First Run of Cornish Cross Meat Birds and Super Excited!

[dpenning]

I'm sorry for your problems Ralphie. I hope you did not make firm offers or salary advances to your new staff....

 

[mountain mom]

Ralph- I feel your plight. My husband also drew the wrong dang numbers. I already had a ranch in Argentina picked out. As well as an island in the Bahamas.
Don't seek out that divorce lawyer just yet. I am sure the powerball people have made a huge oversight.

Things have been busy here. Freaking Valentines day is serious for elementary aged kids. The pressure to make these amazing and clever valentines (thank you very much pintrest) for all the kids and all the teachers. Yes, all the teachers your child sees throughout the week. Not just their regular teacher. And then you have to decorate a dang box and make it all perfect and clever too for the valentines to go into.
Then there is the party. Sigh.

I met some very cool guineas yesterday. I have never noticed them before, but they live with all the chickens behind the feed store. Mind you, the feed store is an old house, with a slightly newer house nearby that the owners live in. There are huge barns, chickens, cows and apparently guineas.
I have never heard them before. Yesterday there was quite the racket while we were getting our feed. I told the kids, "sounds like guineas!" They hopped out to see said racket. There was one guinea out of the fence, pacing back and forth, making a huge deal about not being able to get back in. My daughter walked slowly over to help... remember, she LOVES hugging and helping. The guinea flew back in, much to her dismay.
All the other guineas were by the gate to greet their "lost" flock member. And they all stayed there while my kids stuck their hands in the fence and talked to them and made funny sounds at them.
The feed store guy was so impressed. He said the guineas usually hide or sound the alarm when there is someone they don't know. He also said they go in the coop at night like good birds.

As we were chatting, I mentioned Pearl and how she was lucky enough to live out a "pet" chicken life instead of at freezer camp. He inquired as to how we raised the meaties and such. He also likes the slow grow, treat them like a normal chicken, method! AAANNNDDD, he had a CX rooster. Magnificent bird. He was no Bert, of course, but, he was so huge and regal! He thinks he was around 3 or 4 years old.

Well, I must go. I have a billion hearts to glue onto valentines.

 

[LindaB220]

Quote:
God love your little sweet heart Raplhie, that's the saddest 3 posts I ever heard. Funny as heck but sad. My 'puter is still down and it takes forever to get an answer through to you. May try on the smart phone. I read on it and laugh a lot but typing is a chore. I have the XW trio in the 2nd coop. Went out in the dark and moved them. Hopefully the girls won't eat the 2 smaller 3 mo old black rock girls. They stayed with the cockerel until last month so they are used to him. And I've let them range together. I tried the 2 girls in with the Blosl rooster and his girls and none of them like them at all. So I moved them back after a couple of days. They were trapped on the roosts a lot. I'm getting the coops set up for dry food with hanging feeders and big waterers. Making it easier for whoever will be coming to feed while I'm incapacitated. I feel ready for it at last. (Screaming "No, no" to the last) lol

 

[Double Kindness]

The crowing contest was getting to me so yesterday I processed 2 roos, a white bresse and an ac. My friend dispstched the ac and it was a slow painful traumatic death for me to witness, I processed the white bresse roo and had thought I had done a bad job, but now I will just process alone.

The bresse was much easier to process than the ac, with more meat and fat, also being 6 weeks younger. It will be interesting to see both crosses in the meat birds though.

I still have too many roos lol. I now have 4 hatchlings 1 I am positive is a roo.

I have a chest thing that moved in yesterday getting worse. So instead of doing laundry and dishes and cleaning my bathroom I'm going to stay in my sweats and t shirt on the sofa and watch tv, nap, play with chicks and occasionally go check for eggs.

After I feed the bunnies and mix bokashi and spray it on the hugelculture pile project.

We have lots already started on the indoor garden, harvesting meyer lemons and red leaf lettuce. Mice ate some of my purple broccoli seedlings. Pfft.

IDK why it's so hard to find a good barn kitty. I need one. The squirrels, the mice, the finches are making me batty eating all my organic non gmo chicken food and plants. They are so smart and avoid all traps.

For valentine's day I want a barn kitty/mouser.

 

[duluthralphie]

Smart Move switching back to dry feed while your laid up Linda. I being the naturally lazy sort of bloke, have always fed dry feed.

DK what is an AC? I have not found a difference between the younger and older birds I processed, with the exception of the older birds tasting more "chickeny." I have not even had one that is tough and that includes the 20 week old roosters, Well, the exception might be the one that had a hunting accident. I had to chase him around the yard for an hour before I got close enough to get a safe clean shot. When we ate him he seemed a tad stringy in the legs and thighs.

I am getting impatient for spring. I have to order my plant seeds. I want Walla Walla onions and sets are too expensive to buy, might as well buy the onions from Walmart. I also need to start cabbage seeds shortly, I did not raise any last year but I am almost out of sauerkraut from the year before. I also need to start tomato seeds soon. The problem is I do not have a decent place to grow them in the house. I need a grow light setup.


