With all due respect... you have 185K subscribers because you're doing what's right for your homestead no matter what others have done. It looks that you have been adding to the chickens diets and they are doing well. We continue learning from everyone in our communities, online and adapt everyday to our own homestead needs. Thanks for the video.
Each time I water my chickens, I also give my grounding rod a "drink"; this keeps good contact so my fence stays hot. It's easier for me to do this than to try to get that huge grounding rod out each time I move the chickens.
We can only use our mobile coup in the warm months as we live in Western New York. We are setting up to change over to a stationary set up, but we will be fencing in their area with cattle panels in an area that will become a garden. Right now they will be building my soil. Another thing learned from Justin! ♥️👍🙏🇺🇸🤓🐔
That long ground rod will work just as good if driven as parallel to the surface as possible and be a whole lot easier to extract when you move it. Learned this from a TVA lineman.
Thanks for posting the tips. I am dipping my toe into chicken farming. I am in the process of building a ChickShaw 2.0. I am following the plans because I wouldn't know how to build it without them.
Chickens get bored too. If you were moving them more often, they’d be more likely to stay inside the net. ( at least that’s been true for me) yours might need to be retrained.... it’s all context too. If your chickens are doing jobs on your property that’s one context, if you are just moving them around your property that’s another context. Your purpose determines how you manage them. Thanks for the videos. Can’t wait to see y’all working in your shoffice. (I made that up😀)
I've seen on a chicken facebook group that someone was feeding there chickens fermented (water soaked 24-72 hours) seed/scratch and dump on the ground in there John Suscovich tractor and they would have a really lush area afterwards 12-16" taller than the grass.
Depending on the state of the ground you can use a long flat strip if tin to do the same. Wastes less food, shares food, fertilises soil etc. The diet is great for chickens.
Good video- thanks for sharing. We get lazy with moving our Premier1 fencing. When that happens and we don’t cut the high grass, the fence gets grounded out on it. Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas!
@@BetterTogetherLife Oh no! LOL Yeah, these things happen. (Don't even get me started on the snow) Many people love to romanticize the whole homesteading life...if they only knew the half of it. Thanks guys! Keep up the good work!
If you’ve watched Justin Rhodes channel he addresses everything you’ve said here. He trims their wings all the time & ones that still get out go out to the pasture fenced chickens. PS: Justin has changed his design so many times I’m not sure which plan you’re referring to? I did like your video BTW & subscribed to your channel!
Oh thank you soooo much!!!!! This is mainly referring to the entire type of system that he uses. I did ask his permission to give him a shoutout. He said he'd even put the video in his email, which is AMAZING!!!! Thank you so much Mark for watching!!!! Hope you stick around! :)
Oh wow. Thank you. No wonder our net barely gives a shock at all. The new intellishock comes with a ground rod but it's not that long. So how long do you recommend?
Our mistakes are just as valuable as our successes. Nice video. I am here from Justin's latest newsletter. What variety of seed do you recommend for replenishing grass?
Great video and I loved the humor! ;) If you like the Justin's Rhodes design but don't want to move the coop daily or even weekly, I have my birds in Premier One fencing that doesn't get moved (the green seasonally moved) except when I cut the grass, I have 2 strands of 100ft connected & the chickens don't tear up all the grass like the area you have. They do tear up the grass and dig holes next to their coop area. Chickens love to dig at edges & seem obsessed with it, so I have to use cement blocks around their coop edges to keep them from digging under (it's a chicken tractor sitting on the ground) and create holes that mice etc can then get in. We do have to move the tractor once a year with deep bedding and start fresh, I'd rather have a chickshaw setup so you don't have to do that. We have heavy birds so they don't do the superman feats, but we did have another flock of lighter birds that eventually were all killed by predators ....only the flock in the electric fence lived unmolested, so I do really like the electric fencing. Thanks for the tips :)
I have never owned chickens but dreaming and planning... I had already hoped I WOULD get a broody hen, my plan is to just stick LOTS of eggs (from the other hens that same day or two, 1 rooster to "service" them) under her and stick her with those eggs in a specially designed coop. No need to buy an incubator!! :) Baby chicks galore!
