Behind the Bluff
Uncover best practices to participate in life on your terms. Every week, hosts Jeff Ford and Kendra Till guide listeners with short conversations on trending wellness topics and share interviews with passionate wellness professionals, our private club leaders, and additional subject matter experts offering valuable tips. Each episode conclusion includes Healthy Momentum, five minutes of inspiration to help you reflect and live differently. Subscribe now and discover the keys to living your greatest active lifestyle.
Behind the Bluff
What Chickens Can Teach Us About Time and Intention | Shane Rahn
We head to the Palmetto Bluff farm to meet six chicken breeds, explore egg colors and care, and share how a small coop can reconnect families to slower, more intentional living. We close with a reflection on energy, time, and giving with purpose.
• why a real farm needs chickens
• coop origins in early 2023 and raising chicks
• six breeds overview and unique egg colors
• temperament differences and memorable names
• free-range attempt, predators, and lessons learned
• plans to expand the run and seating area
• daily care: feed, water, supplements, probiotics
• nest boxes, molting, thick shells, and egg handling
• enrichment to prevent boredom and pecking
• reconnecting kids and members to calm, outdoor time
• farmer’s markets schedule and community invites
• closing thoughts on energy, time, and intention
“First one on October 8th—there are four this fall at the farm, two weeks apart. The fifth one is a Sunday in Wilson Village with 30+ vendors.”
Are you ready to live an active lifestyle? Welcome to Behind the Bluff, where we believe every moment of your life is an opportunity to pursue wellness on your terms. Today's an exciting day. We are going to head over to the chicken coop with our very own farmer, Shane Ron. If you've been with us on Behind the Bluff before, listened to previous episodes, you'll remember Shane from Farm Life at Your Fingertips, one of our very first episodes, and then Grow Your Best Farm Ever, which was episode 34. So it's been a while since Shane has been here. And every time he comes on, he brings such fun, down-to-earth perspective on farming, something that most of us don't do on our own. However, here at Palmetto Bluff, we have a farm. So today we have a very niche topic. And I was inspired from my time at a recent PB 101 course that Farmer Shane led. And what inspired me most was the chickens, their personalities, the the egg details and stats that Shane provided, and the simple joys that come from having chickens on Palmetto Bluff. So without further ado, Shane, welcome to the show.
SPEAKER_00:Hey Jeff, thank you for having me back. It's it's been a while and always fun to come on here and you know talk about farming and give some good knowledge for the people here at the Bluff.
SPEAKER_01:Heck yeah. And were you as excited as I was when I hit you up to discuss chickens? Oh, absolutely.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I can talk about chickens, talk about farming all day. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_01:Love it. And chickens are a new addition to the farm. Could you just give us a bit of history? When did they arrive here at Palmetto Bluff and the early beginnings?
SPEAKER_00:So the chicken coop came to life, I would say, in early 2023. You know, I got the baby chickens, I believe around March of 23. Um, grew them in the in the coop in my shop actually from babies. I got them. They were about two days old when I got them. Um brought them to life when they got about I'd probably say three months old. We moved them out to the coop and the chicken run, which you saw on the tour. Um, they've been out there ever since. So that was probably I'd probably say summer of twenty-three, they've been out there. Okay, a couple years now. Yep.
SPEAKER_01:What was it like taking them from essentially birth to now seeing them today?
SPEAKER_00:So it's a it's a good transition, you know, being able to be with them, you know, it's like being with a child, you know, you grew that child up, you know, you you taught it's it taught it its mannerism and being able to watch it grow and you know mature into you know that those big beautiful chickens we have today. Huge responsibility. Oh, absolutely.
SPEAKER_01:Shane, what first inspired you to go to our leadership team and say, hey, we need chickens?
SPEAKER_00:So just point blank, you know, I don't believe it's a true farm unless you have chickens. Okay. You know, if you look back in the day, you know, you see an old movie with you know, on a farm, you always see chalk chickens running around in the background. And I I think it's just true to turn that, you know, it's not a true farm unless you have chickens.