Bert came out for his sunflower seeds today, the girls are just huddling in the corner. It was -12 below this morning but if felt better than yesterday when the wind was blowing. I ended up playing yoyo chicken with about 5-6 of them today. I spilled some sunflower seeds on the floor of the storage area and for some reason those seeds were better than the ones I threw on the ground outside for them.

I kind of like the Yo-Yo chicken game, when they come running back to me I can pretend they like me and want me to hold them and don't just want the seed. I also had a barred rock that was playing hide and seek. She put her head behind a sack and thought I could not see her. She complained when I picked her up, but seemed to be purring when I was petting her.

 

[JessicaThistle]

Hi All, Sorry that you have been lonely Ralph. I have been struggling this week with a little thing called customer orders! Sheesh. Don't they know that I have eggs to collect? Not only that, but I have been sick. So spending my day running to the farm, handling all of that, coming home, starting print jobs and trying to make some attempt at even a semi-tidy house is turning into a daunting task. By the time it gets dark I am so exhausted that I can barely read. It certainly doesn't help that I have to pick up my daughter from work at 1 am!

So, I delivered 253 dozen eggs to stores this week. We've gotten the girls' pens cleaner and smelling better. The egg shells are firming up and looking healthier, plus there is very little loss to egg eating. They got some fruit, veggie and bread scraps from the store and some scratch. I think they decided that they really like me now because when I show up they all surround the gate bawking at the top of their lungs at me. When I go in the pen to look for eggs about 220 hens follow me around waiting for a goodie. It is a funny thing to see. It really makes me smile. We are seriously hoping that we can make these girls happy and get egg production up. I can't wait to get these girls on pasture!

Double Kindness: You aren't alone. I'm sick too and cleaning isn't happening around here either.

Linda: I also still just do dry food. I just don't have the energy for the other stuff.

 

[duluthralphie]

Bert has turned monogamous!

One of Bert's gals left her earthly body today.

I have no idea what happened she looked fine this morning, I just went out to look at them and found her dead. I was hoping it was egg bound or something. I found nothing wrong with her. When I found her rigor mortis had set in or she was froze solid, It is dang cold here today, I did not open her up, as I assume it will be just a consequence of being almost 9 months old.

Just yesterday I was with them and told them I hope they all made it to summer and green grass. Now There are 2, the experiment continues.

I feel like I need to name the other gal now. Bert and the gals sounded cute, Bert and a gal sounds sexist.

Anyways, I am kind of sad over this. I really wanted them to live. I should have known something was wrong when she did not come outside for sunflower seeds this morning. She will be missed. I am hoping my wife does not cry when she finds out, I hate to see us both crying over a dead chicken.

 

[Clucksandgiggle]

Sorry to hear this Ralph!

Who knows 'why' sometimes...

 

[JessicaThistle]

That's too bad Ralph. You have to go out there, put your hands on your hips, stamp your foot and tell the other two girls that they are NOT allowed to die!! This has worked for Sunny and all of the rest of my chickens. Also, make sure you wife records it because I think it would be hilarious to see you do that in your socks and flip flops! Hahaha!!

Rigor kicks in quickly in chickens! You realize this when you are dealing in numbers. One day at the egg farm, I collected eggs including walking around the whole pen checking in all of the corners (I have some rebellious floor layers). I went in and washed and packaged eggs. Then I cleaned the nesting boxes. Finally I went back through the pens to catch any straggler eggs. I found an expired hen. It had literally been an hour or less since I went through the first time. She already had rigor. I know I didn't miss her since she laid down and passed right near where a straggler egg corner is. I was totally shocked. On the bright side, they hadn't eaten her.

The hens all got delicious veggie scraps and scratch today. I am expecting them to be so happy that I get 300 eggs tomorrow! This is wishful thinking but I can hope can't I?

 

[duluthralphie]

That's too bad Ralph. You have to go out there, put your hands on your hips, stamp your foot and tell the other two girls that they are NOT allowed to die!! This has worked for Sunny and all of the rest of my chickens. Also, make sure you wife records it because I think it would be hilarious to see you do that in your socks and flip flops! Hahaha!!

Rigor kicks in quickly in chickens! You realize this when you are dealing in numbers. One day at the egg farm, I collected eggs including walking around the whole pen checking in all of the corners (I have some rebellious floor layers). I went in and washed and packaged eggs. Then I cleaned the nesting boxes. Finally I went back through the pens to catch any straggler eggs. I found an expired hen. It had literally been an hour or less since I went through the first time. She already had rigor. I know I didn't miss her since she laid down and passed right near where a straggler egg corner is. I was totally shocked. On the bright side, they hadn't eaten her.

The hens all got delicious veggie scraps and scratch today. I am expecting them to be so happy that I get 300 eggs tomorrow! This is wishful thinking but I can hope can't I?

All interesting.

And from this I have one question, how and with what do you wash eggs?

Is this a requirement for selling them in Oregon?

The bloom does not make a difference to your customers?


BTW I only have one CX pullet left and Bert.