Pennsylvania!! Unite!!

[troyer]

Eve (or Adam) was relaxing with me last night out by the fire

it's becoming a usual thing for her/him to relax out there with me in the evenings lol

We managed to get 4 more boys processed this morning before hubby had to go to work. There's only 4 left to do from the beginning of the year hatches. There's about 6 young boys in the main coop but they won't be ready for a few months yet. I can't believe how much chicken we have in our freezer this year!

Having home raised chicken in the freezer is a very good feeling.

 

[SilkieSensation]

Eve (or Adam) was relaxing with me last night out by the fire it's becoming a usual thing for her/him to relax out there with me in the evenings lol We managed to get 4 more boys processed this morning before hubby had to go to work. There's only 4 left to do from the beginning of the year hatches. There's about 6 young boys in the main coop but they won't be ready for a few months yet. I can't believe how much chicken we have in our freezer this year!

Having home raised chicken in the freezer is a very good feeling.

I butchered 2 bbw & 9 roos yesterday. We made zesty italian chicken for supper tonight with 2 roos. I have to package the rest tomorrow.

 

[AnneInTheBurbs]

If you had someone to process them, you could have eaten the roos you had, and probably gotten a lot more. I give away 10 or more at a time because I don't care for processing them. All you have to do it pick them up and take them somewhere - the "where" being the problem.

If you have a local butcher.....we have a few around here...i'm sure they would do it for you...for a fee of course..

As soon as I have more property where I can have Roos, I will hopefully be making my own dinner.

Funny story, about my grand pop. They had a home where they had about an acre or so and pond. They kept some chickens, ducks and assorted animals. The neighbor next door was moving and they asked if my Grandpop would take their Rooster. My Grandparents said "Sure" and took the rooster. The neighbors were backing down the driveway and my Grand pop said, "I'm not going to listen to that thing crowing tomorrow morning." The rooster was so old, my grandma put it in the pressure cooker. It was so tough, they had to give it to the dog. Haha! My grandfather was pure German.

 

[Debby27]

As soon as I have more property where I can have Roos, I will hopefully be making my own dinner.

Funny story, about my grand pop. They had a home where they had about an acre or so and pond. They kept some chickens, ducks and assorted animals. The neighbor next door was moving and they asked if my Grandpop would take their Rooster. My Grandparents said "Sure" and took the rooster. The neighbors were backing down the driveway and my Grand pop said, "I'm not going to listen to that thing crowing tomorrow morning." The rooster was so old, my grandma put it in the pressure cooker. It was so tough, they had to give it to the dog. Haha! My grandfather was pure German.

 

[AnneInTheBurbs]

I didn't pen my chicks up this morning. Just got home and I have one less chick. Only two now. Of course the cat didn't eat the one I suspect is a Roo. Lesson learned, always keep the penned up, until they are full size.

 

[winc564]

Well, bigger coop is still not done. Driving. Me. Crazy.

So is the itchy spot on my back. I'm having my allergy skin test at the moment. I need to scratch.

 

[stake]

I didn't pen my chicks up this morning. Just got home and I have one less chick. Only two now.

Of course the cat didn't eat the one I suspect is a Roo.

Lesson learned, always keep the penned up, until they are full size.

Sorry to hear, I think there's a fair amount of attrition in raising chooks....whether predators, big girls getting nasty...broodies not watching after them...getting trampled on...seems like you have to hatch eight if you want four.....my two cents...

 

[AnneInTheBurbs]

Sorry to hear, I think there's a fair amount of attrition in raising chooks....whether predators, big girls getting nasty...broodies not watching after them...getting trampled on...seems like you have to hatch eight if you want four.....my two cents...

I think you're right. My neighbor behind me came out and apologized, it was her dogs this time. It's okay though, the chicks had been sneaking under her fence, so it was the chicks fault. The dogs had been in a kennel for two weeks while they were away on vacation, so they had probably lost their fear.

 

[AnneInTheBurbs]

Good thing I have Broodys on a few eggs!

 

[emorems0]

While I appreciate our neighbor greatly for feeding our animals when we go on vacation, you would think he'd give a call if the food ran out instead of just not feeding our nursing doe (rabbit). Came home to half the litter lost, Peter (cotton tail) is still doing well, but we lost 4 of our kits and the food was totally gone. I gave her a huge pile of timothy grass and went straight to TSC for more pellets. Everyone seems to be doing fine now, so it looks like the losses were due to lack of food which is so so frustrating because if we hadn't been on vacation it wouldn't have happened.

We suffered 2 chicken losses while we were on vacation as well... 2 of our 4 dark Cornish. We did get a phone call about that... I guess part of a bird was left in the run so the neighbor took care of it. We had ANOTHER loss last night too, I'm so over this! Our last dark Cornish roo was taken from inside the run, now we have just one DC pullet left from that group. I don't get it, the fence was not disturbed at all, it's floppy at the top so I doubt anything could successfully climb it, the only thing I can think is an owl. Would an owl take a chicken if it was roosting in a tree/bush rather than the coop? We have several great horned owls here, my kids actually talk to them and they call back. The run has an open top because of the rose of Sharon bush and I have not yet been able to get my young flock to go in the coop at night (they are scared of the hens and prefer to sleep in the bush).

So my meat chicken project started with 5 Delaware and 5 Dark Cornish (mix of genders) and all that is left is one Delaware pullet and one Dark Cornish pullet My young flock is down to just three birds, the Delaware, the dark Cornish and an orpington; the coop is down to 3 hens and a rooster. I sometimes pick up the young birds and put them in the coop, but they just hop back out. If I lock them all in there at night should I be worried about their safety? The hens can be brutal. I need to do SOMETHING because I can't bear to lose any more animals, it's been a bad bad week.

In other news... I had a weird egg this morning. Shell was thinner than normal, misshapen, and much lighter than any other egg I've ever collected from my girls. My 4yo pushed through the top and cracked it. Is this a sign of something bad or just a random occurrence? I do have oyster shell, but they always dump the bowl so I haven't had it in there lately. This isn't typical of a first egg, right? I don't think any of the young girls are laying yet, and I doubt they'd go up into the coop to use a nest box seeing how scared they are of the big girls.



I'm not sure why it rotated my pictures on upload, but I can't figure out how to turn them back.
The eggs cooked up just fine for breakfast, just the shell was strange.