Especially, any that have always been the farmer? I'm a divorced mom with 2 young daughters. My ex never was into the whole farm thing, so even before we divorced I did it all. I just feel like I end up working harder but I don't get near enough done. IT isn't necessarily a physical thing. I'm a small woman, but I'm relatively young and extremely strong. It may take me a bit longer, but there isn't much that a man can do that I couldn't.

I'm wondering if it has something to do with many farm tasks being traditionally male. For example, I have 50 meat chickens to raise to market. I butcher my own, and have for years. But I'm having trouble building a chicken tractor. My carpentry skills are not very good. I took a day off from my other job, but between schlepping kids to/from school, caring for animals, etc, all I got built were 2 rectangles. I worked on it again today, troubleshooting a problem from yesterday, and got almost nothing more done. Meanwhile, the chickens are huge and stinky and stuck in makeshift pens made of pallets in my shed. If I could weld I could make something out of cattle panels, but I need to take a class in that. I can't pay anyone to do it because there goes my profit margin.

Meanwhile, the house looks like a bomb went off, and trying to get dinner on the table the evenings that I'm not working my "city" job has me wishing I had a wife. Is there anyone out there that is doing this by herself? Am I just crazy to try?

Catherine I sympathize with you. I am also a single mother, although my son is now 14 and CAN be a big help. My older two boys are on their own now. An increase in the number of children increases the work and responsibility exponentially. I am very lucky in that my son is very self-disciplined, gets perfect grades, and (so far at least) has been very easy to raise. I never have to get on him about homework, bedtime or most of the typical things. However, he likes housework about as much s I do! I have always had to do quite a bit on my own, even when I was married, so have just adapted typically male tasks, that would require more brute strength than I have, to where I can do them. Might take me longer, but if it gets done, I'm happy. Sometimes I do have to ask for help. I run my own business so I have a bit more flexibility than someone who works a town job, although there was a time where I did both. When I quit the town job, I swore I would never again work for less than it takes to live, to help make someone else wealthy. But running your own business isn't all sunshine and roses either. There's less security and I pay 100% of my Social Security, health insurance, there IS NO disability, no 401-K, no paid vacation, no paid sick days or holidays, none of the other perks that come with a town job. If I'm not in the shop, there's no money coming in, period. As far as my house, yep, it's always a disaster. If anyone would be rude enough to comment, I would tell them where the vacuum cleaner and clean dish clothes are and tell them to get their ass to work. My philosophy is: I can't possibly do everything that needs to be done. I prioritize jobs, and getting my kid raised and making a living come way ahead of having a tidy house. Cleaning the house makes me no money. I have also come to accept that there are things I have to pay someone else to do. I'm 47, not as strong as I used to be, my hands and joints are starting to really bother me, and I tire much more easily. I do as much as I can in any given day. Use the barter system if you can; trade someone else's labor for ???. For example, last year my neighbor needed manure for his garden and cleaned all my yards with his skidsteer. We were both happy. There are always people who will try to take advantage of a barter type transaction. They're not happy unless they're screwing someone. Being in business for 22 years has helped me learn to identify those people pretty quickly. Being a single parent is a tough row to hoe. There are no magic answers, but I wouldn't go back to what I had before for all the money in the world. Best of luck to you!

I've had a disabled husband for 23 years. He is now 86 years old. I found out over the years that I have to carefully choose what I do. I don't build anything so, if it HAS to be built, I pay someone to do it. Some work entails brain over brawn... and much more time to get done. At this point in my life (I am 73) I rent out pasture and provide extra service by rotationally grazing, feeding salt and mineral, and keeping a watchful eye on my renter's cattle. The extra service is greatly appreciated and I am able to charge more than others who pasture someone else's cattle. I also free range laying hens. I know it isn't possible to free range meat birds because they get tough, but can you sacrifice a bit of profit to pay someone to build you the chicken tractor, a tractor that will serve you many times in the future? Or buy electric mesh and a fencer to keep them contained? Being a single parent is no picnic! I wish you well!

First off, I don't farm, I've got an acreage with a few horses and ponies. My hats off to those of you that do it. When I was married I know I had more than one conversation with my ex about getting jobs done. Usually because I didn't do things the way he wanted, my response is there more than one way to skin a cat. We farmed, over the years farrowed sows, had chickens, a cow/calf herd, then back grounded heifers to sell. I think women CAN get the job done, maybe not as quickly but then there are times the jobs we do are better. The best you can do is prioritize, decide what you can and can't do. What's important and what can be sacrificed? Are you working a full time job, have two young girls AND trying to farm? Good grief girl! Cut yourself some slack.

I don't think it is a woman thing. Our farm went from the two daughters, wife and myself to just me in three months in '09. Daughter #2 got married June 5th, wife got foot crushed on June 9th, daughter #1 got married Sept 5th. I went from three helpers to none. It has drastically changed our farm and its priorities. Now with my arm and my one legged wife doing chores, it is an experience.

Trade for some work. Find a retired person or a carpenter that will knock that chicken tractor together for you for some chickens or eggs.

