Beak & Burrow

YOU GUYS!

I HAVE A BOUGIE COOP! 😻😻😻

I’m so excited and in love with this. Thank you Bespoke Fabrications for doing such a lovely job, I am just *so* happy with it and can’t wait to fill it with chickens!

Jessica custom-cut that adorable chicken design and was able to nail the color with just a description of the shade I was looking for. And the whole thing is so solid and built to last, and so cute that it will also bring me joy every time I look at it. Thanks for the recommendation, Homestead Filkins!

💥💥GIVEAWAY💥💥

Slinky is really excited that we are thiiiiis 🤏 close to 11k followers. We’d like to do a giveaway (forgive Slinky’s spelling - he’s an otter).

We’re super close to releasing our jumbo White line, so let’s do a giveaway for a 20ct box of jumbo Whites.

If you prefer to not win eggs, you can exchange them for a TOF t-shirt.

Here’s the low down:
1) Invite 10 people to follow Thieving Otter Farm
2) Share this post.
3) Write “done” in the comments.

We will use an app to randomly select the winner whenever we reach 11k followers.

*We have a winner! But feel free to keep sharing!!!*

All set up at the Ghent Farmers Market! Will be here off Colley Ave in front of Blair Middle School until 7pm 🤗 Come see me!

We are here at EPPS Farm Supply in Suffolk until 1! Come see us! We have ZOMBIE chicks (1 week old, straight run) and freeze dried candy!

Thank you all for your support with my little side business to supplement my feed bill/homestead journey! Come and say hello!

Chicken chicks are so huge compared to quail!!

I’ve got a handful of zombie chicks that will be available within the week. These eggs were sent to me from a contact in Texas who has amazing stock. They are a mix of the rare all-black Ayam Cemani and White Leghorn- just in time for spooky season!

So far 6 have hatched and I would like them to go in sets of 3 so they aren’t lonely. This number might change depending on the final number hatched and whether they will be joining other chicks around the same age. I do this in the best interest of the chicks- I ran into a situation once where someone bought a single chick from me and came back for more after I had sold the rest of them and I was told that poor baby cried non-stop… I do anything I can do to avoid that in the future!

Reach out if you’d like to reserve some- straight run in Portsmouth Va near Chesapeake Square💕

I was accepted to attend the Ghent Farmers Market this season! I am going to be there today from 4-7pm and every 1st and 3rd Friday for the next few months! Come and see me, this is my first time here and there are so many amazing vendors setting up 💕 It’s behind the Blair Middle School right off Colley Ave

At EPPS Farm and Supply today at 2170 Joshua Ln in Suffolk!

I have:
Skitties
Sour Skitties
York Puffies
Puffy Ranchers
Lemon Puffs
Nerds Puffy Clusters
Puffy Taffy
Air Puffs

I also have dye and added color-free Giggles and a bin with uglies and oopsies 💜

Hey guys! Does anyone want a free vendor pass to sell at Historic Greenbrier Farms on August 25? This is one where you can sell things other than animals. It starts at 10am. I will not be attending, but the spot is paid for and non refundable so figured I’d pass it along 💕

Woof. It has been a long few weeks and I’ve been putting it off, but it is time to make an announcement.

I had to make the incredibly tough decision to step away from quail for now. The move to Virginia from Texas came with a market shock. I knew that it would be different coming from where I was because I had such a large quail community in Texas, but I wanted to try it anyway. Unfortunately, I was not meeting the goals I had set for them and I have to adjust and be flexible with the market I am in.

Every animal or project on a homestead has a specific purpose, and if it is no longer meeting that purpose then it needs to be reassessed. Our family does not eat much quail meat, and I was rarely having the time to process the eggs. This makes it really tough to justify keeping the birds during lulls in the market or really tough summers where every market day it is either raining or sweltering. Does anyone else feel like every single weekend this year has been like the worst weather was saved just for the weekend? 🫠

As much as I absolutely *adore* quail (I feel like I cannot describe enough how hard this decision was), they are not moving the way I need them to right now. There are established homesteaders here already that raise quail, so for now I am stepping back rather than saturate the market more.

Allyson Filkins with Homestead Filkins is an incredible quail enthusiast that I have come to know and work closely with here. I have trusted her to take over my lines until I’m ready to work with them again. She had my Blacks, Gingers, and Blues (!!), all of which are stock from the amazing Thieving Otter Farm. Please forward any requests for hatching/eating eggs or birds to her and help her support our birds 💕 her feed bill has just gone up 😂

Lots of brand new babies available! These are from my cage that had black and snowy oz quail, and I threw a few ginger eggs in there because I had the space. All really great colorations! Looks like there’s plenty of rare blacks and homo Oz with a few heterozygous, at least one ginger fee and a couple that look like ginger EB! 😍 (the gingers will be homo ginger, they came from a different cage. I may or may not be regretting throwing those eggs in the incubator now 😂)

One of my beautiful black quail grow outs 😍

We finally got our rabbits!! What a beautiful breed this Creme d’Argent is 🥰 Thank you so much Humble Beginnings Homestead for such a lovely trio!

Here’s an update on my homo sparkly het blue hatch from about 10 days ago!

Candle day! These eggs are another big milestone- my first batch from my own birds! I’m excited to see what hatches. I threw a few ginger eggs in there because I had the space, but the majority are from my cage that held my blacks and Oz Snowy quail- a breeding set of each. So possibilities are black and snowy separately, and also maybe some cross-breeding! I’m excited to see what Oz snowy and black creates!

Hard boiled a batch of quail eggs to have some pickled for Saturday at Little Acre Farm LLC ! My little hand crank egg peeler is my favorite tool, it makes so much of a difference with this task. The shells go in the oven to feed back to the birds. We try to use everything when we can!

Hey friends! Help me spread the word about this Spring Market on the Farm event on Saturday at Little Acre Farm LLC ! I will be there with my freeze dried candy and four of my rare black quail juveniles. The talented Emily’s Fun Faces (my sister) will also be there with face paints for all ages!

Let’s hype this up! I know it conflicts with another market that day, but I would love it if you could try to work it in. It would be really nice to have another good annual market 🫶🏻