To Market, To Market...Which Way Do We Go?

With our gardening, chickens, and Christmas trees, Chris and I are approaching the crossroads. Flip a penny, turn left! Flip a penny, turn right! I think I'm going to the nearest class that is presented by a more knowledgeable OTHER.

The Ohio Department of Agriculture and the OSU Extension Offices both offer classes on growing and marketing farm produce. I've signed up for a couple of sessions this spring. One I'm excited about is at a winery where I'll be attending Fruit and Vegetable School. Last year we found out grapes and berries come with their own unique pests and fungi. Cringe!  

So far, we've only grown our fruits and veggies to consume at home and share with friends and family but *sometimes* the yield exceeds all expectations, like with our pumpkins, butternut squash and zucchini!  Too many for us to eat, can, freeze or even find people to hand them to. Luckily, I've learned to appreciate the many ways to prepare butternut squash, a leader in supplying nutrients! YAY!!!

I eat so many squash and pumpkin blossoms, that I didn't expect to have a large harvest. Here, I was preparing to stuff pumpkin blossoms with cheese. Mozzarella is nice, but hot pepper cheese is even better!

Fried with an egg/cornmeal batter--YUM!!!

There are several different ways to direct market your own farm produce here in Ohio:

1. a Farmers' Market
2.  a Farm Market
3. a Pick-Your-Own farm
4. a Roadside Market 
5. a Christmas Tree Farm.

Chris and I had attended Christmas Tree College last year. That was fun! There are little white spider mites that like to invade pine trees. We actually had an attack of them! Luckily, I think all but one infected tree survived. It's worth the time and money when you learn what to watch out for and then how to deal with it. Our trees are still very young and not yet ready to leave the farm.

Supplementing your groceries with farm fresh veggies is not only a delicious choice but so, SO, frugal and nutritious!

Recently, I called the Ohio Department of Agriculture. We're weighing the benefits of  becoming a member farm with the local Farmers' Market or setting up our own Farm Market. Which way do we go? A Farmers' Market is a congregation of producers that set up in a convenient place for consumers. A Farm Market is usually set up at the farm location with just the one farm producer. We're almost there at the crossroads with our fruits, veggies, eggs and eventual trees, and I'm about to turn on the turn signal.

Which way to turn???

Making Nesting Boxes from Salvaged Materials

Salvaged materials had been collecting over the years in a stockpile on our small farm. Friends visiting the farm would look at the collection and ask, “What are you gonna do with that?” The answer had always been, “Build something, don’t know what yet.”

Last summer we bought some chicks and Chris started an on-going building project using the materials. What it turned out to be is what we laughingly call the Chicken Condo, a four-room dwelling, that will eventually be complete with kitchen for grinding and storing grain, two brooding rooms, and the coop with its nesting boxes and larger roost.

Chris is deciding his next step in the building process as he builds the Chicken Condo.

 The time has come to finish it, ready or not. We have 48 Speckled Sussex pullets and 4 young Pekin ducks who think it’s time to start laying eggs. Basically, they’re in puberty and can’t wait to get on with their lives! So, they’ve started showing us what they can do, and they’re very proud of themselves.

little brown pullet eggs and duck eggs

Our problem is that we hadn’t made the laying boxes, so Chris would play like it’s an Easter Egg Hunt every day. He’s currently finding about a dozen eggs a day, and he’s getting tired of the game. He wants his little hens to have what they need. They’re still sleeping in the brooder, so not what they need.

The local people know that Chris has always been, dare I say, frugal. Out of necessity he has become a resourceful fellow when it comes to building. He envisions what he wants, looks at what he has on hand, and then makes it happen. (The Chicken Condo actually looks like the beginning of a very modest home. People have stopped by the farm to ask about renting it.)

These nesting boxes are made from old culvert.

Buckets make a quick and easy nesting box. This photo shows the work in progress.

To finish out the coop, Chris was convinced that it wouldn’t take a lot of money. He again conceived a plan for salvaged materials, recycling what he had, or could easily barter for, to achieve what he needed. Form materials from pouring a bridge, a few used buckets, and some old culvert started to take shape in his mind. Here you see examples of two different styles that now adorn what appeared to be a boy’s bedroom just a few days earlier.

Look closely. You’ll see the camouflage paneling, one of the few things he bought new. Right after deer hunting season, it was the cheapest thing at the hardware store!

OOPS! The camouflage wall is deceptive, like a hen could roost there!

Pullet Eggs!!! Months too soon!

If there's a time to every purpose under Heaven, then WHOA! The time has come to make nest boxes for the little ladies, the Speckled Sussex hens. This is months earlier than we expected!

