Friday on the Farm- The Birds and the Bees
I mean come on! I couldn’t help myself. This Friday on the Farm, we LITERALLY are dealing with birds & bees! I see those rolling eyes...
THE BIRDS
Today, we received our first batch of baby chicks at the store for 2019! By the end of April we will have sold over 1,400 chicks….chickens, ducks, turkeys, and peafowl <--I’m a little behind, but I just found out what peafowl is! PEACOCKS!
We got these lovely ladies this morning! I’m telling you, seeing baby chicks NEVER gets old! These are Blue Laced Red Wyandottes. These are a special breed that is kind of hard to come by around here, and my employees and I all wanted them. *Perks of being the store owner.*
Now with that FRESH warm feeling of baby chicks.. Let’s just take a look at my chicken coop.
Yeah...there’s work to be done. COME ON SPRING! Luckily, we’ll have about 4-6 weeks before they can handle any temp below 70 degrees, so I’ve got a little bit of time.
TIPS FOR NEW BABY CHICKS
Make sure to get chick electrolytes for your water. When you first get the chicks, dunk their head in the water & look for them to raise their beak to the sky so you know they got a drink.
Within your first day, I know this will be HARD, but handle your chicks as LITTLE as possible.
TEMPERATURE is the most important thing at this first stage. Get a thermometer or learn how to raise/lower your heating element (lamp) according to their spread in the brooder. (If that doesn’t make ANY sense to you, message me & I explain it better!)
Hmmm…I’ve just come up with a LOVELY idea for a Beginner Crazy Chicken Lady post!
I just get so giddy when it’s chicken season for us!!
THE BEES
We bottled honey! *Wineingers! Really! The first post on your NEW site about bees is BOTTLING HONEY!* Yeah I know...we skipped a few steps, but that’s what you get when you start a blog on a farm in February.
Because of the cold, the honey had crystallized & was quite slow moving, but NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF A BLOW DRYER!
We ended up bottling about 43 pounds. It just looks so pretty...sigh.
Our actual bee season will begin in late March. I believe our new hives come the beginning of April. We will DEFINITELY be recording that!
We sell our honey as well as hive & keeper equipment at our feed store, so if you need anything, stop by.
This is the logo we have planned...tell me what you think...
Well, have a great weekend, friend! I must now go & clean HONEY off of every surface of my kitchen! I lost two pairs of socks today already...