California - Northern

[chrissyr]

I'm not too surprised, I know people who look ill at the thought of eating duck eggs, or killing a chicken yourself. I'm very grateful my parents raised me to be knowledgeable about where meat comes from, and not squeamish about growing and processing it myself. Same with eggs. I want to teach my kids the same.

My Family is very in to it. My 26 year old told me she misses having a heritage chicken to eat.

I killed my first chicken with my Dad when I was about 10. Mom raised rabbits and we usually had a pig and a steer growing out. We always had chickens but gave them up when we sold the orchard and moved to Corning. Hunting Quail on the property was my relaxation while in High School.

Quail is very tasty and I like it much more than Dove.

my family eats the eggs. We have some extra roos we had processed and they'll eat those whether they like it or not. My DD at first refused to eat quail because she "can't eat cute birds". then I told her mine are raised much more humane, have an awesome life, organic fed and humanely processed. Then she said she'd "try' it when it comes time.
I'm not a Peta person, but hbo had a documentary on hog slaughter houses. They do NOT put all of them down humanely. I don't have a problem with eating meat. I have a problem when things suffer. So at least the way I'm doing it contributes to that. Everyone that cringes when they hear I'm raising food for meat, gets their meat at the store. Even how those animals are grown is not healthy. But most "grocery store eaters" actually say they don't want to hear about how the factories do it. Ignorance is bliss.
I'll be making Chicken and Dumplings on Wednesday from my processings. I can tell you, it's going to be amazing!

 

[Audio51]

Quote: Maybe that one to males ans he is trying to protect his girls...

.

Quote: My DH is that way but I think he has an ulterior motive. He has had some of the quail eggs ( I made mini deviled eggs with them for a wedding reception and everyone loved them including him, plus made French Toast with them and told him it was quail eggs after he had eaten them). He refuses to eat the quail though and claimed it was because he didn't eat "Gamey" meat. I tried to tell him that farm raised ones don't taste gamey. I haven't eaten any yet, but he will be at Street Vibrations in Reno on Wednesday night so I am going to grill me a couple of them wrapped in bacon while he is gone. He later confessed that he thinks it will encourage me to keep raising them if he eats them and he thinks they are too much work on top of the chickens and finches for me with my health issues. What he doesn't realize is that him being stubborn just makes me more so about keeping the,...

Quote: Sounds yummy!!!

 

[SpringPeeper]

Maybe that one to males ans he is trying to protect his girls...

.

My DH is that way but I think he has an ulterior motive. He has had some of the quail eggs ( I made mini deviled eggs with them for a wedding reception and everyone loved them including him, plus made French Toast with them and told him it was quail eggs after he had eaten them). He refuses to eat the quail though and claimed it was because he didn't eat "Gamey" meat. I tried to tell him that farm raised ones don't taste gamey. I haven't eaten any yet, but he will be at Street Vibrations in Reno on Wednesday night so I am going to grill me a couple of them wrapped in bacon while he is gone. He later confessed that he thinks it will encourage me to keep raising them if he eats them and he thinks they are too much work on top of the chickens and finches for me with my health issues. What he doesn't realize is that him being stubborn just makes me more so about keeping the,...

Sounds yummy!!!

Wrapped in bacon is how my family is asking for them, too. And lots of recipes involving quail eggs.


I got a preliminary report on the two chicks I sent in. Doesn't tell me a whole lot, but some of the cultures are still pending. No Salmonella detected though. The Histology report only says 'pending' so I hope that will provide more info. Here is a cut and paste of what info they did have:

Case summary: *** 9/22/14: Preliminary Report 1. One bird has a small yolk sac present, from which we are isolating E. coli and Enterococcus
sp. However, this is not the classical yolk sac infection. There were no other significant findings in either bird. Bacteriology and
histology in progress.



Gross observations: Two silkie chicks were submitted dead for examination. Both were mildly autolyzed. One had a small (2mm diameter by
4mm length) retained yolk sac that was filled with semi-solid yolk. The gizzards contained a small amount of feed and
grit.The intestinal walls were thin. The lungs were mildly congested. All other tissues were unremarkable.




One last thing, is anyone else having some load issues again, or am I just lucky tonight? It's not as bad as before, but I've only noticed it here.

