Foxhollow Poultry Farm

This week  and next will be the grand finale of baby poultry started for the year on our farm. We will have 300 poulet rouge chicks hatching this week and 600 ducklings next week. The movable hoop housing on grass with electric netting has worked exceptionally well with a few tweaks. We were moving the houses every day or two, but the inside of the houses became too dirty even with the chickens in there just overnight. With the addition of straw bedding and moving twice weekly the process worked much better. Less work and better for the chickens! That combination isn't often true.  Day ranging is where it's at for us! Here are some new pictures of some of the three day old baby chicks. So cute!

The warm weather has taken a toll on our blog writing. So many little mouths to feed and so little time. New turkey poults arrived early this morning to round off our total to produce for this year. People really love free range turkey. We have hatched quite a few blue slates this year despite an incubator malfunction that ruined 24 eggs. The turkeys have been fun to raise so far this year. The first batch is 7 weeks old and live in a coop on the premesis with fenced in grass run. The second large batch will be raised on 4-6 acres of pasture in hoop housing similar to our poulet chickens. They will also have their flight feathers clipped and portable electric fencing for protection. Haven't tried day ranging turkeys before, but hopefully everything will work out as well as it did with the chickens. The following photo shows some of the 7 week old turkeys in their coop for the night. Note the disparity in size between the Nicholas Whites and the Blue Slate, Chocolate, and Bourbon Red Heritage turkeys. The heritage indeed take a lot longer to mature.

Nicholas White and Heritage Turkeys

 

Our houses, fields, brooders, and hoop houses are full of poultry right now. Almost all of the poultry to be raised this year is on the farm at this moment except for another 200 or so turkeys, some more muscovy ducks, and a couple hundred quail. Bird chores take about 6 hours now. Today an additional amount of time will be taken to ensure the birds do not get too hot as weather is expected to be in the mid to upper 90's. A little too hot for all of us here.

The newest arrivals here are the Embden geese and some muscovy ducklings. The little goslings are so adorable. They kind of walk like tiny penguins. I have combined the two in the brooder, which seems like a good idea as they are both the same age, water fowl and get along really well together. The geese have made the muscovies calm down and more friendly. Instead of running when you open the door, the ducklings now come to greet you. They may have to be separated later in life, but for now all is good. Here are their pictures.

 

 

 

Our pastured poultry hoop house is finished. Photos show the completed project with the electric poultry netting, and the chickens.  The chickens are about 3 weeks old and are really enjoying their new digs. The houses seem to be a good design, wind resistant, rain proof, predator proof, provide shade and are large enough to house our flock without being too heavy to move every day or two. I like this idea better than the Salatin type pens that are moved daily where the chickens are on grass, but caged. This design allows for shelter and protection, but also allows the chickens to range in the grass and dust bathe away from their shelter. All in all I think it is the best way for our farm's poultry to be raised. 

The best mother's day gift is probably a relative thing dependant upon the particular mother in question. My best mother's day gift was made for me this year by my husband. It is a hoop house that we will use to pasture our poulet rouge chickens with the addition of electric poultry net. The photo below shows the work in progress. Although it is now finished and will be loaded with poultry in a few hours, the photos do not show the completed house. We added tarps, automatic waterers, feeders and a door on one end. Will update it when I get more batteries for the camera. (Now I dont run out of film, I run out of batteries!) Here are the pictures.

 

Since it was perfect weather, we decided to move our replacement layer ducklings to their new outdoor summer quarters. We used a large dog kennel covered with tarps, straw bedding, put a heat lamp in, waterer, and feeder.... and the ducks. They are so funny to watch and just adorable even though they may be the messiest animals ever.

The breed khaki campbell duck is specifically used for eggs. They are abundant producers and can lay up to 300 eggs a year. The chef's in town are waiting impatiently for their eggs. They should begin to lay in late August. Seems like a long time from now to have to wait. Hurry up little ducks, the chef's are waiting for your delicious rich eggs!

This weekend we put up the portable poultry netting in the rain. It was a simple process that took a minimum amount of time and made our chickens really happy. They didn't even care if it was drizzling rain, they just roamed around all day and enjoyed their new grass. We will move the fencing as necessary to keep them all on fresh grass all season long. It is electrified to keep out the predators.  Here is a picture of the hens enjoying their new pasture.

