Chicama Run Farm Blog

Ok, I have had a rough start of the week. Yesterday I was going to go and meet a friend so we could do 2 farm inspections for our local farmer’s market (we are a producer only so we check to make sure that you produce your own products). I admit I was very excited because one is an ostrich farm and to me that is just cool.

8:15 left home – 8:20 had a car accident, air bag deployed and I think I was more shaken up than anything. There goes the mini-van we had just gotten so I could just “zip” around without pulling out the F350 dually. Luckily the van was the only thing hurt – and even the car in front of me which I hit didn’t have any damage. Well the airbag worked – but honestly that was a feature on the vehicle I didn’t want to test.

9:30 got home and called the person I was supposed to meet to let her know what happened.

9:40 pulled out of the driveway in the F350 to go and do these inspections.

It was a perfect Virginia fall day! Mid 60’s sky was blue and the colors on the trees was incredible. We travelled west to find the farms.

First stop was the Ostrich farm. Too bad the birds had already been processed and were in the freezers! That part was kind of disappointing – but it was amazing that they did all the stuff that they do. Luckily they do have family available around the area that probably helps out some. Amazing that we didn’t know ahead of time that the farm is a Virginia Century Farm. That means that it has been in operation as a farm for at least 100 years! Visiting the farm, we found out that it has been in the same family for at LEAST over 70 years. So it was impressive how the farm works and rotates.

The second farm we visited was a hog farm for processed pork. Again an amazing facility. Over 900 hogs are on the farm and unless you got right up next to them – you wouldn’t be able to tell. We were expecting that “hog farm” smell – but laughingly we told the owner that he didn’t have any hogs because it doesn’t smell like a hog farm!! I guess that’s why we got the tour which included the nursery where all the big mommas have their babies. And there were so cute I just needed to take at least 1 home (I didn’t because Joe would kill me but we will get some pigs from him this coming season for Jacob to raise for 4-H and for our food!). It was hillarious though as we drove down the driveways of the property and would see a little pig just running down the road happily! As many know I am not a commercial style animal raiser, and honestly I was a little worried about going to this farm as much as I like the owner, I was afraid it would be more crowded. But these hogs were extremely happy, they had more than enough room to walk around (most commerical places just don’t let the animals exercise) and were very much like pets as they liked to be scratched and rubbed. Anyone for an 800lb pet pig?

It’s such a diverse place when you visit these farms. We can learn so much from each other just by visiting and looking at what everyone does and not judge. I can see why people do things one way vs another and it makes me think. Though the methods used by one person may not fit your style or philosophy, the concepts can be altered in a way to suit you if you try. One way is not always the best way for people, but respecting the way that people do their business is important and a way to learn.

Til next time……

Well no birds lost last night… we have 17 turkeys who don’t want to sleep in the shed and about 5 chickens that decided to stay with the turkeys. Last week we caught a racoon close to the pen. The birds have a penned area along with complete access otherwise. It’s a different type of set up – but we didn’t have the shed built when I got the birds.

Our turkeys came from the animal shelter – and we started out with 20 – so we have lost 3. I do like the birds – I hope to be able to hatch some out next season to raise for Thanksgiving.

Meat birds are my new thought. Chicken is the only meat that we buy in the store – which seems silly to say the least so I am looking into raising some for our family and for the markets next season.

I’m actually a little worried about the winter market. I was expecting my layers to still be laying at least 3 dozen a day – yesterday we got 12 eggs total. Some are smaller so I don’t put those in the dozens that I sell so we’ll see how we do for this week.

Til next time!

Ok, since Friday is the only day I have home-time by myself because Joe is at work and kids are at school I usually clean the house. I didn’t get it done – I feel back asleep around 9am until noon. So of course I got grief for it – but at least I got some laundry done.

So the kids are getting ready for Halloween. Jacob will be Zoro and Alexis is going to be a witch. Should be fun – we are going into town to a friends house to trick or treat. One thing that’s tough about living out here is no neighbors – and at the same time that’s a blessing today.

Farm stuff: I hope that the chickens start laying more again. For some reason they went from about 4-5 dozen a day down to 6 eggs! For 200 chickens that stinks to say the least. I changed their lighting – so it gives them 15 hours of light per day. We are changing their supplemental feed schedule too from every day to every other day – the thought is that they are actually not doing enough free ranging when we feed them the layer pellets – so maybe they are eating too much. I don’t really know but we’ll see. They laid 16 eggs yesterday and we’ll see how many they lay today. Because of the lack of eggs – we aren’t going to the farmer’s market today which stinks because we could use the money from the eggs.

We only have 1/4 of a steer left which is excellent. Next year we will have more steers to offer people and take more orders for custom grass-fed beef cuts. Of course Joe is making a big deal that they are making us money and didn’t take as much work as the chickens with eggs and I hate to agree but it’s true. It’s making me think about meat in general. I’m sure that the lambs will do well also – and so now I’m thinking more into pasturized poultry for meat birds. It’s just a thought – but I really do think that’s where most of the money is year round. Eggs are excellent – and I sell out whenever I have them, but then I am “hostage” to the chickens – they don’t lay I have nothing to offer people which is disappointing to me.

Well to do more research and more planning while I do more laundry!

Can you believe the wind that is blowing in Loudoun County? WOW! This is amazing – but dang it kills things that need to be done.

None of the chickens are out foraging – they are all in the coop and come out on occassion but they apparently do not like their feathers blowing the wrong way! My hope is that they are in there laying eggs!!

The sheep are out and all are looking good – a few of the Dorsets seem to be on target to give birth early January! Funny thing is that the ram they were with isn’t the one we thought would be the stronger of the 2 rams we had last year. We call him “Wild Eye” but it will be exciting to see how he does – since August the difference in size is incredible.

Well off have a meeting at the school!

1 year ago (June 2005) we moved to this farm. Actually we fell into it – but it was a good fall and a big one. Honestly we didn’t really know what we wanted to DO with it – we bought it because of privacy and space. 32 acres is a lot of space for this area!

Some basic thoughts were a few chickens, a garden, and who knew whatelse. Now, 200 chickens later, 20 turkeys, 16 sheep, 2 llamas, and steers & hogs during certain seasons is a lot! It’s amazing and difficult because we have thoughts on how we want to raise everything and grow stuff. It doesn’t help that locally there aren’t that many farms doing the same thing at the same level. Older farmers let us know that we need to kill the field and start over which would work for them – but the thought of the chemicals is scary enough as it is.

Our entire thought process is working around all the chemicals and trying to be as organically friendly as possible – though it doesn’t always work as well as we would like it to. We grass-feed all the animals, free ranging the chickens – however they still consume feed at the rate of 50lbs a day so they cost – luckily they lay eggs which sell really well.

This ramble is probably because some days it’s overwhelming – which I figure blogging may help Some days it feels like it is too much to do, the work is never done. Though Joe doesn’t always think I appreciate it he does a ton of work that we are lucky he can actually do instead of paying a fortune for someone else to do it.

Til next time when I look ahead and ramble!