100 Broilers and Fermented Feed Project

[ChickenCanoe]

No I don't mean you help me fix it, just answer how it can happen You did.

We do have a separate breaker panel, though I have no clue what it is for... We just bought this house from my in-laws in October.

That's only 4 months and (no offense to family), sometimes the in-laws are the DPO.
It's a car term (dreaded previous owner).
I've been through wiring of houses owned by electricians that were amazing - not in a good way.

They knew what to do, they intended to do it, they just didn't get around to it and temporary wired it.

Our house certainly had some strange things done to both the wiring and the plumbing. I think I have now traced every wire in the house to find the oddities.

We went from a fuse box with a grand total of 6 fuses to a breaker box with about 20 breakers. Needless to say some of the original circuits were a bit overloaded. There are still a couple of circuits that I feel need to be split up, but it is a major improvement from where it was.

It's either a war of attrition or a complete rehab.

My 110 year old house had been completely rewired with two, 200 amp service panels prior to our purchase and yet there were still a lot of problems I've tried to fix along the way. I was blessed with a lot of extra breakers for potential circuits.

 

[Coralietg]

How are the mini meaties doing, Kuntrygirl?

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote: My home in the desert is gradually dieing electrically. When I bought it I bought the land.... House technically didnt exist. During renos to rehab a disintigrating bathroom floor we took it back to the studs.... And found an inner wall. The house started out as a tin sided mobile home. Then a full on house was built around it. So there is a core of electric that runs the length of the original.... Going front to back is a bedroom small living room kitchen then finally bathroom and utility room which housed washer and dryer and water heater.... then finally the back door. That core has its own breaker box. Which has about eight breakers

Then when they built the house around the mobile they added walls that doubled the thickness of the Mobile home walls, I am guessing a peaked roof to run ducting to the AC. Then a living room turning the original into a dining room. Then a full on laundry room which is as large as the living room, That is on grade. Then on the other side of the house on grade they put in a Green house with full AC Humidity control temperature control.... I am told he grew Orchids... Then through the green house an Art Studio was built on grade....

The breaker box for the addidtions is in the Laundry room and it has twenty spots only about ten are filled. Which includes the booster pump for the fire tank, all the exterior lighting. The breaker for the booster pump is also running the Odd box fastened to Tpost and the wire is plain old white romex dug into the dirt.... I am assuming it was for the construction guys trailer.

Then you roll back to the well house which is a thousand feet from the house. It has its own breaker box A three breaker box. One to turn the well on and off.... TWO to turn the house on and off.

Back when the property was developed the original owners dug a well and got electrical service for the well... All Permitted. Later on they did their own work tapping in to that breaker box then running all services through a trench so it wouldnt show. All the way up to my house.

(this is all deduction on my part and snippets of stories from different people who knew the Original owners and or worked on the house itself)

So fast forward to when I moved in.... Most of the external outlets had been mangled by someone trying to get them to work... I capped them off. The breaker for the Booster pump was worn out from being used too hard. I wouldnt stay on during the initial moments of turning the pump on. So I had to turn the pump on and off from the breaker so I had to hold the breaker on while the motor load hit it. Once running the switch would stay on even through cycling. most of the outlets in the Living room didnt work. And all of the pot lights stopped working. They had dimmer switches on Flourescent light bulbs. There were NO GFI outlets anywhere in the house not even in the bathroom and laundry room. I finally covered the outlet thats in the yard fastened to the T post with a four foot long piece of sewer pipe. To keep the goats from messing with it....

So Now.... Just a couple of years ago I was noticing that the power pole that delivers service to the Pump house.... and everything else.... Is beginning to fall over... rotted at the bottom. I call around and the best price is offered by a company that has been in business more than fifty years.

The foreman for the job came out to give me an estimate..... I chatted him up. And pretty much told him What I told you... first thing he said was.... Looking up at the pole and the wire that goes across the road to the transformer.... You are running house service off this Meter? That service wire is Too small. Its only large enough to run your well. I did an internal "Yikes"... so for a little bit more only they wrote up the upgrade to the wire.... Whew. So I asked him to come look at the ONE breaker that wont stay on.

So he came up to the house looked at the pump for the fire tank Took a look at the breaker box The breaker was just worn out he said and loose..... he opened the box to look in and noticed a bunch of stuff that wasnt right, then did some testing. And announced that my house wasnt grounded. Except through the service from the pole. Too far away.

He dug around the tool boxes on his truck found a replacement for the old switch and popped it in the spot and fastened it down. He said the breaker was higher amperage than the old one. So I shouldnt leave it on but it would allow me to run the booster pump when I needed it. (the booster pump is only if I want to run a rain bird or wash my car) I Rarely use it.

So the house is shut down for now.... I have unpluged all electronics with the exception of the kitchen Flourescent lighting. Till I can get it all remedied....

deb

 

[kuntrygirl]

How are the mini meaties doing, Kuntrygirl?

