It has been a very exciting few weeks here at Skyline Pastures. We have constructed a predator-proof (we hope) brooder in the barn out of ¼” hardware cloth. We took extra care to plug every hole and ensure the sheets of hardware cloth overlap so no rats, raccoons, or anything else that can eat our chicks can get through. We are three weeks out for their arrival, and everything is ready. We even have a small generator with sufficient power to handle the heat lamps should the power go out. Then next thing to research is some sort of alarm to notify us if the power should go out in the middle of the night. It would be terrible to wake up and discover that the chicks died from a lack of heat simply because of a power outage. We are working on the e-Commerce portion of the website so that customers are able to place a deposit on their chicks. Our intent is to only sell 60 of the first batch of 100 to allow more than enough wiggle room for any losses due to the learning curve of raising chicks. Once it is up and functional, we will be sure to let everyone know so you can log in and reserve your chickens!
We have also added a miniature donkey named Jasper to our Farm Family. He came from a goat farm but once their goats had babies, he got jealous and needed to be separated. He is doing well on our pasture, although we wish he would eat more grass because he is not keeping up with the pasture’s growth. We will be getting him some friends (likely sheep) in the near future to both keep him company and add to our pasture maintenance plan.
With all of the grocery stores running low on items, including chicken, we see this as a prime opportunity to encourage people to stock their freezers with some of the best chicken possible. Who knows what lies down the road and having good food for our families stocked at home gives us one less thing to worry about! We look forward to keeping everyone posted on the chicks’ progress as we raise the up in the brooder and move them out to our pasture. Hopefully Jasper approves of his pasture-mates!
