Back on Track

Fall brings with it a busy family time for everyone and we are no exception.  We have been busy sharing the East Texas Yamboree and Halloween festivals with our youngest (19 months) old grand baby.  It is wonderful to experience these things through her eyes.  We also have an upcoming "Backwoods Marketplace" vintage style Christmas show that we take part in each year.  Needless to say we have been very busy lately and I apologize for being a little lax in my blogging as a result.

We are now getting back on track.  We made the painful decision not to raise ducks any longer.  All our ducks found new homes.  We are reducing the price of our pen raised Eastern Wild Turkeys to $60.00 a pair (really good price) to bring the numbers down for the winter months.  Having a small farm (a farm of any size) is hard work.  We like to be sure that all of our birds have warm dry places to get when our weather turns cold and wet, as it occasionally does.  When the temperatures begin to consistently drop into the lower 40's, we will cover the pens and coops with plastic and add heaters and lamps as necessary for the birds, such as Serama, that do not handle the cold well.  We slow our hatching down considerably for the winter.  We are unable to ship when the temperatures are the hottest and coldest here.  As a "hatchaholic", this is one of the harder things to do but necessary in order to have the space to keep them all warm and healthy.

My husband and son have been very busy building extra pens and an aviary for our Peafowl so that they can get out on warmer days and exercise those wings.  It will be finished this week hopefully when the aviary cloth arrives.  We are very anxious to see the birds in their new area.  We also want to be able to watch them strut and allow the neighbors to see them as well.  We have three Peahens and one Peacock.  We will hopefully have eggs in the spring!  Just in time for the hatching to ramp back up.

We love to go down and walk among the various birds that are allowed to free range on our property.  They are all very docile and sweet.  Most of them will eat from our hands and come when we whistle to collect their treats.  Raising these birds is very therapeutic and calming.  All of the kiddos in our life, grandchildren and friends kiddos, LOVE the birds.  They love coming over and feeding the birds meal worms. We love sharing them with everyone.

Happy Halloween!  Hope you all have an amazing week! For those interested and nearby, I will include the times for the Backwoods Marketplace coming up in November.