We have babies!!!

The best way to learn is to do, so I did...or at least tried. I purchased 12 Americana chicken eggs and 6 Bourbon Red turkey eggs to hatch this spring. A kind and generous friend lent me her incubator and I was off. The kids and I spend many a night candling the eggs and weeding out the obvious duds. It was very educational all around and one night we even saw movement in one of the chicken eggs!!


This past week was hatch week so we've been on eggshells (sorry for the pun), waiting for zips and pips. Thankfully we were not disappointed. Our hatch was smaller than I'd hoped for but not too bad for a first-timer. We welcomed 7 chickens and 1 turkey into our family!!

The whole point to all of this is less reliance on store bought food. I like knowing where my food has come from and having a hand in the high quality. It's also cost effective due to the high price of organic foods on the market. Next step in our educational process is the Whizbang Chicken Plucker! Sounds awful but it's the best thing going right now for processing your own chickens.

The seedlings for my garden are emerging in the mini-greenhouse I built and fingers crossed, I can get a load of topsoil delivered this week and will put my raised bed gardens together. Frost dates in this part of Ohio are second week of May so I have a few weeks yet but hate waiting till the last minute!!

With the apple and cherry tree in full bloom my spring plans also include the revamping of our sad, little pantry to help accommodate all the applesauce and cherry preserves we'll have.

Until next time...