NEWS AND UPDATES

ovember 15, 2024

Sweet potato section is done and ready.We discontinued the fillable pdf as it was causing problems for about 20% of the people and we were struggling  to read some addresses. We kept prices the same, inflation in the world seems out of control and postage kills us but we want to see more people have a chance to raise this unique material. Poultry update will be slow, you have until December 1 to order and lock in this years prices and then we will update and publish for 2025.

November 1, 2024

Started the month with the arrival of the new incubators. Exciting to see the new technology and the sturdiness of the product. So excited to see how they work I am going to do a trial run this fall , even though fertility and egg quality is low from the change to maintenance feed I can't wait until Spring to see how they do. This will be good test of things as that building is not  efficiently heated.

We had an interesting  experience as we removed the old Cugley incubators. I had my  student worker Jeremy tackle the project as he is  better with tools and such. Each one weighs close to a ton  so they had to be taken apart piece by piece. We moved them into the building with a skid loader in 2004 and then built the front of the building. They had been stored in a shed in southern  Missouri for some time and evidently they had a group of Brown Recluse spiders take up residence in them. That type of spider is rare around here. Over the years I thought I would see one in the building occasionally but  just thought I was paranoid. Over the past few years I  would constantly find several in chick boxes that we had made up ready for hatch day but not get to for a hatch or two. I was storing the ready made boxes on top of the incubators.The incubators were tight up against the wall and you couldn't get behind them to see what was there. Well as Jeremy started removing them part by part he kept telling me he was seeing  a lot of spiders. I never get too concerned about spiders so just told him I would check on it. It was parent teacher conference week so I was not getting home until very late and didn't check carefully. Wednesday he contacted me  while I was at conferences and said he found a huge colony of what he thought was Brown Recluse under the hatching incubator.  I told him to spray and leave. Sure enough Thursday after school when we checked there were many dead where he sprayed and many more everywhere behind the incubators and under the floor of them and nests everywhere on the walls. We could have filmed a remake of the old movie Arachnophobia.  I am so thankful we have them out of there and no one got hurt as  the bite from them is very serious.  It appears the colony that was moved here was growing by leaps and bounds in the protection of that building. The new incubators are on rollers so we can check on things now. Judging from the number of spiders we have killed so far had they increased more, next year could have been a real disaster, possibly fatal. Another good reason to update the incubators and hope for the best.

October 27, 2024

Sweet potato crop is finally dug and in the basement. It got much easier after several very hard freezes and our incredibly dry weather, though Thursday we did get 0.88 inch of rain it really disappeared and is still very dry. It takes awhile to dig 7000 feet of row, anyone who would like to know what it is like to dig a 7000 foot ditch I can tell you. Pulling vines, pulling plastic and then digging, picking up , boxing and hauling to the basement all takes time. I managed to only break one digging fork this year. It also reminded me how fragile life is as  varieties we had tons of slips this year and planted a good supply in some cases were nearly totally destroyed by voles.  4 varieties all I have is a plant in the basement under grow lights. I will try to get caught up on poultry correspondence next, but still have seed to harvest. Hope to have sweet potatoe website updated by November 15.

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October 19, 2024

Update on harvest etc.. Sweet potato crop is best ever but is taking a while to dig as we have had no rain since August 30. Incredibly dry and  we have wide daily temperature swings with the dry air. Reminds me of when I lived in the desert in Idaho as a child. We had a hard freeze three days in a row this week  so are EXTREMELY BUSY HARVESTING.  

We hope to have the sweet potato part updated by November 15.  Please do not order sweets for 2025 until it is updated .Poultry should be updated  by December 1. You may order for 2025 poultry with this years prices until that time. We are having major issues with USPS shipping to some areas and will be making some changes for 2025.The USPS will not reimburse for their mistakes.

Seed section will be updated in sections as seed is cleaned and processed and tested. I am guessing not  completely finished  before  January 1.

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August 31, 2024

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Update on big changes for incubation and summer in review!