Oh Jack, YES!!!! That has always been our plan as well. But yet we haven’t been able to find success yet with brooding hens hatching her own eggs. We’ve tried it 3 times now. But we will keep trying for sure! Haha, if you find success PLEASE let us know!!!!
Since you haven't bought chicks yet and having a broody hen is something you definitely want, then check with the hatcheries when picking out chicks. Some chicken breeds are more prone to going broody and others will need an incubator. The really good hatcheries will tell you which breeds go broody and which ones that will not.
when the fenced area is 20m by 20m (62ft) how often do you have to move the chickshaw inside of this fenced area. every day ? How often do you have to change the fenced area? when the fenced area is 40m by 40m how often do you have to move the chickshaw inside of this fenced area. How often do you have to change the fenced area?
Great question!!!! For this winter we are sowing cool weather crops. Here is a video that has our full cool weather annual mix: th-cam.com/video/RKJRcONNf6U/w-d-xo.html
Why you got ride of your pigs. I can see not raising breeding stock but getting a couple feeder piglets that are just weened to raise for freezer is what I do.
@@BetterTogetherLife Oh ok In video the way you said yall got ride of pigs sounded like yall stopped fooling with them lol sorry. So yall do like I do and just get piglets to raise to butcher weight? Do yall raise any to sell to help pay for it all ? I did that alot. Didn't do alot to make a profit other than paying for all or most to do again
I’ve raised chickens in northern Minnesota for 30 years and you are making the job so much harder than it needs to be. If you just don’t want to shovel a little poop then you might be in the wrong area and the suburbs would be a better fit. Around here you cas have six hens in town but no roosters. It takes maybe five minutes to shovel out the coop you do it once a week leave the door open in the morning when you collect eggs and they come out they go all over the yard. They know where the coop is when it gets close to dusk they run right back in and you the just before dark walk out and close the door. I doubt that we’ve lost more than 20 chickens to predators. They become soup before critter gets them. I live in northern Minnesota with wolves, coyotes, bears.oh my! I don’t want to be all mr. know-it-all but I’ve been raising animals up here for a long time and those animals are a lot smarter than you think. God programmed them with good instincts. I love what you and your family are doing! Keep it up. It will be teal trying at times but look on the bright side you don’t have -40 and three feet of snow. In 1980 our family moved out to the woods and cut and peeled trees to build our house. And raised baby pigs in the bathtub in the winter. I want to meet you all sometime but I’ll keep praying for you. Your friend Jerry
Thank you for the excellent comment Jerry!! We LOVE raising our animals. And I do love the amazing fertilizer of manure...... but I just prefer to allow the animals to spread their own manure verses me doing. It’s not big deal really, it’s just my tips to rotate the animals! 😁😁
How safe is the Chickshaw? I worry about small predators like weasels getting in through the 1" bottom or the open part where the crates are. Has anyone had any issues? Edit: It looks like you guys put an extra cover over the crate side? Is that what I'm seeing? Because I like that if so!
@@BetterTogetherLife Hi, again! We're trying to figure out how we want to cover our nesting box area. And I was wondering if you could describe more about how you put together your hatch! My boyfriend can't figure out how to go about attaching the hatch at all.
What is that that's left that they're not eating? I thought they would eat everything. Are their wings not clipped? Is there any reason not to do that? I can't wait for you guys to try chia seeds! I think chickens would love it every bit as much as rabbits do. :)
Are you talking about “how to get a ground rod DEEP into the soil?” Or “how to hydrate the soil?” I was referring to the fact that we have very dry sandy soil. So adding any water would not hydrate the soil for more than 2mins. 🤣🤣 We are Texas HOT!! 🥵 🔥
I am very interested in your thoughts..... can you tell me more? Are you saying that Justin's method doesn't really work in dry soils because the chickens tear everything up and the land isn't able to repair itself? Because we might be running into that situation here.
@@BetterTogetherLife Dear friend I’m sorry to have misled you. I was referring to the fence charger. That had its own ground stakes. It takes really moist soil for it to make the ground and get the most out of fence charger. I think the best way is to have charger stations that you use repeatedly just leave them in (ground rods) and run a jumper to them as you move your fenced paddocks I love the chick Shaw. I think he has something there. And though with that size of paddock you wouldn’t have to move everyday you would still need to close the door if you have predators in your area. The property I have is not where I live and I’m trying to figure out how to make that work! The Joal Salitin chicken tractor is another great idea.
