{"id":872,"date":"2015-03-16T16:14:00","date_gmt":"2015-03-16T16:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.k7farm.com\/blog\/?p=872"},"modified":"2015-03-16T16:14:00","modified_gmt":"2015-03-16T16:14:00","slug":"lots-of-new-life-on-the-farm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.k7farm.com\/blog\/?p=872","title":{"rendered":"Lots of new life on the farm!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\n\n\t\t<style type=\"text\/css\">\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 {\n\t\t\t\tmargin: auto;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 .gallery-item {\n\t\t\t\tfloat: left;\n\t\t\t\tmargin-top: 10px;\n\t\t\t\ttext-align: center;\n\t\t\t\twidth: 20%;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 img {\n\t\t\t\tborder: 2px solid #cfcfcf;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 .gallery-caption {\n\t\t\t\tmargin-left: 0;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\/* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes\/media.php *\/\n\t\t<\/style>\n\t\t<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-872 gallery-columns-5 gallery-size-thumbnail'><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.k7farm.com\/blog\/?attachment_id=882'><img width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.k7farm.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/IMG_1834-e1426520003420-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-882\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt>\n\t\t\t\t<dd class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-882'>\n\t\t\t\tHappy birthday Clover!\n\t\t\t\t<\/dd><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.k7farm.com\/blog\/?attachment_id=874'><img width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.k7farm.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/IMG_1740-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-874\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt>\n\t\t\t\t<dd class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-874'>\n\t\t\t\tQuack, quack\n\t\t\t\t<\/dd><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.k7farm.com\/blog\/?attachment_id=873'><img width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.k7farm.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/IMG_1737-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.k7farm.com\/blog\/?attachment_id=883'><img width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.k7farm.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/IMG_1894-e1437581106366-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-883\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt>\n\t\t\t\t<dd class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-883'>\n\t\t\t\tLeghorn babies\n\t\t\t\t<\/dd><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.k7farm.com\/blog\/?attachment_id=884'><img width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.k7farm.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/IMG_1957-e1426520864208-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl><br style=\"clear: both\" \/>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<p>The past few weeks have been incredibly busy. \u00a0We built a stall in the barn for goats, brought home two goats, then 10 ducklings. \u00a0Built a goat pasture, visited with family, and my brother in law found 15 white leghorn pullets (females) at Tractor Supply at a great discount because they were preparing for another delivery of younger chicks and wanted to move the older ones out. \u00a0Considering we did want chickens that laid white eggs once we had enough room to add more to our flock, we were happy to have them (all of ours lay brown eggs, but I am sick of buying eggs around Easter Time for egg coloring&#8230; haha&#8230; ).<\/p>\n<p>Contrary to what many believe, the color of egg doesn&#8217;t matter when it comes to\u00a0nutrients &#8211; but how the chicken is raised and what she is fed certainly does. \u00a0As well, labels can be misleading. \u00a0Commercially produced eggs rarely come from chickens that are allowed to get in the sun and eat things like weeds and bugs. \u00a0Even &#8220;cage free&#8221; labeled \u00a0eggs, the hens are normally housed in large buildings with very little access to the great outdoors. \u00a0If the well being of the chickens matter to you, it pays to know your farmer and their practices. \u00a0At K7 Farm we are proud to offer truly free range eggs &#8211; our ladies roam our property daily, all day, soaking up sunshine, eating bugs, weeds and lots of kitchen scraps. \u00a0Any time you stop by the farm stand you will likely see them (and they might even come up and say hi!).<\/p>\n<p>Very soon we will have our free range eggs available for sale. \u00a0Our egg production is beginning to climb as we have longer days and warmer weather. \u00a0Next year you can look forward to duck eggs being available as well! I hear they are fantastic for baking.<\/p>\n<p>Back to our goats! \u00a0We purchased two goats to start our home dairy program. \u00a0One is a female (a doe), named Clover. \u00a0She is a mix of dairy breeds, but primarily Nubian. \u00a0She will be bred this fall for a baby next spring. \u00a0The other is her buddy, a wether (a neutered male), named Boomer. \u00a0We will gradually add on more dairy goats with the goal of being able to cut our ties to commercial cows milk.<\/p>\n<p>Every year we take another step or two closer to self sufficiency. \u00a0This year we have added ducks and more chickens to our flock. \u00a0We&#8217;ve added a source of dairy. \u00a0We purchased an egg incubator so we can begin to hatch out our own chickens, ducks and turkeys for meat and future layers. \u00a0We have fencing and are getting ready to fence in 3 acres which will house my garden. \u00a0We are fencing in the garden due to the large deer population around here. \u00a0I don&#8217;t expect it to keep every single deer out (they can jump 12-15 feet!) but I would like to keep the general population out. \u00a0This will house our future orchard, as well.<\/p>\n<p>I am beginning to work on starting seeds for the season. \u00a0My packet of blueberry seeds have sprouted and are growing. \u00a0I&#8217;ve got broccoli ready to plant outside in the near future \u00a0and I will start some from seed as well. We are looking at around 500 head of broccoli. \u00a0I&#8217;ve got 3 trays of celery (600 or so seeds) as well as a tray of herbs including marjoram, rosemary, sage and thyme. \u00a0I will be starting oregano, cilantro, parsley and basil soon. \u00a0A variety of seedlings will be available soon!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"> #gallery-2 { margin: auto; } #gallery-2 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 20%; } #gallery-2 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-2 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } \/* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes\/media.php *\/ Happy birthday Clover! Quack, quack Leghorn babies <\/p>\n<p>The past few weeks have been incredibly busy. [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2,3,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.k7farm.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.k7farm.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.k7farm.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.k7farm.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.k7farm.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=872"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.k7farm.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":885,"href":"https:\/\/www.k7farm.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872\/revisions\/885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.k7farm.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.k7farm.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.k7farm.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}