Honest Poultry Men

Oh we got it bad! Real bad! Spring fever that is and we got it bad. It started on the first decent weekend in April and before we knew it, we had pulled out a row of 15 year old current plants and most of the raspberries that were threatening to take over the garden and put in 75 strawberry plants. 75, what were we thinking?!

Spring has been a bit slow to come and found us still feeding hay through most of April when I would rather have my animals grazing but the grass just wasn't there yet. The spring "to do" list was getting larger with each passing cold, damp day. But now "Freiyaahr kummt" as my people say and it is a joy.

Spring can also be felt at the Extension office where I work. I helped Emilie, our horticultural educator  unload and amazing number of large pots of mulch out of a rather small car and stacking them outside the ag center so that master gardener volunteers can help spread it around the plantings that surround the building. Each pot that was removed from the car seemed to reveal another pot. It became something akin to the never-ending handkerchief that streamed out of a clown car. Walk into the office and you will be greeted by the sound cheeping chicks that were recently hatched out of one of the several small incubators that are filling up the 4H office while the rest of us try to switch gears from winter meetings to farm visits, plot trials, programming for next year, and assisting the public with their questions as the world is seeming to arise from its winter slumber. "I found this bug on me. Can you tell me what it is?" "When should I worm my sheep?" "What is this twig? It was in my yard and my dog chews on it. Is it poisonous?" "I just purchased a small farm. What can I grow that will make me some money?" "What do I do about stink bugs!!"

At home, I am getting ready for an arrival of 15, day-old laying chicks and this would normally not be any big deal considering we used to have at any one time 1000 broilers and 200 layers running around the farm but these chicks are from rare breeds like Java, Dominique, Partridge, and Buckeyes. We purchased a chicken coop (pictured here) made by a carpenter/chicken enthusiast and his young would-be carpenter son.

My interest in poultry must be  part of my DNA. My great grandfather (whose farming diary entries are at this blog site) kept several breeds of chickens and sold fertile eggs and shipped them all over the eastern U.S. and even Canada. Inside one the his desk draws is his catalog from 1895.

The catalog offers three breeds. The Golden Wyandottes, Buff Plymouth Rocks, and Barred Plymouth Rocks. The Golden Wyandottes appear to be the most popular judging by the requests he received and his own statements in his catalog. "The Golden Wyandottes have come to the front ranks to stay. After a thorough trial of 5 years of breeding them, I must say that they well deserve the great boom they are having, by their great merits unprecedented in the history of any breed.They are an American breed and America should be proud of it." Wow, send me some! He even had testimonials in the catalog. "Dear Sir, From the Golden Wyandotte eggs purchased from you, I got 20 fine lively chicks. I am proud of them. I must now add your name to my list of Honest Poultry Men, and will try to favor you all I can in the future. I remain yours respectfully, Olney Pratt." 

I'm looking forward to raising the kind of breeds of chickens that my great grandfather would have seen in his time and will do my best to give them the kind of attention and care that he would have and be an "Honest Poultry Man". In the mean time, What do I do about the stink bugs!!