New Breed On The Farm - Mint Cream Bar, Green Egg Layer

I love colored eggs if you haven't figured that out before now.  Eggs and birds in general have always fascinated me.  The fact that poultry paint such a lovely palette is very enticing, go ahead and admit it your enchanted by those beautiful colors also.   Chickens and their genetics are amazing!! 
  
Because of  my love for bewitching egg color, I began a year ago messing around with creating a new green age layer.  It's been about 10 years now since we created the Olive Egger and it's time to see what more can be achieved in shades of green...

Creating a new breed of chicken can take years of work and waiting to see if your efforts have provided what your looking for.  Each  tweak we make can take up to a year or longer before we know if the change was a success or do we need to head back to the barn and begin again.  You must have patience when working with poultry. 

Our goal is to create  beautiful shades of green eggs, including moss green, mint green and olive green.  This takes years of work and we're in the beginning stages.  I'm enjoying what I'm seeing so far and ready to begin sharing them with our customers but at the same time we've  began the next phase in the process, which will take another year before we know if the change we made is a success.

Did you know poultry that lay colored eggs depending on what breed, they color their eggs in different ways.  Some poultry color the egg  by applying the color to the outside of the shell.  While others color the shell all the way through.  Next time you crack a colored egg open go ahead and peel back the membrane on the inside of the shell and take a look at the color of the shell from the inside of the egg.  If it's a brown egg you will notice that the inside of the shell is white.  Chickens are amazing!!

This Army drab green egg is blue on the inside.  Marvelous Chickens!

We're excited about the Mint Cream Bar / Green Egg Layer and can't wait to share it with others who fancy a colorful basket of eggs.
We're accepting chick and started pullet orders now for spring
shipments.  Hope you'll be adding the Mint Cream Bar to your chick wish list. 

Head over to the website and begin your chick wish list.

Have a blessed day!
Angie 

From Sheep To Shawl - Gotland Fleece

Last summer we began a fascinating adventure in sheep.  I must say I was very nervous at first since we know absolutely nothing about sheep (slowly but surely we're learning).  It has been a joy getting to know and work with them and learn new skills.
Last fall I learned that I can't depend upon a sheep shearer in this area, they are very few and hard to find.  So I bought myself some hand shears and sheared them myself.  I learned to skirt a fleece, wash a fleece, card the wool and through the wonders of YouTube I've learned to use a drop spindle and spin my own yarn. 
I'm not a person who enjoys sitting around with nothing to do, I like to stay busy during the day and have a task.  Processing fiber this winter has kept me busy during the slow season on the poultry farm.

Gotland sheep have amazing fleece!  I love the colors of the sliver, gray, and charcoal gray.  I'm not a great spinner but with time I'll improve.  I'm sure to an experienced  eye this might look like a hunky  chunky mess but I love it!!
It has taken many hours of work to get to the stage of sitting down and knitting.  There are a whole lot of steps in making yarn...
Once I had the yarn spun, I decided I would make a shoulder wrap or shawl.  It's a very simple pattern that I got from Pinterest but also added my own twist to the pattern.  Larry made the buttons from deer antlers, wasn't that so sweet!

I wore the wrap out to take a few photos with the girls, it was so funny, I'm pretty sure they recognized the wool!

They never stopped sniffing.  I think they approved of what I had made with their lovely locks.
I still have more fleece, so it's on to the next project, what shall I make next...
Larry would you like a sweater or long underwear???

On to the next adventure, hoping for lambs in the spring.

Have a blessed day!

Angie

Frozen Eggs During Cold Temps - We Have The Solution

During these really cold months you probably have noticed that before you can get your eggs safely gathered into they house that most of them have froze and cracked.  I really hate it when that happens.  But I have a solution for that problem...  There is one breeding pen on the farm that the eggs never freeze, take a guess what pen that would be....

The sweet little Chocolate Oprington pen!!!  The eggs never freeze in this pen, these little gals take great pride in keeping eggs warm and take the job very seriously.  It's their goal each day to check out all egg boxes for abandoned eggs, tuck them under their fluffy little butts and keep them warm until you come and snatch them all up.

So not only are they cute, they're super functional dual purpose gals.  They lay cute small to medium  sized eggs, they keep your eggs from freezing during the winter months and they're great incubators as well.

They're perfectly happy to hatch eggs for you or to adopt babies that don't even belong to them.  They make wonderful little mothers.

 Let us help you out with your frozen egg issues.  Head on over to the Website and place a spring chick order and come next winter you'll never have another frozen egg. 

Stay Warm and have a blessed day!

Angie