Let's Talk Chicken

     We do a lot of stories about our goats and kids, sheep and lambs, and cow and calf. It is time to tell you about our chickens.

This is how the pasture looks after the chickens have done their eating!

     Dreamfarm has been raising chickens for many years. We started our first year with a small flock of 25, and slowly added more over the years. One season we had over 400, that was too many. We have settled on 250 as a number that is manageable, as far as human work involved and the land that they need to be on pasture. For the first 11 years on our current farm, we had the chicken housings in the valley. It worked well until about 3 years ago when the chickens had pretty much eroded the area and it needed a rest. Last season we moved them to our sheep pasture. It was a nice spot as the houses were under big old oaks and provided shade for the birds but the pasture has a sandy base, and it did not take long for that land to also get eroded. This year we moved them to our alfalfa pasture. Alfalfa is good for about 3-4 years, then it needs to be planted in something other than alfalfa for a season due to something called alfalfa toxicity. So we decided to put the chickens on this field to eat the remaining plantings and leave some good manure. This fall we will rototill the field and plant it in winter rye. Next spring the rye will be tilled back into the soil for a green manure, than planted in a new seeding alfalfa. This field will then
be harvested as hay for our livestock.

Ah, life is great with this new pasture to eat!

     We will use this pasture all season. After the chickens harvest an area, we move the house and portable fencing to a new section. To accomplish this, we get all the chickens to go into the housing and close up the little chicken door. A hand-truck is placed at each end of the house and, with some strength, is moved a length to a new pasture. The chickens move along with the house. The portable fencing is gathered from the old section and moved to the new section. Once all is in place, the little chicken door is opened and the chickens are greeted with new pasture. We do this for all 5 houses.

     We raise a variety of breeds. This gives us a variety of colors in the egg shells, which gives a beautiful display when placed in the egg carton. The color of the eggs has no reflection in the quality of the egg. It is what the chickens eat that makes the egg more nutritional. Our chickens are fed certified organic non-soy grain along with their bountiful pasture. The yolks are a deep yellow, the whites are firm, the shells are strong. Our chickens are happy.
     You can find our certified organic, free range eggs at the Westside Community Market (DOT parking lot) on Saturday mornings. We also have our cheese available.
     By the way, we still have cheese shares available, check our website at www.dreamfarm.biz

   

A Day On The Farm

Hello! My name is Amber and I am working at Dreamfarm this Summer alongside Diana and Alicia. I thought I would share a day on the farm with you. Get ready for cute overload! It doesn't get better than baby goats!

As soon as I arrive Marley and Attica, the family dogs, are at my door greeting me with their kisses and paws. The day begins in the cheeserie (with coffee and NPR) where we pack cheese orders for Willy Street Co-op, CSA, and/or the Farmers Market. The fresh goat cheese is portioned into stainless steel bowls by Diana and fresh herbs are added. Garlic, Herbs de Provence, and Dill to name a few. After each container is filled and weighed, they are labeled and stored in the cooler ready for delivery and market day. After cleaning the cheeserie and washing dishes it is usually lunch time. Now that the beautiful sun and breeze are finally showing themselves, we have been sitting at the picnic table enjoying a salad and each others company Watching the cats lay in the hot sun and the dogs getting bored and feisty with each other is our entertainment. 

One afternoon Alicia and I made two pens outside for the baby goats as they will be outside from now on. It was interesting trying to get them to follow us to their new home; they kept scampering back to the familiar barn so we eventually carried them one by one to their pens. It was really sweet watching them experience the sunlight and fresh grass for the first time. 

After lunch we collect eggs from the five hen houses and lay new straw in their roosts if needed. I have decided I am not a fan of chickens but I love their eggs so I can't complain! The eggs are washed by hand and Diana puts them into cartons for market after they are dry.

We also clean pens in the barn (Yes! It is gross!) and then the farm chores start! All of the animals need to be fed before evening and this takes around 2 hours, which is on the light side I am told, since there will be more to do as the season progresses and as more animals are added to the farm. We are getting pigs soon! 

