Projects Around The Farm

What Sets Us Apart

🌿What Sets You Apart?🌿
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I recently had someone write and ask “what sets you apart? Why should I purchase chicks from you and not a big hatchery?”
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The question made me realize that I have not listed our mission statement clearly in a post in sometime so here goes! ❤️
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🐣We are different and worth supporting because we are a fully integrated farm and hatchery family business. Every chick we hatch, every egg laid comes from birds we work with and see everyday here.
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We are a no kill hatchery (look up what hatcheries do to their extra male chicks). Every life is respected that we work with and hatch.
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All of our chickens are free to roam on pastures, they are not in warehouses or breeding cages.
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We breed for kind docile temperament and select sweet roosters year after year to break the cycle of people being afraid to go into the barnyard. Sweet roosters exist!
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We breed for gorgeous egg color and season after season we develop fun new shades of color to create interesting depth to your daily egg collecting basket.
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We have a strong environmental focus. We run on 💯 solar power generated in an array in our pasture.
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We have 💯 plastic free compostable packaging for our eggs, chicks, and shipments/pickup boxes.
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We are a zero waste farm, always making shifts to generate less and less waste. We love educating on this process and encouraging others along the way.
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We donate a portion of our sales to the @childrenseternalrainforest for their reforestation efforts in connecting rainforest corridors. Boosting the lungs of our planet.
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We do our own shipping/customer service so from first order placed to chicks arriving in your brooder you have help along the way.
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We ship nationwide and also offer farm pickups for chicks. We are about to enter the sweet spot of weather being warm enough for us to ship to every state. From the first week of May on we will be shipping everywhere and you can order in confidence.
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We offer chicken and quail keeping classes so you can work with your birds in confidence.
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Why are we worth supporting? Because our hearts are in everything we do and we love introducing chickens and the lifestyle they create to the world. Less waste, self reliance, more outside time.
alchemist_farmWhat Sets Us Apart
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Our Farms Blend of Organic Nesting Box Herbs

Organic Nesting Box Herbs

We take great care here on the farm to employ all organic methods in caring for our flocks and are asked often by our customers what they can do to optimize their coop and help their girls lay more. Giving the girls plenty of fresh water with electrolytes/vitamins during times of stress or heat as well as keeping the coop clean and disease free are the keys!

We love using herbs in our nesting boxes and specifically this blend of over 15 different ones because the hens can pick and choose which they would like to munch on while laying their eggs. The herb blend covers everything from digestion to parasite control, liver function and aromatics in the coop.

They store well, are easy to use and look beautiful sprinkled on top of fresh bedding. Our hens love getting comfortable on top of them and we know yours will too!

We recommend sprinkling on top of your nesting box bedding, and on the floor of your coop after a cleaning and using  anywhere from a Tablespoon to 1/4 cup per nesting box.

We offer our herb blend in a 4oz (1/4 lb which equals out to 4 cups) recyclable container and shipping is included in the price of each bag. If you are already ordering hatching eggs from us we can happily pack one or two of these herb bags in the box 🙂

Here is what is included in our mix and the benefits each herb offers your flock:

Organic Oregano – Natural Antibiotic if fighting off infection, natural parasite control anti fungal

Organic Peppermint – Natural Insect Repellant, aromatic, digestive aid

Organic Lavender – Calming for nervous system (great for a stressed flock), aromatic, insect repellant

Organic Calendula – Anti fungal, anti inflammatory

Organic Spearmint – Natural insect repellant

Organic Yarrow – Supports healthy appetite and optimizes digestive tract

Organic Parsley – Natural parasite control

Organic Marjoram – Immune booster

Organic Dandelion – Liver cleanser, natural temperature regulator

Organic Lemongrass -Aromatic, immune booster, digestive aid

Organic Comfrey – Anti fungal, natural parasite control, natural temperature regulator

Organic Chickweed – Immune booster, contains vitamin C, B vitamins, Iron, Niacin

Organic Cilantro – Aromatic, digestive aid,

Organic Catnip – Natural insect repellant, digestive aid.

Organic Basil – Aromatic, digestive aid.

Organic Chamomile – Calming for nervous system (helps with flock stress) and digestive aid.

Organic Rose – Aromatic, antiseptic, antibacterial and Calming

 Order some for your flock today! 

