NH Homesteader- turkeys!

[NH homesteader]

Oh no I do. And, I should have said I trust her as much as I trust any pig. I never turn my back on a pig. My daughter knows she is not allowed near the pigs without a grown up. The only animals she can go pet by herself are the goats. She's a very serious kid. Not worried about her breaking those rules! Of course I'm not going to sugar coat it, she knows a hog will take her arm off if it feels like it, and she keeps a safe distance.

 

[NH homesteader]

Well I haven't been able to get a committed answer yet but my husband agrees with all my arguments for not keeping and breeding a pig. It's very convincing when I tell him it'll save him from building a second pig house, and since he works at a ski area in the winter and I do all the farm chores, I think he feels bad. Also it doesn't make sense financially when our friend breeds pigs and we get gorgeous piglets for cheap in exchange for my husband helping castrate all the males (yup things I never thought I would write!) so pretty soon here he should give me his final agreement!

Had a bad evening yesterday. We have decided to butcher and put on hold our heritage turkey plans, but haven't had time to actually do it. One of the hens went broody but I let her because she goes broody all the time and never hatched anything. Well she did, last night, and before we could do anything the Tom killed them all. He has been so sweet I never thought I would even have to separate him. I almost went and got the. 22 myself, but I'm waiting til butcher day, which may be moved up cause I'm mad!

 

[AClark]

Glad to see I'm not the only one that considers moving up butcher day for animals they don't care for. I considered butchering my buck because he's nasty and just doesn't have the best temperament (very skittish even though he's been handled a lot, not mean or he'd be in the freezer), but I weighed him and decided it wasn't worth my effort. He's stunted and just never got the weight on like my other buck, although he should be 7-8 lbs like the other, he barely pushes 5.
Some kid are more serious like that. I'd venture to say it has something to do with being an only child. I grew up as an only child and was always very serious, like a mini-adult. My 4 children are nothing like that at all! lol My parents trusted me alone at an early age, I knew better than to mess with certain horses and to watch where I put my feet because of rattlesnakes...while my children give me gray hair because listening is apparently optional.

 

[NH homesteader]

Haha! Well she doesn't always listen but yes, she is more adult oriented and serious than most kids her age.

The biggest reason we haven't butchered them yet is that it is kind of a pain to fire up our processing equipment for 3 turkeys. And I won't hand pluck, maybe we are spoiled! We had a mean tom that is long gone, I was so sick of being attacked all the time. Funny though, our rooster is fine most of the time, but occasionally gets it in his head that he wants to be a jerk. So my husband picks him up and cuddles him and pets his waddle, basically humiliates him, and then he's a friendly roo again. He's had to do this twice in two years, it's kind of funny!

 

[AClark]

I don't like plucking either. When we hunt I skin ducks and sometimes I'll pluck doves, but you don't have to dip them their feathers come right out.

 

[NH homesteader]

Oh yeah, ducks are awful I've heard. We have a scalder and industrial drum plucker. It's awesome! But it's a lot of equipment to clean and is a process to set up so best used for larger quantities of birds.

 

[AClark]

I think I saw those on youtube, for plucking chickens. They look expensive, but I imagine it is totally worth it when doing a lot of birds at a time. I've never plucked a chicken, and I've never messed with plucking ducks since they're so much easier to skin and be done with it, and it makes it easier to pick the pellets out of them.

 

[NH homesteader]

Well second cut is finally happening in my part of the world. It has been a devastating summer for New Hampshire farms. The entire state has been approved for drought relief for working farms, and we have lost something crazy like 19 dairies. We have had maybe 2 good rainy days all summer. My stream has been dry since June (normally only dries up for about 2 weeks in August). At least we aren't in the part of the state that has watering bans.

I am about to find out what the price of hay has gone up to from the guy we normally buy from. Hope it's not too bad! My husband is headed down to see him this afternoon!

 

[Latestarter]

Hope it's within budget.

 

[NH homesteader]

Woo-hoo! $3/bale in the field, baling next week.