The Old Folks Home

[tnspursfan09]

For Mamaw, too.

 

[vehve]

do you mean...pies for the chickens? Because that's why I love chickens, they'll eat all the stuff I don't want.

This isn't my pie, but it gives you an idea of what I was thinking of when @vehve said PIE!

While that looks like fun, I was thinking more along the lines of a crust made with an egg, 100g butter, 2dl sugar, 3 dl oatmeal, 1 dl powdered almond, 1 dl wheat flour, a pinch of salt and a tablespoon of cardamom. For the filling 4 pears sliced, 1 dl sugar, 2 tsp cinnamon. Baked in about 175 deg C for about an hour, and server with vanilla custard. Same recipe works with apples too, or any berries or rhubarb, but then I'd leave the cinnamon out.

This turned into another segment of Cooking and carpentry with Felix.

 

[Wisher1000]

Quote: Linda, are you in Shreveport? I'm taking a chicken run at the end of the month (in two weeks!) and I will likely be going to Shreveport. It is a bit over half way to my SC partner in the Dallas area.

 

[chickadoodles]

Quote: x2 have fun with Maddy!

 

[chickadoodles]

Quote: I like the cooking segments with Felix... But I wish I could understand your g and dl compared to American mesurments.
I love pear pie and so does DH he wants me to make a bunch and freeze them. I told him they are better fresh and yes love the cinnamon in them! Just as good as apple or better. But I cook my pears soft first and add a few pats of butter on top before I put on the top crust.

 

[LindaB220]

Linda, are you in Shreveport? I'm taking a chicken run at the end of the month (in two weeks!) and I will likely be going to Shreveport. It is a bit over half way to my SC partner in the Dallas area.

Yea!!! Best part of Shreveport. It's on the way to Dallas!! Just kidding (sort of) Let me know when you're headed this way. PM me

 

[vehve]

I like the cooking segments with Felix... But I wish I could understand your g and dl compared to American mesurments.
I love pear pie and so does DH he wants me to make a bunch and freeze them. I told him they are better fresh and yes love the cinnamon in them! Just as good as apple or better. But I cook my pears soft first and add a few pats of butter on top before I put on the top crust.

One cup is 2,5dl and 1 oz is about 28 grams. My measurements are always a bit rough, since I usually cook with guesstimations, but 100g is about 3 oz and a deciliter is almost half a cup, that's close enough to follow my measurements. Maybe I could start giving out the conversions too.

 

[LindaB220]

One cup is 2,5dl and 1 oz is about 28 grams. My measurements are always a bit rough, since I usually cook with guesstimations, but 100g is about 3 oz and a deciliter is almost half a cup, that's close enough to follow my measurements. Maybe I could start giving out the conversions too.

Great idea. You know, I've never heard of a deciliter. Always a learning experience. Good going.

 

[vehve]

Great idea. You know, I've never heard of a deciliter. Always a learning experience. Good going.

A deciliter is one tenth of the SI standard unit for volume, the liter. Then we have centiliter, 1/100th of a liter, and milliliter, 1/1000th of a liter. One teaspoon is 5ml, and one tablespoon is 15ml. One cubic meter is 1000 liters. A liter of water weighs one kilogram. This makes conversions super easy. I prefer it to imperial units

 

[CanuckBock]

Two Grey Dutch Hookbill ducklings​

No matter, sorted the piping eggs outta the tray, put the midst hatch ducklings in the doubled up desk drawer organizers, snapped a rubber band over the whole affair (them ducks like to JUMP!), noted how vigorous the one Bibbed Black Crested was (sheesh--trouble that one!!) and only half an hour off my estimation of required chore time, we were outta there BABY!

Got the shelves and two fresh bags starter in turkey and of duck from a local feed store (was puzzled because both bags were roughly the same price-only $0.30 dif- and turk is 26% and duck/goose is only 20% protein till I stopped and looked harder at the labels...turkey starter was 20kg, not the usual 25kg...

Looking now better at the bags...the one on the right is slimmer...taller but slimmer!​

I never noted no dif in the weight of the bags...picked up the Duck/Goose one first and loaded, then had to have help finding the Turk Starter because it is a new company and different packaging than I am use to seeing. I shoulda known...LOL

Marketing--can't avoid the glam and clever packaging! Even in baby bird starters--marketing ploy of make it a smaller size and keep the prices the same!! ACK! Seen that in choco bars...smaller bar & keep the same price structure!), had a delicious bad for you snack (when old folks go WILD on the town, eh!) of burgers and shakes (give you the shakes! LOL), and returned back to home quarters to spend some quality time with the springing forth baby ducks.

DUCKLINGS
Dutch Hookbills in Grey, Crested and Non in Grey, Appleyard-mohawk striped head on yeller duckling-
and the first to hatch out, a Bibbed Black Crested <<perched precariously on the lip of the container>>...​

And turkeys...

​

Only set a few turk a lurk eggs, but one of them, Jersey Buff had shed his shell and was all eye balls and beaky looking at me when I went to check on the hatch along in Buster.