Pictured is a basket of duck eggs. Beside the basket, you'll see two tiny brown eggs, gifts from a precocious Lady Sussex. 

Chris opened the brooder door on her recently and she looked shocked and dismayed that he would just blatantly walk in on her while she was doing her business. There she sat feeling indignant, in a tuft of bedding she had pulled together for a nest. Chris is pretty sure she shouted, "Uh, WHAT?! SHUT THE DOOR! I'M BUSY IN HERE!" (heavy sigh)

In her disgust, she may have laid her small brown chicken egg somewhere else that day. If so, we never found it. 

With winter fast approaching, this presents us with two immediate problems: 

(1) The hens don't yet see the chicken condo as home, just as a place to hang out during the day. They sleep in the tiny brooder house. 
(2)The chicken condo needs nest boxes that are yet to be built and some more winterization. 

Soon the little hens will make the permanent migration to the chicken condo with its greener pastures. It's right next door and they're used to it. They go to it through a wire tunnel every day, range around outside for awhile, then spend the rest of the day inside. Later, toward sundown, the pullets go back through a wire tunnel to their brooder house to sleep. They've become creatures of habit. You could set a clock by them. But now, with one laying eggs already, we are so unprepared!


Another first: Roosti-Roo, our one beautiful little Sussex rooster, has learned to crow!!! He's egg-cited , I think, so he's gearing up to serve the needs of 48 hens. Poor Roosti! 

Our  4 duck hens are already giving us three eggs a day, two in their nesting box and one in their pool. The ducks are also creatures of habit, we're discovering, but they provide enough eggs that I've been able to make noodles, chocolate mousse, Hollandaise sauce, have eggs for breakfast, and still share some with friends and family!

The fact that the ducks supply our egg needs brings up another problem, not so immediate, but one that needs a solution: What to do with all the chicken eggs once the hens are laying regularly? I had looked at designing a "Farm Fresh Eggs" sign for in front of the house or barn. Now I'm thinking more and more about joining the local Farmer's Market. The people who go with eggs sell out so early! But if I do, what else should I provide? I thought about making aprons but Chris says they're not a farm product. Really? So then what? I thought about little pies: Pauley's Petite Pastries. Maybe. What do you think?

Pauley's Pampered Poultry: Speckled Sussex

Our young Speckled Sussex hens are coming out of their Chicken Condo that isn't finished yet but will be comfortable when winter winds come. We rushed their moving day because the hens needed more fresh range than their brooder pen allowed.  Also, one day they'll be ready to lay eggs. When that time comes, they will need access to nesting boxes and the  bigger roost that their condo will provide.

Roosti-Roo, our Speckled Sussex rooster. I haven't heard him crow yet but I know it's just a matter of time. He watches over the hens as if he's under contract.  Very protective, he inspects any food scraps before stepping back to let the hens enjoy them.

The Speckled Sussex are an heirloom chicken. Known for being gentle, hardy and consistent egg-layers, they appear to make excellent pets. They run and fly to me in a friendly way, not like they're trying to peck or flog me. Instead, they seem to greet me when I visit, much like a puppy would. They enjoy attention. And they just love vegetable scraps!

About 48 hens will be our egg-layers. Eventually we will put up a  

FRESH EGG  

sign at home. I'm so excited!

QUESTIONS: 

Should I plan to take eggs to the Farmers' Market next year? 
Or should I do an egg delivery route to local customers?

The Chicken Coop

Building a chicken coop has been high on my husband's to-do list ever since we talked about getting a half dozen laying hens to supply our egg needs. But how much of a building does six chickens require? When he started designing it, the size and shape was dictated to some extent by what building supplies he had on hand. Whatever he had to work with, my husband promised to offer comfortable, roomy housing for the layers. He quickly changed his design, as well as his intention, when he found that he had underestimated the number of building trusses he had, trusses once meant for a garage.

I watched his drawing evolve, enlarging steadily, and I finally pulled up enough courage to ask just how many clucking chickens he thought he wanted. I'm waiting for his answer. He started telling me, in his best Foghorn Leghorn voice, how his new design offers rooms for different kinds of chickens as well as other options. His design will accommodate some chickens for meat, some laying hens, a feed room and a special area for brooding young chicks. Outside pens will allow freedom for movement, fresh air and sunshine. I began some aerobic moves, singing Go, You Chicken Fat, Go!  My husband still hasn't answered the question I put to him. He just gets this crazed look in his eyes every time I exercise.

My earlier vision of six laying hens to name, pick up and pet is getting foggier and foggier, blurred in part by an insane vision of 2000 banty roosters chasing each other about in the next pen. If I close my eyes and listen, I can almost hear the crowing competition and I just know my dear Foghorn is out there crowing the loudest of all!