The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[LeslieDJoyce]

please elaborate on that 'sprout world online' thing?  link please? 

now if I could just get hubby to eat bone-in chicken, I'd be all set, but he prefers boneless...  so I ususally end up marinating and baking.  got any good marinade suggestions?

Debone a whole bird. Then it can be stuffed with any number of things and roasted.

I deboned two cockerels for Christmas dinner. One was 3 lbs, the other was 5 lbs. I roasted them in a bag, but from now on will use a pot roaster. They were DELICIOUS!

 

[RedRidge]

Stuffed. .. made chevre earlier today and should be able to salvage a little spinach from under the garden row covers... so plan to stuff the boned breasts with spinach and home made raw milk chevre for dinner tomorrow evening - one of the families favorites. ;-)

 

[Leahs Mom]

 

[Leahs Mom]

RR - can you estimate how much weight-wise that you harvest of the BSF on a weekly or monthly basis from one of your composters? (Or maybe in cup measure if that's an easier estimate.)

 

[lalaland]

please elaborate on that 'sprout world online' thing? link please?

I liked the idea of all the different kinds of seeds, fenugreek for example, in these mixes and am looking forward to trying them out.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Sprout-Ho...390350188&sr=8-13&keywords=seed+for+sprouting

sorry it was sprout house, not sprout world. Today I ate the lentil and garbanzo bean sprouts (ok, I did share them with the flock), very tasty! I haven't sprouted seeds since the 70's. yeah yeah, I know some of you weren't even born then!

 

[aaggjg]

RR - can you estimate how much weight-wise that you harvest of the BSF on a weekly or monthly basis from one of your composters? (Or maybe in cup measure if that's an easier estimate.)

I have a question on the BSF video that was linked ... If it is a compost with all that food on top not buried how do you keep rodents raccoons etc etc out of the bin????

 

[RedRidge]

 
RR - can you estimate how much weight-wise that you harvest of the BSF on a weekly or monthly basis from one of your composters?  (Or maybe in cup measure if that's an easier estimate.)

I have a question on the BSF video that was linked ... If it is a compost with all that food on top not buried how do you keep rodents raccoons etc etc out of the bin????

With bungees...
LM to answer your question yes, I have all that written down somewhere, I will find it. I can even tell you how many bsf are in a lb.

 

[delisha]

Quote: I am lazy and brine whole..I like to stuff whole birds usually

Quote:

1/2 cup flour

Place chicken in the baggie and shake to cover all surfaces

Bake at 250 for one hour
Increase to 325 and bake for another hour
Increase to 400 and bake for 10 minutes to crisp up

Chicken season: I keep this on hand..I try to use all fresh ingredients and keep it in a zip lock bag in the freezer.

4 teaspoons ground peppercorns
1 1/2 teaspoons rubbed sage
1 teaspoon ground ginger
3/4 teaspoon ground winter savory
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon dark ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground leaf thyme
1/2 teaspoon ground vanilla bean
1/4 teaspoon ground star anise
1/8 teaspoon ground fenugreek
1/8 teaspoon ground parsley

now if I could just get hubby to eat bone-in chicken, I'd be all set, but he prefers boneless... so I ususally end up marinating and baking. got any good marinade suggestions?

• 1/4 cup beef broth (you can use chicken too)
• 1/4 cup apple juice
• 2 tbs sesame oil
• 21/2 cloves garlic (crushed)
• 11/2 scallions (chopped)
• 11/2 tsp fresh ginger
• 1 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 dash black pepper (freshly ground)

soak for 6 hours and bake



My all time favorite is:
1/2 cup EVOO
2 tbs balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
pepper (fresh)
1 tsp Italian spice (below)

Italian spice: Made fresh and stored in freezer

3 tablespoons dried basil
3 tablespoons dried oregano
3 tablespoons dried parsley
1 tablespoon ground dried garlic
1 teaspoon ground dried onion
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon dried rosemary

Quote: you don't ..
you would need to keep it secure

 

[TeaChick]

I dug in the garden today, starting to get it ready so the girls all had quite a feast on dug up worms and grub, oh and the occasional spider and cricket.




When they went to roost tonight they couldn't have got a drop of water in their crops if they wanted to!!!!!

Oh, speaking of turning soil; I've got to get my kids to turn the compost pile. I hope I remember tomorrow.

 

[RedRidge]

 
RR - can you estimate how much weight-wise that you harvest of the BSF on a weekly or monthly basis from one of your composters?  (Or maybe in cup measure if that's an easier estimate.)

I have a question on the BSF video that was linked ... If it is a compost with all that food on top not buried how do you keep rodents raccoons etc etc out of the bin????

With bungees...
LM to answer your question yes, I have all that written down somewhere, I will find it. I can even tell you how many bsf are in a lb.

Ok... My small bini started with is a biopod plus. At full capacity I get .75-1 lb/day of crawl off bsf. The large bin is 8 times that capacity, so 6-8 lbs/day of bsf.

But... Keep in mind that at full capacity they consume 5 times that. So to produce 1 lb of bsf a day you need to feed them 5 lbs. This is important because if you don't have access to that much free scraps then you can't feed them without buying food. Recall I have weekly access to boxes of thrown away food from the church food pantry so this is not a problem for me. But, because I am frugal and nothing goes to waste here, coming up with that much to feed them without that access would be difficult for me.