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!

New Critters at the farm

Yesterday Russell added to his livestock at the farm. He now has four Boer goats. Boer goats are a meat goat breed. The four that he has are wethers. (In horse terms that means they are gelded!)

They are keeping busy eating the side yard at the store down for me. It had gotten very over-grown with grass and weeds, perfect for goat grazing. They are also very talkative.

Russ will move them over to the farm when he can get fencing up for them. We are hoping to use my mule as a companion protector. We will see what she thinks about that!

Other critter news is that the chickens are laying great! We have been selling eggs at our store and we have also become consignors with our eggs at the Mill Spring Farm Store.

The little hen that was attacked by a raccoon is doing quite well! She did lose her leg but hops or flys to get where she wants to go. I have dubbed her 'Peg' and she seems happy to be alive!

The rabbits are happy and the seven babies are growing. I plan on keeping two of the does for breeders. Their momma is very good at her job and I hope her babies will have that trait. We should have two more litters right after the first of the year.

We have also started to raise worms! The worm castings are great for adding to the garden soil. Since rabbits and vermicuture go together nicely, I thought why not!

More Chickens and Paula's Rabbits

We added to the layer flock last week. Now there are 11 Golden Comets that are settling in nicely with the girls. That brings the numbers up to 36 layers!

The light in the hoop house seems to have stepped up the egg laying, thank goodness. They now have 14 hours of light. Some of the message boards that I have read, especially the backyard chicken folks, frown on this. They think that it is messing with the natural cycle of things. We feel that the chickens are not being mistreated but just work a little harder. They sure seem happy enough as they do their picking all around the house and pasture all day!

We have had some predator problems with the birds that are at the farm. Seems that a raccoon has figured out that there are easy dinners for him. We need to fix his wagon! He was able to knock one of the coop doors to the inside and killed two birds. He did some damage to a third. We brought her to the house and I put some wonder dust on her leg and then wrapped it with vet wrap. She seems to be doing OK, but time will tell. She can walk on her other leg and can roost.

Now onto rabbits! When Russ and I took the Sustainable Ag class this summer, Lynn said that he wished someone would raise meat rabbits in the area. I had raised Satin rabbits about 20 years ago and got to thinking that maybe I could do it again. (Russ said that the rabbits would be my thing.)

Well, I researched about raising them and I did find someone that sold the two kinds that I had decided to try. So off I went one evening with the chicken transport cages to purchase six rabbits, two bucks and four does. The breeds I chose are the New Zealand and Californians. They are both recommended meat rabbits with all of the same coloring, The NZ's are all white and the Cal's are white with dark points.

I beat it to my second favorite store, Tractor Supply, to buy cage making materials and rabbit feed. I can write a book about making cages but maybe another post! (Lesson 1 - get really good wire cutters!) I did buy a few rabbit cages too.

The rabbits that I bought were all juveniles, almost of breeding age. I do regret not getting pedigrees with them. I might have siblings that probably should not be bred together. (Lesson 2 - get pedigrees!)

I let them settle in a few days and then put a doe in with a buck and stood and waited. Nothing. So back to studying and reading every website out on the internet. Needless to say, I had forgotten a lot in 20 years. I did learn that the bucks will do their thing when the does are good and ready! (Lesson 3 - be patient!)

My first litter was born on the coldest night we had a few weeks ago. No hair pulled by the doe at all but I messed up big time as I had the nest box in the wrong does cage! That is what happens when the does all look the same. The babies didn't make it but I bred her again and she is due in two weeks.
(Lesson 4 - tattoo ears!)

One of the Cal does fell out of her cage. She somehow popped the cage door and the snap came off. I heard an animal screaming one morning right after our dogs went out. I didn't put it together for 15 seconds or so. Well, dogs will be dogs. They are great with the chickens but the rabbits, well, not so great. I ran out and told them to "Leave it!" and they did. However she was too far gone and died a few hours later. Dang it! (Lesson 5 - Sh!t happens)

The other Cal had five babies this week, but being a first timer, she didn't pull fur and of course it was very cold! We were able to warm one of them up but he didn't make it past two days. I think she will be OK next time as she did pull fur the day after they were born. I will breed her again in the next day or two. (Lesson 6 - the first time is hard!)

However, today has a much happier story! NZ doe #2 had a fine litter of seven babies last night. She pulled fur, made a nice nest for them and seems to be a good momma. Success! (Lesson 7 - sometimes things DO work out!) Things could still go wrong. My fellow rabbit/chicken/goat raising brother Allen reminded me that there is a reason that rabbits have so many babies - many of them do not make it. But I will take the good omen of three bad things in a row and then a lucky number 7 today!

The Roast Beast!

This is a picture of our first oven roasted, home grown, pasture raised, hand processed, Cornish chicken!

We brined it, rubbed it with herbs, filled it with secret ingredients and then we let it sit for about 15 minutes after it came out of the oven.

We fixed some tomatoes, (a few of the last ones from the garden) cooked some summer squash from the freezer and I made good corn bread. And then we ate.

Russell and I each had a leg and I cut of a nice piece of meat and said "Here goes" and he popped a piece in his mouth too. We looked at each other and both said at the same time, "Oh thank God, this chicken is delicious!"

Just a minute or two later Tyler, Russell's best friend since 1st grade came. What timing! We set a place for him and he cut into the breast. Once, twice, three times and then I said to please save me some breast meat! Oh my, but it was good!

It may sound odd to be so excited about eating chicken but we were so worried that it would be, well, kind of bad.

We need to order more chicks now!

Chicken to Eat!

After waiting what seemed like forever, we now have chicken in the freezer!

The night before last, Russ and I went to the farm and with him on/in one of the mobile coops and with me at the top hatch, we grabbed 32 birds. We were trying to just get the roosters but they are a slippery bunch! He ended up with three crates with 2 crates of roosters and the other of hens. We took them to a neighbor, Restoration Farm, that had the high schools processing equipment all set up.

Yesterday morning Russ went back to Restoration Farm and he along with a class of about 20 students from the high school processed them. He said that they did great! After they finished he came with the birds, all in ice water in tubs in the back of his truck, to the store. We weighed each one and put them in bags and then into the freezer at the store. We bought home two, I will put them in brine and tonight we will eat chicken!

He has already sold some of them. What a good feeling to get something back for your labors!

I think the plan is now to process the remaining roosters and keep the hens for layers. He does want to rebuild the coops. After using them for 3 months, he realises that he needs to make a few changes.

Back to the layers that are at the house, they are moulting so egg production is way down. Plus the day light is now shorter. We have egg customers at the store and I feel terrible that we have no eggs to sell! This week I put a light on a timer and hung it in the coop. I hope this helps. Maybe I should hang an axe in there too!

An update on the local election - Russell didn't make it. However he plans to run again in two years. He feels that it is very important to stay involved in the local state of affairs! I am proud of him.

Politics and Farming

Since this blog is about Sandy Plains Farm, I feel that I should talk about what the farmer, Russell, is currently doing. Besides tending to chickens, horses and the land, Russell is running for the honor to become a county commissioner here in Polk County, NC.

Election day is fast approaching and his campaigning is geared up into high! Last week he participated in a forum and as a mom, I could not have been prouder. He was well spoken, used a bit of humor and stated his opinions and hopes for Polk County in a clear manor.

He is the "young guy" in what you would normally see a more seasoned person doing. He has been campaigning for months now. Yesterday was the first day of early voting and I was very humbled to put a check mark by his name!

Holding the door for Mom to go vote!