Caring for Chickens

Posted by Murray McMurray hatchery - and duplicated here - we also found out from our chickfarm friends - that for hens to lay eggs, they need LIGHT! 1. Lighting Hens need 14 or more hours of daylight each day to lay well. During late fall and winter, particularly from October through February, they won’t receive that many hours of daylight naturally. You have a choice, you can either let them take a break from laying or provide additional lighting. 2. Stress Stress can cause your hens to stop laying. What causes them to have stress? Allowing them to get frightened or handled to much, letting them run out of food or water, moving them to a different pen or coop, or disrupting their pecking order can all cause stress. 3. Feed Laying hens need a balanced diet to lay well. Good quality layer feeds have the correct balance of protein, carbohydrates, vitamins, calcium and other minerals. If you feed table scraps or scratch grains to your hens, you should use moderation so as not to upset the balance. 4. Water Chickens should always have access to clean water. In the winter, take precautions to make sure their water doesn’t freeze. 5. Diseases or Parasites Diseases or parasites can slow or stop laying. The Chicken Health Handbook (Damerow) is a good source of information on this topic. 6. Temperature Hens lay best when it’s not too cold or too hot. If possible, keep the temperature in their coop above 55° F in the winter. During the summer, provide plenty of shade and cool water. 7. Molting Chickens will molt about once a year and usually slow or stop laying eggs during that time. The molt will last from two to six months. 8. Age As your hens get older, they will lay less frequently. Usually, they lay best during their first and second year, then as they approach three years old, their laying will decrease. By the time they’re about five years old, they’ll only be laying about half as frequently as they did at their peak. Raising a new flock every few years is the best way to have an ongoing supply of home grown eggs. 9. Predators Predators such as skunks and snakes will eat eggs. Prevent this by gathering the eggs more frequently, and improve pens and housing as needed to keep the predators out.

ITALIAN FARMHOUSE FEASTS to Benefit Farm Kitchens

MAKE YOUR OWN PIZZA  We use our brick oven to roll out a flavorful artisan Neopolitan style pizza. Call or email to inquire!  1.800.221.9755   Join our community supported agriculture to participate and learn how to make pizza!

Ambrosia Farms uses sustainable farming practices include heirloom vegetables and heritage breeds of duck and chicken, the finest horse hay in the area, and agritourism for folks who love country living~our animals are beautiful horses, hound dogs, cats, and Sannen dairy goats.  Farm Store for CSA members  stocks artisan products, Italian Farmhouse Specialties including brick oven pizza, amaretti cookies.

to sir with love...

"Honestly...Natural Northeast Family Farmed"

"Honestly... Natural Northeast Family Farmed"
Keeping Northeast Family Farms in NY Metro area Consciousness!

"There is so much lying going on out there and so little integrity and stretching of the truth - an honest label seems appropriate for our times." 

What our label represents -


As Advisors for Northeast Family Farms we advocate on their behalf - propelling consumers in the Metropolitan areas to connect with farmers in a wholesome way.

Northeast States of NY, NJ, PA, WV, VA, DL, MD, ME, NH, VT, MA, RI, CT

Consumers that buy directly from family farmers help them stay in business.  Family farmers preserve open space in rural areas, and provide nutritious food.

We provide farmers and consumers information and educational assistance in the creation and packaging of food products.  We schedule Educational workshops on American homesteading, artisan, and farming traditions for generations.


We preserve cultural and horticultural traditions linked to a specific region, ethnicity or traditional production practice.  Heirloom seeds are saved and exchanged.  Our products are produced in small batch processing centers.

We are Caregivers of Animals promoting Heritage Breeds

We are Protectors of Natural Ecosystems and Wildlife

We invite Agritourism through "Family Farm Week", farm picnics and festivals, and Featherdown Farm Days!

We go beyond the "organic" label supporting small instead of commercial and industrial feedlots.

Looking Forward to a New Year - Unloading our Burdens - Accepting the Good with the Bad

The Year 2010

Year in REVEIW
Hello New YEAR!
~ we enjoyed our year of agritourism - Featherdown 2010!
The company was featured in the following publications:
nytimes.com
thenydailynews.com
country living magazine
nycitymama.com
http://www.allaboutyou.com
http://www.facebook.com
http://www.springwise.com
wellandgoodnyc.com
www.farmstayus.com
www.shelterpop.com
thefamilytravelfiles.com
www.tripadvisor.com
www.concierge.com/
tastingtable.com
www.youtube.com/
sleepinthehay.com
blogs.villagevoice.com
wholelivingdaily.wholeliving.com
www.americantowns.com
nymag.com
traveltips.usatoday.com
www.redbookmag.com
lancasterfarming.blogspot.com
artful4home.info
farmstays.blogspot.com


Well -  that's not the whole story!  We met people from NYC, Wahington DC, Brittany, France, Amsterdam, Dutchess County, New Jersey North and Long Island, Connecticut, Texas, and all over the USA, and abroad!  Our farm is naturally home to many people, especially children.  Why?  Have you ever shown a child a running stream? running horses? Jumping goats? Happy hound dogs? Fresh food?  Fresh eggs?  Home made Brick oven Pizza.  We are a unique farm stay!
That is life on the farm!  Children just love it and we do too!


