Middle Fork Farms

Middle Fork Farms Follow us for more fluffy cows & chickens in your feed!

We currently breed:
- Purebred Scottish Highlands
- Orpington Chicks (Lavender, Buff, Chocolate)
- Ducks (Blue/Chocolate Khaki Campbell, Cayuga)

Fresh eggs available for consumption and incubating.

Excellent AHCA Scottish Highland Bull Calf Available - 8 months old, great DNA, wonderful temperament. Very intelligent,...
04/07/2026

Excellent AHCA Scottish Highland Bull Calf Available - 8 months old, great DNA, wonderful temperament. Very intelligent, outgoing, and social. Extremely comfortable around people and other farm animals, including LGDs (Pyrenees). Raised naturally by mama since birth. PM for details. Not cheap.

All of our cattle are registered with AHCA, the strictest Highland cattle registry available (requires DNA test verification for all bulls).

Located in Franklin County, Alabama. Transport options available.

Nothing cuter than a fuzzy little 1-day-old Highland cow that wants nothing but sun and human snuggles! We need ideas fo...
03/26/2026

Nothing cuter than a fuzzy little 1-day-old Highland cow that wants nothing but sun and human snuggles!

We need ideas for a good strong Scottish name for this sweet dun-colored grl... What do you suggest??

It's a girl! Welcome to the farm!
03/25/2026

It's a girl! Welcome to the farm!

05/10/2025

Unfortunately, we will not have a cow at the Celtic Festival today. Due to a mishap in the loading process, our truck and trailer have both been damaged to the point where we will not be able to transport today. All humans and cows are perfectly fine.

03/18/2025

All three of our incubators have had poor hatch rates in the past month. Despite using three identical incubators with a good reputation (Farm Innovators 4250), we have discovered on inspection that all three of ours appear to have problems with the thermostats reading temperatures as higher than they actually are.

For example, one incubator was reading 100 degrees and 65% humidity but a second thermometer known to be reliable read 90 degrees and 85% humidity inside that same incubator at the same time within an inch of the same sensor. We believe this has caused the poor hatch rates. We have fixed the problem by adjusting the thermostats higher and using other thermometers to make sure they are staying at the right levels.

If you are on our waiting list for chicks and hatching eggs, we apologize for the delay. We have not felt comfortable selling hatching eggs until we are positive that the recent hatching problems are not due to fertility issues. We have conducted "eggtopsies" on the eggs that did not hatch and well over 90% of our eggs have been confirmed to be fertile and over 75% of them got to within the last week of development but did not survive the "lockdown period," which is the last three days of the incubator and when they are most sensitive to temperature and humidity fluctuations.

Even though we are confident that we have no fertility issues, we are going to continue suspending the sale of hatching eggs until we have had at least one good batch hatch this year. We don't feel right selling hatching eggs when we are not able to hatch chickens from those same eggs.

03/16/2025

We are happy to report that we did not lose any animals in the storm. We had some ducks swept away in the flood but they found their way home by dark.

Unfortunately, it appears we did lose our goose nests due to the goose house being completely flooded out. Storm debris plugged all of the drain points and the goose house had 6-9 inches of standing water in it. Several dozen eggs that were supposed to hatch soon are presumably dead, we will candle to confirm tomorrow evening

The amount of water our farm received is mind boggling. We are at the bottom of a hill so everything flowed through us. Our sump pumps and French drains worked as designed to divert water around the house. The creek behind our house rose by 10-12 feet in a few hours and crested the other side of the creek for the first time - we have not seen or heard of that happening here before, ever.

03/10/2025

It's a girl! Everybody, welcome Elspeth the Scottish Highland heifer calf to Middle Fork Farms!!!

Feels like running a drug lab!
03/10/2025

Feels like running a drug lab!

Baby on the way! Grail is in a separate pen for close monitoring right by the house, as it appears she is in labor. I do...
03/09/2025

Baby on the way! Grail is in a separate pen for close monitoring right by the house, as it appears she is in labor. I don't care what the gender is as long as it's a healthy baby!!

We have one adult male Embden goose (aka gander) available. We love him but we have far too many males vs females at the...
02/24/2025

We have one adult male Embden goose (aka gander) available. We love him but we have far too many males vs females at the moment.

These geese are the perfect guard animal, they will instinctively protect smaller birds like chickens and ducks from predators such as foxes, possums, racoons, skunks, dogs, etc. We used to have really bad predator problems but since we started using geese as guard animals we have not lost a single bird to a predator!

Geese are cheaper, easier to train, and cost less to feed than dogs - and they won't ever kill your birds. Just put one of these ganders in a pen with smaller birds for a couple weeks and they will assign themselves as guardian over those birds for the rest of their life.

1️⃣0️⃣0️⃣, local delivery/meet-up in Russellville/Red Bay area.

02/24/2025

We have two Cayuga drakes (male ducks) available! They are about 5 months old and are very sweet and docile, they do not fight with each other. They were hatched and raised on our farm by their own mamas, not incubator babies.3️⃣0️⃣ each

Located in Russellville/Red Bay area. Local delivery/meet-up only.

HOW LAVENDER ORPINGTONS WORK:Lavender Orpingtons are Black Orpingtons with a genetic color variation that strips most of...
02/24/2025

HOW LAVENDER ORPINGTONS WORK:

Lavender Orpingtons are Black Orpingtons with a genetic color variation that strips most of the color from their typically black feathers.

If a parent has TWO of these genes, then they will pass on a full lavender gene to their babies. If a parent has ONE of these genes and one black gene, then they will pass on a SPLIT gene to their babies.

If a baby chick is born with a dominant SPLIT gene, there is a 50% chance they will appear Lavender and a 50% chance they will appear to be a Black Orpington (like in the photo below) but will still technically from a genetic standpoint be a Lavender Orpington with a split color gene.

If one parent with TWO lavender genes and one parent with a SPLIT lavender gene have babies, 25% of their babies will appear black, but again each of those will still pass on half of a lavender gene set to their babies.

If you remove all black genes from a flock, the colors will become very washed out after a few generations and start causing genetic issues. Therefore, healthy breeding operations keep black genes in their gene pool.

This means that a small percentage of our Lavender Orpingtons will appear to be Black Orpingtons, as they will have a dominant split gene. They are otherwise identical to Lavender Orpingtons except for look, and tend to have even fluffier feathers.

Our main breeding pen (not including our backup rooster) has three hens and one rooster, all of which present as Lavender. However, at least one of these has a split gene, so we end up with a small number of black orpingtons with 50% lavender genetics in some hatches. The black rooster pictured below was a Lavender Split that was part of a batch that we sold a while back.

We don't advertise having Black Orpingtons for sale because 1) we only have a small number of them and 2) we would hate for someone to buy Black Orpingtons and then end up surprised when they get Lavender babies. However, if you plan on breeding Lavender Orpingtons, a Black Orpington with a split lavender gene is a very valuable addition to your flock because it will help ensure overall genetic health and feather quality.

And, if you just love orpingtons in general, Black Orpingtons are just as docile and productive and are extremely striking and beautiful birds.

Address

Russellville, AL

Telephone

+12568569285

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Middle Fork Farms posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Business

Send a message to Middle Fork Farms:

Shortcuts

Share

Category