This information is provided for entertainment purposes only and is not intended to substitute for veterinary advice. This information has not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

alchemist_farmOur Farms Blend of Organic Nesting Box Herbs
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Seeding Fresh Pasture

Seeding fresh pasture

seeding-our-pastures-before-the-rains-alchemist-farms-sebastopol-ca

What do you do when your father comes to visit? Why put him to work assembling your seed spreader! With big rain in the report for Northern California we created our own seed mix of general pasture, rye grass and clovers to cast over our acreage. We are extremely water conscious here on the farm and do not irrigate our fields during the summer, big rains means an explosion of color on the landscape again.

alchemist_farmSeeding Fresh Pasture
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Little Hands At Work

Many hands make less work!

Here our littlest farm hand is working the Philips head screw driver to install new batteries in our auto coop doors for the season. She is very proud of being tall enough to help with the every day tinkering tasks farm life demands 🙂little-farm-hands-helping-around-the-farm

alchemist_farmLittle Hands At Work
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Medicine Making

Homesteading!medicine-making-with-elderberries-alchemsit-farm-sebastopol-california

We took a break from chick wrangling today to make elderberry syrup in preparation for the coming winter.
The task of separating the berries from the stem is perfect for little hands and also serves as an invitation for little minds to learn about medicine making!

alchemist_farmMedicine Making
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Guinea Keets Available For A Limited Time

 Guinea Keets Available For a Limited Time

guinea keets in hands alchemist farm sebastopolWe love all things beautiful and functional here on the farm. Guinea hens are typically rare in the average persons backyard flock but let us tell you why we think you should add one (or two!) to your backyard.

Guinea have love to forage and go after ticks in particular. If you live in an area where lyme disease is a concern this is the bird for you. Guinea are excellent flock protectors and will alert chickens of any birds of prey in the sky by stamping their feet and calling a specific call. Their feathering as adults is breath taking and it would be a treasure trove for any jewelry maker.

Lastly, when given the proper conditions a guinea hen can lay 150 eggs a year. The yolk of which is a ridiculously rich color so you know it is packed with fantastic nutrients (see our image of yolk comparison with our own pasture raised hen yolk). Their eggs are the size of a bantam egg – larger than a quail egg but smaller than a standard sized chicken egg.

We are offering a limited number of keets (chicks) this year. They just hatched this last week so if you are interested reach out sooner than later! Keets are straight run and $20 each.

Adult Guinea Hen

guinea hen

  Guinea hen yolk next to pasture raised hen yolk

Guinea Hen Egg Alchemist Farm

alchemist_farmGuinea Keets Available For A Limited Time
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Tour of Mobile Coop

We like to make the most of every space we are given here at the farm and when a small flatbed 4×8 trailer fell into our laps we set out to create a space saving design. Here is the final product!

We used an old farm door that was stashed in our barn and cut it down to size to act as a door for the coop. The excess space on this 4′ end has avian wire which has 1/2″ holes. It is important to use avian wire instead of traditional chicken wire because the 1″ holes of chicken wire let weasels get in and there is nothing more devastating than a weasel in the hen house! For the space in-between the top of the door and the roof we also stapled avian wire to give good cross ventilation.

Mobile Coop Side Alchemist Farm Sebastopol

We built the coop directly on the trailer and secured it with cross bracing inside so it holds together well when we are moving it about the property for fresh pasture. 8″ overhangs of the metal roofing over the top rafter helps keep the weather out when it rains.

Mobile Coop Side Alchemist Farm Sebastopol
Inside we set the roost on some simple supports in the ground so the chickens can sleep and poop in the hay below. For nesting we decided to try a pyramid of three buckets. The buckets give the hens the feeling of security while making cleanup (if necessary) an easy task. All we have to do is simply lift out the buckets, hose them down and disinfect them if need be. The slippery side of the buckets deturs night time roosting on the buckets keeping the coop cleaner.

Inside of Mobile Coop Alchemist Farm SebastopolTo make cleaning the coop floor swift and easy we put hinges on the wall side of the roost and a clasp on the other side so it can swing up to the ceiling and get anchored while we rake out the straw and give fresh bedding.

Movable Roost Inside Mobile Coop Alchemist Farm SebastopolThe small breeding flock inhabiting the mobile coop loves their home and if it is a particularly hot day they can be found resting and laying eggs under the trailer, content in the shade!

Mobile Chicken Coop Alchemist Farm Sebastopol

alchemist_farmTour of Mobile Coop
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