Author Topic: Chickens went to freezer camp Update (Read 3747 times)

FourBee · « **Reply #30 on:** May 08, 2010, 12:35:21 PM »

good article; Scibaer. When I first moved back to the farm in '71', after my tour in Vietnam, I raised the large breeds. For sure, I had to keep them penned. Easy prey for predators.
After several years I switched to the Bantam Breeds. I've owned nine breeds of Bantams. I like 'em all, but so do the predators. Seems like the more colorful they are, the faster they disappear. That's when I began to take notice. My little Black Tailed White Japanese were thriving. The Coyotes preferred the Buffs and Games, and the Hawks and Owls took everything else. But the Blacktailed Whites seem to puzzle the predators long enough for the chickens to take cover, I don't know. They are broody, and will raise a clutch twice a year if you let'em.

p.s. Just afte 6:00 a.m. I witnessed a Coyote burst into the midst of my blacktailed whites, and they went up into the air like a covey of quail. He ran in a circle trying to nab one, but to no success. All the while I was yelling at him and clapping my hands, but he paid no attention to me. Probably because I was out of his danger zone.

burntmuch · « **Reply #31 on:** May 08, 2010, 02:32:20 PM »

Scibaer I read that article. Good magazine. Ive been read them for a couple mths .The reason we,re doing chickens is We,re trying to eat all natural food. No preservatives, I know impossible but gotta try. I figure if I can do 30 or 40 meat birds a year. Then 2 or 3 deer in the freezer every year. The wife & kids dont seem to mind. Another reason is Just learning something new. Im of the generation of work enough overtime & I dont need to know how to do anything. I wanna get away from that.

Scibaer · « **Reply #32 on:** May 08, 2010, 02:54:35 PM »

jay,
yep i hear ya. i read alot about living off the grid and self sustainability.
i went to school with a girl who's dad lives in the UP , completely self contained. he even has a sauna that uses no electric and uses rain water.
last fall i spent a weekend at his place, soaking up all the info i could manage.
i have been reading and thinking about raising a few chickens myself ( meat and eggs ) mostly just to see how practical is would be for me.
i figured a few Wyandottes or Ameraucanas and a well designed tractor coop would be just enough for me to handle.
I'm a county north of you and if i needed to take care of a predator with my .22 NEF , i'd not have a problem doing just that.
i have a buddy i was in the service with, and thats all he talks about nowdays, dropping off the grid and homesteading somewhere.
were 42 y/o and i guess thoughts like that start to be in the front of the mind , how are we gonna live the rest of our lives, ya know ?

FourBee · « **Reply #33 on:** May 08, 2010, 02:55:53 PM »

Quote

Posted by: burntmuch We,re trying to eat all natural food.

Best thing a man could do. Natural meats (home raised) are full of nutritions that are lost in modern meat factories. Corn fed beef is more tender and tastier, but it ain't good for ya. Just like white bread. {A doctor told me one time, to take a loaf of white bread and a loaf of whole wheat bread, set in the barn, and the rats will eat the whole wheat, and leave the white}. I don't know, never tried it. Take the Omega 3 acids, natural meats are loaded with them. Natural meats are all around more healthy for man's consumption. Pinto Beans are good substitutes for meat also.

burntmuch · « **Reply #34 on:** May 08, 2010, 03:19:39 PM »

Four bee , there hasnt been a peice of white bread in the house for a couple mths now. Something we,re doing is while reading ingredients in food. If theres more than one word we cant pronounce OR understand we dont eat it. Scibaer The chickens were pretty easy to get started with. The cornish rocks grew a bit faster than I expected, Kinda had to rush the coop & pen. They out grew the plastic bin in a couple weeks. They are one ugly bird. But their suposed to be the best meat out there. We,ll see. I would love to drop off the grid, but with a wife & 3 little one, That would be tuff. They do want a goat though. So doing a little research on that. We,ll see how they do with eating the chickens,

Rex in OTZ · « **Reply #35 on:** May 11, 2010, 01:26:00 PM »

My boss lady reported that tossing some old fish in the run with her pullets attracted black flies which the chickens zero'd right in on, that and the easy to move dog run panels with netting over the top kept the birds of prey away, remember loose dogs love barking at them and can try digging under, she lost one through the wire from a dog grabbed its head and that was the end of one of her lil pullet's.

