Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[TheFatBlueCat]

Same here. I'm trying to let them brood and control the population the same way you are, by only letting them sit on 3-4 eggs at a time. Btw, who is the "Kowalski" your rooster is named after? As soon as I read that name, a booming voice in my head screamed.... STELLLAAAAA!!!!

Hahaha, he is named after the penguins from the Madagascar movie. They were Rico, Skipper and Kowalski. I just have Skipper (hen) and Kowalski now. Rico the brother went to his own flock and from all reports is a very spoilt rooster with a doting flock owner.

Skipper and Kowalski:

 

[TheFatBlueCat]

I am hoping to hatch some more pure barred rocks this season, although I personally prefer my mixes. I have had a lot of trouble getting them to hatch, the physical egg quality is not as good as my mixed breeds and auracana hens lay. I'm unsure why this is, but they definitely hatch at lower rates. I have 3 pure barred rock hens, of which only 2 lay eggs of a quality I'm willing to set, and of those 2 hens, they still don't hatch as well as any of my blue or green eggs.

The only thing I can think of is a lot of people hatch with incubators so hatchability/egg quality wasn't selected for. I select for this trait when choosing eggs to set, and obviously natural selection comes into play, only chicks that hatch get to contribute their genes! Egg quality is a big selection factor for me, some hens lay eggs that are just better than others.

 

[TheFatBlueCat]

I am still researching the best way to go about this. I grew up on a dairy farm, I know milk cows..lol I am a fledgling learner on raising other animals, so I appreciate the input. That is interesting about the taste and texture, I suppose that I assumed that there would be differences due to the fact that they are primarily grazers, but I wonder if the difference would be disappointing? The one big thing that my English husband is looking forward to is proper bacon and sausages.

We have a few options, Berkshires, Durocs, someone is raising Berkshire/Tamworth crosses. Every site that I read, talks about how lean the meat is, in comparison, "The Prime Rib" of pork, so I would have never thought of them being lard pigs. (that is apparently not something they advertise here.)

Once you get to the meat it might be lean... under all the fat! I've not eaten kunekune in a few years and I'm not all that fond of pork in the first place. They make good sausages, and bacon. The meat has a stronger flavor, and much darker colour, almost like wild pork. Although I guess that depends on how they have been raised. How they are generally processed here is by skinning, and then removing the fat for lard, then you have the meat. They're not really a scalding pig, and you're not likely to get crackling. Unless you they're on a diet before processing day!

They are the only breed of pigs that don't make me nervous. Of all the livestock I've kept (pretty much everything), pigs are the only animals I'm never at ease with. I think it's because they are so big, and so intelligent, and don't respond to herding cues like horses, cattle, goats and sheep do. Kunekunes are not like that at all. They're just lovely.

 

[fuzzi]

My goodness, sounds like the rainforest here.

I'm in USDA Zone 8a...we have on average 48" of rain annually, a very long growing season, and it's very humid. Our first frost is usually around November 1st, last frost date is usually around April 1st, or seven months of frost-free gardening.

 

[MrsNorthie]

Once you get to the meat it might be lean... under all the fat! I've not eaten kunekune in a few years and I'm not all that fond of pork in the first place. They make good sausages, and bacon. The meat has a stronger flavor, and much darker colour, almost like wild pork. Although I guess that depends on how they have been raised. How they are generally processed here is by skinning, and then removing the fat for lard, then you have the meat. They're not really a scalding pig, and you're not likely to get crackling. Unless you they're on a diet before processing day!

They are the only breed of pigs that don't make me nervous. Of all the livestock I've kept (pretty much everything), pigs are the only animals I'm never at ease with. I think it's because they are so big, and so intelligent, and don't respond to herding cues like horses, cattle, goats and sheep do. Kunekunes are not like that at all. They're just lovely.

I have heard that most pig breeds can be quite ornery and dangerous, if you are not paying attention, but that Kunekunes make great pets as well, because they are sweethearts, but I think my husband just started crying over the "no crackling" comment..lol. I am pretty convinced that they are the way to go.

 

[MrsNorthie]

I'm in USDA Zone 8a...we have on average 48" of rain annually, a very long growing season, and it's very humid. Our first frost is usually around November 1st, last frost date is usually around April 1st, or seven months of frost-free gardening.

We are going to build poly tunnels for our raised bed and try to grow through the winter. Where I am I think we are 8a as well, but we don't usually get a real frost until December or January. November is still pretty warm.

