Foxhollow Poultry Farm

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.

 

I made a batch of pickled quail eggs last week and my husband decided to share them with some friends at work. Our friend requested this recipe, so here it is. This will work with hard-boiled chicken eggs as well. These are a dilled pickled egg. Quail eggs have soft outer shells with tough inner membranes. They can be peeled like a chicken egg, but it is easier to soak them in vinegar overnight rendering the shells rubbery. They are super easy to peel this way.  

Pickling Ingredients:

36 boiled quail eggs, 1 1/2 cup vinegar, 2 cups vinegar for soaking. 1 cup water, 1 teaspoon dried dill, 1/4 teaspoon white pepper, 3 teaspoons salt, 1/4 teaspoon mustard seed, 2Tbl. minced onion, 1 clove minced garlic. For spicy pickled quail eggs add 1/2 teaspoon of dried red pepper or any liquid Hot Sauce. For extra spicy flavor add more red pepper, a  chopped habanero pepper, or hot sauce.

Check for cracked eggs. Use only uncracked eggs.

Wash eggs in warm water and drain.

Put eggs in a pot and cover with cold water. 

Bring water to a rolling boil.

Allow eggs to stand in hot water for 3 minutes.  

Drain water and cover eggs with white vinegar (at least 1" above the eggs). .

After 12 hours the shells should be partly dissolved in the vinegar leaving them rubbery.

Rinse the eggs thoroughly and peel them.  Make sure you get all of the inner membranes off of the peeled eggs.

Rinse again after peeling. Put peeled eggs in a 1 quart canning jar.

Place pickling ingredients in a pan and simmer for 5 minutes.

Pour the pickling liquid into the quart jar, completely covering the eggs.

When the eggs and mixture have cooled, cover and refrigerate for at least 24 hours before eating. The longer they marinate the better. Serve cold with sea salt.

 Spring is toying with us. Our weather has been anywhere from 7 degrees to the high 50's. The reality of spring will HOPEFULLY be here soon. This time of year is quite frustrating due to the wait for nice weather and wait and wait and wait. Our first planting in trays has been done indoors again this year. We didn't get  our hoop house up last fall so we will build it this August to extend our winter season. Greens, herbs, and radishes in November! What a treat.

We bought a large, used, Humidaire incubator this weekend. It was an unbelievable find! A gentleman in Fort Dodge was going out of business and wanted to sell most of his poultry gear.  This incubator will help us increase our flock this year with about 400 chicken eggs per setting, or a couple thousand quail eggs. After the tornado that went through here last year our flock was pretty low in numbers. We need to increase our flock size and conformation after that destruction. Our plan is to be able to sell some chicks to other farms next year (2010). Thanks for understanding to those of you who have inquired for chicks this year. We just don't have enough to go around yet. 

Our table poultry production schedule has been bumped up considerably from last year. We are adding two new types of ducklings to our roster this year. The French Grimaud,  a large type of Long Island Duckling is one of them. The other is a Barbary/Muscovy duck that has little fat, lots of meat, lots of eggs, doesn't quack but does fly. This should be interesting! We may need hardhats in the duck yard now.

Our heritage layer flock should start producing eggs within the month. Looking for those first eggs is more fun than an Easter egg hunt as I have been raising the chickens for almost 6 months. I ask them daily "where are the eggs?" No reply and no eggs....yet.

We will also be breeding and selling Red Golden Pheasant this year. They are a beautiful bird --Males are bright red, yellow, orange, and blue.

So far they are settling in to their new environment with the Peafowl, and Slate Turkeys. Everyone is getting along together pretty well.

All in all things are pretty much on schedule at present. The only problem I have is a list 5 pages long of things that have to be done when the weather warms up. Until then we are waiting!

 

Happy New Year to all! Hope everyone had a beautiful holiday season.

