Tuesday, July 2, 2013

New Additions at Daily Bread Farm

It's summertime on the farm... and that means lots of babies around here!  We received our order of 100 meat birds and 25 laying hens in the mail!  Yes, in the mail... You can order chickens online, and they get mailed to your post office.  The post master calls us as soon as they arrive, and we go pick them up. Crazy... you can get anything online these days!  

 The above chick is a meat bird.  They are all some type of Cornish Cross Broiler breed... I forget the name exactly.  Below, the little brownish chicks are the Rhode Island Red hens.
 In addition to the baby chicks, we have baby goats!  Our two does, Sally and Linda were both due at the end of June.  As of now, July 2, we are beginning to wonder if Linda is actually bred or just incredibly fat and full of milk.

Sally, on the other hand, came through for us.  One night I went outside to plug in the heat lamp for the chicks.  Strangely, Linda was out of her fence and under the shop, and Sally was no where to be seen.  I went down to the barn to check on her, and sure enough, there were two BRAND NEW babies in the barn!  I mean BRAND NEW!!  What good timing!  I ran for my headlamp and Hannah was awake to know what was going on.  She came out and jumped right in with the clean up.  It was so neat!




 The baby goats are about 10 days old now, and they are frollicking, playing, and grazing with their mama and "Aunt Linda."  Every morning I walk outside hoping that I will see two more babies in the barn!!  Meanwhile, I might need to research false pregnancy or overdue goats.
 The chicks are actually growing quickly also!  It is hard to believe that the broilers will be full size at 6 weeks!  The hens are growing more slowly, but they are definitely getting stronger and bigger too.

1 comment:

kota bontang said...

May need to check into those -would make a nice gift. Kota Bontang, I'd love one to keep in my car. Great idea!