Birch Rock Homestead

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Birch Rock Homestead We are Birch Rock Homestead established 2024. A family passionate about self sustainablility and keeping the old ways alive.

10/20/2026

🎃Pumpkin Season!🎃

We had a volunteer pumpkin plant pop up in our field this summer and it gave us a pumpkin!! 🧡

👀 Keep an eye out for our post when we carve it!

Reminder: as pumpkin season comes then goes, we are accepting donations of carved and un carved, NON painted, NON bleached pumpkins\gourds\squash to feed to our critters!

🕐 Please, message us if you would like to drop off otherwise we are planning ONE run to pickup donations for Sunday 11\08.

🍂We hope everyone is having a wonderful autumn season so far! 🥰







10/12/2026

🥚Egg wagon closed🥚
From today (10\12) until further notice!

🐔Our ladies are working hard at growing new fresh feathers to get them through winter and all of their energy is going towards that!

🪶 This phase is called molting!
Chickens molt at different stages of their lives. They molt a few times as their chick feathers change to adult feathers when they are young. After that they molt annually as weather and daylight hours change in the fall months.

🍂 Less daylight hours and cooler temps are trigger chickens bodies to replace old worn or broken feathers with new ones. Winters are cold around here and staying warm is crucial for surviving the season.
Growing new feathers takes a LOT of energy and because of that egg production is greatly reduced or even stopped completely depending on the type and age of the chicken during molting season.

❄️ Our egg wagon will remain closed until further notice as our whole homestead is slowing down and prepping for the "ber" months.

🙌🏻Thank you to everyone who bought eggs from us this summer season.
We are so grateful for the opportunity to provide for our family and some of our community as well!

10/11/2026

😺 This crew cracks me up!

The kittens have gotten so big and will be ready for their furever homes in the next couple of weeks. 🥺

🍼 Even though they are no longer reliant solely on their mama for food they are still nursing, have begun learning to hunt, and of course are still learning all that goes into being a cat.

🥚Egg wagon is closed!🥚

🐔 Our ladies are currently moulting and after pre orders this weekend we are sold out! (10\11)

Thank you all for your continued support.
🙌🏻We appreciate each and every one of you!

10/09/2026

🤔Lets just take a minute to turn our functioning brains on and think about this!

🐓 Why would a neighbor in a country setting want to raise chickens and have a rooster as part of their flock?

🪲Raising a small flock of chickens isn't about turning a suburban yard into a massive farm-it’s about food security, pest control, and self-reliance.

Right now, many local ordinances treat a handful of birds the same as industrial livestock. In reality:
✨They create less noise than a barking dog and your own running lawnmower.
✨They devour pests like ticks, spiders, and grubs in the yard.
✨They produce natural fertilizer for gardens and yield healthy, fresh eggs.

Now here's the real kicker (and the reason our neighbors decided to go to the town to complain about our homestead without even a single word to us regarding the matter FIRST) - What are the reasons for wanting a rooster in a small flock?

🥚 As most people know hens do not need a rooster to lay eggs; they produce unfertilized eggs on their own.

🐔 However, keeping a rooster provides several key functions to maintaining a healthy flock:
⭐Egg Fertilization: A rooster is required if you want to breed your own flock and hatch fertilized eggs into baby chicks. A major requirement for a sustainable operation that isn't reliant on large hatcheries.
⭐Predator Watchdog: Roosters constantly scan the perimeter and the sky for threats like hawks, foxes, or stray animals, using distinct alarm calls to warn the hens to take cover.
⭐Food Sharing ("Tidbiting"): A good rooster will scout for food, call the hens over when he finds a snack, and step aside to let the females eat first.
⭐Flock Harmony: Roosters can help reduce internal squabbling and "mean girl" pecking order disputes among hens by keeping peace and organizing the group.

👉🏻 If we want a resilient community, our local zoning laws should reflect common sense—not outdated suburban conformity!
If someone doesn't want a chicken or a rooster for a neighbor they shouldn't live in an agriculturally zoned area!
It's that simple.

How would you handle city laws being imposed into your farm?

10/07/2026

☕ What. A. Day.
You might wanna sit down for this tea.

