I just processed our first 25 CX over the last few weeks. After plucking, they went into the ice bath for an hour or so, then were rinsed and bagged. We never had a big problem with the birds being so stiff we couldn't bag them. The biggest problem was the larger birds simply not fitting into...
I figured out the problem. I bought a new garden hose so it would reach the processing area. I used that hose to fill the cooler with ice water and also to clean and rinse the birds. I checked the water coming out of the hose, and it was NASTY! That's where the chemically, gamey aweful taste and...
I don't know much about chickens yet. This is our first year. But, we have 6 Amberlinks from TSC that look identical to yours. When you bought them you should have received health papers. The papers should list all of the breeds they received in that shipment. You should be able to determine...
No, the Dumor is not medicated. Since it was very unlikely the chicks would ever be exposed to cocci, I didn't see the need to subject them to amprolium.
I processed the first of our CX flock on Saturday. There were five roosters in the group of nine. Each weighed seven pounds and were seven weeks old.
The processing went very well. I made a killing cone and it worked perfectly. I kept the five roos calm in a large crate covered with a...
When I checked on the chicks this morning, everything seemed fine. When I got home from work, the DW informed me that one of the younger meat chicks had died. She also said that one was congested. I immediately went to the coop and checked on them. One of the chicks is indeed congested and...
Thanks for the confirmation. They won't be free ranging because it's just too cold. The stinky aspect isn't the problem. They are in the barn. They are in a smaller (2' x 4') brooder with 15 layers. It's just way too crowded and I'm afraid someone's going to get hurt. At 12 days old they are...
I'm moving the cornish X out to the coop where I am building a larger brooder for them. Will I have to put a wire cover on it? The brooder will be 24" high. They are getting so chubby now that I doubt they could fly very high, but I want to be sure. I don't want to just turn them loose in the...
JB and I have our new chicks. We got them on 3/14 when they were 5 days old. Currently we have 24 chicks: 9 Cornish X, 6 Black Australorps, 3 Red Sexlink, and 6 Amberlinks. We had 10 Cornish X and 4 Red Sexlinks but I accidentally killed one of the sexlinks under the waterer. (yeah, I know. How...
Jb and I were originally going to start out with meat chickens for our first foray into the poultry world. However, after talking to my brother and a couple of friends who raise chickens, we decided to start with layers instead. We were told that starting out with cornish X could very possibly...
I know what you mean! She feels bad when she does it (at least when she is caught). The wife and I were just discussing it this evening. What we came up with is…her natural instinct is to protect the herd. That is what she was bred for after all. Our thought is that since she has no natural herd...
Well, as if speaking of it made it happen, Sadie Jane just caught her first turkey this morning. We have had a small flock hanging around lately. When I let her out they were behind the asparagus patch where I couldn't see them. Sadie did though. She had the angle and they didn't see her coming...
Square foot gardening is an awesome system, especially for those with limited space, or for those like yourself that are beginning to find it difficult to keep up with a full sized garden. My best friend got into gardening but only has a very small space, perhaps 10 x 20. I taught him about...