The Old Folks Home

[Peep_Show]

Ahh, a steamy pile...

 

[vehve]

Oh yes. Some parts are still frozen, but the center is starting to get nice and hot. I've turned it twice today. Just on the surface though, since the frozen parts don't want to break up that easily yet. Couple more days and it'll be hot as heck. The amount of poop in there...

 

[chickadoodles]

Very pretty churches V and congrats on your hot pile of ______.

Deb I am so sorry you hit a bee swarm. But at least some good came out of it for you.

 

[Alaskan]

V, that is a hoot that the Lutheran church went all Greek collumns.

looking at wooden churches, I always wonder how they manage to keep them from burning down.


So glad your poop is steamy.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

They gave dude the electric chair this time

Seriously?

Not with bamadude

He needs a website forum where he can speak his mind.

Yup.... all in my truck... somewhere in there is: a Tube bender, about four tarps, a dog bed, some screeen, varoius pieces of PVC, at least three pvc pipe cutters, a box of Pex fittings, some 1.5 inch pipe and 1.5 inch valve, a box cat5 wire, a 50 pound bag of White Proseo Millet, a change of clothes, a gazing ball (small one), about four years worth of mail, some GOOD hay hooks, some chain, some aircraft cable, chinlink fence parts, box of bolts, box of nails, bag of fender washers, black paint, tin snips, and about a hundred bees.

(thats the short list)

I drive through the Border Patrol check point every time I come back from home. They ask Me if I was hiding anyone in the back.... I look back and say ".... If I was.... theyd be dead..."

deb

Oh, and great news! My compost has awoken!

I've been working on mine. It may take a couple more days.

 

[CanuckBock]

Absolutely!

Chantecler egg showing the "bloom" drying - 2012
​

And UNwashed CLEAN homegrown fertilized hen eggs last longer...the natural "bloom" on the cackleberry not only protects the eggs for consumption, but also protects the same egg if set for hatching.

Homegrown happiness--mega WINTER eggs...from our Sing Brightly Happy Hen flock of Chanteclers​

Our birds are superior to the factory farmed swill eggers...you can taste the HAPPINESS, you can vividly SEE the reward for keeping these precious pets with benefits...you can make your world and theirs a better place...you can make a world of difference with a handful of chooks; roo and hennies, fuzz butts and eggers. I don't give a ratz butt if you keep just two chickens...what you keep matters in the whole scheme of being real, controlling your rights to your food sources, and the more there are of us...the more likely this way of life will continue as it should. We band together and stand as one...two chooks or hundreds of birds...the plain fact of the matter is that we keep the poultry!


YOU can make your positive stand with raising your own foods...and your reward for this all is amazingly AWESOME for all the participants ...goodness you can see, taste, lavish in...taste the HAPPY!

SEEing is believing...top are Omega 3 grocery store swill eggs...bottom are our homegrown goodnesses...

Never mind the TASTE is better...the very l00ks are BETTER!!!


Can't paint up a more black and white example on why we all do what we do...because it is BETTER!

Not sure how accurate this is but a good read to get yerself thinking about it all.

​

:

At the end of seven months (all of our experiment that was finished and processed at the time this issue went to press), then, we had drawn these conclusions about our egg preservation experiment:

[1] Unwashed, fertile homestead eggs seem to store much better than washed, unfertile agribiz eggs. Why? Probably for the simple reason that they're unwashed . . . and not because they're fertile. Hen fruit, as it comes from the chicken, is coated with a light layer of a natural sealing agent called "bloom". And, while a good wash may make a batch of eggs look more attractive, it also removes this natural protective coating . . . leaving the eggs more subject to aging and attack by the air and bacteria in the air.

[2] The very best way we've found to stash eggs away for long-term storage is in a sealed container at a temperature of 35 degrees Fahrenheit to 40 degrees Fahrenheit. Their whites may become somewhat runny looking over a period of time, but even after seven months—the cackleberries stored in this manner smell good, taste good, have a good texture, and — in short — seem "almost fresh".

[3] The widely touted idea of covering eggs with a solution of one part water glass (sodium silicate) mixed with nine parts of boiled and cooled water does indeed seem to work better than any other "room temperature" preservation method we tried. If our experiences are any indication, though, it's really good for only about five months and is a distant second to controlled refrigeration.

Another point: As good as some eggs kept in water glass were, almost every batch we opened seemed to contain one real stinker. Which makes it a superior idea to open any water glassed egg (or any egg, for that matter) separately into a cup . . . where it may be inspected before pouring it into a skillet, pan, or dish with other food.

[4] Unwashed, fertile eggs submerged in a solution of 16 parts water/2 parts lime/1 part salt, packed in lard, and coated with lard seem to keep at room temperature almost as well as unwashed fertile eggs that have been given the water glass treatment. Washed, unfertile eggs do not.

[5] Unwashed, fertile eggs packed in dry sand or coated with vaseline and stored at room temperature keep a little longer — but not much — than unwashed fertile eggs that are just left lying out at room temperature. Washed, unfertile eggs exhibit the same characteristics . . . with all storage times running a few days less across the board.

