Shady Acres is a fairly typical Delmarva Chicken Farm in many respects. Certain Man loves the land, and he tries hard to take care of his parcel with diligence. This is the view of our smallest chicken house from the house. Last night, the chickens that were in this house went to the processing plant, leaving a very empty house indeed.
This morning, Certain Man called me after he left for work and told me that we were out of feed in house two which is scheduled to be caught tonight. This is a dilemma, indeed, as the chicken companies do not like to bring feed on the last day that chickens are being grown. Usually it takes so much time to get the feed there, that it isn’t worth the extra time and frustration. But a chicken farmer hates to send chickens to market that were out of feed the last day he has them, so Certain Man and I discussed what could be done.
This is the feed bin to the house that no longer has chickens. It has feed in it. In fact, the cone is almost full. That is enough to feed house two for this last day of growing. So the problem was getting the feed from this bin over to the other house where it could be dumped into the hoppers and distributed through the house. Certain Man thought to use the tractor and the loader, but CMW had a different plan that would not involve her fighting with the tractor. It had to do with this:
So she went forth into the Manure shed :
and found eight buckets that she could fit onto her trusty wagon with great ease, and she took those eight buckets and filled them in this manner:
and when they were filled, she put them on the wagon and took them over to the other house where they were dumped into the running feed machine.
It was stinky, dirty work, and she was grateful for the helping hand of Certain Man who spent his lunch hour fine tuning the operation and making it easier for her to do when he was gone. His cheerful hard work always gives her courage and makes her want to try to help him all she can.
This is not a chicken. If you look closely enough you will see a speck of a dog. This is our faithful Australian Red Heeler, Shep, who sits in his pen, hoping that someone will let him out so he can chase squirrels from my bird feeder. However, Shepherd likes to lie down in my flower beds, so I have to be careful when I let him out because I do not appreciate my flowers getting squashed flat. He gets to run alot in the fall in winter, but in the Summer, someone needs to be outside to make sure he finds an appropriate place to nap.
And now, it is back to the laundry for this chicken farmer’s wife. I am so glad for this day at home so that I can pay attention to home things.
Delaware Grammy 
It is truely lovely to see pictures of my beloved Eastern Shore, even if it is a different state from the one where I grew up!
Ahhh I was always glad we didn’t own 5 acres so chicken growing was an impossibility for our family:)!! I have so many friends who raise chickens – I feel pretty sure I wouldn’t like it!! Have a great day friend – and keep finding joy in those mundane things of life!
I love how you tell stories….the pictures make it so neat to read! RYC: People like your dear mother and others that I know read but don’t have their own xanga are why I don’t think I’ll end up using the xanga lock. I do the same kind of browsing when I’m up late at night. ~Erica
Thank you for the tour of your operation,I enjoyed it. Good thinking with the feed buckets! About how many chickens do you sell a year? Were you ever a small operation and grew this big? I can show our Sam your site and see what he has to say about this. You don’t hatch them out do you? It is very interesting.
my aren’t you resourceful!!! Glad all worked out!! Thanks for sharing your little story!
We send around five flocks of approximately 60,000 each– so somewhere in the neighborhood of 300,000, I guess. But there is a difference between OWNING these chickens and RAISING them. We do not own them. The Chicken Company (in this case, ALLEN’S FAMILY FOODS) owns them, and we raise them for them. We pay the electic bill, and for all the maintenence kinds of stuff, and they provide the baby chicks and the feed, fuel and medications if they need it. Recently our company has changed its policy about split flocks (This is where they bring both males and females, but keep them separate, and when the Females are six weeks old, they take them out, but raise the males to arounf 9 weeks) Anyhow, it looks like our next flock will be the last one as a split flock because Allen’s is no longer going to do it.As far as being a smaller operation — While we lived in Ohio, we sent away for some baby chicks, and raised them for broilers and also some as laying hens. It was a dismal proposition, indeed. Maybe about 30 chickens. I don’t think his father approved, either and we were using his old chicken house to house them in, so we finally just gave it up. When we moved to Delaware, we started out with a really small house — much the same size as our smallest one, and we had approximately 10 – 11 thousand in that one. We have been here on this farm for almost seventeen years, and Daniel has been pleased with it for the most part. It’s hard work, but it is good for us.
Thank you for the peek into the life of a chicken farmers wife! What you really needed was LOE with her tractor to get the work done! How many rounds of 8 buckets did you do? I hope you sleep well tonight!
Thanks for the grand tour of your wonderful set up! Wow! I hope the chicken I buy in the market is as well cared for as your chickens are. I think LOE’s grandsons should definitely see your post.
Very creative way to feed the chickens!
I am amazed, that’s alot of chickens! This evening I will go to Sam’s(the chicken raising man) 13th birthday party and will direct him to your site. He’ll be impressed. I know in this area there are no operations such as yours.
Mary Ann, what a beautiful helpmeet you were!! thanks for the Godly example!!
Enjoyed the tour of your chicken farm. Drive by them all the time but haven’t had a look at one inside. I agree about the xanga lock…on nights that I (or others) have insomnia, xanga surfing is a good way to spend those sleepless hours. Your stories are always very entertaining.
Good morning! I didn’t do as I planned to about getting Sam on your Xanga site. They have the internet but they seldom use it. But I told him of your 300,000 chickens a year. He couldn’t imagine it. In this area Campbell Soup Co. had set ups done under contrcts like you folks evidently do, but it didn’t last in our area for some reason. Looks like rain here today but I am running the sprinkler anyway just in case.