Tag: Chicken

Webmaster’s note: The format of this column includes all of the Quill’s Endians participating at various times and in various ways! Phil writes this month’s column.

Hanging Out With Cows

Since early September, we have had the cows in our neighbor’s field just north of Quill’s End Farm.  The field goes all the way to Back Ridge Rd.  Every time we have animals near that (less-travelled) road, cars stop and watch.  I get it.  I like hanging out with cows.  I wonder though, if anyone would stop and watch 100 years ago.

It has become such an anomaly to see animals out in a field.  Even in farming communities, the cows, hogs, and chickens live indoors for their entire lives.  It gladdens my heart to see that people are still attracted enough to livestock to stop and stare for a second.

I spent my early years in Medellin, Colombia.  It was a city of millions in the 70s and 80s of last century, but many of its residents were fresh from the countryside.  Some kept chickens or quail in cages in their homes.  Some kept rabbits on little dirt courtyards.  Wherever there was a little space, it was filled with a vestige of a time that was fleeting, when more than not, people were involved with raising and growing their food.

Some men made money with a horse and cart.  Lacking fields and barns, they would work a horse until thin, let it loose, and catch a fat one.  Horses roamed the city in little herds, snacking in city parks and dooryards, biding their time until they gained enough condition to warrant being caught and worked.

For thousands of years, humans have had a working relationship with animals that the Industrial Revolution is erasing.  It is a shame.  Machines cannot replace the relationships built by good work, of shared sweat and experience, and the many benefits of keeping livestock.

You all get to share some of the benefits while making it possible for us to continue this millennia-old relationship in the products we make, but maybe at some time, you’ll need to jump a fence, touch a cow, and remember the shared past, perhaps the future.

Heather and Phil Retberg and their three children run Quill’s End Farm, a 105-acre property in Penobscot that they bought in 2004. They use rotational grazing on their fifteen open acres and are renovating thirty more acres from woods to pasture to increase grazing for their pigs, grass-fed cattle, lambs, laying hens, and goats. Quill’s Endians are members of Halcyon Grange and publish a newsletter for their farm’s buying club of farmers in the area, and generously permit us to share some of their columns with Grangers. Visit the Quill’s End Farm Facebook Page for more information.

Webmaster’s note: The format of this column includes all of the Quill’s Endians participating at various times and in various ways! Phil writes this month’s column.

Alternating Notes

This past week held notes of dissonance. Discordant, sad strains in the melody of fall’s alternating glory of rain and shine, a long-awaited harmony.

Benjamin headed off to Draft Animal Power Network field days in Vermont. This means we employ help at chore times. 

Our cows know our boundaries.  If anyone else tends to them, they need to find this new human’s boundaries, much like children in a classroom with substitute teachers.  For example: we milk in a parlor with two stanchions.  While one cow is milked, the next one is let in to be prepped.  We milk in the same order day after day.  The cows know when their turn is coming and busy themselves with hay until then. 

Unless…they need to test someone new.  Since last Wednesday when Ben left, the jumble has begun after the first cow, Polly.  Astrid refused outright to come into the parlor just to see which tricks might be employed to persuade her otherwise.  I stepped in with apples…the stomach wins the heart.

I made it my goal to just keep up with grazing rotations while Benjamin was away.  The hens move every two or three days, the hogs as they use up a paddock, the cows twice daily.  I was on top of everything until Eliza calved on Friday. 

Everything went well.  This is Eliza’s 7th calf.  

We typically give a new mama a day or two in the barn to keep an eye on things postpartum.  When I walked into the barn on Saturday morning, I immediately knew something was wrong.  Eliza was unable to get up and bloated.  I set to action with Fisher, who was milking cows that morning and our oldest son, Alexander.  We propped her up with bales of hay.  She started to belch and get rid of the bloat.  I figured she would be up in no time. 

After milking she was still unable to stand.  We gave her some oral calcium and glucose, hoping her system would recover quickly.  I called our vet.  By 1:30 that afternoon, she had passed, most likely from internal bleeding postpartum. 

This is a big loss, as sad as it was unpreventable.  Eliza was our oldest cow and the herd matriarch.   She left us a cunning, super-smart, little heifer.  This wee slip of a calf has big shoes to fill.

Ben returns tonight (Sunday).  The cows will have to behave again and… he’ll have a good-bye to say and a tree to plant over Eliza.  The regular melody will return.  As will those dissonant notes.  Alternating necessities each in their turn, the flip side one of the other.

