All posts tagged: double silver laced barnevelder

Blue Ribbons For Our Birds From The National Heirloom Expo

Blue Ribbons All Around From The National Heirloom Expo in Santa Rosa!

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We keep a closed flock here on the farm which means that we do not bring any new birds onto the premises. We do this to protect the health of our breeding stock from various diseases other flocks can carry. We are proud to be part of the National Poultry Improvement Plan, every bird on our property has been tested clean of diseases.

Keeping a closed flock means that we cannot open the farm to visitors or take our birds to shows unless the birds are sold at the shows. This year we decided to participate in the National Heirloom Expo put on by Baker Creek Seeds because we are aligned with their mission of preserving heritage breeds of livestock and seeds. We entered a small sampling of our breeds into the judging and were pleased to have each one of our birds win a blue ribbon!

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We held a silent auction for a breeding quality pair of Svart Hona and at the end of the fair it was none other than the founder of Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company who won them. It was bittersweet seeing Darth and Duchess off to their new home but we know they are now in excellent hands!

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alchemist_farmBlue Ribbons For Our Birds From The National Heirloom Expo
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Little Hands At Work

Many hands make less work!

Here our littlest farm hand is working the Philips head screw driver to install new batteries in our auto coop doors for the season. She is very proud of being tall enough to help with the every day tinkering tasks farm life demands 🙂little-farm-hands-helping-around-the-farm

alchemist_farmLittle Hands At Work
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Medicine Making

Homesteading!medicine-making-with-elderberries-alchemsit-farm-sebastopol-california

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!

alchemist_farmMedicine Making
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Hand Made Goats Milk Soap Made Here On The Farm

 

It is official! We now have handmade goats milk soap available 🙂

Lots of folks ask us about our British Guernsey Goats, they are a rare breed of goat that have the face of a deer and the sweet milk taste of a Jersey cow. Everyone wants to try the milk but the laws around selling raw goats milk and other edible goat products in California are just too challenging for us to  comply with so we came up with this fun solution, soap! All our soaps are 3.5 ounces and sell for $6 each, shipping is available all over the US.

Goats milk is renowned for being gentle on the skin and its deep moisturising cabilities. We have filled our bars of soap with herb infused oils from plants we grew on the farm such as calendula, tulsi, and plantain. Each bar is formulated with a different experience in mind, we hope you enjoy!

Here are our current bars available, more coming in the following weeks.

Ceder Comfrey

Oatmeal Honey Lavender 

Gardeners Hand Soap

Lovers Bar

alchemist_farmHand Made Goats Milk Soap Made Here On The Farm
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Fun Photo Of The Week

This morning our littlest farm helper wanted to lend a hand opening all of the coops for our flocks. To our surprise one of our Isbars had already laid an egg, we thought the color looked so pretty against her snuggly clothing!

The colder it gets the happier the Isbars are, they originate from Sweeden and although we got our breeding stock from breeders in the states they still have the love of their homeland climate.

T holding the Mornings Isbar Egg Alchemist Farm Sebastopol California

alchemist_farmFun Photo Of The Week
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Drama In The Barn Yard

This week was a big week of moving all of our mobile coops around, deep cleaning and giving everyone fresh pasture. While all of the moving about was happening one of our Svart Hona Roosters came into sexual maturity and our French Black Copper Marans Rooster took notice!

Luckily I had my camera on me to catch the action and barnyard drama as the two gentlemen danced at each other before the Svart Hona got moved to their new part of the acreage. Enjoy!

svart hona and marans drama #3Marans and Svart Hona Drama #1

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alchemist_farmDrama In The Barn Yard
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Those are some Olive Eggs!

 

It is official! Our first unique breeding project for olive eggers was a success, our hens just started laying and the results are in, the Alchemist Farm Olive Egger cross lays beautiful olive eggs!

 We started with an amerucana hen (egg on the top right) and bred her with our Little Peddler French Black Copper Marans Rooster (egg produced by a marans is on the top left) and the cross gave us the color of eggs in the middle. We threw in a run of the mill while and brown egg below for color comparison.

So what do these Olive egger hens look like? They took on the traits of their father big time and look identical to our Marans chicks at birth:

As they grow out and enter sexual maturity the sleeker body type of their mother comes out while they retain the beautiful Marans coloring. They are friendly but have the swift feet of their wild mothers to evade any predators.

 Interested in some olive eggers of your own? 

Fertile Hatching eggs (which will look blue when you pick them up): $4 each

Olive Egger unsexed chick: $20

Olive Egger nine- ten week sexed pullet: $50

 

alchemist_farmThose are some Olive Eggs!
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