Animal Husbandry
Husbandry is the name of all practices that sustain life by connecting us conservingly to our places and our world; it is the art of keeping tied all the strands in the living network that sustain us. - Wendell Berry
We take the care of our animals seriously giving them fresh air, plenty of healthy forage, feed, and water, as well as shelter from the cold, wet and wind when conditions change for the worse. Explore the links below for more on how we raise our animals and how you can share in the many gifts they provide.
Layers
Our flock of laying hens enjoy fresh pasture from April through December, and on into January, weather permitting. The bulk of their diet consists of organic feed from Maysville Elevator in Apple Creek, Ohio. We use draftpower to haul this feed to the hens as they move daily to new pasture foraging a variety of grasses, clovers, forbs and the seeds, leaves, flowers and stems those plants provide. If we do our job well, the roots of those plants are never eaten or disturbed, leaving them primed to quickly regenerate leaf canopy protecting our precious soils and in the process pumping plant generated carbon in the form of root exudates to our beloved soil microbes!
Good land and soil stewardship equals healthy hens and high quality eggs! If you would like to try our eggs they are available for sale daily at our front door until sold out.
Broilers
Broilers are chickens of a certain size raised for meat--in our farm's case, 3.5 to 6.5 pounds once processed. We raise our broilers on pasture with a series of bottomless pens that are predator proof and easily moveable to promote chicken and forage health. As such broilers are only available from May to November. Outside of these months, the wet or cold, or both is often inhospitable for young chickens, so we, and the land, rest. While on pasture from an age of three weeks on, our broilers cover a half-acre of pasture, moving twice daily to fresh forage. As with our laying flock, we feed only an organic layer ration from Maysville Elevator. Our chicks are sourced from Eagle Nest Poultry in Oceola, Ohio.
If you are interested in getting on our pre-order list for seasonal broilers, please email us!
Turkeys
Our Thanksgiving turkeys are; fed only organic feed, moved daily to fresh pasture, given clean water (no trivial task with turkeys), and grit to help grind up the forage and insects they consume. We feel their quality of life and the resulting taste is unparalleled. On top of that, we have fun raising them and marvel at how they help to transform our soils.
Arriving from Eagle Nest Hatchery as day-old poults, we shelter our turkeys in a heated, well-bedded, draft-free brooder until they are big and strong enough to thrive on pasture.
If you are interested in getting on our pre-order list for Thanksgiving turkeys, please email us!
Sheep
As with the crops we make, we strive to raise the healthiest sheep possible. We have faith in rotational grazing, free-choice minerals, keen observation, and a gentle presence with our flock of sheep all go a long way to create an environment in which our hair sheep can thrive. The flock enjoys a fresh paddock daily, or more often, nearly year-round as our deer exclusion fence allows us to stockpile forage for flock.
Our productive ewes continue to expand our flock and valued customers enjoy the meat with which the remainder of our sheep provide us. If you are interested, in trying some of our exclusively grass-fed sheep for your home or institution, contact us to begin a discussion.