Eating is bred into them and broilers will eat till they couldent hold themselves up, had to diet a couple of them till they lost enough weight to walk on ther own, strong bones arnt bred into them so they can break a leg or wing really easy, issue them a ration in the am and pm chores, during the day to keep them busey you might rake in some grain in ther gravel a hog pan is nice but put a couple bricks in it to keep em from flipping it or one them heavy rubber pans they sell for horses.

burntmuch · « **Reply #36 on:** May 11, 2010, 02:20:59 PM »

The cornish rocks will eat till they cant walk. I have to take their food away at night. I feed them a couple times a day. Ive been getting them in the yard as much as possible. Just a couple hours in the yard & they look healthier. Fun to watch too. The way they run around. I was out yeasturday working on the barn door. So I let them out. They stay close so it hasnt been a problem. But I had 3 big ole hawks circleing the back yard. Real low. I went into the house & grabbed my henry 22 mag. Fired a shot into the ground. Just to let them know no free meals here. They scattered. Kinda neat. rattled the food can. They all came running back into the pen. Kinda neat. Not gonna hurt my feelings at all to get the cornish rocks into the freezer. Kinda an ugly bird. but their doing what their supposed to. Eat & get big.

Oldshooter · « **Reply #37 on:** May 11, 2010, 04:58:25 PM »

Ive heard before that they will eat till they cant walk. but thats what they were bred for, eating and being eaten.

funny thing , when we first started with the chickens 4 years ago, we had only seen free range chickens so the wife wanted them up for the night and you shudda seen us tying to herd em in at dusk! Finally i said leave em out maybe something will eat the damned things. Well as soon as it started getting dark they went in and up on the roost all by themselves Go figger! If the gate is closed they will get on top of the coop to roost. You just have to give em a hole and they will go home and put themselves to bed!

blind ear · « **Reply #38 on:** May 12, 2010, 03:20:50 PM »

Hawks taste just like chicken!

FourBee · « **Reply #39 on:** May 12, 2010, 06:25:06 PM »

Quote from: eddiegjr on May 12, 2010, 03:20:50 PM

Hawks taste just like chicken!

Are you serious?

Remember the old song ~ blackbirds baked in a pie. Well as a kid, after killing a blackbird, I thought of that song, and made me a little fire and cooked it. Uke !

Scibaer · « **Reply #40 on:** May 20, 2010, 02:39:02 AM »

my huntin' buddy swears you can eat crows, lol ..
im sure you "could" but i bet they taste like a steaming dog pile !

any scavenger animal has to taste terrible .. you are what you eat

Cornbelt · « **Reply #41 on:** May 21, 2010, 09:27:30 AM »

Makes a big difference what THEY have been eating.The less carrion the better.

Ron 1 · « **Reply #42 on:** May 21, 2010, 10:20:50 AM »

kinda off subject
but my cat has moved her 4 kittens in to the chicken coop to raise them.

kittens are 2 weeks old now and starting to move around pretty good. so they are out of the nesting box once in a while the chickens dont seem to mind or bother them. cats living with the chicken kinda weard to me. the mother cat has sat by the door and watched the lil banny chicks and has not touched them.
weard or what has anyone else ever seen this? or something simaler?
rw

burntmuch · « **Reply #43 on:** May 21, 2010, 12:25:47 PM »

My cats look at my chickens , like they,re dinner. Gotta keep them away

FourBee · « **Reply #44 on:** May 21, 2010, 02:28:51 PM »

Quote from: Ron 1 on May 21, 2010, 10:20:50 AM

kinda off subject
but my cat has moved her 4 kittens in to the chicken coop to raise them. kittens are 2 weeks old now and starting to move around pretty good. so they are out of the nesting box once in a while the chickens dont seem to mind or bother them. cats living with the chicken kinda weard to me. the mother cat has sat by the door and watched the lil banny chicks and has not touched them.
weard or what has anyone else ever seen this? or something simaler? rw

Ron; When my kids were growing up I milked a cow twice a day and the smell of fresh milk drew stray cats to the barn, which my daughter took up with all of 'em and their litters of kittens. We probably had 20 or more cats out there. None ever came to the house and were afraid of humans, except for my daughter. I'd go out to milk, and the cats would sit at a distance and watch me, waiting for me to squirt a long stream of milk in their faces, but that's as close as we ever got to one another.

