Recent content by HomesteadMom5

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    How do you gather your eggs?

    Pockets, shirt pulled out and up to make a “pouch”, old buckets, coffee cans, box or whatever else I can find nearby because I’m hardly ever prepared lol Then I end up with a bunch of containers on my porch...that I never remember to grab
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    Official BYC Poll: Have Your Neighbors Ever Complained About Your Chickens?

    We’re rural, but there’s 4 houses close together. Chickens wander our 40 acres and the only time we’ve heard anything from the neighbors is when they’ve seen the birds close to the road or when one of our turkeys escaped past the tree row into the neighbors yard (apparently they didn’t put 2+2...
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    Brooder Ideas

    I typically do large scale and tried something new this year. I had my DH build an Ohio/Hover Brooder and it worked surprisingly well, even when we got a freak negative degree snowy week. The brooder was set-up inside our meat/brooder coop (we moved in a new coop this summer, but prior to that...
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    Questionable harvest method

    I agree with the nighttime gathering - I had always heard chickens were easier to catch come closer to bedtime or after and they truly are. For the dispatching, would he be more comfortable looking at the back of the head since there’s no beady little eyes staring back at him?
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    Official BYC Poll: What Kind Of Relationship Do Your Dogs & Chickens Have?

    My dog, a 7yo GSD, ignores them most of the time although there’s times he’ll “spook” them for fun - think scaring someone from around a corner for a laugh. He does it to one of our cats too; I think he’s watched me mess with my kids too much lol He doesn’t chase them at all, he’ll be walking...
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    Poll: How did your partner react to you keeping chickens?

    DH surprised me with them. Since then he’s been the one who tells me to buy more. TSC had poultry marked cheap (like 90% off) and he told me to buy all of them lol So he’s game even though I swear he’s terrified of them 😂
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    Chicken feet how do you cook those exactly? 😂

    Thank you
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    Do you butcher your meat chickens in front of the rest of the flock? Can chicken guts be given to the chickens to eat?

    Yes and I swear the egg layers are laughing to themselves at the meat birds lol Our chickens are always at foot when we’re butchering just waiting for whatever bit falls. Since I set the discards out in between so many carcasses the chickens flock to them and peck away. They’ll even peck at the...
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    Chicken feet how do you cook those exactly? 😂

    I am serious; I lost a lot of food last month because my 15 year old forgot to close the freezer door, so much stuff that wouldn’t have perished if I knew how to pressure can. The intimidation factor and the price are my hurdles. I did not grow up with the lifestyle I am living and have slowly...
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    Chicken feet how do you cook those exactly? 😂

    I’m so glad to read that I’m not the only one to use feet! When I first saved them for stock my husband & kids looked at me strange until they tasted the end result. Apparently they thought I was going to serve them feet floating in soup lol I’m waiting until it gets cooler so I can make stock...
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    What shoes are you wearing outside?

    When it’s warm, flip flops. When it’s cool, Justin boots. When it’s frigid, snow boots.
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    My first meat birds

    If you have some heavy duty string (or even tie wire), some place to hang, a knife, a big stock pot and a clean surface then you’re good to go. Your first go will take a while, but once you do a few you get faster. Have some faith in yourself 🙂 My husband bought a fancy plucker and I personally...
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    Hi

    (1) Are you new to chickens / when did you first get chickens? My husband surprised me with chickens in April 2017 (2) How many chickens do you have right now? Too many to count lol Until tomorrow afternoon I have 25 Cornish X (not including my mom’s 15), somewhere around 60-70 layers between 1...
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    Considerations for butchering in heat - time between death and processing?

    Butchering in the heat is helpful to have the offal and feathers (if you pluck) set far away from your work station as well as your hanging site (I use baling twine tied to a cross post and looped around the leg); in my experience the flies seem to flock to the discards. I butchered over 100...
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