As our many summertime guests head home for the winter, I entreat all of you to please spread the good word.  Our local farms are overflowing with bounty and quality unlike anything you can purchase at the grocery store.  “The best dairy in Hancock County” (according to Google reviews) is in your neighborhood.  Visit your farms and eat well.

Heather and Phil Retberg and their three children run Quill’s End Farm, a 105-acre property in Penobscot that they bought in 2004. They use rotational grazing on their fifteen open acres and are renovating thirty more acres from woods to pasture to increase grazing for their pigs, grass-fed cattle, lambs, laying hens, and goats. Quill’s Endians are members of Halcyon Grange and publish a newsletter for their farm’s buying club of farmers in the area, and generously permit us to share some of their columns with Grangers. Visit the Quill’s End Farm Facebook Page for more information.

Webmaster’s note: The format of this column includes all of the Quill’s Endians participating at various times and in various ways! Phil writes this month’s column.

Action Following Sentiment

We are a bit beat after Saturday, as it marked the end of meat bird season here at Quill’s End. 9 friends came and helped us process the last 250 birds, which are now packed into fridges and freezers awaiting your tables. Soon we will add storage potatoes to our mix.  Milk, cheese, yogurt, cream.  Eggs, pork, beef, chicken.  Garlic, kale, carrots.  We’ve got your plates covered.
 

With mid-September rolling in, the apples are sweetening.  Benjamin’s work in the orchard is showing.  Our first fall apple, Gertrud’s Pippin, is in its prime starting mid-September.  These apples have crisp flesh and a nice balance of tart and sweet.  Benjamin says it is everything Wolf River promises and doesn’t deliver.  We will be offering Gertrud’s Pippin starting this week.

It has given me hope reading all the tributes and remembrances of Wendell Berry these past two weeks.  Here is to action following sentiment! 

Webmaster’s Note: Wendell Berry, the acclaimed American novelist, poet, essayist, farmer, and environmental activist, died on August 31, 2026, at the age of 92 at his home in Port Royal, Kentucky. He championed small family farms, local communities, and sustainable agriculture, frequently warning against the harms of industrialization and corporate agribusiness.

Heather and Phil Retberg and their three children run Quill’s End Farm, a 105-acre property in Penobscot that they bought in 2004. They use rotational grazing on their fifteen open acres and are renovating thirty more acres from woods to pasture to increase grazing for their pigs, grass-fed cattle, lambs, laying hens, and goats. Quill’s Endians are members of Halcyon Grange and publish a newsletter for their farm’s buying club of farmers in the area, and generously permit us to share some of their columns with Grangers. Visit the Quill’s End Farm Facebook Page for more information.

Webmaster’s note: The format of this column includes all of the Quill’s Endians participating at various times and in various ways! Phil writes this month’s column.

Eggs and chicken, chicken and eggs

Having poultry on Quill’s End Farm has always seemed like a no brainer. In natural ecosystems, ground nesting birds follow ruminants and “clean up” the larvae that invariably populate ruminant’s waste. This helps break the pathogen cycle and also cuts down the fly population. The poultry also add their own manure to the soil to stimulate growth.
 

The Quill’s End hens and meat birds move on a regular basis in pens or behind electric netting that ensures their safety from ground predators. This gives them insects and pasture to augment their diet. It also makes for an incredibly tasty egg or chicken.
 

The business of getting eggs and chicken to you is not as idyllic. We currently process around 250 chickens three times per summer. These days are both long but immensely enjoyable. A crew gathers to make light work of the task, and a lunch unlike any other follows the work. Because the task is not loud, the conversation and laughter around the table elevate the work. Anticipation of the shared meal spurs the crew on.
 

Processing eggs lacks the communal aspect. Because eggs come in at a steady rate every day, washing and packing eggs usually is solitary work. We try to add a little whimsy to the process by “mixing” up eggs in the cartons. You might find a large egg next to a small one. You may find green or white eggs in your carton. You may find patterns in the placement of said colored or colorless eggs. The specialness of the eggs happens in the field, the patterns and size games are just for your, and our, entertainment.
 

We have oh so much plenty of eggs and chicken right now, we can cover your mornings and suppers all month. Avail yourself of the bounty.

Heather and Phil Retberg and their three children run Quill’s End Farm, a 105-acre property in Penobscot that they bought in 2004. They use rotational grazing on their fifteen open acres and are renovating thirty more acres from woods to pasture to increase grazing for their pigs, grass-fed cattle, lambs, laying hens, and goats. Quill’s Endians are members of Halcyon Grange and publish a newsletter for their farm’s buying club of farmers in the area, and generously permit us to share some of their columns with Grangers. Visit the Quill’s End Farm Facebook Page for more information.