A New Year

It's been over a year, and so much has happened at Hill Top Farm...let's catch up.

The ducks were delicious...enough said.

This January (2014) we added another 20 hens to our brood. We have a total of 40 hens. They are a mix of Buff Orpington, Black Autralorp, Araucana, Red Star, and Silver Laced Wyandotte.

We added chicks to our brood in January. A few Red Star and Silver Laced Wyandotte breeds.

Our two turkey hens and one tom were the center of the meal for Thanksgiving. We roasted one and smoked the other two. The tom weighed 28 lbs and the hens weighted 22 and 24 lbs. They were funny birds and they were a nice addition to Hill Top Farm. We may have a few again in the future, and they were delicious.

                           
Our family trip to Nebraska resulted in a few new animal family members. The first of which is Calvary. He is a full blood black angus cow. We bottle fed him from May to September and he is growing and healthy.

We also brought home Delilah a Welch pony and her friend Poppy a miniature donkey. All three of these animals came from Rich and Lana Petersen's farm in Lyons, Nebraska. Rich is Jean's brother. 

Our sweet corn harvest was bountiful and everyone enjoyed the "Puttin' Up"

This winter we decided to look for and consider purchasing some pigs. Specifically Berkshire hogs which are gentle in nature, and produce top of the line meat. On March 6th, Clint made a trip to Nebraska to pick up three guilts (female pigs thats have not had a litter of piglets yet).



Their names are Dorothy, Charlotte, and Agnes. Dorothy was bred when we got her. She had her first litter during the night of March 19th. Nine total piglets were born; 2 boars, and 7 guilts. One boar was still born, and the runt guilt we lost after three days. The rest are healthy and vigorous. They are really fun to watch and just today, they started to really venture out of the pen...time for more fencing.

What's new at Hill Top Farm?

It been forever...here's what's new

The chickens are all grown up and we've even gotten a new set (adding silver laced wyandottes, and red stars to the araucana, buff orpington, and black australorp girls)

                                     

                                               

                                                   

On March 19th, our first sow (Dorothy) had a litter of piglets. She had nine, seven survived. Clint and Craig finished the farrowing pen the night before she farrowed.

...Growing...

they're not babies anymore

We have done artificial insemination to re-breed the three full grown Berks. They will have piglets in September. Our only barrow will go for butcher along with our two corn-fed steers in August. (right around the corner)

Our full sized black angus was bred when we brought her home and she calved on May 20th.

The other three heifers are bred and will calve early September.

We have had a nice hay crop so far, and Clint started some custom cutting for several neighbors. We have more hay then we know what to do with, and we have continued to get rain. As I write, we had our second cutting yesterday. 

(Kep & Sis looking for mice)

The sweet corn patch, vegetable garden and fruit tree orchard are all doing well. Look for updates i the next enstallment.