Farming Year One
A year ago today we completed our cross-country journey, arrived at our new forever home, and started our small farm journey! It’s been a wild and eventful year. We’re very happy here and have learned so much every step along the way. Here are some highlights of our milestones this past year…
Written 7/9/2022
JULY - We moved in on July 9th, 2021. 10 days later we brought home an Amish-made chicken coop and 13 egg layer chicks. a week after that, we bought our starter flock of 6 Katahdin hair sheep (4 females, 2 males). Picking them up as soon as the rolls of fencing arrived. We bought portable electric fencing for them so we could move them daily.
AUGUST - The next month we added 100 meat chickens. This required us to build a brooder, and obtain a chicken tractor (a portable shelter for the chickens) big enough to house 100 chickens so that we're able to move them daily once they're on pasture for fresh grass, fresh bugs, and to move off of their own manure. We also brought home our first tractor! A 1940’s Allis-Chalmers.
SEPTEMBER - We brought home 2 livestock guardian dogs, Moose and Star to keep the property safe. We have a pretty high predator load here - with coyotes, bobcats, foxes, fisher cats, owls, and hawks and we're surrounded by woods, so we feel a lot better having these dogs live out with the animals. We acquired a rooster for our layers (Pierre) and brought home 2 giant angora rabbits, Magic and Mirage.
OCTOBER - We processed our first batch of meat chickens on the farm with the help of some friends, after completing a poultry-processing course through Cornell Small Farms, to ensure we were following standards and regulations. We also fenced in the 10 acres surrounding our house with 5-strand electric poly-wire, spaced specifically for sheep to create our pasture perimeter - with the help of our family, of course.
NOVEMBER - Our egg layers finally started producing eggs!!! And we converted our detached garage (we call it a barn) into a winter shelter for the sheep and obtained our first batch of hay to feed them in the winter months, utilizing the chicken tractor for hay storage.
DECEMBER - We received a bottle calf (Gypsy) as a Christmas gift, and we learned how to bottle feed and care for a calf. Which was a big adjustment, and a great learning experience.
FEBRUARY - We brought home 3 barn kittens to help us with rodent control. Groot, Rocket, and Quill, our Guardians of the Garage!
MARCH - We had our first lambing season with 7 lambs born on the farm! 3 females, and 4 males. 1 single, then twins, then triplets, then another single. All of the lambs were healthy, the moms did all the work, and we had no real issues. They eased us into lambing nicely (hopefully not a false sense of security, as we plan to triple our breeding efforts next lambing season). Lambing quickly became our favorite part of farming - it's certainly the most rewarding.
APRIL - Our bottle calf went back to the farm she came from as we realized we weren’t ready for cows.
JUNE - We sold the firstborn lamb on the farm (Hercules) to become a herd sire to a new flock, he looks like the spitting image of his father. We brought home a camper we converted into a larger coop so we can expand our layer flock, and brought home a few more layer chickens. We also bought a second batch of 70 meat chicks.
JULY - We bought more electric fence netting as we prepare to separate our sheep into 2 groups, add more sheep to the flock and re-home a chunk of the lambs.
More to come!!!