Jest Another Day in Pear-A-Dice - Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm in Alberta

[bamadude]

what loaded?  and that's a good thing ?

This thread. Been having trouble getting it to load since subscribing to netflix and hulu. I live in the boonies

 

[drumstick diva]

Yes, then certainly it is a GOOD THING

 

[bamadude]

Yes, then certainly it is a GOOD THING  e

What are you doing up at midnight

 

[CanuckBock]

What are you doing up at midnight

I'd say pretty much whatever DD wants is what she does...chicken bingo, ice cream carton diving, oogling pics of pups...yeh, pretty much sounds like a good ol' time to moi!

Note that big old basket for eggs...
​

Store up me hatching eggs in two of those, no turning...just in the garage at a mild cool temperature till I turn on Buster the Bator and start incubating.

I think what sold us on the Sportsman was that there are 30 year old models still chugging away pumping out trouble free hatches. Save up, do whatever you can do and get one...I highly endorse this type of incubator because me, myself a village idiot, it is so plain simple and reliable...I just shrug when others have issues only to find out it is with styrafoams or plastic cabinet ones. Go with what the oldtimers have used and forget about incubation woes...the only woes you got to be concerned with is what to do as all the babes start growing up and you over-runneth with successes hatch after hatch after hatch!

ANSWER - False

Put plainly, you cannot sterilize a styrofoam incubator completely--even fumigation would keep one at the same rates of a brand new...impossible to keep it as clean as you may in a Sportsman incubator (why they last for decades and keep on hatching out so well). So I guess the best way to look at styrofoams, is as disposables. Incubate in them and keep them going for as long as you are able but if you want something that does not take this much effort, get a cabinet "wooden" one.

The Chicken Health Handbook by Gail Damerow, page 212:
Styrofoam Incubators

Although no one has formally studied the difficulty of cleaning Styrofoam incubators, people using them have experienced hatching difficulties in successive years in spite of sanitation practices that would be adequate for wooden incubator. Since disinfectants may not adequately penetrate the porous Styrofoam, fumigation may be the only option.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~​

So one of the key things to harmony in a relationship...know you don't like the exact same things and embrace your differences...not just in friendships but in marriage especially.

Example, Rick likes his beef steak well done...I like mine blue rare...how do you cope...I get Rick's steak in the fry pan, get the taters and veg on and when his steak is plumb near done like his dinner...I sizzle mine on and voila...compromises without feeling compromised.

Lamb shoulder steaks and beef liver ​

I like lamb, Rick likes liver, I hate liver, Rick hates lamb...on Saturday they had some lovely fresh lamb shoulder chops...so I bought some for me and the dogs (Oz dogs, raised on lamb, eh!)...and some liver for Rick.

Tara's din



Rick's liver​

Happy happy, joy joy.

​

And after having a feed of lamb, the bones and some delicious trimmings went in a pot of water for soup broth and nibblins to add to their breakfasts. Heavenly! For a doggy delight that is.

Doggone & Chicken UP!

Tara Lee Higgins
Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm, Alberta, Canada

 

[drumstick diva]

Tara- no dog pictures!!

 

[perchie.girl]

I like both lamb and liver... Do you butcher your own lambs occasionally. In that case you could have lamb liver.

deb

 

[CanuckBock]

Tara- no dog pictures!!

Shh is right...got some but they were not being too purdy

today...

Hunting each other...

​

Both not acting very much like the gentler gender!

​

Showing off the pearly whites

​

and heeling...

​

So heel low and doggone good bye from the girls not being girls!

​

I like both lamb and liver... Do you butcher your own lambs occasionally. In that case you could have lamb liver.

deb

I never had the heart to harvest any of my own lambs...who are now a dozen years old...hee hee. I would happily have supplied with ALL the lamb liver...liver is liver is yick to moi!

 

[CanuckBock]

Heel low:

Healthy on the outside and healthy on the inside!​

I am not surgeon or pathologist but even I can see the difference of what will be healthy organ colours or weird shaped organs. If you cook chooks, you already have a good handle on what looks healthy and normal.

Another turkey innards - again harvested for food​

Bright healthy looking innards, lots of fat...this boy lived a happy chubby life.

ANSWER - True

I posted an informational article on ILT and yuppers, we humans can harbour this in our nostrils and infect our own flocks with it. Scary indeed!

Delicious soups from homegrown birds

​

​

Delicious dinners...

​

In 2012, I compared a homegrown heritage turkey to a commercial one...wonders of wonders...the homegrown heritage (which was a FEMALE...not even a TOM) had MORE white meat (the desired parts) than the commercial male one did.

​

The shape of the heritage allows them to naturally breed but pack on more white meat than the mush meat factory farmed turkeys. How is that for misinformation, eh!

Homegrown heritage on left / Commercial mush meat on right
​

There was ten percent white meat on the heritage and nine percent white meat on the commercial. How's that, eh!

Heritage left / commercial right



Commercial left / Heritage right​

And taste wise...the heritage is WAY more tasty turkey flavour and moister! My son adores the heritage turkey legs...WAY WAY more than commericials.

Yup, payment back in taste and more of the choice cuts of meat...woot

23) Setting eggs every day they are hatched and mixing up waterfowl and landfowl all in one cabinet incubator will lower hatch rates and is a method towards disaster.

ANSWER - False

I have a cabinet incubator...I collect and set hatching eggs of all species in it daily...all during the week days and not on weekends (so I can go play with Rick when I am finished my chores on the weekends...run wild doing loser laps with his vintage vehicle hobby in the summer time).

Before I fire up Buster...I keep the eggs for hatching in wire egg baskets...nope, don't tilt them, don't really mess much...then when I decide to hatch I fire up Buster the Bator and away he goes. Bring forth life here. What lives, lives despite me...I figure right off, they need to survive me...and that's something to be said about strength and vigour in the lines, eh.

I want birds that thrive and prosper under MY conditions...and that be MY conditions as imperfect as that may be!

​

There's Buster...got turkey and duck eggs on the bottom, standard chickens in the middle, and bantam eggs on the top.

Mix of waterfowl and landfowl eggs hatching out
​

The main issue with setting landfowl and waterfowl eggs...turkey, chicken, duck, goose, pheasant, swans...keeping the different dates they hatch in line. So you can do like I have done above, when hatching time comes to pass...separate out the ones pipping and hatching. You let the eggers that are NOT hatching...do that--keep incubating undisturbed on another level.

Why I never do any lockdown...hatching out babes all week...so never able to LOCK Buster the Bator DOWN...he's birthing continuously after the first three weeks, eh.

When I remember, I give the waterfowl a few zits of distilled water when I remember...if I remember. That be me again.

We get 85 to 90% hatch rates...jest as good as Momma Birds, so me go with what works for me...management by exception...don't mess with what seems to be working.

​

Note that I use felt pens to mark the eggs to better keep track of the mayhem in Buster.

Turk eggs and chooks.​

That be that then.

Doggone & Chicken UP!

Tara Lee Higgins
Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm, Alberta, Canada

 

[drumstick diva]

All those numbered eggs, make me think of the lottery balls.

 

[perchie.girl]

I am Curious Tara... does Buster have egg trays that tilt? several times per 24 hour period.

Oh and I love your visual comparison store bought vs home grown

deb