When all else fails, get the instructions.... make sure you read the language you are comfortable with...a lot of instructions come with 8-10 different languages.🤣
So you are blaming YOUR mistakes on Justin?!?! Really? Are you not truly watching his series? He has addressed every one of YOUR mistakes. Take responsibility for what you do wrong, don't blame somebody else.
Hi there Robbie. Nice to meet you. Not sure if you’ve been able to watch this whole video, but I don’t believe I ever blamed Justin. Justin is actually a friend of mine. Texted with him yesterday. I owe Justin and Rebekah all of the credit for us homesteading. I apologize if you thought I was blaming him, that was never the purpose of this video. But maybe you just saw the title and thumbnail. Which….Justin actually approved of this title and gave me the OK to publish the video.
@@BetterTogetherLife no you should go back and actually listen to some of the things you say. You should rethink your wording on this video. I came to my conclusion not by the title but from what I watched and heard.
Oh hi there Joshua. Not sure if I’ve even met you before, but is this how you normally meet people? Walk into their house and insult them? Wow. Just to be clear I sent Justin a text before I made this video and he helped me work through the content. Justin is a friend of mine. Yes, he is far more successful than I am but this is how TH-cam works. We collaborate together. Sometimes big channels even collab with us smaller ones. I did not do it to “get views”, I made this video to try and share some of the problems I ran into with this chicken system. That is all. Take care!
Oh, piggybacking Justin? No I actually texting him and said, “yea I have this idea for a video would it be ok?” And he said, “of course man! Send me the link and I’ll send it out to my email list.” 👍🏻👍🏻
With all due respect... you have 185K subscribers because you're doing what's right for your homestead no matter what others have done. It looks that you have been adding to the chickens diets and they are doing well. We continue learning from everyone in our communities, online and adapt everyday to our own homestead needs. Thanks for the video.
Thank is amazing Jane, THANK YOU!!!!!
Each time I water my chickens, I also give my grounding rod a "drink"; this keeps good contact so my fence stays hot. It's easier for me to do this than to try to get that huge grounding rod out each time I move the chickens.
Not embarassing. You are busy and life happens. Love the content. Thanks for sharing and being willing to show us reality ;)
Sooooo true!!! Thank you for the amazing comment!! 😁😁
We can only use our mobile coup in the warm months as we live in Western New York. We are setting up to change over to a stationary set up, but we will be fencing in their area with cattle panels in an area that will become a garden. Right now they will be building my soil. Another thing learned from Justin! ♥️👍🙏🇺🇸🤓🐔
That long ground rod will work just as good if driven as parallel to the surface as possible and be a whole lot easier to extract when you move it. Learned this from a TVA lineman.
thanks for raising the points of mistakes, its always a learning experience
Love the shout out to the Rhodes family. I watch a lot of their videos as well.
Thanks for posting the tips. I am dipping my toe into chicken farming. I am in the process of building a ChickShaw 2.0. I am following the plans because I wouldn't know how to build it without them.
Great video, Realistic information, We keep our chicken in one location due to not having good places to move them to.
Chickens get bored too. If you were moving them more often, they’d be more likely to stay inside the net. ( at least that’s been true for me) yours might need to be retrained.... it’s all context too. If your chickens are doing jobs on your property that’s one context, if you are just moving them around your property that’s another context. Your purpose determines how you manage them. Thanks for the videos. Can’t wait to see y’all working in your shoffice. (I made that up😀)
Absolutely!!!
I've seen on a chicken facebook group that someone was feeding there chickens fermented (water soaked 24-72 hours) seed/scratch and dump on the ground in there John Suscovich tractor and they would have a really lush area afterwards 12-16" taller than the grass.
Depending on the state of the ground you can use a long flat strip if tin to do the same. Wastes less food, shares food, fertilises soil etc. The diet is great for chickens.
Good video- thanks for sharing. We get lazy with moving our Premier1 fencing. When that happens and we don’t cut the high grass, the fence gets grounded out on it. Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas!
