12 eggs equal one tooth

One good thing about pain is that once it stops you feel really good about it.This is not the first time I have come to realize this.
Today the birds are a singing and the sun is shining and I am "living the dream"
Unlike a few days ago when all was not well in the world.First off it had been raining forever and rain produces mud and mud produces mosquitoes which to me is not a good combination.Secondly I had a toothache which had been giving me grief for a week or so but had got to the point where I was having trouble eating,drinking and then talking.Another not good combination,mud,mosquitoes and pain.Then just when you think it can't get much worse then of course it does because really it isn't that bad.Right so what happened you may well ask,go on ask it.
Well I really did not feel together enough to drag myself to the dentist at the hospital so I came up with the idea as I do sometimes at moments like this that a wee drink might ease the suffering.So off to town I go in the rain on the trusty motorcycle,ah I can hear you saying not another not so good combination.
Well you are sort of right but not completely.Having made it to town  I then proceeded to the bank to get some much needed financial lubrication that would be exchanged for alcoholic lubrication namely rum.This is when the balloon started to deflate rapidly,no money,no funny,no honey and no medicinal rum.Having said that I have just thought I could have gone to my local supplier/shop keeper and explained to him the problem as I have in the past to which he would have replied as he has in the past "no problem what do you want".He then gives me what I want and writes an IOU and puts it in his till, when I return sometime in the future with the cash he gives me the IOU.As simple as that.
Now back to the story at hand,being in a somewhat wet and fadangoed state and problem solving not being on my agenda right then I did not come up with the aforementioned possible solution to my situation.To put it mildly I was stuffed.
So in a state of almost absolute dejection I collect my lovely lady Siteri from her place of work and head on home in the rain on the trusty Osaka 200 ,oh no I can hear you say but as my lovely lady says don't worry be happy.Now who should we meet on the way home but the hi way patrol or if you will the local or as it was in fact the not so local constabulary who promptly stopped us at their checkpoint.
Now remember the balloon that was deflating rapidly well now is when it gets pricked.
The first issue was I didn't have my drivers license on me the second issue was the fact and rightfully so that my conveyance was not registered to be ridden on the countries roads as I had not contributed to there upkeep.The police here don't carry guns otherwise I would have just asked to have been shot on the spot thereby putting me out of my misery.You no doubt have heard about the straw that broke the camels back well this was sort of like a bag of wet cement.
Having trouble speaking both physically and mentally and almost spiritually I just about lost it but fortunately my dear lovely lady who was perched on the back of our trusty motorsickle gave me some much needed support and between the two of us we where able to explain the difficulties of registering an imported motorsickle when the moron of a customs agent had lost the paperwork needed to do the registering.
Long story short we where told to go home and not to ride our motorcycle no more on the road until such time as it be legal to do so.The clouds parted and the angels sang.
Right back to where I started,the sun is shining and all is well in the world.The next day the rain stopped and the sun did shine. I walked most of the way to the hospital and got there early before the other sufferers arrived and got my tooth pulled out.Oh joy no more pain,I can eat again and drink a cup of tea while it is still hot without having to lie down for an hour afterwards or bang my head on the wall.Just as a side note the extraction cost five dollars Fijian or about three dollars US.The same thing in NZ would cost maybe now $200 and apparently in the US of A $1500 USD or about $2500 FJD.
Unbelievable.
Five dollars is the price of a dozen eggs here,seems fair to me,12 eggs equal one tooth.If I didn't have the five dollars I could have turned up with a dozen eggs and had the job done as the dentist who is the wife of a friend of mine asked if I had any for sale.
It is moments like those that keep me here.I just love Fiji and I am living the dream.

Meat birds,motorbikes and more rain

Managed to get to town and back this morning without getting totally soaked which was quite an exceptional outcome considering the weather.For anyone who, and I mean anyone out there that is reading this blog other than me I will just mention if you haven't read the previous post that I take my partner Siteri into work and pick her up on our sole means of transport which is a motorbike.Now a motorbike is great in the fine sunny warm weather that we have here for about 10 months of the year and we both just love it.In the rain it is a another matter altogether,but in an offbeat sort of way it is still fun only because it is not cold here.All I do when it is raining is slow down to about jogging pace and stay well to the side of the road thereby hopefully avoiding becoming a grill ornament for an express bus which don't slow down for anything here in Fiji nor do they take prisoners if you know what I mean.We have managed to avoid becoming road kill three times so far.
As far as I can tell we have the only motorbike in the district possibly the province which has a population of about 37,000 people.I have been living here for 2 years now and have only seen two other motorbikes and they where passing through.The town,Rakiraki has a population of a couple of thousand give or take a thousand.So we where and still are a real novelty when we go anywhere on our motorbike,kids yell,women laugh and men stand slack jawed.
Anyhow I seem to have lost the plot here as I was going to write about meat birds or broilers so I had better get cracking before I get sidetracked again which for me is not that hard.Now for those who are new to the poultry business meat birds are the ones we eat,think KFC if you will.
They have been breed over the years to have the quickest and greatest growth rate of any living thing on the planet.They go from 1 day old chicks that weigh about the same as a cigarette lighter to a 2 kg slaughter able bird in about 35 days give or take a few days.There body weight will increase 10 fold in the first 10 days and when they have reached the 2 kg weight they will have consumed approximately 4 kg of food that is to say in technical terms a feed conversion ratio of 2 to 1.My last crop of birds had a FCR of 2.71 to 1 which by big commercial grower standards is terrible.The world record was set just recently by a Tegal shed in NZ it was 1.47 to 1.The industry standard in Australia /NZ I think is somewhere around 1.75 to 1.
Now I would be happy and am hoping to achieve and think I can without to much stress on both me and the birds to get my FCR down to about 2 to 1.
Farming meat birds is totally different than keeping chickens that lay eggs.Meat birds are more like feathered pigs.My birds get to go outside in an enclosed little yard unlike my other bird that just roam around the property. I have to fence the meat birds in lest the other chickens peck them to death or the mongooses kill them.The meat birds will just sit there and let it happen,they get that obese they can't walk more than a few steps before they flop down on the ground, there wings aren't for flying there more like training wheels on a kid's bike.
Because they grow that quick they are prone to dropping dead just as quickly,any number of things can kill them off as I have learn't.So having said that I am now going to venture out into the rain and put some covers up around there shed which is open most of the time due to the heat. As the wind has changed direction and is going to start blowing and I don't want them to get wet and cold because like I have just said they will end up dead on there backs with there legs in the air which is not what I like to see.
Cheerio for now
Jim

