Actually, it is pretty intentional - white feathers - they make for a cleaner look when plucked (because of the pin feathers and the sensory plumes that get left.)
Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock
- Thread starter BY Bob
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Helping with the gardening I see! Hello ladies
Looks like that planter dropped on him hahaha! Hi Moggy you are looking quite relaxed in the sun
Hmmm - interesting! Although now I am wondering how may feathers I have eaten over the years with that crispy skin on those turkeys we bake!
It is hard. It took me 3 years before I could actually do the deed myself (the 4th year I managed - through tears). I had someone my husband knew help with that part until I could manage to do it. I was completely fine with the plucking and eviscerating, but the actual killing was (and still is) hard. I just tell myself that they had a good life until now, and I would rather eat chicken that I knew had a good life and ate good food, than buy the 'same thing' from the store where they very well didn't.
Read about it and watch videos on YouTube (if they still exist) about how to process. I believe if you search for Polyface Farm, they have a good one on humane processing - again, if YouTube hasn't taken it down!
In my humble opinion, standard breeds raised with the opportunity to free range - and take longer to grow out - taste so much better and their meat has a better texture. And, the older hens that I process make a delicious soup. Again, SO MUCH MORE FLAVOR, and they were raised with love and an opportunity to be real chickens.
Edit to add: And for the cockerels, such a better outcome than what happens with the 'spare' cockerel chicks at many hatcheries!
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Well, can you get some fertile eggs to put under her? she will do all the hard work of incubating and brooding.......???? Just get 1/2 dozen eggs, if shipped, probably only 3 will hatch - which is a good amount, not too much, but they have 'siblings' to grow up with.Well none of our eggs are fertilized since we don’t have a rooster. And with all the medical stuff going on really don’t need to be getting any more chicks this year. Maybe next year. I feel sorry for her, she is trying so hard. And when we take her off (several times a day) she is so fluffed up and has her tail all fanned out, she looks like a turkey.
Rarely do they 'go broody at night' and not during the day. Maybe she just slept in the nest box? I have a hen that will lay her egg and hang out for a good hour 'rejuvenating,' AFTER laying, in the nest box. She has never been broody. Trust me, if they are broody, you will know: puffed up feathers, but flattened out in the nest box....tail flared upon approach, screeching. And, a soft 'tuk, tuk, tuking almost constantly. Even if she isn't a screecher....trust me there is NO mistaking a true broody.
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Hmmm, are you sure they are dumb? I mean, really. Loads of worms to themselves, a nice cuddle and warm-up from mom...what's not to like?????
- May 12, 2020
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Tina was a good girl and took her medicine with no argument at all, so I promised her time out in the garden again
- May 12, 2020
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They got you sussed out nicely Kelly
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