Farm Life Friday - 01-30-26

As January wraps up I look forward to February. It’s the time when my to-do list and wish list grows. My project list always is longer than the season. Seed and poultry catalogs arrive and look forward to more time spent working outside.

The weather this winter has been strange. Each week I’m bracing and waiting for winter to actually begin. We’ve had very little moisture, most days of zero snow cover, and the temperatures have been mild— even experiencing a 60° day in January. I’ve never had to drag and clean up the horse field in January before! Typically everything’s frozen solid and covered in snow.

I’ll be pruning the orchard trees this month and I’ve already put in my first pre-order for my meat birds chicks due to ship in April. Last year my first order of spring meat chicks was canceled the week I was expecting them to ship due to low hatch rates, causing me to miss raising my spring batch. It ended up limiting how many birds I raised last year. Due to that, I tried to incubate meat bird hatching eggs from a local source, but they had very low hatching rate, were quite spendy and I was disappointed with the outcome. I also tried raising a "dual bird breed" that took way too long to mature. I hope the hatchery has good success this year. I try to stray away from the Cornish X meat breed because it would be great to raise a dual breed myself but I always come back to it.

I still get hung up on needing to rely on commercial hatcheries at all for the Cornish X. Due to our climate and lack of a place to house meat birds when the temps drop I am still being dependent on that system. I also cringe at the unknown vaccines that they may not disclose and HOW do they even get eggs from Cornish X hens who can’t even live healthy and long enough to produce eggs. A pondering for another day. I just pray and hope they are not tortured for the eggs I buy --- it deeply bothers me if I think about it too much!

With my meat chick order, I also ordered a couple new hen chicks to add some fresh genes to my flock. My hen flock is at a good number right now, but I like adding new genes every couple years. I have lost one hen last week, found randomly dead in the coop. Other than that loss my flock appears very healthy and vibrant this winter.

My duck flock is also extremely vibrant and active. They are laying eggs regularly and love big long walks around the property. They also love the mild weather as they get to have a full pool swim more often.

My first time goat mama Georgie appears pregnant. My buck, Gus, is being driven crazy every time my other females, Gertie and Ash, go into heat. I chose to not breed Nigerian Dwarfs this year and I think that was a good decision. The market is a little oversaturated and I find it every year a little more difficult to sell them. I look forward to our first full-bred Mini Nubian kids and will be back into goat milk in March.

In February, if the weather stays mild, I plan to begin a compost building project. I’ll also begin to clean out the garden, tilling in manure and adding a few more raised boxes. If the ground isn’t going to fully freeze, I might as well work with it. I would also like to get some fencing poles dug in around the bigger orchard trees before they begin to bloom and wire up in Addi's flower garden. I’ve will be making some improvements to my garden fence. To deter the early morning deer robbery and also keep my chickens out of it.

The property adjacent to ours was bought by a local construction company. It was very disheartening to see this massive shop be built and our view of the mountains disappear. Our view off of our front deck is now is now construction equipment, unorganized supplies, and many large trucks, equipment and trailers. Hopefully I can continue my privacy row of bushes and trees and in 10 years or so block some of it. The men seem nice and respectful, but the view is heartbreaking.

WHAT'S NEW: I’m working on adding tallow products and herbal tinctures to my farm shop. Check back soon!

Have a great weekend.

xoxo, B