Thank you guys!!! Yup, same over here. 🤣🤣
Even though I made this video, still haven’t moved the chickens for 3 weeks!!! 🤦🏼
@@BetterTogetherLife Oh no! LOL Yeah, these things happen. (Don't even get me started on the snow) Many people love to romanticize the whole homesteading life...if they only knew the half of it. Thanks guys! Keep up the good work!
Thank you for pointing out not too close to the fence. It's a no brainier, but still an easy miss.
Oh that’s awesome Katrina!! So glad the video was helpful!
Thanks, dude.
Excellent points that I had never thought of.
THANK YOU!!!!!!!!
I appreciate the perspective, lessons learned and reminder!♡
If you’ve watched Justin Rhodes channel he addresses everything you’ve said here. He trims their wings all the time & ones that still get out go out to the pasture fenced chickens.
PS: Justin has changed his design so many times I’m not sure which plan you’re referring to? I did like your video BTW & subscribed to your channel!
Oh thank you soooo much!!!!! This is mainly referring to the entire type of system that he uses. I did ask his permission to give him a shoutout. He said he'd even put the video in his email, which is AMAZING!!!!
Thank you so much Mark for watching!!!! Hope you stick around! :)
Oh wow. Thank you. No wonder our net barely gives a shock at all. The new intellishock comes with a ground rod but it's not that long. So how long do you recommend?
We had a similar experience with the grounding rod. I think it's the sandy soil. Clay conducts electricity better.
Agreed!
oh that reminds me - Premier One sells the long ground rods we bought from them.
Our mistakes are just as valuable as our successes. Nice video. I am here from Justin's latest newsletter. What variety of seed do you recommend for replenishing grass?
Me, too! Here from Justin's latest newsletter. Great video!
Oh wow THANK YOU so much for coming over!!!!! That means a lot!! :)
Thank you Boston Rocks also for coming over from Justin's and watching. I really appreciate it!!
@@BetterTogetherLife You're welcome! It's always great to meet new people and have new friends! God Bless! Carmen
loved it.... I'm not a chicken raising kinda woman, but it's still interesting 💕💕
Be careful, enough of these videos and you might just be that lady :)
@@dawne6936 yeah... I'm pretty confident that I won't...lol
Niccho Johnson Maione trust me, chicken math is REAL
Great video and I loved the humor! ;) If you like the Justin's Rhodes design but don't want to move the coop daily or even weekly, I have my birds in Premier One fencing that doesn't get moved (the green seasonally moved) except when I cut the grass, I have 2 strands of 100ft connected & the chickens don't tear up all the grass like the area you have. They do tear up the grass and dig holes next to their coop area. Chickens love to dig at edges & seem obsessed with it, so I have to use cement blocks around their coop edges to keep them from digging under (it's a chicken tractor sitting on the ground) and create holes that mice etc can then get in. We do have to move the tractor once a year with deep bedding and start fresh, I'd rather have a chickshaw setup so you don't have to do that. We have heavy birds so they don't do the superman feats, but we did have another flock of lighter birds that eventually were all killed by predators ....only the flock in the electric fence lived unmolested, so I do really like the electric fencing. Thanks for the tips :)
What boots are you wearing? I’m looking for a good rubber/neoprene chore boot. What brands do you recommend?
This is great, thank you!
These kind of videos are so helpful!! Thank you!!!
Thanks for this video!
this is such a good challen thank u
Great tips as always!
I have never owned chickens but dreaming and planning... I had already hoped I WOULD get a broody hen, my plan is to just stick LOTS of eggs (from the other hens that same day or two, 1 rooster to "service" them) under her and stick her with those eggs in a specially designed coop. No need to buy an incubator!! :) Baby chicks galore!
Oh Jack, YES!!!! That has always been our plan as well. But yet we haven’t been able to find success yet with brooding hens hatching her own eggs.
We’ve tried it 3 times now. But we will keep trying for sure! Haha, if you find success PLEASE let us know!!!!
Since you haven't bought chicks yet and having a broody hen is something you definitely want, then check with the hatcheries when picking out chicks. Some chicken breeds are more prone to going broody and others will need an incubator. The really good hatcheries will tell you which breeds go broody and which ones that will not.
when the fenced area is 20m by 20m (62ft) how often do you have to move the chickshaw inside of this fenced area. every day ? How often do you have to change the fenced area?
when the fenced area is 40m by 40m how often do you have to move the chickshaw inside of this fenced area. How often do you have to change the fenced area?
