our farm routine : a day on the farm

{this is Rex, one of three roosters on our farm. he's a good boy.}

About a week ago Michelle asked me if I could share a bit about our routines here on the farm.  Well, I'd love to! In case you are just arriving here, we have a small organic poultry farm, Red Comb Farm, in Vermont where we raise 58 chickens for eggs to sell locally. We started keeping chickens about three years ago and our love for them is now blossoming into a home based business. Along with our 58 chickens there are 5 people, two cats, two alpacas and two lizards to take care of.

by 8AM

The proverbial rooster crows around 8 am for us here. By that time Greg is off to work and Jorn to school. On their way out, one of them will let the chickens out of the coop. We free range our birds so from the coop they head out into the field and the yard and the garage and the flower beds and the driveway and sometimes even the house in search of grubs, bugs, tender greens etc. 

{see how busy they are! and happy too!}

by 10AM

Meanwhile, I am feeding Vaughn, Simonne and (in theory) myself breakfast. I water our seedlings and Simonne feeds the cats during this time too. After breakfast Simonne and Vaughn play, safe and secure, in our playroom during the winter months while I run out to feed and water the chickens and alpacas. During the warmer months they will come outside with me but this always adds a great deal of time to the chores. No biggie, but the time line changes. We also collect any morning eggs that have been laid at this time and tidy up our mudroom for the day.

{whatcha got there? an egg?! thanks lady!}

That's it for morning chores! Then we just sit around and do nothing until the afternoon! Ha! Gotcha! Just kidding! We are very busy bees making things, baking things, grocery shopping, laundering, cleaning, listing in the shop, packing orders, answering convos and emails and playing as much as we can before it's our turn to pick up the carpool kids and Jorn from school around 3PM.  As soon as we return home, it's back to work!

By 4PM

Time to collect eggs again! But this time I have help. The chickens babysit while I go and gather their bounty.

 

The eggs are collected, placed in a basket and then set inside the refrigerator until after dinner. We wash our eggs before we carton them which is actually the most time consuming aspect of the whole process. I like inspecting each egg, sorting eggs I feel are too small to sell and generally making sure our customers are getting the most beautiful, delicious eggs that are possible. Seriously. Have you seen them?

{help yourself!}

By the way, our farm is a Honor System, self serve farm. I like it this way. Our customers get to see the chickens up close, meet us (if they want to and if we are home) and Simonne sometimes even delivers eggs right to your car (with help and supervision of course)! So, customers drive up, walk into our mudroom, help themselves to eggs that we keep in a dorm size refrigerator and leave money in a glass jar.

{welcome to Red Comb Farm! we pay her extra to be the greeter ;) }

By 8PM

While Greg is getting the kids to bed, I go out to close up the hens, inspect the coop and replenish feed and water. I like filling the feed hopper and water at night. This way if we are having a particularly chaotic morning or we have appointments or even if we are just feeling a bit lazy I know they have what they need when the sun rises. Chickens roost at night and go into a dreamy state. So, even if I fill the hopper to the tippy top they won't get down to eat. 

I also wash and carton the eggs at this time and restock the fridge for the next day. Then, I call it a day! Whew. That's it! I am more exhausted reading this than I am doing it. It seems like a lot but I would say that I spend about 1 1/2 hours taking care of the egg business each day and about 5 minutes on the alpacas (that doesn't count all the cuddling and hanging out, I am talking straight feeding of them etc.) 

 

This lifestyle keeps us really, and I mean really busy and outside but I really do love it and wouldn't have it any other way. Obviously there is a great deal that we do during our day that I haven't mentioned here. But I just wanted to deal with the egg business primarily because it's good to know that you can be a provider of high quality, organic food for your community with just a little bit of work each day. Chickens are easy peasy and SO much fun.

Here's a basic time line of our day just because it's a bit more clear this way.

8am : let the chickens out of the coop and into the field

10am-10:15am: gather morning eggs, fill feed and water if needed. tidy breezeway. give hay and water to the alpacas.

4pm-4:30pm: gather afternoon eggs and place in fridge. hang out with alpacas and give them some grain.

