the side.

Our avocado tree.

Our 1st avocado tree in between the rubber trees.

Another 75 Agarwood for planting in Parcel 1. Hopefully our retirement shall be well taken care of with the resins produced.

Summarise
Main crop : Rubber trees
supplemented by fruit trees, Avocado, Soursop & Jackfruit
Livestock : Free Range Village Chicken & Bees (yet to be started)
Retirement Fund : Agarwood / Gaharu

First Sales Of Our Free Range Kampung Chicken (Malay Village Chicken)

Malay Chicken Breed fowl.
After 15 months, of letting our Village chicken to free range at our rubber plantation, we had exceed our 1st target of 50 chickens. It took us a little longer that expected, but yes, we achieved.

We are now ready for our phase 2, which we hope to achieve a colony of 200 chickens. Our present colony is only about 70 chicken strong, after our 1st sales.

Recalling our initial stage, our mortality rate was very high. Our chicken were dying off due to in-fighting (aggressive breed). This was due to our starting stage where we got our stocks from different source. The cockerels where fighting as they are very intolerant of each other. When the hens started to lay, we found that our coop wasn't suitable. We also had to deal with predators for the eggs. We also lost lots of day old chicks, due to predators and hash condition. Credit goes to our present helper and my partner, whom is putting passion into this project.

We started phase 2 by dismantling an old shed used by our ex-helper in our little farm, whom had left. We shall be re-using / recycling these materials, mostly woods & zinc sheets. Took us 3 trips to transfer all these material to our site.

 These shall help us to built more coop. Some of our existing stock of chicken resting in our 1st coop. We kept them in so that we can select which we want to retain. We shall be selling off some cockerels and some hens.

Our helper prepared and select those that we want to send to the market at night. We have a wire cage which we fabricated ourselves for use to transport. It fits perfectly into our truck. We took the opportunity of sending our chicken to our local village (very small village) just before the Hari Raya Festive season. We sold retail as our chicken isn't many, managed to sell 17 our our chicken. Those unsold were sent back to our farm. These are the smaller ones. Shall raise they longer. We had also people coming to our farm and had just sold a cockerel. We are also looking into value added.

Off they go, after we are done with our selection. Most of our chickens are good mothers. Teaching survival skill to their chicks. Since our colony had gotten used to each other, they work in groups, warning each other when they sense danger and calling their chicks when there is food. I really love to watch the mother hen taking their chicks out.

Since our chickens is free ranging, we only supplement them some food such as corn, chicken feeds and fruits.

Lunch time, when everyone joins in. We had plants in our farm, such as papaya, banana, chilli padi, tapioca which give them a good variety of food source. We also bring in fruits form our little farm for them. These guys are heavy eaters.

Some of our teen cockerels.

 They are rather fierce looking.

Let's hope that our second target of 200 chickens can be reach after another 15 months, that shall be November 2014.

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.

Rubber Trees, Parcel 1

Great news, some of our rubber trees in Parcel 1 are starting to flower. This is a good sign as it shows the trees are starting to mature. Had not check how many trees are starting to bear flowers, but am sure the rest shall follow sooner or later. Shall keep track on how long before the seeds starts to develop and drop.

This shall be a source of income as I had already found market to supply seeds to rubber tree nursery.

Visited our biggest tree in Parcel 1, this is one of the tree planted by our partner. It measures 680 mm diameter at 300 mm above ground. Wishing that all our trees reach this measurement. This tree had not show signs of flowering yet, as these were planted from seeds.

Our phase 1 trees have reached up to 280 mm diameter. Our target is to have the trunk reaching 400 ~ 450 mm before we start to tap. Still holding to our targeted tapping date end of year 2013.

We are maintaining the Parcel 1 with care. Keeping it clean from weeds and fertilizing regularly with compound and organic fertilizer. We are also making plan to phase out the banana trees. Shall be using EM to boost up the growth.



