About Our Farm | Misty Morning Sunrise Farm

About Our Farm

Located in the heart of rural excellence in Dinwiddie County, three generations of our family manage 42 acres of pasturage and woodlands.  We operate a farm and apiary, caring for pasture-raised cows, chickens and bees, providing our community with pastured eggs and poultry, baked goods, dairy, meat and local raw honey.  In addition, we raise heirloom (non-hybrid; reproducing) vegetables and fruit.  Our goal is to be good stewards of the renewable resources which we manage, learning and implementing new ways to conserve water, recycle waste and add to the nutrient base of the soil.

Sustainability and Renewability
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Copyright © John Smith, All Rights Reserved.
  • Water conservation - We practice reduced water consumption by using small diameter air hose, rather than higher volume garden hose for our animals' fresh well water-on-demand systems.  We also store rainwater for watering our plants rather than draw from underground aquifers.  For our aquaculture systems, we need only to add about a gallon of water per month to our fish tanks due to evaporation, as their water is cleansed, re-oxygenated and reused.

  • Waste from fish is turned from nitrite into nitrate using a natural biological culture and then used as fertilizer on our plants.  Similarly, chicken waste is permitted to oxygenate before it's turned into the soil, preventing caustic burnout and creating a rich fertilizer for greener fields.  Portable "coops-on-wheels" allows us to rotate our chicken houses as well so that waste does not get concentrated in one area and speeds recovery time to the pastures.

  • We prevent our livestock from overgrazing our fields by frequently rotating them through extensive pasturage, maximizing the time for growth recovery after grazing.  We do not need to give our animals antibiotics in their feed, because rotating pastures minimizes our livestock's exposure to soiled grass and fresh greens contain all of the nutrients necessary to maintain robust health.

  • We conserve electricity by using both passive and active solar technologies (with electrical storage) for automating systems such as nesting box access, timed lighting and for security from predators.  Solar panels, charge controllers and ample storage batteries are installed at each of our portable hen houses, providing the ability to be far from buildings where electrical sources exist.

What makes our hens the "Happiest Hens in Virginia"?

Our egg layers (brown and white eggs) are a mixture of Pearl White Leghorns, Buff Orpingtons, and Red Comets.  We provide our hens with front rollout nesting boxes.  This keeps eggs which are laid from becoming soiled by dirty feet and roosting.  We close our nesting boxes at night to prevent hens from sleeping in boxes, as they do most of their waste elimination at night time.  The portable hen houses are for security and sleep at night.  During cold months, the roost configurations provide close quarters sleep, sharing body warmth and keeping our hens happy.

Our poultry (broilers) are a large, double breasted (full 12 week) Freedom Ranger: an excellent forager and very active bird.  We have experimented with Cornish Cross in the past, but have concluded that their breed are prone to heart attacks due to overeating, leg issues which result in lameness, and are far more management dependent.  The Freedom Ranger costs more to raise, but we believe that the end result is far superior.

  • We raise them from hatching to retirement in a stress free environment
  • We give our birds only the best, all natural feed
  • We keep their waking, feeding and laying schedules regulated throughout the year - consistency makes for healthy birds and great layers
  • We regularly rotate our laying hens to new pastures, so there is always fresh forage and plenty of room to run, scratch, or nap
  • We provide them with constant fresh, clean water
  • We provide them with other herbivores as companions - Our hens often wander around and under our alpacas while each feeds
  • We protect them from predators using state of the art solar motion sensors, lighting, and electric fencing
Security

Our farm's chickens and other livestock enjoy unfettered access to large green pastures during the day, where they can race around or snooze in shade or sunshine, foraging for critters and eating lots of greens.  At night, our birds, cows and planted crops are all protected from danger by electric "feathernet" fencing, and solar powered motion sensors which sound a remote alarm inside our home and illuminate the surrounding area.  This discourages any predator which may have found a way inside the fencing.  These security measures help to give our livestock freedom from fright.  Each of our animals have been raised without fear to the best of our ever watchful abilities.

Holistic Horticulture

We grow heirloom varieties of spinach, swiss chard, romaine lettuce, leaf lettuce, broccoli, beets, cabbage, tomato, jalapeño pepper, sweet bell pepper, sweet onion.

To control and prevent cross pollination between our heirloom varieties of plants, we closely manage the distance between our vegetables, as well as stagger their planting so that they flower at different times.

A rainwater catchment system is used to collect the pure rainwater and channel it into several large containers where it waits to be used in our drip irrigation system. Drip irrigation reduces water waste by sending water directly to the roots where it’s needed most.

Electric "feathernet" fencing encompasses our garden, keeping out unwanted visitors such as deer and rabbits (both of which can be found in abundance in our area).

"Lasagna Garden" Recycling

Our garden uses an organic compost base of cut grass, leaves and old, inedible nuts given to us by warehouse stores to recycle.  These components are layered with old cardboard boxes in a method called “Lasagna Gardening”, which permits natural aeration, composting and a steady release of nutrients into the garden soil.

Buckfast Honey Bees

At Misty Morning Sunrise Farm, we breed Buckfast Bees, developed over 70 years at Southern England’s Buckfast Abbey in Dartmoor. They're a blend of Northern Italian, English Black, Docile Africans, French, Turkish and Greek strains. Resistant to disease and highly productive, this friendly strain may well provide the answer to the worldwide decline in bee populations.

Visit Us In Beautiful Dinwiddie County

Classes

Expand your horizons and delve deeper into sustainable farming and homesteading. We offer individual classes and comprehensive courses.

Tours

Bring your family, office or school group to our farm for a half day adventure which includes a private tour, sustainable farming education, animal interaction and healthy farm lunch.

Events

There's always something going on at the farm! Check our event calendar for upcoming hayrides, open houses, activity days and special events.

SNAIL MAIL
7114 Colemans Lake Road
Church Road, Virginia 23833

PHONE
‭(804) 286-2546‬

HOURS

SUNDAY - THURSDAY
8:00 AM - 6:00 PM

FRIDAY
8:00 AM - 2:00 PM

SATURDAY
CLOSED

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7114 Colemans Lake Road, Church Road, Virginia