"If you're my only choice as "MOM," I choose to be an orphan!"​

Turkey poults KILL me...the stare, the intense focus...the look of a bird brain of immense intelligence... There is a promise behind that intense gaze.

"I will be all you can make me be..." So if your heritage turkeys turn out DUMB...that was by your hand, you're the MOM/DAD.

Think I am kidding about the intelligence and learning abilities of heritage turkeys (the RAPTOR species!). Guess again for I am NOT kidding one iota!

Wild turkey poults spend SIX months with their parents learning how to be adept turkeys--where to find food, water, shelter, how to be stealthy in the wilds--turkeys have instincts like most all the poultry does but many of the things that they do, they are taught by their parents. It makes turkeys all that and more.

Ask any wild turkey hunter if their quarry is stoopid and you will easily learn, a wild turkey is formidable prey to make even the most skilled human hunter look foolish a time or three. The only fault I have ever seen in a heritage turkey is they are curious...curious to a very fault and as their surrogate parent, it is YOUR duty to ensure that if they decide to fly over an inadequate fence to investigate something that's caught their fancy, you are always within ear shot to hear their cries of "Help me...save me...I have tested the rules and gone too far!" Heritage turkeys are NOT stupid...I however, wish I could say the same about the humans that raise them inadequately and blame the bird for their inadequacies.

This is my very first hatched Black Bibbed Crested Duck--not had this colour before this year! Very kewl (and very vigorous, did I mention vim & vigour in this one?).

Left to right; Black Bibbed Crested / Grey Crested / Grey Not Crested​

So pictured above, is one Black Bibbed crested (will have a white bib and a few white flights on each wing), then a regular Grey crested, and a Grey non-crested. I am use to the crested pompom being yellow in colour on the day old ducklings--very easy to SEE at hatch...but in the Blacks, the colour of the crest matches the overall majority of the body colour (makes sense...is the same as in the Whites I have now too).

So I got more of the ones pipping ducklettes put in containers, got the ones drying off in other containers...then sorted thru all to make sure who was needing to go out to the brooder box because they were dry and ready to begin feasting on starter and water.

I hesitate on who goes because it was night time approaching AND one should never EVER count on all things going as planned...if there was a power failure and I slept thru and the brooder light went out...there could be enough ducklings to keep each other warm till I found the issue out or there could be eight carcasses in the morning to make me very sad that I failed them--you just never know so I tend to hesitate on who goes to be brooded especially if I am moving them in the evening and a long night is about to happen. My responsibility to keep them well.

Note which one is in the top right corner and STEPPING on another duckling...making the poor bloke "MEEP!" Who is it that wants to be on the top of the DOG PILE?​

Eight were ready, so popped them into a small tall container and off to the Duece Coop we headed.

Eight ready - again note who is top doglette?

​

Fixins was outside the Hatching House with Foamy but she kept coming into the porch and hanging around the door of the Hatch House--thought she was just waiting a little impatiently for us to go do the Dog Time Run Run's but she was up to something more than just that. Very inquisitive and insistent that I do something. She was beside herself and kept returning...she even came INSIDE the Hatch House which is most unusual because she usually stays outside no problemo.

"OK...OK? What...what DO you WANT? What is it Fruit Cup!??"

Sometimes us humans can be SO blooming daft to the obvious...

"Oh, sorry stock dog...you want to inspect your new stock...here you go Girl!"​

Great big SNIFF in and she marked them as hers.​

And then she was content not to keep pestering. She got me to understand all she wanted was to enjoy the FTD's like I was...sheesh...SEE, us human's can be so daft, eh?

Into the Duece Coop where everything was ready and waiting for the arrival of the FTD's.

Bring on the FTD's....
​

Bin with oat straw bedding, heat lamp cleaned and the light on to make things warm & cosy--all is ready and waiting with starter, water...bring on the Duck a Lucks...

Every year, that extra incubation time of a week means I have turks and waterfowl a little time AFTER the chicken chicks (they break and initiate me into the hatching procedures--help me remember how to do all this again...duh huh?) and I still marvel holding the little blighters for the first time. Eggs scare the dickens outta me...quiet, surreal...no hinting all the LIFE encased inside that wondrous thing about a bird egg.

My mind forgets their increased substance of waterfowl and turks; the further development you can FEEL holding a duck, goose, or turkey compared to the chickens--reason for 7 more days, eh! Substance I guess, they just have that more oomph in their bods and it always delights my simple fancies to see them attack the water and feed with a vengeance. Sure, bill and beak dip in the water when I am sorting them to be moved to brooding facilities (every one I pick up gets a bill/beak dipped in water for their first sip of H2O--hydration so important to them widdle things), same done for the chickens but as far as "catching" on to what food and drink is about, the later hatchers really do ROCK. I have had natural hatched East Indie bantam ducklings with bits of shell on their not dry yet hatching baby down...scooting out from under Mom to go gobbling up waterfowl starter...not even DRY with their bills in the starter, snarking it up. Zest for life...

