I have made my way up to NSW from VIC and landed in a farm just 8km outside of Merriwa. The farmer picked me up from Merriwa and drove me to his place where three other helpers were already waiting for me.
There are two English (guy 19, girl 23 and a Japanese guy 29). The Japanese guy has been here almost three months, so he is about to leave at the end of July. All he needs to do is a handover to us. Since my arrival yesterday I was shown around what they do and how they do it and I managed to already help them out all day. It was a long day to start with considering my day started at 6.45am in Newcastle!
The average day looks like this:
Ready to work at 8.00 am
Check on the chicken that are currently near the house and at three stations that are located a few km away from the farm. Obviously in the middle of nowhere. We need to check that they have clean water, enough food and whether there have been any fatalities. If yes, we need to pick up the chooks and take them to the "cemetery". We just throw them in specific area on the field where wild animals come to eat them (foxes, pigs etc). There is also a designated area on the field where we take all the broken and "no good" eggs that are considered waste and would not even be given to the dogs to eat.
After all this is done, we go back to the house for our morning break which lasts about an hour or so.
After the break we generally do some gardening duties, like looking after the veggie garden and doing some digging and weeding until lunchtime.
After lunch we go and pick up the eggs from the stations (not before 2pm) and record the quantities picked from each station plus record fatalities. That's about it. I haven't done anything else so far. An average per day is around 1800 eggs. We store them in the shed and some part time local ladies come to pack then each morning.
About 5pm we collect the eggs from the chicken in training at the farm house and train them to go on the bus for the night.
I know there are cows somewhere as well because we brought some cotton seeds (I think) from a shed and took them to a different field for the cows (or bulls) to eat.
A station itself is made of an old school bus that has been converted into a chicken shed. Before taking the shed on the field, the chicken are trained for 10 days to get used to going into the bus for the night. Today was our second training night. Well, not our training but training of the chicken. Each station has two buses.
Apparently, the snake season starts in October and it is quite difficult to spot one during these months. Our Japanese guy hasn't seen any during his three months. I guess I should be happy but I would still prefer to see at least one. Ah well, I still have a farm in Queensland to visit :)
That's briefly what has happened so far. I've got my own room with a double bed, such a luxury. The house is cold though and we really need to wrap up warm during early mornings. For example, the temperature in the kitchen was +2 degrees this morning. The tea in the cups outside was slightly frozen...
There are two English (guy 19, girl 23 and a Japanese guy 29). The Japanese guy has been here almost three months, so he is about to leave at the end of July. All he needs to do is a handover to us. Since my arrival yesterday I was shown around what they do and how they do it and I managed to already help them out all day. It was a long day to start with considering my day started at 6.45am in Newcastle!
The average day looks like this:
Ready to work at 8.00 am
Check on the chicken that are currently near the house and at three stations that are located a few km away from the farm. Obviously in the middle of nowhere. We need to check that they have clean water, enough food and whether there have been any fatalities. If yes, we need to pick up the chooks and take them to the "cemetery". We just throw them in specific area on the field where wild animals come to eat them (foxes, pigs etc). There is also a designated area on the field where we take all the broken and "no good" eggs that are considered waste and would not even be given to the dogs to eat.
After all this is done, we go back to the house for our morning break which lasts about an hour or so.
After the break we generally do some gardening duties, like looking after the veggie garden and doing some digging and weeding until lunchtime.
After lunch we go and pick up the eggs from the stations (not before 2pm) and record the quantities picked from each station plus record fatalities. That's about it. I haven't done anything else so far. An average per day is around 1800 eggs. We store them in the shed and some part time local ladies come to pack then each morning.
About 5pm we collect the eggs from the chicken in training at the farm house and train them to go on the bus for the night.
I know there are cows somewhere as well because we brought some cotton seeds (I think) from a shed and took them to a different field for the cows (or bulls) to eat.
A station itself is made of an old school bus that has been converted into a chicken shed. Before taking the shed on the field, the chicken are trained for 10 days to get used to going into the bus for the night. Today was our second training night. Well, not our training but training of the chicken. Each station has two buses.
Apparently, the snake season starts in October and it is quite difficult to spot one during these months. Our Japanese guy hasn't seen any during his three months. I guess I should be happy but I would still prefer to see at least one. Ah well, I still have a farm in Queensland to visit :)
That's briefly what has happened so far. I've got my own room with a double bed, such a luxury. The house is cold though and we really need to wrap up warm during early mornings. For example, the temperature in the kitchen was +2 degrees this morning. The tea in the cups outside was slightly frozen...
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