SPEAKER_01:Nice. Well, I'm glad that you made us a legit farm. And I concur anytime you think of a farm, you're not just thinking of crops, vegetables, and you know, farmers markets. You're also thinking of the livestock that we have on a farm. Now, we have six different varieties of chickens. I'd love for you to tell us what those varieties are and what makes each variety special.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so like Jeff said, we do have six unique varieties. Um, we have one that's very rare, one that's pretty rare, um, one that's very small, and we have two that are big-time egg laying productions. Um you know, from the start, we have the barred rock, also known as the Plymouth Rock. Um, that's the best egg and meat production combo chicken we have. The Rhode Island Red is by far the best egg laying chicken we have. The little Phoenix chickens, we have three of those. Those lay like the little baby quail eggs. Um, they lay one about every two or three days. And then the white-crested black Polish chicken, which we call Dolly, we have one of those. Um, she what she actually lays a solid white egg, you know, you're like your typical egg you see at the grocery store. The Americanas, Easter Eggers, that's the second best egg-producing chickens I have, and those actually lay the light blue eggs. Ooh, we have light blue eggs popping in the coop there. And then the last and the rarest chicken I have is the uh yam Samani. Yam Samani? Yep.
SPEAKER_01:Where did we input that import that chicken from?
SPEAKER_00:So when I when we started this, you know, back in March of 23, you know, I was going through all the different varieties and I wanted, you know, two or three of your basic farm chickens, which are the Bard Rock and Rhode Island Reds. Um, and then I wanted to mix it in, you know, since we have such a unique farm here and you know, unique guest, I wanted to be able to have some chickens that are rare and people come out and see us like, oh my gosh, look at that chicken. I've never seen a chicken like that. Yeah, make sure that's a good thing. The yam samani is actually solid black. Solid black. Her bones and skin are black, she has what uh black eyes, black feet, black comb, everything.
SPEAKER_01:Yikes, that's creepy. What's her name? The Yam Samani. We actually call her Morticia. Morticia because of the just the evil look she has. Okay. That's what I was anticipating, thinking that with your description, it would be a little more evil. Yep. Now tell me more about Dolly, the Polish chicken. What's her personality like?
SPEAKER_00:So she's very docile, she's always running up and down. She's like a little baby roadrunner. Okay. Um one of your faster chickens. Yep. And she's she spooks very easily, so she's not very friendly. She's not going to come up to you and peck out your hand or anything like that, but she is cool to see. You know, she has this big floppy afro white feather hair, and uh, that's everybody looks at that and they're like, oh my gosh, you know, she has the perfect little perm.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Who doesn't like an afro?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, exactly. Now let's go back to the most common varieties. You mentioned that the barred rock was one of them, and then the second was the Rhode Island rock. Now, those two in particular, would we find them on a lot of farms in the low country? Or what makes them more common?
SPEAKER_00:So to answer your question, yes, we are going to see those. Those are the two most common chickens. Um, Rhode Island Red is actually, if not the most popular chicken, you know, in on a basic farm. Okay. You know, it's the cinnamon colored chicken with the, you know, the red comb, the basic yellowish, orangish feet. Um, so those are gonna be your two just basic normal chickens. They have good temperaments, you know, they're very friendly, very curious. They're not gonna, you know, run and hide under your car or underneath your house. You know, they're gonna, you know, follow you around in the yard and and uh want to eat out your hand. And they're very no very nosy, nosy critters. They're nosy.
SPEAKER_01:They like to be involved, and it sounds like they like to stay home a little bit. Yep.
SPEAKER_00:Yep.
SPEAKER_01:Okay. Well, I can imagine it's helpful to have chickens that obey and are kind of part of the pack versus running away from the coop.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, you don't want a whole flock that, you know, that are like Dolly, the Polish chickens just kind of run around, you know, scared all the time. You know, you want some of the docile chickens that are going to come up and you know, kind of gather in the corner of the run and you know, want to see you and be very curious of what you got.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Predictability has to be important when choosing the breeds, I imagine. Yep. Now let's go ahead and hear about kind of the early roots of these chickens and reactions from our membership. Have there been any surprising reactions that you've seen from kids, families when they first meet the chickens?
