brooding meaties, no electricity!

TroyerGal said:

Probably not... maybe to visit my family in the future.
We really like WV! But Cali was great too

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Nice to meet you. Glad you are happy where you are!

ShannonR- In thinking about it, Shasta is that little town on the way to Whiskey Town Lake? It's a different kind of beauty than here, but still pretty.... Those aren't brown hills you'll be looking at this summer, They're golden.

EggSighted4Life said:

ShannonR- Ya, I was thinking about having someone come over and do  basically that! It's a great idea. You do like to go on vacation right?.... I wonder, how many birds can you feasibly process in 1 day?

TroyerGal, I'm in Del Norte county ( nort, no "ay" sound as I'm told by the locals), at the Ca/Or border on the coast. I've been here less than 2 years. You ever coming back to Cali?

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Most I have butchered in a day was 4, it only took a few hours to do but I had to stop because my fingers were sore from all that plucking! I plan on trying out one of those plucking devices that hooks onto a drill here pretty soon. That seems more affordable and easier to store than a plucker...

EggSighted4Life said:

ShannonR- In thinking about it, Shasta is that little town on the way to Whiskey Town Lake? It's a different kind of beauty than here, but still pretty.... Those aren't brown hills you'll be looking at this summer, They're golden. 

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Yep, that is the place! And actually, the hills are wooded and brush up near here so the brown is minimal. Part of the property backs up to Whiskeytown Lake/national recreation area land.

Putting all fire issues aside they used to heat brooders with specialty designed oil lamps...



I have even seen some sketches for vintage tin/brick candle heaters for brooding...

Both obviously pose a fire risk but it's the way it was done before electricity was common...

EggSighted4Life said:

I have wondered about being without electricity while I'm brooding. Our power has gone out often. Leaving us with no water or flushing toilet. Our house is usually 60 degrees (we are climate-ised). Usually storming when it happens, so no sun. And even our pellet stove needs power to run the fan/auger. Learning to keep water on hand. No power also means no water pump. This is the first time being on well/septic and I love it. Our water taste awesome! I think I better get a generator. Solar would be nice, but we're not there yet...

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Although it's something I rarely use, the piece of mind of having a tri-fuel generator on standby is worth every penny invested... I don't have some fancy whole house auto switch setup, it's just an ordinary large portable generator and I have to manually do the hookup and switching, but with some extension cords and what not I can bring up the necessities easy enough, to restore the furnace, well, freezers and lights... The house I'm in now actually has a manual generator switch setup installed as they had a whole house generator at one point, but I have yet to use it at this location... For they old house I installed a 'generator' outlet near the main fuse panel and I would use a double male ended extension cord to back feed it into the house after pulling the main fuse to disconnect me from the incoming service lines...

the "Chicken of tomorrow" project used coal fired brooders per pen. 100 chicks per pen.... 4000 chicks in the barns in total... can you imagine all that fire in one place????????

I love that old brooder! I would totally use one of those here. I hear there are propane fired incubators and brooders for modern day chicken rearing but have yet to find one nearby.

Update... the small chickens have been evicted to a moveable pen. All are well and happy.