Signs of Spring

How do we know it's Spring?  Less snow, longer days, warmer weather and. . .

Starts planted! Tatsoi, broccoli raab and baby pak choi.

Charlie on the tractor pulling the disc to turn over the winter barley and prepare the garden for planting.

.Lots of eggs!

Helpful Chickens

While we raise layers for their eggs (and the delicious stewing hens we get when laying days are over), the natural life of a chicken serves many purposes on the farm.

Chickens love to scratch in the dirt and eat the bugs stirred up by their activity. We moved the New Hampshire Reds onto our future berry patch and while they are doing what comes naturally they are also fertilizing the soil and spreading the leaf mulch and old straw piles for us. Every critter on the farm is skilled with multi-tasking.  For chickens, having access to piles of mulch and straw, is similar to being at an amusement park with free food!

Domestic chickens are descended from jungle fowl so their natural diet is insects, plants, small rodents, lizards and seeds. A "vegetarian" diet is actually not a complete and healthy diet for a chicken. We are grateful for the labor-saving joy these chickens are experiencing. They'll be happy when we share the extra berries with them next year too!

The patch of soil the chickens are rehabilitating is on an area that is part of what was the most worn out of our pastures when we bought the farm 4 years ago. For 4 years we have bush-hogged whatever grew and allowed the plant life to lie on the soil to decompose. For 3 years chickens have been moved across the pasture from one spot to another and we can see the benefit of our efforts. No pesticides, insecticides or herbicides have been used on any part of the farm and the land is healing. As the land heals the plant life changes from weeds to grasses, eroded places vanish as the increasing organic matter in the land enables the soil to absorb the water.

Comparing Soils

Soil in the field where the chickens were not pastured

We have been tilling up some new fields on the farm for planting this spring. One of our fields had the chickens on part of it last year and the differences are amazing to see! The photo above is of the area of the field where the chickens were not penned up. The photo below shows the soil where the chickens had been for part of last year. Note the richer color of the soil nourished by the pastured chickens who truly benefit the land on which they graze, consuming nutrients from the insects and plants in an area, thus enabling the chickens to produce delicious and nutritious eggs.  You can taste the difference!

Soil where the chickens were pastured