⏰ After an hour and a half of pleading our case to the town planning board members and the people of the town - we have even more hoops to jump through and are essentially being told self sufficiency, local farms, and fresh food are less than desired in the Town of New Scotland. Even though the town allegedly "prides itself" in its agricultural roots and states that it supports locals "right to farm".

✏️ It has been voted that our setup will not only be under the scrutiny of the towns zoning team but we are also being forced to remove our rooster (Alan) from our land and will no longer be allowed to house any roosters of mature age.
All because we are 4 acres shy of the "right to farm"..in an agriculture zoned area...in between two cow farms..and way out in the middle of nowhere.

💢 So ..effectively because someone doesn't like the sound of farm noises (in farm country where multiple nearby neighbors have roosters) we cannot create a self sufficient chicken husbandry operation as we had so desired and planned for.

🥚 We will have to not only out source for chicks or fertilized eggs but we now risk our hens not having a rooster to look after them and we have to say goodbye to our amazing roo that I hand raised from a day old chick.

🧠 The madness in my brain that this situation creates is so unreal.

❤️ My heart aches having to let go of our dream.

🤔 If someone had clued me in that this is the "trouble" we would be dealing with at this property before we bought it I probably would have looked at them like they had five heads. Merely for the fact that something so silly could even happen in such rural land on a road where more than a handful of neighbors have their own flocks of chickens.

☕Part of me wants to be petty.. and part of me knows it's all in God's plan and I just need to sit my butt down and focus on what he's nudging our family towards.

🙌🏻If anyone is interested in a sweet, almost 2 year old roo who's looking for new ladies to call his please, reach out.





09/29/2026

🐓 Meet Alan!

A classic and exemplary rooster that has become an integral member of our flock.
🐣 Alan was raised from a day old chick since last spring here on our homestead and we are quite grateful for his service.
✔️ A great representation of "understood the assignment".
Not only is he protective of his ladies he even calls them when he finds goodies (snacks).
👀 He's a very good lookout, gentle with us , and more importantly he gives our toddler space even when she's picking up" his chicks".
🪕Named after the rooster in Disney's version of Robin Hood (Alan - a - Dale) I'm sure if our Alan had the ability to play an instrument he would play non-stop to win his ladies over.
Big thanks to The Rockwell Micro Homestead for hatching this handsome roo for us last year. 🤗

09/26/2026

🫪WOW!🫪
That was quick!
EGGS are SOLD OUT for the day!
(And of course while I have the sold out sign in the house being painted ....!!!)

🥚Egg wagon will be back open tomorrow Sunday 9\27 stocked with freshly laid eggs from today! 🥚

Here's a video of Speckles to apologize for the wait - Speckles is one of our newer ladies to join the flock but she fits right in! 🐔

🤗Thank you for your support.

09/26/2026

🌧️This weekends storm rolling in isn't keeping us down (or closed)!

🥚Egg wagon is open daily 9am-dusk!🥚

We are thanking the good Lord for our water supplies being filled this weekend and are grateful for the "downtime" that comes along with rainy days.

🧺 Catching up on laundry, (hopefully) making bread, puddle jumping during chores, and tackling some little tasks\crafts inside this weekend.. hopefully painting our sale\sold out sign!🤞🏻I truly appreciate how rainy days force me to slow down and work on some indoor things I always throw on the back burner.

☔ What do you occupy your weekends with when the weather is cold and rainy?

09/25/2026

🥚Egg wagon will be stocked for the weekend!🥚

🌧️ The weather is looking to be terrible the next couple of days but we still plan to have the wagon open (Lord and weather willing).

👀 Keep on eye out on our page for any last minute closures \ sold out notifications!

📝Feel free to reach out with any questions or orders!

̇day

09/24/2026

🕊️ Fly High our dearest Lacey.

We're still not sure exactly what made our sweet Lacey cross over the rainbow bridge last night but we are heartbroken none the less.

Lacey was one of the calmest and friendliest chickens we've had the pleasure of calling a member of our homestead and she will be so greatly missed by us all.

Thankful for the time we had with her but heartbroken the time was so short.
Homesteading surely isn't for the weak and every loss is felt to our cores..


Address

Slingerlands
Slingerlands, NY
12159

Telephone

+5183311629

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