Getting the flock out of here - a diary of a crazy chicken man

[ozexpat]

Not taking that bet. Matter of fact, I wanna hold you to reporting it to us.

Reading your itinerary makes me wanna snuggle further into my Enchanted Recliner with the TV remote in my hand. I got sweaty just imagining your efforts.

My mutt roo is not Poulet de Bresse but it will taste as good to me.

Poor Bernie had to put one down that had a bad leg. He buried it. I was so ****** at him for not eating it. We hatched 37 originally. 36 are still alive 17 weeks later. The Filipino chicken phenom has great husbandry skills.

Now if they would just start laying............

 

[hotrodflash]

My mutt roo is not Poulet de Bresse but it will taste as good to me.

Poor Bernie had to put one down that had a bad leg. He buried it. I was so ****** at him for not eating it. We hatched 37 originally. 36 are still alive 17 weeks later. The Filipino chicken phenom has great husbandry skills.

Now if they would just start laying............

I butchered 9 cockerels at 16 weeks and they are yummy. So far just cooked in crock pot but I am going to roast the next half, we split them all in half, way to much meat for one person. Mine were hatched on 1/15 and the pullets that are getting larger wattles and combs and looking at the nests with interest and watching the older girls too.

 

[ozexpat]

I butchered 9 cockerels at 16 weeks and they are yummy. So far just cooked in crock pot but I am going to roast the next half, we split them all in half, way to much meat for one person. Mine were hatched on 1/15 and the pullets that are getting larger wattles and combs and looking at the nests with interest and watching the older girls too.

I was hoping for pics this week but they were not taken of anything but the scovy ducklings. i will have a close examination of them in 6 days.

 

[hotrodflash]

I was hoping for pics this week but they were not taken of anything but the scovy ducklings. i will have a close examination of them in 6 days.

It's funny one of my barred rocks is really maturing much faster than the other one, same hatch. Last week the roosters were chasing them away and this week they are dancing fools for them. A couple more are not quite as mature but you can see the difference in the color of their combs and their bodies are starting to widen, looking less like a chick and more like a hen. Fun to watch.

 

[scottcaddy]

Quote: I take it that Bernie was city raised, not used to killing for dinner the critter that he has took care of from the hatch/birth? I have noticed that alot of people seem to have that trouble that didn't grow up on a farm. Good Luck with Bernie and eating birds!

Scott

 

[ozexpat]

I take it that Bernie was city raised, not used to killing for dinner the critter that he has took care of from the hatch/birth? I have noticed that alot of people seem to have that trouble that didn't grow up on a farm. Good Luck with Bernie and eating birds!

Scott

bernie can kill a goat, duck or even a chicken we buy live in the market or one of our local chickens we raise. Its just his **** Ameri-kanos he is having trouble with.

 

[piglett]

So the following is a draft of instructions I am going to give Bernie.

Please feel free to comment, critique or kick the **** out of.

Every day
· Record Temperature and humidity 3 times before hand turning goose eggs.
Day 14
· Candle eggs. Pull all clears. Save them.
Day 15
· Move Coturnix to Hovabator. Add Tupperware container of water to get humidity 70%. Continue to record T and H three times per day
Day 18
· Cotornix hatch day. Fingers crossed.
· Lock down for chickens. Move all chicken eggs to display case bator. Add water containers till humidity is 70%. Continue to record T and H three times per day.
Day 19
· Move all hatched Coturnix to brooder. Feed gro-gel, chick starter and add sav-a-chick to water.
Day 20
· Move hatched Coturnix to brooder. Feed gro-gel, chick starter and add sav-a-chick to water. Add mashed hard boiled egg to brooder, feed hard boiled eggs daily for extra protein.
· Look out for hatching chickens.
Day 21
· Move remaining hatched Coturnix to brooder.
· Chicken hatch day.
Day 22
· Move all hatched Chickens to brooder. Feed gro-gel, chick starter and add sav-a-chick to water.
· Drill hole top of non-pipped chicken eggs
· Eggtopsy non hatching Coturnix
Day 23
· Move all hatched Chickens to brooder. Feed gro-gel, chick starter and add sav-a-chick to water.
Day 24
· Clean display case bator with bleach. Air dry with fans on in bator.
· Eggtopsy non hatching chicken eggs.
Day 25
· Lock down for Turkey, Peafowl and Guinea Fowl. Transfer eggs to display case bator. Place each breed of turkey, guineas and peafowl in different baskets. Add water containers till humidity is 70%. Continue to record T and H three times per day.
Day 28
· Turkey, Peafowl and Guinea Fowl hatch day
Day 29
· Move all hatched Poults/Keets/Chicks to brooder. Feed gro-gel, chick starter and add sav-a-chick to water.
· Drill hole top of non-pipped Turkey, Peafowl and Guinea Fowl eggs
· Goose Lock down. Transfer eggs to display hova bator. Add water containers till humidity is 70%. Continue to record T and H three times per day.
Day 30
· Move all hatched Poults/Keets/Chicks to brooder. Feed gro-gel, chick starter and add sav-a-chick to water. Add mashed hard boiled egg to brooder, feed hard boiled eggs daily for extra protein.