SPEAKER_00:So, you know, going back to always having chickens on a farm, you know, that's what people categorize chickens as, you know, a friendly farm animal, you know, that not everybody gets to see chickens day in and day out. So when they get to come out to the farm and see chickens running around, you know, it's a pretty, pretty cool thing to see. You know, they'll come up to the coop and it's like, oh my gosh, those chickens, you know, they look like little baby dinosaurs and you know, they can't velociraptors, right? Right. So, you know, see the kids come running up to the you know to the coop and uh see the chickens running around, you know, they're very, very happy. The very rare occasion you'll have somebody scared of chickens. Okay. You've come across that thus far. So it's kind of kind of hits close to home, but my oldest niece is actually terrified of chickens.
SPEAKER_01:No way.
SPEAKER_00:Um whether it's a lizard.
SPEAKER_01:How old is she? Forty?
SPEAKER_00:No, she's just kidding. No, she's actually 17. Okay. So yeah, still intimidated though. Yeah. So whether it's a lizard or a chicken, she's scared to death of them. Um, but we try not to, you know, let kids come to the farm and be scared of, you know, anything actually, whether it's a tractor or just, you know, wildlife in general or even chickens. You know, we want them to, you know, get comfortable with them, you know, if they want to go in the run, you know, hand feed them. Um so the second second coolest thing is being able to take the kids in the chicken coop or in the chicken run and be able to put you know some feed in your hand and let the chickens peck out of it. And that's that's that's a uh that's a good thing to watch the first time a chicken pecks a little kid's hand, you know, they're kind of like, oh my gosh, they jump a little bit. Yeah. You know, it's like getting poked by like the blunt end of a fork or a spoon. And yeah, you know, like, oh my gosh, what is that? So you know, after the fifth or sixth time they come to the farm, they're pretty, pretty used to it, and they'll want to do it again. They're not scared.
SPEAKER_01:They get acclimated to the the way that they're gonna peck at the feet in their hand. Nice. Well, I know we have more fun stories to share here in a little bit, and we can dive into the different personalities of the different varieties of chickens you have uh a bit further, but there's also a lot of care and thought and parenting that goes into keeping chickens alive and healthy just like a human being. Tell us about the free range chickens and the early roots of trying to manage those chickens on on the farm.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so being here at Palmetto Bluff, we have a lot of you know predators, whether it's hawks, snakes, raccoons, anything like that. Um so being able to have free range chickens is pretty difficult. You know, we put up um some different things, you know, like fake owls on the fence to try and you know keep the keep the predators away. Um, but you know, we're not at the farm 24-7, so we can't help them 24-7. Um so I think we had 10 free-range chickens, and they, you know, they stayed around for probably a good seven or eight months, but they slowly started getting pecked off. Um, you know, they we had the mama with her babies, and you know, they got to be pretty big and they'd you know go all around the garden and around my shop and whatnot, but um it was a very, very quick adventure.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, had to be sad, you as the parent. Yeah. And did you anticipate that prey would be at that level with free-range chickens?
SPEAKER_00:Was it kind of like a trial run? Yeah, it was definitely a hundred percent a trial run. You know, I I wanted it to where you know people pull into the farm and you see chickens out in the event lawn just kind of scratching around doing their thing, but being able to keep the predators away and being able to babysit the chickens, you know, 24-7 is, you know, a very difficult task.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah, if they're not in the coop.
SPEAKER_00:Yep.
SPEAKER_01:Well, I'm glad we've transitioned to the coop, and that's kind of the main focus. I heard you're gonna be extending it soon.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so I'm hoping, you know, in the early season of 2026 we can, you know, take the coop, uh move it further down in the big garden and be able to build a new chicken run, um, would, you know, which is like their play area, be able to build one, you know, two or three times bigger than what we currently have. Because what we currently have, you know, was kind of built on a whim, you know, pretty quick to get the chickens out my shop, um, with the anticipation of building something bigger and better in the future, and that that time's come to, you know, pretty much next couple months.
SPEAKER_01:That's fun. It's not just expansion here at Palmetto Bluff, like our increase in fitness spaces, but we're also increasing our our chicken square footage as well.
SPEAKER_00:Absolutely.
SPEAKER_01:What's a typical day of caring for the chickens look like for you?
