I've been thinking about survival of the fittest lately and how it pertains to me as a farmer.  As part of our mission, we are trying to preserve heritage breeds of both plants and animals.  But sometimes I wrestle with the question, "Should we just let some breeds die off?"  Those who save their own seeds understand that only the seeds from the best plants will be kept in order to create a better product the next season.   The same has been true with animal breeding.  I see the value in  this, but what if a plant or animal just doesn't have desirable traits? 

Our Sumatra chickens are a good example.  Sumatras are beautiful birds, but that seems to be about all they have going for them.  I'll admit, I purchased them because I saw them and thought they were pretty; that's about all the thought I put into it at the time.  Now, having had them for nearly a year, I am wishing I'd thought about my purchase a bit more.  To begin with, they are small.  Not a great bird for butchering since there is little meat on them and because they have black feathers, they don't look all that pretty once they are plucked.  Also, they are stupid, or stubborn, I'm not sure which fits the bill.  I am constantly having to herd them into the coop in the evening while the rest of the birds just know it's time to go in.  They lay very small eggs and they are quite mean to the other birds.  However, I have discovered that they are listed as a critical breed with the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy.  Well, that's just great!  Now I feel like I HAVE to keep them around! 

So, I wonder....Which is the right path?  Work towards creating the best breed even if that means some will become extinct or keep the flawed, regardless of their weaknesses?  Is there a middle ground?  With a name like Black Sheep Farms, you can guess that we will always stand up for the little guy, but what will that cost us?

~Kelly

If you're not in Nebraska now, let me give you a quick update: we're having one of the harshest winters in my memory. In December, we had two snowfalls of 12", a string of days between -14F and -10F, and tonight, we're expecting windchill temperatures of -40F. Allegedly, we'll have high temperatures in the 20s next week, but I have trust issues with the weather forecasters. We'll see.

Our chickens are getting frostbite on their combs, but there's really nothing we can do about that. A couple of days ago, Kelly watered the birds. After she fed them and gathered eggs, she noticed that the water surface had already formed some ice. It's cold, cold, cold.

In December, I also learned an important lesson in resource management: use a tarp. A couple of months ago, I picked up some used roofing tin in Iowa and built a simple woodshed. Maybe I had last year's mild winter on my mind, but I didn't enclose the north side of the shed, which faces the house. Each snowstorm we had has had strong winds, so our wood pile has a layer of snow on it. Not smart, but I have learned my lesson. Even though we have a propane furnace, I miss using the wood furnace. Wood heat is something special.

I've also been torturing myself with seed catalogs. Everything looks beautiful, but I know I won't get to eat most of it for months. We've got a good idea of what we're planting for 2010, but we need to get the orders made before our preferred seed companies sell out. With an increasing number of people gardening, the good stuff is difficult to procure.

We ordered seed potatoes from Wood Prairie Farm. They're a certified organic family farm in Maine. We've researched them, had an email conversation with Megan and determined that they're a safe source. We make efforts to double-insulate from Monsanto/Seminis since we do not support genetic engineering or chemical-based farming. If you had the pleasure of eating our Yukon Golds or French Fingerlings in 2009, you had Wood Prairie Farm potatoes. (This year, we selected Yukon Gold and Cranberry Red.)

-Brian

Today, we got some snow. Not much, but it was enough to get the kids excited and to cause some changes on the farm.

The birds didn't get to go out of the coop. They love to get outdoors and scratch around for bugs and other tasty tidbits, so when they don't get their freedom, they get upset. Snow and cold temperatures can hurt their feet and combs.

I plugged in the oil pan heater on the tractor, too. Since it's been so cold, that helps to get it started during the winter. We use the tractor to plow the lane to the road. I enjoy doing it more than I thought I would.

I'm also happy that we got a delivery of firewood last weekend. Although we have a lot of trees on the farm, I wasn't able to spend much time on firewood this year. We love, love, love the wood furnace, so we'd much rather spend the money on wood than propane.

Which reminds me: I forgot to water the seedlings in the greenhouse today. (We have a propane furnace in there, too.) The broccoli sprouts will be ready to eat soon, but the lettuces haven't germinated. Sometime in January, we'll have Tom Thumb and mache salads.

-Brian

Today, we will be eating our first farm-raised turkey. My sister-in-law is roasting it today, and I'm excited to bring this experience full-circle.

In May, we received a batch of 15 Holland White heritage turkeys. By the time that we had them slaughtered, we were down to 11, and now we have four. One tom and three hens make up our breeding flock.

Anyone who has visited the farm in the last few months has inevitably been followed around by a flock of gobbling turkeys. There were a lot of toms in the bunch, so they were loud, loud, loud! Now that there's only one male left, the gobbles don't sound so powerful.

At least one of the hens has taken to sitting on eggs, both chicken and turkey. Turkeys are not the most graceful birds, so a few typically are cracked by the time that we gather them. I'll be anxious to see how well the birds sit in Spring.

There's always something to anticipate on the farm. I'm thankful for that.

-Brian

Having the turkeys processed last week was far from the end of our turkey journey.  Now we are left with 4, one tom and 3 hens.  If you read the popular book, 'Animal, Vegetable, Miracle', you may recall that turkeys bred for commercial productions have had the natural mating ability bred out of them in favor of things like bigger breasts and faster growth.  For this reason, we chose a heritage breed which grows more slowly, (Much more slowly, in fact.  Our birds ended up being underweight when we brought them in to be processed!) but can still mate and raise little ones without human interference. 

Thus, we have 4 remaining turkeys that we hope will mate and hatch young turkeys.  A couple of the hens seem to be exploring motherhood.  They will come across an egg one of the chickens has laid and claim it as her own.  Just today, I witnessed one push an egg out of a nest and onto the coop floor.  I was surprised it didn't break.  I watched her roll it all around and try to find a comfortable spot.  Well, maybe she couldn't get comfortable or maybe she didn't enjoy me gawking at her, because she eventually abandoned the egg.  When I walked over to pick it up, I noticed that it was cracked.  On other occasions, I have gathered eggs that a turkey was sitting on and found them to be cracked as well.  So, with all this clumsiness, I wonder how they'll ever hatch a turkey?  And since the hens seem to sit on whatever egg they find, will they adopt whatever hatches as their own?  It's an experiment I can't wait to try!

And on a related note, we donated a dozen eggs to a local Montessori to incubate in their classroom.  I can't wait to find out if they were successful!  We'll keep you posted.

~Kelly