Above 1200 Sq/FT Out on Quaker Road

[jblnut]

I had never thought about this part of the food chain at the scale you are doing. Simply very interesting!!!

It has rapidly dawned on me the last few days the scale of this process as well. Having been through some on farm training on how to do things I can confidently say this company has the important things figured out. They are going to hold the growers accountable as well, which is good!!

I absolutely love this thread. Thank you for taking the time to take us along with you. I grew up a farm kid and really and appreciate what you do.

Thank you very much !! I wouldn't trade growing up on a farm for anything in the world.

WOW! Although the little guys getting dumped out of those trays probably found that to be a bit rude. This is going to be interesting to follow as those little guys grow.

when the chicks are little I guess they are quite fluffy and bouncy. I asked my service rep what the proper height to place them out of the basket was and he said anything under two feet will not hurt them in the least.

All I can say is you and your family are "AMAZING!"
No words of thanks can convey my feelings on what a gift you give to all who benefit from the bounty you are providing humanity.
Living in a metropolitan area, it is easy to shrug off going to the store and buying a whole chicken for 99 cents a pound or so.
That fact, and the monetary expense and risk your family takes to provide that bounty with a small payday (maybe 40 cents a head after expense?) really hits home the fact you have to have several buildings of continuous rotating stock to keep a steady income, year round. So when does a chicken farmer have the chance to go to the beach for a deserved vacation? Not too often.

On a different note: those milking carousals are really cool.
I built robots to pull parts out of mold machines, set up and installed building automation for HVAC and did a lot of service work out in the field, so I know the components needed to run and service such a contraption.
I hate to see that whole machine break down, program loss, or the building destroyed from bad weather!!!!
What does one person do with 1500 angry cows who are use to being milked at a certain time every day????
Can a milking herd go without being milked? I am guessing no....
...What is the back up plan?

farming and everything involved with it is definitely more than just a job, it is a way of life. I wouldn't really have it any other way. The risk is scary just about every day but if you're not a little bit scared you're not paying attention.

As far as having 1500 angry cows when the robot quits working The Back-up Plan Is Us. A phone call will be made and we will have as many guys on the road with parts as it takes to get it back up and running in as little time as possible. So far we haven't had anybody down more than 5 or 6 hours at a time (plus travel time) for even the most major breakdowns.

 

[C_F]

Wow, that is a whole lot of little chicks! I didn't expect them to come to you in bread containers, but I guess that makes the most sense. You sure do have to watch your step now when you're in there, don't ya?

 

[jblnut]

Wow, that is a whole lot of little chicks! I didn't expect them to come to you in bread containers, but I guess that makes the most sense. You sure do have to watch your step now when you're in there, don't ya?

More than once already I've almost fallen over trying not to step on them. I guess it's a skill I will need to learn.

 

[jblnut]

The little chicks look about the same tonight. They've scattered more and seem way more alert than yesterday. They really seem to gather on top of the feed flats. The yellow carpets are all over where they are placed.


I got a Unifi Mesh AP hung up in the barn tonight and now I have WiFi's everywhere !!


I also hung up a UVC-Micro in the barn. Literally hung it from it's cord off one of the cords used for the drill to lift the fans up and down.

 

[Finallygotit]

Forty-six THOUSAND chicks.......

 

[candyshop]

big farm big chicks

 

[jblnut]

Forty-six THOUSAND chicks.......

When walking through the barn it seems like 46,000 chickens should take up more space than they do right now. It then occurred that they are only 72hrs old and will get MUCH larger !!

big farm big chicks

I am honored to have your first post be in my thread

I thought my wife wouldn't like me spending so much time with the "chicks" but she hasn't said much yet. She's been out there a few times and although she tries to act uninterested she doesn't hide it very well !!!

 

[jblnut]

The chicken coop camera is a huge hit with the 3-5yr old crowd in the house. We watched them for probably 30 minutes tonight after supper before they got bored !!!


I'm going to try and remember to post a picture from this camera each day to watch them grow and watch the various things in the barn change as they grow.

 

[dchance]

What an interesting view into the supply side. It no doubt will not be long till the room does not seem to large. When do you open up the other side to expand as they grow?