SPEAKER_00:So right off the rip, um, chicken, and this is just some of the fun facts I'll throw in throughout this podcast, but chickens have a an impressive memory. You know, they have a memory as, you know, a good 20, 30 year old person, um, you would during their prime. So chickens, they get this memory of, you know, the mannerism of people coming around them. You know, they get the the memory of noises um and whistles, and you know, when I when we first get to the farm and the farm's waking up in the morning, you know, we open the gates, the chickens are over there clucking and purring, doing what they want to do.
SPEAKER_01:Like they know you're kind of rolling into the gates, you're getting there for the morning.
SPEAKER_00:Yep. But when I start whistling, I'm not gonna whistle on here so we don't blow our eardrums. But you know, you start whistling and I start saying, like, hey girls, hey, you know, time to wake up. You know, you'll hear them in the in the uh chicken run, they'll start like doing our little calling noise, and they'll get like all closer to corner and they're kind of jumping up and down, getting all excited, you know, kind of like when you get home from work and your dog is in the house and your tail's wagging and same exact feeling, they're freaking out. Yep. They're like, Oh my gosh, dad's here, you know, we're about to get a treat, maybe we'll get out for the day or something like that. Um so that's the very first thing we do, get them all riled up and excited. Um, you know, we'll do like a quick walk of the perimeter of the chicken run, make sure there's no, you know, sign of intruders or anything like that, um, which we've never had a problem with that, believe it or not. Um the second thing is we'll go into the chicken run itself and we'll check the waters and the feeders. So the the feeders and the waters are both automatic, which means that they can get food and water whenever they want to. Nice, and it dispenses it? Yep. So the the water containers are five gallons. Um we have two of those, so they readily have ten gallons of water to drink day in and day out. Um they have a little a little valve at the bottom that they peck at and water comes out. Um and then the feeders are automatic as well, so they have little holes that they can stick their head in and they get to feed out of. Nice. And those feeders hold each feeder holds 50 pounds of feed.
SPEAKER_01:Dang, so you never get low on feed. It's just kind of a checklist process in the mornings to make sure it's probably all functioning right.
SPEAKER_00:Yep. Yep. Make sure, you know, every now and then we might have a mouse try and get in there and they'll kind of dig out because the chicken run is out in the open. What's on the chicken's diet right now? So the biggest thing is, you know, when the when the feeders get low and the waters get low, this is when we implement the the vitamins and stuff to their diet. So the feed is very high in protein. Um, it's got a bunch of calcium in it as well. And calcium helps with the the uh skin on the eggs, and it also helps with feather production. Nice. So when chickens molt, most chickens molt maybe once a year, maybe once every two years, and that's when they're you know, they kind of change out their feathers. And it's like us getting a haircut. Um, except chickens go somewhat bald and then grow it back. Um, so they need a lot of calcium in their body, a lot of protein to push those feathers back out. Um, and also, you know, when they're making the egg, producing the egg, you don't want a thin wall egg because then it'll get squished when the chickens are laying on it in the nest box. So you want an egg that's got a good thick wall on it, um, and that comes from the calcium. So that's all in the feed. The water, when the waters get low, we usually let them get low maybe once a month, and we'll go in there and we'll clean out the inside of the containers nice and clean. And then whenever we do refill them completely, we actually mix in some probiotic formula. So that helps with their digestive system, and we also put some calcium and protein supplements in there too.
SPEAKER_01:Nice.
SPEAKER_00:Some of that's powder, and some of it's actually like a pill, like uh like an alcohol or something, you know, actually dissolves into water.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Well, I love the details that you include in what they're eating. Yep. Besides checking feed, water, you know, checking for prey around the chicken coop. Any other details to the parenting?
SPEAKER_00:Um, so once everything is done with the feeders and the waters, that's when we come out, and you can do it either way. Um, we usually do the nest boxes every day. So we have 10 nest boxes, and you actually access those from outside the chicken coop. Um, so we'll lift up the two lids. There's five under each lid, and in there that's where you get the eggs from. Um, but to care for that area is the nest pads. So we put nest pads in there. Um there's so there's one per nest box, so ten total, but those nest pads are um it's kind of like fake hay, fake straw. Um, and when they come, they're very compacted in the box. So whenever we go to replace one, you know, we'll kind of pull it apart a little bit, make it nice and squishy. It's like fluffing your pillow before you go to bed at night.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, a little softer for the chicken to put their their hips and booty on.
