Broken Creek Farm

10/19/2025

Well, this is a hard post for me…
Skylar raised him from day one. He was born two days before any other chick, so he was very needy. She slept on the floor with her hand in his tote so he could curl up on her and touch her- that’s the only way he would stop peeping. So that’s how he got his name… Mr Peeps….
Sometime before dusk, Mr Peeps did his duty to protect his ladies and lost the fight against what we believe was a bobcat. All five of his ladies were safe and sound.
Our hearts hurt because as a rooster goes, he was the absolute BEST. Gentle. Protective. Sweet as can be. His ladies loved him. We loved him. My heart is broken and I can’t stop crying. I was ready to get out of chickens but now I’m just done. If anyone wants 5 geriatric hens (not to eat) let me know. Then just need some TLC and quiet living.
RIP Mr Peeps… thank you for all you did for your girls.

05/24/2025

Haven’t posted on farm page in a LOOONG time because, well, it’s been quiet here with no livestock. We are down to chickens and quail at the moment.
I did not want to hatch any new babies this spring… kind of over the whole “baby” phase ya know?
Well; we had two broody quail and they horded a TON of eggs between the two of them. This baby is the first of the babies to hatch and I found it running around in the aviary moments before I noticed another baby dead. Looked like it was attacked by something - damage to head…. Something quail are notorious for…. So I took this little nugget inside and we set up a brooder tote…. Ugh. It’s a lot of work and poor Skylar has to play surrogate mother at least until a brooder mate hatches.
Needless to say, I pulled all the eggs from the one hen and they are now in the incubator. I’ll pull the eggs from the second hen in a few days if none of the first batch hatches.
Hope to get a few more to keep this little guy company. 🤞🏻

09/26/2024

We haven’t posted anything in a long time- been a busy summer for sure. But had to share my honest review of quail and their eggs!

- hens lay pretty consistently- more so than chickens.

- birds seem super hearty. Heat and cold tolerant. Don’t seem to go broody like chickens.

- they are laying eggs at about 8-9 weeks old, which beats any chicken hands down.

- if you hatch too many boys, dispatching and dressing them out is MUCH less traumatizing and less difficult than a chicken by far. AND, bacon wrapped smoked quail is freakin delicious!!

- quick boil time for eggs. I just wash them, toss any floaters, put them in cold water, when it comes to full rolling boil, I turn off heat and cover for 4 mins. Rinse under cold water, drain and refrigerate for a few hours or overnight, add a little water inside the bowl with a lid and shake the bejezus out of them to crack or demolish the outer shell. THEN I peel (well, my electric egg peeler peels them, cause my husband is the bomb and got scared with all my cussing and verbal explosions when I attempted to peel them without the peeler! 😂). If you attempt to peel without refrigerating them, you’ll tear the whites, trust me….. 🤨

- they don’t have the typical hard boiled egg “smell” in my opinion.

- the yolks are so creamy compared to the dryer, crumbly yolks of chicken eggs.

-they don’t free range like my chickens so the yolks aren’t bright sunny orange. But still have a lot of flavor. May look into what herbs and such I can offer them to increase their yolk color 🤔.

Overall, quail are pretty easy to raise. As babies they will attempt to unalive themselves in the most random ways, but once you’re past that stage, they really ARE an asset to any homestead or farm I think!

I make Chucky Egg with them and it is divine!! Just toss a few into a coffee mug, rough chop them and add a slice of butter, microwave for about 30 seconds or until warmed up and butter melted, add S & P then smear on your toast. It’s sooo good. Great for when you’re not feeling well or as a quick breakfast.

If you haven’t tried quail eggs before- you really should!!

07/19/2024

Hay is ready! Our guy was able to rake and bale our field today! So come and get it before it rains for discounted price of $8 per 60 lb square bale from the field. Once we have to put it in the barn- price goes up to $10 per bale.
It’s premium hay. Mixed grasses with a nice balance of legumes and a healthy sugar content. Little to no weeds! Super nice hay (or so everyone tells me!)

Send me a personal message to pick up. Located off Holmes road in Cleveland Mo.

07/18/2024

Out of all our mouse hunter barn kitties, I swear Star is always on the hunt. She never stops working. I’ve been curious as to why the cicadas haven’t been as bad as everyone predicted this year…. Well, maybe this is the reason! lol
I heard a loud cicada scream, looked over and Star was happily munching away on one she just caught and brought over to eat by me lol. She’s the best hunter!