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My history of incubators begins way back at the age of eight when I had my first job (so to speak), I took care of two elderly women’s lawns each day. I moved  the sprinklers around their yard several times  a day. Growing up in Salmon, Idaho the only way you could have anything green is if you irrigated. I got a dollar a day to do the lawn care and saved my money until I got the $5.95 I needed to get a small little plastic incubator that was heated with a 7 watt bulb. When you are 8 years old you're not very smart and you fall for all the scams. I remember how disappointed I was when I got it and it would only hold about three chicken eggs and I never got an egg to hatch. The heat was about as constant  as nothing, too hot in the day and too cold at night. I saved more money until I found a used Brower Gooser incubator.  They were a round metal incubator and  would hold 40 goose eggs or about 100 chicken eggs. That  egg capacity seemed like a lot when you are 9 years old, the problem was it was really used and we had a very unstable heat situation in our house. We heated with wood and it could never keep temperature constant  with the variable  heat  in the house and  other issues, I don't think I ever had more than a half a dozen babies in it the whole time I had it. I kept saving up and eventually when I was 15 bought one of the first GQF incubators that came out. It held (I think )220  chicken eggs and had that fancy automatic turning feature. I hatched quite a few chicks in it and it paid for itself in a relatively short period of time but I kept expanding. When I was 18 I purchased a Leahy 624 which held 624 eggs. It was a very well built machine but  the turning mechanism wasn't the greatest.  You had to use these little rollers under the wire egg trays and you had to get separate dividers for whether you had goose duck or chicken. It held heat and humidity well and I did hatch quite a few chicks. I unfortunately had to sell it when I moved to Iowa after college to get the money to come to Iowa.  From 1984 to 1988 I had no incubators.

 

With the purchase of the farm in 1988 I began the incubator search again. I spent almost $1,000 on a machine that supposedly would automatically turn and would hatch all kinds of eggs because I could set each tray for each size egg. It had ten different shelves  with adjustable trays. It sounded like a real selling point but  it was a nightmare. I remember waiting and waiting for it because it kept getting delayed but finally it came in late April( it was supposed to be here in January) and I filled it with eggs: goose, duck, turkey and chicken eggs.You had to set each of the wire dividers  for the size of the eggs.  It had more nuts bolts and screws than most hardware stores. It was a real pain as you spent so many hours readjusting all of the metal rods, nuts and bolts. It also came with hatching trays so you could hatch and set in the same incubator ( not a real good idea). It had a small fan at the top and two small ones in the bottom to help circulate the air.  Chicks would jump out of the hatching trays and get their heads sawed off in the fans. I had to have my good friend Bob Boock build covers for the hatching trays. I  will always  remember that first day it came after waiting for 5 months  filling it up with eggs, turning it on and watching the turner make one move and  the turner snapped. Waited another month for more parts and that was the worst thousand dollars I've ever spent in the  my life. I couldn't even sell it and eventually it just got burned .I still have some of the hatching trays that I use to dry seeds in as well as Bob’s good covers.  What I thought was a great idea for my operation turned to be a nightmare. In early 1989 I never dreamed I would need a large incubator. I remember thinking at the time I would get 2-3 breeds of ducks a couple turkeys and maybe 10  breeds of chickens and a few guineas and geese. Little did I know that once I started searching for the select few breeds I would find out how critically low our genetics of poultry had become from 1984 to 1988 and thus the whole farm changed directions. 

 

l went to an exotic sale in 1989 and found an old  Jamesway 2940 incubator made in 1929 with  12 trays in the bottom each holding 210 chicken eggs and then two hatching trays in the top part. Only problem was the people that I bought it from had tried to remodel it and pretty much ruined it . This is where my good friend Mark Fox came into play and he rewired it and we put in Petersime set controls to control the temperature. It worked  decent, kind of difficult to turn eggs as you have to turn each tray by itself but it was not too bad, occasionally they would jam and you'd end up with egg yolk everywhere.  I found another one of those old Jamesway’s  at a a friends in Northern Missouri. It was buried in an old barn about a foot deep in barn litter. Mark went with me and  we dug it out and fixed it up as well. I purchased yet another one of those that had been refurbished and kept expanding.  One time in the mid-1990’s we visited my friend Larry Hall out by Ames and saw that he had an old Petersime incubator that had been in a building that had flooded and so it was about a foot buried in mud. Being the wonderful person he  is Larry dug it out took it apart piece by piece( this was model 9 and they weigh over a ton) and tried reassembling it  in his yard. With the help of our Vo-ag teacher( Barry Clough) and his stock trailer we brought it home and again my good friend Mark Fox helped me try to put it back together again and since the Petersime company was still in business we got the four set control thermometers we needed for it and basically it was okay but it didn't have all the cool features that a  normal Petersime incubator did like humidity control etc.. It was originally built in 1933. The Jamesways we're having trouble holding temperature in my non climate control building and it was becoming somewhat of a problem. They were either too hot or too cold.  In 2004 thanks to the help of our good friends the Browns in southern Missouri and some other friends the Moore’s in northern Missouri the Browns donated to me a large Cugley incubator built in 1949 and a hatcher to go with it.  Philip Moore and his grandsons brought them up to me and we put them in a new building that was going to be designated as the incubator building. It was an old garage that we moved in and was being refurbished.  Each of incubators were rather large as the Cugley setter held over 10,000 eggs and the hatcher  had 4800 egg capacity. With the help of a neighbor's skid loader we slid them into the building and good old Mark took the old mercury  switches out and replaced them with Petersime set controls. Ironically it was the last set of controls that Mr Petersime put together before he passed away.  The problem again was the incubators were well used and all of the good features that control things  like humidity were gone. In 2020 it was decided that we would move the Petersime incubator from the building next to it into the new incubator shed so that all incubators could be in the same building. My student worker at the time Gavin carefully took the Petersime apart and we had to replace some boards because it was 90 years old at the time and some of the wood having been in a flood was rotting out. Gavin put it back together again and fixed rotten boards and to help keep it looking somewhat uniform I painted it yellow, the only paint I had at the time. The trays inside were starting to fall apart so I found somebody who could redo those, as each tray is its own size in a Petersime. Those not familiar with that design, each tray fits in around a drum and then the whole drum turns and the machine does not have a fan it has wooden paddles that go around. In their day they were the Cadillac of incubators. Mine isn’t the Cadillac anymore it's like the shell of a small old used car. It does hold heat well and controls the temperature well. I just have no way of controlling the humidity. 

