calling any one from missouri

[OhZark Biddies]

Those are $500 kittens!

Yeah that’s probably about what they’ll end up costing us

 

[OhZark Biddies]

@OhZark Biddies I processed one of the meat chicken hens. She processed in at 6lbs 5.5 ounces. The roosters have been about 2 pounds heavier. All of them have been from the same batch/age group of meat chickens. I have 2 more hens to do and then all 6 of the original meat birds will be done. Just in time to start thinking about starting to process some of the larger birds in the group of 16 Jumbo Cornish Cross birds I got from Cackle Hatchery.
Also, Thursday, July 2nd is when my Queen cell(s) are supposed to hatch in the split I made with my bee hive! I hope everything goes well!
I think I am supposed to wait 2 weeks after that and then start looking for eggs being laid. I'll have to use a magnifying glass to see those little eggs!

That’s a nice size, I bet they’ll be tasty too!

Hope your princess bee hatching goes well, and she makes it back to the hive successfully from her mating flight

I looked in on a couple hives yesterday, the one was a split from May 2nd and it is doing really well... the other is the problem hive and it seems to be doing pretty much nothing still

 

[SueT]

So far my new garden fence is keeping the armadillos out. They've systematically made little holes all around the perimeter.

 

[SueT]

A butterfly in my fermented feed bucket--is this a Buckeye?

 

[OhZark Biddies]

A butterfly in my fermented feed bucket--is this a Buckeye?
View attachment 2221621

Oh, that’s a ‘purty bug!

me thinks that is a ‘wood nymph’

https://nature.mdc.mo.gov/discover-nature/field-guide/common-wood-nymph

 

[jthornton]

Didn't "feel" as hot this morning so I finished splitting the red oak quarters I noodled up a couple of weeks ago... still need more firewood.

JT

 

[jthornton]

fermented feed bucket

What and how do you ferment and who do you feed it to?

JT

 

[karenerwin]

@karenerwin when you calculate the meat weight, is that "bone-in" weight? I mean like, do you weigh the bird gutted out and cleaned and consider that the final processed weight, like a roaster you would get at the grocery store? Pardon my ignorance.

Yes, in the last 2 that is what I did. Usually I part them down more into boneless breasts, wings, thighs and drumsticks. I save they heart, gizzard and liver but don’t calculate those into the weight.
The roosters were all parted out. So they weighed a bit more as roasters than what I listed but not too much more.

 

[SueT]

What and how do you ferment and who do you feed it to?

JT

I use Purina Flock Raiser w water added for all chickens, all ages. It ferments overnite into a nice yeasty smelling mash. In hot weather if I leave it longer than overnite, it gets too 'sharp.' Sometimes I just make a mash without fermenting it, but it ferments in their bowls as the day gets warmer.
They don't waste it, they don't walk in it (I use dog bowls) and they seem to really prefer it to the dry, which they also have available. Last year, when I was going to be gone for 2 or 3 weeks, I told DH to just feed dry crumbles and they got used to it. That was a lot simpler and I kept it going w just dry. But, that winter, due to hawks, I stopped free ranging them, and felt sorry for them so started up the mash again. And here we are.

 

[OhZark Biddies]

Well so much for what I was trying to get done today

what are ya gonna do, lol

At least the rain should keep the black berries from burning up