Beatrice and Charlotte decide that they want to live in the new duck house, too.

We jammed a lot into the three day weekend — so much so that it took us until Wednesday to post something about it. It’s a remarkable feeling to look back now over the weekend and revel in our accomplishment. Here’s a quick recap:

Saturday was a day of doors. I got the new duck house facade built with a drop down door/ramp. I got the garden gate hinged and working (we’d been propping it up with a stick). And I got a door on El Diablo’s dog house in the chicken yard. (He can make it up the 8 foot high chicken ramp, but in the summer prefers to hang out in the dog house. The door will keep him safe, and muffle the crowing in the morning.)

Sunday, the girls and I painted the duck house, and then I took out my newly tuned and sharpened chainsaw (that lasted about 20 minutes) and cut up all the limbs and branches we’d had taken down from the big oak behind the house. In the afternoon, our dear sweet girl Charlotte saved a mouse’s life.

Monday, we brought the ducks out of their box in the barn and introduced them to their new house and yard. We put the goats on the hill underneath the oak to clear out some of the bramble that had been taking over, and to expose the groundhog hole. We then turned to mowing and planting, and somehow got the entire back 2 acres mowed (thank you garden tractor!) and managed to plant our tomatoes and a few other things in the garden.

For photographic recap of the weekend, check out our page on Facebook.

The real revelation of the weekend, and I think we’ll be writing more about this in the days to come, was the discovery that we have, after 4 years of doing nothing but letting it sit, beautiful, amazing compost.

Our homemade sifter and delicious compost.

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Farming, Goats, cute kids compost, ducks, Goats, weekend, work

This year, the Araucanas are out, Buff Minorcas are in.

Each February we gather around our Murray McMurray catalog and marvel over their remarkable variety of chickens, ducks, geese, turkeys, and other fowl. Actually, we like browsing the catalog any month, but February is typically when we get down to business and place our spring and summer poultry order. Before I reveal this year’s chicken choices (poultry picks?), a word about the Ten Apple laying flock management plan.

We keep a laying flock of 20-24 birds. Our first flock included 12 chickens (11 hens and one rooster, an Australorp named Larry) of several different breeds: Buff Orpingtons, Araucanas, Australorps, Plymouth Barred Rocks, and Rhode Island Reds. We decided that we would keep the layers for two years and then process the spent hens for soup and stew. Each year we replace half of the flock (the mature birds) with 12 new birds. After that first year of various breeds we decided that each spring we would choose one breed for the year and get 12 chickens of a different variety than the year before. That way we would always know which half of the flock would go the way of the stock pot and which half would stick around for another year. To our initial flock we added 12 black and white Plymouth Barred Rocks. The next year, we thought, so long as we’re alternating breeds, let’s also alternate the color of the eggs that they lay so we can see exactly how productive each half of the flock is being–and get a nice rainbow in our egg basket. When we said goodbye to the Orpingtons, Australorps and Reds, we said hello to 12 colorful-egg-laying Araucanas. Last year, we replaced our aging Barred Rocks (who are brown egg layers) with a dozen brown egg-laying Australorps, who I remembered being particularly good layers. They have proven that to be true. So far this week we’ve had daily egg counts of 14,  15, and 13 eggs from our  flock of 12 Australorps and 7 Araucanas–not bad for gloomy late winter. This fall we’ll process the Araucanas, but first, this spring we’ll say hello to 12 day-old Buff Minorcas, who will eventually lay white eggs.

So without further ado… the 2010 Ten Apple Farm Poultry Order:

12 Buff Minorcas (plus a straight run of 13 Buff Orpingtons that we’re going to brood for some new friends in Unity)

Murray McMurray’s BBQ Special (a mix of 25 Cornish Cross Rock and Cornish Roasters)

15 Rouen Ducks

6 Broad Breasted Bronze Turkeys (we get our turkeys from the Ames Farm Center in North Yarmouth, because the minimum order from the hatchery is 25–way more turkeys than we need!)

Farming, poultry chickens, chicks, ducks, eggs, poultry, turkeys