SPEAKER_00:Yep, absolutely. Okay. Um so the eggs can kind of have a nice little soft spot delay and gives the chicken a nice spot delay as well. So we usually change those out. Maybe um another fun fact is, you know, we have ten nest boxes, but they only use like the same four. They just gravitate to the f those four. Yep. There's probably I bet I bet you my next paycheck, there's probably four boxes that have never been used in the two years has been there. Um, but yeah, so if there's a nest pad that needs to be changed, you know, if we accidentally had a broken egg, or if it's just so so used, you know, that it gets so worn out and so squished, we'll change out those pads. Um so that's really about it. It's nothing, nothing crazy. You just got to stay on top of their diet and their supplements and making sure, you know, they have a good clean spot to lay some eggs.
SPEAKER_01:Tell me about sleep behaviors for chickens. Are they similar to humans? Or what does a their sleep look like throughout a period of 24 hours?
SPEAKER_00:So inside their coop, they have some different bars that they actually roost on. So most of the chickens actually stand on their legs and when they're sleeping. Yep. Um, the only time they'll ever sit on the eggs, you know, there might be a chicken or two that stay like in the nest boxes on the eggs that are in there, just cause that's their natural habit. It's like protecting them. Yep. Um, even though they're not fertile, they're not gonna become babies, but it's just in their mind that, hey, those are eggs, those are my eggs, I'm gonna sit on them. So probably, you know, if I have I think I have 20 chickens, you know, 18 of them are going to be on the perch board inside the coop, and that's where they stand and sleep through the night. That's cool. Yep.
SPEAKER_01:We've spoken about eggs, and I want to share with our listeners more of the details behind the production. Now how many eggs get produced and what do you do with those eggs?
SPEAKER_00:So the eggs that we produce, you know, like I just mentioned, we only have 20 chickens. Um three of those three varieties only lay eggs maybe every two or three days. So at the farm, we're not producing, you know, two dozen eggs a day. You know, it's a very, very limited quantity that we're producing. So we don't have, you know, enough to supply the restaurants. We don't have enough to, you know, supply the farmers markets, which I hope can change in the future. But for the time being, getting this, you know, this program up and running, you know, usually if I have a family come out and say, hey, you know, my family's in town, we we want to do a quick private tour of the farm, you know, I'll give them two dozen eggs if I have them.
SPEAKER_01:Nice.
SPEAKER_00:Um, so it's kind of like a you know, an incentive of coming to the farm, talking to me, you know, spending time with me, getting to learn to farm. I'm gonna either let you leave with a dozen eggs or you know, a little jar of honey. You heard it here first.
SPEAKER_01:If you spend time at the farm, there's free gifts. Yep. And eggs could be one of them. Absolutely. You mentioned that blue eggs come out of uh what variety was that? So that's the Americana Easter Eggers. Americana Easter Eggers. Can you go into the different color and shapes and sizes of the other breeds?
SPEAKER_00:Absolutely. Um, so like I mentioned before, the barred rock and the Rhode Island Reds, those are the two common chickens you'll see around the the farm era. But the barred rock and the Rhode Island Reds, they both lay a dark tan egg. Some of them will be, you know, you know, fully tan, some of them will be light tan with kind of black spots, I mean uh tan spots on them. Um but for the most part they're in that that light brown stage. Um the Americana Easter eggers, like I mentioned, those are going to lay the light blue egg. Those are also a large egg. So the the barred rock, Rhode Island Reds, those are large eggs. Uh the Americanas, those are your large, light blue eggs. The Phoenix chickens, I have three of those girls. They're very small, very petite chickens. They lay what we would classify them as like a small quail egg. Um, so it it takes, you know, it takes two of those to equal a regular large egg, like if you were to use it in the kitchen. Um, you would need two dozen of those to equal a dozen regular eggs. Um, so those are very small eggs, and they usually lay those maybe every two or three days. So we don't, you know, we'll fill up a dozen carton, you know, in a two weeks time with those. So it takes a while.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Interesting that the size of the chicken relates to the size of the egg. Yep. I I can't say it's not a surprise, but I've never thought about it in that capacity.
