Have You Ordered Your Chickens?

Hey There !

Dave from McElhoes Family Farm/Belmont here.

I just got the great news! Our first batch of Old Fashioned Country Chickens has finally hatched! Woo Hoo!

I just checked my personal freezer, and it is going to require careful management (I prefer to call it deprivation) to make our supply of last year's chickens stretch until we start to harvest the first batch.

As you probably remember, we were met with supply delays back in January and February when we normally plan and order for our summer and fall supplies. As a result, we had to accept hatch dates that were later then we would have preferred. Well, it has finally started! in a few days our brooder will once again be full of tiny bundles of energy!

The sheep, goats, and laying hens are finally out and enjoying the sunshine and the grass.

Although the grass got off to a slow start, it is now shooting up so fast, I can't get old fences repaired and the nets moved quickly enough. I may even need to mow.

Sunrise was a symphony of birdsong, as Kelly and I took a brief moment over coffee to listen, the lambs and their mothers inserted an occasional emphasis into the music as they awakened to search for the choicest bites to break their fast.

Katie's rooster Crius (I know, it would have been a better name for our ram, but... I'm not the boss of these things) has been announcing daybreak since at least 3 am, since he hasn't apparently been taught the difference between the Sun and the Full Moon.

The hummingbird feeder is up and waiting, but we have yet to glimpse them. Ditto the Orioles. No sightings yet either, although I suppose I misspeak. We usually hear them before we see them. A few years ago they built one of their messy little nests right outside of Katie's window in the big old tulip poplar tree.

The Bluebirds have been diligently carrying grass and twigs into their boxes, and even the farmstand has a ridiculously big Robin's nest inside! It is right above the display stand to the left and already has three eggs in it, I haven't needed to be in there much yet, so I have, for the moment, ceded that part to them.

A few years ago, when Katie was smaller, I had to give up my stepladder for an entire building season because a family of Robins had decided to build on top of it, just inside an open shed. While I found it to be an inconvenience, it did make it convenient for Katie, and I suppose the Robin parents, because Katie spent much of each morning catching earthworms, climbing the ladder and feeding them to the chicks.

Hopefully, the Farmstand squatters will not be so long in their visit.

"No guest is so welcome in a friend's house that he will not
become a nuisance after three days." ~ Plautus

Talk to You next week,

Dave