The past few years we have gotten certified organic pullets from a gentleman near Lancaster, PA. It is much less expensive for us to buy them at his price than to raise them during the winter (probably to raise them anytime, but especially during the winter). Since we have many more egg customers in the summer than in the winter, we need to have hens ready to lay in May or June. His brother moved up near Fort Plain and started raising pullets last year, so we did not have to drive to Pennsylvania for them this year. In fact, they delivered them. 1000+ birds in crates on a trailer (shielded with plywood and tarps). We met them at Essex Farm where they unloaded their 600 and three or our group unloaded 147. Then led them up here where five of us shared the remaining 300. They are good sized, looking nice.
Since this is earlier than we have had them in the past, and since we want to keep them separate from the older hens, and since there is snow on the ground instead of greens, we had to get creative. We have one small 20 x 24 hoophouse that I won’t need until early May. It had five puny overwintered lettuce plants, a couple nice clumps of cilantro, some thyme plants, and some flower bulbs that had been missed when we dug them up and had sprouted. I dug the flower bulbs up and moved them. We cleaned out the larger summer hen camper, managed to get it unstuck and out through the slush on a warm day, and backed it up to the little hoophouse door. Tony built a ramp so they can come and go and have plenty of room and daylight. They know how to scratch but haven’t discovered that green plants are good to eat. I watched one comtemplate its first tiny worm – probably took her a full minute of picking up and dropping, tasting and spitting out, looking at it, and finally eating it.
We seem to be over the below 10, hopefully below 20 nights, so I finally started transplanting the poor rootbound salad greens I had started in trays to get an early start.
This is the Sun Gold tomato plant we are tracking.
Same while tag for height. When we started it was barely reaching the little horizontal slot you see on the tag above the bottom clump of leaves.
Two more CSA memberships this week, thank you. Both using the online store for the convenience of credit cards. I hate to keep nagging, but always have folks who keep letting it slip and then are frantic at the last minute wondering if they can still get in. So, hopefully this is gentle reminding, not nagging.
Just found out that the butcher shop in Burke that we took chickens to last year so we can sell them through stores is not going to do chickens anymore. Hmmm, that was a big part of our future planning. More broilers in the summer and take the winter almost off. Called Ag & Markets to see just what it would take to make a 5-A facility for poultry, and the first thing is to get a letter from the town saying it is OK with them. I was thinking building on a hay wagon frame. No one would be able to tell we had it – it would be less visible than the way we butcher now for direct sales, but based on past experience with Peru, I can 99% predict that if they ask for input about us “building a 5A butcher shop” it will cause a ridiculous uproar.
Anyway, minor challenges in the scheme of life. Have a good week.
