Who We Are – Westholme Farmstead

Meet The Folks at Westholme

Krystal, Gary and Zack

If you happen to stop by the farmstand, these are the faces you’ll likely see out in the yard. More than likely I (Krystal) will be down in the garden or tending the chickens if I’m not swinging a hammer building something right in the driveway. Rain or shine, you will generally see me out there doing something.

We are a homeschooling family so you will often see Zack running around the yard, playing with the dog or jumping on a trampoline in the middle of a school day. He’s not home sick, he’s just done his school work for the day already. Zack is a great help with harvesting the vegetables when things get to be a bit much for one person and, as he grows, he’s getting to be great help when I need to move/lift something that’s too big or awkward for one person. He loves playing outside in the rain so please excuse him for looking like a feral drowned rat if you happen to come by when it’s wet out. This happens a lot with the weather we’ve had this year.

Gary works a regular 8-5, Monday to Friday job so it’ll be a lot less likely that you’ll see him. Farming is really not his thing (and that’s totally ok!) but he’s been amazingly supportive of all of my crazy plans and is always there to help when I need him.

The Farm Dog

Renji the Beagle

A beagle probably wouldn’t be most people’s first choice for a farm dog, it certainly wouldn’t have been mine had the farm come before the dog and not the other way around. With TONS (and I do mean tons) of training, Renji has grown to be an awesome farm pup who absolutely adores his chickens. We’re pretty proud of how far he’s come. He’s definitely a good boy.

This guy will be the first to greet you (with his lovely beagle barks) if you stop by the farmstand. Where the farmstand is new, he’s still getting used to strangers stopping in our yard. Apologies in advance for his loud “welcome”. We hope he will eventually learn that the new people at the end of the driveway are nothing to bark at.

Also, because he has a tendency to follow his nose on adventures, Renji is tied. While he may bark his greeting, his tether doesn’t allow him to reach the farmstand at the end of the driveway so he won’t be coming out to physically say hello.

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The Chickens

Our Boys

We hatched 18 chicks in a homemade incubator this past spring. Of those 18, a whopping 12 of them were little roosters. How’s that for odds?! We found homes for some but there were six we just couldn’t bear to part with, we love them all too much.

All of the roosters except Eleven moved to a bachelor coop across the yard late in the summer of 2023. Lucky took over as head rooster in the boys’ coop but, unfortunately, he wasn’t able to keep Rederick in line and Red had to move back in with his brother Eleven and the hens. Everyone was happy with this arrangement until January of 2024 when Eleven decided to kick Rederick out. I scrambled to build Red a new coop in the middle of winter and he spent until May of this year solo. During that time he was more house pet than backyard chicken and he really bonded with the dog. They would with each other beside the wood stove. Rederick got his own flock of a dozen red hens in May and he has happily taken over the flock like he’s always been there with them. Eleven (Levy) is living in a new coop right beside Rederick with the original flock of hens that he’s always been with since they hatched. This fall, four additional pullets will be joining their coop. Our rooster/hen ratio is a bit off in Levy’s coop currently and the new girls should fix that.

Shortly after the bachelor coop was established, Margaret unfortunately died of a heart attack. RIP Buddy. After Margaret died, it upset the pecking order in a major way and Noel (literally) flew the coop. During one of his escapes, he fell in love with some Easter Egger pullets across the yard. Pullets I had just sold! He was so happy that I ended up keeping the pullets and building a coop for them. They’ve lived happily ever after since and, this year, they will have four Olive Egger hens joining them in the fall (also to better balance the number of hens per rooster). You can read the full Noel story here.

Lucky and Ted manned the bachelor coop alone until this spring when Teddy decided that he didn’t want to be second in command anymore and challenged Lucky for the head rooster role. Unfortunately Lucky didn’t want to hand over his status and they couldn’t resolve their issues. They’re now living separately. Lucky is currently living side by side with some young pullets that I’m raising to eventually move in with him and Ted has a flock of stuffed animals that he loves very much. 😂 I’ll be looking for some grown hens or ready to lay pullets later this summer for Ted but I’d like him to get through his super hormonal spring before I subject any hens to his antics.

The chicken drama is real, guys! These boys are such a handful but so worth it.

Lucky

Eleven “Levy”

Rederick “Red”

Noelan “Noel”

Margaret (deceased)

May 5, 2023 – October 4, 2023

Ted “Teddy”

Our Girls

The first six of these girls were hatched right here at Westholme. Ginger and Shiro were gifted to us from my sister’s farm and the last four with the Greek god/goddess names (thank my son for those names!) are Easter Egger girls that I purchased from a local breeder. Eventually these dozen pullets will gift us up to eight brown eggs and four green ones per day. We’re still waiting for five of them to lay their first egg though – Ruby, Posie, Nemesis and Nyx are holding out on us.