Michigan Thread - all are welcome!

[wannahomestead]

Butchered a couple old hens today...went pretty well considering I've only done a couple cockerels prior.
But WOW those girls pack some fat on them!! I was astounded, too bad I don't cook much.

Anyone here cook much with rendered chicken fat?

That's good stuff, don't toss it!

http://www.thekitchn.com/good-question-what-to-do-with-1-66534

http://www.sadiesalome.com/recipes/schmaltz.html

http://www.splendidtable.org/story/how-to-make-schmaltz

 

[uchytil]

How many Roos? 1. Because otherwise they have crowing contests. Lol

LOL, my roo Hobo has his own crowing contest from 330AM until the sun goes down. He's an old boy and I think he's missing a few brain cells at this point but he's a lover!

 

[aart]

Quote: I know...but I won't use it. I barely cook at all, and I eat enough chickeny things, don't want everything to taste like chicken.

 

[uchytil]

Anyone that ends up with a slew of roos (from straight run purchases) can bring them to CS and sell them to the folks that always seem to show up looking for freezer birds. Usually anyway. If they don't show up don't quote me!

 

[TreeTree411]

Anyone that ends up with a slew of roos (from straight run purchases) can bring them to CS and sell them to the folks that always seem to show up looking for freezer birds. Usually anyway. If they don't show up don't quote me!

What is CS? Where is that?

 

[wannahomestead]

What is CS? Where is that?

Chicken Stock in Lansing

 

[Opa]

This sure has been a week for large eggs. Most were extra large but I've gotten a 1/2 dozen that made me wonder how the hens were still able to walk. Eggs are graded jumbo when they exceed 71 grams. Several this week scaled between 140 and 165 grams. I guess these would be graded ginormous.

Speaking about chicken coops and the high cost of materials, I just finished costing out a 6x8 coop and materials came to $750. Of course it would be substantially better than than the flimsy coops at TSC.

 

[JackieandChicks]

The workers at the store said straight run were a mix of hens & roos and pullets were hens, so we picked only from pullet bins. We got 1 Isa Brown, 1 Black Australorp, 2 Black Jersey Giants, 2 Araucanas & 3 RIR. The Araucanas have almost no comb & all the others have a comb that is maybe an 1/8th inch.
the gray one in the back & the one more in the middle are the Araucanas


Here's the Isa Brown

And my cuddly RIR

Just so you know, you won't find aruacanas at the feed store. What you have is Easter Eggers...you will love them. False advertising and an ongoing battle to get correctly identified....

 

[OldMissionChick]

Just so you know, you won't find aruacanas at the feed store.  What you have is Easter Eggers...you will love them.  False advertising and an ongoing battle to get correctly identified....

I thought that was with Ameracanas not Araucanas. Either way they are friendly chickens the gray one has tuffs coming off her cheeks, it's cute

 

[wannahomestead]

I thought that was with Ameracanas not Araucanas. Either way they are friendly chickens the gray one has tuffs coming off her cheeks, it's cute

My "Ameracanas" (Easter eggers) hate me. They run away all the time and are super skittish. One of them seems a bit better, and I can usually get them to take a bit of feed from my hand. But if I move even the slightest bit, they bolt!

My friendliest is my RIR roo Rudy, he runs up to me everytime I'm outside. He has a buddy SAMCRO (all 3 of my black australorps are called SAMCRO because we can't really tell them apart) who usually follows along.