The challenge with living so far from where I work right now is, as the shorter days set in, I'm having problems getting photos for the blog! It's especially true when I've been working some extra hours between my primary job, and doing some overnight shifts for a second job. It's been a bit inconvenient honestly, but one of the challenges with something like small farming/homesteading like we are is, you have to make enough to pay for the "normal" life expenses like food, and home costs. Right now, the money side of things is a bit of a focus since I have some opportunities.
Even with that, we have things going on. Some of it isn't very interesting, just cleaning up from the kitchen redo because I haven't had time to really get everything done cleaning up. More interesting is that we're going to be getting a new rooster to replace the deceased Mr. Bond Mk. II. Now that we have a coop of hens, we started looking for a new rooster. Thanks to help from one of our friends who is on a list serve for chickens, within a day she found someone who's willing to give us a rooster that she needs a new home for. The rooster we're going to be picking up when she has a good time for us to do so is a Mahogany
Russian Orloff which is a breed I'd never seen before. According to reviews from owners they have a lot of the traits we're looking for. All of them actually, which is a very nice thing for a free rooster. They're hearty, active, good foragers, and the hens go broody. The challenge with them is they're hard to source, and that means that in some cases the lines are inbred, or small. We don't know what strain we'll be looking at until we meet him.
On the turkey side of things, getting a hen is going to be something we may have to relegate to the future, and more to the point something we're going to just have to stay alert for because they're Expensive. They're not like, buy a car expensive, but given our financial situation buying a hen for $75 - $100 is a bit steep for us given that we'd probably need to buy at least two hens. What we're going to be doing is keeping an eye out to take in ones that are getting given away or sold for low cost by people getting out of turkeys. I had no idea that the cost of a turkey hen would be nearly the cost that we're seeing. It makes sense now that I think about it, but definitely a learning experience. Given that cost we're going to be doing our research on turkeys, and looking to buy either exactly what we want for the higher price, or compromise and find something more in the $15 - $25 or free range.
The temperatures are more consistently dropping into the very cold range, so I'm going to not be surprised if we start seeing snow shortly. That's a good reminder that I need to do some pre use service on the snow blower! Getting caught out and having to shovel would be no fun.
On the turkey side of things, getting a hen is going to be something we may have to relegate to the future, and more to the point something we're going to just have to stay alert for because they're Expensive. They're not like, buy a car expensive, but given our financial situation buying a hen for $75 - $100 is a bit steep for us given that we'd probably need to buy at least two hens. What we're going to be doing is keeping an eye out to take in ones that are getting given away or sold for low cost by people getting out of turkeys. I had no idea that the cost of a turkey hen would be nearly the cost that we're seeing. It makes sense now that I think about it, but definitely a learning experience. Given that cost we're going to be doing our research on turkeys, and looking to buy either exactly what we want for the higher price, or compromise and find something more in the $15 - $25 or free range.
I love the complete coziness of the house with those lights on! This really is my favorite time of year, and you've captured it!
ReplyDeleteThat rooster is gorgeous. Mine is an aracauna; his name is Ernest T. Bass, named after the character in "The Andy Griffith Show." He is about a year and a half old. Love my big boy.
Your posts are always so interesting. I don't think anything on a farm can ever be dull!
Greatly appreciated. The rooster pictured is Mr. Bond Mk. II (deceased). He was a gorgeous rooster, and it took the coyote more than one hit to take him down, so he did his job.
DeleteI say that we live in a fantasy forest, and I think this photo is one of my favorites for showing it.
Wow for that price, you might as well order a batch of baby turkeys and just save the best 2 females!
ReplyDeleteThat's exactly what I'm thinking. The boys should survive a few years, and having mature turkeys to watch the poults as they grow can't be a bad thing. That is very likely what we're going to do. Probably get straight run poults from a breed we like, or a variety. Time to do research on the breeds we like!
DeleteAlso, I keep hearing about a scary disease chickens can give turkeys, and many turkey sellers talk about how it's important to keep them separate. Are you at all concerned about your black hen hanging out with the turkeys?
DeleteGiven that they're not roosting in a coop at all, that avoids the cause of the scary disease blackhead. The reason for that is that the disease is passed through regular contact with chicken feces, and since they're not sharing air space on a relevant scale it isn't a problem yet. Given that we want to put them in a coop it is going to be a relevant thing then. At that point we're going to be introducing dewormer to the food of the turkeys. We just can't eat them when they're on it.
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