I Did It

The ranch is now 7 roosters lighter. The boys and I did it ourselves today. I was able to cut the heads off okay. The boys need to get faster at plucking though. We lost the last few roos to dog food. They were getting so dried out from being dead when I tried to eviscerate them the smallest knick and they leaked out yucky stuff and soiled the meat. Oh well, at least they won't go to waste.

I was going to do the ducks today also, but couldn't do it. I had a few chicken heads that didn't come off clean enough. I think the butcher knife needs sharpened and I didn't want to risk it with the ducks. And honestly, duck feet kind of freak me out with the claws at the end of them and all. They will just have to wait for Stef.

Crazy Chickens or Crazy Goat?

Why do the chickens think it is more comfortable to sit on a goat's back than on the ground? Usually Awkward, the chicken, is sitting on Lil Bits back. I saw this and went in to get my camera and when I came back they were on Big Momma's back. It's not like they just sit up there for a second and get down either. They hunker down and stay on for quite awhile.

Chopping, Plucking, Butchering

We killed and plucked and butchered 6 or 7 chickens yesterday. I caught some of the roosters and put them in the chicken tractor overnight so they wouldn't be full of food and they would be easy to retrieve the next day. When Stef got home from work we started. Stef chopped their heads off and bled them out, soaked them in hot water and brought them to the boys. The boys plucked and then brought them to me. I, after Stef showed me how, butchered them. I was pretty proud of myself. A year ago I would have let the guys do all of the dirty work. Now, I'm pretty confident I could do it all on my own. I still "let" Stef chop the heads off, though, I think I will do it next time. I got pretty good and fast at eviscerating them though.

Some of the chickens were pretty skinny. The types we have are dual purpose breeds so they are not overly meaty. I am looking into getting more meat birds. They will grow out faster but not be good layers. I am going to go with either of two french breeds; Marans or Freedom Rangers. Cornish Xs are the usual meat bird for large scale and a lot of smaller scale operations, but they are very sorry birds. They gain weight at such a fast rate the rest of their body can't keep up and they are prone to broken legs and heart attacks. They also do not forage, basically they don't act very chickenish. I read somewhere someone called them Franken-chickens. That is a good name; very unnatural.

Feather Foot

I can't believe I forgot to post about our new rooster, Feather Foot, that we got from Fran! The boys just fell in love with her feather-footed chickens so she sent a rooster home with us. He is so sweet, but still a little tentative with us. We are keeping him and Mr. Tibbles as our roos. This is the best pic Deklan could get of him. He was scared of the camera.

Chicken and Kid

Just a couple random pics. We are keeping a rooster with the chickens to fertilize the eggs we will be getting soon. We are going to build an incubator to make new chicks! This is our favorite Roo. His name is Mr. Tibbles.
He is the prettiest chicken I've ever seen. You can't really see all of his colors in the picture, but his tail is green and purple, he is just so pretty.

Speaking of pretty here is another pic of the baby girl.

Garden trouble

Or should I say chicken trouble. The chickens have been decimating my garden. They just figured out they can get under the electric fence around it and are eating everything in it. Stef is getting some 5 foot fence to put around it today. I hope this helps. I am very discouraged.

Chicken Coop

Finished the chicken coop today. The first picture is of the inside before it was finished. You can see the nest boxes.
We will have access to the nest boxes from the outside of the coop. Sheet metal on hinges lines the back of the boxes.


Here it is finished. You can also see the almost finished barn behind it.


So with the big chickens and ducks in their new home, the little chicks got moved into their new home today.



On a side note, I am in the middle of moving the fence for a different pasture for the goats, so everyone has to stay inside the pen until I finish. It's pretty pitiful huh?

Newspaper for Chicks

I have had a few people question my choice of using newspaper for chick bedding. The newspaper can be too slick for very young birds. I have found that if the chicks are over a few days old though, I don't have a problem with splayed legs. I try not to get true day old chicks anyway. Most of these guys are already feathering out quite a bit. However, I do not recommend newspaper for guinea fowl until much older, I have learned the hard way on that one.

I like the newspaper. It's free and easy!

Chick Update

Here's a pic of the first set of chickens and ducks. The ducks are ginormous!

I let them free range during the day and put them in their tractor at night. The tractor is getting a little cramped so a new coop is in the works.
Don't worry about Ama eating them. She is on restricted access. Her free roaming privileges have been revoked. She can only be outside with me by my side at all times. She is actually really good around the chickens. Most of the time she just lays there and they peck around her. Hasn't full out tried to get them at all, just stalked them once. Still wouldn't trust her around them by herself.

Chicks and Tin

Craigslist rocks! We finally found some tin for the barn!

Stef starts work on it today if it doesn't rain. I can't wait for a barn!

Also got 20 more chicks at a great price from Craigslist. They are Black Australorps and Buff Orpingtons. They are good for egg production as well as meat. They will lay brown eggs.

Chicken Tractor - kind of

I, well it ended up being mostly Stef, threw this together the other afternoon. This is a chicken tractor. It was much more functional in my head. I can put wheels on the back to make it move better. I don't know, I've never been too crazy about the chicken tractor idea, doesn't seem too practical to move chickens around all of the time. It works out nicely now to brood in, but when they get older I will allow them to free range and put them up at night.

Stef put a "pond" in for the ducks.