 

When this farm was purchased in 1988 it was determined to be set up that no breed of poultry or variety of vegetable or flower seed or fruit or anything would be discarded just because of popularity or sales. It was from the very start that this would not be run as a true business but it would be a genetic preservation operation. All of our funds in those early days clearly went to saving things whether it be poultry breeds that were being discontinued or the multitudinous amounts of vegetable varieties that were being lost. No  money was ever left to actually have decent supplies to deal with the poultry hatching.  It was always very used, very old and and very difficult to deal with equipment. It has always been a situation where saving the breed was more important than having the convenience of something that probably worked right. Each year the Cugley incubator has problems with the turning trays that are in it and more and more of them are breaking and they're not replaceable. I've had multiple people look at it and there's no way to fix it. So each year I lose more and more space and a couple of weeks ago I reached the climax when I had another tray slip out of the holding tray and dumped 140 eggs in the bottom of the incubator and busted another one of the turning trays. Of course the eggs were  not ones that were breeds nobody wanted.  It was the Delaware's and the Erminettes that we are already behind on. At that point in time I decided I had to do something.  I am not getting any younger and it's time to make some changes for hopefully the better and to make it easier to get things done and make it more efficient. So the two Cugley incubators are going to be removed.  The hatching incubator has many issues including the floor about to go out of it.  They're very difficult to clean and the hatching trays are well beyond their lifespan. The fan motors in both the setter and the hatcher are the original ones from 1949.  I know I'm on borrowed time so I have decided that we are going to replace those incubators with new modern machines. I've never been one for wasteful thinking but it's time to do something to make things better and more efficient. The bank was willing to give a loan so we're going to give it a shot. Next spring will either be better  or so bad that there won't be anything. I'm keeping the Petersime for now but if the new machines work really well it's days are numbered as well. Since the front of the building was built after the incubators were put in it, there has to be some construction work to take and redo things and fortunately I have a former student who is very talented in that area and so that part will be taken care of. The new incubators promise to have increased hatch rates and it’s going to be like walking from a caveman’s cave to a modern home. We should have everything in place to start the 2025 hatching season if the new incubators work well you can expect that I will do a Blog on them and let other people know as this company makes many different sizes. I have struggled of years to justify risking the money outlay for modern equipment ( that it would risk funding keeping breeding flocks) but  as I put it all together I realized after 55 years of dealing with less than ideal equipment it was time to take a risk.

