I really am sorry I've not posted for such a long time!  We were VERY busy just before Christmas, killing and plucking.  Luckily our friend Rob came to help us for a couple of days.  He had never plucked a turkey before, but soon got the hang of it and made a really good job of them!

My internet sales weren't too bad for a first time, and so far 8 people have said they enjoyed their turkey so much they have ALREADY ordered for Christmas 2009!  We have also had requests for rolled turkey breasts, and as we have the equipment, we can do the rolled breasts in the elastic nets you see the meat in now, looks much neater than the old string tying!  A turkey breast weighs about 2kgs and is all breast meat, no bone, no fat just lovely lean meat and they feed 8 people.  I only used half of one on New year's Day to feed 4 of us!  They are £5 a kg, cheaper than buying the whole turkey!

Then we boned out the thighs and legs of some of the turkeys and I cut up all the dark meat from the carcase and made loads of turkey mince and sausages, so we'll be fine for meat for some time to come!!!!  And I'm planning on marinading the wings and putting them on the BBQ in the summer!!!  I made burgers out of some of the mince and they were really nice!

More of our turkeys were sold locally though, and we have had good feedback from most of them too!  We also had people come from Nottingham to collect a turkey!  So I'm quite pleased with our first year growing our turkeys from day old, and know they had no air miles.  Although they did travel over from Essex when they were a day old!  They've had good food, plenty of exercise and sunshine, And wind and rain and snow!!! But they have had a good life.  They were killed humanely, and were dry plucked and hung for 7 days to improve the flavour.

Can't say more than that can I?

Anyway, on to more everyday matters!  Not so many people wanted chickens over Christmas, so we still have a bunch of meat chickens running around, but they will go in the next couple of weeks as they are 14 weeks old now.  We still have 36 Amberlinks here, but 26 are on order, its just their new owner has a transport problem at the moment and the other 10 are going to join our old girls in the extended laying house!  The amberlinks are 28 weeks old now, and although some are still not laying (lazy girls!) we are getting between 20 and 30 eggs a day!

Then we have the new babies.  200 Babcocks in the brooder shed!  They are nearly 4 weeks old now, so will soon be ready for the big shed, once the Amberlinks have gone to their new homes.  They are all doing really well, and we haven't had any mortality yet! PHEW!

I've already got orders for about a dozen of the Babcocks for when they are POL, so that's good!  All in all, things are going quite well here. 

Apart from the fact that except the lounge which has the woodburner in it, the rest of the house is freezing, as we had a leak in the oil tank and the central heating isn't working!  That's another reason for me not being on here much, as the computer is in the spare bedroom, and its freezing up here!!!!  and just as we get this cold weather, next Monday, we will have the electric turned off for about 8 hours as the electric company are having the trees around us cut down a bit to keep them away from the overhead lines.  So good job we have the woodburner, and the kettle that sits on top of it!!!  We'll also have to put the generator on to run the heat lamps in the brooder shed for the chicks!

Well, I think I've just about brought you all up to date with what we've been up to, oh and please accept my apologies if you've emailed me over the holiday period and I've not replied.  I really couldn't get myself motivated for ages, as I brought a wonderful cough and cold back from Kent with me lat November, which I've gladly given to Brian and now we both still have bad coughs, so still not feeling 100%, but we are getting there and looking forward to spring just around the corner.  After all, look the days are getting longer now!!!

I'll try to be more regular in future (Putting posts on here I mean!!! lol)