KW Homestead

Pasture Raised Poultry & Edible Landscaping Plants Since 2013

Month: July 2015 (page 2 of 2)

Cleanup Ducks

Our flock of Golden Layer and Cayuga ducks are a hungry bunch. They spend their days hunting bugs and nibbling on weeds in between twice daily feedings of our non-gmo feed.

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Some of our ducks, lining up to be fed

We keep them on a pretty tight diet, otherwise they would get a little too big and their egg laying would suffer down the road. As such, they are always on the lookout for a snack, usually a grasshopper or a bite of clover, but their ravenous appetite can be put to other use on the homestead.

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hungry ducks following and cleaning up after the turkeys

You see, our heritage turkeys are currently in a move-able tractor that we paddock across the pasture daily. They also get a ration of non-gmo feed, but they tend to waste a good bit of it, especially the smaller pieces. This is where the ducks come in handy. Because they are so keen on finding food, we can easily herd our flock to the recently vacated space left by the turkey tractor where they furiously search for and cleanup any leftover and wasted grain. They glean a fair amount of food value form the turkey leavings, which otherwise would go to waste.

A win-win for all!

 

A Fantastic Farm to Your School Day!

KW Homestead’s first Farm to Your School experience was a great one, with another school visit coming up on July 9th!

I just wrapped up the 2014-2015 school year as a Teacher’s Assistant at a school in High Point, and Jason and I decided to offer a free Farm to Your School adventure to the kindergarten, first, and second grade kids that I worked with everyday. A few days before the last day of school, we packed up our chickens, ducks, and a really friendly piglet named Half Nose and carted them over to Johnson Street Global Studies K-8 Magnet School.

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Each of the 6 classes had 30 minutes to enjoy the animals… A perfect amount of time for the kids to get quality time with each set of animals. I ran the Pig Station, where students got to pet and scratch our piglet. They were lucky enough to get to her some of her piggy noises, and some of our favorite questions were:

“Is she wagging her tail because she is happy?”

“Why her her hair so scratchy but her skin so soft?”

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Jason ran the Duck Station and the kids were able to feed the ducks and watch Jason employ some of his ninja skills while catching a duck for them to pet. Some of our favorite questions from the Duck Station were:

“Why do they sit in the water and then drink it?”

“Why do they always walk together?”

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Each classroom teacher supervised the kids while they looked at the rooster and hen, and they loved hearing the rooster crow and (their favorite) watching both chickens poop!

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We had a fantastic day, and the time we spent sharing our animals with the kids really flew by… I think we found one of our passions!

If you are interested in booking Farm to Your School at your school, church or family get-together, send us an email at ourochreway@gmail.com and check out our Farm to Your School pricing page!

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Black Snake!

The other day, in broad daylight, Jason and I saw a black snake scaling the large oak tree in our front yard. He was about 3 feet long, and the way he moved up the tree was amazing!

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Snake in a tree!

As we got closer, he started to hesitate about climbing higher, and decided to turn around and slither down into the wood pile.

Even though one of our chicks went missing a few days before, I just can’t be mad at such an amazing creature. We’ve often seen him hunting frogs in Heidi’s Hole (the little pond in the garden), and perhaps he ate our chick, but you never know. Maybe it was a hawk

What a beautiful creature!

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A vertical climb!

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A Heritage Turkey Update: Greener Pastures!

It has been a while since we have updated the website, but we’re finally back in the swing of things here!

So much has happened in the last few months (so much that we just couldn’t find the time to post!). We thought that one of our more important updates is to share with you the status of the heritage turkeys...

About a month ago they took over the residence of our crazy, nervous Khaki Campbell ducks! This means that they now have a tractor to live in, which protects them from the elements and keeps them safe. The great thing about raising animals in a tractor is that they get new forage and grass every few days. This makes them much healthier animals because there is always fresh greenery and bugs to eat and because their mobility cuts down on disease. Talk about Thanksgiving deliciousness!

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They have been in their grassy place for a day, and later will be moved to the green place to the right.

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The brown spaces are places they were in the past. See how much they like grass?

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The tractor provides shade (a tarp) although they usually like to bunch together in the sun!

We moved them to the outside tractor because they matured enough that they didn’t need their heat lamps any more and because we slaughtered the Khaki Campbell males that were living in the tractor. We’ve kept the females for laying eggs and integrated them into the larger, newer duck flock, but we decided it was time to finally taste some duck! Details about the slaughter and butchery to come…

You can see in the video below that the different breeds of turkey are becoming apparent. The white turkeys with the black striped feathers are Royal Palms and the pure white ones are Midget White, Giant White, or White Hollands (I guess we’ll find out as they mature). The majority of the turkeys are Bourbon Red Turkeys, with brown and reddish checker designs on their feathers. When this breed matures they will have solid brown and white patches.

Be sure to check out our Heritage Turkey page for information about ordering your Heritage Thanksgiving Turkey today!

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