Good morning everyone. Just an update on the broilers.

All of them are doing great. Their appetites are increasing and they are still moving around, jumping around and flying around. They are doing well in their outside dog kennel pen. The lowest temp since they have been out there was 43 degrees. They were all bunched up together but they survived. No one froze to death. The lows Friday night will be 34 and I am hoping that they will be ok. I am not planning on putting a heat lamp outside right now but I'm sure I will get a little paranoid and change my mind.

I am happy to say that the chicken plucker is FINALLY completed and working. THANK GOODNESS!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so glad that I didn't pester my builder to "get her done" because he finally figured it out.

I have not lost any from leg issues or any other medical issues. However we did have to test out the chicken plucker, so we processed one broiler this Saturday. After one test run and we noticed that a few nails were sticking up where they shouldn't, so he had to cut the nails out of the bottom plate. Also looks like I will need more chicken fingers. 50 doesn't seem like enough but it did the job.

So, we initially decided to process one of the smaller broilers to test it out. I didn't want to deal with setting up a killing cone and all of that other stuff, so we decided to "do the deed" using a high powered pellet gun. This high powered pellet gun can kill a raccoon, opossum, dog and any small to medium size predator, so we knew it would work on the small broilers. I got an old feed bag, created a tight fit and situated the broiler in a stable position so that it could not move and get out of the bag. Once the broiler was stabilized, I placed the pellet gun to it's head and pulled the trigger. Perfect shot and he was gone instantly. There was minimal blood shed as opposed to slitting the throat and letting it drain out. Not sure I will do that with all of them (that's too many shots to take) but it was less to deal with and there was minimal set up and clean up.

His live weight was not a lot, which is why we chose a smaller one. Keeping the larger broilers and giving the bigger ones more time to put on weight.

2 lbs 9.9 ounces live weight

1 lb 12.0 ounces dressed weight

For those of you who remember the very first broiler that I processed - the one that got smashed? Well, we cooked it this weekend. We made a chicken gumbo. You would think that it would not have made a big meal because the dressed weight was only 1 lb 10 ounces but I was shocked at how much meat we had. It was enough meat to serve 3 adults and 1 child. If it were only myself, this would have been 4 meals for me.

So for those of you who may get slow growing broilers or other meat birds, please do not get discouraged if they are not growing as fast as you would like for them to grow or if their weight is not as heavy (meatie) as you would like for them to be because as small as you think they are, they will still be enough meat if mine are 1 lb 10 ounces dressed.

Here is a pic of the cooked broiler. I don't like a lot of juice in my gumbo, so you can fully see what it looked like. And I must add that it was DELICIOUS!

So this Friday, they will be 8 weeks old but they have plenty of more growing to do. I probably won't process them for another 4 - 8 weeks depending on how much they weigh. It's a slow process but I am patient. After tasting the meat on this weekend, it's all worth the wait.

Oh and I had a delicious glass of pineapple wine with this meal.

 

[aoxa]

Good morning everyone. Just an update on the broilers.

All of them are doing great. Their appetites are increasing and they are still moving around, jumping around and flying around. They are doing well in their outside dog kennel pen. The lowest temp since they have been out there was 43 degrees. They were all bunched up together but they survived. No one froze to death. The lows Friday night will be 34 and I am hoping that they will be ok.

I am not planning on putting a heat lamp outside right now but I'm sure I will get a little paranoid and change my mind.



I am happy to say that the chicken plucker is FINALLY completed and working. THANK GOODNESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am so glad that I didn't pester my builder to "get her done" because he finally figured it out.

I have not lost any from leg issues or any other medical issues. However we did have to test out the chicken plucker, so we processed one broiler this Saturday. After one test run and we noticed that a few nails were sticking up where they shouldn't, so he had to cut the nails out of the bottom plate. Also looks like I will need more chicken fingers. 50 doesn't seem like enough but it did the job.

So, we initially decided to process one of the smaller broilers to test it out. I didn't want to deal with setting up a killing cone and all of that other stuff, so we decided to "do the deed" using a high powered pellet gun. This high powered pellet gun can kill a raccoon, opossum, dog and any small to medium size predator, so we knew it would work on the small broilers. I got an old feed bag, created a tight fit and situated the broiler in a stable position so that it could not move and get out of the bag. Once the broiler was stabilized, I placed the pellet gun to it's head and pulled the trigger. Perfect shot and he was gone instantly. There was minimal blood shed as opposed to slitting the throat and letting it drain out. Not sure I will do that with all of them (that's too many shots to take) but it was less to deal with and there was minimal set up and clean up.

His live weight was not a lot, which is why we chose a smaller one. Keeping the larger broilers and giving the bigger ones more time to put on weight.

