Honey bottling and Winter Greens

Well there's lots going on at the farm! I've got the first of the broiler chicks coming on april 5th and the preaparations for their brooder are just about complete. Susan's honey business has been booming lately. Above is a picture of Ed and Samantha bottling in the honey house. You can find it on store shelves at Mustard Seed Market, and most recently Heinen's. Get in touch if you want more details on getting some off this delicious local honey! Below is a picture inside the high tunnel where some winter growing has been going on. Lots of salad greens, and there's some kale down there somewhere too! It's technically spring now so warm weather is almost here. Stay in touch!

The hens are back in their summer home!

After 3 long months of being cooped up in the barn for the winter, the hens are finally back on the open range again. Of course they weren't confined the whole time. I would open up the house for fresh air and leave the door open on warmer days, but when there was snow on the ground they were just not interested in setting foot outside, even if it was above freezing during the day. These hens stay at my parent's house not at Schmidt Family Farm where I will be raising my meat chickens this year. They have plenty of layers of their own over at Schmidt's so if your coming to pick up meat birds this summer you should definitely plan on picking up some of their eggs, honey, and vegetables that will be available.

I don't have much of an update on the organic certification other than the application has been submitted, and all that's left to do now is wait for inspection. I'm told that may not be until June, but the chickens won't be ready until then anyways. The pasture that they will be raised on is still under organic certification, just not the livestock production. It's all in place though, and the first chicks will be here in just 2 weeks!

Building the Brooder

This is a picture of the "Ohio Brooder" that I built.  It is so named for the Ohio Experiment Station that came up with the design in the early 1940's.  designs such as this have been largely forgotten about since the vertical integration of the poultry industry and the demise of the small farm.  It is a simple yet practical design.  Notice that there is a gap of about 4 inches between the floor and the bottom of the brooder, this allows the chicks to run in and out as they need to to stay warm.  Think of it like a big mother hen.  When the chicks are hungry or just want to explore they can leave the brooder to get food or wander, and when the get cold they simply run underneath just as they would run under the wings off their mother.  We don't need anything fancy like a thermostat because mother nature has built one right into the chicks, and she's been doing this for a while.

Spring is in the air!

I was just over at the farm earlier this week, and I snapped a couple of shots of the pasture that I will be raising the chickens on this year.  It's nice to see things thawing out, and I can already picture how beautiful things are going to look in just a couple of weeks when things start to blossom.  I got a picture of the new laying hens too. The light colored ones are golden comets.  They lay the brown eggs.  And if you spot the couple of darker ones, those are the araucana.  They lay green eggs.  I will be getting the first batch of meat birds on April 5th,  and I have set the first processing day for May 28th.  Just in time for a memorial day BBQ!  There is a link to this year's order form on the right hand side of the blog.