SPEAKER_00:Yep. Um, and and there's so many different types of phoenixes. Um, I just have the basic phoenix. You know, there's you know, you can probably get 10 or 15 different varieties of a phoenix. You know, if you wanted to dive in it that far. The white crested black Polish chicken that I have, she actually lays a it's kind of a medium to a large size, solid white egg. Um, so it's not as big as the barred rock, Rhode Island Red, or the Americanas, um, but it's still a decent size egg and a solid white. Just straight white. Yep. Yeah. Um now the Yam Samani, that's the solid black chicken. Our evil one. Our evil looking chicken. Um, which fun fact about those, um, they actually used to use those for witchcraft back in the day. Those chickens? Yep. So they actually use the bones and smoke, and they can you can look it up, you know, on a side note, but they would actually use that for some sorts of witchcraft back in witchcraft days. Yeah. That's an interesting thing. If you see some smoke coming from the chicken coop one day, you know, it might be a good thing. You know why why it's happening. Um, but no, so the Yamsamani, they actually lay a medium size to large egg as well, but they're very, very light pink. So if you hold it up to the Polish egg, you know, which is just about bleach white, you can you can kind of tell the difference in the in the shades of coloring on those. Yeah. I feel like the pink eggs would be pretty popular amongst our five and six-year-old. Oh, yep. Yeah, between the light pink eggs and the blue egg ones, it's like, yeah, you know, it blows minds, I bet. Like who paints this egg on the way out?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Shane, well, thanks for the description and further details behind the eggs and how it relates to each of the varieties. We've covered a lot, and it's clear that chickens bring so much more than just eggs. How do you see the chicken coop connecting our members back to a slower way of life?
SPEAKER_00:Um so not many farms offer the breed of chickens that we have. Um, so being able to, you know, go back in time and have these rare different kinds of chickens, um, and it just goes back to them just sitting out there and watching them, being with them, you know, it's a really, really cool interaction between the the kids and the chickens, especially if I'm over there and I can get to take the kids in there with them. You know, they can, you know, kind of hang out and relax, and we just kind of stand in the chicken run and let the chickens kind of work around us. You know, like I said, I don't want anybody to be scared of them. Um, so being able to interact the kids with the chickens, um, being able to get them to relax and you know just hang out with them for a time is pretty cool.
SPEAKER_01:That's good. Away from technology, outside. Shane, I'd like to ask you, just for fun, if a chicken could talk, what do you think it would say about life here on property at Palmetto Bluff?
SPEAKER_00:I would without a doubt say, you know, life is good on the bluff. Life is good at the farm. You know, they, you know, they have great health insurance, you know, they don't pay any utilities, you know, there's free rent. All they have to do is walk around, you know, release an egg every now and then, you know, be be cool for the kids and the members, and it's it's a pretty cool life.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Tell us about the future. What is your vision for the chicken coop? And is there any program integration that you have planned in 2026?
SPEAKER_00:So as far as programming, I don't really have anything planned, you know, for the chicken specifically. We're not gonna like cook them or anything like that.
SPEAKER_01:That's not in the works.
SPEAKER_00:No, I wish we could. If we had like 60 or 70, we could probably, you know, make a special on a menu here somewhere, but um, you know, we'd we'd have to gather and sell, you know, expensive ticket to eat one chicken. Heck yeah. Um but no, being able to expand the chicken coop. Um, you know, I want to build a yeah, if you've gone out there now, you know, there's a cool little spot to sit. He's got some benches, a picnic table, but I won't I want to make that area bigger. You know, we have a lot of nannies that bring kids out. Um, you know, a lot of moms bring their kids out on a Friday or Saturday morning. You know, I want a spot, you know, kind of away from the you know, the the busy part of Palmetto Bluff and be kind of you know relax, you know, feed the chickens if you want, hang out, have a picnic, you know, being able to, you know, c create a quiet hangout spot with nature, with the chickens at the farm.
SPEAKER_01:In the middle of property. Yep. That's great. I love that vision. Shane, if there's one thing our listeners should remember about chickens today, what would that be?
