The Old Folks Home

[ozexpat]

I cooked that little hen for 2-3 hours, slow cooked. On top of the stove slow cooked. I think game hens are just tough and stringy. I do have a pressure cooker, but haven't used it on the home grown birds yet. We are both new to growing chickens for meat. DH was rasied around them, but didn't get the practical education for cooking them. He was just a kid then.

This next batch of cockerels....4....are April 1st hatches. I was going to cull them all last week, but remembered I needed to fatten them up with scratch and low activity levels for 2 to 3 weeks first. We didn't do that with the other PR rooster we cooked. He was better then the game hen, but I forgot about fattening him up first. I guess there is something to that theory.

My freezer camp diet - 3 weeks of gluttony - and coconut is free!

Freezer Camp Diet

1 cup corn

1 cup coconut

Total
Calories from Fat

18

270

288
Total Fat

2g

30g

32
Calories From Carb

88

56

144
Total Carb

22g

14g

36g
Calories from Protein

16

12

38
Total Protein

4g

3g

7g
Calories

122

308

430

 

[cknnewbie]

Just sharing something I think y'all will appreciate: one of the locals around here (who is much less curmudgeonly than he sounds) glared at me yesterday when he learned I have only lived up here for a bit over two years. "Too many people moving in around here. Why didn't you shut the door behind you?"

Well, at least he wanted the door shut behind YOU. That means you're in!

 

[superchemicalgirl]

Well, at least he wanted the door shut behind YOU. That means you're in!

The way it was explained to me up here is: a cat can have kittens in the oven but they will never be muffins.

You gotta have far back roots to be a Mainer.

 

[IttyBiddyRedHen]

My freezer camp diet - 3 weeks of gluttony - and coconut is free!

Freezer Camp Diet

1 cup corn

1 cup coconut

Total
Calories from Fat

18

270

288
Total Fat

2g

30g

32
Calories From Carb

88

56

144
Total Carb

22g

14g

36g
Calories from Protein

16

12

38
Total Protein

4g

3g

7g
Calories

122

308

430

but oz...how many calories per day does a cockerel require?

 

[insanity]

Well at 5 am when I went to work I smelled a skunk. Great he must be in my garden live trap!! Nope he was in my coop and there was more than 1. 2 D'Uccle, 2 buff Brahma, 1 silkie, and 1 frizzle. GONE. I haven't had a predator loss in almost 2 years than this. I am so mad.Guess I can get rid of Larry (D'Uccle roo) now his girls are gone.

 

[drumstick diva]

I never knew Skunks could do so much damage, I thought they just eat eggs and stink up the place. So sorry. I didn't know Larry but, if he didn't protect his flock, he can hit the highway

 

[ozexpat]

but oz...how many calories per day does a cockerel require?

Broiler starter is around 1425kcal per pound. They eat about 13000cal to get to market

A layer hen eats around a quarter pound of feed per day (320 cal). Freezer campers get an all you can eat buffet but allow half a pound per bird per day and adjust as necessary.

 

[ozexpat]

Just for something different I will tell what my chickens eat in the Philippines.

I can buy pellets or mash at about $25 for 110lb sack. But I try to save where I can and need multiple feed types so.....

I buy chick starter as it is the highest protein (22%) and the same price as layer (14%).

I mix this pre-made feed with rice bran (called opa locally). Opa is 14% protein. Opa is $13 for 110 lbs.

For quail, chukar, pheasant and turkey chicks/keats/poults I add soy meal (48-54% protein). Its pricier at $45 for 110lbs but its also imported.

I blend to make approx. 30% for chicks quail pheasants and partridges. My grow-outs get 20% and the adults get 16% protein.

I then add 1:10 ratio of copra meal. It contains 14% protein and lots of goodies but it can't be tolerated in high ratios. Its only $8 for 110lb from the mill I sell my dried copra (coconut meat).

Freezer camp gets coconut meat straight from the tree, grated and blended with cracked corn ($19 for 110lbs). Its more about calories than nutrition to fatten them.

I add vit & mineral supplement.

I don't add amprolium to make medicated feed. If I get an outbreak of cocci then I may.

I feed them branches of ipil-ipil and malungay trees as they are high in iron and other nutrients.

We get sacks of oyster shells for free and grind them up as free choice.

I end up paying about $17 per 110lbs for feed.

Our CocoBeach Poultry Farm is on the main route across the island so the distributor drops it off for free as they deliver to all the retailers in the small towns.

In my little apartment in Anaheim I only hatch chicks and buy chick starter in 5lb bags.......

 

[Arielle]

Quote:
a-ya

I never developed the Mainer accent, nor my brother, but my father sure did !! Being he lived there his whole life and all. HIs dad went to college in Maine and stayed--

In the town we moved to I was never considered a local .

But I still concider it home.

 

[superchemicalgirl]

I don't know how the weekend can fly by like this and I still don't get everything done on my Honey Do list. Was busy all weekend and got a lot of things done, but not all of it.

Hope you guys have a great rest of your weekend, I'm off to bed.