7pm-8pm: close up coop, check well being of birds and security, fill feed and water. one last check on the alpacas for the night. wash and carton eggs, restock the fridge for the next day. 

If you have any questions about the way we do things, how we manage or if I left something out just let me know! I love talking chicken!

Comments

[Maike]

Thank you so much for sharing this!! It was a joy to read and I have to say, I do envy you a lot (but in a friendly way *g*). Sadly, I live very far away so I will neither get a taste of those lovely eggs nor get to cuddle the alpacas... Boy, I hope they come up with beaming technology soon, it's about time!

[Abi]

you are welcome maike :) i wish you could visit us here too!

[keana]

Rex is damn sexy! I love the honor system & I don't see your Facebook-ing schedule on here...that takes up time too!

[Abi]

too many obvious jokes here about rex and i'd like to keep this blog clean, keana ;)

lol! there is that whole other digital world that takes up time every day too, so true. blogging, fb, etsy etc. perhaps another post is in order?

[chppie]

I'm curious about the role of the alpacas on the farm. Besides hanging out with them and feeding them, how much time do you spend with them on alpacas issues (health, etc.) and do you plan to use their fleece to spin? For personal or commercial use?

[Abi]

we have two 'fiber boys' that we got in late november of 2009 and they are very easy to care for. alpacas need to be wormed on a schedule (approx every 3 months), have their hooves and teeth trimmed as needed, as well as be shorn once a year (coming up in may!).

since this is our first time doing anything like this i am not quite sure what i will do with their fleece yet. i don't know how to spin yet but that is the obvious next step for me. i don't plan on selling them commercially though. i can't wait to knit with it myself and gift some to friends!

i hope that helps! let me know if you have any more questions :)

[chppie]

Thanks! That was really interesting. I don't spin yet either so I will enjoy hearing about your adventures. I always look forward to reading your blog. I'm on the other coast and non-farmy so it's a great peek into another world.

[Melissa]

Hi, Abi. I was just wondering where you get your organic chicken feed. We haven't been able to find a local supplier in upstate NY...

Thanks,
Melissa

[Abi]

we use green mountain feed. they make such high quality feeds and we are able to get them through our local feed store. here is the link to their site! i hope it helps :)

http://www.greenmountainfeeds.com/default.aspx

[Melissa]

Thanks SO much for the link! We'll see if we can try them out.

[Michelle Chapin]

Abi, Thank you SOOOO much for posting this! My husband and I are in chicken heaven reading this! ahahah Where oh where did you get those amazing egg cartons?
So ...now after caring for about 60 chickens, are you guys still wanting to go even bigger?? Thanks again so much! xoxo Michelle

[Abi]

you are welcome, michelle! it was fun to work out the day like this. it's second nature to us now and we are pretty efficient about it.

i laughed because i joked with greg at dinner that i ordered 50 more chickens today and he just about fell over. i am ready to go bigger and he's happy to stay put for now. that being said i do plan on ordering a few more chickens (just don't tell him) ;)

i would love to add meat birds to the mix too! we will at some point in the very near future and start the same way we did with the layers, enough for us at first, to see how it goes.

[Sarah]

So glad to hear the honor system works for you. I see that kind of thing a lot here in New Zealand (just about every other house has a stand at the end of their driveway with eggs, potatoes, kiwis, flowers etc. - it varies regionally) and I'd like to see more of that in the States.

[Maike]

Thank you, that makes me very happy =)

[Abi]

hi sarah :) we are happy the honor system is working out but we are also lucky enough to be in a very accessible location so it works out well for everyone.

my husband talks about going to new zealand all the time. my cousin went a few years ago and my sons teacher just went two years ago. as soon as we can find a good chicken sitter ;)

[karin]

That sounds wonderful - you have really grown into it right along with the animals.

[karin]

BTW I think I'll be up to see you next week, gotta get me some of those eggs. :) Let me know what days are good for you.

[Abi]

can you come on saturday for the big 1 party? we'd love to have you here!

[Joy]

Thank you! I enjoyed reading about your chickens. Maybe you'd be interested reading about another 'egg-gatherer' in my neck of the woods... http://freshairlife.blogspot.com/2009/07/katzors-farm.html
Stop by for some Fresh Nebraska stories!