Pennsylvania!! Unite!!

Looks like we'll be butchering some extra boys today. I have 10 seperated and waiting. I always hate butchering day but it needs to be done. Most of them are legbars that didn't make the breeding cut so there's going to be some skinny cockerel soup. At least the flock will be a little calmer with fewer rambunctious boys in it. There's still probably 25 or so more extra boys that will need to be butchered but they still have another month or so, at least, to grow.

The rest of the flock is angry at the moment because I won't let them out to free range until we're done. It was quite a battle getting their food and water in to them without them getting out lol. I did let out the smallest ones to roam so they wouldn't get trampled and beat up being stuck in there.

In other news, we spent the weekend hanging out at the beach. It was so wonderful but a weekend was nowhere near long enough. Here's some pictures :)

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Wondered where you got to, glad you got a break, even if it was a short one.
We processed 7 extra cockerels last evening, now we can move the grow out pen and refill it with the next round of youngsters....with broodies hatching almost weekly there is never a shortage of hormonal cockerels needing separate housing!


:hugs   Just think, fewer mouths to feed and at least you do get soup.
I got very happy about fifteen minutes ago. I forgot to get meat out of the freezer last night, and really want enchiladas. I grabbed some chicken, thinking I would just wait until tomorrow. Then I remembered that I had canned some chicken! :celebrate


Canning our extra birds was the best thing we ever started doing! It is great to just grab a jar for quick and simple meals!
 
Didn't mean to go MIA again. I've had a really hard time keeping up here this summer. Popping in to say that hubs embarked on a new project... Pheasants! We have 3 boys and 5 girls, I'm not sure exactly how old they are... not fully mature yet, but old enough to not need supplemental heat. We have them in the chicken tractor for now, but I think the plan is to move them into the turkey pen and process the two turkey hens.

I just moved some chickens into the main coop last night and I hope they go back in the coop tonight instead of trying to sleep in the rose of Sharon bush. I lost two of my older layers the other night to a coyote (I think) because the roost in the coop fell down so the chickens were sleeping in the tree. A coyote can jump a 5 ft fence, right? I felt so bad... and the neighbor across the street heard it all go down because she was on her porch outside. There were hardly any feathers in the run, but two chickens were gone and she heard chickens 'screaming' around 2am. :(
 
Didn't mean to go MIA again. I've had a really hard time keeping up here this summer. Popping in to say that hubs embarked on a new project... Pheasants! We have 3 boys and 5 girls, I'm not sure exactly how old they are... not fully mature yet, but old enough to not need supplemental heat. We have them in the chicken tractor for now, but I think the plan is to move them into the turkey pen and process the two turkey hens.

I just moved some chickens into the main coop last night and I hope they go back in the coop tonight instead of trying to sleep in the rose of Sharon bush. I lost two of my older layers the other night to a coyote (I think) because the roost in the coop fell down so the chickens were sleeping in the tree. A coyote can jump a 5 ft fence, right? I felt so bad... and the neighbor across the street heard it all go down because she was on her porch outside. There were hardly any feathers in the run, but two chickens were gone and she heard chickens 'screaming' around 2am. :(

Sorry to hear Emore, predators are a PIA....glad I don't have any coyotes near me....and a fox can jump a 5' fence also.....
 
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Good afternoon all:

Came home from work to find one of my 6mos CCL girls dead in the pen....she wasn't acting quite right yesterday afternoon but was out in the pen in the am drinking from the bowl....well she never was quite right...she was drastically undersized and had her tail feather bent down alll the time....sad to lose her but it is what it is.....
 
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A beautiful Glad from the neglected side of my yard. :D

Very nice.

Good afternoon all:

Came home from work to find one of my 6mos CCL girls dead in the pen....she wasn't acting quite right yesterday afternoon but was out in the pen in the am drinking from the bowl....well she never was quite right...she was drastically undersized and had her tail feather bent down alll the time....sad to lose her but it is what it is.....

:hugs
 
okay, so I finally get to literally "put my feet up", don't know what is going on NOW...gosh, this body is falling apart!:old ..hahaha Know I have been hard-charging it way too much...need to slow down for a bit. We put the remainder of the peaches in the extra fridge so that we might actually get a little break. Slows down their ripening a bit, we had them in our heated porch, it is obviously that best place to have them if you want them to ripen in a day or two :th ....yeah, need a break. We went out to harvest the cabbage and I guess that's what we needed to do to get some rain around here...got soaked , but the cabbage looked great. there a couple left in the bed that need a little more time. had trouble getting them into the crisper, had to use the door space too!..hahaha they went in the fridge too. would LOVE to try to make sauerkraut again...last year I tried to make some, I didn't give it the attention it needed. had to toss it..hated to doing that. Does anyone have experience in making it?...and would like to share their knowledge?...I have looked online, pinterest...of course;) , there are different ways of going about it, was just curious what works for some of you. canned up the bean salad and some of the peaches that HAD to have something done with them. Beans: 5-quart, 7-pint & 2- 1/2 pint Peaches: 3-quart, 1- pint & 1- 1/2 pint The first batch of peaches I canned didn't have any lift at the bottom. I tried to pack these in the same manner, don't know what the deal is here..?? why did they lift?...I don't like seeing that..:/ ...I know it's all about the taste. And who doesn't love sunflowers?!:love This years flowers aren't as tall, the heads aren't as large and for the amount of seeds I did sow, the plants just don't seem to be as hardy..over-all. I had collected the seeds from last years, so I don't have to buy them, same with the marigolds...maybe it was lack of rain...:idunno , I don't know. There are a numbers of issues this year that we have been dealing with that, honestly, were never an issue before or at least not as much of one as they are now. ..always something to learn from that is for sure!! Took a look at the brussels...they have extremely tiny buds started...we have grown them before, maybe it's just me, but they are taking forever to produce anything. Anyone else having "growing pains" this year??
we must have just got our garden in really late. The tomatos are coming in nice, but none really ripe. The cabbage, Brussel sprouts, broccoli and califlower are still really small. My sunflowers are probably only about 3 ft tall and they are suppose to get to 10 to 12ft. I hope everything still turns out.
 

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