LitteHawkFarm
In the Brooder
- Nov 25, 2016
- 15
- 1
- 16
Hello,
I'm Travis, owner of Little Hawk Farm in California. We raise chicken for meat and eggs, guinea fowl, turkeys, goats,cats, dogs and kids. We found our love for barnyard birds 2 years ago living in the Santa Cruz Mountains when we bought our first chickens, 4 barred rock and 2 brown leghorns and were given 2 bantam barred rocks. We picked up 2 blue wheaton ameraucanas and a lavender maran, although she was feathered like a silkie and the body of a maran. We have always free ranged our flock and lost all but 6 before moving to our new farm in Mendocino County, Ca.
I preparation for our move to 20 flat beautiful acres we bought 400 feet of PermaNet and 2 engergizers, ordered 50 hatchery choice chicks from Whitmore Farms and picked up old nesting boxes from an organic farm from in Santa Cruz.
Days prior to our move I decided that it would be a great idea to get 50 "ready to lay" hens from craigslist, 25 from two separate sellers. So, the day of the move I loaded up the last of our vehicles and off we went. My big white truck with 4x8 plywood sides and a plywood back, with only a mattress in the back. My friend had his mini van loaded like the Beverly Hillbillies followed by a U-haul. I split off from the two just outside San Jose on my way to my first chicken pick up, at a Baskin Robins. The guy gave me five boxes of five birds and sent me on my way. The nice lady at my next stop helped me load up 5 more boxes of five and again I was on my way, this time to our new home.
In a serendipitous turn of events our 3 vehicles managed to find each other on the 101 north of San Rafel and we were only 2.5 hour away from home. As we were going through Petaluma I saw my mattress start to float in my rear view mirror . I quickly pulled over to secure it when I got the call, "Dude, you just lost the plywood and 5 boxes on the freeway!"
I started to freak out. A short time later the CHP approached and asked if I owned the chickens a mile back, I said yes and he told me that we were to secure things enough to get off his freeway and then make the big fixes.
My buddies arrived shortly after, we made our fixes, secured our load and headed home, this time with no more stops. When we uloaded the birds when we got home we realized that we did not lose one bird, and had a BLRW snuck in the mix of our sex-links.
Over the course of the last 9 month we have had our share of ups and downs, we suffered a lot of loss and gained much knowledge. Both have had the same effect, giving us more drive to learn and improve.
Our hope here is to learn and network with other like minded farmers. We are striving to be a fully self sustaining farm.
I'm Travis, owner of Little Hawk Farm in California. We raise chicken for meat and eggs, guinea fowl, turkeys, goats,cats, dogs and kids. We found our love for barnyard birds 2 years ago living in the Santa Cruz Mountains when we bought our first chickens, 4 barred rock and 2 brown leghorns and were given 2 bantam barred rocks. We picked up 2 blue wheaton ameraucanas and a lavender maran, although she was feathered like a silkie and the body of a maran. We have always free ranged our flock and lost all but 6 before moving to our new farm in Mendocino County, Ca.
I preparation for our move to 20 flat beautiful acres we bought 400 feet of PermaNet and 2 engergizers, ordered 50 hatchery choice chicks from Whitmore Farms and picked up old nesting boxes from an organic farm from in Santa Cruz.
Days prior to our move I decided that it would be a great idea to get 50 "ready to lay" hens from craigslist, 25 from two separate sellers. So, the day of the move I loaded up the last of our vehicles and off we went. My big white truck with 4x8 plywood sides and a plywood back, with only a mattress in the back. My friend had his mini van loaded like the Beverly Hillbillies followed by a U-haul. I split off from the two just outside San Jose on my way to my first chicken pick up, at a Baskin Robins. The guy gave me five boxes of five birds and sent me on my way. The nice lady at my next stop helped me load up 5 more boxes of five and again I was on my way, this time to our new home.
In a serendipitous turn of events our 3 vehicles managed to find each other on the 101 north of San Rafel and we were only 2.5 hour away from home. As we were going through Petaluma I saw my mattress start to float in my rear view mirror . I quickly pulled over to secure it when I got the call, "Dude, you just lost the plywood and 5 boxes on the freeway!"
I started to freak out. A short time later the CHP approached and asked if I owned the chickens a mile back, I said yes and he told me that we were to secure things enough to get off his freeway and then make the big fixes.
My buddies arrived shortly after, we made our fixes, secured our load and headed home, this time with no more stops. When we uloaded the birds when we got home we realized that we did not lose one bird, and had a BLRW snuck in the mix of our sex-links.
Over the course of the last 9 month we have had our share of ups and downs, we suffered a lot of loss and gained much knowledge. Both have had the same effect, giving us more drive to learn and improve.
Our hope here is to learn and network with other like minded farmers. We are striving to be a fully self sustaining farm.
! Great to have you in our community! That is indeed quite a story! I could just see the plywood and cargo flying out of the truck! Best wishes and enjoy your new farm and all those chickens! 