All of the chickens are given grain in their troughs and water is refreshed. The lady goats receive generous portions of fresh hay and the three youngest baby goats are bottle fed warm goats milk! It's as cute and charming as you would imagine it to be! I'm in heaven! The dogs and cats are next. P.S. Marley is at our side the entire time "herding" the animals and terrorizing one of the cats she likes to pick on. After the goats are fed we take hay out to the sheep and jersey cows and look for more eggs the chickens like to lay in various places on the farm. At the end of chores we take buckets of milk with nipple attachments out to the pens and feed the rest of the baby goats. They like to play and distract themselves so we are constantly putting them back on the nipples to make sure they are eating enough. They love climbing up our legs and nibbling anything they can get their little mouths on. 

This is an ordinary day at the farm ~ the work is onstant but rewarding at the end of the day. I'm looking forward to this season with Dreamfarm.

Kids and Cheese

     The season officially begins when the first baby goat (kid) is born. That happened on March 11, a beautiful healthy single doeling. Her name is Orlee and she is growing so fast. In a typical year, we are over half done with our kidding by mid-March. It is April 8 and only 8 does have kidded. We are waiting (impatiently) for another 24 mothers to have their kids, which means approximately 48 more babies. Goats most likely will have twins, and triplets are not uncommon. We have had quads in the past, but we prefer the mother to birth 2 nice big kids rather than 4 little kids. Kids have a much better start if they have some weight when they are born. Hazel, our lovely Alpine, had triplets on April 1, two girls and a boy. She is giving us lots of milk, a very good milker for Dreamfarm, and we plan to keep her does (baby girls) to join the milking herd next year.
     Soon we will have enough milk to make our first batch of fresh goat cheese. It is exciting to get back into our cheeserie and craft cheese; once the cheese schedule starts, the days and weeks are filled.
     The first cheese we will make is our fresh goat cheese, also known as chèvre. After 4 milkinsg (2 days) we will have enough milk to process. The milk is hauled from our milkhouse to the cheeserie in sanitized buckets. All the milk is gently poured into our vat/pasteurizer and heated gently to 145 degrees for 30 minutes. This is a federal requirement for all fresh cheese. Then the milk is cooled to 75 degrees, and culture and vegetarian rennet are added. The vat of milk is left to develop overnight into a wonderful yogurt-like consistency. In the morning, it is gently hand-ladled into cheesecloths lined baskets and drains until the following morning. This creamy cheese is mixed with salt and herbs and hand packed into containers. It is stored in our walk-in cooler until delivery.
     Dreamfarm offers this fresh cheese through our CSA. Shares are still available. If you would like to receive this cheese every other week through the season, please check out our website at www.dreamfarm.biz. We would be happy to have you join us!
     Dreamfarm cheese is also available at the Westside Community Market beginning April 16 at the Hillfarms Office parking lot, and at the Willy Street Coops.

Is It Spring?

     This past weekend brought some pretty wonderful weather for the end of February. We just got back from the 2016 MOSES (Midwest Organic & Sustainable Education Service) Conference, and I remember attending some conferences where we weren't quite sure if we would make it to the conference because of winter road conditions.
     The conference was very informational, and we got to re-connect with some old friends. The last workshop of the conference that we attended was titled "Protecting What We Have All Built Together", presented by Mark Kastel of The Cornucopia Institute. The Cornucopia Institute is a watchdog research group that advocates for small family farms and keeps a big watch on the giant organic farms that seem to slip through the organic requirements. One sentence I took with me from this workshop that Mark said is "our CSA customers and farm market customers are dedicated to the small family farm, they will go out of their way to shop directly with the farmer when the farmer has their food available, when it may be more convenient and less expensive to shop the big organic products offered at Walmart." We feel very fortunate that we have such great support in our community, our thanks goes to you!
     Other workshops covered improved grazing for poultry, pigs and cattle. We continually strive to have healthy pastures available for our livestock. There is still a need for more information on goat grazing, and I am hoping there will be a workshop on that subject at the next MOSES Conference.
     Our does (mother goats) are ready to kid any day now. We have over 30 does this year, so we are anticipating over 60 goat kids. The first milk will go to the kids, but once we have a majority of the does done with kidding, we have enough milk to start our cheesemaking for the season. Our cow had her last milking on February 28. She gets to rest and get ready to calve in May.
     Dreamfarm has Cheese Shares available for the 2016 season. Check out our website www.dreamfarm.biz for more information on the shares we have available. There is an on-line sign-up to make ordering easy. We hope you will join us for the season, we look forward to providing our farmstead organic cheeses.
     Happy Spring!