NowHere Farms

This week we talked about quail, separated some quail, puzzled over some quail, questioned some quail, laughed about some quail when they answered, and generally enjoyed some quail. We have a group of 29 quail from our hatch back the end of November.  They are doing amazingly well.  At eight weeks old the 19 girls are laying around 12 eggs per day.  We removed 6 of the 10 males from the group. The 6 boys who were removed are now in a separate cage we refer to as "Freezer Camp".    Breeding groups do best with 1 male per 4-5 females.  This gives the best fertility rates without the females being over-bred (resulting in head and back of the neck wounds) and without the males fighting among themselves to assert dominance. We will set eggs in an incubator later this week from this group and hope for a better outcome than last time!  It may be a little early for their eggs, but we will see what happens. The quail in the condos are puzzling us.  These a...

 Here we are on the other side of our first regular market.  What a blast! It was a day of getting to meet people, letting them find out who we are and what we do, getting our name out there and trying to build a reputation.  We took English muffins (Nana's recipe), quail eggs, baby blankets, woven shawls, and bookmarks along with business cards, flyers with quail information and pricing, and some lovely chairs we found at Sam's (even though we were not selling them, they got a lot of attention!) (I'd like to know if Sam's will pay us a commission on those?) We sold 9 of the 12 packs of English muffins (and gave out a lot of samples), 8 of the 10 dozen quail eggs, and one baby blanket.  We sold a lot of bookmarks as well ~ they cost a smile (for kids) and a meet and greet and listen to "here's who we are and what we do" (for grown-ups). We had some great conversations, from kids who love to read books to adults who are interested in the health benefits of ...

What a week. We wound up with around 8 inches of snow on the ground, which I think is the most snow ever recorded in this area.   The low temperature last night got down to 11 or 12; the coldest since about 1895 if my sources are correct.   I have lived in areas where we had snowy winters.  When I was in high school in Western North Carolina it got to the point the schools decided they had to go ahead and have school, but they knew where everyone lived, what the roads were like, who lived on a paved road, who lived on a dirt road, and whether or not the plows could get to them.  If I could not get out on my road, I called the office, spoke to whoever answered the phone, and the response was always, "Yeah, you don't need to try to get out on your road today.  We'll have assignments for you once it thaws".  Later I went to college in Bristol, Tennessee and those were some very snowy winters as well (but sledding on the golf course was worth the eye-lash ...

  It was a busy weekend getting ready for our week of winter. We did get everything done we could think of to do to protect the quail, the garden, and the home. The snow began Tuesday morning and we are were expecting up to 4 inches.  I am still shaking my head about this. I messaged Aaron Guidroz of Guidroz Family Farms .  They are in Louisiana south of New Orleans (did you catch that? SOUTH of NOLA). The Guidroz family ready for the weather! He said they are expecting up to 8 inches making it  the biggest snow event since the 1800s.  This will be their first snow since 1989. Guidroz emus We are indoors and at this point our trips out will be to check on the animals, replace frozen water containers, and dash back inside where it is warm (giving thanks for a brick house). The National Weather Service in Mobile just posted an update; we are no longer expecting up to 4 inches; it is now up to 6.    So what do we do when the weather keeps us indoors? C...