The start of a new year brings the promise of a new beginning. I can imagine abundant crops blooming, chicks hatching, ducklings digging in the mud, and turkey poults following their parents around the yard. In reality the gray cold dreariness outside has got me to sit down and get the ordering of seeds and livestock done for this year. I must admit it has also given way to helping me daydream a little bit about the garden plan for this season. I can imagine the dark earth, the smell of it as it heats up. I can imagine the seeds having been planted weeks before, starting to grow and flower. Notice I didn't say I was thinking about all of the work that went into the garden in this daydream. All of the gardens I plant start as a daydream sometime in January when I know I must order seeds for the next year. I must admit that the gardens in my mind are exceptionally perfect and fine. Not a curled leaf, bug bite or bug is found. You would never see a garden so perfect anywhere, not even in a seed catalogue. The daydreams do not include the real life adventures like we had in 2008, of torrential rains, consequent flooding of corn fields and shallow roots on all plants which became weak and spoiled for water, late frost, later freeze, blight on tomatoes, potato bugs, cabbage loopers, caterpillars and even a small but very destructive tornado that went through our farm and garden. The tornado removed part of our chicken house roof this year and killed quite a few of our layer flock. Then our processor closed before we could get our chickens inspected to sell to customers. Boy it was a tough year at the farm. We like to call it a year of character building. Do we have enough character yet??? As I order the seeds and create the farm plan for 2009 I see none of this. I simply see the hope that lies in every seed and every egg to be hatched for a bumper crop year. My husband calls me Mrs. Sunshine.  We have to have a sunny disposition to do what we do.

 I have finished our order for seeds for crops to be grown for the next season. The list is long after considering everything that has been requested by our customers. We have added some new and some slightly experimental things as well. We have also added a couple of acres into production so we can provide more volume to our customers. We will be offering State Inspected quail for sale in late June or early July. Poulet Rouge chickens will be harvested about mid June. We will be starting ducklings in the spring for fall orders and we have added a lot more heritage and standard turkeys for Thanksgiving due to the large demand we had in 2008. Hopefully we can fill all requests for turkeys this year. If you are interested in a turkey you might drop us an email asap so we can put you on the list.Our new flock of Animal Welfare Approved layers is scheduled to start laying again in the spring so we will again have those beautiful, tasty eggs that you all say you miss so much. We should have pullet eggs (the tiny ones) starting about April. The quail are still going strong with egg production now. Thanks to all of our customers for their support and praise for 2008! Here's to a fresh new start, promise and hope of a new year, and to the gardens in our imaginations. We wish you all the best that the new year can bring.

Christmas is coming. Time is zooming by at a sonic rate. One more farmer's market to do. December"s coop drop off. Quail egg and Jelly tasting at the Gateway Market. Broilers to go to the processor. Several birthdays. Gifts to buy and wrap. Two christmas meals to cook, cards, decorating........whew! It makes me appreciate the time I spend out in the chicken houses, where I guess you could say it is a type of quiet serenity somehow amidst all of the cackling, crowing, gobbling, flapping, and honking. The animals all have their regular routines. I guess I find comfort in that. Every morning it goes like this in the broiler house. I knock on the door, Cy Snoodles, the Tom blue slate turkey gobbles and drums, the geese start their noisey cacophony, the rooster crows. I open the door and am greeted by Two Feathers (a three year old ameraucana hen from our last flock that became the favorite hen of all the roosters in one day and consequently had only a handful of feathers left before I rescued her from the little beasties). Two Feathers flies up and lands on my hand. Shadow the little black cochin bantam does his dance for me and follows me around for attention until I pick him up and talk to him for a minute. The 6 week old broilers all come to me for today's treats of corn, veggie peels, or scratch grain. This morning something is different. Goldnplump, our buff cochin is sitting on a pile of 50some, three week old broiler chicks keeping them warm. Makes me chuckle. Needless to say she can't cover them all and they spill out in a wide white circle around her. An occasional little white head pops out from under her buff wing and then snuggles back into the soft warm feather pillow. When she sees I have treats she comes over to get some as usual, but this time she is clucking and showing the baby broilers that this is a good thing to eat. Ha ! Like they really need instruction on eating! She snatches a piece of grain in her beak and delicately drops it in front of a baby chick. It is hilarious. I love to see this type of maternal behavior.

