Nature's Harbor Farm

A Tale of Two Mothers

Thu, 17 May 2012 00:28:45 -0500

Greetings!
I have many stories to tell this time of year. The farm is so busy with planting and many baby animals. The extremely naughty and adventurous adolescent turkeys (or velociturkeys as I've taken to calling them) managed to destroy a lot of the plants in the greenhouse. The plants are Brandon's babies. I'm lucky he's not filing for divorce. The velociturkeys are my responsibility.  Another set of animals, the honeybees, are also my project and cost me dearly this week. I was working in an extremely strong hive when one of the ladies took a dislike to my presence and stung me in the ring finger. After 5 or so hours and doses of Benadryl, the swelling was only getting worse.  I made the painful decision to have Brandon cut off my wedding band with a pair of tin snips. I figured my finger was more important.  Farming definitely puts a marriage to the test!

Mother's Day weekend was an eventful one for mamas and babies here. A first time mama hen had faithfully sat on her foster eggs and they started hatching on Saturday.  She had hatched out one chick the week before who she wasn't particularly nice to but who seemed to be thriving anyway. Well, when the next egg hatched, she promptly killed the baby guinea. When a second guinea hatched and she was obviously not going to tolerate it either, I stepped in. I have a lovely little silkie hen that is an amazing mother but she had shown no signs of going broody yet this spring and so wasn't really in mama mode. I decided to tried a little experiment. I took that tiny guinea and placed it in front of the silkie. The baby pushed up against her breast. I watched to see if I was going to need to save the little one again (some hens very much dislike chicks that they didn't hatch themselves). The silkie stared with great intensity at this baby for a couple of minutes and then I saw her expression soften (yes, chickens show expressions) and her eyes start to close. She was transforming before my eyes. She started clucking baby talk to the little one and within 5 minutes she had tucked the little keet under her wing and the adoption was complete. I retrieved each new baby as it hatched out under the homicidal hen and was able to give the silkie a total of 2 guinea keets and 3 turkey poults. She is doing an awesome job with her little brood. I would be lying if I said that the silkie's show of love and acceptance of these little ones didn't bring a tear to my eye. As for the homicidal hen, she seems to love her eggs even if she doesn't care for what comes out of them so I gave her some new eggs to hatch and she seems happy with the arrangement.

This Sunday is an open farm day so come out and see all the babies and pick up some better than organic eggs. We are also having a volunteer day on Sunday. We will be weeding and mulching and having a lot of fun together. If you'd like to volunteer let me know by Friday night. We have a potluck meal and enjoy the wonderful company. We are getting a large shipment of chicks on Friday so there will be lots more new babies to meet.

Sincerely,
Heather Redden
www.naturesharborfarm.com

A Reminder

Sun, 06 May 2012 09:30:58 -0500

Hello!
Today is an open farm day from noon-4. We are bursting with babies! Lambs are frolicking, turklets are running around the greenhouse, and our turkey hen just did a stupendous job of hatching out 1 silkie chick, 13 guinea keets(and counting), and 6 turkey poults. The cuckoo maran hen has also hatched out her first foster chick with more to come. Come out to purchase the best eggs possible from chickens and ducks foraging on pasture and supplemented with non GMO feed and see all the little ones.

Sincerely,
Heather Redden
www.naturesharborfarm.com

Living a Real Life

Wed, 02 May 2012 00:22:33 -0500

Hello Friends,
I am happy to be writing to you again. It has been an extremely eventful couple of weeks. First, the volunteer day that wasn't. A couple of days before, I decided to come down with a most awful illness. We had to cancel the volunteer day. I was certainly not going to risk passing my yuck on to anyone else. We have decided to reschedule for Sunday May 20, same time, same project. Please let us know if you are planning on attending by the Friday before. Brandon found the first strawberry yesterday amongst the weeds so you'll likely get to snack as you weed. How's that for incentive? I have started an event calendar on our website which will have our open hours and other events on it to help you keep track. http://www.naturesharborfarm.com/calendar

Our lambing season is now over for the year with the birth of a single ewe lamb each to Callie and Luna. Callie is an older Icelandic ewe and she and I are quite attached to each other. Last year, she had a really hard time and lost a set of triplets. This year she gave birth to a lamb that is her spitting image. I couldn't be more pleased. Callie will not be bred again and will live out her days as my sweet pet. I'm a pretty impractical livestock farmer at times. We received our turkey poults from the hatchery and they are doing well. The first egg also hatched under our turkey hen. She has a foster silkie chick! Silkies are a small breed of chicken.  Its quite amusing to see this large turkey and her tiny chick. She is very protective. As I write, I am sitting next to a small cage with three turkey poults from our own hen that hatched out in the incubator. It has been interesting comparing them to the hatchery turkeys. They seem to be larger and for lack of a better term, more solid. We think that it is probably a result of the better nutrition that our breeding pair receives versus a hatchery breeding flock.

Living life on a sustainable farm is a daily opportunity to embrace life at its fullest and most diverse which includes intimate first hand knowledge of birth, death, and everything that comes between. Brandon found a newly hatched box turtle in our garden. So amazing to see a perfectly formed fully functioning turtle with a shell the size of a quarter. I also found a garter snake in the greenhouse. I couldn't resist reliving my Cincinnati Zoo days so I caught it for my girls to touch. I'd forgotten what a snake feels like. We found a wild turkey nest at the back of the farm. It unfortunately had been abandoned or something happened to the mother.  As much as I wanted to save those eggs, it is illegal to keep wild turkeys and so we had to leave them be.

