Starting the chickens
When we bought the farm in late 2007 we had friends and family questioning our sanity because the property was so run down.
We had a vision of what was to become and started the work to make it happen. With owning a small holding or homestead comes the realization that you will never be a free man. But in the same breath, when you embrace the land and start to become passionate about your animals, your land and your dream, you also realize that you will never work a day in your life when you are following your passion.
Sure, there will be a few days when you ask your self is this really what you want, but, go spend a day or two away from the homestead and you will realize that you and the land have become one, and you are not complete with out each other.
After a year or two on the farm we started to follow the dream of being self sufficient. By this stage we had a horse livery yard with a few horses that we looked after on a bed and breakfast for horses principle, you pay and they stay.
We started with 50 chickens to feed our immediate family, friends and the people that kept their horses with us. The 50 chickens took 7 weeks to grow and we thought we were seriously clever and was very proud of our little achievement.
In late 2008 and early 2009 there world economy took a serious nose dive and my engineering business was on skid row. No body in the manufacturing sector was spending money and everybody had cut repairs and maintenance budgets.
We had to make change and make them fast in order to keep the farm and not end up sleeping in a box somewhere. It was at that point that we decided to start upping the production of chickens to supplement the income to help us survive.
The numbers went from 50 chickens to 100 chickens then to 200 chickens every two weeks.
We currently are taking in 500 day old chicks every two weeks and have about 2000 birds at any time as of September 2014.
It is not with out its own drama and issues but over the last few years while the world economy recovered and my engineering business got back on it feet our little homestead managed to save the day and provide for us. In the process we have become a well known and respected name in free range chickens in our area, that is something I am very proud of.
Today was a good farming day and a day that will be remembered as the day that we took the step to start seriously marketing and growing our brand. I have set up adverts and editorials in a local news paper about our farm and the stores in which we will be stocking our free range, no hormone, no antibiotic, no steroid chickens.
My vision is that we are eventually processing 1000 birds per week. It is an ambitious plan, but when you have a vision of what you want, the only person that can hold you back is your self.
Dogged determination and a relentless spirit are the best tools for the job.
