agriculture and flora

By Sarah Cannon Holden

Spring has arrived, and the activities at Codman Farm in Lincoln are unfolding at a rapid pace as Farm Manager Pete Lowy prepares for the arrivals of peeping baby chickens, young sheep, soft and fluffy goslings, and joyful piglets.

These newcomers to Lincoln will join the 20 calves and their ten mothers who have wintered at the farm, along with their common father, Codman’s very large bull. Chickens that have spent the winter at Codman will be replaced with new layers (economically, it doesn’t make sense to keep laying chickens for more than one year; after that, their egg production declines rapidly.) In mid-May, 1,300 new hens will arrive to replenish the flock. Soon all the animals will be put out to pasture in multiple locations around town.

Since Pete’s arrival in 2016, Codman Farm is now a pasture-based farm. There’s a lot more happening than what see from the corner of Codman and Lincoln Roads. When some people visit the farm, they may ask, “Where are the animals?” At any time of year, one can see thousands of eggs being washed in the lower barn, and maybe some cattle in a nearby field. They can see farming equipment near the historic white barns, but from spring to fall, most of the animals — the cattle, chickens, pigs, and sheep — are grazing all over town on 80 acres of mostly town-owned fields.

In keeping with the town’s agricultural heritage, Codman Farm pastures animals on 4.5 acres off Old Sudbury Road, 20 acres behind Donelan’s on Farm Meadow Field, 12 acres at Mt. Misery, and 25 acres on Codman Road fields, in addition to some private acreage and 30 acres at Minute Man National Park.

In the early days of winter, the animals are gathered in from those distant fields. During the winter months, the cows and their calves live at the farm. Half the stock of chickens is kept over the winter so the farm has eggs for its farm store; other chickens are sold as live birds, while still others are sold for tasty chicken soup. Pigs are sent off to the butcher, and turkeys and geese are raised to maturity in time for Thanksgiving.

At the same time, the farmers transport the chickens back to the farm, where they’re housed in a greenhouse known on the farm as a “high tunnel.” It’s a large arched steel pole structure covered with translucent plastic that is heated by the sun up to temperatures of 60 degrees even on a cold winter’s day.

Come early April, the farmers move these mature laying hens back out to pasture on either North or South Codman Field near Rt. 126. When this year’s new birds are old enough to be in the pastures, last year’s hens are sent to market. Each summer, all the Codman chickens feed on grass and grains while fertilizing the fields, thus increasing the fertility of the soil and making for green verdant pastures for all to enjoy.

The layer chickens graze under the watchful eye of Andy, one of the livestock guardian dogs, a special Anatolian shepard/Akbash breed. You might see him resting by day, as his major job is to protect the chickens from nocturnal predators. On occasion, a wise old owl catches onto Andy’s daytime patterns and dives into the flock to snatch an unwary chicken before the dog wakes up!

The customs of a hatchery and the chicken market in general are not exactly common knowledge. Over the winter, the farmers make many decisions about the upcoming season’s chicken flock. Pete buys his chicks from a hatchery in Pennsylvania, one of the hatcheries that exist in clusters around the country. If you buy a so-called “straight run” of eggs for meat birds, you get whatever hatches. You have a 50-50 chance of chicks that will become hens or roosters. It turns out, however, that male meat birds are sold at maturity at discounts. Or for a higher price, you can order only female chicks. Each hatchery has its specialist “sexer” who can determine whether the chick is male or female so farmers can make their choice. The hatchery industry is complex and lives in its own world of trade.

The meat chickens have an entirely different life cycle from the layers. In early spring, the meat chicks are fed and kept warm under heat lamps in the brooder. In a few weeks, they’ll be ready for the green pasture of the fields and the farmers will move them along with their large mobile coop, water, and feeding bins to the Mt. Misery fields located off Old Concord Road. They are enclosed in small hoop houses on that lush field which the farmers move every few days to ensure fresh green grass.

When it comes time for the meat chickens to go to market, a group of volunteers gathers with the farmers for “chicken catch night” — a social event with a farming chore. The challenge is to catch the chickens and get them to a Rhode Island processing facility the next morning. The following day, the farmers pick up the USDA-inspected meat at the processor and bring them back to the farm, where they’re sold in the Codman Farm Store. This process occurs every three weeks during the summer months.

A visit to Codman Farm and a walk to see the chickens will remind any visitor of the work it takes to put healthy food on our tables. It demonstrates the importance of not overgrazing the land, and the role of chickens in the scratching and fertilization of the soils.

Stop by the farm store and see the incredible variety of meats, eggs, and produce available — all grown here in Lincoln.

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To read more about Codman Farm, see “Codman Community Farms grows by adopting modern practices” (Lincoln Squirrel, November 2, 2017).