Dwight

 

[jblnut]

What an interesting view into the supply side. It no doubt will not be long till the room does not seem to large. When do you open up the other side to expand as they grow?

Dwight

I'm trying to learn it all day by day so far but I believe around day 10 the birds will go in the entire barn.

 

[Stuart in MN]

Your place sure is a long ways from the chicken barns i worked in as a teenager 45 years ago. The technology is fascinating.

Since you're into the high tech side of farming, I thought I'd mention an article I saw in the Minneapolis Star Tribune today - Cargill is investing in a company that is working on facial recognition for livestock. At first it will be used with cattle, but they may use it for pigs or other animals in the future. The idea is to be able to track the habits of each animal in a herd; for instance they will be able to tell if a particular cow isn't eating as much as it normally does, which could indicate it's sick. Pretty wild stuff. http://www.startribune.com/cargill-invests-in-facial-recognition-for-cows-and-pigs/472052673/

 

[jblnut]

Your place sure is a long ways from the chicken barns i worked in as a teenager 45 years ago. The technology is fascinating.

Since you're into the high tech side of farming, I thought I'd mention an article I saw in the Minneapolis Star Tribune today - Cargill is investing in a company that is working on facial recognition for livestock. At first it will be used with cattle, but they may use it for pigs or other animals in the future. The idea is to be able to track the habits of each animal in a herd; for instance they will be able to tell if a particular cow isn't eating as much as it normally does, which could indicate it's sick. Pretty wild stuff.

All the "big boys" are investing in technology in various animal industries right now. It gives farmers so many options to choose from to better every aspect of their operation.

We are about to begin an install on a similar system for a 1,750 cow dairy that will track the cows movements down to 3' in every barn. The herdsman can type her ear tag number into a tablet and it'll guide them to that animal in real time. It's like a GPS for each cow. Since it knows where she is all the time it'll build similar patterns such as health, feed intake, heat detection and activity. Zoetis is the $$$$$ behind this system and it has some serious potential.

This is an exciting time to be a tech guy in the farming field. Lots of neat stuff coming out !!!

 

[C_F]

The chicken coop camera is a huge hit with the 3-5yr old crowd in the house. We watched them for probably 30 minutes tonight after supper before they got bored !!!

That's funny. However, it's definitely a better TV program than what's being broadcast to the rest of us.

 

[jblnut]

They are getting noticeably larger !!

 

[SiGmA_X]

Your place sure is a long ways from the chicken barns i worked in as a teenager 45 years ago. The technology is fascinating.

Since you're into the high tech side of farming, I thought I'd mention an article I saw in the Minneapolis Star Tribune today - Cargill is investing in a company that is working on facial recognition for livestock. At first it will be used with cattle, but they may use it for pigs or other animals in the future. The idea is to be able to track the habits of each animal in a herd; for instance they will be able to tell if a particular cow isn't eating as much as it normally does, which could indicate it's sick. Pretty wild stuff. http://www.startribune.com/cargill-invests-in-facial-recognition-for-cows-and-pigs/472052673/

Interesting. They can track two legged livestock pretty good these days, it figures they would want to do it to the 4 legged too!

All the "big boys" are investing in technology in various animal industries right now. It gives farmers so many options to choose from to better every aspect of their operation.

We are about to begin an install on a similar system for a 1,750 cow dairy that will track the cows movements down to 3' in every barn. The herdsman can type her ear tag number into a tablet and it'll guide them to that animal in real time. It's like a GPS for each cow. Since it knows where she is all the time it'll build similar patterns such as health, feed intake, heat detection and activity. Zoetis is the $$$$$ behind this system and it has some serious potential.

This is an exciting time to be a tech guy in the farming field. Lots of neat stuff coming out !!!

I spent some time reading about robotic dairy's when you posted about it earlier. That stuff is freaking cool and makes a lot of sense from a cost perspective.

 

[jblnut]

Interesting. They can track two legged livestock pretty good these days, it figures they would want to do it to the 4 legged too!I spent some time reading about robotic dairy's when you posted about it earlier. That stuff is freaking cool and makes a lot of sense from a cost perspective.

