It has been an exciting week on the farm and the change of spring is in the air. We had a few days where the sun came out and the outdoor thermometer read announced temperatures in the 60s. There is a certain joy and energy that we all feel, and that Lewis and Lovett exuberantly express when the feel of spring is in the air. One of the sure signs that the calendar is approaching the spring equinox is the arrival of the first batch of chicks.
Lewis and Lovett got up early on Wednesday morning to be ready to leave in time to get to the post office, load the boxes of chicks and still make it to school on time to show off our newest arrivals to the farm. I think it is the tender nature of the chick that inspires the care of a child. Who doesn’t love to hold a day old chick and admire its yellow fluff?
Often a week before the calendar officially announces spring, their arrival can often be a reminder of how cold the beginnings of spring can be. Some years we have had temperatures as low as 18 degrees on the day our first batch of chicks arrive, however this year we had a forgiving 30 degrees.
Every year we have sold out of chicken during the winter, and in the spring we adjust our production schedule to keep up with what we think we can sell. Chicken is raised on a schedule with a few defining timelines:
- Chicks arrive and need warmth and attention so they go into what we call the “Brooder” for 3 weeks until they have grown their feathers and are hearty enough to go to the field.
- At 3 weeks they go to their field coops. Each coop is 15′ x 24′ and can comfortably house 240 chickens with daily moves onto fresh pasture.
- We process our chickens when they are 9 weeks old.
In 2021 we had batches of 240 chicks arrive every 2 weeks, for a total of 14 batches of chickens. When considering how to produce more chicken this year we decided to increase our batch size from 1 field coop of 240 to two field coops per batch of 480 chickens. This means we need a larger brooding area for all 480 chicks. I decided to build a temporary brooder with some pallets in our heated shop. It is a warm area that rodents and other critters cannot access the tempting chick snacks.
So many fun product announcements:
PORK
In other news we now have all our pork back from the processor, which means so many of those delicious items like Maple Breakfast Sausage Links or No-Nitrate Bacon or Beef & Pork Kielbasa are now back in stock.
I have also updated our pork boxes like Sausage Sampler, Best of Pork Box and the larger discount boxes of 1/4 Pork Box, 1/2 Pork Box and for those looking to really stock their freezer we have the best value of all the Whole Pork Box. The larger value pork boxes (1/2 and whole) will only be available until the end of April. We will offer them again in the fall.
TURKEY!!
Turkey? Yep, after many talks with our friends Dave and Rachel at Wrong Direction Farm (WDF) we are excited to try some joint marketing. We have not raised turkeys since 2018, but we love them as animals, and have always hoped to bring them back to the farm. Then Dave asked: “what if you sold our turkey?” Dave raises Pasture Raised Organic Turkeys just the way we would do, and he has some pretty slick brooder, coop and feed systems that we don’t. So we decided that until we can raise our own turkeys here at Reber Rock Farm, having turkey from WDF is pretty awesome.
We plan to offer Thanksgiving turkeys from WDF this fall but in the meantime we are proud to offer some Ground Turkey! Give it a try and let us know what you think.
Reber Rock Farm Blog 