Hi everyone! I can't believe I didn't find this thread earlier!
This is my first winter with chickens so any advice would be helpful! I have six chickens so far and I'm hoping to get 2 more asap!
Does anyone know when feed stores usually start selling chicks????
Thanks,
Lightchick
Welcome, lightchick. What part of the state are you in? You won't find Barnevelders at a feed store, but they should EEs. I had Barnies, but I sold them off this last year because I just needed to cut back. They are a really lovely breed though and VERY sweet birds. I really had a hard time separating myself from them. I do have Welsummers still and I really enjoy them too, they are quite similar in personality.
Ralphie, just give me a heads up when you are heading down. I am not too far from Dodge Center. We actually looked at a couple of farms over that way when we were moving last time. It's just a skip over to 52 to head back north, so not very far off your regular route, I am sure.
I won't have any adults, but I have started hatching. Provided I have extras after filling orders, I would be happy to send some home with you.
When I was young, I was stupid and didn't know how good dark meat really was. Now that I have a "mature" palette, I prefer dark meat. I find a pressure cooker can soften up that pasture raised meat pretty well.
I butcher our CRX at 8-weeks normally, but this last year, my daughter wanted to take the same birds to State Fair that she won with at our fair, so they went to 11-weeks. One died the night we came home from State and it was 93-degrees, and it was a pullet. The other one dressed over 8 pounds. I had a cockerel who weighed that at 8-weeks this year though. I keep them penned because that gives us what they are looking for at the shows. I use those for roasting and other chicken dishes I use the culls from the freezer. But everything gets used somehow. Very rarely do I toss a carcass that hasn't been rendered for stock, the same for turkey. You can always split those big buggers too before freezing. That is what I had them do with the biggest ones this year, it is too much even for my family of 4. Although, the last one I cooked up, my kids and husband must have been starving when it came out, there wasn't much left to put away. You'd have thought a pack of starving wolves were in the house that night!
