One of my chickens and one of my rabbits died today and I think it had to have been from the heat. It's the first time I have ever lost one to heat stress and I felt really bad. It's been getting in the 100's here already this year and no rain at all for at least a month. I do what I can but...
I processed the cockerels first with my color rangers. Only because they were much larger than the hens and it seemed logical to let the hens grow a little more. The cockerels were already larger and they were really tender that way.
Looks like you've gotten some good advice! I think everyone wants to do all they can for family but sometimes enabling them to continue irresponsible behavior is not helping at all. As far as the dog, the no-kill shelter sounds like a great idea.
I have californians for sale, $5-15 each depending on age, etc. These are all bred for meat/show. Will also have a few New Zealands for sale before long.
Thanks for posting this! I have been looking for this info after trying three different thermometers and realizing they all disagreed with each other...not too comforting.
I bet you won't have much trouble with that one since it's small. I had to deal with a 5 foot rat snake in the pen with my baby chickens/turkeys a few weeks ago. I never like to kill them if I don't have to (even the venomous snakes) but my family members were freaking out anyway b/c he was...
Congratulations! Even though it's hard it's also a sense of accomplishment when everything goes well and you know you cared well for the animal from start to finish yourself.
I don't know about the packing peanuts issue but I can tell you that they are really great do deal with in general. I ordered some geese from them and the whole experience was awesome. The geese were in great shape except for one that died in transit (probably due to it being July) and they...
I know so many people like this it frightens me. Most people have no idea where their food comes from. They think it's so mean to raise animals for meat in your own backyard. If they only knew how much better these animals have it than those produced commercially...