They've got feathers!

The baby chicks are still growing and growing. They jump up and flap like crazy!

Apply for the 2009 Alligator Season

The online registration for SCDNR's drawhunt for alligators starts May 1 and ends June 15th. Alligator season will be Sept. 12 to Oct. 10th. Send in some of your pictures from last year's season and I'll share them here!

Rachel is about a month old.

She's an orphan calf that we've been trying to introduce to a bottle for about a week. After much slobber and sore toes, it worked!

Meet Rachel!

Rachel's finally learned to drink from a bottle!

Cows love ground corn!

We make our own feed from locally grown corn and hay we bale on Wadmalaw Island.

You can almost see them grow!

Every one of the eggs hatched, so with any luck we should have farm fresh eggs by Opening Day! I put this can in to give perspective. You'll be amazed how fast the grow!

Bill McKinnon picks up the winning shotgun!

Bill won the 2008 Big Buck Contest! His buck was the biggest for the year! It weighed 253 pounds live weight!

They've all hatched, but one

I've had incubators of eggs probably a dozen times, but have never had quite such a good result! Of 24 eggs, there's only one egg left and it has a few cracks and so still might just hatch. They hatched on the weekend my grandchildren were visiting so I've had lots of help!

And more...

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First one!

We hear peeps!

Lots of cracks in the eggs, too!

Ready for hatching!

I've candled all the eggs with my trusty wildlife watching spotlight and all the eggs are growing! Couldn't get a photo of it but each has an air sac at the end. No peeping noise yet, but should hear that by tomorrow.
For the last 2 days you have to not turn them, increase the humidity, and let them sit on their side. So this is how we wait out the last 48 hours. Keep your fingers crossed!

Spring has sprung at Cordray's!

Or at least it seems so. The warm temperatures are great for our real crop - GRASS! This time of year we move the cows often. It's technically called rotational grazing.

See, I really do read "Progressive Farmer"! They get moved from pasture to pasture so the grass has time to recover and the cows get new healthy tender shoots. They seem to love the change of scenery and usually only take 2 or three steps into a new pasture before putting their heads down to munch. All this eating gives us hope that we'll be able to honor our April beef promise! Stay tuned for updates!
Claudia

Time for Cordray's Beef?

Hello, Friends!

As February draws to a close, I'm sure you are wondering what happened to the beef we promised.  Well, it seems that our steers have adopted a bad family trait!  You see, we live only 3 miles from our church. You'd think we'd be the last ones to be late.  But, to be honest, we are so often running late that our friends started calling it "Cordray Time", that  5 or 10 minutes of tardiness,  just a tad late.  It appears the steers are going to be just a tad late.  I could blame it on the weather.  These cold nights have slowed down the grass growing, I could blame it on the steers. Without artificial growth hormones and forced feeding feedlots, our steers grow slower.  But it all boils down to I missed my estimate.  So we'll have shares and beef sides soon. It looks like April - that's just February on Cordray Time!
We'll be sending out an email then to let you know how to reserve yours.
Michael C.
Do you know someone who might be interested in all natural local beef?  Feel free to forward on this address to your friends.

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www.cordrays.com
Cordray Farms
Cordray's Venison Processing
6708 County Line Rd.
Ravenel, SC 29470
843.766.7922

TWINS, AGAIN!

These guys' mom had a set of completely white twins last year this time. This year she did it again, but one is brown and one grey. Twins in cattle is quite rare!

Now at 24!

We've added some neighbor's eggs and a few "Easter Egg" chicken eggs for a total of 24. This incubator holds them at a steady temperature and humidity for 21 days. Stay tuned!

Coming soon?

Thought I'd share the beginnings of free range eggs to be available next season. These are Rhode Island Red chicken eggs from free range hens in Dorchester.

Happy Valentine's Day!