 

[SpringPeeper]

Does anybody know the significance of the intestinal walls being thin, because I don't have the first clue?

 

[QueenBubbles]

@Audio51
Honestly, I think she did get better on her own and not from my treatments. But those treatments (calcium, Vitamin D, dusting with DE) made ME feel better! And It was good to get more familiar with her anatomy - she would never let me feel around like that if she wasn't feeling so bad.

 

[chiqita]

The other three A&Ms are pretty chill, this one has just decided it is protector of the realm. 

I should have been more careful about telling my family I was trying out quail. I'm already getting sent all kinds of recipes on Pinterest with hints that they'd be good to try out for Thanksgiving.  I've told them I only got a few to try some out as egg layers and a couple as meat, but they've apparently got a craving. I knew a lot of them loved game birds, so I guess I have no one but myself to blame.

Edit: Thanks for the opinions on the sexes. I won't count my hens before they lay,  but I was thinking it might be a pair.

I think you are have a pair of manchus. The fat rowdy a and m is likely female. Fat is girls and I find girls more agressive. Its probably a decendant od dear departed bubba. She was one fat quail.

My Family is very in to it. My 26 year old told me she misses having a heritage chicken to eat.

I killed my first chicken with my Dad when I was about 10. Mom raised rabbits and we usually had a pig and a steer growing out. We always had chickens but gave them up when we sold the orchard and moved to Corning. Hunting Quail on the property was my relaxation while in High School.

Quail is very tasty and I like it much more than Dove.

Squab is on the limited list of stuff I wont eat. Tastes like garbage. I even had it on a tasting menue at a 3 star michilan resteraunt and hated it!

my family eats the eggs. We have some extra roos we had processed and they'll eat those whether they like it or not. My DD at first refused to eat quail because she "can't eat cute birds". then I told her mine are raised much more humane, have an awesome life, organic fed and humanely processed. Then she said she'd "try' it when it comes time.
I'm not a Peta person, but hbo had a documentary on hog slaughter houses. They do NOT put all of them down humanely. I don't have a problem with eating meat. I have a problem when things suffer. So at least the way I'm doing it contributes to that. Everyone that cringes when they hear I'm raising food for meat, gets their meat at the store. Even how those animals are grown is not healthy. But most "grocery store eaters" actually say they don't want to hear about how the factories do it. Ignorance is bliss.
I'll be making Chicken and Dumplings on Wednesday from my processings. I can tell you, it's going to be amazing!

If I do it I know there was a minimum of suffering. Ill take that over supermarket any day but I never thought id be abke to do that...

 

[CackleJoy]

My Family is very in to it. My 26 year old told me she misses having a heritage chicken to eat.

I killed my first chicken with my Dad when I was about 10. Mom raised rabbits and we usually had a pig and a steer growing out. We always had chickens but gave them up when we sold the orchard and moved to Corning. Hunting Quail on the property was my relaxation while in High School.

Quail is very tasty and I like it much more than Dove.

We were rather unimpressed with the amount of work processing requires. We did 30 our first day. Not the greatest day. Bleck. A few months later we are loving this chicken! The kids are so proud of their efforts too. It feels really good to sit down and eat our own birds. Just recently learned there is a place within 30 minutes of me that will process chickens for $3 a bird. They only do this a couple days a year. I'm really hoping to take advantage of that service! I'd much prefer getting my birds in a bag

If I do it I know there was a minimum of suffering. Ill take that over supermarket any day but I never thought id be abke to do that...

See above comments Don't know where you are located but the place is called "The Rabbit Barn." I havn't checked into it myself so it's totally on hearsay.

 

[HighStreetCoop]

We were rather unimpressed with the amount of work processing requires. We did 30 our first day. Not the greatest day. Bleck. A few months later we are loving this chicken! The kids are so proud of their efforts too. It feels really good to sit down and eat our own birds. Just recently learned there is a place within 30 minutes of me that will process chickens for $3 a bird. They only do this a couple days a year. I'm really hoping to take advantage of that service! I'd much prefer getting my birds in a bag

See above comments Don't know where you are located but the place is called "The Rabbit Barn." I havn't checked into it myself so it's totally on hearsay.