If you can cut labor cost out of your operation it doesn't take long to pencil out a payback on even a very large loan !

 

[jblnut]

"Day 5" - Chicks are getting bigger !!

 

[woodfor1]

Do you leave the lights on all the time and do the water and feed get pulled up as the chickens grow.How much work do they take each day or dose the barn some what run it's self.

 

[Finallygotit]

"Day 5" - Chicks are getting bigger !!

What in the heck are you feeding them? That's an insane amount of growth. But what the hell do I know.

 

[jblnut]

Do you leave the lights on all the time and do the water and feed get pulled up as the chickens grow.How much work do they take each day or dose the barn some what run it's self.

Just about everything in the barn is automated. The feeders run when needed and are on a schedule, the lights are always on for the first week or so then they go to 18hrs on and 6hrs off as the chickens grow a bit. So far it's taken about 1.5hrs a day to do chores but you gotta remember, were as green as it gets so that number should go down. This week we will open the center divider up and let the chicks roam in the entire barn, it'll take longer then just because we're walking twice as far.

What in the heck are you feeding them? That's an insane amount of growth. But what the hell do I know.

They literally look larger every time I'm in the barn. These are what growers have dubbed "Veggie" birds because they're nothing goofy in the feed and it's all natural. I don't know the exact list of vitamins and minerals in the feed but they're marked as "No antiobiotics .... Ever!!" so it's fairly all-natural

 

[Lunker]

Good stuff! Remind me again the business model here : you own the chickens and sell back of the Chicken company owns them and you are providing the service?

 

[Jazzman442]

I am so Hooked on this Thread.. I am so interested in how the Farm life is. You are really making interesting by all of the pictures and commentary. You are Amazing.
I think I want to be a farmer. LOl..

How does some one get the funds to do all of this? Again thank you to you and your family for our Food and Thank you for all of this information..

 

[jblnut]

Good stuff! Remind me again the business model here : you own the chickens and sell back of the Chicken company owns them and you are providing the service?

Gold'n'Plump supplies all inputs (chicks, feed, bedding, power and heat) and I supply the building, site and labor. It's a decent deal really. I'll be making money from the barn while I am paying for the barn.

 

[jblnut]

I am so Hooked on this Thread.. I am so interested in how the Farm life is. You are really making interesting by all of the pictures and commentary. You are Amazing.
I think I want to be a farmer. LOl..

How does some one get the funds to do all of this? Again thank you to you and your family for our Food and Thank you for all of this information..

Thanks for following along !!! If you're ever up here I'll glady cook you an entire homegrown meal with big thick ribeyes, sweet corn, and homemade fries !!

Funds are procured the same way any business keeps growing and expanding. You gotta be buddies with the banker

 

[jblnut]

Day 6 - We turned up the feed drops on all the feeders. The feed drops help the chicks when they are little because they provide more feeding area. Once they learn where the feed is in the red feeders and they are large enough to reach them there is plenty of area for them to eat.


We'll let them eat what is left in the cardboard trays and I'll either turn them into heat in the shop or throw them in by the steers so they can enjoy them as well

 

[ABSTIFFGS]

My family had a blast on Sunday checking out this chicken coop. Words could not describe the size of this operation and pictures do not do justice to what 46,000 chicks look like. Thanks again for Byrd tour. My little people enjoyed holding the chicks.

 

[jblnut]

My family had a blast on Sunday checking out this chicken coop. Words could not describe the size of this operation and pictures do not do justice to what 46,000 chicks look like. Thanks again for Byrd tour. My little people enjoyed holding the chicks.

Sounds like I need to charge admission if you had that much fun

 

[jblnut]

Guess what ??? They're still growing, which is good !!!


Monday or Tuesday mornings the generator gets tested. Pretty easy really, hold the transfer test button and it fires up and transfers the load over for 10 minutes and goes into a cool down cycle.


It was -12F here this morning and it got mighty cold in a big hurry in this room !!


Tomorrow the chicks will get to go in the whole barn. I'd imagine that will be rather exciting for them. We started the heaters on Sunday to preheat the North half and rolled the curtain up today to let the temp and humidity equalize between both sides.


