Homesteading!
We took a break from chick wrangling today to make elderberry syrup in preparation for the coming winter.
The task of separating the berries from the stem is perfect for little hands and also serves as an invitation for little minds to learn about medicine making!
We have been starting off the hatching season with a bang. We set and hatch twice a week so there is always a nice variety of chicks on hand here at the farm.
Fantastic folks from all over the country have been ordering hatching eggs and chicks from us. We take great care and time to package our eggs and chicks in such a way that they arrive safe to their new homes.
Here is a photo of how we package our eggs for shipment. We bubblewrap each egg, double box, and label the daylights out of each box to ensure a safe journey.
Here is how our chicks are shipped. We can ship 25 chicks that are less than four days old or a handful of juveniles in our shipping boxes. We add grogel to the box so the chicks have hydration and food for the journey, when needed we always add a heat pack.
We are carefully working through our waiting lists and are proud to let people know that we are part of the NPIP program which allows us to legally ship hatching eggs and chicks over state lines and to anyone in the United States!
Silly Serama
Our smallest of breeds has been bringing us a lot of laughter and joy these past few weeks. We have been free ranging our little flock near a briar thicket that they can dash into if a hawk comes. Every now and again they get adventurous and saunter up to the back door and poke around. Yesterday we caught they clucking happily away while they laid eggs in this pile of baskets 🙂
Fresh pasture for our Isbar flock.
I woke up at 5 this morning, the air was crisp and still. My family was asleep as were all the hens so I seized the moment. After scraping ice off the windshield of our trusty old truck TinkerBell I hitched our mobile coop up and pulled it from the back part of the property to the front.
Our animals depend on us to give them fresh pasture to search for bugs, to eat fresh grass, to always be in the healthiest of conditions. Getting to provide that to them lets me know I am doing my job correctly. It is A LOT of work, but we are committed to treating every animal we live with well.
In the stillness of the sunrise I watched the automatic chicken door come up and the ladies hop out one by one, clicking in approval at their new digs. I love what I do and I would not trade it!
A new egg collecting basket for a new year. One of my favorite Christmas presents came from our neighbors – a hand woven basket of dogwood, sea grass, hemp twine, wool, redwood bark- so beautiful!
Here at the farm we specialize in breeds that lay beautiful eggs in high production but we also have two breeds that are more of what we call “trophy birds”. The kind that when you look at a flock of chickens really catch your friends eye and cause them to say “what on earth is that chicken!”
Behold the fantastic hairdo of the Pavlovskaya hen – one of the breeds we will be releasing in spring 🙂
When we discovered that one of our French Black Copper Marans was broody we tried a few techniques to get her off the nest and when all failed we decided to give her some chicks. We waited until a fresh batch of day old chicks hatched out and carefully slid three chicks under her breast while she puffed up and told us what for.
We all held our breath and watched for a moment and then to our surprise and enjoyment the chicks started nuzzling up in her feathers, jumping around on her back and chirping at her while she clucked and started to guide them toward food – it was nothing short of magical!
It has been a month now and the chicks still follow her around the yard and nuzzle up to her at night.
Here on the farm our hens are secure in the coop at night but completely free range on pasture during the day. We built the ladies many nice nesting boxes but they seem to enjoy laying all willy nilly in our barn and in little secret spots around the field. While it may take a few more minutes to collect the eggs, our smallest farm hand is getting eggcellent practice for when easter rolls around the stakes involve stickers in plastic shaped eggs.
Here are some fun images of our ladies in action:
This little pearl leghorn loves to hide out and nest next to our straw bedding
While these eggs were left behind by one of our olive eggers and a rhode island red under a tarp that covers our alfalfa.
Thankfully many hands make light of the work that is collecting the days eggs:
Finally there is some science to backup what so many of us intuitively knew about the health benefits of eating farm fresh eggs!
Eggs from hens raised in situations where they can eat seeds, grass and bugs are far more nutritious than eggs from confined hens in factory farms. Research shows that eggs from hens raised on pasture have:
* 1/3 less cholesterol
* 1/4 less saturated fat
* more vitamin A
* 2 times more omega-3 fatty acids
* 3 times more vitamin E
* 7 times more beta carotene
* 4 to 6 times more vitamin D
Now hows that for some good news for all of us raising a flock of sweet ladies in our backyards? For more information on the study that produced these facts you can follow this link.
This weeks photo is the beautiful contrast in color of our French Black Copper Marans and Olive Egger hatching Eggs.
The olive egger chickens we sell are F1 (first generation) and are a mix of our Amerucana hens with our Little Peddler French Black Copper Marans Rooster. When folks come to pick up hatching eggs for those chickens from us the eggs will always look blue! Imagine mixing the bright blue of these eggs with the chocolate brown of the Marans eggs and viola, you will get a preview of the eggs our olive eggers will lay – pretty snazzy eh?
Bearded d'Anver Chick
$20.00
French Blue Copper Marans (Alchemist Line)
$40.00
Surprise Flock Gift Certificate
$120.00
Alchemist Blue Male Chick 2025 Line
$1.00
Alchemist Egger Chick
$15.00
