Do You Hear What I Hear??? Peep! Peep! Peep!

The chicks have arrived!!

I ordered 80 male Cornish Cross birds.....

The post office called me at 8AM

just as I had finished setting up

the water and food. 

This is what I came home with!! 

The box has 4 compartments that held 

20 chicks in each one!

Happy little peepers running all

around eating and drinking and

being merry!

Round Two

Here we go again!

Round two...

I know, I know!

Yes, they ARE very cute

when they are a day old!

Trust me... they are NOT so cute

at 9 or 10 weeks old.

**Just for the record**

Yes, the hatchery ships them

in these containers, usually 25 chicks to

a section. We order with a few other

families so when I take ours home,

they aren't so crowded.

Yes, they are shipped out at 1 day old.

IE: Hatched & shipped on Wednesday,

we get them EARLY on Friday!!

Yes, God is awesome the way he

designed birds! The chick is formed

from the 'white' part of the egg. Just

prior to hatching, the bird drinks in the

yolk part... all that liquid protein gives

the birds strength and durability to

get out of the shell and have the food

it needs for a day or two!!

Yes, they almost always all survive the

ride and do very well at growing!

Yes, when they arrive at the Post Office 

they are peeping and letting everyone know

that they are ready for water & grain! 

Yes, they really do arrive at the post

office and the post master 

gives an early morning phone call

letting us know they have arrived!!

******

I remember when I was just out of

high school....  I worked at a local bank

and one morning as I was walking to the

book keeping dept. the bank president

called to me as I was walking by his office....

"Check this out." Mr. Pettingill said to me.

"I got called from the Post Office at 4AM today

that my bees were in! He wanted to know how soon

I could come get them!"  Now, I know I was all bug-eyed

as I looked at the little buzzing box on his desk!!

He had a queen bee and her colony of 

15-20 THOUSAND bees! NO WONDER THE

POST OFFICE WANTED THEM OUT OF THERE!

Bees travel similarly to chicks...

1-2 days from shipping to arrival,

and they arrived all safe & sound!

He chuckled at my naive reaction...  he

was anxious to get his new 'babies' home to

their new home too! It's funny all the

things that travel through the mail!

We've thought about raising honey bees...

but, so far, it's just a thought!!

Chicks.... 3 Weeks Old

Here they are...  

3 weeks old & almost fully feathered!

We put them outside in the growing pen for

another 6 weeks of growth.

New Chicks Are Here

40 new chicks have arrived!

They look sooo small....  It's

hard to believe that all these little

buggers will grow into

full maturity in 8-10 weeks! 

A closer look....

Ben's little finger just can't wait to

feel the softness!

Sending Chickens To Freezer Camp

FOR MY SQUEAMISH FRIENDS...  PLEASE STOP HERE! 

DO NOT CONTINUE READING THE REST OF THIS POST!

I PROMISE THERE ARE NO GROSS PICTURES!

OK, you've been forewarned! Proceed with caution...

We got 30 day old chicks 9 weeks ago...

It is amazing how fast they grow!
(We lost 3 over the nine weeks)

This isn't our first time raising meat birds... 

but each year we learn a little something new

or something to do differently next time!

We belong to a group called

Small & Beginner Farmers of NH

where we share experiences and equipment.

Our family oversees the MPU (Mobile Processing

Unit) for our county. We teach others how to use

it and rent it out to members.

Above, you see the trailer that everything is

housed in... the removable 'cones' are attached to

the doors. We have portable pens that can be

set up (behind the door area) for the "poultry in waiting".

After the head is removed and blood drained,

the carcass is dipped in HOT water (about 150*)

in the scald tank for a few minutes, just until the
feathers can be pulled out by hand.

The Featherman Plucker works really well!

In just a few minutes the birds

are all ready for the next step!

Evisceration...  a fancy word which 

means 'to gut out'.

The chill tank... is kept filled with ice so that

the core temperature is brought down FAST

and they are ready for the freezer!

Sitting pretty.... awaiting bagging and

weighing and then off to 'freezer camp'!
(Average weight... 5.65 pounds)

All in all... the process is not bad or hard.

My husband and I finished up all

27 birds in just a few hours.

(Not including the clean up!)

As to cost effectiveness.... you decide.

I kept track of EVERYTHING this time around!

Our total price per pound is $1.29

We are happy!!

Sharing this post on

 Healthy 2day Wednesdays and

 Simple Lives Thursday!

Home Made Pesto Chicken

I was planning on making one of our family favorites for

dinner tonight.... PESTO CHICKEN!!

I had it all figured out only to discover that
I didn't have a jar of pesto in the pantry...

THEN, I stopped and thought about it...

I MADE PESTO IN THE FALL!!

I HAVE ALL THE PESTO I NEED IN MY FREEZER!

Here are a few blocks (ice cube sized) and

the bowl in 5-6 blocks all thawed & stirred! 

 The basic ingredients for my pesto chicken dish are:

pesto

cooked chicken

sliced almonds

sun dried tomatoes

pasta

 I boiled down a chicken (that we raised!) cooled it

and picked the meat off!! AND, I have almost

 3 quarts of chicken broth for a soup!!

