BFF's (Best Farm Friends)

Lots of visitors to the farm this weekend.  Baby Wag'n (I was corrected on the earlier spelling) is still in 'the jug' (slang for the pen) with momma.  Wag'n gained 1.5 lbs in 3 days so maybe 3-4 more days and she and momma can go back with the rest of the flock. 

Momma has been pretty tolerant of the visitors.  I think the extra special food for her is doing the trick.

The Shirley Joe chicken clan is doing well out on pasture with the ducks.  Baby Ethan (human baby in picture) enjoyed all the animals as well.  I think he liked the big chickens the best.

Naomi and her parents also visited the farm.  Naomi liked the baby chicks the best and I think she would have stayed with them for hours.  I told her she needs to convince her parents to let her take 15 chicks home with her and after 2-3 weeks when they get too big for her house, she could just bring them back.  Naomi also found 2 fresh eggs to take home and eat.....very exciting!  Go hens, go....lay more eggs!!

The Shirley Joe clan should start laying eggs in a few weeks.  The Elvez clan has picked up laying and we're getting about 3 eggs a day and hoping that this keeps up.  We have lots of folks who want egg shares so we're talking to the hens every day and asking politely for some laying action.  We have these really cool egg baskets to collect eggs in-- but haven't been able to use them yet!

The 250 chick clan (Soon to be called Nick's clan as I'm sure Nicky the Naked Neck Chicken is a rooster) is doing well and they are moving into phase 2 of brooding and need less heat.  

In 2 weeks the broilers arrive.  Those are the chickens that will be raised for meat.  We'll start with 50 chickens every 2 weeks and see if this is enough to satisfy demand.  We've had several calls for Pastured Chicken so who knows what the final demand will be in this area.  Pricing will be per bird- $15 per chicken.  Some places do a price/lb but we figure we'll keep it simple and charge per chicken.  For those who have never tried a chicken that was raised on pasture and had the chance to run around in the sun/wind/rain/etc, send Mike an email and he'll sell you a first chicken for $5 and you can try it out for yourself.  The first broilers will be ready for sale end of April/first week of May.  I'm partially afraid that they will sell out and I'll be stuck waiting for chicken for myself.  Note to self: make sure Mike knows there are only 45 available for sale the first week....