Full-time farming: November 2014

Since I started the new gig in New York the beginning of September, I've been spending a lot less time out at the farm. We are fortunate to have a next door neighbor with 4 boys between the ages of 14 and 19 that have been going out to the farm on Mondays through Thursdays to feed the llamas, goats, & chickens. Jason, Ezra, & I spend a few hours out there on Saturdays & Sundays restocking food, water, & hay and enjoying the farm.

We had quite a bit of a rooster problem up until a couple of weeks ago. More than half the chicks I hatched out between May and August turned out to be males, and as they matured, the testosterone levels in our coops were getting out of control. I put up an ad on Craigslist asking for someone to process the roosters, and after a few weeks, someone nearby finally contacted me. He charged $10 per chicken - he came to the farm and picked up 9 roosters. He said he would keep one and give the other 8 back to me processed into legs, thighs, and breasts. He came out on a Saturday night to the farm and we rounded up the roosters. He called me on Sunday around noon and said they were ready, so we met at Walmart and he handed me the meat. It turned out to only be about 5 chickens that he gave me back... And I finally cooked it out on the grill last week - it was very tough. Don't think we'll be eating the rest of it, so I guess it doesn't really matter that he didn't give me what I paid for. At $80, that was the most expensive chicken I've ever bought! But you know what? Just to have gotten rid of the roosters and all of that testosterone made it completely worth it. Next time, I will just list the roosters on Craigslist for free and someone can just come take them. You live and you learn...

Now that the stress from all of the roosters has let up, we are finally starting to get some eggs from our hens. I found the first one on Friday - a really dark brown one. So it seems that the Welsummer must have started laying. Today, there were 3 eggs. Making some progress, ladies!

Also today, the 2 guineas decided they were going to take off flying and migrate down to the big downstairs coop. Now the only chickens left in the upstairs coop are Brenda (the crippled white hen), Cindy (buff orpington hen that just started laying), and a black and white rooster. Everyone else has moved downstairs.

Here's some pics from the last month: