The Chicks Have Arrived

So our final batch of meat bird chicks arrived today for this year. We are very excited! We ordered 150 chicks and when we unloaded them into their new coop we were reminded exactly how soft and silky a baby chick really is. It's like trying to catch silky water in your hand.



This is the part of the coop the chicks will be in first while they are small.

We have a special coop for chicks. When they are young for the first week or two we keep most of it blocked off. That keeps them centralized and close to food and water and heat. Once they get their sea legs we start opening it up. In about a month when they have all their feathers and are starting to bulk up we will open the access door to their outside area.

While they are still so young we will be keeping the heat lamp on so we can make sure they are warm and we can monitor the temperature. But since it is their first night, I am like, are they okay, maybe I should go check on them. I am sure they will be fine, but I really want to go peak at them.



This is what a section of the coop looks like filled with chicks,
water, and feed. The glow from overhead is from the heat lamp.

But it doesn't take them long to get going. Within the first half hour they had found their food and water and were checking everything out. It is so cute to watch them scoot around at this age!

Holding them as we move them out. They are so light and
slippery and the softest of the soft!

Resting in the box they arrived in before we take them out.



SKYFEST - Here We Come!

We are going to try something new this year. Normally we are vendors at our local farmers market from May to October - well, we try to get to as many as possible! This year we have been asked to vend at the local - regional air show - VERY EXCITING!

So next weekend you can find us watching the planes and serving up some of our home grown burgers and pepperoni!

How are the pigs doing?

So the pigs are doing awesome! The three Berkshires are growing really well - the boys are getting chunky in all the right places :)

The 6 piglets, we call them the "Pinkies" are growing okay. We got them when they were five weeks old and it took the first couple weeks for them to really adjust to the new feed. They really seem to prefer having some vegies in with their grain. The transition to the grain feed seemed to take a little longer than normal with these guys, but they are really enjoying the grain now that we have started to add their eggs and vegies to it. As they are getting older their personalities are really starting to show and they are enjoying learning how to dig.

The new pens are going great and I"m looking forward to getting the third one built this fall. But we have some new animals to show off. A couple shots of our new llamas, a couple new ewes came with lambs at side, and we had a baby lamb born a few weeks ago. The smallest lamb we have ever had born. It's now almost a month old and the size of a normal newborn. But she is a determined girl and we named her Rosey.

Chick Update

So the hen with the 5 chicks is doing really well. The chicks are growing and "mom" is keeping a close eye on all of them. With all the construction work going on they are having a good time checking things out.

Their wings about all feathered out and they are starting to get back feathers now - and they are getting big!

Pig Pen Paradise

It's been a great few weeks. Lots of great family activity and BBQ season is in full swing at our place. We have also been working on our new pig pens over the past weeks.

So we brought home Celeste and her two brothers a few weeks ago and they pretty much found every way they could to escape their pen. Nothing impresses visiting family more than herding pigs! So everyone got into it and we now have two fantastic pig pens.

One pen Celeste and her brothers will be moving into and the other will be for the new weiner pigs that are arriving next weekend. Still a few things to finish off on the pens but they are so gorgeous I couldn't wait to share pictures of the process.

Step 1 - Clear area that you are fencing. In this case we also
made a gate so that the pigs can have their own pasture to roam in.

Step 2 - Dig a trench around the fence line. Pigs like to dig down
so the first board is halfway into the trench and then a
log is buried in front of the board.

Step 3 - This is what the fence line looks like with the
buried log. Then you fill the dirt in around the log
and then place your fence boards at regular intervals.

Step 4 - Make sure you make all new gates conneting everything.
And then they have to line up with current structures.

Work progressing

Getting there.

Some New Babies

Yay!! We have great chickens! I love our chickens! Not only are they super chickens, but one of them has hatched out 5 chicks. It was great. They hatched on Monday, today they are 4 days old. By Monday afternoon she had them out and was teaching them how to eat - so great to see them following along behind her and then watching when she does something.

By now she has probably taught them everything they need to know about being a chicken, but maybe they'll learn how to be good moms so they can hatch their own out next summer! You never know. Anyway, at this stage they are cute as the dickens. With all the different colours they are we have no idea what they will finally look like. I expect that the yellow ones will be regular brown ones, but I have no idea about the dark ones or the two toned yellow and beige. We also weren't able to get close to them so we have no idea what sex they are. That will take a couple weeks.

 And yesterday we picked up three of our new pigs. They are all Berkshires, two boys and one girl and they are 8 weeks old. The boys will be for meat, but we are hoping to keep the girl. We have named her Celeste and these aren't very good pictures, but we'll get better ones once they settle in. So we are going to be spending some time with her and hoping to make her pet-like, so we can take her places because she is so good looking. We will be breeding her in time - provided we can find the right boar. So we are already on the lookout! We got her specifically because we love her spots.

In three weeks we'll be getting six more piglets. They'll be 5 weeks old and they will be the regular pink pigs - Yorkshire-Landreth crosses. They will all be for meat, but we love them while they are growing up.

Updating Llama Herd

As part of our llama meat and breeding program, we deal with a couple different larger breeders in both llama and alpaca. After returning from Eat!Vancouver we felt that we were going to need to increase our herd size. Wouldn't you know it but we received a call from one of the local llama breeders that we know asking what they should do with 25 llamas they wanted to cull. After some quick financial negotiations we were able to secure all 25 of the llamas.

I should point out that just because an animal is being culled does not mean that it is a "bad" animal. Ranchers and breeders cull for a variety of reasons, mainly downsizing their herd size or wanting to refresh their genetic lines. In this case they wanted to downsize their herd size (they now have less than 100 animals!) and I am thrilled because this is very strong genetic stock with a couple of them being second generation from Bolivia. I believe that I have a few in my breeding herd that are probably related to some of these - we're going to go look in the files. We will keep a few of these to join our breeding program (some of the 'purer' stock) with the majority going for meat over the next few years. Of course, there are a couple whose temperments are questionable - they will probably leave us soon than others!

They all need to be sheared but this late in the season I am not keen on shearing llamas. Llamas need at least 4 months to get a decent start on regrowth to make it easily through our cariboo winter, so we might give them a trim but I will probably wait until next spring and give them all body cuts. Between the llamas, alpacas and sheep next years shearing should be quite the exercise. I should start taking names now for volunteers!!

We also were able to purchase a couple more breeding ewes to add to our flock from another sheep producer - they each came with twins; a boy and girl each. They are still young so we are looking forward to years of production. The white one is Diane and the black one is Trixie and I am really happy with their conformation and the size of their lambs.

Animal Partay!!

This is going to be a great weekend! Tomorrow we are picking up 25 new-to-us llamas from one of the llama breeders that we like to deal with. They are culling their herd and we get to benefit. We are hoping that some of the llamas will be of sufficient quality to keep for breeding stock and most of them will be for our meat program. But it's great to get so many at one time - saves running around the region looking at other herds.

After picking up the llamas I expect that we will be doing a lot of running around as we get ready for the youngests grad party this weekend! My baby is graduating!! Finalizing the balloon bouquet order and counting hamburgers - yeehaw!

Around all of the grad excitement we have a meat order to drop off tomorrow so we need to finish packing that. And then later in the day we are picking up 6-8 new-to-us ewes and lambs - sounds like a lot but really just 2 ewes with their twins and maybe a couple extras. These are very high quality ewes and I am excited to have them in our breeding program. Will post pictures once the new llamas and sheep get settled.

Update on Eat!Vancouver

We had a great time at Eat!Vancouver. The nice thing, as a producer, doing a food show, is the instant gratification you get when someone who is unfamiliar with your product tries it and finds out they really like it. They like it so much that they take money out of their pocket to buy some. That is like the best kind of affirmation you can get. If someone tries it for the first time and then pays for it because they like it so much.

From a consumer end we sold out of Llama Jerky at the show by early afternoon on Sunday. We did come home with some pepperoni and garlic coil left but still sold an impressive amount at the show.

As wonderful as the consumer confidence in the products was, we were really hoping to make some industry connections. Although I would like to think that I could go around and talk to chefs and different companies, the reality is that neither of us has that kind of time. Being able to work with a distributor who can take our products forward was what we were hoping for.

I am hoping that we were successful in that. Discussions are still under way and hopefully we will be able to make some announcements this summer. We were also able to meet with the pet food company and fine tune our arrangement with them. If we can get those two relationships up and running successfully and profitably it will have been a good show.

Eat!Vancouver - The Marathon Begins

Today was day one of Eat!Vancouver. The largest food and cooking festival in Canada and for the second year in a row, we are part of it. Yesterday's set up went remarkable well - my booth was only missing its carpet - which was easily rectified. Today everyone actually arrived on time and the finishing touches took no time at all. We are beside our good buddies from Quesnel Community + Economic Development Corporation and we took the separator down to make the space look bigger. Makes it easier to share and help out. Sweet Tree Ventures is also here and sharing our space with their Birch Syrup.

We are a busy group - we have llama jerky, pepperoni and garlic coil samples, birch syrup samples, birch syrup fudge samples and then mining equipment to try out. We have flyers, books, magazines, a recipe book and maps to the Cariboo to hand out. And yes, we do have a kitchen sink! (In the alley behind the booth). With six of us in the space we thought we would have lots of time to walk around - HA!! It takes at least four people at any time to man our booth. We have something for everyone!!

I'll get some better photos tomorrow but here's Sarah in the booth today.

Time Passes When You're Having Fun!

Unbelievable! There is no way it can be the end of May already. It's been over a month since my last post - which is most unlike me - but I kept feeling like I had just posted an update.

We are going to post some update pictures shortly. We ended up with over two dozen babies altogether, although we are STILL waiting for Doris the Dorset to have hers. We are so proud of this crop of babies. They are tall and square and growing like weeds. Annie, the first one, is now just 2 months old and is as big as a lamb twice her age!

We are getting ready for the Eat!Vancouver Food & Cooking Festival - on from June 1-3, so look for us there! We are very excited about participating in this trade show again - our second time. This year we are focusing exclusively on our llama products and will have llama jerky, llama pepperoni and llama garlic coil available for samples and sale.

Speaking of Llama we had our first baby llama this year, a boy, named Five-O (he was "F" in the naming schedule). The picture is of Five-O when he was about a week old. His mom is standing behind him. She's been sheared now so she doesn't look quite as big.

We have some hens sitting on a couple nests - we will see if we can hatch out our own babies this year. In the meantime, we have ordered some chicks that will be here the end of June.

Fencing is coming along, new chicken coop in the works and it's almost time to breed the llamas. Hope to see you in Vancouver!!

Finally some action ( and picture updates)!

We were off to a good start with Annie and Billy, and then the ewes decided to take some time off - just over a week off. Extremely irritating as we were ready for babies!

Today, they decided to have rush of babies with four more. Polly, our Polypay, had twins this morning and then this afternoon Bayberry, some kind of mixed breed, also had twins. They are all doing amazingly well!

This is Billy at 9 days old and
turning into a great guy. He is really
filling in nicely.

Annie and Billy are growing like weeds and are already playing with the big kids.

This is Annie at 10 days old.
She is a very solid young lady.

This is Polly (the Polypay breed) with her two
babies this morning. I love this picture as it
looks like she is smiling over the great job
she has done.

This is Cola on the left and
Cherry on the right

A close up of the lambs together. What is really
interesting is that Cola`s fiber (top)is much
more hair-like (similar to the dads)
and Cherry`s fiber (bottom) has a real crimp
to it, similar to the moms.

This is Dustin the boy. He was born second
and is slightly smaller than his older sister.
But a real go getter already!

This is Bayberry with her two lambs
this afternoon. In this picture they
are no more than an hour or two old.

This is Dandelion, the girl. She was born first and
has great markings. Her head is very similar
to her dads, but I`m not sure where she got
the target mark over her tail.

It's the Start of Lambing Season

Tammy with Annie

Tammy with Annie

It's the start of lambing season and to start it off Tammy decided to go a few days early. We weren't officially supposed to start lambing until March 26, but she dared to be different and had her baby on March 23. Given the size of the lamb I can understand why!

Tammy is one of Tilly's daughter and is a Katahdin-Dorper cross. She is an experienced mother. She was bred to our new black-headed dorper ram and presented us with this awesome ewe lamb. I am completely loving this ewe lamb and we will be keeping her for our herd.

Annie - gorgeous ewe lamb

Billy resting

Reba - Suffolk ewe

Billy looking for his mom

In an unexpected twist, Reba had her lamb on March 26 (and of course, the ewe we were expecting has done nothing!! - she is so big that if she coughs she is going to pop it out!). Anyway, Reba is a Suffolk ewe and we purchased her from a 4H family. This is her first-time being a mom and so far she seems to be handling it well. The first day she really wasn't sure about the whole thing and wasn't keeping the baby with her as much as we like, but she has gotten better over the past two days, so we are feeling much better about it. Reba had a boy lamb, we have named him Billy. Billy will be going into our meat herd when he is much older, but for now he is enjoying exploring.

Father and son - Billy has a lot of growing to go.

What I find really fascinating is that although the moms are completely different breeds and colouring, both the kids look very similar. That is the influence of a strong ram and one of the reasons I like the Dorpers. Strong genetic traits that carry through. Billy is still only hours old in these pictures so in a few days he will start to fill out and look stronger. I can hardly wait to see the next few lambs to see what kind of colouring we carry through; we should get some variety as well as all-white or all-black, so we will see.

Pig Moving Day!

I am really pleased about how the pigs have turned out. Our first batch of pigs went to the abattoir today and I must say, they looked good. Yes, I am a little biased, but they really did! So I spent the weekend getting ready to move them today. Yesterday I built about 60 feet of temporary fencing using wood pallets and tieing them together with 2x4's. I did them in 12 foot sections to make them easier to move.

When my great neighbours came by today we (they) moved them into place, we opened the gates and tried calling the pigs. They looked up and then ignored us - obviously more interested in what they were doing then leaving. One was sunning himself, one was checking out a log and one was repositioning in the mud. After a few tries they were convinced to head down the lovely corridor we made and they toddled into the trailer. Start to finish it took 1 hour to load.

Now I just need to finish my costing, doublecheck which products these will be and look forward to some great bacon. Days like this I love being a rancher!