There has been a lot going on here at the farm this past week . . . but first, it’s meat chicken time! We received 200 chicks in this week which will be ready for purchase as roasters or parts in May.

The chicks need the temperature to be almost 100 degrees for the first week or more as they eat and drink. They have constant access to food for the first three weeks of life. After they are three weeks old they have access to food for 12 hours and then off for 12 hours. This controls how big they get.

In February, Birch Rise Farm became the next proud New Hampshire Farm Bureau member. The farm was also chosen to provide the Young Farmers of New Hampshire with turkeys for their 2019 Thanksgiving Charity baskets.

January 2019  Farmer Kate’s parents, Maureen and Rick Thalmann of Oakland, Michigan proudly wore their Birch Rise Farm jackets when they visited the city of Agra and the Taj Mahal during their two-week visit to India.

January 19, 2019 Early Saturday morning Farmer Ken & Grandpa Ken drove to Massachusetts and picked up Laverne and Shirley!  Laverne and Shirley are 16-month-old Berkshire sows who were raised on a small farm with sheep and chickens. Sonny, their previous owner decided that he was not interested in having large farm animals and contacted us via facebook to see if we could give them a great home. Kate and Sonny met in a Pasture Pig facebook group over a year ago when Sonny had posted about having a sick pig and not knowing what to do. The girls have both had two litters of piglets using AI (Artificial Insemination) and have never been around a boar. We were a little nervous about their introduction with the other pigs but the blizzard and very cold weather have helped with the animals staying in their shelters to stay warm and they have not interacted a lot.

In 2015, we purchased the 1772 Birch Rise farmhouse and started renovations. Farmer Ken and his family members worked night and day to get the house ready for us to move in. Then on January 15th, 2016 we moved in! Two weeks later, Ken and I welcomed our youngest farmer, Henry to farm life.

Hunter loves to play in the yard!

Back of the house