Spring is here and Camps Road Farm has a lot of chicken
Every morning seems to be beautiful on the farm. Sure with each sunrise comes a full day of work on the farm. It is all worth it to see our birds out on pasture, enjoy the fresh air (not typically associated with chicken farms), and the rewarding life of a farmer. The ladies in this photo are our youngest batch of laying hens. They are not laying eggs yet, but they enjoy the grass just the same as the older ladies. In the background our hop yard is coming to life with all the spring rains and sunshine.The laying hens aren’t the only young birds we have out on pasture. Our broiler chickens are out on grass and having a good time as all the bugs come out from their winter dormancy. Our Chicken CSA starts in June, the only bad day day in our chicken’s lives.Our broilers live in these chicken tractors. They are moved every single day, fed certified organic grain, and enjoy a pretty comfy lifestyle. The design of the tractors is to keep them safe, healthy, and easy to work with. They enjoy human visitors so make a appointment to come check out the farm anytime and see for yourself.We are very often up to see the sunrise. We’re also usually out late enough to see it go down as well. Producing quality chicken and eggs takes some serious effort!Part of that serious effort is put in by Farmer Alan. While I stop to look at the sheep Alan keeps working, seriously the guy never stops. Alan is restringing the electric fence around the chicken tractors. There are a number of predators on the farm and all our birds are safely surrounded by electric fences (our sheep too).Our lambs got big fast! We are no longer bottle feeding them. Instead the sun is growing their feed and they are loving it.The warmer weather, sun, and rains have done wonderful things around the farm. Everywhere in our area buds are coming out on the trees including the year-old trees in our apple orchard. These apples will one day feed our distillery in Portchester. For now, they are just enjoying being part of the farm.We are at the New Milford Farmers’ Market every Saturday day for almost eh entire rest of the year on Saturdays from 9-12 in the morning. If you’re lucky, you’ll see Mabel there!These are our duck friends. There is a diversity of life on the farm besides out chickens, hop, and apple trees. There are snapping turtles crossing our orchard, a lot of birds, two bothersome beavers, deer, and a vast array of things that would love to eat chickens. With sustainable farming you live and work within a more natural system. The diversity of plant and animal species on our farm is a direct result of working with nature instead of against it.
