Kristen’s Chickens and Farming Ventures

[Kris5902]

Ok, small chicken update... now there are two!!! This pretty addition is compliments of either Precious or Speckles... my third Isbar Tiny still has a small whitish comb

 

[Kris5902]

In about 10 or 11 hours I will be processing my excess cockerels for the first time. Most of them. Today I set my stations up, and leg banded the Barnvelder I plan on keeping, and one of my Sapphire boys (I think I will keep two of them total).

I’m a little torn as he’s the one that flies to my shoulder, much like my little pullet “Princess” does. He makes me a little uncomfortable, mostly because the others are such jerks, and he’s a bit too close to my face for comfort; but he’s not aggressive and will let me handle him. I could be making a mistake in keeping him, but I can’t un-cull him later if I change my mind I’m hoping once the more aggressive guys are gone he will stop flying up to my shoulder, as it seems to be his escape tactic. I also noticed he wheezes a little, but I think that may be due to the bullying or my grasping him to remove him from my back. He shows no other signs of ill heath.

I’m hoping the processing goes smoothly and peacefully. It should be interesting as I don’t have running water or electricity here. I have as much water as I can get on hand (24 gallons/90L). My cone and plucking stations are set up, I have a propane camp chef stove for scalding, a cooler and ice for chilling. My eviscerating table is a chunk of 3/4” plywood on sawhorses covered with a garbage bag and some plastic cutting boards. Once I have finished them I will bring them down to our cold room (walk in fridge just about freezing) in the abbatoir to rest for 48 hrs before cutting and freezing.

It’s a sad night, tonight. However I know that the number of cockerels I have is not sustainable or healthy for my pullets, and this day has been coming since they hatched out. I can just hope that they have had good, happy lives to this point, I believe they have. Tomorrow night I will be removing the Barnvelder I’m keeping and my Wheatbar cockerel and putting them in with the two sapphire and younger Barnvelders in my bachelor pen. Hopefully that will go smoothly as well.

 

[Meg-in-MT]

In about 10 or 11 hours I will be processing my excess cockerels for the first time. Most of them. Today I set my stations up, and leg banded the Barnvelder I plan on keeping, and one of my Sapphire boys (I think I will keep two of them total).

I’m a little torn as he’s the one that flies to my shoulder, much like my little pullet “Princess” does. He makes me a little uncomfortable, mostly because the others are such jerks, and he’s a bit too close to my face for comfort; but he’s not aggressive and will let me handle him. I could be making a mistake in keeping him, but I can’t un-cull him later if I change my mind I’m hoping once the more aggressive guys are gone he will stop flying up to my shoulder, as it seems to be his escape tactic. I also noticed he wheezes a little, but I think that may be due to the bullying or my grasping him to remove him from my back. He shows no other signs of ill heath.

I’m hoping the processing goes smoothly and peacefully. It should be interesting as I don’t have running water or electricity here. I have as much water as I can get on hand (24 gallons/90L). My cone and plucking stations are set up, I have a propane camp chef stove for scalding, a cooler and ice for chilling. My eviscerating table is a chunk of 3/4” plywood on sawhorses covered with a garbage bag and some plastic cutting boards. Once I have finished them I will bring them down to our cold room (walk in fridge just about freezing) in the abbatoir to rest for 48 hrs before cutting and freezing.

It’s a sad night, tonight. However I know that the number of cockerels I have is not sustainable or healthy for my pullets, and this day has been coming since they hatched out. I can just hope that they have had good, happy lives to this point, I believe they have. Tomorrow night I will be removing the Barnvelder I’m keeping and my Wheatbar cockerel and putting them in with the two sapphire and younger Barnvelders in my bachelor pen. Hopefully that will go smoothly as well.

Good luck on your processing endeavors. I've been trying to sort this out in my head, myself. I wish you much success! Seems like such a daunting task of you've never done it before (which I have not).

Your barnevelder sounds like a lovely boy.

Take care.

 

[Ribh]

In about 10 or 11 hours I will be processing my excess cockerels for the first time. Most of them. Today I set my stations up, and leg banded the Barnvelder I plan on keeping, and one of my Sapphire boys (I think I will keep two of them total).

I’m a little torn as he’s the one that flies to my shoulder, much like my little pullet “Princess” does. He makes me a little uncomfortable, mostly because the others are such jerks, and he’s a bit too close to my face for comfort; but he’s not aggressive and will let me handle him. I could be making a mistake in keeping him, but I can’t un-cull him later if I change my mind I’m hoping once the more aggressive guys are gone he will stop flying up to my shoulder, as it seems to be his escape tactic. I also noticed he wheezes a little, but I think that may be due to the bullying or my grasping him to remove him from my back. He shows no other signs of ill heath.

I’m hoping the processing goes smoothly and peacefully. It should be interesting as I don’t have running water or electricity here. I have as much water as I can get on hand (24 gallons/90L). My cone and plucking stations are set up, I have a propane camp chef stove for scalding, a cooler and ice for chilling. My eviscerating table is a chunk of 3/4” plywood on sawhorses covered with a garbage bag and some plastic cutting boards. Once I have finished them I will bring them down to our cold room (walk in fridge just about freezing) in the abbatoir to rest for 48 hrs before cutting and freezing.

