I disappeared for a while trying to catch up on all the old post but it seems like this time of year this section gets slammed! I've been so busy but stop in from time to time... I just wanted to share with whoever how the summer is going. It seems like I can really only hop on this site in the winter time when I'm pacing the floors looking for something to do. Quite the opposite in the summer time as 16 hour days seem to be the usual here until I can get things the way I want them. However.... I'm loving it and wouldn't want to be doing anything else... well except sipping a Piña Colada on the beach! But this 90+ heat will have to work for now!
I have to get some pics of the broiler / buckeye project I ended up with about 9 birds and all were females except for one male and he is beautiful! Very stout birds that have great body conformation and by far the best dual purpose breeds that I have every seen *on the meat side of it... we will see how they lay. Females were white some ended up all white and some speckled with black. I did end up with one female that has red lacing which she is really pretty and will be using her to cross back to the buckeye rooster to try and get some more red in the feather pattern. They forage better than the buckeyes do and from what I can see there is no leg problems at all and they are handling the heat like champs! I will get some pics of them up here soon as I really want to start working with their future breeding projects. Out of their parent stock I still have the three females and they are huge... they are free ranging now with the E.Egger flock.... the buckeye roosters are also with that flock as well. I'm giving the 5 buckeye hens a break until the female White Buckeyes are up to laying age which should be very soon.
On the meat pigs!... They are huge probably 300 plus pounds and have a processing date for the 14th of July. I'm excited to see them go but they have been the highlight of the summer. Will I do pigs again? You bet! They are super easy and do not require too much care at all. However I'm going to wait to process them myself until I get walk in coolers / freezers. I'm not that brave!
Broilers... we are up to 400 / week now and I'm just now starting to catch up on demand. I couldn't believe how fast we sold out in the spring, this is why I haven't had time to log on. I process on Mondays and Fridays and it's non stop work. Looking into slowing down though now that we have caught up... I'm going to do 300 for the next two weeks and then to two hundred every week. I have to slow down a bit because turkeys are coming and I need to focus on them for Thanksgiving I believe they are coming the 29th and again September 15th.
What's new? The CSA program we are doing was a huge hit, that also has taken up so much time and I should be out working right now for it as the plants are screaming for rain. It hasn't rained here in over 2 weeks and we may get some this friday so my fingers are crossed and I'm officially going to start my rain dance on Thursday! I made a trip to Iowa for 11 katahdin lambs recently and they are awesome, what a trip that was. I went through Downtown Chicago which was absolutely insane! I'm from Cleveland which we have 2 building that are tall and the rest are short... very different compared to Chicago... I've never been to New York or LA but I've heard that they all have the same vibe about them. AND then came IOWA nothing but Clouds and CORN... I give the people out there a lot of credit because I don't know what I would do!. The lambs will be apart of our meat CSA next year and will use the offspring that we have in the spring. Also we did our first farm tour and it was a success a lot of fun and people really enjoyed it.
Layers... had to expand layers... we are now up to 700 and had to build a new layer house, fresh eggs are hard to come by even with 700 layers.
Well... that pretty much sums it up but here are some pics to see what's happening! Hope everyone is well and do miss chatting and "arguing" with everyone. Enjoy the pics!
I have to get some pics of the broiler / buckeye project I ended up with about 9 birds and all were females except for one male and he is beautiful! Very stout birds that have great body conformation and by far the best dual purpose breeds that I have every seen *on the meat side of it... we will see how they lay. Females were white some ended up all white and some speckled with black. I did end up with one female that has red lacing which she is really pretty and will be using her to cross back to the buckeye rooster to try and get some more red in the feather pattern. They forage better than the buckeyes do and from what I can see there is no leg problems at all and they are handling the heat like champs! I will get some pics of them up here soon as I really want to start working with their future breeding projects. Out of their parent stock I still have the three females and they are huge... they are free ranging now with the E.Egger flock.... the buckeye roosters are also with that flock as well. I'm giving the 5 buckeye hens a break until the female White Buckeyes are up to laying age which should be very soon.
On the meat pigs!... They are huge probably 300 plus pounds and have a processing date for the 14th of July. I'm excited to see them go but they have been the highlight of the summer. Will I do pigs again? You bet! They are super easy and do not require too much care at all. However I'm going to wait to process them myself until I get walk in coolers / freezers. I'm not that brave!
Broilers... we are up to 400 / week now and I'm just now starting to catch up on demand. I couldn't believe how fast we sold out in the spring, this is why I haven't had time to log on. I process on Mondays and Fridays and it's non stop work. Looking into slowing down though now that we have caught up... I'm going to do 300 for the next two weeks and then to two hundred every week. I have to slow down a bit because turkeys are coming and I need to focus on them for Thanksgiving I believe they are coming the 29th and again September 15th.
What's new? The CSA program we are doing was a huge hit, that also has taken up so much time and I should be out working right now for it as the plants are screaming for rain. It hasn't rained here in over 2 weeks and we may get some this friday so my fingers are crossed and I'm officially going to start my rain dance on Thursday! I made a trip to Iowa for 11 katahdin lambs recently and they are awesome, what a trip that was. I went through Downtown Chicago which was absolutely insane! I'm from Cleveland which we have 2 building that are tall and the rest are short... very different compared to Chicago... I've never been to New York or LA but I've heard that they all have the same vibe about them. AND then came IOWA nothing but Clouds and CORN... I give the people out there a lot of credit because I don't know what I would do!. The lambs will be apart of our meat CSA next year and will use the offspring that we have in the spring. Also we did our first farm tour and it was a success a lot of fun and people really enjoyed it.
Layers... had to expand layers... we are now up to 700 and had to build a new layer house, fresh eggs are hard to come by even with 700 layers.
Well... that pretty much sums it up but here are some pics to see what's happening! Hope everyone is well and do miss chatting and "arguing" with everyone. Enjoy the pics!
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