Safety & Rules on the Farm

1. Parents are fully responsible for their own children at all times. Please keep a close eye on them… the farm can be fun but also dangerous.
2. Stay out of all barns & out buildings.
3. Stay off of all equipment & tools that may be around the farm.
4. The pool area if off limits at all times unless we are providing a special farm event that includes the pool.
5. There is a small, shallow pond below the chicken coop. (Shallow water, deep mud) All children must be accompanied by an adult to visit the pond. Beware of large snapping turtles… they are so cool but keep your distance. They have a tremendous bite. (We just saw one the other day traveling down to the pond)
6. Please, DO NOT chase chickens. Feel free to bring along stale bread to feed them… they love small chunks of bread tossed to them. Watch out though… they’ll snatch it right from your hands if you’re not careful.
7. The bee hives are located behind the pool and house. Do not visit close to the hives unless accompanied by Charlie or Ben. (No closer than 25 feet)
8. Please respect our home and our property. Please leave things as you have found them.
9. When you leave the farm, be sure to check for ticks.

Egg-ucation

We love our home grown eggs and hope you will, too! When you open a carton of our delicious pastured eggs you will see that our eggs come in many sizes, shapes and even color. Most of the eggs are different shades of brown. Sometime they have spots, bumps & even wrinkles. And every once in a while you may find a blue green egg from one of our Americana chickens.

We collect eggs every day and they are all washed & checked for cracks. Since we have roosters (who help protect the hen), many of our eggs are fertilized but this makes no difference in the freshness and taste. Many people believe that a red blood spot on the yolk means the egg was fertilized… this is incorrect. If you want to know if the egg was fertile, you can look for a pale white spot on the yolk. If this spot is an irregular shape, the egg was not fertile. If this white spot is perfectly round, it is called a Blastoderm and shows that the egg was fertilized. On a very rare occasion, you may find an egg that has begun to change inside. That is why it is always a good idea to break an egg into a bowl before adding it you your recipe.

Eggs can be sold anytime within 21 days and are considered fresh. They can be safely kept for weeks at home after that. Most store bought eggs are a week or two old. Our eggs will be coming to you a day or two old. They are wonderful but if you are hard boiling farm fresh eggs, you will find them a bit difficult to peel. Salt added to the boiling water can help a little but this is the nature of truly fresh eggs. If you are planning to make deviled eggs or something similar for a meal, plan ahead and allow your eggs to stay in the frig for at least a week.

Nutritional Note: Chickens are omnivores and thrive on grain, insects, worms, grubs & anything else they can find to eat. Because they are pastured and get to eat all these good things, our eggs contain more monounsaturated fats, vitamin A & E, Omega-3, folic acid, lutein & beta-carotene then “industrialized” eggs. We also do not regularly treat our chickens with antibiotics or other medications which is common practice for “industrialized” egg farms. .

Catching a Swarm… Easy Come, Easy Go!

About 2 weeks ago, we had an exciting experience with our bees that then turned into disappointment. Charlie & Ben were on our back deck preparing bee boxes to put in the fields to catch swarms when they looked down in the brush. There, hanging off a bush, was a huge swarm of bees.

You see, when bee hives get congested, the colony will split and divide… half staying in the old hive, and the rest setting off to find a new place to call home…this group of bees are called a swarm. The guys couldn’t believe it. I heard them rushing around but didn’t know what was going on. Since Charlie was still recovering from shoulder surgery, he needed more help to secure the bees. He put a call into a friend and within a half an hour he was there in his bee suit. Charlie did not have an empty hive at the time to put the bees in so he improvised… they used a paper box.

Fortunately this swarm was setting in a bush at ground level. Swarms are most often found about 10 to 15 feet up in a tree. The kids and I were amazed as we watched Charlie & his friend basically shake the bees into the box. They put on the lid that had a small hole cut in it for the straggling bees to enter. The bees went easily into the hole which was a good sign that the queen was already in the box.

Well, they secured the swarm but now we needed to find a real hive for them. Charlie & I rode to Hagerstown the next day to purchase a new hive. Before we could put the bees in the new home, the hive box needed to be assembled and painted. We did this as fast as we could and two days after catching the swarm, Charlie was ready to put the bees into the new hive.

He suited up, opened the paper box and basically poured them into the new hive. These were busy bees… they had already begun to make wild comb in the paper box. To make them feel more at home, Charlie took the comb and hung it in the new hive box. The bees seemed to settle in right at home.

You can imagine how disappointed we were when the next day the bees were gone. Charlie had added sugar water to the hive to give them quick nourishment which is a common thing to do to help a new colony settle. But the water may have been too cold and made the bees decide to search for a new home. Another theory as to why the bees left is paint fumes. The paint on the new box was dry but may have still carried an odor that they did not like. Well, whatever the reason, it was a good experience for the next swarm and we now have the equipment ready and waiting.