First Run of Cornish Cross Meat Birds and Super Excited!

[JessicaThistle]

I read through the this awesome thread, enjoy the pics of chickens and booze, relish in the questions, advice and support and realize that.....I LOVE YOU GUYS! YOU ALL ROCK!

Sounds like everyone has handled the processing needed to be done (except for Ralph most likely) and drowned the sorrow. We are all good now and the next chicken dinner will be delicious!

Ralph, I use Timothy Hay in my hen's nest. It seems softer, more grassy, than straw. You can get it in a very small bag to try it. My girls like it. It's what I had because we have a guinea pig and I sent my husband to get some timothy hay for him to nibble. Usually a small bag. He came back with a whole bale of it because it was cheaper. I wasn't home when he came home with it. I walked in the front door and immediately saw a huge bale of hay under the table the piggie box sits on. The hubs looked sheepish and told me that it was cheaper but he didn't realize it was so big. They loaded it while he was still in the store. (Yes, awesome local feed store)! When he got out to the truck he saw this enormous hay bale and it was too late. Why he brought it in the house, I don't know, but his sheepish smile is so cute that I let it go.

Well, for the last year I have been sneezing my arse off. After clearing the remaining half hay bale out of the house two weeks ago (with nose pouring, eyes weeping and gasping to breathe) I am doing sooo much better.

Anyway, I use the timothy hay in all of the nests as well as on top of the silkie house that has a "resting" place and in the chicken tractor currently while the little peeps are growing out in there. I use wood chips (the big pine shavings) in the main coop, silkie run and house as well as the chicken tractor right now. I do not use wood chips with the meaties on pasture in the chicken tractor but it is my temporary grow out pen.

 

[JessicaThistle]

I missed this. If they found the nest, you can most likely get rid of the fake egg. Your girls are telling you that they are on to you and are smart enough to know that is fake.

I removed the fake egg once all of the girls laid their first egg. The silkies never needed the fake egg. They found the nest on their own.

 

[denn1948]

Jessica Be careful on using hay in the nest box. Your hens will set in box and eat the dry hay and possibly get an impacted crop, research impacted crop. Dennis

 

[duluthralphie]

OH OH!!

When I said I use straw I was "technically incorrect".

I use canary grass hay (mixed swamp grasses) that I got from a friend of mine. It was very cheap, free! It had been rained on and a buyer refused to take the bale. I can see nothing wrong with the bale.

Maybe the chickens are eating my "hay". I keep having to add more, but I thought it was just being thrown out by the fussy hens.


I have decided to give the turkey a stay of execution.

I will be using the " courage fortifying agent" to drown my sorrows over being so weak willed.

 

[Morrigan]

I feed Timothy hay to my rabbits and noticed one or two of my chickens were really interested in eating it, so I separated out the chickens from the rabbit area, as I was worried about impacted crop. But chickens can eat regular straw too. I had a sussex die from an impacted crop because she just wouldn't lay off the stuff. It really depends on the chicken, but it is something to watch out for.

 

[mountain mom]

Well, we did it. Yesterday went well, I'm still exhausted... or maybe hungover?

It went so smoothly, except for when the kids tried to scald the birds... that was a disaster. Over scalded and under scalded, both horrible. The kids even killed a few of the chickens (more out of curiosity, really, but I do think it is important for them to take part if they feel up to it).
We also put an adapter on the kitchen faucet so we could hook the hose up to hot water, best idea we had! It was awesome.
We did all 14 birds in about 2.5 hours.


Comparison wise, they were smaller than our Freedom Rangers, plucked much easier (with the exception of the few), and the guts smelled much less barf inducing.
I think they were smaller because of the time of year. The past 2 weeks have been really cold and I think they were using a lot of food energy to stay warm instead of getting plump.

And my stubborn ol' husband insisted on trying to quarter without gutting. IT WORKED! The body full of guts was left, with no mess, nicely contained. So the breasts were off the bone, legs and thighs cut off. Easy peasy. Not sure it will be how we do all the birds in the future, but he sure liked not eviscerating that one!

Pearl was a little sad and confused last night. Since Thursday night she has been with the big gals. But last night the gate to her old home was open and when the other gals went in to roost, she went to her old coop and sat inside looking lonely. I put her in with everyone else, and she seems a okay today. Eating and pecking around with everyone.

