Holy Cow Chickens!

The meat chicks have been out on pasture for a week now. They are growing at a fantastic rate. They are into the daily move and seem to enjoy the grass very much!

The Barred Rock chicks are just lovely little birds now. They are settling in the routine as well.

The other evening I pulled into the farm driveway and saw several of the meat birds out. Oh no! At first I thought that something had attacked the coop so it was a relief to see that had not happened. Well, they had snuck out under a high spot in the coop was all. Russ was working so I had to wrangle 9 chicks back into the coop. I plugged the escape hole and all was fine once more!

4 1/2 weeks old

Moving Day!

Russ has moved the current batch of meat birds out to the farm. They left the brooder in carriers and settled right in the movable coops.



Loaded up for the move to the farm




Cornish X chicks tasting their first grass!





He decided to move the Barred Rock chicks too. They look small compared to the Cornish X chicks but they are flying around the brooder so it was time to move them to larger quarters. They were being admired by a hawk not long after they were at the farm! It was standing not 10 feet away from the coop when we saw it. Yikes!



Barred Rock chicks - not sure about this!



Russ bought a Feathernet fence and a new nifty fence charger. The charger works great! The horses have now learned to respect the electric fence again. The Feathernet will surround the hoop house for the layers. It will hopefully keep preditors away.



Un-rolling the new fence



New Feathernet fence



Using the fence tester



Bubbles, the mule, keeping her distance from the fence!



I took a display of what is going on at the farm to the Farm Day at the Ag center on Saturday. I have a couple of information boards made up, took two different cages with young rabbits, some bagged rabbit manure and some of the composting worms.

We had many folks stopping by to see our display and of course, many people wanting to pet the rabbits. I did sell three, one for a pet and two to become future breeders for someone. I had not planned to sell any!



Display on Saturday!



After the Farm Day, we took the rabbit grazer cage with three of the rabbits and unloaded it at the farm. There is so much grass there, even for March. They seem very content and happy!



Rabbits finally at the farm too!





Growing like crazy!

The new batch of meat birds are just over two weeks old and they are twice the size of the new Barred Rock chicks that are just a few days older! They are all doing good, thank goodness.

Cornish X's at two weeks old

The eggs are selling great! We try to keep some at our store and also have them for sale at the Polk County Farm Store in Mill Spring. We have been selling some chicken as well. We roast one every week or two and we are still so happy with how good they are.

Russ helped make the first pasture grow-out pen for the rabbits. I am thrilled with how it turned out! Now we just have to build a bunch more. Each one will hold about 5 or 6 rabbits and will be moved every day. The rabbits will be in the pens for about a month or so. I am still working on a time frame between weaning the litters and when they make the move to the pens.

PGP - Pasture Grow-out Pen

The worms! The worms are doing good as they are multiplying. I have them in bins in a room of our house that is located under our living room. That room was my office years ago, was transformed to a feed/storage room and now is my worm room!

I did make up some worm composting start kits and have them for sale at the Farm Store for now. If anyone had told me a year ago that I would be raising worms I would have told them that they were delusional!

Worm Composting Started Kits

Chickens, chickens and more chickens

Last week, Russ received 50 Barred Rock future layers. They are little balls of black fluff. In the last week, they have grown a lot already and seem to be very hardy.

Barred Rock chicks

Also arriving was a bunch of Cornish X's, future meat birds. They are not near as hardy as the other chicks due to being a hybrid bird. They started out in half of the brooder but we found out quickly that they needed to be even warmer than the Barred Rocks. They are currently in the house where the temperature is more to their liking. Even with two heat lamps on them, they just got too cold outside. Being in the house agrees with them as they have doubled in size in just a week!

Cornish X chicks

Russell saw an ad for Rhode Island Red layers and also some of the movable pasture coops. It turned out to be the same couple that we had bought the Americaunas from last summer. So off we went with a flatbed trailer and the chicken carriers. He just loves the new coops! He bought four, they are well made and a bit smaller than the two that he made last year.

The new RIR's are in two if the coops at the farm until he can get a hoop house built for them. They have been laying pretty well for having their life changed in a big way.

"New" pastured poultry coops

Russ is in the coop moving business again! He moves the layers each morning, they learned fast to run to the front of the coop for the daily move.

Here at the "440", the layers are doing good. The Americaunas love to lay in odd places so we are always on the lookout for eggs in the hay now. The layers are joined by the two Silkies during the day. Larry has turned out to be a very handsome rooster and Moe is just as sweet a hen as can be. She is laying cute little eggs too. I would like to try to have her raise some chicks soon.

