We Bought a Farm...Now What?

We have ordered our baby chickens and bee hive! Both will arrive mid to late-May. For chickens, we decided to order from an online breeder to get the different varieties we wanted. We checked local Oregon breeders, but they either didn't have many varieties or were backordered until July. We ordered 20 baby chicks and all are hens / egg layers.

There is an existing 35'x16' chicken coup on our property that needs a little TLC and updating. It has 10 nesting boxes and good bones, but the exterior needs attention. That will be our project before they arrive.

We ordered our bee colony from a local central Oregon hive. We are receiving a 5-frame nuc colony that we will add to our 7-frame Flow Hive.

Over a year ago, I saw an online ad for Flow Hive...a new type of bee hive that makes collecting honey a breeze. It doesn't require you to open and remove the honey frames. Instead, from the outside you simply turn a hex key that shift the honeycomb and allows the honey to flow out. I was fascinated!

I ordered my Flow Hive a week ago and it just arrived yesterday. We'll have it all set up and ready to go for when we pick up the 5-frame nuc of bees.

Year One Vision:

We're starting with a great property that already has a chicken coup, goat pen, irrigation ponds, irrigation lines, barn and a workshop on it. The previous owners were excellent stewards. The first year, we'll start with 20 hens and a bee colony for animals. We'll create a small garden roughly 20' x 30' along with a hydroponic setup in the greenhouse. We'd like to get a feel for the land, chickens and getting used to the farm life overall.

We'll also start traditional compost and vermicompost systems. We'll use the liquid gold "worm tea" to start conditioning a dry and dusty portion of the farm. It doesn't look like it's received much attention over the years. Our goal is to condition and build the soil into a rich planting area.

By the fall of our first year, we look forward to fresh eggs, honey and vegetables, and actually being able to call ourselves farmers.

Year Two Vision:

The second year we plan to add several goats and ducks for animals. We will plant a larger garden, plus start on our orchard by planting 5-10 different varieties of fruit trees. We'll also start planning our vineyard design and grape vine layout. These will be planted in our third year. By this time we'll have something that resembles a real farm.

We're still in the building mode, so please check back soon!