Ralphie- I am SO surprised your turkey was pardoned

I am sure he is thankful! How was that balmy weather in the 30's? Did you go for a swim?
Also, this time we put our table up on cinderblocks, much less back pain. And a little more redneck.

DoubleKindness- excellent work the other day! Hope today goes well too!

We have a combo of straw and wood shavings in our nest boxes... the girls arrange them so often, there is usually not much left in there. I just put it back in every now and then. After everyone was laying, we left the decoy eggs in, just incase someone decided to make a secret nest again. One day, there were angrily removed and smashed decoy eggs in the coop. Guess it was time!
We have straw in their run to help with the mud in the winter. When I first put it in, they pulled the entire bale of straw out of their run and into the yard. I raked it back in, same thing the next day. Same the next day. They are so funny! They only pull out a small amount each day now, mostly because they are scratching around looking for stuff.
We also use wood chips in the brooder, mostly because it is what we had for the guinea pig when we first got our chicks in March.
I had chips on the floor of the meaties coop, and they pulled them out. They liked the dirt.

There were a couple of other things I wanted to comment on, but don't remember who posted them.

I would totally keep the last hen! Then again, Ralphie and I are birds of a feather. Jessica kept one too. Another softy.

I think the only reason you would have blood spots is if the egg was fertilized, and not collected right away and had been incubated.
I am not sure if the CX will be a great laying hen, but I am always willing to house a bird, good layer or not.

 

[JessicaThistle]

I have been using the Timothy Hay for 6 months and haven't had a problem. I never see them eating it. We are very hands on with our birds and every one of them gets touched and observed daily. I have researched impacted crop heavily. So if I see a bird with the symptoms, I will certainly know the culprit now. Thanks for the advice!

mountainmom: Glad you made it through the process. It's great to get the kids involved if they can stomach it. Both of our daughters helped to some extent. I was most shocked with my 17 year old helping with evisceration. She said no at first but then after watching me do a bird, decided to try. She ended up processing five of them for me, which was a huge help since I had 18 to do! I think scalding is an art in a sense. Once you get the feel for the time to dunk them, it makes it easier. A definite learning experience.

Yes, I'm a softy. Sunny was also confused and sad after the rest of her flock was gone. For about two days she would run out and sit in the chicken tractor on the pasture. I would have to go get her and bring her back to the silkie run. Now that I am using the tractor as a grow out pen, I have brought it right up by the house, which is near the run she lives in now. Often times she likes to sit in the chicken tractor now after I let the little peeps out during the day. She integrated fine with the silkies but must still have a memory of living in the tractor.

 

[duluthralphie]

The recently pardoned turkey is escorted away by his friends.






BTW it is over 40 degrees here today. I was going to sun bathe au natural. BUT my wife was worried it would scare the airplane flying over at 50,000 ft or less.

 

[Betsy57]

Butchered 3 more today. 6 3/4 lbs prior. Nice and meaty. Just two left. One will not be ready for several more weeks. That one may get a pardon. I think these last two are roasters instead of Cornish x. I am ready to be done with this all tho. I am getting better at this and quicker!

 

[Morrigan]

Good work MountainMom and Betsy! It must be nice to have that all done.

I'm a bit conflicted about keeping one of my CX. I have one really small female, who can't be more than 3 lbs at 6+ weeks. I would kind of like to keep her but . . .

For starters, I'm a bit overrun with hens as it is. We were originally shooting for 8:1 hen to rooster ratio. But, we wound up with 10 healthy hens from our first order of layers. Then, when two new hens hatched this spring, we couldn't bear to part with those either. So we are at 12:1 now and I'm worried with winter coming there are already going to be a bit cramped in the coop as it is.

Second, I'm worried about how she will integrate with the established flock. They are in side-by-side runs, so they can see each other, but don't range together. Maybe our rooster would protect her, but it's only a guess. Also, I don't think she would be able to fly up to the roosts, which are 3 feet off the ground. I would have to try to make a little sub-perch. And, that's assuming she want to go into the coop at all at night. I suspect she will want to sleep in the outside shelter that she's used to, but with only one chicken that's going to be too cold.

My head says to just process her with the rest, but my heart would kind of like to give her a chance.