Happy New Year!!!

May your nest boxes be filled with eggs and your backyard or barnyard filled with beautiful and spunky poultry. And may your coop be self-cleaning in the new year.

Happy New Year,

Natalie
My Little Sister's Farm

Happy Christmas!!!

Happy and Merry to you all!!! Our holiday season has been merry and bright, I hope yours has as well. Not a whole lot to report, the chickens are slowing their egg laying and the ducks are happily puddle splashing by day and cozy in the coop at night. Some of the buffalo cows are starting to show their baby bumps so we know spring can't be too far away.

Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year!!!

A boy named Peggy?

I think we have a drake in the bunch! One of the ducklings looks like a boy. We can't give him a complex by continuing to call him Peggy. Since his given name is Pegasus I think we'll call him Gus. I better not end up with to many Gus' though...Roast Gus sounds tasty. ;)

Happy Turkey Day!!!

Happy Thanksgiving all!!! I hope there is a beautiful bird on your table ready to celebrate with your family. We'll be having one of our turkeys and bison, another family raised animal. I will try to post a picture of our table's spread at www.facebook.com/lilsisfarm.

Gobble, gobble!!!

It's so quiet!!!

It's so quiet in the coop this morning without all the turkeys. Thought I would miss them, just a little...nope!

Turkey Processing Day Has Arrived

Ah, tomorrow there will be no more gobbling on the farm. All of the turkeys will be on their ways to new homes to be placed in the oven in just a few days. Oh the silence...Oh wait, there are still ducklings in my garage! The gobbles may be gone but the quacking won't stop...

Turkeys, turkeys everywhere!!!

Oh my gosh! The turkeys got out of the pen today. I couldn't believe how far they got before we got up this morning. There were a few in the coop, a few in the barn, poo on a tractor, poo on a wood pile. They did help clean up some of the unripe tomatoes still in the garden, yes found poo there too. Oh well, they'll be gone soon! Right?!?!?!

The Ducklings Get their Name

At My Little Sister's Farm we like to name our animals. We don't name them each something different, how can you tell the difference between 60 yellow baby turkeys??? So we name the turkeys all one name, Frank. The Ameraurcana hens became Henrietta, Henny, and the Barred Rocks were names Penelope, Penny.

Naming the ducks was a bit harder for me. I don't know why but I didn't want to be too cliche. Daisy seemed like the best choice for a while but we finally decided on Peggie. We named them all Pegasus but like the Hennys and the Pennys we thought a good old fashioned nick name seemed ideal. So we have 25 little Peggys in our garage. I think they acually quack more now that we've named them. Oy!

The Ducklings are Here!!!

The ducklings have hatched. They are so cute. They are "white layers" but right now they are yellow!!! Come next spring we should have a good 20-25 laying duck hens to fill those duck orders. One of the local restaurants in Forest Grove hopes to use our eggs regularly for their pasta. The head chef said he loves the texture and mouthfeel of pasta noodles made with duck eggs over chicken eggs. I'll have to try that one.

check out pics of the ducklings soon on facebook: www.facebook.com/lilsisfarm

On our way to the Swap

We're about to leave for the Oregon Poultry Swap in Corvallis. Hope to meet lots of other local Poultry Peeps there.

Ducklings!!!

The Forest Grove Farmer's Market is comingto a close and our conculsion from the sales this year is MORE DUCK EGGS!!! I can't believe how many people have asked for our duck eggs each week. We could probably have sold 10 dozen in a week when our hens were only laying 1 dozen. Our ducklings hatch on the 24th of this month and should be laying just in time for the Forest Grove Farmer's Market 2012.

Follow us of facebook to see pics and update about the ducklings and much much more.

www.facebook.com/lilsisfarm

Oregon Poultry Swap!!!

www.oregonpoultryswap.com

We're going to be going to the OR Poultry Swap at teh Benton County Fair Grounds in Corvallis on 10/22. Hope to see some other poultry peeps there!!!

