Wow, what a month February was. It’s been a little over a month since we kicked off the 2020 CSA season and our CSA slots are almost full. A huge thank you is in order for everyone who’s supporting us by ordering.
If your considering a CSA order, we have a couple slots open so let us know what you want.
Thanks again for getting 2020 off to a great start.
Our off-season hiatus is over and the 2020 season is officially kicking off. We’ve been reviewing, planning, and scheduling so we could get the 2020 info out to you.
And here it is.
Now taking orders for our CSA.
We’re now taking orders for our CSA. Please consider ordering a CSA to get our best pricing and guarantee your spot in line for chicken in case we sell out early again.
Your support through our CSA support it is the heart of our operation. Without it, we wouldn’t be able to provide produce our quality chicken for you.
This year we have to increase our prices for the first time. To help compensate, you’ll notice we’ve increased the CSA discounts. It makes even more sense than ever to purchase a CSA.
Check out our CSA Page for full details and to order.
Thanks to everyone who supported us this year. Our freezers are empty. You guys were great and surpassed our expectations helping us sell out of chicken earlier than expected. THANK YOU.
If you were still hoping to get more chicken this year, we’re sorry to disappoint you. However now is the time to be thinking about our CSA for next year. Not only is it our best pricing, it’s also a guaranteed way to get the chicken you want.
Our CSA really is the life line of our operation. Without it we couldn’t keep selling quality chicken. So keep a look out towards the beginning of the year for more information on our 2020 CSA packages.
Now’s also the time to like us on Facebook and/or join our mailing list so you don’t miss out.
We, mostly Jason, also try to do a monthly post on the blog here at our website, in addition to posting important update.
Here’s a post I composed last year and was saving. Read the bottom to find out why.
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It’s interesting the things we think of when we talk about legacies. Looking at this picture, you might think about John Deer, or other famous people? (**Spoiler Alert! See below) Other times things like farms, homes, and family come to mind, this is where I usually go. But here lately, when I think of legacy, I’ve been thinking of a little brown trailer.
I don’t know when grandpa built the trailer, but I remember dad borrowing it to haul firewood when I was a little kid. It’s just a wooden box sitting on a metal frame with a 1940 Chevy front axle under it, but it has served grandpa, dad, and me very well, including being recently customized to use with the Brothers M. chickens.
Grandpa always took very good care of the trailer and dad refused to sell it so I think it was special to both of them. I know it’s special to me as I’ve made many repairs to it. I don’t know if grandpa ever imagined the legacy he created, but I’m glad he did.
-Jason
**Spoiler Alert. The John Deer link goes to a Mike Rowe’s ‘The Way I Heard It’ episode and I just gave away the ending; however, if you haven’t listened to Mike’s podcast, I recommend it, even if you do know the ending of this one episode.
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And why did I save this post? I got on a roll for over a year of getting at least one post per month out. I wrote this, but decided to save it for when life got busy and I needed a post. Well I missed Jun and July, and August isn’t looking much better for me to get back to my posting. So time to pull out the reserve.
Hope you enjoyed and I’m looking forward to finishing the portable coop series. I’ve not had much time to do many of the updates on the original coop, but I’m slowly working on it. Season changes have a way of changing my priorities and the coop may trickle up to the top again.
Brothers M. Mondays in May is back – A new post each Monday in May 2019.
We enjoy seeing everyone at the Farmers Market. Come visit and say hi. Feel free to ask questions about what, why, and how we do what we do.
We always try to have fun at the markets and thought we’d share some of the experiences from our side of the booth.
Sometimes we maker our own fun. Like participating in the monthly library crafts.
Or moving around to stay in the shade of our tent on a hot day.
Sometimes others bring the entertainment to us.
Even when it’s cold and wet we do our best.
And sometimes it’s just what we hear.
Regular patron buying chicken: “I came to the farmers market and all I got was chicken and eggs. By the way, the eggs came first.”
So come see us this year and help keep us smiling.
Brothers M. Mondays in May is back – A new post each Monday in May 2019.
It’s 5am, do you know where your kids are? These two are loading chickens.
Brothers M. Mondays in May is back – A new post each Monday in May 2019.
Taking care of the chickens can be fun and entertaining, but it’s still a lot of work.
The bulk of the work is in the daily feeding, watering, and moving of the chickens. Multiple daily trips to the pasture are required to properly care for the birds. We take pride in the care we give to raise quality chicken, even when it’s raining.
Besides the daily care, there are several other days that require extra amounts of labor. Over 200 chickens are handled once when we receive them. Handled two times when moving from the brooder to pasture and three times during processing. There are also maintenance days such as working on the chicken tractors and cleaning the brooders and equipment.
But, my favorite are the days we get the feed. Helping the kids lug around 50lb bags of feed makes a person feel good.
Usually we load a lawn trailer to carry the bags down the hill. This year we had mechanical issues half way through so Matthew got to strut his stuff by doubling up.
Brothers M. Mondays in May is back – A new post each Monday in May 2019.
One of our big investments for raising chickens is the freezer space and the space the freezers take up. We have one porch freezer and it picked up a lot of rust over the last couple years. I figured I’d wire wheel it down and repaint it to try and keep it around longer. Here’s some of the pictures of the process.
After I painted it, Samantha added her special touch to the lid. She originally didn’t want to add any color to it, but the family kept at her and this spring she added some color. Unfortunately, you can see some of the rust coming back, but it’s still lots better than it was. And I love the Totoro!
The goal is to create a portable chicken coop to pasture our egg layers. I’ve seen a lot of ‘the best coops’; however, I believe the best coop is matched to the individuals needs/wants. I’ve not seen any coop that does exactly what I want to do. So my Best Coop is going to be unique to me. Here’s the attempt to make MY best coop.
I started this project late in the year and winter was approaching. I wanted to get the layers in to a new home and not be building outside in sub freezing weather. So wanting to get something workable quickly, I’m building this project in phases. How quickly all the phases get done depends on the weather, but I’m expecting late spring/summer before I get it all done and the kinks worked out.
There will be several blogs in this series, so this will be a jump page to get to all the blog posts from one spot. Posts will be linked once they are written.
Desired results:
For me, the result should provide a coop that’s easy to move and requires minimal effort to care for a flock of 7-20 birds. It will be like a chicken tractor and include an enclosed aviary. Every touch-point of caring for chickens will be examined to determine the best solution for the birds that also fits our principles and lifestyle.
Here are the details on the areas of the build that I’ll use as the jump page
Phase I
Brothers M. started as a way for Joseph and Matthew to earn their way to the Scouts National Jamboree. Both boys are still in Scouts and this summer we did family project for a merit badge, creating a walkway over a creek along our hiking trail.
A tree had fallen across our ‘sledding hill’ which is also part of the hiking trail and was directly uphill from the creek crossing. Cutting logs and rolling them down the hill was a perfect opportunity to make a bridge.
Of course we picked the hottest day in September to start on it. Wanting get out of the heat, dad tried to cut come corners with the chainsaw and ended up getting the saw stuck. This necessitated having to chop off 3 6-8″ limbs with an axe; so much for not getting overheated.
Joseph coordinated placing the logs, cutting planks, and nailing them down. Knots made the walkway more uneven than was desired, but then again, it’s a hiking trail.
A side result was that we cleared enough of the fallen tree to make the sledding hill trail serviceable again. We’ll will wait until cooler weather to finish cutting the firewood though.
Maples Miscellany 