Farm and Soap Updates — farming

The days are quickly getting shorter here in the northern hemisphere as autumn takes hold. What that means for a lot of chicken keepers is a sudden drop in egg production. Like plants and many other animals, a chicken's biology is attuned to the change in day length over the seasons.  When days get longer in the spring, this triggers the hens reproductive cycle to lay lots of eggs, since spring and summer are great times of year to raise chicks. As the days get shorter, egg production slows down, since raising chicks in the winter is generally a bad...

About once a year I offer a slightly different product in my chicken line up: the "stew chicken". This kind of bird must be cooked very differently than most chicken you are used to from either the grocery store or poultry growers at the farmers market. Roasting a stew chicken is a great recipe for chicken flavored rubber bands! Braising or simmering in a liquid is a must to get these birds tender. What is a stew chicken? You may hear stew chickens also called stew hens, this is because they are typically 'retired' laying hens. Unlike chickens raised specifically...

As someone who has a lot of chickens (there are about 700 on the farm right now!) I often field questions about chicken keeping from friends and customers. There's a common query that often begins with the lament that a fox or a weasel or even the neighbor's dog has just killed several chickens and the question is: how do I protect my chickens from predators? Please note that this is written from a North American perspective, so your predator species will vary depending on where in the world you live. However, most of this advice is applicable no matter...

The cows seem determined to keep me on my toes this year. After our first ever winter calf back in January, I've now had my first calf rejected by it's mother. While this isn't common, it does happen, and first time moms (heifers) are the worst culprits. Our winter calf was also born to a heifer but she took to her role quite readily. Up until now I've had nothing but problem free heifer calvings. Enter Cheeto. This heifer is actually the daughter of one of my best moms, Cherry! Cherry likes to make sure you know that she will...

To wash or not to wash? That's the egg question.Whether 'tis fresher at room temperature to preserve,The cuticle around the shell, yolk and albumen,Or to take soapy water against the forces of rancidity,And by refrigeration end them! To rot - to spoil, no more. - from my forthcoming play Omelette -with apologies to Frans Hals and his work Young Man with a Skull(Shakespeare, on the other hand, I think would be totally cool with parody) I jest, of course. But seriously folks, there is quite a lively debate among both farmers and consumers in small farming circles about how fresh eggs...