Coop Swap!!

We've recently swapped coops!  Here is what our old chicken coop looked like, we used five gallon buckets as the laying nests for convenience and ease of cleaning. The chickens seemed to like them too!

You can see the wall on the back of the coop was painted by Martha, trying to use up some old house paints. I think that the chickens enjoyed the murals, maybe we can do it again in the new space this spring!

However, our flock has grown and we are anticipating it continuing to grow during this summer. So, we've re-worked our horse stalls as part of the overall barn remodel to become the new coop for our laying hens, turkeys, and guinea hen. You can see the direct access that the birds have outside through the small doors in the barn wall. We close these up every night to keep them safe from outside predators.

You can see some different nesting boxes on the walls in this picture. We still used the five gallon buckets for other nesting boxes and those are located along the opposite wall to these boxes.

 The new coop is four times the size of the old one which really gives the birds some more room to move around. We tried to make the transition between coops as low stress as possible, but unfortunately right after the initial swap, our egg production dropped down to a mere few eggs a day.  We were worried about this drop and started trying to figure out how to increase the egg production in other ways. Luckily all that the chickens seemed to need was time. After having two or three weeks to become accustomed to the new space, the eggs are booming! We get about two and a half to three dozen fresh eggs a day!

Here are the chickens enjoying their new space!

Get Your Turkey!

        Thanksgiving is on Thursday! If you don't know where your turkey is coming from, we have the solution!

        We still have a limited quantity of birds left that have not been reserved for the big day. All of our birds are heritage breed, grass fed, organic Bourbon, Narragansett, and Palm turkeys. Turkeys were processed on Sunday (11/20) and are sold un-frozen. It's as fresh as they come! 

        $5.50/lb --- weights vary.

    If you're in need of a last minute turkey, e-mail Cair Paravel at

CPARAVEL@GMAIL.COM with "TURKEY" in the subject line.

Remember to buy local and support small businesses this holiday season! 

Goat For Sale, Trade, or Barter

CPE needs a new home for Samuel! Samuel is a very happy and healthy purebred Nubian buck born July 6th, 2011. He has been de-horned and will soon be ready for breeding.

What we are looking for:
      -outright sale of Samuel for a price TBD
      -trade for other livestock (i.e.-goats, sheep, turkeys, et cetera)
      -a mutually beneficial trade of breeding services
      -establish a network between ourselves and another goat farm


We would love to talk and work out some sort of deal that can benefit us and the buyer. We're more interested in starting a relationship with other goateries than a plain cut and dry exchange of money.

    If you would like more information, please contact us through e-mail at cparavel@gmail.com.