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Green Herbs Homestead

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Louisburg, NC
Green Herbs Homestead

regenerative agriculture homestead focused on providing real food and preserving heritage breeds

11/26/2023

Meet Jalor. His name means Glory; To exult with triumph; Rejoice proudly. He is from our friends at Tale of Tails Rabbitry
Our rabbitry is just getting started. Our focus is on the heritage Silver Fox rabbit breed as a means for meat and pelts. This breed was developed with a large focus on the quality of fur. It’s a standing fur breed, and moving forward this remains one of the most important aspects of evaluation in producing quality rabbits on our homestead. The silver fox rabbit was developed with silvered black fur. But the red eyed white gene can naturally occur producing a white silvered rabbit. The white silver fox tend to have better fur qualities and can be used to work towards improving fur in your lines. The white gene will get passed on in the first generation and may be carried forward for future generations as well. This rabbit is black. But his REW gene has given him a blanket of white and we are taking advantage of that. Not to mention his big head, amazing temperament and love of pets and kisses. There goes without a question that he has good commercial body type that matches the ARBA SOP. That’s a given here. There will be lots of Jalor babies on the farm this fall. 🖤

08/26/2023

One of our Ancona drake grow outs this year. He’s a beaut. I had to get a good picture before he moved on to his new home last week. His pattern comes from a wild type drake we got from a long time breeder last year. And he went right back to her farm! We’re really excited to pull these genes into the flock and keep the diversity of these genetics going forward.

08/08/2023

It’s feed mixing day. Sometimes I custom order my feed in large quantities. Others I buy whole grains and mix it myself. This last year has been a process of developing a feed recipe, watching the animals pick through and leave what they don’t like in certain seasons, harvesting animals on different ratios and observing their internal health, sourcing what was available in organic grains at the time, and doing it all again. I feed soy and corn free to all our birds right now. And this batch I’ve removed all wheat from the chicken laying hen mix and drastically cut down on the duck laying hen mix to almost nothing. It’s a bit of math, time and patience and observation. And I’m sure it will continue for the near future as I learn what fits my animals and supplements this lands offerings appropriately.

05/25/2023

Building our Barred Holland flock! This is our project. This dual purpose heritage breed is in need of serious stewards. The overall type is the forefront of our program over the next several years. Color will follow. We are hatching from white eggs and selecting for type. Then we will focus back on brightness of beak and shank and pattern. But first, you must build the barn.

05/17/2023

We tried out something new this year with our ducks we breed for meat. Last year we grew out a white Muscovy drake and paired him with our pekin hens. This is a Mulard. The all red meat from Muscovy crossed with the fattiness of the Pekin. It’s pretty clear it’s not a naturally occurring species. The fertility rate is low. The development of eggs while in the incubator is less than half the success of the pure species. These are mules and are not fertile (99% of the time). Natural law continues to teach. I’m not sure if we will do it again. It just feels off when you look at all these pieces together. But the quality of the meat will be another factor in this decision for future growing seasons. For now, we are trying out these 5 and they are cute as can be! And I found out my white Muscovy drake carries black and chocolate.

05/15/2023

Your livestock should match your buildings when possible. Not really, but I do think personal aesthetics overlap in both things. It’s hard to beat black and white. We are putting pine tar and lindseed oil on our pump house. This helps preserve the wood and keep carpenter bees out. Black is good.

05/12/2023

Starlight and I drove the whole way to Canton, Ohio this year for the silver fox nationals show. She placed really well among the senior does. Now we are waiting on babies this spring. Her kindle date is next Wednesday but I’m thinking we might have had a miss on this first try. She was a little “spicy” as the judges said and wasn’t excited about her long weekend travels at that point. Her mister friend was dealing with a woman’s attitude that day. We still have a little time to rebreed this spring if we have to! But one thing is for sure, she’s the sweetest most happy bun at home and just the opposite when she’s out of her element. Mommy bunny life for her!

05/09/2023

Tamara’s kindle of 8 is just starting to open their eyes. This is her first time with babies and she’s a fantastic momma. They are all plump and round in the mornings. Whether mothering instinct is genetic or not, I don’t have enough personal experience to know yet. But I’ve heard both opinions. Either way, if she has a doe worth keeping in her lifetime the milk making will be a good thing to pass down!

05/04/2023

It’s our first year with broody hens on the farm. We have had ducks and geese set, but no chickens interested in being a momma. This year we had five hens go broody and she’s the first to hatch out. Proud momma of 5 plus 6 more she happily took from our incubator hatch.

04/27/2023

Annual crimson clover. This plant is a base feed source for our rabbits this spring. It’s also helping to put some nitrogen back into our dirt. Yes, I said DIRT. If you want to know what soil is you ought to read Gabe Brown’s book “Dirt to Soil”. We haven’t hit that classification level yet. But we are off and running with that goal ahead.

04/22/2023

Did you know that blue, green and even speckles are also part of the Ancona duck egg colors? It’s true! Dave Holderread created this breed with all of its beautiful diversity in mind. I’m preserving this in my lines. It’s sad to see some folks working towards breeding out this variability and original breed qualities for simply the acceptance into the APA. Standards are great. But not when they compromise and eliminate genetics from a breed. Process of acceptance does NOT outweigh the value of preservation and true beauty that comes with it.

03/22/2023

The early warm weather had the geese laying eggs right before freezing temperatures. They don’t know it but I was toting their eggs in overnight for a few days. But she has been happily sitting for two weeks now. It’s these girls first spring and I’m not sure I’m confident the gander has the hang of it. We will be candling a few eggs this evening to see what we have going on. In the meantime I’m admiring her. It’s an amazing thing to sit in one place for 30 days.

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