06/13/2024

LONG POST WARNING:::

🥵 Why we picked the hottest day of the year so far to do a huge coop clean out and a half dozen or so more outside chores today, I’ll never know (well, I do know- I like to monopolize on Justin’s days off so I can use his muscle and focus to keep me on task and to help with the heavy lifting 😆). 💪

🐓 Chickens: Since we wanted to add the two young pullets from our last batch to the flock today, our coop was cleaned from top to bottom and rearranged in hopes of adding more roosts in the near future for our 4 new Americana pullets who will soon be joining the flock. Sun sail secured for extra shade. Windows reinforced from the outside to keep c***s at bay. Dust bath refreshened (flock favorite). AND I am experimenting with one of those upside down kiddie pool scratch gardens in the run so they hopefully have some fresh greens when they can’t free range. I’ll post an update in a few days.
🪺Quail: cleaned their outdoor aviary, added some fresh dust bathing areas and extra hay for them to busy themselves making their hides and nest. Added 6 new pullets/hens (hopefully I sexed them correctly)to the covie. Put the two young Roos in with our extra older Roo in the barn to grow out for our freezer.
🐥 🦆 Chicks & Ducklings: Moved on up to the penthouse in the barn!! (See video below) I did decide to swap out the deeper black bowl for their previous to-go container for now. Just so Maverick (silkie) won’t drown on accident. As soon as I put them in they all panicked and she got pushed into the big black bowl and I had to save her! She was a very unhappy camper once wet. Luckily it’s like 🔥 hades in the barn today.
🪣 Fermented Feed Experiment: have water setting out for 24 hours to evaporate the chlorine. Figure I’ll keep it in the garage as it doesn’t get quite as hot in the there as it does the barn. Read it can spoil if too warm. Will be doing a mixture of scratch, feed and oats. I’ll post an update in a few day on that one too. ‼️If you have any tips on fermenting chicken feed- please free to comment!! ‼️👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻

ROOSTERS::: I haven’t forgot about them… we have four lovely dudes that need a home outside (still in a barn stall) so my awesome, ever thinking outside the box husband scored this thing (see pic in comments) We plan on wrapping it in hard wire cloth and adding some roosting bars, barn tin for a roof and setting it on cinderblocks. We will figure out a way to make a smaller entrance or door for the boys to go up and roost inside at night as we build it. That’s the way we roll. 😂 Will post an update in a few days on that project as well.

Anyone else pick today to work outside?? Let’s see your pics!

06/10/2024

This right here is why meat rabbits are next on my list of ways to stock our freezers. This lady is amazing and utilizes every bit - nothing goes to waste. Plus rabbit is delicious and we all love it.

I get many questions about how we utilize our rabbits 100% on our homestead, so I thought I’d make a list to help you waste less too!
If you didn’t know, our herd is for meat first, we raise exclusively Rex for a protein source, not just for us, but for our animals as well.
Our rabbits are harvested at 5lbs live weight or 12 weeks of age, whichever comes first.
2.5-3.5lbs of meat per rabbit is packaged for our freezers. We stockpile 52 rabbits for ourselves and sell or barter our surplus.
So what’s leftover after a harvest?
🐰Heads, dog food, whole fresh or frozen.
🐰Feet, front & back, dog food, fresh, frozen or dehydrated.
🐰Pelts, I’d love to make a Rex quilt, it’s a dream, all are frozen, most are bartered.
🐰Hearts & livers, offal, my favorite meal after harvest, I do not part with any of these.
🐰Lungs, trachea, kidneys, cat/dog food, fresh or frozen.
🐰Stomachs, spleen, intestines, the pigs really enjoy the stomachs, as they are full of grain, but this bucket usually ends up in the compost pile.
🐰Poops, up to 300+ pellets a day, the best thing for any garden, flower or vegetable. Rabbit p**p is cold compost, which means you can use it immediately, without harming your plants.
🐰Blood, watered down makes a great foliar feed in your garden.
🐰Bones, bone broth, bone meal.
This cycle repeats itself every 6-8 weeks on our farm.

Who else has creative uses for utilizing rabbits 100%?

06/09/2024

Figured baby ducks needed a small pool to splash in/ they were making a mess with their drinking water and I was having to refill 2-3 x’s a day. Hoping they will play in the black container instead of the waterer now! 😂 aren’t they adorable tho?!!

06/07/2024

Hay hay! Hay is on its way!
Our fields should be hayed sometime next week if the weather cooperates. Good quality mixed grass hay with clover, brome and some Timothy.
New hay guy. New price… pick up in the field for $7 per large square bale.
We should get a good yield - estimate about 160 bales. Hay will be even better this year since we are getting it cut earlier and we had more rain. 🌧️ + 🌞 = 😃 🐄 🐐 🐖
Text or pm me with how many bales you want and when you can pick up!

06/05/2024

06/05/2024

Pickled roughly 100 quail eggs a couple days ago. Skylar wanted pickles so we threw a bunch of cucumbers in the left over brine. I forgot I had these two pickling bags as well, so we put more cucumbers into then bags. Fingers crossed 🤞🏻 they turn out good!