First Run of Cornish Cross Meat Birds and Super Excited!

[Peep a Cheep]

Greetings again from Western WI! Our weather has been 'Kansas City' ish, vs MN/WIish Rather than highs in the 30s and lows in the 20s (normal this time of year), we've had highs in the mid 40s and lows are sometimes not even below freezing. Some people blame Super El Niño(Is that a superhero or a supervillian)....I decided it was a good excuse to start building the layer's new coop in late October.

The new coop is 6x8, with a 2 foot area underneath for them to run around in during bad weather; and a 85 sqft covered run next to it.

Here is a picture of the new coop - half done. Most people think I'm building a hunting blind; I did model the design after some of those I've seen. It has three windows, what you see is the west side. Windows are W, S, and E. NO windows on the N side because that is where their perches will be for sleeping. The door is on the E (back) side.



Here is a picture, farther away - The fenced area with the tarp top will be dis-assembled from the current coop and added to the new coop, hopefully this weekend as we're expecting mid 40s and the ground isn't yet frozen solid (whee!). See that little red coop? That's the current coop, which will become the 'infermery/broody' coop this spring. Ralph - if you end up with toad seeds this spring and I get a broody hen, we might have to do some bartering!



From earlier construction (notice there are leaves still?!) This is the base we built, we put vinyl flooring over it to help protect the wood.



Here is a view of under the deck, this area is now fully hardware clothed. On the N side there is a little walkthrough for them to get to the other run, the S side has a little crawl-door my husband and I can use use to get under there - just in case 'somehen' decides to lay an egg down there.



I'll post a 'finished' pic when I'm done.

 

[Double Kindness]

My svart honas seem more flighty than my ayam cemani... but they are less flighty than my legbars,

1 cx meatie was dead in the coop today, another is turned blue and not moving much. I'm so sick, but I can't lose any more meat!!!

I could realky use a few eords of encouragement now as I process for the first time all by myself. I've always had one person with me and my bf usualky does the killing part and I pluck. I'm crying.

But it will die if I don't do something and then I will lose my meat. I already have had to bury 3 due to them dying on me. I don't want to lose everything any more meat.

 

[daskhan]

My svart honas seem more flighty than my ayam cemani... but they are less flighty than my legbars,

1 cx meatie was dead in the coop today, another is turned blue and not moving much. I'm so sick, but I can't lose any more meat!!!

I could realky use a few eords of encouragement now as I process for the first time all by myself. I've always had one person with me and my bf usualky does the killing part and I pluck. I'm crying.

But it will die if I don't do something and then I will lose my meat. I already have had to bury 3 due to them dying on me. I don't want to lose everything any more meat.

Possitive words... You are more manly then me I can't bring myself to process the chickens I bought specially for that purpose.. You have beautiful birds which you take great care of and even in your sickness you try your hardest where most people wouldn't try at all.. I hope you get better soon and I hope your chickens turn out to be ok

 

[JRNash]

Double k,you can do this. You've took good care of your birds,now it's time to complete the circle.

 

[JRNash]

Wish I could help.

 

[Double Kindness]

It died while the water was boiling.. still safe to eat? Been less than 10 minutes.


p.s. i'm a lady

 

[JRNash]

Double K,I'm not sure. Probably, just not sure.Pretty babies!!

 

[JRNash]

I just got an email alert from ideal. They have their CX for 1.35 (25)minimum

 

[Proverb31mama]

So we are in a bit of a pickle. The processor who did our first batch of chickens closes after Thanksgiving. I didn't know this until I called the Monday after Thanksgiving. so now we have 31 chickens that need processed because we don't want to keep them over the winter. but the closest processor is an hour and a half away and I would have to drive there to drop them off and then again to pick them up because of the way they work. we have never processed chickens before or even seen it done. We are trying to find someone local who can either process them for us or teach us how, but im not sure if we will find anyone. We were planning to ask some friends to help so we can get it all done in one day. I have read about and watched youtube videos about processing but still nervous to do it without someone with experience. any advice?

 

[JRNash]

Go for it. Once you decide on how you will dispatch it,the rest is just pluck pluck pluck