Farm-sitting in West Virginia

Greetings from Lumberport, W. Va.  Pop. 876, including chickens.

Lots of Chickens...

"Meat Chickens"  - they live to be eaten

J

Trainees for Jurrasic Park (baby turkeys, actually)

What the heck are we doing here? 

Barry's family has a working farm and they wanted to take a vacation, so we volunteered to farm-sit.  And here we are.  In addition to millions of chickens, this farm has cows (they babysit themselves unless they break out and wander to the road), a rooster (complex personality), catfish in a pond, cats (hiding so far) and humming birds. Our caretaker instructions arrived by email last week.  They are at the end of this blog because.....well, you'll see why.

Farm Art.  Otherwise known as home-grown food, including the morning's catch of eggs.  There will be a dozen by nightfall, we're eating eggs as fast as we can.  I used to love them.

Hen at work.

Barry and sister, Judy, with more eggs.  Judy has her own farm across the way.

Man Cave, West Virginia style.  A small "conference center" in back of the house for man of house.  Has 1800 square feet with tables, couches, grills, giant flat screen TV.

Das Kitchen.

Well, that's all folks.  The following is our caretaker instruction list in case you are ever asked to farm-sit.

                                        

Instructions for Taking Care of Beech Hill Farm

Boy, that’s a big responsibility – taking care of the farm!  LOL  The main idea is that animals get hungry and thirsty, so taking care of that will take care of most of the tasks.

Hummingbirds

You’ll probably have to feed them every day. We’re getting around 10 a day. I guess the “word is out” we have a good feeding station!

mixture: 1 cup sugar and 4 cups water + one drop of red food coloring.

I divide that between the two feeders and then mix a new batch in the peanut butter container and put in fridge in laundry room (second fridge).

Enjoy them and their antics. That’s an order but shouldn’t be too hard to achieve!

Laying Chickens

Their food is in the trash cans in the chicken house. I do about a scoop or so of each crumble and scratch grains ONCE A DAY and usually at night. There’s a chicken who is “broody” and thinks the eggs she is laying on are fertile. Just reach up under her and get the eggs. You could also just take her out and then get the eggs. She forgets to eat and drink, so taking her out is actually helping her. You should get about a dozen eggs per day.

Their water: I’ve been using the big white jugs in the laundry room and usually do this at night. I use one of the clothes in the chicken house hanging by the fan in there. I dump the water outside and then wipe them out, rinse, and fill. If you want to put a few drops of oil (oregano and thyme), you can. It’s not a deal breaker, though.

If you want to let them out at around noon, that is fine. Then, make sure you go out and SHUT THE DOOR AT NIGHT. The raccoons and other varmints are brutal.

Egg care: I use a damp paper towel and wipe off any manure. Then, I put them in a carton in the second fridge. Please take all of the eggs since we’ll get more!  J

 Cats at Barn

The feed is in the wooden feed box right inside the hay mow door (reddish two gates fastened with a chain and orange tape marking). You can put two “drink” cups of feed in the pans on the round bales ONCE A DAY. The cups are in the bags.

Cats at the House and Grain House

The three “house” cats (gray Fluffy, black with white “trim” Flash, and dark tabby with large white bib Teensy) can eat on the porch of the cellar house (look for orange tape on railing). I’ll fix them up to stay in one of the rooms off the porch. They go in there a lot so they will be comfortable. We still can’t get rid of the solid black cat.

Bella, the petite white cat, eats at the grain house. You’ll see an orange piece of tape where you can feed her.

Catfish

The catfish can be fed every other day in the late afternoon to early evening. The feed is in the bench on the left side. I haven’t gotten the lid fixed yet, so you have to move the boards to get to the container. Feed them about ¾ of the coffee container. Throw it out as close together as you can since they like to skim the water with their mouths and eat that way.

House Stuff

If the power goes off, the generator should kick on automatically after about 30 – 60 seconds. When the power comes back on, it should go off automatically. Hopefully, we won’t have any more storms.  

Please help yourself to what’s in the garden, pantry, fridges, and freezers.

WEDNESDAY – Janie Hardesty will come to clean.

SOMETIME – Shane Snider may start weed eating on the bank by the road.

Mail and Newspaper

Please put on the dining room table. We’ll sort it out later.

Turkeys

Nathaniel will be coming to help with them. They are beginning to fly more and also enjoy roosting on the tomato structures.  L I think Parker’s going to have a new fencing system by the time you come. We’ll have their feed source marked, and you can see more on Friday.

Meat Chickens

Nathaniel will be coming to help with them. The chicken tractors have to MOVE EVERY MORNING OR EVENING, too, since they are getting bigger and producing more “fertilizer.” He can tell you if you should move them twice a day now or not. Their feed source will be marked, and he can tell you more details.

Cows, Calves, and Heifers

Hopefully, everything will stay where it should be. Phil is having someone check on things, but I don’t know when Colby is coming.

Mom’s Chickens, Barn Cats, and Lucy

She’ll send you a listing of her chores. She has chickens in the main barn and in the little building by the house. Lucy is pretty good about staying in, but you have to keep all gates shut.