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We're processing 47 chickens and obviously don't have that much fridge space. Can I put them in the deep freezer and then "cure" when thawing for cooking?

Hi, We're having our first batch of birds processed this Monday. I'm trying to get everything ready since I will be gone for the weekend. What kinds of things should I plan in advance? We're having someone come and do on site processing, when should I put the birds into holding boxes? When...

Hi, This is our first time raising meat birds and we have 46 "red broilers". They are supposed to mature around 10-12 wks. I got ours on May 5th, and the roosters have been crowing now for about a week. Is it time to slaughter? I was scheduled to have them done on July 25th (a little less...

I have a free-range Araucana who hasn't laid an egg since mid-December. I expected her production to go down in the winter but she hasn't started up yet and I don't know why. All my hens get organic feed, fresh water and access to the yard (including barn/manure piles/pastures) every day. I...

Update: This morning I checked on her and her crop seemed normal but was again slightly distended (not as bad as yesterday) by the end of the day. Could this be resulting since she's actually finding a lot of things to eat now that the snow has melted? They were out all winter but were...

My almost 1yr old Barred Rock hen seems to have developed a huge crop over the last few days. I was gone for a couple days and it seems to have happened while I was away. My husband was looking after the birds but he says he didn't notice it so I'm not quite sure how long it's been this way...

Hi Everyone, Sorry if this is a silly question. I had a Golden Comet who I adored, very friendly and an amazing egg layer. She was killed by some dogs that roamed onto our property and I definitely want to replace her in the Spring. Here's my question though, is a Golden Comet the same as a...

Thank you again to everyone who's responded to this thread. I'm really disappointed that I haven't heard anything from the owners of the dogs. I'm thinking of writing them a letter just saying how we were affected by this. I mean, if my dogs had killed someone elses livestock I would at least...

Alright, I checked with my ag. extension and I'm going to ask $20/bird. They said that the birds average between $15-$20 and since they were raised organically/free range, they'd be on the higher end of the scale.

Thank you all so much for the advice and condolences. It's strange because I feel like I'm handling the loss well but at night all I can do is think about my lost birds. I guess this is all part of having chickens. I really like all the chickens in my flock but one of the ones killed was my...

I think I'm going to value them at $40 each. I have a feeling I won't see any money from the dog owners since the dogs also injured a sheep and fatally wounded 3 pigs that needed to be destroyed so they'll have to deal with those costs as well. The dogs were both destroyed. I feel sorry for...

I lost 2 of my layers yesterday to roaming dogs and a 3rd that I'm trying to nurse through a severe injury. The State Trooper told me I should submit a value for my chickens and I'm not quite sure how to go about figuring this. Both chickens were raised from day olds. They cost 2.10 each...

She survived the night which is great and again ate and drank well for me this morning. I'm going to take a good look at the wound this morning. I didn't want to poke around too much last night since i thought she was already stressed enough. I'll clean up the loose feathers and then use some...

We had 2 dogs come on our property and kill 2 of our chickens and injure a 3rd. Fortunately 3 other chickens survived fine. These dogs went on to attack a sheep at our neighbors and fatally wound 3 pigs at another farm. Anyway, the chicken they injured is a Buff Orp. about 7 months old. She...

I have (had) 6 laying hens who I free range on my property. We live on a farm with about 135 acres and the chickens always stick near the house or barn, especially now with the ground covered with snow. My dogs were outside but I called them in since I thought they were barking at our goat. A...

We will be moving at the end of September (about 1.5 hours from where we are now). My hens will be around 5 months old and I'm wondering how to make the transition as stress free as possible for them. One of the crazy challenges is that my husband wants to move their coop with us (a little...

Hi everyone. My girls are about just over 16 weeks now and I know we're nearing the time when they might start laying. The problem is, I don't think they like their nesting boxes. I tried putting my GC and BR in them just so they would know where they are but they get spooked and immediately...

bumping this message for more responses.

I had the same question about BOSS. Today my 8 weeks olds got: some strawberries, raspberries and papaya (which they went nuts over)

Quick question. My feed store was out of Organic Grow Layer Pellets and I got a bag of Organic Broiler Grower Crumbles. My chicks are about 8 weeks old. Protein content is 19.00, calcium (min/max) is .85-1.15, Lysine 1.0. Is it okay to feed this to my chicks?