Hurricane Farm

It's been a busy couple of weeks here and there has been little time to write.  We have loads of new photos to upload and write about, but here is a general overview of what's happening as we enter the month of June.

Our meat chickens are finishing off and we'll be preparing them for our first CSA pickup date in two weeks. 

The farmers' market season begins on Sunday and we're lucky enough to be participating in the Coventry Farmers' Market here in CT.  It is a large market with an enormous crowd.  Erica is also in charge of an informational display/lecture on backyard chickens.  We're bringing one of our coops to display and she'll be informing visitors to the marker about all things chicken!

Today Erica will be learning how to drive with a trailer.  We'll be practicing backing up a lot this afternoon, I think.

Our first bulk grain delivery is coming this week, hopefully on Friday.  We put in the order this week and they put us in line.  We have to wait for them to mix the grain to our specifications and then they will load it up into a tanker and haul it over to our silo. 

The second shipment of bees (the replacement package) arrived last week and I just removed the queen cage and the mailing crate and all looks well.  There were so many bees in there that is was a little daunting to be reaching around in the hive.  So far so good.  No stings!  They are hard at work building up the comb into which the queen will lay eggs and ultimately in which they will store excess honey supplies.

The custom order that we took for the small goat shed is complete and it's here awaiting pickup.  That was a fun building project--a little time off from coop building.

The front and rear walls of my small shed/meat chicken coop are framed and erected.  I hope to work more on it this weekend.

All of the rabbits have been bred and we're expecting litters in two weeks.

The garden is just about fully planted, and we need even more space!

We have a new bramble patch and it's planted and off to a great start.

There are blossums on the apple trees!

The corn is up a couple of inches already.

We've found some milkweed plants off to the side and are on the lookout for Monarch Butterflies.

We have secured the use of a 3-4 acre field up the road, so we'll be putting up fencing as soon as school ends for the year.  We'll then be taking our larger cattle over there for the rest of the summer months.  The younger calves are eager to get out and about, so we'll be freeing up some space for them here in our field as we transition over to the new one.  This new field provides the PERFECT opportunity for me to drive my tractor on the roads!  Watch for photos of this, I'm sure.

The tractor is working wonderfully, by the way.

The peas are plentiful!  Soon we will be rolling around in fresh peas, always Violet's favorite food.

Erica has also planted flowers along the roadside and the stone walls.

We have an herb garden constructed (out of an old stone wall the pigs helped to excavate and some reclaimed telephone poles) and it is planted with a variety of herbs and flowers.

Orders are still coming in for chicken coops.  I have a waiting list of three coops, and we're sure to sell some more this weekend at the market.

All of our turkeys are now here and looking great.  We are just about ready to let the first set out into their turkey run/yard to start chomping on grass and bugs.  Yummy!

Getting a new batch of chicks in the winter has paid off.  We're now getting dozens of eggs each day.

Erica is a master with the big tiller!  The garden has never looked so good.  She brought back a truckload of salt marsh hay from Newbury, MA when visiting with my parents a few weeks ago and it makes the best mulch!  We're thinking of bringing down a box truck full as lots of people have asked for some.

We spent some time setting up temporary fencing and moved the cattle and lambs around the farm to take advantage of the lush first grass of the spring.  They did their job!  No need to mow.