I am betting that extra week captive in an egg shell gives them all the more time to make plans, "When I bust outta this here prison...something's gonna get a BILLING/BEAKING!"

Yeh, the hatching experience is never complete until the FTD's and the Earth Bound Heavenly Helpers (dem turkeys) show up... week later but all the more anxious to get about enjoying the happy factors we have on offer here. So much FUN to be had in those tiny egg encased celebrations of life!

I am an advocate of the marble kinda poultry gal...dollar store marbles have been bought by the pounds full...sanitize the glass with bleach at the end of the season but this is a double helper for starting the babes off well. The smooth and shiny surface attracts the babies to give it a go, be it starter or water, and the deep depth of the marbles in the waterer ensures nobody DROWNS or gets soaked too badly getting on and about on their wee widdle legs and learning how far to dip one's proboscis to eat and drink without a face full of mess. Water containers full of marbles are less likely to be knocked over by the skidaddlers...just too many good reasons not to have marbles as part and parcel for incubated baby bird equipment! Do ensure they are big enough not to be swallowed by whatever species you are offering them up to.

Plus the added factor many of us old timers have lost a few of our own along the exciting journey...never have enough MARBLES on hand Peoples! Jest being EXTRA safe, eh!

That Black Bibbed dipping bill in all the SHINIES!​

And then the big marble I place in the feed (starter) attracts them to try out the starter...quite by accident usually the first time round.

"Oh lookit, another shiny...Must have the SHINY!"
Nib nib nibbles!​

"Waz that on my bill...oh num num...gotta get me more!"
Gobble, gobbles!​

Every season there is so much fun stuff to behold.



Quote:

Sorry, nothing plays out finer than the song and singing of a band of roo a doos. Yeh, I GET that some of you are not allowed to own roosters (I could never manage that--no boys...a male chicken HAS to be with the females...otherwise, what is the point of having chickens if not in happy family groupings? My thoughts of course here!).

When we were hunting for our piece of paradise, it had to be zoned for animals or we did not bother to pay it no mind. Don't need acres of land to mow the lawns...has to have critters, the whole point of the acquisition.

So to counter the "stop a roo from crowing" side of things here....Here is my point of view on the subject.

LOVE the sound--all the money in the world will not replace awakening to the sounds of my dependents greeting the dawn...love that any one of them can be heard at any time, any where on my property. Love to wake up to the sound of roosters crowing, ducks mipping, pheasants drumming and chirping, Mandarins trilling, turkey toms gobbling (now that is LOUD!), geese shrieking (LOUDER), and the two pairs of Black swans bugling (LOUDEST of all and THE most sweet sounding for sure!). I love hearing my birds...yes Sirree! The bestest thing EVER!

You know WHAT would wake me up to a cold shiver...hearing NOTHING at dawn's break! The sound of silence would mean the whole bunch had met some gruesome end--something amazingly WRONG with the world at the sound of silence. Heavens, NO!

Now to counter not liking the Crowing of the Roo...the celebration of the sun rising (or not if it's overcast) is hugely rejoiceful and tres noisy...but then again, about mid morning, there is dead silence...same can be said of early evening as all are tucked away and getting ready to have some shut eye and snoozeful rest and peacefulness--happy silence of contentedness. You can literally hear a pin drop here at certain times of the day which is totally amazing considering how many souls reside here on the one spot! LOL

So I have always been able to sleep thru roos crowing at 3 a.m....poultry doing what is normal, it is the ABNORMAL sounds and timing that will bring me straight out of a deep sleep and outside to see what is wrong. That to me is a sound (absence of noises) that is wretched.


Of course, my fav of the standard chickens are the Chantecler which means "sing brightly" and indeed...here is a set of nine photos as PROOF in the name of the breed. Surely any roo a doo would enjoy living up to the Chantcler's namesake...truly the love of my having chickens! The sound of my Sing Brightly birds resonating round abouts the place.


These are not full blooded Chanteclers, cockerels from back in 2013 but even so...no doubting the resounding continuation of the BREED'S name to sing brightly, eh?

March 9, 2013 - two bantam project Chantecler Cockerels on a fence rail


One cockerel begins to sing...SINGING ever so BRIGHTY!


Second cockerel gives his head a shake..."Wow...resounding vibrations..SO very LOUD!"​

Peturbed look of pain & frustration & yet the other SINGS!


And still again the piercing crowing goes onward!


Head shaking...again!


Look of utter desperation crosses face of the 2nd bird, "He is NOT gonna stop!"



So I must RUN AWAY! "AWAY I run!"


"Good GACK!," as the second cockerel hunches up & leans to one side! HE follows his UNwilling audience...


Second cockerel's head hangs...ear drums are busted...poor guy!
​

And why YES, I might be old but I am a full hearing, fully hearing tested human...I can hear just fine and dandy and I love to hear the sounds of the fowls!
Bwa ha ha...yes, I do love to hear a rooster crowing...

Doggone & Chicken UP!

Tara Lee Higgins
Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm, Alberta, Canada