Pullet Eggs

What is a pullet egg, you may be asking yourself....
The hen that laid the green egg on the left is a 2 1/2 year old hen. Her eggs are full size.
The egg on the right is really our first official egg from a hen that we raised ourselves from a baby chick. That pullet hen is about 24 weeks old. They start laying cute little eggs for a few weeks (I have no idea how many weeks) and then the eggs slowly get larger.
We set a new record at the farm and got 21 eggs from the 'old flock' and 1 pullet egg from the Shirley Joe clan. 22 eggs in one day!!! Mike is gearing up for the egg selling business. If you are new to the blog, then send Mike a note and he'll get you set up with a sample dozen eggs. It's highly likely you'll be hooked so fair warning. ( and hopefully it doesn't turn into a 60 acre farm project as it did for us...)

I may be posting a picture of Shirley Joe very soon on this site as a goodbye photo. That rooster has attacked me 2 times now. I gave him a stern lecture and explained that if he continues to fly up and attack me, I will have no problem asking Daddy to start up the scalder and eat him for dinner that very day. I don't think I got through to him (he is like a teenage boy right now so he's not really listening). I'm going to give him a few more chances. If not, he's been warned.

One down, one to go

Mariah had her calf this morning. A black and white heifer calf. She must have been born last night because at 7 this morning she was already all dried off and clean and running alongside mom. Im guesssing around midnight or so. It takes a good 3 or 4 hours of licking at least to clean off those calves. And thats with me only helping a little. It takes days to get the taste out of your mouth though.

Photo to follow later this morning.

Beltie Babies

Here are a few photos to tide you over until I get some more baby photos taken...

Sickening cuteness

Sandy the second calf born

Valerie and Sandy frolicking in the pasture

Valerie staring at the chickens

Clark, the baby bull. (Formerly known as Lucy)

Get out the barf bag!

Looky here!

Velma had her calf!  We named her Valerie.  She is adorable.

Tomato Seeds!!!!

These 2 pictures make my heart race.  These are my packets of tomato seeds.  I have 180+ varieties of tomatoes- at last count.  The packet in back - The Amish Paste Tomato is my favorite all around tomato.  Fabulous sweet/tangy/fresh flavor, low seeds and just gorgeous. 

I am excited to try the Ramapo Tomato that I've read it's a fabulous 'normal looking tomato' that is just packed full of flavor.   More than 50 varieties are heirloom tomatoes and about 85% are from organic seeds and the others not certified organic are from reputable farms that are small but are dedicated to the preservation of seeds and certain strains of tomatoes.  I have tomato seeds called Dot tomato and Lillian's tomato-- in honor of our new dog and my grandmother. I also got some tomatoes that are supposed to be heart or strawberry shaped (this one is not organic and a hybrid but it just looked so cool that I had to try it).

I've been holding off on planting tomato seeds because they grew so well last year that unfortunately my plants got leggy and I didn't get the volume I should have off of each plant.  I am going to do 2 trays of 600 seedlings this weekend.  If they all do well, then we'll sell them at a farmers market in early May and let others enjoy the wonders of these fabulous tomato varieties.  In 3 weeks I'll then start another 1,200 tomato seedlings.  I think that I'll end up only planting about 600 or so tomato plants (for reference, I planted about 200 plants last year). 

The eggs are also starting to really roll in......15 eggs a day is the new average and we hit 18 eggs 2 days ago.  We won't start officially selling them widely till April/May when the newer birds are also laying but if you'd like to get a dozen or a batch of 18, then email Mike at 

michael@greenakeys.com

A few folks have already accused Mike of being an egg dealer.  He gets you in with a free dozen eggs and then you are hooked and calling for more.  Eat fresh eggs at your own risk.  This is how we started out and it lead to a 60 acre farm and 300+ hens.  My name is Annette and I am an egg addict.....

Soil Blocking

I am using a new method this year for growing transplants for the garden.

This is called a soil blocker.  It has twenty 1/2 inch by 1/2 inch soil blocks.

You push the block into soil.  I used Fort Vee Light from the Vermont Composting Company (not sure on the name of the company and I'll double check that later).  It needs to be pretty moist to work well and I found that it worked even better if I pushed the soil into the compartments with my hands.  You them put the blocker in your tray and push down on the top piece and pull up the block.

The result is that in a regular sized flat you can get 300 (if all are perfect) little pockets to start your seeds.  The benefit is that if you are growing them on top of a seedling heat mat and using lights to aid in germination, it would take you 4-7 trays for the same amount of seedlings with regular sized starters.  The square design also aids in root growth.  The roots grow out instead of in a circle which happens in typical starting systems.  Because the roots also have no boundary, they take root quicker when placed into the next soil block or into the ground.  

I found that the best way to cover the seeds was to put some more dry soil on top of the seeds and then mist the tops with a spray bottle.

Once you've got a germinated seedling, you then use the bigger 2 inch by 2 inch soil blocker and you place the 1/2 transplant into the center of the 2x2 block.  I have not done this step yet, but I'm getting close with my onions that I started last weekend.  At the point that your seeds are germinated, you can then move them to an area that doesn't require a heat mat and you can use a little less direct lighting.  I have to figure out where I am going to put all my 2x2 sections.  I am using the basement right now but I'm going to need to reorganize and clean up the counters as I will need a lot of counter space.  And I mean a lot of counter space- thankfully the basement work area has a really nice setup.  Next year I hope to have a greenhouse so it will make this so much easier, but for this year I'll need to deal and work with what I have.   

Here are some of the onions starting to come up.  I found that the side areas were staying nice and moist but the center blocks were drying up.  I am now misting the center blocks with a spray bottle of water once a day and more of the seeds are germinating.

The entire process for 1 completed tray takes me about 30 minutes at this point but I think the bigger blocks will be a faster process.  I enjoy the quiet work of seed starting-- to me it's very calming.

Learnings....

We will never intentionally lamb in February or March.

April or May make so much more sense -unless we are missing something that all the other breeders seem to know.

Newborn lambs are fragile creatures in the wind and cold as we are finding.

We lost a lamb ram this morning.  We aren't sure when the momma had her baby-- could have been at 2am while it was snowing or at 5am and it just got cold quickly, but she was way up the hill and we didn't see her till making rounds in the morning and by then it was too late.  

It's also going to be cold the next few days so we moved momma and Wag'n back to the barn and picked out 4 of the ewes that looked the most pregnant and took them up to the barn.  They are not too happy about hanging out in a small area with the goats but it'll have to do till next week when it is warmer.  We know that there are 2 more sheep in the pasture due in 2 weeks and from the flock that we don't know due dates it looks like there are 1-2 more that could be pregnant.  We also created a smaller pasture near the house and the other ewes are going to have to stay in that area as well so we can keep an eye on them.  

This is just all way too much work for Feb/March lambs.  Much better to lamb when the grasses are growing tall and the nights are warm-- April/May/June.  We'll be changing that schedule next year and if we buy any new animals then they need to calve or lamb when its warm.

It was actually just heart breaking today to see that momma going up the hill where she had the lamb and bleeting over and over and calling to her baby in the hopes that he would bleet back.  The other ewes were also mourning for her in a way.  They've never really come close to me when I'm out in the field and a few came over to see me today and 'talk' to me.  It was very strange-- very strange.  So I did what felt right, I went over by the group and I talked to them.  I said how sorry I was and sad as well.  I just hung out and talked to the ewes for 4-5 minutes.  

I wonder if I'll be a vegetarian someday....