The Old Folks Home

[wolftracks]

Oh, goodness, no, but much respect from me for being able to do that. It's at the butcher. Yesterday I had just finished processing a female turkey - she didn't fit well in the scalder because she was so big. I realized that I couldn't get the tom in there, no matter what, and gave up for the day. I had started cleaning up, and was almost done when I get a panicked call from BF that he shot a deer but it ran off and he couldn't find it and my assistance was needed to follow the blood trail - and get others that he wanted to help out and to his spot because his phone was dying. It was at this point that I realized I didn't have any blaze orange (I'm not a hunter and that's not my style), but I can see my neighbors house from mine, and she has a blaze orange sweater hanging on the porch. So I run over there, knock on the door and say "I NEED THIS! CAN I HAVE IT?!" and then run off with it (and I call her CrazyNeighborLady). It took about 3 hours in the woods to find the deer and drag it back to somewhere a vehicle could get to. At that point it was almost dark, so I knew I had angry and hungry farm animals (my princess showgirl was very upset with me) so I went home while they went to the game station/butcher. Then I went out to get him dinner because at the end he was stumbling out there in the woods from exhaustion and hunger, and I got some ice for my poultry carcasses. They'll have to be chopped up and sealed today, because we did not have the energy last night.

I can't wait to see what my turkey hen dressed out to. She was incredibly strong and it was almost too difficult for me to do.

Man you had a day! I helped a cousin and his friends chase down a deer once in Washington. I used to ride, but I was nowhere able to like they could and we went by horseback looking for that thing. Didn't take as long, but I remember thinking we'd never find it and was sick about it being wounded and suffering. I'm a good shot and that was my only hunting trip. I just couldn't do it back then. I still haven't. My husband had always hunted, but hadn't since we were together and he was planning a trip for us. I've pretty suck I'd do alright now, but who knows. Instead of processing chickens, I find reasons for the reprieve. Dakotah had so looked forward to learning to fire a weapon and go hunting. Instead it does it on video games. I haven't taught him anything his stepdad would have including driving, but he's asked if we have anyone in the family that hunts. We do, but no one here in our state,

I remember processing three 200 lb hogs at home when I was a kid. There was 4 adults and some older children. We started early on a cold morning and by evening the sausage were stuffed and hung in the smokehouse along with the hams and bacon and the lard was rendered in the washpot. We kids were so stuffed we were sick from eating those hot cracklin's. And everyone was pleased and exhausted. The next morning we had brains and eggs scrambled for breakfast.

I used to wait for those skins to go on. I'm a city girl, but I had lots of family that weren't and I loved visiting, so usually I got to have everything first. One year waiting, my uncle thought he mess with me and told me that they weren't doing it this time, with some technical reason why. I was so disappointed, but then while out hanging with my cousins I could smell them. I ran in and he laughed and said ok, you first and handed me a big bowl. I filled that sucker up and ran for the porch avoiding hands trying to grab them. Everyone comes out with theirs and then my aunt comes out and says "What in the world?" Yells for my uncle and asks him if he wants me to be sick. He tells her to mellow out, that I'm not going to finish all that. Me being me I had to prove him wrong. I ate most of it. I was then restricted to the porch, since there was no way I was going to make it all the way to the porcelain god, so I literally laid out there while I puked over the porch, with my aunt fuming and my uncle laughing his head off.

So far four of six eggs have pipped. I have a silly question...do chicks in eggs sleep when it's dark? I only ask because they made no real progress during the night, but as soon as I turned the light on this morning they've amped up their movement. I know it's always dark under a big fluffy chicken butt, which is why I think it's a silly question, but I had to ask.

I keep waiting for pips here. I get them develop just fine, but come time to hatch I may get pips and no chicks. I have the last few eggs my Silkies laid in there now and I still see veining, but happening yet and they're due today. I figured they'd be early. My bator hatches were again horrible all summer, so most of what hatched her was under broodies. I'd need 100 broodies to sit continuously to have had all the eggs that didn't make it hatch out.

 

[superchemicalgirl]

Quote:
Did you ever try doing hydrogen peroxide spray to your incubator? I still can't believe you're having hatching issues. It's been a long time!

 

[wolftracks]

Bleach, peroxide, Oxine, vinegar.........I've dried then with blow dryers, let them air dry, set them in the sun (not the Sportsman) but still having a bad time. I panic at lockdown. I see live chicks or veins or at least a dark area and then nothing hatches. I never had a problem with the home made or the first LG, but had nothing but bad luck for way to long. If I get a chick from 100 eggs, I'm almost excited.

 

[ronott1]

Bleach, peroxide, Oxine, vinegar.........I've dried then with blow dryers, let them air dry, set them in the sun (not the Sportsman) but still having a bad time. I panic at lockdown. I see live chicks or veins or at least a dark area and then nothing hatches. I never had a problem with the home made or the first LG, but had nothing but bad luck for way to long. If I get a chick from 100 eggs, I'm almost excited.