2 lbs 9.9 ounces live weight


1 lb 12.0 ounces dressed weight


For those of you who remember the very first broiler that I processed - the one that got smashed? Well, we cooked it this weekend. We made a chicken gumbo. You would think that it would not have made a big meal because the dressed weight was only 1 lb 10 ounces but I was shocked at how much meat we had. It was enough meat to serve 3 adults and 1 child. If it were only myself, this would have been 4 meals for me.

So for those of you who may get slow growing broilers or other meat birds, please do not get discouraged if they are not growing as fast as you would like for them to grow or if their weight is not as heavy (meatie) as you would like for them to be because as small as you think they are, they will still be enough meat if mine are 1 lb 10 ounces dressed.

Here is a pic of the cooked broiler. I don't like a lot of juice in my gumbo, so you can fully see what it looked like. And I must add that it was DELICIOUS!


So this Friday, they will be 8 weeks old but they have plenty of more growing to do. I probably won't process them for another 4 - 8 weeks depending on how much they weigh. It's a slow process but I am patient. After tasting the meat on this weekend, it's all worth the wait.

Oh and I had a delicious glass of pineapple wine with this meal.

I would not want them to be more than 11 weeks. Our second batch was 14 weeks and they would not fit in our XL cone... and that is made for turkeys. Yes it's a pre-made cone... The males were so darn wide. Susan had to hold one still while I bled it out because I could not reach the head at all in the cone. I think 11 weeks is my ideal age. for processing free range meaties.

Oh and I sold my CX cross chicks... I had 12 mutts on order and only hatched 10.. so I ended up selling them with the mutts. I have more hatching this week, and I will definitely hold them back this time to keep track.

 

[kuntrygirl]

I would not want them to be more than 11 weeks. Our second batch was 14 weeks and they would not fit in our XL cone... and that is made for turkeys. Yes it's a pre-made cone... The males were so darn wide. Susan had to hold one still while I bled it out because I could not reach the head at all in the cone. I think 11 weeks is my ideal age. for processing free range meaties. 

Oh and I sold my CX cross chicks... I had 12 mutts on order and only hatched 10.. so I ended up selling them with the mutts. I have more hatching this week, and I will definitely hold them back this time to keep track.

Sounds like yours were big at 11 weeks. Do you remember their weights at that age?

Good job on getting your birds sold. Keep us posted on this batch that will be hatching. Sounds exciting.

 

[aoxa]

Sounds like yours were big at 11 weeks. Do you remember their weights at that age?

Good job on getting your birds sold. Keep us posted on this batch that will be hatching. Sounds exciting.

At 11 weeks they averaged 5 pounds dressed. At 14 weeks I had 6-10 pound birds dressed. The average being around 6 pounds. I had mostly pullets the second batch.

I thought 14 weeks was pushing the tenderness we'd see, but they were as tender as a 8 week old bird. So delicious.

The breasts on one were 3.5 pounds alone.

 

[kuntrygirl]

Sounds like yours were big at 11 weeks. Do you remember their weights at that age?


Good job on getting your birds sold. Keep us posted on this batch that will be hatching. Sounds exciting.

At 11 weeks they averaged 5 pounds dressed. At 14 weeks I had 6-10 pound birds dressed. The average being around 6 pounds. I had mostly pullets the second batch. 

I thought 14 weeks was pushing the tenderness we'd see, but they were as tender as a 8 week old bird. So delicious.   The breasts on one were 3.5 pounds alone. 

Sounds delicious!!! That's a nice size breast you all had.

As small as my little one was, the breast was a nice size. Now the wings were nothing to write home about the breast was the best part.

 

[Arielle]

KG-- yeah-- I was sweating the malfunctioning plucker for you-- 100 birds by hand? I think NOT !

Electrical-- I'm glad to know I am not the only one abit paranoid about fires. THe neighbors leaving the dryer running when they leave for work and it makes me feel ill with worry. I hang my clothes to dry thoug I would like to have the dryer working again. Hanging is a PITA. At laundromat-- I can dry 12 loads in 1 hour including drive time.

Heard from both my sources for meat chicks this year-- both are shipping soon. Buckeyes and Konza. Eager to compare to my cornish experience.

? for chicken canoe-- how do you know if the electrician is a "good" one?

 

[kuntrygirl]

KG-- yeah-- I was sweating the malfunctioning plucker for you-- 100 birds by hand? I think NOT ! 

Electrical-- I'm glad to know I am not the only one abit paranoid about fires. THe neighbors leaving the dryer running when they leave for work and it makes me feel ill with worry. I hang my clothes to dry thoug I would like to have the dryer working again. Hanging is a PITA. At laundromat-- I can dry 12 loads in 1 hour including drive time. 

Heard from both my sources for meat chicks this year-- both are shipping soon. Buckeyes and Konza. Eager to compare to my cornish experience.

? for chicken canoe-- how do you know if the electrician is a "good" one? 

Thank you for the sweating support. I'm feeling better now.