5th Annual BYC New Year's Day 2014 Hatch-A-Long

[Frankie Ruiz]

Goodmorning everybody

 

[SilkieSensation]

I processed my bird Monday & she has been in the brine since. Tomorrow morning she heads to the oven. I'm guessing she's close to 20 pounds dressed. Not bad at all for a hen hatched in mid Feb who ran with the chickens until 2 months ago when I isolated her for fattening.

 

[Kalalyn21]

I wish my other half would let me raise a turkey for Thanksgiving, but he wont

 

[ShayBaby]

I'm the other way around hehe. As much as my DH isn't into poultry, he'd probably jump at the idea of raising our own Thanksgiving dinner. I, on the other hand, am a softy with a very weak stomach, and just thinking about killing something I've raised or seeing these pics makes me well up. I do want turkeys very much, but only as pets. Looks like I'll be buying my dinner from stores the rest of my life. On another only-minutely-related note, my DH came home from work last night toting a carton of store-bought eggs! After I'd just told him earlier on the phone a couple of the girls were laying (infertile) eggs for me again! Now I have a dozen store-bought plus my own half-dozen..looks like I'll be doing a lot of baking for Thanksgiving. He got a stern earful about buying grocery eggs when we have over 50 chickens.

 

[fosterson]

Good Morning everyone. I know its not egg hatching related but thought I would share. Today is my Thanksgiving and I am up prepping for our dinner. My Family always celebrates a day early to make sure our family is all together and Thursday is for us all to go to our in-laws houses. Today we are feeding a family or 19 and on the menu is a 37lb whopper I raised myself.

I may post pics after it is done cooking.

 

[SunnySkies]

That was me. We were talking on a PM about it and I twice replied to your last message and just looked and twice BYC has eaten my reply.

I said it would be great if we could meet in Frederick Tuesday the 10th. If you have any to spare. If not, no biggie. I am getting some from someone else, but would like another 1/2 dz to fill my bator!

Ugh. I hate it when BYC does that. It's happened to me too.

I will probably have some Silkie/Silkie cross eggs, as I'm not setting those. We shall see how many I can collect for you.

And the 10th will be great.

 

[Aphrael]

Good Morning everyone. I know its not egg hatching related but thought I would share. Today is my Thanksgiving and I am up prepping for our dinner. My Family always celebrates a day early to make sure our family is all together and Thursday is for us all to go to our in-laws houses. Today we are feeding a family or 19 and on the menu is a 37lb whopper I raised myself.







I may post pics after it is done cooking.

That is a huge and yummy looking bird!

I'll be cooking a big dinner today AND tomorrow.

I have thought a lot about raising my own turkeys but I just don't know. We had two turkeys on our farm when I was a kid and they were EVIL incarnate. It makes me scared of raising something I won't be able to handle. Have you found any certain varieties to have better attitudes than others?

I am stressing because I have never ran this incubator before and I don't want to have eggs and still not have things right. I have one success to report, I found out that the place I usually incubate is not going to work for this one. When I turn the oven on to bake dinner it raises the temperature enough to overheat. Who would have guessed.

So now I have moved the incubator and it has been running it all night without water. I got up this morning and the humidity was 20% and the temperature was perfect. So we are moving forward here.

I think once eggs are added this will be a purrfect humidity until we see how the eggs react and lose weight.
The sponge is a good idea and I can cut them however small I need! Thanks for everyone that helped!! I am starting to understand why everyone always says this is a place of great wonders. LOL

I am so glad you are getting it all worked out.

I'm the other way around hehe. As much as my DH isn't into poultry, he'd probably jump at the idea of raising our own Thanksgiving dinner. I, on the other hand, am a softy with a very weak stomach, and just thinking about killing something I've raised or seeing these pics makes me well up. I do want turkeys very much, but only as pets. Looks like I'll be buying my dinner from stores the rest of my life. On another only-minutely-related note, my DH came home from work last night toting a carton of store-bought eggs! After I'd just told him earlier on the phone a couple of the girls were laying (infertile) eggs for me again! Now I have a dozen store-bought plus my own half-dozen..looks like I'll be doing a lot of baking for Thanksgiving. He got a stern earful about buying grocery eggs when we have over 50 chickens.

18 eggs are too much?

Around here on holidays 18 eggs is like a token sacrifice. Just my dressing alone takes around 8 eggs I think. Then there's the pumpkin pies, pumpkin bread, pie crusts, deviled eggs, egg wash for the bread... Okay okay, we're egg-aholics.

 

[Myfourladies]

That is a huge and yummy looking bird!

I'll be cooking a big dinner today AND tomorrow.

I have thought a lot about raising my own turkeys but I just don't know. We had two turkeys on our farm when I was a kid and they were EVIL incarnate. It makes me scared of raising something I won't be able to handle. Have you found any certain varieties to have better attitudes than others?


I am so glad you are getting it all worked out.



18 eggs are too much?

Around here on holidays 18 eggs is like a token sacrifice. Just my dressing alone takes around 8 eggs I think. Then there's the pumpkin pies, pumpkin bread, pie crusts, deviled eggs, egg wash for the bread... Okay okay, we're egg-aholics.

Thanks! And you are not the only egg-aholics it take a dozen just to fix breakfast around here.

 

[chicken pickin]

That is a huge and yummy looking bird!

I'll be cooking a big dinner today AND tomorrow.

I have thought a lot about raising my own turkeys but I just don't know. We had two turkeys on our farm when I was a kid and they were EVIL incarnate. It makes me scared of raising something I won't be able to handle. Have you found any certain varieties to have better attitudes than others?

I have raised Broad Breasted Whites 2 years in a row for meat and they are sweet as pie. I also raise Bourbon Reds year round since they can mate naturally they provide me with eggs, meat, poults and a curious friendly beautiful pet. These are the only 2 varieties I have raised and I find them both to be wonderful.

 

[Aphrael]

I have raised Broad Breasted Whites 2 years in a row for meat and they are sweet as pie. I also raise Bourbon Reds year round since they can mate naturally they provide me with eggs, meat, poults and a curious friendly beautiful pet. These are the only 2 varieties I have raised and I find them both to be wonderful.

Thank you. The ones we had were solid white but I have no idea what breed they were.