Last night I was awakened by a loud chirping at 2:00 am.I got up, being careful not to awaken my husband, and got the flashlight.  It was the sound of the first arrival of Blue Slate Turkey poults hatching. We set 36 eggs from our current breeders to hatch for future breeding stock. Yes, we keep the small incubator in the bedroom, doesn't everyone?? I have since moved him along with 5 of his brothers and sisters out to the brooder house. They will be a staggered hatch which will continue for about 4 days. The Blue Slate turkey is considered critically endangered by the American Livestock Breed Association. They are heritage turkeys. Although we can still acquire some from a couple of hatcheries, we decided to hatch our own due to their cost.  Here is a photo of one of the first to emerge.

 

Yes we are buried under pullet and quail eggs and yes here is still another recipe for pickled quail eggs. Like all other sequels it might be redundant, but have had a lot of requests and you gotta do what you gotta do. It follows. Got our facebook page set up and it is coming along nicely, however I can see that it can be quite a black hole where all of your time can go into with very little effort. It is still fun and have found lots of friends and a few fans. Great for networking. It would be a great project for the winter months when there is not too much else going on here.

Pickled Quail Eggs 3 the final sequel.

SWEET AND SOUR EGGS

1 3/4 cups of apple cider

1/2 cup cider vinegar 12 oz. red cinnamon candy (like the little red cinnamon hearts)

1 tablespoon mixed pickling spices 2 teaspoons Kosher or pickling salt (the course kind)

 1 teaspoon garlic salt

Hard boil 24 eggs and cool. Peel the eggs. Heat all of the pickling ingredients to a boil. Simmer for 15 minutes. Cool. Pack eggs into a glass jar and pour pickling liquid over the top. Let sit for two days before eating. These will keep in the refrigerator for about 2 weeks. They are yummy.

 

 

 

I was asked by a friend from the Des Moines Farmer's market to set up a Facebook page. (Foxhollow Poultry Farm) Seems like a good idea. I am trying to set it up and I think I have the hang of it, but this time of year I probably won't be spending a whole lot of time on it due to the hatching chicks, ducks, quail, turkeys, etc. We are really expanding right now and we haven't even been able to plant the veggies yet! All these hungry little mouths to feed. This week we are getting more layer ducklings and poulet rouge chicks. Will post a picture when they arrive. Another 300 to care for! I really love the baby poultry.

Egg production is climbing ever higher. I have a New Hampshire chicken that is laying an egg about the size of a goose egg every three to four days. It weighed about 6 ounces. Ouch. We used one of them for breakfast last week and discovered that it had 3 yolks in it! Will get that picture uploaded as soon as I can. This is the first 3 yolk egg I had seen. Last flock I had a chicken that laid an egg inside an egg. That was really weird the first time I cracked that one open, only to find another whole egg, shell and all inside the first one. They definitely keep it interesting.

Tai

Last year the Iowa Lottery called us again for some of our barnyard "talent". Our white Orpington hen named Mattie was chosen as the Iowa Lottery's spokeschicken for their Cheaper by the Dozen Promotion. They came to the farm to take some digital pictures (CGI) of her beak in order to be able to manipulate it on the computer so she could appear as if she was speaking. The next day she had to go to the studio so we could get the rest of the shots (her sitting on a nest of golden eggs with microphones in front of her as if she were a celebrity at a press interview.) the whole thing was hilarious to watch as they filmed it. Well that was last year and I thought Mattie's fame and fortune days were over. I was watching tv during lunch and happened to see Mattie's commercial was being run again this year. "Crazy", I thought jokingly saying to myself that she should surely be due some residuals. HA. Well the studio that did the spot called the next day to say that Mattie woud have another check in the mail as they would run the spot all of April  due to popularity. It makes me laugh so hard to think that this chicken's commercial was so popular that the lottery brought it back. Mattie is worth her weight in gold, not only as a tv star, but also as a pet. She is the tamest calmest bird I have ever seen. I told her she could retire now, but she still lays an egg daily. Check out the Iowa lottery's website to view her commercial. It is funny. Here is the link:: http://www.ialottery.com/PressRoom/N08-26-08_player.html

Here is an awesome recipe for pickled eggs. We use either quail or small pullet hen eggs. This recipe has almost a barbeque flavor to it. Good way to use up those extra eggs.

1. Hardboil about 2 dozen eggs and cool.

2. Peel eggs.

3. Make pickling liquid.

Pickling liquid:

1½ cups cider vinegar

½ cup water

1 tablespoon dark brown sugar

2 teaspoons granulated sugar

1 teaspoon mixed pickling spice

1/4 tsp chili powder

¼ teaspoon liquid smoke 

2 teaspoons salt

Combine above ingredients in a saucepan and boil for 5 mins. Cool.