 

 

This entire summer has been a very interesting experience. It's probably been one of the best growing Summers we've had in a long time and unfortunately I wasn't able to participate at full capacity dealing with this ridiculous foot issue which has plagued me the entire summer. It is finally nearing its completion after the last doctor visit and we figured out what it was exactly causing it. It meant that I didn't get everything planted and everything was not properly taken care of the way I would have hoped, add to that the amount of rabbits that would make it seem like we were having a plague as they ate and consumed massive quantities of varieties. I spent more time this summer spreading rotting eggs around the garden and when I'm successful doing that it works but I just couldn't keep up with all the walking to do that like I'd hope I could. I was not able to keep up with the correspondence because usually by the time I got in in the evenings instead of wanting to do anything I was in such pain I didn't feel like doing anything. As of this week I have returned to school to begin my 41st year.  I'm cutting back from the ridiculous schedule I've had the last 2 years of teaching up to 10 classes a day to down to five but all five are different ones but all five are ones that I enjoy so it will not be a problem. I should have some more time to do some things . Doing some finishing up tilling this past week it was kind of interesting to see the huge amount of Green Lacewings and ladybugs that we have. I even left a large strip of flowering weeds because they were full of adult lacewings and I didn't want to take the chance of destroying the population. We had quite a bit of rain in June and July and in fact 14 of the days in July we had measurable precipitation so it was quite damp and the amount of aphids was pretty intense but I kept noticing lots of predator insects and true to form there were gobs of larval lacewings and baby ladybug larvae and they did a wonderful job of controlling the aphids. As I was tilling today to see the numerous adult lacewings in the air in front of me was an amazing sight.  When we allow nature to balance itself there is no need to try to destroy it with artificial chemicals. When everything is in balance it works great. I have over an acre of squash planted on July 6th that has near zero insect problems

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Continued issues with USPS  delays and several weird laying patterns has resulted in a less than pleasant hatching season. We  are sorry as it has been frustrating.

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JULY 30, 2024

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We finally finished the turkey guinea building last Friday. I would have never had the time to do it but was blessed with a student helper who started working in April. He had such a great work ethic  when I started  him out on fence repair I quizzed him about working on the building. He had never  built anything before and once baseball season was over he tackled the job and did the best he could to correct my poor carpentry skills where I had started the framework. I think there are probably some states where I would not be allowed to use a hammer. We are all given some gifts and skills and mine sure aren't carpentry and building things, but Jeremy was able to listen to how I wanted it done and carried it out.  He is excited about building me another breeder building for chickens. I am excited to not have any part in it and let him do the entire thing.

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We have been blessed this year with timely rains and crops are growing well. The big issue this year has been rabbits  thicker than  feathers on a chicken.  My  rotten egg mixture  has only been effective some places as we get so much rain and I cheated and diluted it down that the rabbits have destroyed most of the peppers and about 150 tomato varieties  but fortunately only a few sweet potatoes, which look better than they have for years, still planted the last week of June first week of July. 

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According to my step tracker, I typically do about 22,000 to 25,000 steps a day in the summer but this year I am lucky if I get 16,000   as it hurts like all get out each step I take. I developed an issue with one foot and it has been tough. I did not get everything I hope planted so we will see how the harvest goes.

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We have had major issues with the USPS and poultry shipping this year which has really hit hard on keeping up with orders and it is so sad for the little birds when they take 4 days to get to a destination. Compound the problem with some breeds have been simply weird in hatch rates and lay rates this year. It has been a nightmare to try to predict shipment times.

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JUNE 5, 2024

We have had the best year on sweet potatoes sprouting in a long time.  We are trying to give plenty of extras on most varieties  to share our abundance. With the exception of several varieties which are very popular or slow to sprout we will be finished with regular season sometime next week and will start shipping close out specials probably June 14. You may order specific varieties at half price starting next week, except there will be no Arkansas Red, Arkansas Gold, 8633, Delaware Purple, Carolina Ruby, Georgia Yam, Indiana Gold, the above are slow to sprout and we are booked on orders . There is an abundance of purple fleshed types. email me at gdrowns6@gmail.com if you are interested in large quantities at a special price.  Remember postage costs are not reduced just the price of the slips. We will continue to ship until mid July.

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MAY 24, 2024xWe have continued to have wild weather and had two severe tornado producing storms this week, but the sweet potatoes are sprouting nicely and we should start shipping  by 5/31 and if it keeps going like they are growing now  a lot should  go out the first week in June. Poultry has been sporadic, some breeds you could not ask for better results others not so, the hazard of having so many breeds. Our biggest challenge has been dealing with inconsistent service from the USPS. Some places 4 hours drive away take over 3 days and  others get thousands of miles away without a delay and arrive in great shape. We do our best to pack them and prepare them for their  journey but once we drop them off at the post office it is out of our hands.

