The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[RedRidge]

Yes. My husband and I don't eat big piles of meat any more. If I process two at a time, that is all the chicken either of us want to eat in a week. I make soup out of the spent carcass. The skin doesn't really go to waste. I bury the skin with feathers  along with the entrails in the garden. People wonder how I grow such lush plants and fruit trees and shrubs. It's because I've been burying the end results of processed chickens for thirty years on the same property. We bury deep enough that when I put an apple tree or raspberry row over the same area in a years time, we don't dig into bones. But the earth is dark,  rich,  and full of earth worms. 

In a true self sustaining fashion, there is plenty of fat in the diet. We grow our own nut trees. I use drippings from bacon to cook with, and there is plenty of good fats in salmon and fish we get from the Puget Sound here. There is plenty of fat in dairy too. Too much fat in the diet with or without chicken skin added to the mix. 

I wish I could try that. But my LGD would dig it up and roll in it...

LOL. As I mentioned before, nothing goes to waste here. Carcasses are fed to lgd's. We eat little to no fish here unless it is home grown from ponds since most are questionable. We eat a LOT of beef, lamb, and venison. And a lot of dairy (we milk a variety of A2/A2 animals). We slaughter our lambs in the summer, venison, chickens, and pork in the fall, steers in the winter. Some is preserved by freezing, some by curing in the other room of the root cellar from the cheese and higher humidity veggies, some by dehydrating, and some by canning. We have no waste - bones make broth and soup and/or are fed to lgds, organ meat goes to make and can pâté wrapped in the veil, intestines are used for sausage, etc. Raw hearts are saved and fed to lgd's who are pregnant and nursing for added protein. Everything has a use, even those tiny pieces such as strawberry caps are used - they are fed to the BSF.
Our gardens (for our food as opposed to crops) have the BSF compost and compost from barn bedding turned in each year. Except for the natural gardens that are composted with their own wooded surroundings such as the ramps, etc.

 

[aoxa]

LOL. As I mentioned before, nothing goes to waste here. Carcasses are fed to lgd's. We eat little to no fish here unless it is home grown from ponds since most are questionable. We eat a LOT of beef, lamb, and venison. And a lot of dairy (we milk a variety of A2/A2 animals). We slaughter our lambs in the summer, venison, chickens, and pork in the fall, steers in the winter. Some is preserved by freezing, some by curing in the other room of the root cellar from the cheese and higher humidity veggies, some by dehydrating, and some by canning. We have no waste - bones make broth and soup and/or are fed to lgds, organ meat goes to make and can pâté wrapped in the veil, intestines are used for sausage, etc. Raw hearts are saved and fed to lgd's who are pregnant and nursing for added protein. Everything has a use, even those tiny pieces such as strawberry caps are used - they are fed to the BSF.
Our gardens (for our food as opposed to crops) have the BSF compost and compost from barn bedding turned in each year. Except for the natural gardens that are composted with their own wooded surroundings such as the ramps, etc.

Funny you mentioned that. My dogs ate all the chicken legs yesterday. Susan refused to make broth out of them, so the dogs got a really good treat. They LOVED it.

The only thing I felt iffy about feeding them was the intestines. I wanted to check on this first. Would they eat it, would it be okay for the dogs to eat it?

Google proved inadequate. I only came across one yahoo question. Everything said it would be fine to feed it to them, but they don't typically like it.

I fed all the other organs to the chickens. My dogs had full stomachs from the wing tips and legs.

The chickens had an awesome day of keep-away. I even fed the gizzard, which probably wasn't entirely consumed. The dogs probably found the rest an hour later when I let them out to roam.

 

[MumsyII]

Your turkeys are not unique in that way. My turkeys lived with the silkies and bantams. They were the body guards of them for some odd reason. They'd flog every rooster that came near. They would jump the fence I used to separate the bantams from the large fowl and lounge with the silkies.

I found it enchanting!

It is enchanting! I sit in a lawn chair and watch the show. The turkeys are these graceful ninjas of the flock. They ignor Judy the Broody and her Silkie chicks because Judy is not afraid of them. The bantam RIR hens are safe from harassment since the Turkeys came on the barnyard scene. It is such a wonder to watch. The turkeys are making themselves out to be a force to be reckoned with. They have completely usurped the balance of hierarchy in the flock. There is the one tom and four pullets. They all display to the HRIR and layers. I love watching them interact. So far, no one has gotten hurt but they all know each others place.

 

[aoxa]

It is enchanting! I sit in a lawn chair and watch the show. The turkeys are these graceful ninjas of the flock. They ignor Judy the Broody and her Silkie chicks because Judy is not afraid of them. The bantam RIR hens are safe from harassment since the Turkeys came on the barnyard scene. It is such a wonder to watch. The turkeys are making themselves out to be a force to be reckoned with. They have completely usurped the balance of hierarchy in the flock. There is the one tom and four pullets. They all display to the HRIR and layers. I love watching them interact. So far, no one has gotten hurt but they all know each others place.

My girls were always more of the forces to be reckoned with. Tom just watched. He was a lazy guy haha

I sure miss my turkeys, but Susan says no turkeys.. unless they can not fly.. because they did a lot of damage to cars.

 

[lazy gardener]

Not sure about chickens, but daylilies are bad for cats.

daylilies should be fine. There are recipes for daylily blossom jelly, and a lot of "natural" cook books discuss using daylily shoots for a spring vegetable.

 

[mlowen]

daylilies should be fine.  There are recipes for daylily blossom jelly, and a lot of "natural" cook books discuss using daylily shoots for a spring vegetable.

It was just the dry, spent flower stalks, no live plant material. I cut them with my pruners, so they would break down a bit quicker. The girls checked them out, but since they were not food, they just scratched them in with the leaves.

Just an observation...it took them a good two plus weeks to decide that fermented feed was food. Once that happened, lord have mercy! They really do "lick" the trough clean. How the heck do they do that?

 

[BlueMouse]

This was dinner tonight! Roasted chicken with garlic and new potatoes. Hands down the best chicken I've had since we came home from Europe. Superb texture, lots of flavor. The leg meat was not greasy, and had amazing flavor as well. Juse straight up delicious. Totally makes the work worthwhile. We demolished the little guy (only 2 1/2 lbs) and the leftovers are simmering away with herbs and veggie trimmings to make broth. I'm looking forward to seeing what the difference is between this and the dual purpose birds we're going to butcher in november.

 

[aoxa]

This was dinner tonight! Roasted chicken with garlic and new potatoes. Hands down the best chicken I've had since we came home from Europe. Superb texture, lots of flavor. The leg meat was not greasy, and had amazing flavor as well. Juse straight up delicious. Totally makes the work worthwhile. We demolished the little guy (only 2 1/2 lbs) and the leftovers are simmering away with herbs and veggie trimmings to make broth. I'm looking forward to seeing what the difference is between this and the dual purpose birds we're going to butcher in november.

I can't wait to try a chicken after I've properly rested them. It's been over 24 hours. Most likely will have one tomorrow for dinner. in-laws coming home.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Aoxa...Look! A goat guard for the pop door.



Quote: 4 the Birds
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/631861/diy-thread-lets-see-your-inventions/330#post_10583546

 

[aoxa]

Aoxa...Look! A goat guard for the pop door.

This is what I have planned once we get the goats in the separate room.


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I designed a "chicken chute" and Pete hammered it together for me. So far we think its working. The idea is the chickens drop down into it and crawl through the tunnel to get out. The goats are too big and long to quite make that maneuver. Now next year when there are teeny tiny goat kids here, we may have to rethink the whole thing again.
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From the inside of the coop lookin' out...

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