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Chicks Coming Soon!
Morning all!
We’ve received a number of calls regarding chicks in the last week or so, and I’ve hated having to tell people we don’t have any right now. Typically, we start getting lots of interest in chicks in March, but the rising egg prices are driving earlier than usual requests.
We have a full incubator of chicken and duck eggs going right now, and will be starting a second incubator shortly to keep up with demand.
I will post here and on Facebook when hatch day rolls around (about 17 more days).
One farm update, unrelated to chick news. We are suspending scheduling parties on the farm for the next few months. We are working on some exciting renovations on the farm right now to better serve both our livestock and our customers, but until they are completed, we won’t have our usual venue space open to host parties. Sorry! Hopefully, we will be back on that soon. We are planning to have a big open farm day when the renovations are complete, to welcome folks back to the farm.
Until then, we will still be selling chicks/ducklings, lamb/pig shares, meat chickens, and fresh eggs as usual. We are also opening the waitlist for Thanksgiving turkeys soon. Please reach out with any questions. I’m easiest to reach by text (850-890-2389), but we also have e-mail and Facebook messenger.
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State of the Farm – Spring
Spring is one of my favorite times on the farm. It’s always full of changes, new life, anticipation, and hope. This year is shaping up to be a big one on the farm. It’s set to be a season with lots of beginnings and endings.
Let’s knock out the endings first.
-We are selling off most of our goat herd this spring. We have a handful of purebred Nigerian Dwarves still available, but I anticipate us being down to only three goats soon. We are transitioning away from the goat market to a different one (one of those beginnings, I mentioned).
-On a sadder note, our sweet gelding lost his battle with heart failure yesterday. Our boy will be missed. He was forever begging for treats from anyone and everyone, and was exactly the horse we needed and loved.
That does leave us without a rideable horse for kids over 100 pounds for the time being. Please keep this in mind when you are booking an event with us. We will still be able to accomodate pony rides for kids under 100 pounds with Princess Sparkles (and soon, Marshmallow!).
Ready for the beginnings? Yeah, me too.
-For the first time ever, we will be offering lamb shares in the fall. We’ve raised meat sheep before, but only for our family. It’s mild in flavor, tasty, and an incredibly healthy option. This year begins sharing lamb with the public, and I’m super excited about it! Availability is quite limited this year, so message me to be put on the waitlist.
These lambs will be grassfed on rotating pastures, making them healthy and happy while also enriching the soil. We are adding some Katadhin ewes and a Katadhin/Dorper ram from Oakvale Farms to our sheep flock. They will produce excellent meat lambs, and fantastic breeding stock for other homesteaders interested in adding hair sheep to their farms.
If you aren’t familiar with meat shares, the way it works is that you can buy a whole or half of a market-sized lamb, we deliver the sheep to a processor, and you pick up the meat from them, then straight to your freezer. It’s a great way to buy in bulk from local farms.
We charge $8.75 per pound, and then you pay the processing fees to the processor. It usually ends up being about $10-12 per pound. The total amount of meat from a Katadhin lamb varies, but is usually somewhere in the realm of 55-80 pounds.
We will also be offering meat chickens again this year, after a break last year to have a baby right at the begin of meat chicken season. They will be $5 a pound, so approximately $25 for a whole chicken.
This is not just any whole chicken, but the best chicken you’ve ever had. Our chickens are raised on rotating pastures, scratching for bugs, and living their best lives. We feed locally milled chicken feed, and they will be processed right here on the farm. Meat chickens will be on-farm pickup, though we also offer delivery within the surrounding area with a per-mile delivery fee. They will be available starting in early May, so jump on the waitlist now.
Another cool development is that we will be adding a store to our farm website, so you should be able to order products (like our meat chickens) right from the comfort of your home. Bear with me as we struggle through the initial hiccups I’m sure will happen! 😉
-Lastly, we will be adding a Livestock Guardian Dog to the farm. A female Maremma puppy, who will need a couple years of training before she is effective at her job, but who should help with the predation we’ve been experiencing the last few years. She is unnamed, as of yet, but will certainly be making an appearance in our photos. LGDs may end up being serious, somber dogs, but they sure start off as cuddly, round, ridiculous puppies like every other.
I’m ecstatic and hopeful about the direction the farm is going. We look forward to partnering with the community to bring more healthy, local food options to the table.
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Schedule An Event
Fall and (somewhat) cooler weather are on the way! Now would be a great time to plan ahead and get on the schedule for a farm event to enjoy that brief period of absolutely beautiful Florida fall, surrounded by farm animals. Have a kiddo who loves horses or can’t get over the cuteness of little goats? Throw them a birthday party they’ll never forget!
We offer birthday party hosting, starting at $200 for 2 hours or $300 for 3 hours.
That includes a covered event area in our barn to open presents, have cake, etc., petting/feeding access to goats, sheep, pigs, horses, donkeys, rabbits, chickens, ducks, and turkeys, and your choice of 2 activities (pony rides, hay rides, pony grooming/brushing, or pony painting), or 3 activities if you opt for 3 hours. We have a couple folding tables in the barn, and 15 folding chairs, but you are welcome to bring more, as well as any decorations you might want to put up beforehand. The barn is not air conditioned, but we do have a cross breeze and fans to help mitigate that middle-of-summer scorching heat.
We also offer field trips for school or homeschool co-ops, work socials, baby showers, or whatever else puts you in the mood to love on some friendly farm animals.
Let me know if you have any questions or would like to get on the schedule.
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