Nice. Most of the places I know have minimums that mean you need to have at least 20 birds to take in, and I never will with my tiny, urban plot. But I do have multiple friends who are willing to do it for me (BFF is already rubbing her hands together about it and planning Coq au Vin, and my friends who live off-grid up by Nevada City raise and process ALL their own meat, so I can always take a trip up there with any birds that need to be processed).

 

[tommysgirl]

I figured she was an Austra White or similar mix. When the grow outs are shuffled into regular runs, I plan on sending the TJ pullets to my tiny Australorp flock (the cockerel only has three pullets right now). The TJ boys will have to be dinner, though it bums me out a little. Not enough space to keep every rooster I find novel, endearing or pitiable.

Hey there all!

SpringPeeper I had to respond to these 2 things

First you have Australorps??? where did you get them? I don't need to be put on a list at this point because I am assuming it will be more than a year before I "need" some but I would love to know more.


Second: I am having a similar struggle right now. really only have room for 2 roos. I have 1 but I really want to keep 2 0r 3 of the cockerels that I have...sigh...

So that brings me to this. I have thought these two were cockerels since the word go. They are the Konza Prarie Rangers @ronott1 hatched for my this summer. The chocolate and gold one (Reese) had a head spot and the silver and black one (Magnus) was HUGE from the get go. Now at 13 weeks I am wondering could at least Magnus be a pullet? The behave like pullets. The don't spar with one another, no crowing obviously, no real waddle development and though they are pink. They are not RED like my older and younger set of cockerels are...assorted Marans, back yard mixes and sex links... It is complicated by their flat combs. They have been selectively bred for that feature. Chantecler are virtually combless and that is one of the foundation breeds and the fact that as a project there is no standard and no body of literature to turn to for help.

That's why I am turning to my best chicken help resource

So what do you think @Happy Chooks , Ron @chiqita and anyone else who wants to weigh in with a thought. Other foundation breeds are "Australian Coronation/Light Sussex, Plymouth Rock, Orpington and Cornish" if that helps

If these are both pullets I would like to keep one of the Birchen Marans cockerels that are currently slated for processing. If either is a pullet I will keep both. If both are cockerels I will probably keep just Magnus and Reese will go in with the Marans boys

Here they are :

Magnus/ Maggie a couple of leg shots






beauty shots





and full body. Orpy shape??


Reese. The photographer, time of day, and coloring make these pics not so good. I will try for more today if you all think it would help

 

[ronott1]

Hey there all!

SpringPeeper I had to respond to these 2 things

First you have Australorps??? where did you get them? I don't need to be put on a list at this point because I am assuming it will be more than a year before I "need" some but I would love to know more.


Second: I am having a similar struggle right now. really only have room for 2 roos. I have 1 but I really want to keep 2 0r 3 of the cockerels that I have...sigh...

So that brings me to this. I have thought these two were cockerels since the word go. They are the Konza Prarie Rangers @ronott1 hatched for my this summer. The chocolate and gold one (Reese) had a head spot and the silver and black one (Magnus) was HUGE from the get go. Now at 13 weeks I am wondering could at least Magnus be a pullet? The behave like pullets. The don't spar with one another, no crowing obviously, no real waddle development and though they are pink. They are not RED like my older and younger set of cockerels are...assorted Marans, back yard mixes and sex links... It is complicated by their flat combs. They have been selectively bred for that feature. Chantecler are virtually combless and that is one of the foundation breeds and the fact that as a project there is no standard and no body of literature to turn to for help.

That's why I am turning to my best chicken help resource

So what do you think @Happy Chooks , Ron @chiqita and anyone else who wants to weigh in with a thought. Other foundation breeds are "Australian Coronation/Light Sussex, Plymouth Rock, Orpington and Cornish" if that helps

If these are both pullets I would like to keep one of the Birchen Marans cockerels that are currently slated for processing. If either is a pullet I will keep both. If both are cockerels I will probably keep just Magnus and Reese will go in with the Marans boys

Here they are :

Magnus/ Maggie a couple of leg shots






beauty shots





and full body. Orpy shape??


Reese. The photographer, time of day, and coloring make these pics not so good. I will try for more today if you all think it would help

They are looking good!

I am waiting for the new pictures.