We are replacing the banana trees with papaya as there are smaller and shorter compared to banana. Hence not competing for sunlight.

We still have some small area of land in Parcel 1, mostly fringe and high gradient slope, that had not been planted. Started to clear these area, hopeful we can get it ready before the rainy season. Planning to diversify from rubber trees for these small areas as the market price for rubber is rather low at the moment.
A check on today on Lembaga Getah Sabah
Latex : RM 6.75
Sheet Grade I: RM 3.75
Sheet Grade II:RM 3.35 
Cuplump Grade I: RM 3.30 
Cuplump Grade II: RM 2.90 
Scrap : RM 1.35
For: 23 August 2012
With such low price, profitability shall definitely be affected. World economy slow down contributed to the decline of rubber prices. Outlook is still good on the long term. Anticipating market to pickup in year 2013.

We are looking at fruit trees like Avocado, Jackfruits, Lime, Papaya and others. Also researching on Agarwood for the high gradient slope. We had also initiated our Project Free Range Village Chicken. Shall also be looking at Bees keeping once flowering of the rubber had been fully established. Hopefully with these diversification, we should be more profitable.

Free Range Kampung Chicken (Malay Village Chicken)

We are trying to restart our stalled Chicken Project @ Parcel 1. Used to have a couple of chickens at Parcel 1, but when we pull out our helpers from staying at Parcel 1, our project was stopped. Those chicken was given off to our ex-partner.

Building material was taken from the abandoned goat project. 

Our short term target is to start off and create a 50 strong colony.

Dismantled the half of the abandon goat pen that we had been using as our store house. As we are building a small chicken coop, these material shall be more than enough.

Our almost completed new chicken coop.

Our almost completed chicken coop. We still need to cover up the exposed sides to prevent strong wind, rain and let the chickens feel safe. Our chickens had starting laying eggs at the boxes that that were left for them. Would like to built some racks with cubicles so that more hens could lay and hatch eggs. Note the piece of zinc across the door. This is a special magic door devised by my partner, to keep out the dogs, yet letting the chicken free to move in & out.

Having 1 cock and 7 hens at the moment. They get to roam freely happily everyday. They are exploring their new home, in the farm and mostly like to rest between the banana trees to escape from the hot afternoon heat. Scratching the soil at the banana trees to catch insects. Happy chickens grow faster.

Some of the hens doing their sand bathing.

The chicken love to do sand bathing and is digging a shallow pen to do these, unfortunately they are doing it at our "five foot way" in front of our shed. We are feeding them with corn, pumpkins and long beans. Thinking of what else we could feed them. Let's hope we get plenty chicks in the next 2 months.

Rat Attack & Egg Incubation.

We had a Rat attack at our chicken coop. Looks like our coop is not predator proof. Being the first coop that we built, we did not take all necessary precaution. Also it's a "simply built" chicken coop, built from recycled / used materials. The material that we bought were the zinc roof, netting and nails. This is also part of our trial project.

The Rat attack cost us 7 eggs that was brooding by one of our hens. It was gone one morning, totally gone, with nothing left, not even broken shell. We saw some holes dug on the floor (coop is on clay floor) and the drainage area. Had sealed off the rear section that have wide wooden fencing with small mesh netting. Set up a rat trap. Let's see if we manage to can any. Even the ping-pong balls (4) were missing. Had used it to fool the chicken to use the nesting compartment. Now it makes me wonder if it's a rat, snake or even monitor lizard. We had also brought in our 2 cats and 2 puppy to help. They managed 3 rats during the first week. We had also resorted to collecting the eggs to test out our incubator.

We also had some unfortunate losses. One of our puppies died and one cat missing. After incubating for 19 days, I find only 1 egg is doing well. After 19 days of incubation, it started to 'rock'. We then did a 'lock down' and set the egg at 37.8 C & 70% humidity. Let's hope for a successful hatch.

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.