 

[TheFatBlueCat]

The political climate has changed a lot since I've been here. When I arrived in 2015, the country was very stable and on an economic upswing under then President Rafael Correa. But he had already served ten years and couldn't run again. The two administrations after that have been utterly abysmal and driven the country to the state it's in now. But the thing is -- in Latin America -- politics is much more participatory and changeable. When people stage protests and uprisings, it really means something and changes things. Very different from the stagnant two party system in the US, the rule by corporations Dems and the rule by military spending Republicans.

I could go on about this, but it's super off topic. I wrote an article that many people appreciated about the protests in 2022 and the political history of the last few decades here in Ecuador, especially the influence of the powerful Indigenous Confederation CONAIE. Here is the link if you or your husband would like to read it.

https://www.sdvforest.com/sustainab...-want-a-revolution-this-is-what-it-looks-like

I'm working my way through your article now, very interesting. I've subscribed to your YouTube channel too, I look forward to watching some videos this evening.

 

[Ladies-Eight]

I've been a solitary person most of my life; less so now I'm living in a city in the UK but I'm working on that.
For the ten years I lived in Catalonia I spoke less in a year than some do in a day to members of my species at least. We had an appartment there plus spare rooms in the main house and we used to have people come to enjoy the countryside etc on a regular basis, mostly well educated reasonably affluent city people.
I often got asked what I did out there on the land day after day. Didn't I get bored, or lonely or want to go out to the numerous dinners and social events in the area, were common questions.
Some of these guest would eventually find their way around the back of the main house and come accross my house buried in the mountainside. The door was always open from dawn to dark and I caught a few peeking in through the windows and door.
Sometimes I would be coming along the track from being out on the land and one of these guest would come rushing up to me saying some chickens had gone into my house but they didn't know how to stop them.
I would bring these people into the house and show them a scene like this.
View attachment 3595914

For most, that was quite enough and I immediately got dropped into the he's a nutter bag.
Many of these people would wax lyrical about how they loved the countryside and they would head off to run in the mountains with their music players and ear buds and hi tech training gear, or rent a quad or a track bike and tear around the place disturbing the peace and seeing nothing.
Occasionally someone would rent the appartment who was different and they would ask to spend a day with me out on the small holding. I even had a couple working.

I like nice things. I even enjoy the occasional night out. Given the choice I would rather look at scenes like these and have just enough to survive, rather than lots of money and be out being entertained by and with people.

Apart from what tend to be quite expensive clothing that actually works at keeping the cold and wet out in the UK I have one luxury and that's my stereo system. I listen to it most days and would struggle if I had to do without it. I suppose I should include my computers, although they are cheap low powered fanless units.
My technology regret is I didn't have a camera for many years and only have my memories of the chickens that have come and gone in my life prior to getting the camera I have.
View attachment 3595918View attachment 3595919View attachment 3595920

Beautiful pictures.

 

[Ladies-Eight]

Of course not. Thank you for speaking up. Many of us do the best we can with limited choices. I have broody-raised farmyard mixes because that's pretty much what's available here. I couldn't find a proper breed in back of the beyond Ecuador to save my life, unless I wanted a fighting cock. What folks call "razas" (breeds, or "races") are really just recurrent genetic traits like short legs (a "Patucha"), a featherless neck ("carrioca") or "chirapa" (frizzle). As far as the locals care, there are two kinds of "razas" -- "ponedoras" which are good egg layers and everyone else, "por la sopita" -- for the soup. An exceptionally plump bird is called a "caldito" or "stewpot." That's basically it. When a broody hatches, you get whatever comes out. So given my keeping circumstances, naturally I find the shopping for labels at the chicken outlet mall craze a bit strange.

Lots to mull over in the rest of your post, but all I can say right now, is the reasons you cogently give for moving towards self sufficiency are many of the same for why I left the States altogether. I'm 49, had been working since I was 16, and saw no future for myself as the cost of living continued to escalate and my income stayed pretty much the same. I had no kids, and am mostly estranged from my mostly bonkers family. Now I live here. It's a ton of work, and in many ways also precarious as "living in nature" and being at the mercy of the elements are really the same thing. But right now the birds are trilling, the chickens chattering, and the sun is burning off the morning mist. There are worse things, and I'm grateful for this.

Found this interesting mushroom this morning. They spring up outside the kitchen. In about fifteen minutes, it will dissolve.
View attachment 3595941

What type of mushroom is it?

 

[Ladies-Eight]

LOL That is why my marriage works so well, we don't have to be constantly talking at each other, we can be content in silence, together..lol I do talk to the dogs and chickens like they are my children though. I am just not a social butterfly.

There are lots of us who are not social butterflies.

I am like a hermit, don't bother me, don't try to take me out, and just leave me alone.

I don't have to dress up in Florida, as I wear shorts all the time.