She also raised a gaggle of goslins once, and they followed her around like she was their mamma. For some strange reason the cats never molested the chickens or their brood of chicks.

burntmuch · « **Reply #45 on:** May 27, 2010, 09:45:35 AM »

the cornish rocks went to freezer camp. We butchered them today. out of 10 birds ,we got 35-40 lbs of meat. We mostly did leg quarters , breast & wings. We kept 2 as whole birds. My wife & 9 year olds helped. The girls plucked. I gave them a dollar a bird. They did pretty good. MY wife not so much. She was looking to get out of the whole process, So she just did the final clean up & packaging of the meat. Ive got 15 more lined up for July. Making them a September butchering. Gonna try some different ones, Freedom rangers this time. They grow a little slower, & are better at free ranging. Cant complain about these cornish rocks though. They ate, pooped & grew big breast. In just under 8weeks. Just kinda a ugly bird.

FourBee · « **Reply #46 on:** May 27, 2010, 05:39:07 PM »

burntmuch; I've found that the free range chickens are kinda tuff when it comes to eating them. Too much exercise I guess.

Cornbelt · « **Reply #47 on:** May 30, 2010, 09:14:11 AM »

If you get cockrels or know how to sex birds, you can caponize them to make the meat more tender. Takes longer to fry though.

FourBee · « **Reply #48 on:** May 30, 2010, 10:03:02 AM »

I've casterated cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, and helped with horses, but I ain't NEVER seen it done on a chicken.......

I still can't tell the difference between a young poult and a cockrel anyway.

burntmuch · « **Reply #49 on:** May 30, 2010, 01:36:51 PM »

I watched a video on caponizing young roos. Not sure if I wanna get that in depth.

Scibaer · « **Reply #50 on:** May 30, 2010, 01:51:56 PM »

well my wife finally caved in, she is on board with me getting some chickens.
what i envision is a 5 or 6 , easter eggers, wyandottes or americuana's..
eggs are my goal, but they will get eaten when the time is right..
i got some lumber today to start on a small tractor coop

burntmuch · « **Reply #51 on:** May 30, 2010, 02:00:21 PM »

Quote from: Scibaer on May 30, 2010, 01:51:56 PM

well my wife finally caved in, she is on board with me getting some chickens.
what i envision is a 5 or 6 , easter eggers, wyandottes or americuana's..
eggs are my goal, but they will get eaten when the time is right..
i got some lumber today to start on a small tractor coop

Good for you. My wife & kids enjoy them almost as much as me. You ll have fun.

Scibaer · « **Reply #52 on:** May 30, 2010, 04:38:08 PM »

i sure hope so,

what i need now , is some plans on what to and how to build a small coop, what to put inside or how to set it up
i been looking at back yard chickens dot com, but aint found what i want...
and a good place to get some peeps, when thier new home is done

burntmuch · « **Reply #53 on:** August 08, 2010, 11:50:49 AM »

My hens are finnally laying eggs. Im betting 4 of the 7 hens are laying. This morning I had an omelette with farm fresh eggs & peppers from the garden. Gunna be placing an order for 20 more meat birds. Freezers getting emptied out. My kids love chicken dinners. So far my chicken thing is a success/. Added bonus was I got to introduce my Henry 22 mag to a couple young coons eary on morning.

blind ear · « **Reply #54 on:** August 10, 2010, 04:37:28 AM »

Layers must have seen the fryers leave for freezer camp. ( Would make me strain some.)