Clover Wreath Farm’s Weblog

As we approach the Zenith, we are finding ourselves not getting the much-hoped-for midsummer lull. Mostly because we are spending so much time irrigating. (Pray for rain and stop global warming!) But we are thankful to have accomplished this much thus far and I must be brief so that I can continue to bust my can.

I have heard (from those at Chattanooga’s Greenlife Grocery’s farmers’ market where we sell on Saturdays from 9 a.m. until noon and from emails and calls) that people are thankful that we are growing food for them. I cannot say how much it helps to hear this. I’m not very clear in the spoken word so all I can say is “thank you for saying thank you.” But I mean it with all my heart.

Farmwork has never been easy but a small organic farm in its first year is more tears than joy, we’ve been told. Absolutely on the money. Furthermore, there is no way on God’s green earth that we could be doing this without my parents. My heart goes out to all those trying to pay for land and a home while they start their own farm. This farm was named, housing provided, barns and some fences in place, and my family and I already knew the land intimately before we bought the first chicken or pack of seed. Those who had to buy land in our area couldn’t make it. Too expensive.

So hearing someone who doesn’t know me thank them for the food makes me cry. Tears of gratitude for the recognition of my own sacrifice and the sacrifice of all farmers. Their realization gives me hope.

Thank you to all those lovely people who have gratitude for the person who provides them with food. You keep me going!

Peace,

Breann

Clover Wreath Farm

www.cloverwreath.com

Well, it has certainly heated back up. It is hot and humid, nearing 90 degrees somedays. We have had an immense amount of rain.

We’ve hatched 69 lovely chicks. We lost three to a snake, which was a sad moment for our son. It was Siobhan’s, his precious but moody pet, chicks and she only has two remaining. A sad morning.

We have summer squash growing but not large enough for picking, same with tomatoes. We can’t wait!

I am wroking with different biodynamic preparations and I really wish I knew more of what I am doing. I am contacting Josephine Porter Institute tomorrow. If anyone has any other fine sources of biodynamic preparation information, I’m all ears.

The more I learn, the more I have to learn about biodynamics. I keep telling myself that it is our first season and everything is a work in progress. I can’t possibly implement everything at once. But I sure do want to.

I have created a worm tea, not made of red worms but for them, and found it does work wonders. Needs a 10:1, water:tea. Mine was made from my dearly departed Clancy’s manure and black strap molasses. I stirred everyday using a whirlpool effect, first clockwise, then counter. While the energy is still strong, I mix a batch with water and apply to soil. It has increased soil vitality and it was easy.

I have also seen how the biodynamic preps work on my seedlings and I have to say that it is amazing. My worm tea is a small touch of honey. The biodynamic preps are a lovely full goblet of mead.

Peace,

Breann

www.cloverwreath.com

Well, it’s really summertime here, the time when everyone is starting to complain about the heat, pull out their swimming gear, and you can usually see some sprinklers going in mid-May.

Except this year. As I type, it is 46 degrees.

Now, I’m sure in the rest of the world, that might not seem to cold for eight a.m. Well, this is the South, folks, and anything below fifty is usually reserved for winter and our icy blasts in the Spring.

I’m supposed to be setting up at farmers’ market right now. But I’m fighting pneumonia. (And I’m feeling terribly guilty for staying at home.)

I guess this is the part where normal folks just stay inside till it warms up so they don’t get sick.

I absolutely amazed at the fact there are green tomatoes on the vine and I’m in three layers, including wool while I do morning chores.

The heat from our compost mixture seems to be keeping the plants warmer than they would be. I’m hoping for a good amount of warm sunshine today.

I know I’ll be grateful for the slow emergence of summer come July, but right now I’m just cold.

Chicks are doing well, plants seem to be surviving Blackberry Winter, and I’m sure we’ll all be well soon.

Peace,

Breann

www.cloverwreath.com

I’ve read and heard a lot about chick rearing. Most of it unhelpful, I’m afraid. I’ve been told that chickens are aggressive with chicks, most won’t raise their own young, certainly won’t raise another’s eggs, won’t accept other’s chicks, and will probably peck their own chicks to death upon hatching, ALL of which I have seen proved false. Now I don’t know what agribusiness corporation this propaganda this belongs to, but I’d be real appreciative of any true-to-life resources anyone has.

It is possible that my chickens don’t have a problem raising and loving their young because they are loved and properly cared for themselves. They have three acres, barns, green pasture, room for dust baths, and good ol’ nesting boxes lines with pine needles. Maybe chickens in commercial chickenhouses would have a problem raising young, I sure as heck would.

Our bantam hen, Siobhan, sat on my larger hens eggs. She hatched quite a few, but the last two came very late. Siobhan needed to be up caring for the other chicks and the last two, one fresh from the egg and the other peeping from the egg, still needed to be sat upon.

