We have continued to work this winter to grow our egg venture. We know we need to have more hens this summer to keep up with demand. The truth is the eggs are easier than picking green beans to go to Augustana. We picked up 200 little day old pullets to expand our production this summer.

It will take 20 weeks for our girls to grow and come into production. We got two breeds of chicks to see which ones will lay the best eggs.

These little balls of fluff are taking a lot of care for the moment.
We have to keep them very warm and dry with lite and food 24 hours a day. It was crazy, the coldest night of the winter was the day we brought them home. Needless to say they are in the house in tanks for the short term.

Our next update will include details of our buyers program and our seed order. We are just two weeks away from starting plants. Here we go again!

We wish all of you a very Happy New Year. As last year came to a close we began a new venture. Our last post showed our hens and brought you up to date. We have every intention of providing good housing for these girls and with that came the need for new buildings. Where do you turn to when you want to build a chicken coop. I am sure you would agree, you turn to experienced carpenters and trust there will be no mistakes. I look a different direction. I turned to the Phi Mu group at Augustana. They did a great job. Here we are carrying out one of the end walls.

The group of musicians divided the task and made quick work of the walls construction.

They installed bracing to keep the walls in place before calling it a day. We worked in the heated garage to assemble the walls and then carried them out to the platform and placed them all in order to complete the wall portion of the building. This is quite a group. I appreciate their help.

More to come as we complete this project. We now have fresh eggs here at the farm every day.

The season for growing produce has come and gone. Our many valued customers helped us to have a very good year. We had some failures and some great successes. The rains all season long kept us from dong what we needed many times. Planting became at the very least difficult. The continual mud became our work out! Through all of the trials we did find moments of light. Our intern Brittanny was tremendous. We are so blessed to have the students from Augie and Brittany was a breath of fresh air.
This fall we were inspired to begin a new venture. I have vowed for several years that we would NEVER have livestock. The first Sunday of October we purchased our first hens. Things went well and things have grown from there.

I have raised livestock in the past, but I truly thought chickens were a pain and I would not have them(at all). These hens have changed a great deal of my thoughts. Each of them have personality and their own look. We have many different breeds and colors.

Linda and I have been very busy acquiring more hens and building coops for them. The hens walk around following us and making us feel the total dependence they have on us. The reward is the daily basket full of fresh eggs for our customers.