Spring is in the air!

This farm update is a day late because there was just so much happening here on the farm over the weekend!  We have a lot to update on!!

We have been blessed with plentiful rain and beautiful warm, sunny days here at The Old Five Notch Farm.  With Spring it brings new life, new hope and joy!

We started out the 2015 hatching season with the hatching of guinea keets and Golden Laced Wyandottes this month.  It is so exciting to wake in the morning and hear the peeps of new life coming from the incubators!  Our first hatch of guineas went well.  We had set 38 eggs, 27 were fertile and we were able to hatch out 22 little keets!  The chicken hatch didn't do so well as we had a malfunction with that incubator.  We set 29 eggs, 22 were fertile and only 8 little chicks hatched.  Because of the malfunction of the incubator we had one little chick hatch with a rough navel and he did not make it.  It is always a sad time when we lose a member, but we try to focus on all of those that do make it and thrive.

One of our little guinea keets....a Pearl Grey color

A cute little Golden Laced Wyandotte chick

We were able rehome all of the keets and chickens to loving homes and we have reset the incubators for new hatches.  We have chicks due to hatch May 3rd and May 13th and keets due to hatch May 10th and May 20th.  It is a exciting time here on the farm!

We have another new addition to the farm.  We are pleased to introduce "Chip"!

  "Chip" is a chocolate guinea we received from Terri Burrows.  We are thrilled to add another color to our flock and hope to have little chocolate keets hatching later this hatching season. "Chip" was in quarantine for a week to be sure he was healthy and he is now in the nursery area of the The Chicken Inn II so he and the others can get used to each other before fully introducing him to the flock.  We did a short, supervised introduction and it went fairly well.  There will be some chasing and fussing once he is fully introduced while they all work out their pecking order, but we want to make the introduction as easy as possible on everyone.

Some of the Fall/Winter garden items are still producing and we are blessed to have fresh carrots, kale, spinach, and swiss chard fresh from the garden.

Some of the carrots we have grown from the Fall/Winter garden

Swiss chard from the Fall/Winter planting....still going strong!

We are in full swing in putting the Spring garden in too!  It is so rewarding to grow our own plants from seed in our greenhouse and transplant them out into our garden.

My Happy Place! You can see our fodder system....the five gallon buckets to the left and a future greenhouse under the blue tarp on the right.  I will be thrilled to have TWO greenhouses...one for growing and one for Wintering over fruit trees, ferns and such.

The Spring Garden is started at The Old Five Notch Farm!  All the plants are started right here on our farm.

Strawberries have been covered with bird netting...not only to keep birds out, but to keep squirrels out!  They like red, ripe strawberries too!

Almost ready!  We just have to keep the squirrels out of them so we get some.

The peas that were planted a couple of weeks ago are growing like crazy!  We should have blossoms this week! A loaded Mandarin orange tree on the left and a lemon tree in bloom on the right

Spring brings new growth and new life! It is so wonderful to have the rehabbed and released Canada geese and Mallard ducks on our pond, and this year we had a wonderful surprise!  We had a pair of Canada geese appear yesterday with five little goslings!  They are so adorable!

Mom (Prissy) and Dad (Hissy) bringing the babies to our pond for the first time!

Mom standing guard and Dad warning all the other geese to stay away

Mom, Dad and the babies taking advantage of the free food for all at The Old Five Notch Farm

Mom taking a break while the little ones explore....Dad is taking a swim.

Isn't He adorable?  He was only about 2 feet away from us.

Our newest little family!

Checking out the new surroundings...under the watchful eye of Mom and Dad.

Venturing to the edge of the pond

Mom and the five little goslings

Mom walking with the goslings and Dad taking a swim.

We are thrilled that Hissy and Prissy have a little family of their own.  Hissy and Prissy are a wild pair of geese who showed up here at The Old Five Notch Farm back in 2012 when we received our first rehabbed geese from Izzie's Pond.  They took the youngsters under their wings and taught them how to be geese, how to watch out for predators, and how to take care of each other.  Since then, Hissy and Prissy have helped foster two more seasons of geese.  It is so wonderful to see them have their own little family now!  They are very attentive, protective parents.  We are praying that everyone in this little family remain safe.  There are many predators out there and the likelihood that all five goslings make it is slim. We will do our best to keep everyone safe and we will be praying for our new little family and will keep you posted.

There are many more projects we are working on at The Old Five Notch Farm so there will more farm updates as we work on these various projects.  Just a few projects in the works....a raised, three tiered herb garden, sprucing up The Chick Inn II, Sauerkraut progress ,electricity for the greenhouse,  more hatching, and much more!  I am continuing to work on items for our Etsy store so be sure to pop over to The Old Five Notch Farm on Etsy to see our new additions and check back often....you never know just what you might find!