Hilda Mae, a Salmon Faverolle, was sitting her eggs and had been for several days. In an act of desperation because both chicks were surely dying, I stuffed the chick with the shell and the chick in the egg under Hilda.

Now Hilda saw and heard the chick as it went under and she knew good and well that she didn’t hatch it. She accepted it and fell in love. But the eggs (a mix of heritage and modern layer breeds) she had been sitting were adopted by her sister Emiline. Emiline also wanted the chick but didn’t know to stay on it long enough. Seeing and hearing the chick seemed to strengthen her resolve, however. She is now the most committed sitter and her eggs are due right on schedule.

Unfortunately, the egg that was peeping and trying to hatch didn’t make it. It got too cold in the process which leaves it open to pneumonia. But it died underneath a warm moma, not calling for a moma who couldn’t help.

So Hilda has her precious Pearl. They sit and preen each other’s feathers and enjoy the sun and shade together. Pearl is absolutely healthy. Pearl is a true Rhode Island Red, an Ark of Taste heritage breed. Hilda can have another full nest later this summer with our full blessing.

When it is time for Pearl to be in the big, wide world without her moma, I am going to try to assimilate her back into her previous siblings. IF that doesn’t work, she will be my kids’ special pet.

Peace,

Breann

While I write, more of our chicks are hatching. It is an amazing process. And you can’t interfere with it or the chick will die. It is a mysterious event.

Our chicks are hatching under their warm loving momas. Not an incubator to a brooder, but a real, live, feathered, loving chicken moma.

After they dry off and recover from the trial of hatching, they will poke their head out from between their moma’s feathers. And if that is not the cutest thing I’ve ever seen, I don’t know what is.

A chick with a chicken moma will eat mostly bugs and worms for the first few weeks of its life. We still give our chicks a natural chick feed, but their moma’s stratching and digging for bugs sustains their rapid growth.

I think it helps their nutritional intake and I think it makes the chicken more healthy over its life span. And I think this means better nutrition in their eggs. I could be wrong about this and I have no proof to back it up. But I think nature is on my side. Chicken momas wouldn’t spend so much time feeding their kids bugs for nothing. Even when there are grains available, they will go for a bug everytime.

We have Madeline’s nest hatched, now almost two weeks. Leah’s nest has hatched and some may still be hatching. Naoimh’s nest is hatching and Rachael is not far behind. Siobhan’s nest is due next week. Brighid’s nest isn’t due until mid-May, but that will give us a bit of a break.

We are still going to have to buy chicks this year. We are buying forty female chicks. I’m hoping by next year, I will have enough sitting hens to sustain my needs without buying chicks. Chicks need their momas. Everybody needs a moma. So we will do our best to be attentive momas to these forty orphans and, hopefully, all of our chickens will be naturally raised from now on.

We plan on stratching large areas for the chicks to find bugs in and giving the chicks love. It is just a poor substitute for the moma nature provides.

Okay, most chickens these days don’t know how to incubate and nurture. So we use Bantam and “game” breeds to sit our larger breeds’ eggs. Our Salmon Faverolle (a larger breed), Madeline, has made a wonderful moma. This breed hasn’t been as scientifically “improved.”

I’m hoping to breed some of the desire to reproduce back into these larger breeds. If it doesn’t work, I’ve at least raised some healthier chicks with little or no cost to me.

Here’s something else to consider: the daily financial cost of running an incubator can be $10.00. Twenty-one days is what it takes to make a chick. $210.00 for one run. This isn’t even thinking about the terrific expense of an incubator. Then you have the cost of running a brooder lamp to keep the chicks warm, which really may burn your barn down. Happened this year to some folks north of here. Tragic for the farmer, tragic for the chickens.

Then there is the hatch rate. In an incubator it is 40%. With a moma hen, it can range from 50% to 100% depending on the experience of the mother. 65% is probably a good average. And it beats the heck out of 40%.

Then there is the time factor. Momas take care of their babies. No moma, so it’s all you. The chicks are more messy (who isn’t neater around their mother?), more prone to disease, don’t know when to get to bed at night, and fall to predators more easily.

No, I don’t think we can switch back to producing chickens the natural way overnight. But I do believe we can start the process.

Women have been “sitting” their hens for hundreds of years. We managed to lose this wisdom in a few decades. I hope we can gain it back before all chickens require a plug-in to live.

Peace,

Breann

www.cloverwreath.com

Lots of talk about the price of food lately. It’s nuts to see kale going for a dollar a leaf. But when large scale farms are getting money from the government and small farmers get none, you can expect to be eating lots of genetically modified corn and soybeans.

But there is another problem in the mix now. Agribusiness is opting to grow corn for ethanol because of government money. So instead of eating, we are driving our polluting cars.

