Processing Day Support Group ~ HELP us through the Emotions PLEASE!

[chicken pickin]

I did bottled hot sauce. I used the 17.5 oz bottle of Texas Pete Buffalo Wing Sauce. For us one whole chicken makes 2 large pizzas.

 

[Arielle]

I did bottled hot sauce. I used the 17.5 oz bottle of Texas Pete Buffalo Wing Sauce. For us one whole chicken makes 2 large pizzas.

Yummy !! SO many bottled hot sauces on the market I never know which to pick. Is it very hot??

 

[chicken pickin]

Yummy !!  SO many bottled hot sauces on the market I never know which to pick. Is it very hot??

I'm probably the wrong person to ask because I like everything super hot so most things taste mildly hot to me. So that is how I would describe it, mildly hot. My kids who also like hot food said tonight's pizza was HOT like burning mouth hot lol but they said it was really good.

 

[Arielle]

Quote:

A perfect answer to my question. I can cut the heat by using less or adding a tomato based sauce to dilute the heat. I have one child sensative to the heat . ... . .he just cant take the heat. lol

 

[Double Kindness]

Well, I have a little 7 week old slw that can't walk, so I might need to process her soon, and a 16 month old hen has been off her lay 7 weeks now.. so she might be looking at freezer camp too. I think I might try to wait until I try to caponize the first time and do the slw then too in case of any losses.

It's sad, as the slw is so sweet, but obviously the runt. She's far smaller/lighter than her littermates. So how to go about this in the best mindset?

 

[frillydishes]

Well, I have a little 7 week old slw that can't walk, so I might need to process her soon, and a 16 month old hen has been off her lay 7 weeks now.. so she might be looking at freezer camp too. I think I might try to wait until I try to caponize the first time and do the slw then too in case of any losses.

It's sad, as the slw is so sweet, but obviously the runt. She's far smaller/lighter than her littermates. So how to go about this in the best mindset?

I tend to leave 7 or so ladies as my layers and they live out a pretty fantastic life and, because they're around longer, it's always much harder to bleed them. All their babies go to the killing cone but the process is a little different for them. I separate them the day before, and give them as many fresh meal worms as they want. I know they'll have full gullets but I don't mind a little inconvenience on my part when they've given so much. The girls that didn't mind being held I would wrap up in a towel and hold them between my legs to make the cut. Some get freaked out even more by the human contact and those take a team effort. My husband will pick them up and put them under his arm and I'll make the cut just as quick as I can then they go to the cone to bleed. What it all boils down to is there are always going to be a select few that in your mind deserve a little special treatment and making just a few small changes to the typical process may help you sleep at night. My layers also have a special spot in the freezer and usually go to make meals we don't get often like chunk chicken stew or overnight chicken tacos...aka meals where I cook the chicken longer.

 

[Double Kindness]

I have 10 in my laying flock with 1 being a sweet 13 month old rooster and my pullets just starting to get into their lay. My oldest hen is 16 months old or so and she's been off her lay quite a while now, but I'll give it another couple of months before deciding if she needs to go to freezer camp.

I have 26 6-8 week old dp straight run chicks that are all destined for freezer camp.

And 6 3 week or younger chicks that are ayam cemani and 2 of them are ayam cemani with an orpington daddy I call haffies. I suspect at least 3 of these to be roosters too, but I think 2 are cemani (roosters) and I might cross them onto the 12 white bresse chicks I'm expecting in less than 2 weeks along with 6 more ayam cemani chicks. I plan on breeding with my best ayam cemani and the best white bresse, they will rotate out between the girls I think. As another member on byc had a fibromelanistic (fm) roo over regular non fm hens and got auto sexing fm pullets and bigger meat carcass, which is where I might go on my meatie projects, along with purebreed white bresse and purebreed ayam cemani, the culls obviously will get eaten.

To warm up to raising my own meat chickens I got 27 chicks at the feed store for about .80 each 4 weeks ago today. I lost one to one of my dogs. And now the 1 that can't walk to practice caponizing and processing before we have to do it on my more expensive ayam cemani and bresse chickens. I'm learning a lot! Thank you all at byc for so much help and information!

My bf is still sleeping in, my little ee Gertrude laid her egg already this morning and I hear more egg songs right now. I gotta get the feed fermented, and find a post hole digger to borrow to put up more hardware cloth to enclose the dp meatie run, they're growing so fast, they need more room to romp and get my raised beds ready for spring planting. Get my chickens to earn their keep!

 

[Tomtommom]

Part of the reason I did not eat any of the first 3 birds I purchased was because my kids made them into pets. We dont eat our pets. I really suggest that you keep all these as breeder birds, then hatch out the first eggs next spring and grow them up for 8 weeks and test those. It took me a few tries to get my cleaning techniques down pat so I has happy with the speed and the out come. THe first few were a challenge and I had to learn what worked for me. A lot of crew ups. One bird was not enough to learn how to do this. OTherwise I already knew I loved duck!!

That makes sense. Poor hubby will be shaking his head at me. Although he was already talking about "when the ducks hatch babies" as I talked them up as prolific breeders.

They're so quiet and unassuming, you hardly know they're there. I wish they were a little tamer, right now they wont even come out to graze

May have to sprout fodder for them.

 

[Arielle]

Tomtommom-- hmm. Not sure what to suggest. My 3 older birds act like they owne the place and harass even the tom turkeys , pulling out tail feathers as they waddle along chasing the toms. Perhaps they need a little encouragement to get out on the grass. Can you fence a small area to show them the idea??

THe benefit of broodies is that the mothers showed the 14-15 ducklings around for the day and returned to her coop at night. She did all the work. BUt initially I had to show the first birds the outdoors ( brooded in the house ), then in the morning I just left the door open and they made their way out to the porch and yonder. Not ideal giventhe amt of poo they left onthe porch but it was a beginning. lol

 

[Happy Chooks]

Well, I have a little 7 week old slw that can't walk, so I might need to process her soon, and a 16 month old hen has been off her lay 7 weeks now.. so she might be looking at freezer camp too. I think I might try to wait until I try to caponize the first time and do the slw then too in case of any losses.

It's sad, as the slw is so sweet, but obviously the runt. She's far smaller/lighter than her littermates. So how to go about this in the best mindset?

Your 16 month old hen might be going into molt. With decreasing daylight and her age, she should molt this fall. They cannot molt and still lay eggs, as they need all of their protein stores to grow in new feathers.