The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[aoxa]

Thanks this is why I ask.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/444529/experiment-washed-vs-unwashed

Very interesting!

I did a similar experiment in the beginning of my incubation experience. I didn't notice a difference on either side. They were pretty even (washed vs unwashed).

 

[aoxa]

YOU ALL THAT ARE WEST OF ME, KEEP YOUR RAIN AND SNOW. IT USUALLY GETS ME THE NEXT DAY!!!!!!

I took a few pic's of the newest kid's last night. The colors aren't 100% accurate but I'm still surprised due to the hen and roo. Any idea's on the color of the 2nd (yellow chick)? I have 2 EE's in the bunch plus my BCM. Mumsy, I'm also so over hatching. I still have the poults to hatch in just over 3 weeks.

Your silkie chick - could turn out any colour. I've had them look like this and turn out buff, a few looked calico and a few looked splash when fully feathered.



I promised early pictures of the frizzling.

1 week above


9 days

 

[delisha]

My duck eggs are pretty clean. I must have well trained ducks. They spend a lot of time in the water so that might be why too. The hen that is setting a nest of 5 eggs has all clean ones. It also might be that my nests are stuffed with straw too and I do not open the nests until I see an egg somewhere. Ducks do poo in nests until they are seriously broody.

Cute chicks..love the frizzzel

 

[aoxa]

My duck eggs are pretty clean. I must have well trained ducks. They spend a lot of time in the water so that might be why too. The hen that is setting a nest of 5 eggs has all clean ones. It also might be that my nests are stuffed with straw too and I do not open the nests until I see an egg somewhere. Ducks do poo in nests until they are seriously broody.

See my ducks always laid their eggs by the pop door and they were full of poo. We always broke them open and fed right back to the birds. I just felt gross about it. Macy the muscovy was really clean. She had a hidden nest any time she was laying. I never tried to hatch her eggs though..

The duck eggs I have now. I have no idea why they were so dirty, but they all looked like this:


Most being closer to the dirtiest eggs in this picture. lol

 

[Leahs Mom]

Me too!!!!! Have you ever tried Romaine lettuce leaves as a bun? Works pretty well when you're avoiding your fiance's gluten free bread

Quote:

 

[delisha]

Yes..those are pretty dirty. I would probably wash those too.

 

[kian]

My husband was gluten free for a while. The breads never worked (though... I think you can eat real sourdough? Or maybe I'm thinking of a different diet). We found some GF waffles and he loved those. The kids liked them too, they couldn't taste a difference.

 

[pcappy2]

I have a butchering question....I'm sure there is a different thread for this,but was hoping someone could help here. Someone on this thread posted an excellent tutorial that we followed.

We only had 5 to do but my husband and I had never done this before so, I have two questions......First,,once the chicken had been killed, we hung them and used the hose to wash them down and lowered there body temp. Then, they went in the bucket of soapy 140+ water. I had the water to hot for the first chicken and the skin looked like it started to cook, also husband didn't dunk the chicken in and out of the hot water. The second chicken went much better and most of the feathers really were not a problem to remove at all. This left the other chickens in a garbage can of cold water. while DH was removing insides of first two chickens, I tried to scald those last three that were in the cold water. When I pulled the feathers, there skin peeled right off. ....Should I have left them just hanging and right into hot water? This really had us wondering, We would like to be able to have this work out better.
2nd question......I took the cleaned chickens into the kitchen and washed them up and put them in ice water/salt bath. I've read where you leave them in this for several days in the fridge before freezing. Is that in the water brine for a couple of days? How much salt? Or do you vac seal them to the fridge and then into the freezer.


Really hoping someone who has done this can help us.

thank you

 

[Sally8]

Would some of you hard core incubators comment on if you wash your eggs before incubating.

It took me a while to go through my poultry photo's as they are starting to out number my grandchildren photo's but...

I bought a doz eggs for hatching from TN. When I opened them I was so surprised at how dirty they were. I considered not hatching them as I would never have thought to wash an egg I was going to incubate. Of the 14 I received, 8 were severely scrambled after checking on day 17 and the other 6 hatched. So the dirt didn't matter, but I will say my own eggs have never been this dirty.

 

[countrygirl74]

I have a butchering question....I'm sure there is a different thread for this,but was hoping someone could help here. Someone on this thread posted an excellent tutorial that we followed.

We only had 5 to do but my husband and I had never done this before so, I have two questions......First,,once the chicken had been killed, we hung them and used the hose to wash them down and lowered there body temp. Then, they went in the bucket of soapy 140+ water. I had the water to hot for the first chicken and the skin looked like it started to cook, also husband didn't dunk the chicken in and out of the hot water. The second chicken went much better and most of the feathers really were not a problem to remove at all. This left the other chickens in a garbage can of cold water. while DH was removing insides of first two chickens, I tried to scald those last three that were in the cold water. When I pulled the feathers, there skin peeled right off. ....Should I have left them just hanging and right into hot water? This really had us wondering, We would like to be able to have this work out better.
2nd question......I took the cleaned chickens into the kitchen and washed them up and put them in ice water/salt bath. I've read where you leave them in this for several days in the fridge before freezing. Is that in the water brine for a couple of days? How much salt? Or do you vac seal them to the fridge and then into the freezer.


Really hoping someone who has done this can help us.

thank you

I did not cool them down - After they were done bleeding out, we cut off their heads (I didn't like working with the birds the rest of the processing time with their heads still there). Then we immediately put them into the hot water (no soap), dunked and swished around for a bit and then hung them back up by the feet to pluck. As for the brine, maybe someone else can comment about that... Once we were done gutting & cleaning, we just put wrapped them and put them in the refrigerator for a few days and then froze them.