I honestly thought that we would have more babies by now, but a couple of does that are due are REALLY holding onto their kids.  We have Apple Blossom at day 147 and Kat von D at day 145.  Apple's ligs are finally starting to soften and her udder is slowly filling.  This will be Apple's first freshening, and we are so excited to finally have babies out of our first babies born on the farm.  Keep checking back.  These next two can go anytime!  We also have Cali due next week, and then Annie right before Open House. Finally, our Spring season will conclude with Airianna who is due the first of April.

With a little more than three weeks left until our 1st Annual Open House event, I just wanted to give everyone a glimpse into the prep work that has been done and continues to be done. This is my dining room table, which has looked like this for at least a month and gets worse everyday. Everyone who attends will have a Welcome packet with lots of information and goodies stuffed inside, and each clinic has literature that will be handed out for your reference later. For those that have asked, YES, you can still reserve your free tickets. I'm still sending out tickets every day and will continue to do so until I can no longer mail them in time. Getting so excited!!

Since before we had the farm (pre-2011) I have always dreamed of raising and breeding a flock of java chickens. I always thought that it was so interesting that the Java is a very old breed that was extremely plentiful in America, but was literally nearly wiped out by the public demand for a faster growing meat bird.  The Garfield Museum in Illinois, with the help of the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, developed a program to repopulate the Java breed of chicken. (When you visit the chick hatching exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry, those are JAVAS!)  The Java breed has bounced back somewhat due to their efforts, but it is still endangered and rare. Twin Willows Farm will be joining the effort to preserve this rare heritage breed.  We have just ordered 15 black java chicks to become our new breeding flock. I am so excited for them to arrive and to have this dream finally come to fruition!

- New pricing structure for kids can be found on our SALES POLICY page.

- Reservation prices for kids and availability can be found on our KIDDING SCHEDULE page.

- First Freshened udder pictures of American Honey can be found on her pedigree page.

- Third Freshened udder pictures of Trixie can be found on her pedigree page.

- DHIR Production Data page added.

Tomorrow, Twin Willows will complete our very first EVER monthly milk test on the ADGA 305 Standard testing plan.  We are a little nervous, but also very excited to start this important journey to improving our herd. We have three does to test this month, with a total of five more does to be added to the program over the next two months. Since we are dam raising, we will also be able to get pictures of the udders at 12 hours full. I'm mostly excited to see American Honey's udder since she is our first homegrown doe that has freshened so far.  We are confident that we can milk star some does this year!

I wanted to let everyone know that if you requested tickets to our Open House before today, your tickets have been mailed.  Watch for them to arrive shortly. It's not too late to request tickets!  Follow the link in our banner above to reserve them and I will mail them right out!

I have not been very good about keeping up with photo updates of our animals, so I starting thinking about a way to make it easier to do so. I built this photo staging area in the barn to hopefully make it more convenient to snap a pic when I need to. I used some plywood and re-purposed a stanchion that hasn't seen much use lately. I'm hoping to have everyone updated with new pictures after they receive their spring haircuts in a few months.

Airianna has been bred to Scorch for April 4th babies, and this breeding has been added to the Kidding Schedule.  Doe reservations on this breeding are closed.

We have added a new product to our online store for purchase!  These 12 oz mugs were designed and hand-painted by us. They are microwave and dishwasher safe.  Order one now for only $12 each and get FREE personalization and FREE shipping! 

Good Morning!  I just wanted to let everyone know that the tickets are printed and ready to send out!  I will be sending them along with a reminder flyer for the event sometime next week.  If you haven't already reserved your FREE tickets, please do so this week, please.  If you miss the first round of mailings, it's okay, I can still send them up until the first of March, but it will make it WAY easier on me if you reserve them NOW.  We are anticipating that we will have a great turnout and we have over 60 tickets reserved already.  What are you waiting for???  Get yours reserved!  Only those with tickets will be allowed to enter to win door prizes in our drawings. There are FOUR prize packages planned. =)