 OK, my second dilemma was...  I didn't have any sun dried

tomatoes on hand either!  :( 

THE POOR PLANNING ON MY PART

turned into a terrific brainstorm!

I roasted 4 tomatoes (sliced, sprinkled with a little bit

of oil & garlic powder on a baking sheet).

 Roasted at 400* for about 20+ minutes... and YUM!!

I think I like this even better then the way I've been

making this dish over the past few years!

 I used ravioli instead of angel hair pasta!!

Boil the ravioli (or other pasta) until cooked, drain

and return to the pot.

Add the cooked chicken ... bite sized pieces,

sliced almonds (amount varies on amount of pasta)

I think I used about 3/4 cup.

Mix the chicken & almonds in then add the

pesto and re-stir well! NOW... add the final touch

roasted tomatoes!! Gently mix... and serve!

I may look odd, but the flavor was phenomenal!

GROWN AT HOME:

chicken (grown & processed at home)

basil (grown at home & made into pesto)

these tomatoes weren't grown at home,

but they were roasted at home!!

(This summer some of our home grown

tomatoes will be designated for roasting!)
Now, to check out making my own pasta!!

Shared on Simple Lives Thursday 44th Edition!!
Check out the awesome ideas everyone is sharing this week!!

Here Chick, Chick, Chick.... Building the Finishing Pen!

After taking a few years off, we've jumped back into raising meat birds again! I know, I know...  for those of you who get a bit squeamish, it's ok if you don't read any further! I'll understand. Just be careful on what you buy at the grocery stores... most of those meat products (aka: chickens, cows, pigs) weren't cared for as well as the 'local farmers' care for their animals. Ok, on with the task at hand!

We start our birds (layers & meat birds) in a BIG cardboard box! Actually, two dishwasher/washer/dryer sized boxes or 1 refrigerator box will work great!! Lay the box on its side. You'll need to keep the bottoms of the boxes but cut off one side piece. This becomes the opening or top of the brooder. Do this to both boxes and then slide the two together, kinda like an accordion! This way they have a small space to start with and as they grow, you slide them apart to give them more space! Clip a heat light in there and cover with a large screen! (a junked slider door screen works great!) This entire creation needs to be kept in a barn, garage, shed or basement for protection from the elements & predators!!

After about 3-4 weeks, your birds should be feathered ...  this is where we are at now!! After thinking this through and checking out a few different grower/finisher pens, we've decided to build ours! In the past, we had a pen that we dragged around the yard, allowing the birds to eat the grass etc. as well as grain. It is a great way to go, IF you can put them far enough away from the area that you also use as a yard! We've done it that way a few times. This time we are building a pen that will be movable (for storage purpose) and will stand over a portion of the garden that has been harvested and is ready to be put to rest for the winter! Reasons... additional fertilizer with NO shoveling! We'll see if this idea actually works out for us!

Pete is finishing the frame of the floor!

The plan: a pen approximately 7X10 with a slatted floor, size determined by the available scrap wood that we already have! We did purchase strapping to use as flooring and have spaces so HOPEFULLY the droppings will drop down to the garden area!

                                             There is 1/2 inch of space between the slats of inch strapping wood...

                                                                   Tweak is wondering what this project will become!

We have chicken wire for the sides and will have inserts of cardboard to protect them from chilly nights on one end! This may become wood eventually, depending on the needs and how this works out or maybe we'll use a tarp as a windshield! That is yet to be determined... 

Travis, Pete and Austin are stapling the chicken wire to
the sides. This should keep the chickens

 in and the unwanted critters out!

    The roof is sections of corrugated roofing.... with hinges so that

  we will have access to them from the top!

Ok, having a finish carpenter in the family can lead to more expensive projects then it could have been! But, this should last us for many years of raising birds!! Check out the opening...  pretty cool huh! Now I (the shortest one in the family!) can reach in to feed & water!   :)

  

Fortunately, we have scrap lumber around so we didn't have to purchase all of the materials. We are hoping to spread out the work of raising meat birds by doing 25 in the spring and then another 25 in the fall!! Maybe we can even toss in a few turkey chicks in the spring to be ready for the fall! (But, let's keep that little plan a secret for now!)   Check out other awesome ideas at Sustainable Eats look for the Simple Lives Thursday and look at some of the past issues!! There are some very creative people out there!! :)

The Adventures of Tweak....

Tweak loves going outside! Today he learned about rabbits & chickens....

The rabbits was nibbling grass & clover and Tweak wanted to play!

I wish I snapped the camera quicker then I did, he had his paw

in the cage and was trying to engage this guy to play!

Poor Tweak... after a while, I'm sure he was thinking.... BORING!

On to the next adventure....   wait, what was that? A BIRD... a BIG BIRD!!

Hmmm, i'm just gonna watch for a minute or two!

Oh No... she saw me! Maybe I can still catch her!

This was hysterical!! The hen ran and Tweak ran right after her...

She was squawking for all she was worth and alarming the others

and Tweak was rather bewildered at the noise and her

being so fast for only having two feet!!

FUNNY, FUNNY DAYS ON

THIS LITTLE FARM!