Chicken Brooder

Here's a picture of the new brooder in the works.  We'll have to add bedding and heat lamps, but it should work, plus it was cheap...we already had most of the materials at the farm.  The baby chicks will be here in a couple of weeks!

Seed Ordering Time!

Here is a sampling of the plethora of seed catalogs that have come in the mail this last month.  We are putting together our orders, trying to order from companies that have taken the Safe Seed Pledge.  This states that the company will not knowingly sell ANY GMO seeds.  Some of the seeds we purchase are organic, but more important to us is that they are not genetically modified in any way.  A few of the companies we are looking at ordering from include:

Johnny's Selected Seeds
High Mowing Seeds
Territorial Seed Co.
Wood Prairie Farm (I have heard they have great potatoes)
Shumway's (not sure if they are a part of the pledge, but they do state in their catalog that they Do NOT sell GMO's)

There are other companies, just Google it.  We buy our onions from Brown's Omaha (in Texas) and have always been pleased with the quality.  We also just ordered our 50 laying hens from Welp Hatchery here in Iowa.  They are scheduled to arrive the week of Febuary 14th, so stay tuned for cute baby chick photos.  Hubby is up at the barn building a brooder this afternoon, so I may have pics of that soon too.  I'm ready for Spring, how about you?

Chickens a layin'

This is the first winter we have had the chickens, so we didn't really know what to expect as far as them laying.  We have heard different things, like they'll only lay if they have supplemental light or they'll molt and stop laying altogether.  So far, we have not given them artifical light (in trying to do all things as natural as possible).  We have not provided any heat either...we just tried to insulate the coop as best as we could.  They have proven to be quite the resilient birds.  They haven't went into a molt yet, and we are still getting between 8 and 12 eggs a day from 15 birds. We will be ordering another 50 or so layers here in the next month to add to our farm.  Our next project...building a brooder.

Welcome to Bountiful Harvest Farm!

Welcome to our new farm blog!  We decided (finally) on a new farm name...this seems to be the one that is sticking after three tries!  Bountiful Harvest Farm...God's Blessing is Your Bounty.  God has blessed us and this farm many times over, and we hope we will be a blessing to you this coming season as we strive to grow great local produce, chickens, eggs, and honey.  More to come soon!