One of the sad facts of incubating eggs whether under a bird or in an incubator is that sometimes things don't go right. The turkey hen had a second silkie egg that started to hatch but the chick didn't make it. When I found it, I peeled back the membrane to find a perfectly formed chick still tucked into the shape of the egg. It was sad but also a moment to marvel at a most awe inspiring process. A fully formed chick fills the entire shell.  It doesn't have the tiniest amount of extra room. The legs, head, and wings are all tucked in like some sort of elaborate puzzle. It is a miracle that they do make it out of the shell most of the time. All of these experiences add up to living what to me feels like a "real" life. Wish I could think of a better way to describe it.

A couple of fun items to bring up. Our little farm is famous! We are one of the farms featured in the "Notable Edibles" section of Edible Ohio Valley magazine. You can find a digital copy of it here. http://www.ediblecommunities.com/ohiovalley/ This is a gorgeous magazine and worthy of picking up a paper copy. The artwork and layout are beautiful. This issue also features an article by Dan Adams of Earthineer.com on urban chickens. Continuing the chicken theme, I will be giving a presentation at Imago on Saturday, May 5 at 2 pm on backyard chicken keeping. Afterwords will be a tour of some of the backyard coops at the Enright Urban Ecovillage. For more details or to sign up http://www.imagoearth.org/home/public_programs/backyard_chickens_a_presentation_and_field_trip0.html

Sincerely,
Heather and Brandon Redden
www.naturesharborfarm.com

Directions to the farm

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 22:26:20 -0500

Our address is 231 Fisher Rd. Foster, KY 41043. Hours of operation are every other Sunday from noon-4. See the calendar for dates. Visiting the farm at any other time is by appointment only. Our livestock guardian dog and tom turkey will not appreciate any unexpected visitors. Thanks for understanding.

Babies are here!

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 21:57:47 -0500

Hello Everyone!
Things are really hopping on the farm these days. We have welcomed three new lambs so far. Shamrock started us off with a darling ewe lamb born on March 28 about 10pm. I have the pregnant ewes penned in my front yard right now (one of the joys of country living) so that I can keep an eye on them. I was sitting in my living room and through the open window I heard a chorus of baas. Shamrock had just given birth and it seemed all the sheep were welcoming the new addition. Especially vocal was Shamrock's lamb from last year, Goldie. She really wanted everyone to know that her little sister had arrived. Usually, they do not become so vocal over a lamb. Then just this past Sunday morning, Claire gave birth to an adorable set of twins. This was the first birth I've gotten to witness in a long time and the very first that my daughters were able to see. We caught quite a bit of it on video and it is posted on the farm's Facebook page if you'd like to see the little ones. My daughters' commentary and the "help" of our kitten Milo make it more entertaining. http://www.facebook.com/#!/naturesharborfarm

We also continue to work towards producing our own poultry. I would eventually like to move away from the use of hatcheries as I don't feel it is a very sustainable practice. Our good friend Mary of Rising Phoenix Farm has put a number of our bourbon red turkey and silkie eggs in her incubators. She reported to me today that three of the silkie eggs have pipped (started to hatch) and I'm looking forward to getting the new babies home. My turkey hen has since gone broody and so she is now sitting on turkey eggs from another good friend's farm, Ame of Fox Run Produce. Her turkey hen is laying but not wanting to sit! My turkey hen also has 18 guinea eggs and some silkie eggs under her for good measure. I also have a welsummer hen sitting on more turkey, guinea, and chicken eggs. I'm going to try to put all my broody hens to work this year raising babies. It is wonderful to watch their mothering instincts kick in. We are also anticipating the delivery of bourbon red, narragansett, and royal palm turkey poults and some silkies from the hatchery this week.

We suffered a gardening set back last week. We lost many seedlings in our greenhouse to a freeze one night. Our greenhouse is unheated but usually retains enough heat to protect the plants in the spring at night but this time we lost between 50 and 75 tomato, pepper, melon, and squash plants. Ouch! Luckily, some pulled through and Brandon has already replanted. It was very disappointing to see all those dead plants though. They are our babies too.

As I mentioned in the last newsletter, we are planning a volunteer day on the farm for April 22 from noon-5ish. We are going to be renovating a large perennial food garden. Lots of weeding and mulching to do along with great conversation and making new friends. A late lunch/early dinner will be potluck. We provide the main course, drinks, and a side and you bring a favorite side or dessert. You also can spend some time with the new lambs and turkey poults. At the end of the day we also send you home with some goodies in appreciation. Please let us know by Friday April 20 if you are able to help out. Thanks! That Sunday is also an open farm day so if you'd like to come down for a little while to see the farm and purchase some eggs we will be there. It also happens to be Earth Day so a trip to a sustainable farm might be a good way to celebrate.

For those of you with chickens or other livestock, Mary and I are putting together another order from Hiland Naturals Feed. They carry GMO free animal feeds that are outstanding milled in Millersburg, OH. Please email me for more information or with your order by Sunday April 22. Pickup will be at Rising Phoenix Farm in Independence, KY again and it should arrive about 3 weeks from the time we place the order. Payment is due in advance.

Hoping all of you have a lovely week,

Heather and Brandon Redden
www.naturesharborfarm.com

We're open for business. on 7/1/2012

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 22:49:47 -0500