New Additions

Well we learned a valuable lesson at school. Not everything works the way you hope it will. Not a single chick hatched :-( Luckily we had a back up plan and ordered 4 Barred Rock pullets from Snow Hill Farm. We picked them up last monday and they are doing great. I will add pictures soon.

In addition to that the new laying hen that our neighbor gave us, Cinderella has finally integrated with the flock and is doing great. Last night she roosted on the main pole with the others for the first time. And I have to admit it was an awesome sight to see. It was touch and go for a while and I had to step in quite a bit to make sure she was getting food and water each day. Now that the pecking order has been established they all seem content to live alone. Should treats arrive though, there is still no doubt that she will be made aware of her place in line.

Tonight we are going to make another attempt to hatch our own eggs. We turned the incubator on 4 days ago and the temperature is finally consistent for the past 40 or so hours. Holding steady at 95.5 so we are ready to set the eggs. Keeping the incubator at home will give us a much greater chance at success.

Our garden is growing gangbusters. We've harvested spinach and lettuce a few times and tonight we'll harvest our first crop of sugar snap peas.

Live on the farm is thriving....

Happy Farming Everyone!!

Zhen tells a story May 24th, 2010

A million years ago the pirates found the treasure in the dark caves. There were really big shiny packs of gold carried on one million skeleton's backs. And the pirates actually killed them all and what fell off the million skeleton's backs was a huge treasure. it had one thousand plus one million plus on trillion gold coins. It took a big gold key that was even bigger than their brains and suddenly when they touched the key - BOOM! - a big explosion happened.

When the explosion ended Chincoteaque Island was there.

Get it? Got it? Good!

Backyard Farming

Zhenerbee Farms has been hard at work. Currently, we have 48 eggs incubating at farmer Zhen's school, and we are anxiously awaiting the hopeful arrival of our new baby chicks at the farm. Farmer Dad has been tending the grass as usual, and we have an abundant harvest this year filled with lots of nutritious and tasty types of forage. Dad has also been expanding our garden spaces, tending our hazelnut and fruit-producing cherry trees, and getting our soil amended for planting. We have expanded our planting space by 500% this year in hopes of a successful harvest. And lastly, our worms have really been working hard to create their castings for use in our gardens as well. After a couple of weeks of trial and error to get their environment setup right, we seem to have the formula for success dialed in at this point. Our initial bed of paper and some table scraps has been completely devoured and turned into... well, worm poop. Farmer Zhen just loves every opportunity to talk poop... ahh, 5 year olds!

Zhenerbee Farms For Hire!

We're Late For School, But We're Happy - Music Monday

It Worked - Music Monday

A Tribute To This Morning