SPEAKER_00:So probably the most important thing about having chickens is chickens get bored very easily. So there's always a runt in the litter, you know, no matter what kind of litter you have, there's always a runt. But being able to keep the chickens entertained, you know, don't let the chickens get bored. You know, we actually have a xylophone hanging on the wall and a chicken run. So is that for them to play? Yeah. So they actually, you know, they're not I wouldn't make a CD out of it, but you know, they there haven't haven't been any top ten hits on the the top 40 list. Yeah, I hadn't hit the billboard 100 yet. But um, but being able to keep chickens entertained, you know, whether it's chickens actually have a great eyesight, they actually see ultraviolet lights better than humans do. Um so they have full color vision. So being able to have colorful things in there for them to peck at, play with, you know, I have the different perch boards in the corners, um, you know, the ramps up and down. We actually have um swinging um screw hooks that like if we have extra cabbages or something or a zucchini or a squash will actually screw it into those screws and they peck at it and it'll swing back and forth. You know, they're they're very smart creatures, but they're very, very simple. You know, they don't want a you know, a PlayStation out there with a you know a TV to play with, but you know, just something that they can keep messing with and keep them entertained because as soon as they get bored, that's when they turn to the weak link chicken and say, Hey, I'm gonna start pecking at you because I'm bored.
SPEAKER_01:Um that's when there could be some tension in the coop. Yep. And we don't want tension. No, no, we don't, especially with the image of this being a place families can go, hang out, get connected to nature. And just knowing that chickens not only have great memory, but like to stay active, that's one and the same with most of our membership here.
SPEAKER_00:Yep.
SPEAKER_01:Nice. Well, Shane, I've enjoyed digging further into everything at the farm and focusing our time just on the chickens. Can't wait to brainstorm some other shares in the future for just continuing to expose the community to everything that you're doing over there. Appreciate all the hard work and you're getting ready for upcoming farmers markets. Is that right?
SPEAKER_00:That's right. Yeah, so we have the first one on October 8th, and then there'll be there's four this fall at the farm. They're two weeks apart. So the first one's October 8th, be two weeks. Um, and then the fifth one, that's on a Sunday in Wilson Village. Nice. So that'll be the big, you know, holiday market. You know, we'll have, you know, 30 plus vendors at that one. So pretty good size, pretty good size event. Nice. Well, thanks, man. Appreciate your time and I appreciate you having me on here. It's always fun to come on here and spread my knowledge about little things. Yeah, livestock, crazy. Props, you got it all, man.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, sir. Well, that is a wrap on our main segment. Feel free to hang around for a few more minutes and get some healthy momentum for the rest of your week. Whether it's taking care of chickens, dogs, or people in your life, it all comes down to two things energy and time. Some people have huge tanks of energy. I would put myself in that bucket. Far too many have small ones. Some are always available on their cell phones, email, rapid response, while others are rarely present. And there's many folks out there who put others first while others put themselves first. You see, lately I've been thinking a lot about tension, the give and take of being available. To me, I ask the questions number one, what counts as selfish? And secondly, how available should we be? And when is it actually okay to disconne disconnect? My thinking is that if you're always available, when do you actually have time for yourself? And if you're anything like me, you have friends, a few of them, who truly value your presence. You're the person they turn to after a long day. The issue is what happens when your energy runs low or your time is limited? How do you show up for them without running yourself dry? Here's a few action steps today. First and foremost, check your tank. Don't run on empty. We have to notice our energy before we actually give it away. This is the problem I run into far too often. I know my tank is low, and then I just give more energy out of an empty tank. The second call to action here is protect your time. This is much easier said than done. Set clear on and off hours for yourself and others. And be direct and clear with those people because you do love them. And finally, give with purpose. Another word for purpose is intention. Say yes when you can show up fully and not out of guilt. Ever been there? When when we're able to give from a place that we know we're showing up fully in, you create momentum that's sustainable, not just for you, but for them. Now, this is a difficult balance, but we have to remember that healthy momentum comes from knowing your own limits, owning your time, and offering your best energy with intention. When you do, both you and the people around you will grow stronger together. That's a wrap on this week's episode. I want to thank you for taking the time to listen to Behind the Bluff this week. And we hope that you're with us again next Wednesday for another episode. Until then, remember to actively participate in life on your terms.