Pack hardboiled eggs into a jar and cover with pickling liquid. Let set for 2 days before eating.  Will keep in the refrigerator for 2 weeks. Yummy.

Our quails are finally hatching. Here is a photo. Even though they only take about 18 days to hatch it still seems like a long time to wait. They are dark brown with yellow and black stripes down their backs kind of like a chipmunk's stripes. Adorable. If you think a baby chicken is cute then multiply that by 10 for the quail chick's tiny size. They are a little bit bigger than a quarter. They kind of match their egg shells in this picture, so look closely.

Quail chicks

More babies on the way this week... Chicks by Friday. I love spring!

Tai

I delivered some quail eggs to Mojo's yesterday, Mojo's is a super nice restaurant . I talked with the chef and he told me he was going to "antique" them. The process is simple, but produces a nice hardboiled or pickled quail egg for charcuterie, appetizers, or garnish that looks like it is truly antiqued.

Hardboil your eggs first and cool them.

Next steep some strong black tea.

Crack the shell on your hardboiled eggs by rolling them around on the counter.

Leave the cracked shell on the egg then soak in the tea for several hours.

Drain and peel the eggs.

He said that it makes them look like tiny dinosaur eggs. How interesting would that be for an Easter appetizer! I am definitely going to try it tomorrow for a lunch I am having.

Eggs everywhere!!! The birds are in high production with the increased natural daylight. Spring! Easter is coming and boy do we have eggs. There are eggs, and more eggs. Our new flock of Animal Welfare Approved laying hens has started producing their first eggs....finally. Seemed like forever until that first egg. They are now up to 5 eggs a day. Soon it will be 300+ per day.

Our older hens have started laying, the quail are laying, the geese are laying their huge white eggs (shown above compared to a chicken egg), and the blue slate turkeys are beginning. The emus on the other hand have stopped laying for the season. Wheew!  Quiche, custard, angel food cake or souflee, Anyone???

We have sent our Emus to the original flock where we bought them from in Cedar Falls. The person that we bought them from originally, had super bad luck with serious flooding in his field last year and lost 100 of 120 birds due to drowning. Perhaps we will get more chicks next year, but this year we are concentrating on smaller birds. The emus are awesome, but as we age they become a little hard to handle. They are spooky, flighty and run up to 35 miles an hour. Hubby and I cannot run at all right now. He is still recovering from a serious ankle break and I from knee surgery. The emus can be intimidating when they get spooked. We still have some emu products for sale, but cannot say what the future will bring.

Our new incubator is working overtime. Immediately upon it's arrival I set a large batch of quail eggs. I candled them yesterday and see that they are coming along according to schedule. They are growing quickly in their quiet darkness inside the shells. They only take 18 days to hatch. Can't wait for them to pip their shells on the 30th. These will be our replacement layers. They are so tiny when they hatch--just a little bit bigger than a quarter. Adorable fuzzy little things.

We also have another batch of chicks to be picked up next Thursday. These are chicks that we will grow in our pastures for meat. They are not cornish rocks, but a French breed of chicken that does better on pasture, loves to forage and has great flavor and crispy skin with less fat. They are also beautiful birds. It will truly be a pleasure working with them and watching them move around the grass.

Some wild stray dogs killed our ducks last week. What a disaster! Somehow they got into a 6 foot high fenced paddock. The fencing is in good repair. They killed every last one of them. I feel so bad about it. The worst part of the dogs killing the ducks is that they just do it for sport. They didn't eat them, just killed them all. I will order more ducks and  electric poultry netting and am still looking for a livestock guard dog. No duck eggs this year.  :(

Gotta let the birds out. The rain has subsided for the day at least.

Eat more pastured Animal Welfare Approved eggs!

Tai

 

 

 

We finally started working on our website. It was an easy process although it is not finished. The main problem I have is trying to get google to index it and list it. I have submitted the Url for their perusal and made sure that it was search engine optimized, etc, but as of yet (1 week later) it is not listed on a search. Any suggestions?? How long do they normally take to index a site? I am impatient I guess.  http;//www.foxhollowpoultryfarm.com.

We started cleaning out coops again and building some "rooms" or dividers in the broiler house this weekend. Some progress has been made, but never as much as we schedule. Things seem to take twice as long as we think they will.

Daylight savings time has caused some upset for us, but not for the chickens. They know when the sun comes up and exactly what time it is no matter what the clock says.