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MAY 4, 2024

We have continued to have wild weather swings. I watched the apricot trees try to bloom way too early with the late February heat waves and then have it drop 70 degrees in 12 hours. Turned around and  nearly repeated in late March and took out the peaches and even killed few trees, then two weeks ago after it was so beautiful for a few days I was feeling guilty not having the sweet potato bed started it dropped to 23 over night and was below freezing from about 7 pm until mid morning the next day  and any buckets of water  I had for the poultry had a thick layer of ice. Had I jumped the gun and rushed to start the sweet  potato beds they would have been lost and so many varieties would be gone for good. It never ceases to amaze me the misinformation that is so firmly ingrained in the world about sweet potatoes that they have to be planted early to mature.  We already have received our first calls wondering why they have not gotten their slips yet. That only means that person did not even take the time to read all of the information we provide on when and what we can do and why.  Early planted sweet potatoes in cold soil  causes nothing but problems and low yields and scurf at harvest which ruins the crop.  When planted in hot soil they boom and grow fast and yield fantastically . I take the time to publish our weather and climate information and clearly spell out we grow  all of our starting material here and I never plant mine before June 25. Those who notice that is when our season closeout starts as that is the week we plant our first ones. We arrived at that date after years of research and finding the best time to get the best yields and fewest issues. I guess I do not know what more I can do to  stop the misinformation and keep down the  fear that if they are not planted early they will not yield.  Please understand that if our system of planting when we do did not work then we would have nothing to offer you. Hopefully anyone who looks at  the website should realize we have well over 175 that are found no where else so we can't be buying the starting roots  from some place else.  The sweet potatoes were all bedded today thanks to the help of  our student workers and if weather cooperates  the should  be up and ready shortly after Memorial Day.

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MARCH 25, 2024

We  have had some of the most bizarre weather this winter that it has left animals, plants and people confused. At the end of February it got to 80 degrees  one afternoon and the next morning with a 30-40 mph wind it was down to 10 a 70 degree temperature drop in about 13 hours. Geese and ducks were slow to start but are laying nicely now. Most chicken breeds are picking up on production and adjusting to our day by day wide temperature swings. Hatches should start looking fairly decent  all things considered. We did have a electronic temperature control fail and mess up the March 19 hatch. But the control was put in there in 2005 and I guess they will not last forever. We do have an excellent electrician who was able to get us back in operation quickly.

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All seed old out and poultry sold out to dates are updated as of March 24.  I am officially reducing my teaching hours for next year. for year 41 I have decided to go to 3/4 time and only teach 5 different classes.  I will pick up 2  hours each day  to work on the farm and hopefully get more done and keep things updated online  better. The past 2 years of teaching 10 classes in an eight class period day( doubling up with 2 different classes twice a day) took its toll on my ability to get things done.

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JANUARY 23, 2024

We  have had some rough weather that has had a huge impact on our  operation and poultry. We have had 7 snow days from my school job so far this month, some for snow and blowing snow and now this week for freezing rain. We were totally snowed in for 4 days  and our helpers to fill packets and start the seed orders have been unable to get here many days.  Several days of -40 wind chills and multiple nights at or near -20 and several days with highs well below zero.  Now this week a heat wave with a temperature today of 34 . The poultry thought it was a dream come true . We have had some losses with some of the chicken breeds as they were nearing peak performance with large combs and laying( our December was unrealistically warm). The ones that were into the laying cycle had the toughest time. The "late bloomers" so to speak came through fine. I am guessing now March hatches could be fairly sparse as many breeds will have to regenerate  combs and regain fertility. We hope to make good headway on seed orders very soon.

JANUARY 13, 2024

We went from zero snow on the ground a week ago to  getting 20 inches this week in two storms. What a change it has made. We only had school 2 days this week so I used the time off from work to get the seeds all in order and the website is now updated for 2024.  We are now entering a severe cold spell so we are anxious the impact it will have on the poultry. Mail was sporadic this week and our seed packet and order filler workers were not able to get to work. We still hope to start sending out the back log of orders on Tuesday weather permitting. As I write this the wind is howling and the snow is drifting roads shut again.

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JANUARY 10, 2024

Well, after working like crazy all but peppers and specialty are updated, those will be done by Saturday. All orders received during our closed down time  will start going out Tuesday January 16.

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DECEMBER 24, 2023

Well, after all of these years I have still not figured out you cannot get more than 24 hours in a day. My teaching schedule just got more hectic as I knew it would as our semester ends  before Christmas break.  I kept hoping for a miracle of an extra moment here or there to get this done but it just did not happen, add to that I got a weird virus and was pretty sick for 3 days. Those are the days the 5 hours of poultry chores seem like 500 hours. It is amazing how heavy 2 five gallon buckets of water seems when you are sick  but is no effort when you are not. Typical winter days I carry around 70 buckets of water each morning and 25-30 buckets of feed at night. Anyhow I  have the poultry website updated as of 11 pm December 24. I start the seeds soon but it will not all be done by 1/1/24. I will update daily and indicate on each page if it is 2024 ready.

