Week #12 - How to do well with chicks!

Hail Caesar!

If you've come here for dating advice, I apologize if my title misleads... While lately we've had some success with chicks, they have only been of the feathered variety! 

This past summer we ended up with an errant rooster mixed in with our layer chicks ordered from a local hatchery. As he grew, it became clear that indeed one of these things was not like the other and we separated him from the main flock. In the warmer months, Caesar, as he came to be known, ranged in the back field with six or seven of his favorite gals and over winter we gave him a corner of the coop known as Caesar's Palace. 

We mark each egg with its due date
 eg. Feb. 11th

In mid January we began collecting the Palace eggs and tucking them into our incubator. Consistent heat of 99-100F and humidity between 50-55% is needed to successful hatch chicks. They like an increase to 65% humidity within the last 3 days before hatching. We maintain humidity by adding water to the bottom of the incubator every day. While many incubators have automatic egg turners, we do ours 'old school' and turn them by hand 3-4 times a day. As this releases humidity and heat, you need to be quick and I often spray the incubator with a water mister at the same time. 

Our chicks began hatching in February (21 days later) and we've had a steady stream of chicks ever since. We are hoping that our hatching efforts will be enough to avoid purchasing hatchery chicks in April and ready to lay chickens in June.... a savings of over $700 not to mention the gas and time out to Russell, Manitoba during the busy planting season. 

We keep our chicks in a large aquarium with a heat lamp until they are a couple of weeks old and then move them to a large area with less heat until they are about 6-8 weeks and fully feathered enough to join the rest of the flock outside. 

Happy Easter! Welcome Spring! Wishing you success with chicks!

Week #11 - Around a table...

Many good things happen around a table! A table is a place where we share... food, conversation, decisions and time, a table is often the place we gather and celebrate as well as mourn.

We got into farming because we cared what we were putting on the table for our family and wanted to know where our food came from, how it was raised and processed and how it traveled to our home. Over time our passion for putting good food on our table expanded to other tables...and well the rest as they say, was history. 

This weekend, I sat around the table with others who are just as passionate about putting good, local foods on your table. 

I was proud to participate in the first official board meeting of the newly formed Direct Farm Marketing Association of Manitoba, a group that hopes to create a mechanism for the voice of small scale farmers in Manitoba to be heard. Time, energy and shared goals will lead us forward and I'm excited to see how things progress. Something tells me that there will be many shared tables in our future. 

Week #10 - My Happy Place!

Yesterday I spent several hours in my happy place.... hands in the dirt, sunshine streaming down! 

While its a bit wet and chilly to be out in the fields, we are starting our seeding in earnest and that means preparing trays and getting our hands dirty in the greenhouse. 

It means that our living room with its beautiful south facing window, fills with seed trays. It means time spent counting days to germination... days to maturity, soil temperature, etc. It means creating seeding plans and figuring out crop rotations. 

I read somewhere the other day that dirt can indeed make you happier! While I know that from experience, I now have science on my side. Dirt does make you healthier and happier! 

Week #9 - Patty the pig..

Patty has joined the FFF team! After surviving a treacherous ride from western Manitoba through ice and wind, she has moved right in! 

Patty is a Berkshire/Tamworth cross and is going to a be a first time mama pig some time in April. Female pigs that have not yet farrowed (given birth) are called gilts. After she farrows, she will be a sow. 

She is a beautiful chocolate colour and has large expressive ears. She is used to living with many other pigs so the crew that met her in the barn was a bit of a shock! 

Our Dexter bull calf and nanny goats gave Patty a wide berth to begin with and Chocolate, the dominant female in the barn, even gave up the water trough to this strange new beast. 

As the weather warms up, she will range from the barn and throughout a large corral and hopefully will get used to her new friends. Welcome home, Patty!