Barnyard Bonanza

Farm paperwork is something that I love doing (yes, I'm a nerd), but it may put you to sleep, so let's do an update from the barnyard!

On Christmas Eve John and I spent some time together giving the pigs a present (?) - new bedding and expanded pasture! Kind of odd staking up the electric fence in late December, but there was no snow and a patch of green forage, so...

...we fenced off a new area, opened the gate and gave them access. Then we removed all the old straw and spread it out over the dirt in their winter paddock. They never soil their bedding, but it's important to keep the straw dry, so new bedding every so often is a must.

You can see the pigs watching us from their pasture.

Tossing straw around got the pigs all excited - they were running around, bucking and spinning in circles. After airing out the shed for an hour or so we then replaced the bedding with a couple dry bales of fresh straw. Go to YouTube for a new straw video.

Vera, supervising the straw delivery.

We are looking forward to more pig adventures in the New Year, we'll be sure to keep you up-to-date on the pig barn progress (it's near completion!) and breeding plans. We added some little porkers to the tree, to mark our first year farrowing and our love of these great creatures!

Ivan gets into the Christmas spirit too!

The pullets have really started laying these beautiful eggs regularly now! The new breeds lay a mix of browns, blues and greens.

We reached an inevitable point with our flock where culling had to happen. While we have had to cull birds before for individual reasons, this larger culling was a different experience for us - not enjoyable, but necessary. For each and every bird we keep we are grateful for their contributions and respectful of their lives. 

After their molt the old hens completely stopped laying, and while we could feed them and keep them as pets forever that is just not what we keep chickens for - we banded Emily's favorite first chickens and said goodbye to the rest. The number of hens dictates the carrying capacity for roosters and four was too many. We put three roosters in the freezer, grateful for the sustenance, and made Edgar (Allen Poe) keeper of the ladies. Maintaining balance in the flock makes for a better dynamic and healthier birds.

Speckled Sussex hens and the new feeder.

Hazel, after hunting she is a snoozy girl.

Other fascinating farm items
The website has been updated for the 2015 season - check out the updated info on 2015 CSA & Farm Shares Sign Up!

Chickens and Compost Bins

CSA & Farm Shares Update! Only one (1) Farm Share remaining. Only two (2) Full Shares, or four (4) Half CSA Shares remaining--Monday and Wednesday delivery both available yet.

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What a beautiful weekend! The sun and warmth fueled a fabulous weekend on the farm.

What new signs of spring did you see this weekend? Geese have been flying for weeks now, but they are still a beautiful sight. We spotted a Great Blue Heron in a little space of open water, surrounded by ice. The pair of killdeer have returned to the yard, making sure everyone around knows they are back.

Saturday morning the ground was frozen enough and all the snow in the way had melted, so we were able to get the chicken coop moved to its permanent location. Hooray! Then the coop was given a thorough spring cleaning--all the litter was removed, coop cleaned out with orange peel-vinegar and roosts inspected for potential slivers, etc. Lastly, the fence for the permanent chicken run was flagged out for planning. The chickens got to explore a whole new area of the yard and we added an outside water source as well.


The litter from the coop went straight into the new 3-stall compost bin John built. The stalls are 4' wide x 3' deep with a removable front. Litter will be composted all season and added to the field as organic material when beds are finished produce food for the season.

The compost bin has been on our to-do list for a while, so it feels great to get it done. Don't get me wrong, we've always been composting, but now we will be doing so with greater intention. The first thing we did when we moved to the farm (very literally) was build a quick, 1-stall, pallet compost bin. This serves as our "sacrifice" compost bin, where we put everything we will not apply to the field; it serves a great purpose in reducing garbage, etc., but we needed a better system to utilize our vegetable scraps, organic plant matter from the field, as well as manure and bedding from the animals. Now we have it! Stupendous!

Speaking of chickens...the new flock of chicks has been ordered! We will be getting some heritage breed chicks as the very beginning of June.

Have a great week!

Brooke and John

Some Handy Dandy Links:
•Natural Chicken Coop Cleaning
•Homemade Orange-peel Cleaner (for the coop and home)