TeaChick's Chicks

[TeaChick]

Awe, sad! I hope they stop dying! Chicken and dumplings sounds delish! I made fried chicken, jo-jos and onion rings from scratch for dinner. My back is killing me but it sure was yummy!

Yeah. The cool off hasn't really happened here yet, so I haven't made it. Maybe tomorrow; it's raining today so it should cool down tomorrow, at least enough to be able to run the Crock-Pot w/o turning the house into a sauna. lol

Yeah, that sounds great! What are jo-jos? I've never heard of those/that.
We've made onion rings from scratch before too; it's well worth the labor involved!!! My back used to hurt after frying dinner for six ppl, but my DDs do the cooking now, so my back doesn't bother me as much anymore. I'm so thankful for them! =)

Take care, Hon!
Thanks for replying to my thread.
Thanks for the sympathy; I don't expect them to keep dropping dead like that, but I guess ya never know.

 

[OnlyOrps]

Yeah.  The cool off hasn't really happened here yet, so I haven't made it.  Maybe tomorrow; it's raining today so it should cool down tomorrow, at least enough to be able to run the Crock-Pot w/o turning the house into a sauna. lol

Yeah, that sounds great!  What are jo-jos?  I've never heard of those/that.
We've made onion rings from scratch before too; it's well worth the labor involved!!!  My back used to hurt after frying dinner for six ppl, but my DDs do the cooking now, so my back doesn't bother me as much anymore.  I'm so thankful for them! =)

Take care, Hon!
Thanks for replying to my thread.
Thanks for the sympathy; I don't expect them to keep dropping dead like that, but I guess ya never know.

Jo-jos are just like french fries except they are wedges and the skin is left on. I am addicted to home made onion rings. Lucky you having help in the kitchen! I hope everyone stays happy and healthy! I love following your thread! Thanks for following mine also!

 

[TeaChick]

Jo-jos are just like french fries except they are wedges and the skin is left on. I am addicted to home made onion rings. Lucky you having help in the kitchen! I hope everyone stays happy and healthy! I love following your thread! Thanks for following mine also!

Oh, we call those potato wedges or steak fries. But I like Jo-jos better.

I'm not that big on onions (never have been), but onion rings are great, especially homemade! Thankfully, I don't have the time or money to make them all the time (otherwise I'd be as big as a house).

Yeah, I'm really thankful for my girls. DH is teaching them how to cook b/c he can cook and nobody likes the food I cook, but not cooking frees me up to do other things, like having more chickens.

Thanks! I hope you and yours are happy and healthy too!

I'm glad you enjoy my thread. I follow your thread b/c I enjoy it, so no need to thank me.

 

[OnlyOrps]

Oh, we call those potato wedges or steak fries.  But I like Jo-jos better.
I'm not that big on onions (never have been), but onion rings are great, especially homemade!  Thankfully, I don't have the time or money to make them all the time (otherwise I'd be as big as a house).
Yeah, I'm really thankful for my girls.  DH is teaching them how to cook b/c he can cook and nobody likes the food I cook, but not cooking frees me up to do other things, like having more chickens.


Thanks!  I hope you and yours are happy and healthy too!
I'm glad you enjoy my thread.  I follow your thread b/c I enjoy it, so no need to thank me.

I made onion infused ranch burgers and homemade onion rings for dinner last night. It's relatively cheap. The breading is just flour, cornstarch and whatever seasonings you like with egg to dredge the onions in. One large onion will make 2 or 3 servings and it's a great way to burn through onions if they start going bad lol I buy my veggie oil in bulk. I fry a lot! Luckily I don't really gain weight. I don't lose any either but I can eat what I like and the farm keeps me at a comfortable weight lol. I try to justify it by saying it's healthier to make it from scratch than to buy fast food lol

 

[TeaChick]

I made onion infused ranch burgers and homemade onion rings for dinner last night. It's relatively cheap. The breading is just flour, cornstarch and whatever seasonings you like with egg to dredge the onions in. One large onion will make 2 or 3 servings and it's a great way to burn through onions if they start going bad lol I buy my veggie oil in bulk. I fry a lot! Luckily I don't really gain weight. I don't lose any either but I can eat what I like and the farm keeps me at a comfortable weight lol. I try to justify it by saying it's healthier to make it from scratch than to buy fast food lol

That sounds yummy!
I made that Chicken & Dumplings; it was delicious. (good recipe lol)
Yeah, I've got a lot of work to do online and my kids help me with the animals and the garden, so I'm not getting as much exercise as I should. But I'm working on that. =)

 

[OnlyOrps]

That sounds yummy!
I made that Chicken & Dumplings; it was delicious. (good recipe lol)
Yeah, I've got a lot of work to do online and my kids help me with the animals and the garden, so I'm not getting as much exercise as I should.  But I'm working on that. =)

I can hardly get anything done, hubby does it all before I get a chance lol but I enjoy walking the land and I maintain the animals at least. I just made chicken and dumplings casserole the other day. Yum!

 

[TeaChick]

I can hardly get anything done, hubby does it all before I get a chance lol but I enjoy walking the land and I maintain the animals at least. I just made chicken and dumplings casserole the other day. Yum!