Eggs Eggs Eggs

Right e oh in my last post which I wrote about five minutes ago I mentioned my partner Siteri delivering eggs into town and that I would post more on that later.Well being the sort of person who likes to think that he doe's what he says he is going to do (sort of maybe sometimes)here it is.

We currently have 36 hens laying eggs and another 96 pullets,pullets are chickens that have yet to start laying eggs they will begin to lay eggs in early April.So at the moment we produce on average 32 eggs a day which Siteri sells for 40 cents an egg usually in trays of 30 for $12.Demand for our eggs well and truly exceeds our ability to supply hence forth the 96 pullets.

That's what I do on a daily basis I look after chickens.

Take this morning for instance as a fairly typical morning apart from the rain.

The birds wake me up around 5.30 am what with the roosters(2) a crowing and the hens chortling to be let out of there shed it is pretty hard for me to sleep even though by nature I am an early riser.Fortunately here in Fiji it is never cold so it ain't that hard.I get up and put the kettle on while I fill the feed buckets,the feed area is in an enclosed, attached to the house carport.Once that is done the kettle has boiled and I make a cup of tea today we are having lemon and honey because that's what I feel like.

Now while the tea cools I head down to the sheds which are about 20-30 meters from the house.I feed the hens first and open there door so that they will stop the racket that they are making.They all head outside only to figure out that it is raining so back in they come to have there breakfast which is for them 2kg of layer mash.I then go into the pullet shed and feed them but don't let them out as the older hens will come in and chase them outside and steal there food (5 kg layer crumble).As I go on and write this blog I will try and give some details that may be of help to any budding free range poultry farmers out there henceforth the feed quantity's mentioned.Not that I am any expert but I have learn't some things the hard way that may be of some help to others.

Anyway where was I that's right I have just feed the pullets now usually I would open the door and sit down on a stool that I have in the shed and act as sort of bouncer at a night club thereby stopping the hens from gaining admittance which I do with a length of bamboo.Most of them have got the message now and don't even bother to try and get in but there is always one of two that just can't resist.

So that's all taken care of for the moment so back up to the house in the rain for my cup of tea and a cigarette.That's when this blog thing came to mind and I thought if not why not and why not now!

But first duty called me back out into the rain as I had yet to feed the meatbirds(broilers)we have 36 of them at present they are 4 weeks old today and eating 5 kg of broiler grower per day.(More on them later).I also needed to top up the water for all the birds inside there sheds which I did without to much trouble.

Now back to the house for some more tea and cigarettes and start bloging but first I had to fill out my profile which I do without much hand wringing as I really don't like to write about myself that much.Can you believe that!

Sort of lost track of time in the doing thereof and wake Siteri a bit later than usual (7.30 am)fortunately she is a true Fijian and does't really place that much importance on time,close enough is good enough.

I then set about making breakfast for both of us which today is you guessed it, eggs on toast and more tea.While I am doing that she gets ready for work,she works in town as a personal assistant for a lawyer,5 days a week from 8.30 am to 4 pm.I usually take her to work and pick her up on our motorbike.Today because it is hissing down rain we decide it would be best if we wait on the road for a lift,be it neighbour  friend  family,bus,taxi,carrier or wheelbarrow.In the end it is a carrier(ute/pick-up truck with a canopy on the back)that stops.The fare to town is 70 cents as town is only about 4 km away.

Now it is 11 am and I am home alone with the chickens and just about bloged out for now.

Cheerio till later on.

Heavy Rain Warning for all of Fiji

Well it is Monday morning and raining heavily as it has all night and the Met service here has issued a heavy rain warning and is predicting flooding of low lying areas.Welcome to Fiji in the wet season.
When it rains here it can really rain, an inch an hour for 8-12 hours and then a couple more feet of rain over the next couple of three days is not uncommon.The rivers rise and flood out over the delta's and submerge the towns which are generally built on there banks and close to the sea.The flooding is always worst when the tide is high.
My partner Siteri has just headed off to work in town but I expect her to be back soon as town will probably be closed due to it being flooded. Siteri went in anyway as she had some eggs she needed to deliver.(More on that later)
That's how I have come to start this blog as it is Monday and raining and doesn't look like it is going to stop in a hurry so why not blog away as there isn't much else a happening.
Having said that this whole bloging thing is a bit new to me as I haven't done anything like it before but I have been reading other people's blogs and I thought to myself why not have an on line diary as my memory is not what it used to be or probably should be so in the future when I am really befuddled I will be able to read it and think I forgot all about that.So there you have it something to forget and then remember.