Learning-- Sometimes the hard way!

I love to learn!   I try to learn something new everyday.  Sometimes I have to learn things that scare me or make me wonder if I can even do them.  For instance, the times I had to learn to drive a bobcat, backhoe, and tractor.   Even though I was nervous about learning to drive those machines, once I had learned I was empowered and felt a huge sense of accomplishment.  You see, you really can learn anything once you put your mind to it.  I think growing up on a farm has really fostered my desire to learn as much as I can.   Everyday I am presented with challenges that I have to figure out on my own.  For instance, right now I have over 200 chickens.  What once was a small 4-H project has turned into a major job for me.   A few years ago we decided to let our chickens free range and one fateful day we turned them all loose from the run.   It was exciting.  They couldn't move quick enough to get out and find new bugs and worms to eat.   Since then, they have layed thousands of eggs and been very entertaining to watch roam around the farm. One downside to free range chickens is that eventually some of them will decided they want to become broody and have baby chickens.  Those Chicks will find the weirdest places to lay their eggs.   NO.. not in my nice nesting boxes, but rather in a hay bale high up in the barn or an abandoned shed.   This leads to year round easter egg hunts for us and many, many baby chicks roaming around the farm.    Right now, I am trying to find ways to get this under control.  One of our ongoing solutions is to process the chickens for meat.   We love having processing parties where we all get together and take on different parts of the job.    My mom makes the best chicken broth and we enjoy eating or utilizing all parts of the chickens in our food. Nevertheless,  I still need another solution..... I have toyed with idea of clipping their wings, but that is an awful lot of chickens to catch!   One idea that has fascinated me is chicken tractors.   I don't make a ton of money with egg sales, so I have been trying to be innovative with my funding in coming up with my own chicken tractor design.   I have also been studying the Polyface farms  www.polyfacefarms.com chicken practices.  I would like to build a chicken house that rolls around the farm to different pasture where they can then come out of and stay enclosed in portable electric fencing.  This seems like the perfect solution...... I will be put my learning to the test over the next few weeks as I try to implement my plans. I will keep you posted!!!!