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NOVEMBER 30, 2023

We have run a bit behind sorting breeders and have had an unusually large volume of pre season orders to figur in . We will not have the poultry website updated until December 15. Sorry!

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NOVEMBER 9, 2023

 We have completed the harvest of seeds and sweet potatoes. Now it is time to dry , process, clean and germ test everything. PLEASE NOTE WE WILL NOT BE PROCESSING SEED ORDERS FROM NOVEMBER 15 UNTIL SHORTLY AFTER CHRISTMAS AS   WE GET READY FOR 2024. Remember we grow most of our offerings and it takes a lot of time to get it all ready. The following are the  projected times sections of the website will be updated and ready for 2024 orders.

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SWEET POTATOES. NOVEMBER 23. THANKSGIVING  DAY

POULTRY                DECEMBER   5

SEEDS                    DECEMBER 31

Remember poultry can be ordered with this years prices until December 5 any order received after that will be subject to new pricing.

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SEPTEMBER 19, 2023

 We have entered the season where time simply does not seem to exist. In year 40 of my teaching career you would think it would go smoothly but the science teacher shortage has me again teaching  9 classes in an 8 period day with one period two classes going at once one in one room one in the adjoining. The  big issue is I have never taught ninth grade Physical Science before so have zero residuals and must spend time creating lessons as we have no text book.  Add to that  getting ready for Chemistry, Advanced Chemistry, Physics, Anatomy and Physiology and the 2 college classes I teach College Biology and College Environmental

Science and some days it seems like I am running around like a chicken with its head cut off. It is fun creating new lessons and  I have never been one for idle time so I guess this has to be my dream schedule. However, somedays it is like a nightmare.  Getting to the point , some days after 5 or 6 hours of poultry chores and 8 hours at school I am too tired to  keep up with bookwork so  please bear with me as the day light gets shorter i will get caught up. I am indicating now as I enter the harvest season communication will be limited until early November.

 

Poultry in 2023 was a case where a smart person would just give it all up and instead watch videos of chickens on line and forget dealing with the real thing. We had a late winter and the ducks and geese started laying  a full month late and then May turned hot and dry so they slowed down or quit laying and as a result had a season about 50% of normal both in time and productivity all while feed prices kept up at a top price. Funny how they continue to eat even when they produce so little. In mid May when it should have been  a gnat free year with the dryness  we had an outbreak that was sporadic and vicious. Somedays nothing ,the next day so thick in certain pens that I lost birds( the gnats suck blood and crawl in the ears and kill them) some breeds were so stressed out they stopped breeding and laying. Egg production fell off  more than 30 %. Things were starting to pick up again in many breeds and I had great hope for the Fall season to not only replace my stock but  fill orders for those who wanted them and bam on August 23 the first day the students were back at school we got hit  with a heat wave of weird proportions. It had been bone dry for 2 weeks and that day humidity moved in . It got to 102 air temperature and we had a heat index  of 126. I could have lost a bunch but thankfully we had a good breeze. Next day 101 and heat index of 117. As it was I lost 40 to 50 breeders and the ducks which in some breeds were making a comeback  rapidly stopped laying 

 

One of our biggest problems this year was the USPS  in some cases they do great work but others it was a disaster with 3-4 day delivery to places 3 driving hours away. It was like spinning  a wheel to see if they would do a decent job. We had one hatch week that went off with near 0 mistakes on their part and our hopes rose then the next hatch over 50% were a problem. Since we can no longer insure them( they no longer insure lives) someone else doesn’t  get birds when we have to replace. I am trying to figure out a better way for 2024.

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July 26, 2023

We are no longer accepting  poultry orders for 2023 delivery.  You may order now under the conditions we state on the website to get in line for 2024. If you order now for 2024 you will get a 2023 order number and confirmation and then you will get a new number in December when we set up for 2024 with a projected ship date.  I cannot emphasize enough that you take the time to read our policies on early orders and and ordering with no substitution.  We are sticking to those. We are not set up as a business to hatch  a multitude of chicks at a hatch and destroy the excess. We are set up as a breed preservation facility and  do not keep breeds based on rate of sales and or other money making  factors. If you are impatient and need something now then we are not the place to order from. If you want rare breeds that have been carefully selected for hardiness and stamina ( we have no heated or climate controlled facilities and do not vaccinate for anything) then we are your source.   We had a bad problem with Buffalo Gnats  this year from mid May until the end of June that  nearly destroyed some breeds and seriously impacted the lay rate and fertility of others. Some breeds we lost a number of breeders and in other’s they quit laying or breeding. Things are picking up somewhat now but it is usual for this time of the year for rate of lay and fertility to steadily decline.  We have also had some serious postal issues  and replacement shipments  have put us way behind.

