Poultry shares are sold out, and we still have grain shares available. Thanks to everyone who has supported us so far! Its been an exciting second year so far!
As we mentioned we are a little bit behind birds. Everyone that is a confirmed poultry shareholder will be getting their shares. A couple things have just set us back a
little bit, so the share deliveries will be later than scheduled. We free-range, so of course we expected some problems with
predators, it does come with the territory unfortunately. For that
reason, we purchased donkeys almost as soon as we moved onto our farm.
Apparently our donkeys are too friendly, and we still have had a couple
coyote related losses. Our latest farm addition, Joey the Border Collie,
should further help reduce our losses. Joey is proving to be a hard
working, calm and obedient companion so far that strategically pees on
important trees, fence posts, you name it.
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| Ducks love grass and being out and about from dawn till dusk |
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| Joey settling in, he's a rescue |
We also had some hatcheries fall through on us, so of course we were left scrambling to come up with those chicks some other way. We've been steadily hatching since January, and we have also sourced some more chicks from other hatcheries that still meet our standards somewhat. You can read further about our
hatchery dilemma here. A long-winded issue that runs deep for us.We love hatching our own birds. It gives us the ability to breed for high-quality birds, it is such a pleasure and hoonour to be a part of the process of bringing little ones into the world. We also know how they were treated and what they were fed from day 1.
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| An Appleyard duckling we incubated ourselves |
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| Brahma chick, hatchery stock |
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| Buck-eye chicks all in a row, hatchery stock |
The grain is coming along nicely. We got it planted so early, with that early, early warm weather we had. Perfect! We've had tons of rain lately, but it seems like we've had a good bit of hot spells in between. The heat is that saving grace with all that moisture.Grain deliveries will be beginning in November as planned.
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| wheat in 2nd week of May, already 2 inches tall |
Daniel built these A-frames recently to have our chicks out on grass sooner. They need that extra protection, since new chicks are vulnerable. They love it! We put them in, and after about a day of settling in and getting used to the new surroundings they are out on the grass in the sunlight, foraging, mock fighting and doing all the natural things that chicks like to do.
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| New A-frames, more on the way! | | | |
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That's it for now, thanks so much for checking in!