The Year 2009
Last Year in Review, Goodbye 2009, Hello New Year!

We welcomed featherdownfarmdays as part of our farm life, which includes being gracious hosts, making new friends, enjoying children, children enjoying our farm animals, and making brick oven pizza for everyone! This idea from Luite Moraal, his brilliant agritourism concept and facilities make camping and farm stays so much better! Thank you Luite!

We also welcomed 2 new goats, Sorrelina and Further, white Saneen breed from Switzerland. I can't say enough about what a wonderful addition these goats have been to Ambrosia Farms - they complete Ambrosia Farms.

We became part of The Bounty - an online farmers market for CNY - another introduction to your local farmers!

We adopted a dog. a black Chow Chow from a friend in need, renamed Magic, and 3 kittens from an adopted cat, renamed Blue Cloud. Caring for animals comes easiest to us, and sharing this great farm, and free animals into such a great and vast nature reserve, is rewarding. We try to live together in harmony with the peace and quiet of rural America, and the wildlife around us!

I started a new job to supplement our farm income - in health care - and I highly recommend anyone that needs more work - or is looking for a new occupation - consider joining the many dedicated professionals needed to care for the sick, post surgical patients, trauma patients, and the elderly - in a world where much of the work we do is frivolous - this industry is anything but!

Gene began his retirement from carpentry and framing, to farming full time! He is a master haymaker - of square bales and many customers feel that their horses only eat ours. The truth is that Gene's hay has much of the nutrients preserved and it is always green as the day it was cut. Gene is a wood turner and artisan - and I will show a seperate blog with some of the things he made this year and in the future available for sale. These include wood bowls - some for salads - and one of the biggest 48 inches round - I will post the photo of these when we get a camera...cupula, chicken coop, gate to FDF, cat loft. and much more!

Farmers Frozen Foods gets 2 more articles published! This is a company that will flourish in the years ahead, protect more farmland from development and drilling, and provide great food locally grown in the winter. I hope you support it at
http://www.natlnutrients.blogspot.com/
Thanks to those that already have joined our CSA membership.

Lastly, we have had numerous setbacks and personal losses. As we all have had over the years. As my cousin reports, we can be mush, like the carrot in boiling water; hard, like the egg in boiling water; or transforming, like the coffee bean in boiling water. So rather than lament the bad, let us try and show forebearance, compassion, and truthfulness in the New Year.

Best wishes to Everyone!

At What Price Development?

Save this beautiful Earth from more structures that encroach on open space.


Marcellus Shale exploration - at what price?

http://www.un-naturalgas.org/

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/28/science/earth/28drill.html?pagewanted=1&hpw

Loss of this pristine valley, waterways, old growth forests, and gourges? Can we farmers afford to say NO to royalties from this drilling? The money is a bonanza for some at $6,000 per acre up front plus 20% royalties! Beverly Hill Billies - Water, laced with chemicals, is blasted down gas wells at high pressure to break the rock and allow gas to flow out more easily. "Some of the methods of getting at the gas — fragmentation, for instance, which breaks up the shale to get to gas pockets — can also pollute water supplies, critics say.", this according to a recent NYTimes article. Well, it really happened in our UpState hamlet - wells were polluted! On October 27th, "the Chesapeake Energy Corporation says it will not drill for natural gas within the upstate New York watershed." Ecosystems, watersheds, waterways - these are critical to survival of all species on Earth? The answer is not raising corn for fuel because this is burning one fuel - and lots of herbicides - to make another fuel - without a reduction in energy use. The answer can't be to implode rock with thousands of gallons of chemicals in the Earth's Core...

This photo shows a land drawing from 3,000 years ago. Europe has preserved open land and the USA is gobbling everything up in less than 200 years. Quite a contrast.

The Millenium Ecosystem Report - minimize disruption to existing ecosystems - a hands off policy. It is much better to keep development in major cities - do more with what we already have developed - and leave pristine areas untouched. Restore what we can, as we've begun with the Hudson River, and should do for other waterways, by cleaning them up and stop polluting.
The greatest contribution the human race can make to save the Planet from gross consumption is reversing population growth numbers in the future. That is a significant part of this problem. The other is the level of consumption per person.

I believe that as each person changes - individual effort will create the whole dynamic and a better future for the planet. Baby Boomers (all people born between 1946-1964) can't continue to pummel through resources! We need to conserve resources through sacrifice. The Flower Child will create a bright future for all!

Caring for Goat Babies

Our new additions to the farm, 2 new mouths to feed, some very sweet Saneen Dairy Goat babies. We have been thinking of getting these animals for a very long time. They seem like a natural addition to be sheltered in our wonderful show dairy barn. I think they will enjoy the pasture as much as we will enjoy watching them eat and be in the fresh air. I am learning mostly as I go. I had read so much about horses before I ever got them. But goats are different. They are caprine, part of the bovine family. Selenium is a mineral necessary to goats that is lacking in NY soils and, thus, lacking in our hay and grain. Kids are usually given about 1 cc of a BoSe shot shortly after birth or a loose salt or feed daily that contains Selenium and vitamin E. We try to learn as much as we can about proper feeding - for example, goats need 1kg (2.2 lbs) per day. We provide a good home with wholesome living for all our animals. We also get to introduce children to different animals. Now we'll get to see kids enjoying kids!