Wednesday July 11, 2023

If your poultry order has been delayed this could be the reason. Please be patient as soon as crops are planted we will be updating status.

BUFFALO GNATS: THE TINIEST AND MOST DESTRUCTIVE PREDATOR

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We are sorry to report we were hit again with these destructive little predators. They seem to favor all white birds, or white birds with colored necks and tails.. Though they hit hard in some other breeds as well. Calmer breeds seem to have the most problems  which is why the Buckeyes and Delawares took big hits. They loved the White Minorcas and Swedish Orusts and Light Brahmas. The Light Sussex were bothered but that entire building they were in  seems to get better wind flow and kept them at bay.

 

They are most active in early morning and  early evening and descend on a pen in large swarms. Pesticide lasts for a few minutes at best and a new group flies in. They are  in the birds eyes, and love to go in their ears and suck blood driving the birds crazy. In 2014 they wiped out over 100 turkey breeders in a day or so. 

 

They are miserable for humans as well and  make you think you are going insane as they swarm you face, eye, ears and nose. In some cases they suffocate the birds clogging their openings. 

 

In some pens we lost  a number of breeders in others the birds survived but breeding and laying dropped significantly.

 

As of now the gnat season is over and we are slowly regaining a sense of normalcy in the bird world. Egg  production is picking up and hopefully fertility will follow.

Sunday July 2, 2023

Well once we got rain and that wonderful humidity that I moved to Iowa for the sweet potatoes are producing slips in magnificent  numbers.  The sheep and our large cow Colleen are anxiously awaiting the cleanup of the starting beds. They have a section of pasture that comes about 100 feet from the starting area and when we clean out the beds they get the left over slips and roots.  The problem is we have some fantastic looking slips and I would love to see them in someones garden and not the cow and sheep bellies. We have noticed that our $8.00 minimum postage charge is not enough as most boxes start at $9.00, so we will have to adjust something next season.  We are offering this once in a lifetime special sale through July 15. ALL OF THESE ARE POSTAGE INCLUDED IN THE PRICE. IF YOU ARE A READER AND FOLLOW DIRECTIONS  YOU WILL DO WELL.   Basically if you send us a list of ones you might like to try it is entirely possible but not guaranteed you might get them. Otherwise we will pick out a colorful, tasty  and area appropriate assortment.

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ALL POSTPAID

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6. FOR $11.00

12 FOR $13.00

25 FOR $15.00

50 FOR $20.00

100 FOR $30.00

200 FOR $50.00

500 FOR $125.00

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I will begin to plant  our sweet potatoes  tomorrow. We will be back to poultry orders and follow ups hopefully once seed crops are planted latter this week

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Sunday June 25, 2023

We finally received rainfall last night ( 1.63 inches). Our last rain was May 8 and we went into last winter dry and never really have caught up so subsoil moisture was low. Anyhow, we had not been able to plant anything as of this date nor had we even been able to work up our soil.  I cannot really start until school is over so the local farmers corn and soybeans were in but were looking pitiful. I was grateful nothing was planted. I had never seen the soil  here so dry and packed The reason for this message is we are now down to the wire of make a crop or lose varieties so PLEASE BE PATIENT. WE WILL NOT HAVE TIME FOR THE NEXT TWO WEEKS TO ANSWER THE PHONE OR EMAILS. WE ARE NOT IGNORING YOU IT IS SIMPLY A MATTER OF LIFE OR DEATH FOR ALL OF OUR CROPS.   We have an abundance of many varieties of sweet potato slips and will continue shipping until July 15. We will start planting ours for next years slip crop this week. Some varieties produced many slips others very few and some have yet to sprout.

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Wednesday June 14, 2023

We are in the midst of a huge drought and still nothing can be planted or the ground even worked up as it is so dry. I try to water the sweet potato beds each day but it is not keeping up and  with the low humidity they are not growing like normal with  the humid summers Iowa  usually has. We  will  not be able to ship anymore this week as Monday June 19 is a holiday and we can never ship on Thursday  and if we ship Friday they will spend too much extra time in the mail and our Saturday post office hours are not when we can get it done. 