Very North end of the barn looking South. We had to replace two 10' water line sections that leaked and adjust everything today. Having already done the South side a week ago it didn't take long.


The feed mill keeps us on a "keep full" program but they like it when the growers call in and let them know when there are two empty bins so they can work it into the schedule without cutting the delivery too close. I called in today for the first time and ordered more feed. It was a blast. "Hi this is Mike and I have two empty feed tanks" "Ok thanks for letting us know, we'll be out later today" Literally took 14 seconds.

 

[ABSTIFFGS]

 

[jblnut]

^^^ I know that chicken !!! His name is Carl and he's in my barn !!! I bet he never expected his **** to be on the internet. Maybe he'll be meme-famous one day

 

[C_F]

You have already gone through two bins of feed? Or was one not full to begin with? The little chicks sure do appear to be taking up more floor space now, growing like weeds!

 

[jblnut]

You have already gone through two bins of feed? Or was one not full to begin with? The little chicks sure do appear to be taking up more floor space now, growing like weeds!

The bins are 18 ton each. I'm pretty sure the end one was full and there was 6,700lbs in the second one. They don't eat much at first but by day 40 or so they are eating through 18 ton of feed in less than two days !!

 

[C_F]

The bins are 18 ton each. I'm pretty sure the end one was full and there was 6,700lbs in the second one. They don't eat much at first but by day 40 or so they are eating through 18 ton of feed in less than two days !!

Holy schnikeys!!

 

[jblnut]

Day 8 - The barn looks less crowded because we opened the North half up this morning so they can go everywhere now. My camera is still only looking at half the barn though ....

The wooden posts swing up to the ceiling but we'll need them in a few days when the dividers go back in again. All six feed hoppers are in place and everything is working great.

This Poultry Hawk is really pulling it's weight. I have no idea how other growers manage without one. I've been told by a few that they use a wheeled cart or something like a wheelbarrow in the barn but that sounds like a huge PITA to me !!!

 

[Finallygotit]

This whole operation is just amazing. Keep the updates coming!

 

[C_F]

I can't imagine it would be easy at all to cruise a wheelbarrow around in there. The floor is too soft, and you would probably end up running over many of the chicks in the process.

Which brings another thought...out of all those thousands of chicks, have you had many of them die off, or are they all living just fine?

 

[jblnut]

This whole operation is just amazing. Keep the updates coming!

Ok I will !!!!!

I can't imagine it would be easy at all to cruise a wheelbarrow around in there. The floor is too soft, and you would probably end up running over many of the chicks in the process.

Which brings another thought...out of all those thousands of chicks, have you had many of them die off, or are they all living just fine?

I really have no idea how other growers do it short of making a ton of trips on foot carrying all kinds of stuff ...

Obviously the fewer chickens that die the better but of course there are some that do not make it to the end. We are doing above average at this point and are very happy at the low mortality numbers we've had thus far.

 

[jblnut]

Day 9 looks a lot like day 8 ....


Today we installed a new/rebuilt Kaiser Omega 41 Positive Displacement Blower on a dairy farm. We of course use them to create vacuum to run the parlor to milk cows !! Sometimes rebuilt pumps do not preform like they should upon initial startup so I thought I'd film it today to have a record of anything that would be wrong. This pump will pull through almost 200CFM at 14.7in/vacuum at full RPM's. It's a BEAST !! Try and try and try as I may I just cannot figure out to get embed a video on this forum so if you want to watch it you'll have to click on the image .... anybody have any tips ??

 

[red]

This pump will pull through almost 200CFM at 14.7in/vacuum at full RPM's. It's a BEAST !! -jlbnut

Not sure if I'd stand as close to the pump as you . . .
just sounds like things would turn south very quickly IF something broke.

 

[jblnut]

Not sure if I'd stand as close to the pump as you . . .
just sounds like things would turn south very quickly IF something broke.

The worst we've experienced is the rotors locking up inside the pump and the drive belts getting shredded because of it. The issues we usually have during a first run are bearings being out or the rotors are misaligned and make all kinds of racket because they're smacking into each other. Although it sounds like an airplane taking off the pump is only spinning at 3,500rpms wide open