Our last batch of broiler chicks was mothered by our Peahen, Penny.  It is interesting to see that maternal instinct is so strong. It is a deep warm feeling that chases away any cold that this winter might bring. I might add that Goldnplump  is the quintessential broody hen in the typical Cochin manner. She hatched several geese last year for us. Our chickens got their Christmas presents early this year. They all got new heaters for their houses so they will stay cozy this winter season.                          

The geese are indeed getting fat but I might add that all of the turkeys, geese, chickens, etc are safe this year as we are dining on grassfed prime rib.Must get back to the whirlwind of the season's activities. Hope to post more again before the holiday, but if not, we hope you all have a super warm, happy holiday season!

We have finally received our Animal Welfare Approved status. After several weeks of waiting, a farm auditor coming to our place, our processing plant being checked out, and approval by a committee of animal welfare advocates, veterinarians, and others; we have been approved. Our eggs will now proudly carry the AWA sticker so customers know they are getting their eggs from hens raised humanely, with the highest industry standards. It is a great organization that is soley focused on the natural habits, welfare, and conscientious care of farm animals. This also helps the customer know that their purchases are from family farms that raise heritage breeds to the highest standards of animal welfare.  Your buying AWA approved items is a vote for the small family farmer and a vote for humanely raised animals.

Looks like the snow beat us again. No matter how hard we work or how long the fall season extends itself there are always a few things that don't get done before the snow falls. I think we just make the "to do" list longer. It is  not supposed to accumulate, so I guess we still have half a chance before the white blanket rests permanently on the ground for another 4-5 months. Winter seems to get longer every year. Maybe that has something to do with age?

 We have started our new flock of heritage layers that will provide us with beautiful fresh eggs for another two years. The tiny little chicks are so cute right now. All different color bitty balls of fluff. Some of them are asserting their personalities already at 2 weeks of age. We have Rhode Island Reds, Silverlaced Wyandottes, White Leghorns, Speckled Sussex, Black Australorps, Ameraucanas and a handful of several other heritage breeds.  The eggs they produce will be all colors, ranging from pure white, tinted, green/blue, speckled to brown. Laying should begin in April with tiny pullet eggs. Can't wait. This is the first time in 3 years that I have had to purchase supermarket eggs. I can definitely tell the difference and might add that our family has become quite spoiled with all the free range eggs we can eat. No more Angel Food cakes and baked custards for a while. Here is a photo of some of the new layer chicks.

We  have added a "chicken cam" to our list of things to do. We have access to a nice security system with several cameras and are thinking of hooking it up online to give viewers a look at the chickens. Hopefully we will get this figured out and installed in the spring. Should be fun for viewers and give us the ability to oversee how everyone is doing out there especially at night.

Our free range broilers will have a new experience this morning when they venture out into the light dusting of light snow for the first time in their lives. This is the first year we have raised broilers this late in the year so these chickens will have a unique experience. They might be a little shy of the snow at first but I bet they will still venture out in it. They can always stay inside as well, but I have trained them to love to go outside. A handful of treats always coaxes them outside in the beginning; now when I knock on their door they scramble and beat the Peacocks, our 2 lucky turkeys and a few pet hens kept from the last layer flock. Bet they will be surprised this morning to see the white ground. It will probably melt after an hour or two anyway. Just a taste of what is to come. Brrrrrrrr. Already dreaming of spring.  What to plant next year?

We do have some upcoming events such as the Winter Markets in Des Moines on Nov. 21 & 22 and Dec.19 & 20. This will be our first year in attendance and we are looking forward to it. Other things on our schedule for December will include a tasting at Gateway Market in Des Moines of our herb and pepper jellies. I will post a time and date as soon as it is decided upon.

We are also joining the Iowa Food Coop this year . It is a new coop and allows patrons to purchase food from local Iowa producers online. Once orders are placed customers will pick up their items inside Merle Hay Mall. It sounds like a very good idea. We will list our broilers  and emu products now, our jellies and eggs in the spring. What a great idea for people who love locally grown food. Hope it is very successful for all involved. You can check it out for yourself by going to http://www.iowafood.org/

Does anyone have any suggestions on what crops they would like to see available from us next year?  I am going to start planning the garden in about a month and am always looking for new and interesting ideas for produce.

Must attend to the animals. Stay warm.