Just to clarify my earlier response: I AM NOT farming for a living. I keep some livestock around but do not put up my own hay anymore. I do not own a tractor (anymore) so there are no row crops here. Yes I know I could do that with the horses. That takes ground and time, both of which are a valuable commodity. Like I said earlier, being a single parent is a tough row to hoe, and I don't believe I've known one single mother who did not have to work 2 or more jobs to make ends meet, unless she had a professional degree or was getting welfare of some sort. And honestly, if she was making an honest effort to make a living, I wouldn't have a problem with her getting welfare. But that's a long ways from the original thread!

Catherine -

Stick with your chicken tractor effort. You'll learn and get better through experience. BTW - the famous Joel Salatin admits to being one of the worst-ever carpenters so you'd be in good company.

Seriously though, there probably isn't a farmer that doesn't feel like you do - way behind, some stuff never getting done ......

Go to TSC or some other farm supply and buy some hog ring pliers and some rings. Take the cattle panels and fasten them with the rings. If the holes in the panels are too big, take some inexpensive "chicken" and fasten it inside the panels with the rings or just take some short pieces of electric fence wire and tie it. To make it more rigid, staple (long fence staples) a treated 2x4 around the bottom. This will also make it easier to move. Go to Harbor Freight and buy the longest bolt cutters they have to cut the panels to size and make doors with. The long ones are heavier but will make the cutting easier. Also hinge the doors with the hog rings and use rope snaps for locks. I hope this ideal helps you. You can also take some thin plywood, metal roofing, or whatever you have, drill small holes in it and wire tie it to the panels one end for shelter and/or and breaks.

That would be inexpensive "chicken wire"

Catherine, for what it's worth, most of the farming that gets done on this planet is done by women, and it isn't even close. The male of the species is in the back seat, in large part, owing to inferior resilience and intuitive nurturing abilities.

So snap out of it! :-)

Courage! Don't buy anything. Look around and do it with what you have. You can do it!!

I am in the same boat and know how you feel. I manage all the farm work and farm projects while my partner works in town at a desk job. I farm from 5:30 (or so) in the morning until around 4 or 5 then start supper. The house work gets done when it gets done but often has to wait for rain. Help is practically impossible to hire in my area but occasionally I can swap some work with some of the Amish neighbors. As to the chicken tractors I make a frame out of 2x6, about 12ftx12ft. I fasten 2 16ft cattle panels on one side and bend them over and fasten them on the other side. This makes a hoop house tall enough to walk into. I make a door frame by standing two boards up inside the frame so that the tops can be wired to the panels and the bottoms nailed to the frame. The are about 3 feet apart. I nail a header across these two boards at about what ever height I feel comfortable ducking under to get in. I cover the whole thing in one inch poultry netting except the door opening. The I cover the bottom 2 ft in 1/4 inch hardware cloth. I cover the back 5 or 6 feet of the hoop with tin and a strip of tin across the back to act as a wind and weather block. I make a door frame to fit over the opening I left with some overlap on the upright boards in the front. I don't usually hinge these doors but they are held in place with with eye bolts and a bolt for a pin or with wooden buttons so that the whole door can be taken off and set aside if need be. I like to put lawn mower wheels on the back of the pen so that it can be raised and slid if need be. Sometimes I slide them with small sled runners I've made out of wood and place under the back of the pen. I pull them forward one pen space with a furniture dolly. If I have trouble with varmits I run a hot wire on insulators around the bottom of the pen with a long wire ending in a gate handle. The handle can then be attached to an existing fence or a wire ran along the planned path of the pen.

Catherine, I admire your determination. That said could you maybe find a retired handyman and trade him some processed chickens at the end for his labor.
When we lived in Va sometimes retired gentlemen would be happy to trade a few hours labor for some homecooked meals, there spouses had passed away and a homecooked meal was worth more then money. As for the chicken tractors. Buy some culled 2 x 4 x8s and 2x4x12s rip them in half., construct a ladder so to speak. 2ft tall x 8 ft and 2ft tall x12 ft. you can staple chicken wire on one side, then fasten together to form the rectangle, attach braces on the top and located some used aluminum roofing metal for the top. you will need some diagonal bracing for when you move it forward to spread the load. Also a small section hinged at one end will enable you to fill the food tray. I would be happy to give you any additional details if needed e-mail me. also where in Va are you I may know someone in your area. I would be happy to help you in any way.

Good ideas all. Thanks so much for that, and for the kind words. I remember reading one of Joel Salatin's books where he talks of his lack of carpentry skills. I think mine are worse, though. Silly question - what are hog rings? I've got new panels arriving tomorrow (the old ones are around the hogs). I'll try to join them together. And I like the idea of light plywood as a roof/windbreak

Hog rings are, or were, put in hog noses to keep them from rooting. Another use for them is suggested here.
Catherine, a lack of carpentry skills can be made up in getting better tools, and if you build any wooden fencing, by the time you're done, you'll no longer hammer like a girl, and you're halfway there to building anything out of wood. If I want to build something, I can't get it out of a book with a 2 dimensional page, but CAN look at another chicken house, shed, barn, whatever, and figure out how to do it that way.

I have limited carpentry skills, too, but I built my own chicken tractor using simple plans from Capper's May/June 2012 magazine. I was able to use leftover lumber from other projects around the ranch, and it cost very little to make. It's not an architectural masterpiece, but very functional. If you would like more details, please email me. I live on a ranch in Montana and am married, but most of my projects are do-it-myself. I enjoy the satisfaction of being self-sufficient (most of the time!). Hope this helps.
Audrey