This broke while we were shopping Saturday afternoon, so I missed the noise when it fell, although my cousin's wife said she thought two big trucks had collided. The first branch (visible well below the bottom of the break) on this tree is more than seven feet off the ground; the tree is nearly four feet diameter breast height, the branch somewhere between two and three feet in diameter at its base, the break scar more than ten feet long. This photo was taken from fifty feet away at full wide angle: BIG lot of firewood needing cut up, as soon as someone figures a safe way to drop the limb. There is no rot: the dark stuff is bark and is a reason one is instructed never to leave acute angles in pruning, although obviously nobody decided to make this tree the shape it is, given that it's almost certainly more than 400 years old (and was on the interior of a grove until about 1860, when the ground was cleared for a barn).
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I just butchered 28 Cornish Cross, 10 weeks old, and cut every head off with a knife.
Threw the head in a bucket.
If you cannot do it, DH said you may need to sharpen your knives.
This is how meat birds are processed.
I do not cut heads off "older marans" for example.
If they are worth keeping, we keep it.
We do not just let all birds grow to maturity.
If any "egg" type bird is culled, it is culled young.
A started bird culled here, we have, as I said already, lineman's plyers that are used specifically for cutting cable (or just about anything the size of your index finger) and when sharp, work extremely well.
I can get a picture of these plyers if you would like to see them?
Let me know.
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There has been a few times that my chicks were at the Post Office (or eggs) and they just forgot to call me....so now on the expected day, I GO to the PO & waite!!
Good Luck!!!!!!!!!
I don't do "freakish" birds, so I'm sure even a really, really good sharp knife won't do a normally aged bird well enough. My meat birds are culled at 4-7 months old, and their necks I'm pretty sure are stronger and bigger than a Cornish X at butchering age.
I know about lineman's pliers - I usually use tree loppers, they're just a slight downgrade from such and do the job wonderfully.
But speaking of which, tonight we're going to dine on roasted Olive Eggers for dinner, then homegrown Orangeglo watermelons and homegrown Popcorn for dessert!
More Icelandic blurry pictures!
A digital camera is no match for these busy birds...but hoping you will get an idea of their very cool color variations!
I had to toss bread into this muddy corner to get them to come in the pen & pose, which they were not wanting to do!
They are eye candy for sure, hard not to watch them as they are so different and each has so much going on..lacing, various colors, different crest and combs..Love them!
Illia these cornish cross we have are grown here, not freaks at all.
And the lineman's plyer I have just been told are called cable cutters...and have cutters top & bottom like plyers but are 'C' shaped, so they can grab onto & cut a neck easily.
OK, gotta get going taking a Mammoth Pumpkin to the feed Store to get weighed, for a "guess the weight " contest..hope we do not drop it!
Oh, and we had a few gusts yesterday & the night before, but nothing over about 20, I'd say, not enough to blow the untied tarp off the freezer...