NY chicken lover!!!!

[Gramma Chick]

Quote:
Well We have 2 less chickens ...

One had a accident yesterday ...it got hit by something coming out of the lawn mower ..They follow my husband when he mows ...he mows with the guard up ...Not a good idea for either one .
I am still somewhat traumatized by the accident ...she died in my arms .& our 1st butcher .
I thought it was my favorite hen at 1st ..she tends to always get in the way ..if I am weeding Im sometimes stepping on her .
As we were going to process that one ...we culled another one ..that we had on the cull list for a while .
My son chopped off the head after she was hung up side down .
Put them in boiling water so we could pluck feathers off . It wasnt hard to pull most of them out but the feathers kept sticking to your fingers
I did the processing ...Ive cut up whole chicken from the store ..never gutted them though .
I found eggs of different sizes ( yolks ) in both of them ... it had to be done quickly as it got dark .
I would have like to take my time & look inside ..however this was not planned .
We have them in the frig for now ...others have said let them set for a few days ?

 

[Gramma Chick]

If it rains anymore, I'm going out and planting rice! The wet and mosquitoes are killing me.

we are Mosquito Foder at our house too...though it has been a liittle better these last few days except for the woods ..they are nasty in there

 

[Gramma Chick]

Amy Belle ...Anyone else heard of her ? Beautiful Voice !
She mentions a rooster in this one

 

[pharmchickrnmom]

Morning all! Its raining....still raining. Seems the heaviest rain has been down below us. Lots of flooding and road closures so far. Cheeps are most unhappy with all this rain. It also means I have to be diligent above the resurgance of mites in this damp dreary weather. Butts will be checked daily as well as coops inspected.

This morning I found both Eowyn and Arwin in the nest box with the babies. I guess Arwin has either gone broody or wants to co-mommy the chicks. At least Eowyn has been smart enough to keep the babies inside the coop out of the rain.

Rancher-- I usually let my birds sit a few days in the fridge before moving them on to freezer camp. All the reading I have done and people I have talked to have suggested that letting the meat rest before freezing is best.

Stay dry and safe everyone. I hope no one gets flooded out. I am home on pump duty and hoping for the best.

 

[ChickPrincess]

we are Mosquito Foder at our house too...though it has been a liittle better these last few days except for the woods ..they are nasty in there

I went around the house yesterday and dumped anything with standing water in it. They say it helps anyway.

 

[marquisella]

Quote: Any fly spray like for horses. It won't kill any eggs, but will deter flies from laying there.

 

[rancher hicks]

Pharm - thanks for the info. They say do one thing that scares you or something like that and gutting a chicken is one of them for me. I don't faint at the sight of blood, but guts and all that aren't appealing. What with all the chicks being born it's a pain to have to find homes for the roosters. The plan is to let the grow and then do them in the fall.

Chicks - I have tubs of water for the chickens and put AVC in it, will that prevent mosquito larvae from living in it? . I do change it on occasion.

On the chick front. I noticed one of the Del chicks or del looking chicks is a frizzle. I am hoping for a few more frizzles as I like them. If I get enough hens I may put one or two in each coop just for fun.

Buckwheat must be the mom. She's Frenchy's and a CM daughter. She used to lay, med. slightly darker and smoother eggs. Now they are just smoother which is how I could tell they were her eggs. I think there may be more of hers running around.


I've hay coming today so that means removing last years bales to the compost. I love bartering.

Well take care,

Rancher

 

[marquisella]

Quote: You can do one of 2 things. Either let them sit out for 3 days in the refrigerator beforefreezing, or freeze them immediately and then, let thaw out in the freezer for 3 days. Either way, it takes 3 days for the rigor to go out of the meat. I usually let them sit for the 3 days and then freeze. I'm afraid that I'd forget to let them sit for 3 days after thawing by the time I use them.

 

[marquisella]

Well, sadly, I think I did my two remaining eggs in. I put them in the incubator since Blondie was done sitting. I got the temp up to 95, and was afraid to turn it up before bed for fear of it going too high. Got up the next morning and the temp had skyrocketed to 105.
I could kick myself, because I have a $115 Ranco temp controller and I never even thought to use it. It would have shut it down over whatever temp you set it for. I used to use it with the gecko eggs. I just never thought to use it for chicken eggs. DUH!
The eggs are not salvageable, right?

The show yesterday was AWESOME. Three Brothers Wineries is a great place and even though it poured half the day, the place was managed well and everyone had a wonderful time. As a vendor, they were superb hosts. My best show yet.

What do you sell?

 

[Lynzi777]

Morning All,
I'm back from my little vaca and kid free!! They wanted to stay with the grandparents until Thursday since thats when everyone is coming up here to celebrate birthdays. It'll be nice to get things done around here without any interruptions, arguing, yelling, crying, etc. Boy do I need a break from that!

Everything is still alive and kickin so hubby did a good job of taking care of everything. Chicks are starting to feather out, bunnies are soooo adorable, I don't know how I'm going to part with them. Ducks are looking beautiful. Came back to that witchy BR being broody and in the nest box sitting on about 8-9 eggs. I'm sure more than half are NOT fertile. Not sure what I'm going to do about that - if I'll let her sit on them or not. I have a dozen that I'm going to put in my incubator (again, I'll be surprised if at least 4 are fertile) These will be BO and BR eggs so I'm not sure who Duncan has gotten a hold of. Getting my bator ready. Trying to get the humidity where it should be. Once it's there these are eggs are going on.

Funny I was talking to my husband last night while we were out on the porch, we started talking about the ducks and he says "The ducks are so much better than the chickens" And I said, Yea, I know. If I had started with ducks I don't know that I would have ever added chickens. Then he says And they're definitely less messy than the chickens too! I just laughed and agreed saying, Yea it's funny, everyone says "ducks are so messy" and the only time they were messy was when they were in the brooder. Maybe people who have them and say they're messy don't let them free range...Thats the only time I would find them to be messy. So now that I've had them a while and they're grown, I do have to say that I love the ducks more. And they are NOT messy once they're out free ranging every day. I see more chicken poop in my yard than anything else.

I popped on my phone from time to time while I was away to get some reading in on here, skimmed thru most of the postings but know I'm not going to remember everything I read. I hope everyone had a lovely weekend. I can't get over all this rain we're still getting. Can we please just have one nice day, no humidity, no clouds, just beautiful sun?!?