California - Northern

[Hangtown Farms]

I also have a few extra Icelandic Roosters

Curly my Avatar may be going or my other younger black and straw colored one.
also have a 5 or 6 week old white one that is needing a home

 

[Hangtown Farms]

A tree full of pene's

 

[ronott1]

anyone want a young black true

ameraucana rooster?

I also have a few extra Icelandic Roosters

Curly my Avatar may be going or my other younger black and straw colored one.
also have a 5 or 6 week old white one that is needing a home

A tree full of pene's

You have beautiful chickens!

Have you entered them into a show yet?

Ron

 

[Meg2000000]

Amy Beth, my non-hatchery Wyandottes were a little slower to POL than a hatchery bird would be, maybe 22 weeks? They laid about every other day, and the heat didn't seem to bother them much. They produced a much bigger carcass than any of the hatchery birds I ever had too. The best layers that I had in the heat were my Blue Andalusians, but they completely shut down in the winter while the Wyandottes kept up at least some laying.
I processed my first domestic duck today! I had originally scheduled them in June, but I was still dealing with the ILT then, and had medicated everyone before I figured out what it was. Then the month got away from me, so they had a nice long withdrawal period. Out of ten hatchery Jumbo Pekins, I only ended up with three drakes, so that was nice. I haven't weighed the carcass, but I did a drake and I would guess at least eight pounds dressed out. I definitely have to find a bigger scalding pot though.
This was my first time doing anything with wax too, so I experimented. Since I had to scald half at a time, I did the first half without wax, and then added it to melt while I was plucking. Then I dipped the back end and redipped the front. I think scalding in plain water first would be the way to go, as it just doesn't penetrate the bulk of the feathers either way, but the wax was nice to get a grip on the few remaining feathers after I initially plucked.
Tomorrow I'm going to cure him and the next day I'm going to smoke him. I've got plans for duck sausage too, but I think I'll keep both remaining drakes for now, so it'll have to come from a hen. My runner is setting on six eggs too, so I might have more to feed shortly; time to cull.

The duck looks awesome! Can I hire you to do my chickens?! haha

lol will never be as popular but this breed really needs help

I'm so glad you are dedicated to this breed! I'm excited for Ron to work with them!

Hi All,

I made a video today of one of the Partridge Penedesenca hatching eggs. I am using a Brinsea High Intensity candler and was able to get this:

ha, ha, just laughing too because I always get nervous when I candle expensive eggs!!! i have so dropped more than one egg while candling. i dropped one of my first SFH eggs when they were way expensive. i've learned to sit on the ground on carpet when I candle now instead of over the table or tile bathroom counter. ha!

Good advice! Noted!

Ok, i just have to say one more thing. You guys are always such "day" people! I'm usually the only one on here at odd hours of the night when I should be sleeping. Happy early morning to us and may those of you with young kids be blessed with some late morning sleepers!

If my boyfriend, Johnny, ever gets on BYC you'll have a friend until 3 a.m. every day! LOL I'm asleep by 11 at the latest.. Johnny is a night owl!

California-Northern was #8 for the thread with the most posts yesterday!

Woohoo! Good for us!!! Does this mean I should stop posting multi-quotes because it only counts as one post? haha

I love it! Two candlers...My chickens will never pay for themselves

Still, as far as hobbies go this one is not that expensive. Even with the Expensive rare and heritage breeds. We also get food back from them and we are entertained by Chicken TV. I spend a lot of time outside now, which is good considering I work in an Office 40 hours a week...

Thanks Deb! Really, other then finding out which eggs are good or bad you really do not need to see the whole egg. The air cell size at the correct day is what you need to see and leaving the egg in the turner and candling will show you the air cell and the veins.
Ron

Edited to correct grammar and spelling Ron

I spend 10X more time outside now that I have chickens. I feel healthy!

Kim that was a wonderfully informative. Thank you so much for taking the time write it all up! Butchering a big sounds like a lot of work. When you give them your chickens- do you process the first? Never thought about pigs eating meat. Assumed they were vegans. Hehehe
Excuse my typos. Sent from my iPhone.

X2! Thank you Kim. I'm storing this information for later!

I also have a few extra Icelandic Roosters

Curly my Avatar may be going or my other younger black and straw colored one.
also have a 5 or 6 week old white one that is needing a home

Good luck finding them homes! They are pretty roosters!

 

[Hangtown Farms]

You have beautiful chickens!

Have you entered them into a show yet?

Ron

thank you...
hard to find the time for shows.

 

[Meg2000000]

Happy Saturday! My misters are on already. Anyone else? That sun is HOT.

Johnny decided he just HAD to go to a bachelor party this weekend so I'm home alone I have some chicken chores to do so that should keep me busy!

I took the two Barnevelders back to the breeder today. I'm soooo glad he finally took them back and I didn't have to cull them. No more chickens in my sunroom!! (Until the eggs Ron is incubating for me hatch.)

I want to order a couple of good thermometers and a thing to measure the humidity in my Little Giant incubator. Any suggestions?

 

[Hangtown Farms]

Happy Saturday! My misters are on already. Anyone else? That sun is HOT.

Johnny decided he just HAD to go to a bachelor party this weekend so I'm home alone I have some chicken chores to do so that should keep me busy!

I took the two Barnevelders back to the breeder today. I'm soooo glad he finally took them back and I didn't have to cull them. No more chickens in my sunroom!! (Until the eggs Ron is incubating for me hatch.)

I want to order a couple of good thermometers and a thing to measure the humidity in my Little Giant incubator. Any suggestions?

I use a Taylor digital oven thermometer. Got it at Ace and seems to work pretty good. Doe not measure Humidity though.

 

[debs_flock]

Deb, It would be nice if I could tell which birds are yours when I go to the fair. I don't know when I'm going, yet.

I'll send you a PM.

Deb

 

[CowgirlJules]

The duck looks awesome! Can I hire you to do my chickens?! haha

Ha ha, no! But I have been known to show people how to do it themselves now and then. It's really not all that hard. I am self taught from threads on here, but I do have a lot of experience butchering and processing other things, from college and from hunting. I don't have a plucker or anything; I just do it all by hand, so I don't usually do more than ten in a day. I often do one or two in the evenings after work. Once you've got the skills, it comes fairly easy.

I'm brining him today, to smoke tomorrow. I'm going to throw in a piece of bear that I corned to smoke for pastrami too. That's a big experiment, so if you never hear back about it, it didn't go well.

 

[capayvalleychick]

I'm getting really bad with off topic posts, but look what's going on behind my property today:



That tiny white dot in the smoke, above the flames, is a helicopter, about to drop water. The fire started about a block away at the base of the hills. My husband is one of the firefighters. They are doing a great job keeping it in the wild areas away from the homes in the valley.

Kim