Our new life: Welcome to Bane MicroFarm!

[GabrielBane]

Hello and Good Afternoon folks!!!

Well, myself and my partner, Eric, have been fortunately to have inherited some land, and well, right now it's a pretty piece of property, 3.46 acres in beautiful Northern Florida (Jacksonville!) , we currently live in Orlando, and this thread is going to be my unofficial "Journal" as we begin a completely new style of life. So, we're selling our home, and using the money for a complete over-haul of our new land!

A little bit of back story about us:
We're both young millenials who have a passion for Agriculture and homesteading, at the moment we are fostering two barred rock Hens (From my old FFA chapter, they are descendants of my prize-winning Barred Rocks), and have a beautiful 4 month old Border Collie named Onyx.

Our plan:
We have already approached the USDA, Farm Service Agency and several other government agencies about permits, zoning laws, grants/loans, etc to develop this land into a small production farm, with the major products being Eggs,Poultry Meats and Products, Livestock products, Cottage food, and seasonal crops, we do plan on using the Farm-to-table movement to our advantage, and have already begun to work with our local Farmer's Markets and restaurants to guarantee that we take advantage of every corner of the market we can! Overall, we are VERY excited for this endeavor!

This thread will serve as my "unofficial journal", I'll be posting pictures of construction, renovations,etc. I'll probably be using this thread as a place to vent for those un-avoidable road bumps.

2017 is going to be amazing, I cannot wait to share this all with you!

Attached below are the current pictures of the property~



(To the left, you see the pumphouse shed)


(Currently a grape arbor, we're planning on switching this over to a passion fruit vine arbor, one of our {hopeful} cash crops)

(Empty field, more than likely going to be home to one of our breeding coops. West indian cherries/our guineas may also inhabit this field)

(Our big ol' tree, Eric's Grandfather planted this in '53. this area is likely going to be part of our sheep's pasture/corral)

(Our Spring Fed pond, to the right, you see my office)

(Trail to the back acres of our property, which I couldn't get pics of, we were in a rush when I decided to play photographer!)

(Front panoramic, you can see his grandfather's initial attempt at gardening.

)

(Another front panoramic)


I'll be posting more after our next visit, this pictures don't nearly encompass the property!

 

[redsoxs]

Looks like a great set up with tons of potential! All the best on your endeavor!

 

[GabrielBane]

Looks like a great set up with tons of potential! All the best on your endeavor!

Thank you greatly! All this empty space is making my brain go completely hay-wire with ideas!

 

[GabrielBane]

Update from "The Farm":
Well, The moving process has officially begun! We've begun painting molding, sanding old wall patches, getting ready to install new fixtures/doors and then we're LISTED! Hopefully our Condo sells quick so we can quickly commence building coop spaces for our girls.

We *HAVE* hit some of the snags that back-yard farmers come across, even though we're on 3.5 Acres, and we barely have view of our neighbors, we're still *technically* zoned residentially, so, the eternally frustrating re-zoning process has begun, thankfully, we believe we may qualify for "Greenbelt" status, Bane Microfarm may not be in so much trouble after all.

Even more exciting, is we took the plunge and ordered ourselves 10 Day old EE Pullets from Meyer, and we're super stoked to see what we get, it's definitely not the Ayam Cemani's and Naked Necks that *I* wanted, but Eric is super excited to have some colored egg layers on the property (plus, If I can cross them with my NN broilers, and could feasibly get a dual purpose green egg layer, so it may not be TOO much of a shot gun investment, hah.) , I'm hopeful his experience with EE's will open him up to the idea of Legbars, because I can't resist the urge to get another colored egg layer (Plus, getting in early on the APA standard is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO tempting! But I'm rambling, anyways,)

That's all we've got for this week, not much is stirring, can't wait to return with pics of the new 10 baby girls, even though they aren't the fancy stuff we were initially thrilled about, it'll be nice to hear chicks in my home again.


Hope everyone is having an amazing week!
-Gabe and Eric

 

[Flock Master64]

Super awesome I can't wait to here more!

 

[RRLaney]

Wow the property is gorgeous! I'm incredibly jealous,hope to have something like this someday (but in Texas of course lol)! Very happy for y'all, can't wait to see more pictures!

 

[GabrielBane]

Super awesome I can't wait to here more!

Thanks! I'm (hopefully) going to update weekly, I'm going to use this thread as an interactive Journal, if I can!

Wow the property is gorgeous! I'm incredibly jealous,hope to have something like this someday (but in Texas of course lol)! Very happy for y'all, can't wait to see more pictures!

Thank you very much! We're getting our first girls next week, and we're keeping our eyes on a few auctions on Rarebreedauctions.com, so we're already dealing with chicken math!

 

[Flock Master64]

Coolio

 

[GabrielBane]

Update from "The Farm":

Well, Hurricane Matthew has come and gone, at our current HQ in Orlando, we didn't even experience power outrages. We had lots of wind, our Border Collie pup was a bit afraid, but otherwise all is well here. Our Jacksonville property, however, has sprung a pretty bad roof leak. We haven't gone up to inspect other damage, we expect to know more early next week. We hope it's not too extensive.

On a more positive note, we've already started ordering babies! Tomorrow we're picking up a trio of heritage Royal Palm x Bronze cross poults, and we just won a pair of Sulmater juveniles at auction. Combined with the EEs, we're gonna be at 15. busy, busy chicken people.

-Gabriel

 

[GabrielBane]

Update from "The Farm":

Well, for the most part, our property is fine post-Hurricane. Two walls of the poll barn were torn off and a few property lines were damaged. There was minor damage done to the roof, but nothing we weren't planning on changing or reinforcing anyways, so I suppose it's not bad considering how badly some of our neighboring counties were hit by the storm.

It's been a busy week for us! We received our babies in the post, 10 easter eggers, 6 Gold Duckwing Sulmtalers, and a pair of 12 week old Wheaten Sulmtalers. Last weekend we also picked up four poults from up in Eustis, Florida last weekend, they are all Narragansett crosses. We're in discussion with sheep breeders and still shopping around to find the geese and muscovy ducks we'd like for the place. In the spring, we'll be getting some italian hives set up. (and that's not even getting into the gardening!) It's all coming up so fast, I don't know how I'll fit it all into my day.

We're super excited to finally have a jump on our breeding projects. We're planning on breeding the Sulmtaler's to the SOP in the UK, and I have specific plans to cross our EEs to Naked Neck's to get a nice, dual-purpose broiler with large green eggs. But everything in due time. For now, we're going to enjoy the chirping in the condo and continue to get ready to get everyone transferred from brooders straight to the farm. We do have a just-in-case plan set up with my previous FFA department, in case the move is slowed at all, they will lend me coops for as long as I'd need. Very grateful.

Hope everyone's week has been well!
-Gabriel