Farmers Sue & Mike share day-to-day life on the farm

Cleetus the chicken retires

8/26/2020

Cleetus the chicken is a Kentucky Fried Chicken that hitched a ride with us from, you guessed it, Kentucky. He decided to stick around. He was the first free ranging chicken at Ozark Akerz and he's always getting into trouble. He was also our first logo.

As part of the Cleetus logo design, we included a circle in his pan that contains 3 Elder Futhark runes: fehu meaning cattle or wealth, jera meaning harvest and raido meaning journey. The runes honor Sue's Celtic and Mike's Viking heritage.

Cleetus is mad as cheese and is always messing around on the farm, He's had his share of okra accidents. He promoted our Ozark Outlaw beer, brewed at Raleigh Brewing, using our organically grown jalapenos and joined us at the brewery for a few cheeky pints at the release. He also took a photo of Mike kissing a camel. Scroll through the slideshow below to view Cleetus' story in pictures and view the incriminating evidence.

We're sure Cleetus will still be causing trouble on the farm, but he's probably going to be spending more time drinking cold beer on the porch now that his promotional days are over. Our new logo is based on the image our friend Rachel at Slow Farm designed for the Feeding Families Team T-shirts. It's based on our Pineywoods bull Rocky. We'll be releasing an edgy new t-shirt soon to celebrate our new logo and a new era of Graze Against The Machine® regenerative farming at Ozark Akerz!

Our new logo

Cleetus' reaction to the new logo.

We've had a few people ask about what runes equate to letters in the alphabet over the years, so if you want to see your name in Elder Futhark, Cleetus has included a table below. The letters of OZARK mean: Heritage Elk Odin Journey Torch. Some of the runes have multiple meanings, choose the one that you like best, Have Fun!

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Spring Planting and Hatching

5/31/2015

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Seeds and weeds aplenty!

Spring is a busy time on the farm, here's a quick summary about what we've been up to:

Prepare the soil for planting
Plant 250 tomato plants, 150 sweet and hot peppers, 50 basil plants
Drive 125 stakes in the ground to support all of the above
Plant ginger, artichokes, corn, cucumbers, squash, beans, dill, watermelons, cantaloupes, celery
Install new drip-line irrigation
Tying up the fast growing tomato plants
Mulch tomatoes
Weed, weed, weed
Run to the chicken house to check on the baby chicks

Here are some pictures documenting our progress

Sue planting beans

1st load of straw to mulch tomatoes

Mike taking a selfie with the drip-line

3 heirloom corn varieties planted for chicken feed

And finally, here is a video of 4 of the baby chicks that have hatched. The first of the chicks hatched on Cinco de Mayo. We have 5 hens sitting on eggs right now so we should have many more soon!

Thanks all y'all!
Sue & Mike

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Oysters on the farm!

4/16/2015

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Chicken-eating oysters on the farm?! Read on to find out more about them, about Fairy Eggs and about the time Farmer Mike saw a man-eating chicken.

"Ostraconophobia is the fear of shellfish. Farmer Mike loves oysters, no fear around here!"

More Cackleberries
This time of year, egg production is reaching its maximum, this takes a lot of calcium. During the winter months, we get 3-4 eggs a day from 16 hens, right now we're getting about a dozen a day. We supplement the chickens diet with crushed oyster shells to give them the calcium they need. We just pour a small pile of it on the floor of the chicken house and they can eat as much as they need.

"Alektorophobia is the fear of chickens and/or the fear of eggs"

Soft Shell Eggs
Soft shell eggs can occur in younger chickens or if the chickens don't get enough calcium. The egg shell doesn't form as it is developed and the hen lays the egg with a soft, leather like outer casing. We found 3 of them when egg production started increasing this spring. We increased the amount of oyster shells we put out for them and since then we haven't had any more soft shells.

Fairy eggs

Fairy Eggs & Witch Eggs
Although not a symptom of calcium deficiency, Fairy eggs (also known as Witch eggs) can occur if a hen gets frightened. The eggs are tiny and yolk-less. We have found 2 this spring and wonder if the noise we made while digging the trench for irrigation with the Ditch Witch (how appropriate!) caused a bit of a fright.

"Wiccaphobia is the fear of witches. Farmer Sue has one of the best cackles you'll ever hear!"

Oyster Pastures, Cannibalism and Captain Tom's
Sustainable farming is all about using what you have on the farm. Currently there are no oysters grazing our pastures. We could consider starting an oyster farm but that seems a bit excessive. We have heard of folks feeding egg shells back to their chickens. That seems a bit like cannibalism, not sure we're ready to take that step! Finally, we could talk to the Captain Tom's Seafood Restaurant down the road to see if they would donate their oyster shells. Of course we would need to consider the time and effort it would take to crush the shells. We only went through 5 pounds in the first 6 months and despite the increase in consumption right now, we might be buying shells for a while, especially at $10 for a 50 pound bag!

Gumboze

This week we're introducing a new section to the the Ekoze blog. Like the best Gumbo, the Gumboze section will have a little bit of everything, a farm-fact, a story about Sue or Mike or just something random. We promise it will always be entertaining, so check back often!

Man-eating-chicken
Years ago, Farmer Mike paid a buck to see a Man-eating chicken on the fairgrounds of the Calgary Stampede in Calgary, Canada. Sure enough when Mike went in, there it was on stage, a man eating chicken out of a fried chicken bucket. Man-eating chicken, Chicken-eating oysters, the possibilities for making a buck at the fair are endless! Mike's memory isn't what it used to be (according to Sue!), but he's pretty sure this is the sign that was hanging outside the tent.