I found this little lady at the top of a blackberry bush looking for breakfast. She is certainly braver than I to sit amongst all those thorns!
Follow along our adventure as we make the transition from corporate city life to the world of natural farming. Each day brings a new experience and brings us to a deeper understanding about the life and spirit that made America great. At our farm we do our best to give the animals we raise a natural, free, happy, stressfree lifestyle. Our mission is to learn and share how to manage a farming operation that is both profitable and humane.
Friday, September 30, 2011
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Sussex chosen as the breed of choice!
We have arrived at a decision on which breed of chicken we prefer for raising at little sprouts. the winner is... Sussex. It is a heritage breed that works well for both meat and egg. We ordered 200+ of them today, which amazingly will arrive next week.
Why did we finally choose the Sussex breed? Hunter actually hose them first. He studied all the heritage breed chickens when he wanted to expand his little flock and decided to try these. What we discovered is that we all love them. They are beautiful birds, and they are very sturdy... he didn't loose a single chick through adulthood! They are quite friendly and easy to manage. Their body shape makes them good for meat production as well as good being good layers. On top of that.. they are great foragers!
So we ordered a batch today so that come next spring, Little Sprouts will be in the egg business on a regular basis. We should be able to produce about 15 to 18 dozen eggs daily. We are also getting enough roosters to do our own breeding to keep the flock going indefinitely plus provide pastured chicken for sale. (I am a strong believer in raising all our own animals on farm instead of re-purchasing year to year).
That gives me a week to get some sort of egg-mobile built to house these little chicks in . We much prefer to start them in the pasture so we don't have the problem of them remembering that they used to live in the barn. So.. another project!
Stay tuned to see how the egg-mobile turns out. And next spring.. we will open officially for egg business!
Heres a pic off the internet showing what the birds look like fully grown:
Why did we finally choose the Sussex breed? Hunter actually hose them first. He studied all the heritage breed chickens when he wanted to expand his little flock and decided to try these. What we discovered is that we all love them. They are beautiful birds, and they are very sturdy... he didn't loose a single chick through adulthood! They are quite friendly and easy to manage. Their body shape makes them good for meat production as well as good being good layers. On top of that.. they are great foragers!
So we ordered a batch today so that come next spring, Little Sprouts will be in the egg business on a regular basis. We should be able to produce about 15 to 18 dozen eggs daily. We are also getting enough roosters to do our own breeding to keep the flock going indefinitely plus provide pastured chicken for sale. (I am a strong believer in raising all our own animals on farm instead of re-purchasing year to year).
That gives me a week to get some sort of egg-mobile built to house these little chicks in . We much prefer to start them in the pasture so we don't have the problem of them remembering that they used to live in the barn. So.. another project!
Stay tuned to see how the egg-mobile turns out. And next spring.. we will open officially for egg business!
Heres a pic off the internet showing what the birds look like fully grown:
Inexpensive electric milker
Today we graduated from our hand milker (the Henry milker) to an inexpensive electric milker. this home built model cost under $200 total.
The pump was $100 brand new. It is a vacuum pump used by auto mechanics to purge auto air conditioner lines. I attached a auto fuel pressure/ vacuum gauge for about $10. The only other pieces are misc lines and connectors. The tall black thing is a 3 foot section of 411 inch abs pipe. To control the mac vacuum there is a plastic valve from a fish tank line on the back as an air bleed.
I strapped the black tank to the end on the stand for stability.
We are using the "syringe" style attachment for the goat teats that came with the Henry milker except there are two with a tee so both can be done at once.
All together it only took 20 or so minutes to milk all 6 goats! And it is a relaxing experience...almost a spectator sport!
We are considering manufacturing these to sell to other small goat keepers.it is incredibly hard to find an electric milker for under $800 these days.if you are interested...email us!
The pump was $100 brand new. It is a vacuum pump used by auto mechanics to purge auto air conditioner lines. I attached a auto fuel pressure/ vacuum gauge for about $10. The only other pieces are misc lines and connectors. The tall black thing is a 3 foot section of 411 inch abs pipe. To control the mac vacuum there is a plastic valve from a fish tank line on the back as an air bleed.
I strapped the black tank to the end on the stand for stability.
We are using the "syringe" style attachment for the goat teats that came with the Henry milker except there are two with a tee so both can be done at once.
All together it only took 20 or so minutes to milk all 6 goats! And it is a relaxing experience...almost a spectator sport!
We are considering manufacturing these to sell to other small goat keepers.it is incredibly hard to find an electric milker for under $800 these days.if you are interested...email us!
Organic farming wins again
Organic farming again wins the battle against conventional practices in both the businesses model and production abilities. Bottom line if...every study I have seen that properly compares the trip side by side concludes that organic outperforms in every way. Only organic can feed the world.
Study debunks myths on organic farms
Study debunks myths on organic farms
Monday, September 26, 2011
What is the white stuff we call milk today?
There are so many reasons to shun the white stuff sold in stores today under the name "milk", that it is literally hard to explain why it is not really "milk". I ran across this article that does a great job of walking you through the history of how we got to this ultra-processed food that is sold as milk, instead of real natural milk.
http://www.motherearthnews.com/real-food/real-milk-zmrz11zalt.aspx
the problem, in my humble opinion, is that the situation with our food industry is so bad, the average american can not fathom how bad it truly is. We have a generation or two that has grown up on nothing but artificial food substitutes, and that is considered normal. Unfortunately this is the same generations that require the largest health care spending in the history of the world. Our ability to degenerate with a variety of diseases is still exceeding our ability to repair the damage caused by those diseases.
So I urge you to sit down, take a read through this article, and consider all the similar stories about other foods.. virtually every food available in the market today.
http://www.motherearthnews.com/real-food/real-milk-zmrz11zalt.aspx
the problem, in my humble opinion, is that the situation with our food industry is so bad, the average american can not fathom how bad it truly is. We have a generation or two that has grown up on nothing but artificial food substitutes, and that is considered normal. Unfortunately this is the same generations that require the largest health care spending in the history of the world. Our ability to degenerate with a variety of diseases is still exceeding our ability to repair the damage caused by those diseases.
So I urge you to sit down, take a read through this article, and consider all the similar stories about other foods.. virtually every food available in the market today.
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