I’m wondering if soaking the ground where the spikes are will help the function.
Great information thank you for sharing.
Ha.. follow the instructions. Makes sense..
What kind of seed should you lay down on the leftover bare ground?
Great question!!!! For this winter we are sowing cool weather crops.
Here is a video that has our full cool weather annual mix:
th-cam.com/video/RKJRcONNf6U/w-d-xo.html
How do you choose the seed to put out after rotating?
How do you keep wild birds from just swooping down and eating up all the seed you spread after you move your chickshaw?
I typically will only seed right before a decent size rain event. Great question! Sorry I didn’t mention that in the video.
Why you got ride of your pigs.
I can see not raising breeding stock but getting a couple feeder piglets that are just weened to raise for freezer is what I do.
What do you mean? Our pigs are in the freezer and we will be getting more in winter. We live in Texas so winter is pretty easy here.
@@BetterTogetherLife
Oh ok
In video the way you said yall got ride of pigs sounded like yall stopped fooling with them lol sorry.
So yall do like I do and just get piglets to raise to butcher weight?
Do yall raise any to sell to help pay for it all ?
I did that alot. Didn't do alot to make a profit other than paying for all or most to do again
Thanks for sharing, too funny. Im the same way here.
You are so welcome
I’ve raised chickens in northern Minnesota for 30 years and you are making the job so much harder than it needs to be. If you just don’t want to shovel a little poop then you might be in the wrong area and the suburbs would be a better fit. Around here you cas have six hens in town but no roosters. It takes maybe five minutes to shovel out the coop you do it once a week leave the door open in the morning when you collect eggs and they come out they go all over the yard. They know where the coop is when it gets close to dusk they run right back in and you the just before dark walk out and close the door. I doubt that we’ve lost more than 20 chickens to predators. They become soup before critter gets them. I live in northern Minnesota with wolves, coyotes, bears.oh my! I don’t want to be all mr. know-it-all but I’ve been raising animals up here for a long time and those animals are a lot smarter than you think. God programmed them with good instincts.
I love what you and your family are doing! Keep it up. It will be teal trying at times but look on the bright side you don’t have -40 and three feet of snow. In 1980 our family moved out to the woods and cut and peeled trees to build our house. And raised baby pigs in the bathtub in the winter. I want to meet you all sometime but I’ll keep praying for you. Your friend Jerry
Thank you for the excellent comment Jerry!!
We LOVE raising our animals. And I do love the amazing fertilizer of manure...... but I just prefer to allow the animals to spread their own manure verses me doing.
It’s not big deal really, it’s just my tips to rotate the animals! 😁😁
From not even a newbie yet: what kind of seeds do you sow?
How important is it to string trim the grass at the edge and under the fence? Will dewy grass ground it out so it is no longer hot?
You do need to trim the grass, but we have noticed that it is more important to have a longer ground rod.
@@BetterTogetherLife ok. Good to know. Thank you!!
Great vid btw
Hi..... 🎥👍👍👍
How safe is the Chickshaw? I worry about small predators like weasels getting in through the 1" bottom or the open part where the crates are. Has anyone had any issues? Edit: It looks like you guys put an extra cover over the crate side? Is that what I'm seeing? Because I like that if so!
The wire really makes all the difference. A strong hardware cloth, not chicken wire, will set you up for success. Yes, there’s a hatch on the back !
@@BetterTogetherLife Awesome, good to hear! And the hatch is a great idea, thank you!!
@@BetterTogetherLife Hi, again! We're trying to figure out how we want to cover our nesting box area. And I was wondering if you could describe more about how you put together your hatch! My boyfriend can't figure out how to go about attaching the hatch at all.
What is that that's left that they're not eating? I thought they would eat everything. Are their wings not clipped? Is there any reason not to do that? I can't wait for you guys to try chia seeds! I think chickens would love it every bit as much as rabbits do. :)
Oh I completely forgot the name of that. But yea up here no livestock will touch it.