It’s a sad night, tonight. However I know that the number of cockerels I have is not sustainable or healthy for my pullets, and this day has been coming since they hatched out. I can just hope that they have had good, happy lives to this point, I believe they have. Tomorrow night I will be removing the Barnvelder I’m keeping and my Wheatbar cockerel and putting them in with the two sapphire and younger Barnvelders in my bachelor pen. Hopefully that will go smoothly as well.

Oh. My. I know I couldn't do this & for you to even try, kudos.

 

[aart]

Good Luck!!
First time is the hardest....gets 'easier' with some experience.
Your trepidation will be replaced with fatigue(mental and physical), joy with a calmer flock, and satisfaction of a tough chore completed by the end of the day.

I also slaughter without running water, until the last rinse and parting out, then they go to rest. Go 72 hours on the carcass resting.

 

[Wee Farmer Sarah]

Good luck Kris. I hope this goes smoothly for you.

 

[Kris5902]

So things took longer than expected this morning... as they always do. It went smoothly though. I think I will use a thinner knife next time, the skinning over the boning knife, see if that is easier for me. Tomorrow my husband is going to show me a cervical dislocation technique that kills and drains the blood into the neck area which he learned from his Grandfather (like the broomstick method but without the stick). He is ok helping, so long as I handle all the eviscerating.

We only got four done before we needed to feed the cows. This is good, as I ran into wierd Wayne at the store, and got talking chickens, and he mentioned that Jeff is in need of a good Roo thanks to an eagle attack... so two of my Barnvelder boys will be spared. We also lost an older lamb today to an eagle attack (which is rare... normally they only take newborns and ewes that are defenseless while lambing or caste).

Already the bachelor pen is much calmer, and quieter, well they aren’t fighting but Sammy is still crowing almost non-stop... hopefully that will stay true when I put the two boys I will be keeping in it from my girls and Mr Marans pen (my Rapist Wheatbar and my Barnvelder holdback) tonight.

I’m pleased to say that Mr Marans intervened in the Wheatbar’s unwelcome mating attempts twice today, and my Barnvelder boy was busy in the nestbox trying to show the girls where to lay (such a strange growling sound!). A somewhat funny thing I forgot to mention from last night, when I was catching and legbanding the boy I wanted to keep myself, it was just Mr Marans and the 3 Barnies out of the roosting box when I took out the mealworm bait. They were all so busy trying to tidbit for the ladies that were “NOT going out there this late... thank-you-very-much!” that they barely ate any at all. Mrs Marans was the only girl to finally come out, and boy did she get a feast!

 

[Ribh]

So things took longer than expected this morning... as they always do. It went smoothly though. I think I will use a thinner knife next time, the skinning over the boning knife, see if that is easier for me. Tomorrow my husband is going to show me a cervical dislocation technique that kills and drains the blood into the neck area which he learned from his Grandfather (like the broomstick method but without the stick). He is ok helping, so long as I handle all the eviscerating.

We only got four done before we needed to feed the cows. This is good, as I ran into wierd Wayne at the store, and got talking chickens, and he mentioned that Jeff is in need of a good Roo thanks to an eagle attack... so two of my Barnvelder boys will be spared. We also lost an older lamb today to an eagle attack (which is rare... normally they only take newborns and ewes that are defenseless while lambing or caste).

Already the bachelor pen is much calmer, and quieter, well they aren’t fighting but Sammy is still crowing almost non-stop... hopefully that will stay true when I put the two boys I will be keeping in it from my girls and Mr Marans pen (my Rapist Wheatbar and my Barnvelder holdback) tonight.

I’m pleased to say that Mr Marans intervened in the Wheatbar’s unwelcome mating attempts twice today, and my Barnvelder boy was busy in the nestbox trying to show the girls where to lay (such a strange growling sound!). A somewhat funny thing I forgot to mention from last night, when I was catching and legbanding the boy I wanted to keep myself, it was just Mr Marans and the 3 Barnies out of the roosting box when I took out the mealworm bait. They were all so busy trying to tidbit for the ladies that were “NOT going out there this late... thank-you-very-much!” that they barely ate any at all. Mrs Marans was the only girl to finally come out, and boy did she get a feast!

I am pleased to hear the culling went well. Sorry you lost a lamb & glad you had help with the culling. That is hard work. And 2 boys are spared! Woot!

 

[BY Bob]

He might be a problem child, but he's a very handsome problem!

I agree

 

[BY Bob]

Thanks! You and “FluffyButtAcres” inspired me to put most of my rambling in one place, lol... tomorrow is a town day for me... Saturday the ferry schedule is the most convienient, strangely, but the stores are a PITA with all the traffic. You couldn’t drag me kicking and screaming into a Walmart or grocery store... but the feed store and big box construction stores should be relatively ok! I should manage to get basically all caught up by tomorrow, I hope!

Thanks again for the support and inspiration... it’s pretty amazing to find such community worldwide we do all love our little feathered fluff heads, eh?

I am so glad I helped to inspire you to do this. I'm just sorry I did not find it until tonight. I can't wait read all the way through and catch up.