OUR STORY
4th Generation Famly-Owned Farm
Over the past 4 generations, our farm has been a dairy farm, grown grains to feed the animals, and grown potatoes.
We continue the traditions with our chickens, rabbits, and livestock.
We started our farm animal adventure many years ago. Our boys joined Northampton County 4-H and so our adventure of showing and selling our animals began.
Our sons Larry, Matthew, and Daniel have all shown chicken and pigs. We started with the boys showing laying hens. Those first birds never left our house and we had to create special housing for them to live out their lives. Every year the boys have been able to choose their breed, raise them out, and sell them at our county fair’s auction in August. We have tried many breeds and have our favorites. The chickens we choose depend on what we are looking for at that time. Do we want eggs, pretty birds, or dual-purpose birds that are used for eggs and meat? From there the choices are endless. The boys have had champions and reserve pens of chickens over the years. We love our birds.
We also decided to raise broiler chickens. Having a son with food issues, it became necessary to raise our own food and we have never looked back. We raise most of our own chicken every year for our family to eat. It is amazing that in 6 weeks you can have a full-sized 5 – 8 pound bird. The boys have shown broilers at the county fair and have raised champion and reserve broilers every year.
Our next adventure was pigs (swine). Our oldest son Larry was determined to raise and show his own pigs. With help from our Aunt and Uncle we were able to house our first 4 swine on their property. Over the years Larry obtained his goal of raising numerous champion and reserve champion pigs that were sold at the county fair. He even convinced his brothers to show pigs right along with him. Larry is now working in the poultry field.
Our middle son Matthew approached us a few years later, after buying our current farm, to raise goats. Who were we to say no? So in we jumped. For 2 years Matthew has raised Boer goats to sell at the county fair. Boer goats are used for meat. Having no idea what we were doing, we jumped right in, and much to our surprise we had reserve champion goats 2 years in a row. We now have 3 of them back home living out their lives with us. Matthew is also working in the poultry field.
Now we have begun our newest adventure. Our youngest son Daniel has asked to raise both meat and pet rabbits. He has chosen to raise Californian rabbits for meat and show and Mini Rex for pets and show. What once was a single rabbit has grown into almost 30 for breeding stock. We can’t wait to see where he goes with this project and his rabbit business.
