Rent Baby Chicks From Green Fork Farm

Maybe you aren’t ready to raise a flock of chickens, but the thought of those cute little fuzzy chicks is irresistible.  If you want to watch baby chicks grow this spring, or have them for the kids for Easter, Passover, or Spring, but you don’t want to try to find them a home when they grow up, this rental program is for you.

A 1-week Rental includes:

• One pair of baby chicks
• Brooder box and thermometer
• Shavings
• Feeder and feed
• Waterer
• Health supplements
• Instructions on handling and care of baby chicks

I know it’s hard to believe when it’s 100 degrees outside, but it’s time to think about planting the fall garden.  Broccoli, cabbage, and greens such as kale, lettuce, spinach, and bok choy grow well in our area in the fall.  Many of them will continue to produce through light frosts if you cover the plants with row cover or plastic.  Our greens made it all the way through our mild winter last year, much to the dismay of my family, who complained that greens season was supposed to be over!

If you want transplants to put out this fall, you will probably need to plant seeds now.  Transplants are rarely available in our area in the fall, even though it’s such a great time to grow these crops!  Plant your seeds in containers indoors, as most of them need cool temperatures to germinate.

While your seeds are busy germinating, you can get your garden beds ready for your baby plants.  Raised beds with lots of organic matter are best.  This spring we grew our broccoli in a raised bed amended with composted cow manure and mulched with chicken litter from last year’s baby chick brooder.

The plants were enormous, and so were the broccoli heads.  They grew really fast in the warm spring weather, and baby chicken poop does wonders.  Maybe we can get another good crop as the weather cools off at night and we start to get some rain (hopefully!) in September and October.

Don’t let the heat of the summer keep you from getting started.  You’ll be so happy you did when you harvest fresh food from your own backyard this fall!

Ready to start your own backyard laying flock?

Learn everything you need to know to raise baby chicks into adult laying hens.

Saturday, April 21, 2-4 pm

$20 per household

Come and meet our chicks, see how we raise them, and get ideas about how to do it yourself.  This class will begin with a short tour of our laying flock and the rest of the farm, followed by a visit to the chick brooder and in-depth coverage of feeding, housing, equipment, care, breeds, and resources.  There will be plenty of time for questions, so bring your list!  Class includes a take-home handout of specific recommendations for raising healthy baby chicks into adult laying hens.

To register, contact us.

Layer pullets

1-week-old baby chicks will be off to a good start and ready for your brooder.  The different breeds selected offer wide variation in characteristics such as productivity, rarity, hen color and size, egg color and size, age at laying first eggs, laying rate, and ability to lay through cold or hot weather.  To reserve your breeds and make arrangements for payment, contact us.                                                                                                             

Available April 7                                                                                                                             

• Cinnamon Queen:  Light red hens with fast body development, start to lay eggs at younger age than most standard breeds, produce big brown eggs…$3.75
•  Black Sex Link:  Vigorous chicks, rugged black hens, efficient, high production layers of brown eggs…$3.75
•  Ameraucana...Also called Easter Egg chickens, each individual hen produces either blue, green, pink, or light brown eggs.  Hens have feathers around their faces that form muffs and beards.  They can be gray, brown, black, white, or red…$4.00
• Welsummer…This rare breed lays large, very dark brown eggs.  Hens are large, upright, active birds with golden brown or reddish brown feathering…$4.50

Available April 28     

• Cherry Egger…Dark red hens, very efficient, high production layers of brown eggs…$3.75
• Gold Sex Link...Light red hens, excellent layers of brown eggs.   Bred for high, efficient egg     production and excellent livability…$3.75
• Black Australorp…Hens are black with greenish sheen, excellent layer of brown eggs.  One of the hardiest of all breeds…$3.75
• Production Black…Hen feathering varies but is mostly silver barred.  Excellent quality large white eggs add variety to your egg cartons…$3.75
• Ameraucana…Also called Easter Egg chickens, each individual hen produces either blue, green, pink, or light brown eggs.  Hens have feathers around their faces that form muffs and beards.  They can be gray, brown, black, white, or red…$4.00
• Partridge Rock…This rare breed has a unique and beautiful plumage pattern, reddish-bay with black penciling.  Medium sized bird with a quiet disposition.  Good layer of brown eggs…$4.00