New Life: Adding to the Homestead

If you’ve raised chickens before… you know the term “chicken math”.

For those of you who are new to chickens or have never raised them before, chicken math is the term used to explain how quickly your flock WILL grow once you start raising them. You look to add 6 or 7 new birds… and walk out with 15.

Don’t be fooled. This also applies to rabbits, plants, garden size, etc.

We’ve recently added some new friends to our little family farm that would like to meet you all!

Seedlings

When Stirling saw the empty seed trays, he had no question what they were for.

His eyes lit with excitement, hands clasped together, “Oh, Momma! Are we going to get our hands dirty?!”

And that we did. And his pants, feet, hair. Dirt everywhere! Despite the extra mess, we had a good time picking out seeds that are cold hardy to start indoors with lights.

I focused on herbs and cold crops for this round. About 6 weeks from our last frost date we will start more warm weather crops and cut flowers. I’m using these Jiffy Pro-Hex trays this year in hopes the seedling’s root systems will be healthier and take transplanting better than in the past.

Hopefully 288 baby plants sprouting soon! We have these in our heated basement with fluorescent grow lights.

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Herbs

• Calendula
• Chamomile
• Rosemary
• Thyme
• Marjoram
• Cilantro
• Parsely

Vegetables

• Swiss Chard
• Kale
• Purple and bowling ball kohlrabi
• Bok Choi
• Green onions
• Lettuce

Interested in ordering your own organic, non-gmo seeds? Check out our recommended seed companies!

Chickens

You know.

I really didn’t need any more chickens.

I’ve got 15 eggs in the incubator, and plan on allowing our hens to sit on eggs this spring if any go broody (the period of time when a female chicken decide’s to care for her eggs long enough to hatch). We use an incubator that has an egg turner to help keep the chicks healthy while developing and make things a little easier for us. These thermometers sit inside the incubator and show you what the humidity level and temperature is throughout the incubator. I love them!

Later this spring we will be adding about 60 meat chickens in as well. (To our pastured poultry system).

BUT! My local farm store had some breeds I’ve really been wanting to add into our flock. I picked up Marans, Americanas, Welsummers, and Speckled Sussex. These all give beautiful colored eggs while being beautiful themselves!

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The adult hens we currently have provide us with enough eggs throughout the year that we don’t need to buy any for the family but I use eggs to barter with quite a bit during the summer. Keeping a fresh supply of new hens ensures that we will have a constant batch of layers that are in their prime.

Rabbits

Our first doe (female rabbits are referred to as does) pulled through for us again! She’s resilient and has been our only reliable doe. At about 2 years old, our chocolate rex usually has 6-8 kits per litter. This round she only had 4, but they are the first surviving babies born from our rabbits since September.

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They are a silver fox/rex cross. The buck is a blue silver fox who is our best male breeder. (Full disclosure: he’s by far my favorite. He’s so sweet and waits for attention every morning. This sweet fella won’t touch his food or water until he gets a good petting.)

While baby rabbits are adorable, their main purpose on our property is for meat consumption. They will live great lives until harvested at about 12-14 weeks. We should be adding about 12lbs of meat to our freezer from this batch.

I promise, this doe is a good momma. The babies are safe and warm in their nesting box. I prefer using boxes with a bottom to hold in the bedding and fur. I’ve recently added in mineral salt blocks for the rabbits just to make sure they’re getting minerals. They can consume as much or as little as their body tells them they need.

Radically New to Us

We have decided to add in a completely new life to our homestead! Any guesses as to what that might be? Leave a comment down below and find out soon!