Last night we took our 2 remaining turkeys and 5 roosters to the processor. The roosters were all Barred Hollands from the batch of heritage breed chickens I ordered in the spring. I had high hopes for the heritage breeds but the Barred Holland is not a winner in my book. The roos are very aggressive, much like the Barred Rock rooster that we gave away to our neighbor last year because he was beating up all the other birds. I watched them for quite awhile during feeding and the Holland roosters would grab feathers out of the other birds for no reason at all. The Buckeye hens were taking a real beating because they are so docile. I’m very happy with the Buckeyes and the Buff Chanteclers so far, more on that some other time. I googled how to cut up a chicken and studied several of the results. Last time I attempted to cut up some hens it didn’t go well. This time I removed both legs and both wings, then I cut the birds through the ribcage on each side. I discarded the back and neck and kept all of the other pieces to make canned chicken
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Well, We’re Back
Very long, but covers the last 2 days… So we did have a good vacation, it was just shorter than we wanted. We visited Shipshewana on Tuesday. It was nice but the flea market was mostly junk. I heard it is a lot better earlier in the season. The little shops were neat to visit. I thought it would take 2 days but we were ready to leave well before lunch time. We stopped by McGrew Tractor Parts. Brian walked around and looked at tractors and equipment for quite awhile. I was happy as a clam knitting in the truck. I even found the Dave Ramsey Show on the radio. We drove over to Michigan City and somehow drove right past all the hotels, well within a block of them, without realizing it. We ended up downtown and then we drove along the coast for a long time. We were having fun but it was like something out of a movie. There was nothing for miles. Then we found a sign for the town of “Dune Acres”. It was more like Green Acres. There was a nice little town clerk in a sheriff type uniform and you couldn’t even get
Continue readingPoultry Update – Cattle Panel Shelter – Pics
Well, the eggmobile sits empty. Part of the reason we finished it when we did was because the rooster was getting so mean I could hardly get the eggs anymore. Once the birds were out on pasture I could easily gather them at least once a day. Sadly, the hens must have learned to eat their eggs during that week when I wasn’t collecting them very often. I first culled the rooster and one hen that I suspected as being the culprit. Unfortunately, the eating continued and we were forced to cull the remaining 5 hens. I am very glad that this happened with such a small flock and not the large one that I hope to have in the future. Lesson learned here: no matter what – get those eggs!! So, now we have around 121 chickens and no eggs! I haven’t decided yet if I’m going to buy a few layers to get us by or just get our eggs from a friend for now. If I bring in new layers now I’ll have to mix them with the heritage breed flock when they start laying. If I don’t get any now then I’ll have to stop trying
Continue readingA Few Turkeys!
Last year at this time I brought home some chicks from the feed store so I could gain experience with egg layers. After having them all year I felt confident enough to order some heritage chicks that will arrive next month. I think that someday I would like to offer turkeys to our customers, especially around the holidays. Of course I want to raise a heritage breed but they are very expense and usually have minimum order requirements. I’ve heard turkeys are much more fragile than chickens but have never raised them myself. So…today I brought home 3 Bronze White turkey poults from the feed store. They’ll be good to practice with and maybe we’ll even have our own turkey dinner next winter! In the meantime I’m just going to enjoy how cute they are and pray that the cat does not break in and eat them since they are currently living in our basement. I’ll keep you posted on how this project goes! Any turkey advice to share?
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