Long Time, No Typing

I am so sorry all, I am a bad blogger. When everything gets super busy I seem to disappear from the computer. Although things aren't slowing down that much I will try to keep you posted more with what is going on down on the farm.

Meet the Farm Dog - Pip

Pip, full name Pretty in Pink, a 5 year old rescue fawn English Mastiff with a big bark and a bigger heart. Though she is s true snuggle-bug, she is known by most as the buffalo watch dog. She doesn’t let anyone pass our gates without a warning bark, or ten. But once you’ve introduced yourself, she wants to play with you, not bite. Pippy, as we commonly refer to her, is very protective of her people and home, but is easily distracted by a fleece blanket or treat.

PCC Backyard Chicken Raising Classes

Natalie will be teaching a Backyard Chicken series for PCC this coming spring term. PCC is teaming up with Farmington Gardens to host my class for 40 people wanting to learn more about selecting and raising chickens in urban areas. Registration should be open now on PCC’s website. PCC offers a lot of different community oriented courses like canning, computers, and even hula hooping. How fantastic is that! Please check out PCC’s website www.pcc.edu for more information on classes in your area.

The Hennys and the Pennys

So My Little Sister’s Farm does something a bit different than most farms. Well, we do a lot of things different but one thing we do is raise chicks starting in the winter. We started our Barred Plymouth Rocks and Ameraucana chicks in December. December 1st 100 little ladies were hatched and delivered to us by a local company called OR Peeps. I love chicks! We don’t usually buy chicks, but we had so many older hens, we needed an infusion of new blood. They are now over 3 months old. They are sassy girls too, well 2 are boys but they have quite the 'tude too.

I’m not one for naming individual birds as many hens of the same breed will look like one another their entire lives. But I feel chickens should have a name. After all, they are much smarter than dogs and cats, though don’t hold grudges like my cat tends to. We named all of the turkeys “Frank” last year and that worked well. I decided the Barred Rocks would be called Henrietta and the Ameraucanas would be called Penelope. Yup, we went with Henny and Penny. I guess naming them makes two things we do a little differently. And just in case you’re left wondering, the turkeys will again be named Frank, but the broilers…we’ll have to get to know them first.

A Belated Happy New Year

Wow! It has taken me so long to get back to the blog. You'd think a farm would be slow in the winter but some how we manage to be short on time year round. Let me try to catch you up as quickly as I can...

Our chicks are getting super big now. We started chicks in December this year and they should start laying in May, just in time for the farmer's markets. We have decided to continue with the Forest Grove FM but also add the Astoria FM (if our application is accepted in the next few weeks anyway). Oh and the ducks are laying, more than usual for this time of year, the ground hog must be right.

So many changes are taking place this year. First we’re expanding our “product line” to include produce at the Forest Grove Farmer’s Market. We’ve always planted some type of garden in hopes of being able to can and have our own produce year round. The weather in Oregon has been hit or miss for the past few years, and so have my gardening skills. If someone tells you weeding is fun she’s never been chased out of her own garden by a garter snake – they’ll getcha ya know. But with the help of the owners of Astoria Indoor Garden Supply, well composted chicken manure and my library card, I feel well equipped for the adventure 2011 brings.

We’ve ordered 10 bare root Persimmon trees (sticks really, they are quite small to start), and 25 grape vines, I’m so excited but know it will be at least 1.5 years before we get any real crop off of the grapes any maybe 3 years on the trees. Patience is not my best quality. I’m good at growing beans but hey, who isn’t. I’m hoping with some luck and a bit of luck and a bit of sunshine I’ll be able to grow a little of everything from eggplant to Brussels sprouts.

We’re also going to start slowly raising broiler chickens the way we did turkeys this year. We’ll be raising 100 meat chickens this spring and we’ll begin accepting pre-orders in March. Don’t worry, if you’re reading this, you are the first to know and the first opportunity to reserve your chickens will be through the newsletter and blog (a little bribe to keep you reading right?). The broilers will be processed starting in June. More details to come.