Wednesday afternoon, this is the haul that Maggie found out in the two coops! It is about 30 hours worth of eggs. We hadn’t collected them on Tuesday because we left to go to town somewhat early. I could not help but laugh because she came in with the basket full to the brim, and then began unloading her hoodie pockets with egg after egg to stack higher and higher in the basket! She only broke one, and it was just a crack, so that went into OUR supply of eggs for the next morning’s breakfast.

Funny thing, when you have a daughter that is selling eggs to her adoring public, you end up with all the rejects! Haha… cracked and super dirty, or the itty bitty pullet eggs that are half the size of everyone else’s beautiful eggs. Or the super jumbo ones, the double yokers that can’t fit comfortably into the egg cartons. I don’t mind, we haven’t run out of personal eggs yet and I predict we will be fine.

We now have 35 hens that are all pretty much laying now. All our young birds are finally laying, all our homegrown pullets have got the gist of things and are now donating their petite little oddly shaped eggs to the family groceries. We have some chicks in the house, but I think they are mostly roosters!!! We have a rooster farm at the moment. Whenever I reach in to change their water or give them food, the little worts attack my hand and puff all up like little generals. I make it a habit to pick each one up and talk to them, basically letting them know that I like roosters, too! Of course, I’m still hoping that my $30 chicken is a hen!!!

Did I ever tell you about my $30 chicken, Pierre? (I know, I probably jinxed the situation by naming the little fella Pierre…) Pierre was the ONLY egg to hatch from my LAST investment of eBay mail order eggs. Cost me $30 to learn that I am just not good at hatching mail order eggs. Pierre is a fancy Marans splash bird, and growing just lovely. I hope that he or she will add to my Marans breeding program nicely, and I’m sure they will, but it kinda burns me to have to learn it at a costly $30 mistake! haha… Oh well! Maybe Pierre will grow to be a prize bird here in the program! Like a good Disney movie. So the girls kind of laugh at me with my $30 chicken!

Maggie’s egg haul is a welcome thing, because she was getting a little worried about her income level dropping considerably with our fall molt! Almost a two month drought of good egg production. She would get an egg or two a day, barely enough for the family’s needs, let alone selling eggs. Once in a while, we’d get 6, but that was about it. But now, we’re back in the business, and she’s got about 9 dozen in the frig and another 4 and a half dozen from this day alone! 54 eggs!!! It’s a record for sure for us. Granted, there are a few 6 more hours in there, but still, it’s a record haul for us for sure!

Been talking with Maggie and I believe she is going into the turkey growing business. We’ve had much better success with Turkey Girl and she’s growing nice and big. She’s a beautiful blue slate heritage turkey bird. I believe the plan is to find her a mate, a nice big blue turkey tom and see if perhaps they will lay eggs and such. But in the meanwhile, Maggie is plotting and planning her master turkey palace for the spring. So far, the design calls for a lovely run that will be 16 feet by 16 feet and constructed all from tough rigid cattle panels from TSC. Four will be the sides of the run, and then 4 will lay across the top to form a rigid wire panel roof. 8 panels will cost about $160. But they will be tough and last for years and years. She considered using timber and chicken wire and all that, but I like this panel idea better. We saw a dog run made from this idea over the summer and it was super sturdy and nice. And really pretty easy to create, and to move, since she’s like the pen to be movable, to new pasture every so often for the birds.

I just love that she gathered up all our homesteading books and has been reading about turkey breeds and coop designs and the whole nine yards. In the early spring, we’ll build another brooder for the poultry barn and then go up to Hillsdale livestock auction and start purchasing the poults and turkey chicks for her endeavor. We’ve totally learned… it’s best with turkeys to build a super good enclosure and then stay out of it. Feed and water from outside sources. Don’t give them many things to get hurt on, or stuck under and anything like that. The run will be almost 270 square feet! Those tiny house people live in less space! She’s picked out the spot where they will live, to the east of the big barn, close to water and sheltered by the barn side. They will have a tarp over the top of half to 3/4 of the run for shade, and then a lovely heavy roost with 3 sides to keep them from any hard weather. She plans to use a lot of reclaimed lumber from the process, but I suspect she’ll have about $200 into the project in no time.

I just love to see them thinking about building some sustainability into the homestead. Whatever turkeys she doesn’t sell come the fall, we’ll have for our freezer. With all our friends and local sources, I think she’ll do just fine. Sell turkeys for growing throughout the summer to folks, raise the rest for fall meat and hopefully, raise some blue slate babies from Turkey Girl and her future husband. Sounds like a good plan. She’s planning to raise some of the cash needed from her eggs sales, Christmas cash and selling some of her wooden creations. She’s been working on various sellable little cuties and I’ll be sure to show them off once she gets all her prototypes ready. Got to encourage them both in all their efforts! Jessy’s is doing so well, that it doesn’t really need a lot of “go team go” rah rah efforts, but I know we have a few new plans for the rocks and minerals that I know her customers will adore!

Been thinking about all the things we’ll be offering soon… handcrafted soaps and candles, eggs, turkey, jams and jellies, wood stuff, garlic, lavender and cut flowers, pork shares, heritage birds, wool products, beeswax, honey and graphic arts and rocks! (gg) Lovely selection!!! And another step towards creating a nice little income stream to keep the farm in feed and fences!