Two of the Cornish birds did not end up on dinner tables. Peg is a nice little hen that had lost her leg do to an animal attack at the farm. She hops and flies all over. At night she roosts in one if the layer boxes.

Peg, the one legged Cornish hen

Peeps is the little bird that was squished and could not stand when he got abused in the brooder box. I had brought him in the house and put him in a sling. Russ thought I was nuts, but I had to try. After two weeks he was good as new. I put him out with the Silkies and he must think that he is one of them. I have never seen him fly at all. (Silkies can't fly do to their feathers being more like hair.) He has turned into a very handsome rooster and seems to know it!

Peeps, one fine looking Cornish rooster!

All Quiet at the Farm, for Now!

Since the meat birds have all been processed, things are quiet at Sandy Plains Farm.

Russ has the horses there. They have all of the 20 acres and are doing great on grass. We do have my old Arabian mare here at the house. A few weeks ago she was found in the middle of the night a few miles down the road! We have no idea how she got out. So she is enjoying being the queen here at the "440".

Russ has said that it is odd to not move the birds each morning. But he does have the goats to tend to. They are doing good, a bit on the noisy side at times. They are still located in the side yard at the store. They get a lot of attention there too!

Here at the house, the layers are doing pretty good. We have been successful enough with the eggs, that we are adding a flock at the farm.

It is not very quiet at the house though! Russ has also ordered more meat bird chicks as well as some layer chicks. They will spend 3-4 weeks in the brooders and then go down to the farm. Then it will be a daily move again!



New layer chicks! Very loud layer chicks!



After having some semi-successful gardens on the south side of the house, I decided to move it to the north side. The garden will have more light during the day. I plan on putting in some raised beds. Time will tell on that!



We did get 8 blueberry bushes planted this past weekend. They are 3-4 year old bushes so we should have fruit this year. The chickens were very into inspecting the job!



Helping to plant blueberries!

The rabbits are doing good. I have had 2 nice litters this past week and another due next week. I need to get my grow out pens built soon! My goal is to have 10 breeders and I am more than half way there. I plan to have meat for sale at my store and the Mill Spring Farm Store.


Six fat little California babies!





Quiet grazing horses at the farm





The Last of the First Birds

On Wednesday Russell and I crated up the last of the birds for processing. He has sold some to people that wanted small flocks. So 27 of the last remaining birds took a little trip to Restoration Farm. Dawn Jordan is good enough to let us use her place for the processing process!

I wasn't sure about watching the process. However I did have a request for a cleaver so I drove in just to drop it off. I ended up staying just about all afternoon.

Along with our birds, Dawn had some Red Rangers and the Polk County School farm had some Cornish Cross (X) to process. There were a number of students to help along with the two Ag teachers. Everyone pitched in and got the job done. (I took pictures and tried to stay out of the way!) The weather was not too bad for an outside event in the middle of January, thank goodness.

I was proud of Russell as I watched him coach and teach the students how to eviscerate a chicken. He even instructed his old high school Ag teacher. I mean 'old' as in former!

I had purchased a vacuum sealer so after Russell helped to clean up, he brought the chicken to the store. We weighed each one and the vacuum packed it. Instead of freezing them right away, I had decided to age them in the refrigerator for 48 hours. I have read that is a good idea as it will bring out even more of the flavor of the meat.

The birds are now for sale at the store and also at the Mill Spring Farm Store!

Crazy Warm in January!

It is a lovely warm day but it is the middle of January! What will the next few weeks be like?

All is good with the livestock. The goats are all settled in. They are still in the side yard at the store. Russ is working at getting electric at the farm. He will need better fence chargers to keep those goats in! And to keep the horses where they belong. Right now they are all back at the house and we are feeding a lot of hay!

Staying dry on a rainy day.

The chickens at the house are laying about 2 dozen eggs a day. We enjoy watching them interact with each other.

We did have a sad evening when we found one of the Silkie roosters dead. We have no idea as to what happened to him. We were around pretty much all day. A true mystery that we can't solve.

Russell and I took a Heritage Poultry class the other day. It was very good! We learned quite a few things that were good to know. He has decided to get some other duel purpose birds. He is thinking on the breed, there are a lot to choose from!

This morning I took a picture of the pasture when Russell moved the remaining birds. You can really tell the difference of where the chicken coops have been. Green and healthy looking grass!

Look at the green tracks!

The rabbits are doing so/so. I have one great doe that kindled 10 kits a week ago Friday. A couple of them were very small but she is taking great care of them and the little ones have almost caught up with the others. I have bred the other two does and hopefully they will have some nice litters in about 3 weeks.

10 newborn New Zealand rabbits!