The Old Folks Home

[Wisher1000]

bama Diva was here, there, everywhere - just not posting. Also taking a lot of naps as usual. She is way behind in greeting - new members- they just keep coming all day & night long

.

Wisher it is Tnspursfan that has a grand daughter going into surgery- Diva doesn't have any grandchildren

(yet)

I knew that, my brain just crossed it up. I was thinking of other things when I posted...... sorry, girlfriend!

 

[vehve]

vehve, those shots are hard to get. The best thing you can do is position yourself for the opportunity and have your camera set for what is needed to get the shot. I would suggest having the camera set to as high a shutter speed (at least over 1/100 sec) as possible to keep the blurred wings at bay and set to take multiple exposures. I would set to at least time value if not full manual. This way you will get a ton of not usable ones but the "one" will be in the bunch. That is how I shoot hummingbirds and butterflies. You get hundreds of throw aways but a few good ones. Thank goodness for digital!

I've started using the sport setting on my D500. It works well together with my lens, and usually sets to about 1/400. I mostly take pictures of fast moving objects at varying directions and distances, so it's pretty handy.

Here's an example of two series.

 

[vehve]

By the way, we're going to hit 21k posts today of tomorrow.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Hey there vehve ... I am delurking to add, you forgot "push out Zzzzzzzzzzzzz's"

I still love this thread and read all the posts but kind of gave up posting because I was always so far behind the conversation. Think of me as 'the quiet one'; you know what they say about the 'quiet ones'

Lurk mode re-engaged

PS. Safe travels ozexpat!

Join in whenever. I'm usually up by 3 or 4 so I'll be on occasionally when it's afternoon/evening there.

Lurkers are welcome to post....

Great smiley.

@bamadude I forgot I was supposed to share this link with you:

http://ramblingredneckmom.blogspot.fi/2011/04/how-to-process-chickens-at-home.html?m=1

It start's with the deed itself. I've been using hedge shears, which worked great the first time, breaking the neck and cutting the jugular on both sides, but the last time I used them, it only broke the neck, so I would maybe not recommend this method, unless you place the shears so that the feathers won't block the cutting edge. The scalpel is better, but requires you to find the spot to cut at pretty precisely.

The noose to hang the chicken from it's feet from is a great technique, the chicken becomes pretty disoriented upside down, and I'd say this minimizes struggling and suffering as long as you don't hang it for a prolonged time. I've liked using the trash bag to collect the blood, and to calm the chicken down.

Washing the chicken with a bit of soap works well, it lessens the stench when you scald it later. I first wet the bird a bit, then rub in some soap (I use a pine based soap) and rinse it properly, cleaning away the worst poop. Wetting the feathers prior to scalding will make the scalding work better too, as the hot water will heat the water already in the feathers.

The scalding works really well the way it's described in the link too. We've only done birds individually, so we haven't had to worry about the water cooling down when doing several birds. With one bird, I use a 8 liter (2 gallon) bucket, in which I pour about 4 liters (1 gallon) of boiling water, and then I top it up with cold water until it's 65C/150F. Then I hold the bird in it for about a minute (when I say 'I' I actually mean Karin, I've outsourced this to her), and then the bird can be plucked. We just hang the bird back in the noose we used for hanging it from during the killing (still from it's feet), and pluck the feathers into the same trash bag that we drained the bird into, as we don't want the dogs to dig up the spot where we do this.

My dad used to put two nails in a log, stick the neck between them pull the feet and hit the outstretched neck with a hatchet. Drop the beheaded into a burlap sack till they quit flapping.
I prefer a killing cone. The bird is held in place and doesn't bruise when they start to flap. They're pricey so I made my own from a piece of aluminum flashing and some pop rivets. It hangs from one of the posts of the first stage compost. I think I'll move it to the third stage though because I think the nitrogen gain is leached out by the time the compost is finished the way I've done it, wasting all that blood. A traffic cone works too.
I confine the roosters on clean pine shavings a couple weeks ahead of time. They end up pretty clean. When doing a small number I use a 5 gallon bucket. For a large number, a turkey fryer. Temp is critical. Too warm and it starts to cook the fat. Too cool and the feathers don't release. I dip and swirl, dip and swirl repeatedly till a long flight feather pulls out with no resistance.
Sometimes, rather than plucking, I'll skin the bird like a rabbit and part it out hanging it from a noose like you use. You lose the back and carcass that way but it's not a lot of waste.

I find that discussing a problem helps you figure it out. Even if the other person has no valuable input to give, you having to formulate the problem to them makes you have to process it out of a different point of view yourself, often leading to revelation.
...

So true.

Fear not. You are not alone with perch madness.

...

If I turn on the back deck lights they will all march out and have a midnight snack.