Day 31
· Move all hatched Poults/Keets/Chicks to brooder. Feed gro-gel, chick starter and add sav-a-chick to water.
Day 32
· Goose hatch day
· Eggtopsy non hatching Poults/Keets/Chicks eggs
· Clean display case bator with strong bleach solution, air dry and close up.
Day 33
· Move all hatched Geese to brooder. Feed gro-gel, chick starter and add sav-a-chick to water.
Day 34
· Move all hatched Geese to brooder. Feed gro-gel, chick starter and add sav-a-chick to water.
· Drill hole top of non-pipped Goose eggs
Day 35
· Move all hatched Geese to brooder. Feed gro-gel, chick starter and add sav-a-chick to water.
Day 36
· Eggtopsy unhatched Goose eggs.
· Clean Hovabator with strong bleach solution, dry and box up.

i myself like to follow the K.I.S.S. factor......keep it simple stupid
with sooooo many things on this list & poor bernie not knowing much english i myself feel you might be setting yourself up for problems
i know you want everything perfect OZ....however you may have bit off a little too much
if things work out A-ok ....sweet
if not just work on the chickens next time
then the next trip the quail
then after that the geese
i really hope it all turns out flawless for ya
but man that list makes my head spin

good luck
piglett

 

[ozexpat]

i myself like to follow the K.I.S.S. factor......keep it simple stupid
with sooooo many things on this list & poor bernie not knowing much english i myself feel you might be setting yourself up for problems
i know you want everything perfect OZ....however you may have bit off a little too much
if things work out A-ok ....sweet
if not just work on the chickens next time
then the next trip the quail
then after that the geese
i really hope it all turns out flawless for ya
but man that list makes my head spin

good luck
piglett

I am not worried about the items on the list - just need to get it all on there.

I have a cousin of Mrs Oz who will translate it to Bernies native tongue. I will have it in writing in Cebuano as well as spoken so he can ask questions. every egg, turner and tray will be labelled and color coded.

I did not want to complicate the hatch with partridge pheasant and rhea. lol

This will work

 

[piglett]

My co-workers see me as a jet setter who spends his weekends on tropical beaches.

here is my itinerary for the upcoming trip

Day -2
work
Do egg run, label and box eggs

Day -1
work
Do egg run, label and box eggs

Day 0
work
label and repack final shipments of eggs.
fly LAX-MNL-BCD depart 9:30PM

Day 1
Arrive BCD 10AM (21.5 hrs after take off)
Kiss wife
Go to hardware store and buy supplies.
Have early dinner with Mrs Oz then send her on her way back to Luzon Island (she will be in Negros for her final day of PhD classes).
Collapse asleep at in-laws place.

Day 2
Drive home.
Build incubator
Set eggs.

Day 3
Buy 1000 cinder blocks, 100 bags cement, 150 lengths 8mm deformed steel bar and 10 cubic yards of sand and gravel.
Arrange to get Bernie a day laborer for a month once the hatch is over to build coops and make concrete posts.
Pack car

Day 4-5
3 am start - drive to Bacolod for car-relocation trip
Place car on 3 ferries, drive across 4 islands
Arrive in Cavite early afternoon day 5
Kiss wife and kids
collapse

Day 6
Daughter's 3rd birthday party
Install AC units in Cavite rental property.

Day 7
Meet with social workers
Buy things for house with Mrs Oz

Day 8
Play with kids
Refuse to leave subdivision

Day 9
Play with kids
Fly back to USA (13 hr flight) . Arrive in Anaheim at 10pm

Day 10
Work at 6am

Anybody want to join me?

take a good look at the cinder blocks OZ
many in the Philippines are very poor quality
i know there are metal forms that you can buy over there so you can make your own
my grandfarther always said to use a 3 to 1 mix
3 sand to 1 cement
that mix will make blocks that should outlast all of us
i has to bust some up 1 time that he had done
to save cement he had added granite rocks about the size of a coconut to the mix
i'm out there with a 8lb sledge beating the ever loving cr@p out of this cement
in the end i was able to break the rocks but the cement still held together
i could chip off a corner but that was about it.

why do these social workers want mrs, Oz to move ? if you were not a white guy they would have been glad to take a little greese money & sign all the paperwork on the spot i'm sure

 

[ozexpat]

take a good look at the cinder blocks OZ
many in the Philippines are very poor quality
i know there are metal forms that you can buy over there so you can make your own
my grandfarther always said to use a 3 to 1 mix
3 sand to 1 cement
that mix will make blocks that should outlast all of us
i has to bust some up 1 time that he had done
to save cement he had added granite rocks about the size of a coconut to the mix
i'm out there with a 8lb sledge beating the ever loving cr@p out of this cement
in the end i was able to break the rocks but the cement still held together
i could chip off a corner but that was about it.

why do these social workers want mrs, Oz to move ? if you were not a white guy they would have been glad to take a little greese money & sign all the paperwork on the spot i'm sure

I sat on a stack of cinder blocks when we were building the garage. They crumbled. I sand was really shocked. It took me a while to find a decent block maker. He makes them to order with the right cement sand and gravel combo for 10 pesos (22 cents) each. cheaper ones are 6-8 pesos.

When we adopted the kids we filed for the court petition in the same area to speed things up as the dswd would need to send paperwork from region to region. when they dropped the ball and my wife filed a complaint with the presidentially secretary, the social worker tried to shift blame onto us to say we were not residents there. We had started out there but moved back to bacolod gradually as the adoption stagnated. So as a compromise and to get things moving, we agreed meet the resident requirements and they will complete all the paperwork in the six months. Its costly, but less toll on our family and will speed up the process.

we probably could have paid grease money but I never have and never will.its a principal and I dont want to ever say to my kids I bought them.