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Poultry is running behind  as we have had some major USPS issues. Please be patient we are working on shipping issues and redoing orders as fast as we can. Our goofy weather this year as caused most of the broody breeds to do the broody things

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Wednesday June 7, 2023

We have begun shipping sweet potato slips. It has been incredibly dry for sometime now and we have to water the beds almost everyday as the evaporation rate is as great as what I grew up with in my native Idaho. Last 10 days have been near 90 or greater in the day time and  50's at night and so low of humidity your sweat evaporates instantly from the body. Typical of my native state and not what I have adapted to the last 39 years here in Iowa. I moved here for rain and humidity and good growing and  we are not  getting it this year.  Absolutely no crops for seed are planted here yet as it is too dry to even work the ground. Sweet potatoes are sprouting well and we will be shipping out many every few days as each variety sprouts. We should have an abundance of many varieties for those who still are looking.

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Wednesday May 24, 2023

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Well, the school year has come to a close. A long and eventful year juggling 10 classes in an eight hour day, two periods a day having 2 classes going in different rooms and I learned to be  constantly moving and multi tasking. With a shortage of science teachers I agreed to do it again next year. I never did like idle time and this was the perfect answer to not having idle time. I have a great deal to get caught up on the farm. April was chilly and we had lows as cold as 21 the last week of April and totally froze off the young mulberry buds. I could not risk starting the sweet potato beds until May 6 just too cold or they would have rotted if planted earlier. Many ducks did not start laying until into April so hatches are behind on many breeds. Now that I am home everyday we will try for weekly updates. Poultry is updated as of today.

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Sunday March 26, 2023

We are at the point where  we  are processing seed orders in a 2-3 day turn around now. Last weekend it never got above freezing all weekend , and down in the single digits both mornings. Then on Saturday March 25 we got 10 inches of snow, HEAVY WET SNOW, but it is almost all gone today. Some birds are slow to start but things are picking up. Poultry is updated as of today.

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Sunday March 12, 2023

We will be starting seed orders received MARCH 8 tomorrow. Winter just wont give up more snow and cold and more promised for this week. More breeds of poultry are starting to lay  all of the time.

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Sunday March 5, 2023

We will be starting seed orders received February 28 tomorrow. Making slow but steady progress. Poultry is slowly starting to increase in rate of lay, looking forward to a  hopefully good year.

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Sunday February 26, 2023

We will be starting seed orders received February 18 tomorrow. It was big week for orders plus we lost 2 days to an ice storm. all totaled 0.81 inches of rain most all came as ice. We were fortunate and did not lose power but roads were a mess and chores were a challenge. All poultry and sweet potato orders received by February 25 have been set up and confirmed.

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Sunday February 19, 2023

We will be starting seed orders received February 11 tomorrow. Poultry is updated as to orders received February 17. They say slow and steady wins the race so we are moving as fast as we can. We had our biggest winter snow Thursday with 7 inches then -8 Friday morning so another lost day of eggs  but things look promising for the upcoming weeks. 

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Sunday February 12, 2023

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We will be starting seed orders received February 4 tomorrow. Poultry is updated through orders received as of February 8. Sweet potato orders confirmed as of February 8. We had a snow day Thursday February 9 so made good use of time. Chickens are starting to lay after some -12 the week before. Geese are acting  feisty and it was 53 today so expect lots of eggs soon.

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Sunday February 5, 2023

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We will be starting seed orders received January 28  tomorrow. Poultry will be updated again later this week.

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Sunday January 29, 2023

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I can say we are making some progress on seed orders as tomorrow we will begin working on those received January 20. It took awhile to work through orders received January 17  it was our biggest day ever for  seed orders. Poultry is updated through orders received  by Thursday January 26.

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Monday January 23, 2023

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I have finally reached the point where I can see what direction we are progressing.  As of  today all orders received during our closed down time of November 15 to January 5 will be sent out. When orders come in during that time a lot contain items we  may not have enough seed to list for the next season so it takes a while to  check if we have enough and make special packs etc.  As of today Rhonda is finishing  the last of  seed orders received January 13 and today a new helper Moriah will join us to help fill packets and do other jobs. We are hopeful to get caught up with seed orders soon.

Poultry  website will be updated next weekend. Lots  of orders coming in. Will try to  update  seed order progress every Sunday night.

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