That happens here occasionally I have something to do late at night and turn the light on out at the rooster/brooder house. The roosters will be piled together sleeping and in seconds they're eating and out trying to forage in the dark. It tells me that if they're hungry at midnight, they must really be hungry by 7.

Vehve: thanks for the link. Its very helpful

There's a couple very good youtube videos on the topic.

No problem. What are you processing?

I was really surprised how little our roo's actually were, the first one we processed clocked in at 1050 grams dressed (2.2lbs) at 16 weeks, and the other at 1350 grams (3 lbs) at 21 weeks. I was expecting there to be a lot more meat on them.

Smaller than CornishX but more flavor.

vehve, those shots are hard to get. The best thing you can do is position yourself for the opportunity and have your camera set for what is needed to get the shot. I would suggest having the camera set to as high a shutter speed (at least over 1/100 sec) as possible to keep the blurred wings at bay and set to take multiple exposures. I would set to at least time value if not full manual. This way you will get a ton of not usable ones but the "one" will be in the bunch. That is how I shoot hummingbirds and butterflies. You get hundreds of throw aways but a few good ones. Thank goodness for digital!

I had a bunch of fat freedom rangers in a grow out coop one winter when we had a lot of snow. I spread straw about 20 feet from the entrance where I put their food and water. It was comical watching them try to fly from the door to the straw. I tried to get a picture but was unsuccessful.

I've started using the sport setting on my D500. It works well together with my lens, and usually sets to about 1/400. I mostly take pictures of fast moving objects at varying directions and distances, so it's pretty handy.

Here's an example of two series.

Very nice.


++++++++++++++++++++
An interesting slant on the subject of taxes. Several of us were sitting around the local watering hole complaining about taxes. Among us was a local TV newsman who has a regular series called 'You Paid For It', where he exposed government waste and corruption.
He had an interesting slant on taxes though why he thought taxes were a very good thing.
He said, "I can work my whole life and never be able to accumulate enough wealth to build one mile of a highway. Yet, collectively, with the benefit of taxes, I can get in my car, jump on I-70 and drive across the country"

 

[dsqard]

vehve, maybe try a faster shutter speed? You really need to freeze the motion. You may want to consider using a flash. That will really help to freeze it. Just suggestions

 

[vehve]

At one point, a local newspaper did a article about what you could buy with that weeks Lotto prize, I think it was 3.2 million euros. One of the things mentioned were 300000 bottles of Koskenkorva, but the most interesting to me was one kilometer of motorway. Yup, sure would be expensive building up that road to our cottage with own money.

Personally, I think taxes in Finland are still too low, at a net taxation of about 43% (compared to around 26% in the US).

 

[vehve]

vehve, maybe try a faster shutter speed? You really need to freeze the motion. You may want to consider using a flash. That will really help to freeze it. Just suggestions

That would need to be one heck of a flash, since I'm shooting at maybe 30 feet. I just need proper sunlight for the shots, those series were taken on a cloudy day. In proper light I can go down to about 1/1600, maybe even 1/3200, that freezes the movement pretty nicely.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

At one point, a local newspaper did a article about what you could buy with that weeks Lotto prize, I think it was 3.2 million euros. One of the things mentioned were 300000 bottles of Koskenkorva, but the most interesting to me was one kilometer of motorway. Yup, sure would be expensive building up that road to our cottage with own money.

Personally, I think taxes in Finland are still too low, at a net taxation of about 43% (compared to around 26% in the US).

Every time I hear an American complain about taxes, I think, they should have a discussion with a European. I had a lot of Swedish and Danish friends that schooled me on the subject.

Yes, socialism is a dirty word here. But living it, in practice, it doesn't feel bad at all.

 

[vehve]

Quote: I think even our most hard core right wingers here would be radical lefties in the States

But we do have some very unfair taxes here as well. It's a nice way to get votes saying that high income takers should pay their fair share of taxes and low income takers should get tax cuts, but if you're making six figures and paying almost 60% income tax, I'd say your paying 20 fair shares. Adding a couple grand annually isn't fair anymore. And someone making 1500 euros a month isn't really going to benefit all that much from the extra 10 euros they're getting, money that could be used to improve healthcare, infrastructure or education. Or heck, maybe just take a bit less national debt. My thinking isn't very popular though. Another thing that shocked me, was when I read the news that 3000 spots were going to be cut from art education. The part that shocked me, was that it was possible to cut 3000 spots, have we really needed that many unemployed art historians and bad painters? But again, my thoughts on that matter aren't very popular. And I do understand that some money should be spent on culture as well, I just don't see why it should be spent at the expense of health care or basic education.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I think even our most hard core right wingers here would be radical lefties in the States

...

As would Ronald Reagan, Bob Dole and Richard Nixon.
Disturbing trend isn't it? One result of filling 24 hours of news time with nonsense.