Updates

Here are some updates on previous things we have discussed around the farm.

The cherry, apple and pear trees are doing very well. They are full of nice green leaves and should start putting out fruit next month. The addition of bees should strengthen our fruit crop considerably this year. A sickly cherry tree had to be chopped down this month in order to conserve the resource of water, it will be replaced next year to help it get established while we still have healthy and producing ones around.

So much green! We have already started to enjoy some of our produce and are fighting rabbits, birds, etc. for them!

Three little chicken coops all in a row. Chicken wire will be put up around the posts so that three areas will be created: the middle area where all of the chicken coops sit, an area to the left and an area to the right. This will allow us to utilize the sun that each side of the field gets for the most appropriate season as well as to allow the soil and grass a break from the destruction the chickens will wreak.

Speaking of chickens - here they are at about 3 weeks old. They are getting bigger and smellier everyday. We hope to have them outside full-time in about 3 weeks, at which time they will be very ready for the change and we will have probably already lost our minds.

We've got chicks-a lot of 'em!

Getting chickens for eggs and meat is a major goal for our first-year homestead since those products offer the best sources of protein we can produce relatively easily and cheaply on our property.  When compared to a cow, chickens are very low maintenance, and they are readily sustainable if you let some eggs hatch out.  Eggs are a great food source that chickens produce in abundance, so that is where our emphasis will be.  We do plan to slaughter some of our birds for meat on occasion.  Mostly these will be roosters when we have an over-abundance (you really only need 1-2 to fertilize a good size flock of chickens), but when our layers start to get old they will become dinner. 

We will address slaughtering when we cross that bridge, but for now we can say that we chose what chicks to get in order to best serve our desire for a good number of eggs (layers), meat on our table (broilers), and sustainability of the flock (brooders).  We will see how it works out, but here is the run down of our chicks:

5 Buff Orpington-pullets (females)

5 Partridge Rock-straight run (males and females, depending on what hatches at the hatchery)

3 Rhode Island Red-pullets

3 Sagitta-pullets

1 Sex Link-cockerel (rooster)

5 Sex Link-pullets

3 White Plymouth Rock-pullets

The hatchery also "threw in" a few extras; no doubt cockerels they did not need.

The pictures below show how we are caring for them as they grow.  As things go, the tub, heat lamp (keep 'em at around 90 deg.), bedding, feeder/fount and chick starter feed was not a huge investment. The same cannot necessarily be said for our permanent coops, but they will be an entry when we finish them!

Under the read heat lamp.  The stock tub works really well.

The chicks' true colors.