I am sorry to hear about the incubating problems you are still having.

Is the temp not stable?

 

[Arielle]

Quote: DH is on call every night because he is the boss. THen he calls staff to go in and handle the situation. I can still hear his phone ring but it is muffled by the floor between us. lol

I can do all the butchering , even a big turkey by myself because of the method a fellow showed me. It is a simple method b ecause it is an old method. I stand on the wings and the feet. Then use a sharp knife. MIght work for you too-- I prefer a scalpel!! lol

 

[Arielle]

Quote: I'm feeling the pressure to have faster internet connection, and more TV than a few channels that flip with the weather, and my kids want to pl ay Wii with his friends. . . . . will get there.

 

[Pozees]

Bleach, peroxide, Oxine, vinegar.........I've dried then with blow dryers, let them air dry, set them in the sun (not the Sportsman) but still having a bad time. I panic at lockdown. I see live chicks or veins or at least a dark area and then nothing hatches. I never had a problem with the home made or the first LG, but had nothing but bad luck for way to long. If I get a chick from 100 eggs, I'm almost excited.

Such a bummer. I've had mostly terrible luck this year as well. I have tried just about everything suggested. What has worked best so far is leaving the plugs in with no water added to the incubator (Farm Innovators 4200 with auto turner) (if I fill it with eggs humidity is near 50%), then I use a GQF 1588 as a hatcher. That one I fill both 1 and 2 in the tray with RO water after I spray the measuring cup with Oxine, put a piece of rubber shelf liner on the wire mesh, and put a pyrex bowl with a towel saturated with hot water also sprayed with Oxine in the middle, put in a thermometer hygrometer, and let it run 12 hours. Almost without fault, it gets to just under 100 degrees, 65% humidity, with the plug in. I don't move the eggs until day 19 or 20 depending on past performance of the particular pen the eggs came from. I candle once at 10 days and once the day I move eggs. I still get low percentage hatches, but better than 0%. It is very very very dry here and elevation of 5400 ft above sea level. If I don't see movement when I move the eggs I usually don't get a hatch, but if it looks like there's a chick in there I move the egg anyway in case I just caught it sleeping. Only once so far has that resulted in a hatched chick. By the time I move them they are often pipped internally, and the last one I moved at 20 days had pipped externally in the incubator, I debated and moved it anyway and it hatched. That pen's eggs will now be moved on day 19.

I know part of the issue is timing of collection. If the eggs freeze (don't always know if I collect in the morning whether they've been there all night on a cold night), or if the temp is 85 or higher and I try to store, no dice (chicks). I had some eggs from a fellow breeder whose hens sometimes sat on them several hours before he collected and if he stored them they did not hatch - they had been started and then died.

Just some things I've picked up and experimented with this past year. Still have terrible percentages, but at least I'm getting SOME to hatch now, for a while I was like you, if one hatched I was THRILLED!

 

[Arielle]

The neighbor came over about an hour ago when I had the last boy on the chopping block and was ready to swing the axe. She brought me some delicious soup, but I'm pretty sure she wasn't expecting to see what she saw. I asked her to help with the turkeys - I'm definitely going to need some help and BF is off looking for bambi. She declined, but only because she couldn't figure out what to do with her kids.

A neighbor is my greatest fear . . . .I usually get my hands "dirty" and last time my face too. THey would think I was a mad "man" LOL My kids help, slow and comical trying not to touch anything but the wet feathers.

 

[Arielle]

Quote: . . and" be afraid . . . very afraid!" mmmmwwwwaaaaaaahhhhhhaahahaha

I'm ready!

ME TOO!

Quote: I hate those emergencies---- just kills the day's schedule of events!!

did u weigh the hen??

Quote: The turkey skinn pulled off after roasting and laid it on a pizza pan to bake again. I ate a little and next day it was almost gone.

finished it.

 

[Arielle]

I agree, Hagar, it should be just the opposite, or not at all.

Back when my boys were little and we lived in an area where there were neighbors close by, one neighbor had a friend come to his house to show off the 10 point buck he had killed. They were gathered around the truck looking at the buck in the bed when my son wandered up to see what they were looking at. I went to retrieve him and noticed he was looking sad and I thought the sight of the deer with a bloody tongue hanging out was too much for him. I guided him back toward the house and he walked away with his head down. I felt bad and said, "That made you sad, didn't it?" He nodded and added, "Santa is gonna need that reindeer." It broke my heart. All three boys hunt, but to date, he is the only one that hasn't killed a deer.

Ahh, what a sweet kid!! My DH won't help butcher anything here. . . . . He'll cull an injured bird though, but that is as far as he goes. DH stops to help turtles and voles cross the street. It's their nature. Can't change that.