I don’t think it takes a genius to see the problem upon us. The fall of the food industry and the auto-only transportation system is here. And meanwhile, our health crisis is growing by leaps and bounds every day. How we react will determine our fate.

I’m biased, but I think the best way to react is to turn to organic, biodynamic farming. Our health crisis is because of our food crisis. Our transportation problem is lessened by local, sustainable agriculture. We could slow Global warming considerably by turning away from modern, corrupt agribusiness right now.

But we need to do this right now.

I hope we do.

So, to combat this problem, I’m planting beets. It’s late, I know, but the ground is just now workable here. Strange spring, but we are thankful for it. We planted in hills, well a ridge actually, one long ridge about five to six inches tall down a row. Did a shallow row, 1/4 inch on top and planted the seeds.

I’m not following the demeter calendar as much as I had hoped. The weather and the demeter calendar has failed to coorespond this year.

I would love more resources on biodynamic and demeter. If anyone knows of some great ones, let me know!

Peace,

Breann

www.cloverwreath.com

Plants are thriving, chicks are hatching, and life is good. I’m so tired I’m praying for rain so I can sit down. My father is working hard with the tractor and plow, our son is lifting and moving a lot more than he thought he could, our daughter is finding all the danger she can, and my mother is keeping us all organized and sustained. My husband and I are just running around like chickens with our heads chopped off.

Madeline’s (our son’s favorite) chicks are here! She is doing great and the chicks are as well. We have Apple, Blackberry, Blueberry, Sunberry, and Muscadine as the newest additions to our flock.

Our hopeful produce list is posted on the Buy Our Products page on our website: http://www.cloverwreath.com/about.html

We are excited to now be selling our eggs at Greenlife Grocery on Chattanooga’s Northshore!

Peace,

Breann

Can’t say enough good things about horse manure tea. It works. Tomato plants coming along well and have about 550 more seeds started now. Can’t wait to see what comes up first!

My pepper seeds are sprouting and that is very exciting. I had given up some for dead after our last cold blast. I will be so thankful for a heated greenhouse next year.

We are expected to have another cold spell this weekend, Dogwood Winter, really. Then there is Blackberry, but it is usually much milder. Then it is full steam ahead!

Leah, a Silver Phoenix, is now sitting a nest of my best laying hens’ eggs. She is one serious Moma and I have no worries about her commitment. Naoimh, a bantam, is also sitting a beautifully stocked nest. I will hopefully get some lovely layers out of these fine ladies. (Naoimh has been on a tear for a week now and I have the wounds to prove it. Because of her ill humor, I made some threats about her length of time here if she didn’t hatch a nest. With her attitude, I have no doubt she’ll be able to protect her chicks.)

Madeline is still progressing great! The eggs definitely have some chicks in them! Should hatch on Sunday!

Peace,

Breann

The Amish chicken sale proved very fruitful with a surprise sale of heritage Wyandotte chickens. Evidently, the Amish have too many mouths to feed because they don’t usually sell their Wyandottes. Wyandottes are listed on Slow Food USA’s Ark of Taste and are just great birds!

Named for the Native American tribe in Northern Oklahoma where the breed was developed, Wyandottes are reliable, sturdy, friendly, and great layers. And they just as pretty as can be.

I was expecting an order of Wyandottes this summer but I am overjoyed to have them now.

We also added some Arucana (Easter Egg layers) to our flock today. They are lovely.

Ace is selling heirloom varieties of tomato plants!

It is a good day!

Breann

Well, we had a tragedy yesterday. A hawk, unsure if it was Cooper’s or Red-Shouldered, killed two of Brighid’s chicks. Brighid herself suffered some head trauma but is okay now. Caoimhe, the faithful chicken dog, ran to the rescue and was able to keep the hawk from making off with the prize. But it was too late for the chicks.

We have a real problem with hawks here. Most people are amazed to hear about our predator problems because we are smack dab in the middle of suburbia. Well, when the habitat was destroyed by subdivisions, all the wildlife settled in here. We have more visible wildlife than you would find on a hike in a national forest. It is not healthy for the ecosystem, but we are happy to be able to provide at least this small farm as a refuge.

So as much as it hurts when the wildlife takes from our own, we are thankful the hawks are not extinct and we put more safeguards in place to help protect our chicks. Unfortunately, the most effective safeguard is running like mad when the chickens cry “hawk!”

So we chase hawks. You ought to try it, it is great exercise.

The weather is warm and balmy. We are thankful for the warm. The warm weather also brings chicken sleeping arrangement changes, which keeps me out later at night. I love being outside at night, the peace is lovely.

Daddy and I brewed some nice horse manure tea for our seedlings. Thick and rich, it is a full-bodied tea. Simple to make, but only suitable for plant tea parties.

Well, it is off to the Amish chicken sale in the morning!

Breann