I need to get a hubby like that! lol Do you sell training manuals or did he come that way? hahaha
Yeah, DH and I walk around the yard and sometimes a little into the "woods". We only have almost 2 acres, but it's big enough for us and the kids and the chickens, and maybe a cow and a sheep one day. Well, now I'm just daydreaming. lol
It's delicious, huh? How do you do your dumplings? Are they little and in the stew or are they like steamed biscuits on top?

 

[TeaChick]

So, here's another update =)

All twelve NH pullets laid for me last week!!! I'm super EGG-cited about that (I know that's old, but I like it so I use it whenever I can, and yes, I laugh out loud when I type it). Anyway, I'm getting 8-10 eggs out of them pretty consistently (never less than 8, anyway). They're laying faster than we're eating (and that's w/ DH having eggs for b-fast, he and the kids have them for lunch, and I have them occasionally for lunch, and then we bake, and we eat about a dozen on Sunday morning for family b-fast). Since they're laying faster than we're eating, I'm saving up for when I start letting them brood. I'll have to start putting some in the fridge instead of stacking them all on top of it.

I butchered 2 of my four cockerels week before last. I made chicken and dumplings (I make the dumplings like steamed biscuits on top of the stew) and it was delicious!!! I credit the Joy of Cooking with my success as I'm not that good a cook on my own. lol Anyway, I'm looking forward to the next one. We have found that putting the males that have already started crowing into a gallon bag with a brine overnight (at least, preferably for 24 hours) they come out super tender and very flavorful, not broth-flavored like from the store; they taste like...chicken. Mmmm

I have lost a couple of chicks. I finally stopped losing NH chicks. I currently have ten of the twelve Red Layer "pullets" that I got back in February. Two of them are cockerels, but that's not bad odds on sexed birds that we've bought. So I'm not complaining and I'm not letting DH complain either (even though he's a yankee). Anyway, they'll taste good; I'm planning on butchering them sometime around...IDK, May, I'm thinking?

I have a cockerel that I hatched. He was one of the two chicks that hatched in December. I set those eggs b/c I hatched out one chick in November (Golden Nugget) and she really needed a flock. Anyway, it looked like they were both cockerels. One of them got ill and died this month.
March has not been a good month for keeping chicks alive. =( But it looks like everyone is out of the woods.

Oh, back to the NHs. I'm planning on letting the girls start keeping eggs to brood beginning April 10th, b/c that will be four weeks after I had processed the two cockerels I don't want to perpetuate the genetics of. I'm hoping to begin a breeding program late this summer. I'm going to start working with what I've got and see where that gets me, and then...we'll see. One thing I want to do is see what's going on with broodiness in my pullets.

So, the Red Layers are permanently moved into the pallet coop. I'm about to put the NH chicks and the Cochin chicks in a brooder inside the NH coop; that's going to be the safest place for broodies and those are the only two broody breeds I have, so it will be easier for me and safer for them if they all live in the same coop. The Polish are getting big; as soon as the Red Layers are sleeping on the roost at night, I'm going to put the rare breeds into the pallet coop in a nesting box or semi-open brooder. Then my brooders will be empty and I guess I'll have to get an incubator, or maybe by then, the NHs will have gone broody and I'll have babies anyway. One can hope. =)

Well, as always, I'm interested in what everyone thinks and has to say!
And, as always,
take care of each other, and yourselves!!!

 

[OnlyOrps]

I need to get a hubby like that! lol  Do you sell training manuals or did he come that way?  hahaha
Yeah, DH and I walk around the yard and sometimes a little into the "woods".  We only have almost 2 acres, but it's big enough for us and the kids and the chickens, and maybe a cow and a sheep one day.  Well, now I'm just daydreaming. lol
It's delicious, huh?  How do you do your dumplings?  Are they little and in the stew or are they like steamed biscuits on top?

He came this way and I thank my lucky stars to have him. I've met a lot of losers in my time. He is so efficient, engineering and best of all supportive. He loves to make me happy and I just do my best to return the favor. Being preggers I am pretty much stuck in the kitchen when it comes to paying him back. I love to cook so I have been doing that while he whips this farm back into shape. It was well neglected before we moved here but it's already looking like a new place. I made it with the biscuits on top. It wasn't bad but not my best lol

 

[TeaChick]

He came this way and I thank my lucky stars to have him. I've met a lot of losers in my time. He is so efficient, engineering and best of all supportive. He loves to make me happy and I just do my best to return the favor. Being preggers I am pretty much stuck in the kitchen when it comes to paying him back. I love to cook so I have been doing that while he whips this farm back into shape. It was well neglected before we moved here but it's already looking like a new place. I made it with the biscuits on top. It wasn't bad but not my best lol

Wow!!! Hold on to that one! Mine loves me with all his heart (and all his idiosyncracies too lol). He does his best to please me, but teaching him how to please me has taken a lot of time.

Congrats on being preggers!!!! I hated being pregnant, but I loved it when my babies came out and I got to hug and kiss and hold and look at and nurse them, and then I wanted them to go right back in so I knew they were safe. lol I have four (two are teens; that's a mixed blessing). Is this your first?

Yeah, I enjoy baking so much (and so often and so deeply). That's how DH and I got to be so overweight. lol

That sounds like the kind of project I'd like to do!

=)