Alaska Chicken Lover's Soup for the Cold!!

[BirdBrain]

Rachel, I guess it doesn't matter much to me, and probably not to Tori, but I am BB, her husband is AKBB and she is Mrs. AKBB. Tori and her husband have Sterling Meadows hatchery down on the Kenai Peninsula and I am the one that gave you the little cockeral. Our screen names are so similar that it is an easy mistake, so don't feel bad, but I thought you would like to know.

 

[incubatingisfun]

i went fishing today i got soaked and didnt catch anything but thts fishing.im thinking know i willjust wait till spring to get meat birds and i wondering if any one would like to split an order

 

[BirdBrain]

Deb, your idea of a coop raising committee is great! I took my son out there this morning before the rain started back in earnest and was cutting and fitting peices and he was screwing them in place. We were working on the insulated nest boxes. I basically have to build doors for them, hang the coop door and cover some of the insulation in the ceiling (a small section) and I will be near done with the layer coop. They are are all out in the garden coop right now--all 54 of them. They are only 12-13 weeks old so they don't take up as much space as they will, but since they don't like to be wet, they all went inside...Close communion. I am just desperate to get the layers separated from all those roos. Hormones are starting to kick in.

DH felt so rotten after yesterday that he didn't even try to work on the duck coop. I guess he needed my help for that anyway. Yesterday we got up about half of the siding, finished shingling the roof, and insulated the ceiling. The ducks are happy as clams in the old meaty pen and the females have learned to fly up and roost on the pole the feeder used to hang from. The males are too big to fly.

Anyone else have muscovies up here? They are a total crack up!! They hold conversations with us and tolerate all kinds of being loved on by the kids. One of the drakes will just sit on my lap (if I can catch him) and study me and get petted with out trying to get away. They do have wicked claws though. A gal at the hardware store asked me if I had cats.

I get more joy out of those 5 ducks than all the chickens put together.

 

[MrsDeb]

I thought so too Carmen....heck we might all want to think about that next spring/summer. I know I'll need a few things built but then again I'd have
to run that idea past the old man. He'd probably have a thing or two to say about that since he's the handyman around here. I'm not good with tools AT ALL! lol......


If you guys ever have waterfowl that you need to place I know of the perfect sanctuary that will take them. Our friend John has about an acre all fenced off with pond, chicken, guinea, goose and duck houses etc all for waterfowl and anything else
with feathers.....

and he absolutely adores them all. He won't pay for them (he squeaks worse than me)....lol..... but if needed he would be happy to take them in if it's in dire need of a home.

 

[BirdBrain]

Tori, tell us about your pig. I am assuming you bought it for the freezer. How much do feeder pigs go for and how long until they get up to butcher weight? I saw some piglet a lady at the fair had for sale and they were $125. I about fell out. Is that really what they cost? How much does it cost to raise one? Are they social animals or do they do ok on their own?

 

[AK-Bird-brain]

Quote:
I was just giving my wife the 5th degree. I thought she had given my extra duck pond away.

 

[BirdBrain]

Tori, glad I got you off the hook.

I had an extra plastic barrel knocking around and set it home with Rachel along with the little Chantecler.

 

[Mrs MIA]

Quote:
$100 - $125 is about right. I think we had ours for 3 months? Jeremy? I'd have to look back to see what we paid in feed, but I supplemented with table scraps and extras from the food-bank. I don't even think we went through a 50# sack each week. We butchered the pig about a month ago... 125# of meat in the freezer now.

 

[AK-Bird-brain]

Quote:
$125 seems to be the going rate, on occasion I'll see one for $100. But size matters get the largest pig you can for the lowest price. Then figure a pound of food per month of age per day. So a two month old pig needs a minimum of 2 pounds of food each day. It takes 4-5 months to get to butcher weight of 250 pounds. More than 250 your just adding on fat and bone weight. Under 250 and you don't get enough fat in your bacon. Pigs are sociable, they like company. But they also play around and burn off calories even though they are eating more because there competing for food. All said and done you can raise a pig to butcher weight for around $300 total or less if your feeding table scraps and can talk others into saving food for you.
On a side not you only get about 50% of the pigs weight as meat. The rest is bone and waste. Our last pig gave us 20# sausage, 2 racks of ribs, 8 hams, 20 # bacon, about 30 3/4 inch thick chops, and maybe 20# of scraps for making pulled pork.

 

[MrsDeb]

Another thing to look into are the Bread Stores....They sell those huge 50 gallon trash cans full of day old bread for $5. We keep one around
here full for the chickens and rabbits but they certainly don't eat it as fast as a pig could....