[6] Forget packing any kind of eggs in wet sand or sawdust! Our tests show that such methods of "preservation" can turn eggs rotten within a month and are worse than doing nothing at all to the hen fruit.

We'll give you a further report on MOTHER's Great Egg Preservation Experiment sometime next spring . . . after the completion of the test's full one-year cycle.

Bantam Partridge Chantecler and a mixed assortment of chicks​

A setty hen beats the success of an incubator hands down (wings down?) easy (she even oils the eggs with her own feathers, she exposes them to mild forms of noxious illnesses so the chicks develop natural immunity and never succumb to otherwise lethal conditions) PLUS the Mamma raises them up to do more of the same (ever wonder how nuts the whirl of the fanned incubator drives a chick batty by??)...hens cluck and talk to their chicks IN their egg shells...turkey hens are super protective of their clutches and the poults hatch already KNOWING her voice...heritage turkey poults are like the wilds...they need to be taught how to be a turkey by their parents for six months. You incubate them artificially, the duty of care is on your shoulders to be their parent; to keep them safe and bring them up well by teaching them to be good turks.


Not only the EGGs are better from your personal home flocks...your MEAT is superior to the mush meats in the grocery stores from the factory farms...BETTER and MORE of the choice premium cuts...yes, you read that right...homegrown meat is better with superior amounts of the choice cuts. Remember you need to cold store a fresh harvested bird...just as the meat counter poultry has been processed, transported and kept cold so the rigor has been allowed to pass...about a week for turkeys, about 4 or so days for chickens/smaller waterfowl. Process Monday, store in fridge and eat on Sunday...organ meats, I'd eat that day or freeze and thaw if you want them along for Sunday Dinner too.

White meat, the breast meat of the turkey is coveted...and we have been brainwashed into thinking the commercial white factory farmed turkeys are superior to our heritage natural mating outdoor foraging, long lived, quality slow grown, and naturally disease resistant heritage turks. HA...what a joke. The lies need to end here and now...WRONG...totally wrong.

I did an experiment where I took a heritage hen...yes FEMALE turkey which is not the superior gender for the meat in the dino-turkey species...I took a female heritage turkey and cooked up a male commercial turkey...to prove a point I had suspected for ions... To prove what I had known was the TRUTH...

T-day...Canadian Thanksgiving 2012...

Commercial tom on left, heritage hen on right ​

Quit letting the LIES prevail and understand...the very shape of the heritage turkey is WAY superior to the broad breasted white form. The heritage birds can forage in the outdoors (have brains to do this when shown by their parents!), they live long productive lives (I have turks here from June of 2008, living well and continuing to prosper!),

Absolutely astonishing rich soup bases and gravies...num nummy!

​

the SLOW growth rate allows for the awesome turkey meat flavour to develop both in delicious TASTE and firm TEXTURE (taste tests done here at Pear-A-Dice...toms that are nine months old are pretty much the max size they will be...but the sixteen month old toms are much more flavourful and give a richer tastier gravy and soup...never mind the delicious turk taste in the meats! Like fine wine, they take time to develop their full premium quality essences--unlike the speedster factory counter parts that taste like tofu unless coated & deep fried--you seen that PINK jelly in the bags of chicken meat at the grocery...that is inoculated FLAVOURings that has to be added to the under 47 day old processed mushers--so what IS that flavouring if it is not found in factory farmed chooks??), and the heritage birds, they naturally breed (no artificial insemination to make more of the same), the very SHAPE of the heritage packs on more white meat, more breast meat than the factory farmed BB white turkeys.

Homegrown heritage turkey on left / Commercial mush meat turkey on right​

Not only is the meat firmer and tastier...juicier (cooked in the SAME oven at the same time)...There was ten percent white meat on the heritage and nine percent white meat on the commercial. Hear that again...TEN PERCENT of the total carcass weight was white meat on the heritage HEN compared to NINE PERCENT white meat on the commercial TOM ...the heritage happy meat hen BEAT the commercial mush meat tom in MORE white meat...the choice premium cut of meat in the turkey species...suck on that commercial factory farmed BB whites! Boo Yah!!

Turkey White Meat
Heritage hen left / Commercial tom right​

How you like that and like you ever needed any more incentive to be self-sufficient and sustainable...yer happy meat and happy eggs, living the good life and blessing you for doing this with a superior premium product...it just simple ROCKS!

So I guess this be my RANT of the homegrown superiority to the mush meat and swill egg factory monstrosities being crammed down the throats of the general grocery store crowds.

We do what we do because of the GOOD benefits it bestows upon the Earth!!

Doggone & Chicken UP!

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

 

[perchie.girl]

Very pretty churches V and congrats on your hot pile of ______.

Deb I am so sorry you hit a bee swarm. But at least some good came out of it for you.

Gosh that was about four or five years ago... I still have a bee drop out of the truck every once and a while....

 

[drumstick diva]

wanted to catch up on this thread but after reading about "a steamy pile," decided I really don't need to eat lunch now.

 

[Tumbling K]

wanted to catch up on this thread but after reading about "a steamy pile," decided I really don't need to eat lunch now.

what more could you possibly have to catch up on?

that there, says it all.......lol

 

[vehve]

Diva, it's just a bit of digested feed, being broken down by microbes.