Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[gilavina]

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haha crazy turds! I am going to have to reinforce the top of my fence cause my animals think that its there to play on or just climb over to get to my plants. I love the animals, but I also love my garden! I think it will be so much better once I get started on those pens to the south...I'm gonna have a much more organized space. I'm also workin on gathering my supplies for my watering and feeding systems for out there. Its time to upgrade and make life easier!

 

[flgardengirl]

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mornin! Where did you find recipes for sausages? Did they come with the attachment or? I've never made them, but I know they would be a hit around here with everyone on my dad's side of the family. Esp with as much as we grill out here in the summer.

I got them online and just kinda tweaked them to how I wanted them lol. There are also good videos on how to make them on you tube etc. I can PM you some of the recipes I have if you want. You can copy them and paste them into your word processor or office word and then save them in your recipe folder. Thats what I do when I find recipes online.

 

[gilavina]

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mornin! Where did you find recipes for sausages? Did they come with the attachment or? I've never made them, but I know they would be a hit around here with everyone on my dad's side of the family. Esp with as much as we grill out here in the summer.

I got them online and just kinda tweaked them to how I wanted them lol. There are also good videos on how to make them on you tube etc. I can PM you some of the recipes I have if you want. You can copy them and paste them into your word processor or office word and then save them in your recipe folder. Thats what I do when I find recipes online.

sounds like a great idea if you don't mind. I looked at that attachement. That's really reasonable esp since I've already got the grinder!

 

[gilavina]

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how old are the young ones? i wish i could just come over and help you sort thru them. if it were me, since you have way better stock comin....i would grow the boys to dressing weight...won't take long and process them and hold onto the girls just to seewhat they do. if they dont look fantastic, id sell them as layers and just hold onto the original 4. i think once you get the better stock you'll see how drastically different they are. the other bonus is, that you won't be feeding extras and save expense and space for the better stock. does that make sense?

I have an abundance of growing space. But last year we had a crazy amount of grasshoppers here and they kill most of my plants... Atleast that's my excuse for having a black thumb

just kidding we do have a ton of grasshoppers I hate them! *shivers*

yeah...I really don't like grasshoppers either! We get them here, but only every once and a while are they bad enough that they destroy things. Probably helps I'm out there everyday messing in the garden. I kill any I can get my hands on. Those gardening tools coming in handy

 

[Debbi]

I just realized something as I sat down with a bowl of my chicken veggie soup. Seems like every time I have eggs hatching, I am eating chicken!

Seems a tad hypocritical, don't ya think??

 

[gilavina]

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I think I am going to live that dream for you. I put 18+ eggs in the hatcher yesterday. That made room

I have another 20+ eggs going into lockdown next Saturday. I set 4 doz yesterday and I still have space for Pinkchick's babies

. Processing, processing, processing...... nesting is going to be happening over the next few weeks to make room for all these babies. I think I am going to try to sell these first two batches to make more room. I am not going to worry if I don't. Funny... hubby is handling it very well. I think since we know how to process it is making us both feel better about the whole think.

My flexwatt will be here Monday

and the first think I am going to make are some brooder warmers.... I am going to need them

haha...glad its you and not me at this point. With my back problems last fall I am behind where i was hoping I would be by now....but when my neighbor comes this week to help me move all that dirt and compost....Its a TON of compost. I would guess enough for probably 5 or 6 truck beds easy! So, him using his bobcat will make such short work of what would probably take me a week or two to get done by hand and hauling in a garden cart inbetween everything else I have to do.
I'm hoping this hatcher will make my life easier in the planning aspect since I am doing only single matings this year. I am already planning on going to the craft store the next time I go to lincoln and buying out their plastic cross stitch mesh so I can make more of the dividers that I'll need to have enough for all the trays.

 

[MuffsnFluff]

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i'm sure we would all love to see pics of the babies!

Of course

Will do it later tonight when the mob goes to sleep

 

[flgardengirl]

Okay I will send you a bunch tonight. I am not on my own computer right now LOL! I have quite a few so will just send a good variety. We got really into the sausage thing last year and haven't done it again yet this year. I still have some of the pork kind in the freezer from when we made Chorizo.
Maybe I will do it again this spring...I will have to do something with all these roo lol. Last time I used boneless chicken and pork from the store so it was easier. This time there will be more cutting up etc. to get it bonelss if I use my own chickens lol.

The casing I used say Hog Sausage Casings (Home Pack Brand) Hog casing for traditional suasage like Italian, Polish, Bratwurst, and Chorizo. They are packed in salt so make sure to rinse them good under the facet before using them.
Look like this
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Natural-Hog-Pork-Sausage-Stuffer-Casings-Casing-Lining-/310325125571?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4840d1a1c3

You could also do summer sausage etc but I haven't done those yet. They have a different type of casing for those. I also saw sheep casings but just went with the hog.

 

[gilavina]

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i'm sure we would all love to see pics of the babies!

Of course

Will do it later tonight when the mob goes to sleep

yay! Where are you picking them up from? I've read about the cottage hill line, but never really seen a website or anything to see what the stock looks like when grown

 

[gilavina]

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hmmm...this is just out of curiosity...do you know when making the chicken ones if there is a different kind of meat you can mix with it besides pork or pork fat? I'm not a pork fan...i usually get stomach aches if I eat it, so I just try to avoid it all together.