Mmmmok that method is impossible when you live somewhere like Canada where Winter is crazy cold!
But we live in Texas.🤷♀️
@@BetterTogetherLife i wish!!!! I have to take some very low temperatures into account when thinking about my chicks🤪❤️
You like the Green Cover Seed?
I really do yes! Great company and customer service. I’m sure everyone is great, but I always work with Noah. 😁👍🏻
Thanks for the response. Great channel.
Ground rod fix add water to the soil.
Are you talking about “how to get a ground rod DEEP into the soil?”
Or “how to hydrate the soil?”
I was referring to the fact that we have very dry sandy soil. So adding any water would not hydrate the soil for more than 2mins. 🤣🤣
We are Texas HOT!! 🥵 🔥
Man u got lucky with ur chicks, mine jump/fly over a 2m fence.
Oh yikes!!!!
You have to be diligent with the wing clipping or they will go MIA, fast. 😄
Couldn't u put totes under it to collect the poop?
Here in Europe, they would freeze to death in winter without a floor :)
If you watch Justin Rhodes videos he put straw in the bottom of his chicken tractors in the winter time
Justin doesn’t have nasty winters so it works for him. You might have to find a way to stop the wind from going through and freezing your birds.
That only works in moist soils
I am very interested in your thoughts..... can you tell me more? Are you saying that Justin's method doesn't really work in dry soils because the chickens tear everything up and the land isn't able to repair itself? Because we might be running into that situation here.
@@BetterTogetherLife
Dear friend I’m sorry to have misled you. I was referring to the fence charger. That had its own ground stakes. It takes really moist soil for it to make the ground and get the most out of fence charger. I think the best way is to have charger stations that you use repeatedly just leave them in (ground rods) and run a jumper to them as you move your fenced paddocks
I love the chick Shaw. I think he has something there. And though with that size of paddock you wouldn’t have to move everyday you would still need to close the door if you have predators in your area.
The property I have is not where I live and I’m trying to figure out how to make that work!
The Joal Salitin chicken tractor is another great idea.
When all else fails, get the instructions.... make sure you read the language you are comfortable with...a lot of instructions come with 8-10 different languages.🤣
Agreed.
So you are blaming YOUR mistakes on Justin?!?! Really?
Are you not truly watching his series? He has addressed every one of YOUR mistakes. Take responsibility for what you do wrong, don't blame somebody else.
Hi there Robbie. Nice to meet you.
Not sure if you’ve been able to watch this whole video, but I don’t believe I ever blamed Justin.
Justin is actually a friend of mine. Texted with him yesterday. I owe Justin and Rebekah all of the credit for us homesteading.
I apologize if you thought I was blaming him, that was never the purpose of this video. But maybe you just saw the title and thumbnail.
Which….Justin actually approved of this title and gave me the OK to publish the video.
@@BetterTogetherLife no you should go back and actually listen to some of the things you say. You should rethink your wording on this video. I came to my conclusion not by the title but from what I watched and heard.
Ok Robbie, I tried to be civil and polite.
Bye bye.
🤣🤣🤣
Sounds like you need to stick to rabbits and sourdough. Justin Rhodes job is farming. Seems like your just trying to get views off of his name
Oh hi there Joshua. Not sure if I’ve even met you before, but is this how you normally meet people?
Walk into their house and insult them? Wow.
Just to be clear I sent Justin a text before I made this video and he helped me work through the content. Justin is a friend of mine.
Yes, he is far more successful than I am but this is how TH-cam works. We collaborate together. Sometimes big channels even collab with us smaller ones.
I did not do it to “get views”, I made this video to try and share some of the problems I ran into with this chicken system. That is all.
Take care!
@@BetterTogetherLife Thats What She Said
More vids of the wifey.
Trying!!!!! lol!!! Please trust us we are both trying hard to get Kelly in more.
THAT is our #1 priority for the channel! :)
So how is it working out? We are trying to LOTS OF KELLY!!!! 🤣🤣🤣
Way to piggyback.
What?
Oh, piggybacking Justin? No I actually texting him and said, “yea I have this idea for a video would it be ok?”
And he said, “of course man! Send me the link and I’ll send it out to my email list.”
👍🏻👍🏻
5 lol