Backyard broiler update -- Week 8

A whole lot of stuff has happened in the last week.

I went out to check on the broilers Saturday morning and found that the water bucket on chicken tractor v2.0 was empty!  That has never happened before.  So I filled it up.  Then I saw why it is empty.  One of the poultry nipples was leaking.  It looked like the silicone didn't hold.  I don't know if the birds pecked at it or what.  Anyway, when it started dripping again the birds attacked it.  And I mean attacked!  All 5 of them went nuts on the thing and eventually got it out of the pipe.

I took it out of the tractor so I could repair it.

A little silicone and a few hours later everything was well again.

The birds finished their last bag of feed on July 3, and had to get by on the layer feed until July 5.  I normally get 18% feed at Agri Supply but they were out last time.  I was able to pick up some 20% feed at Hudson's on July 5.  The 50 lb. bag was $18.59.

Sunday was my biggest adventure yet.  One of the roosters was making a lot of noise and fighting.  So he passed his advanced placement classes and graduated early.

Then last night, Tuesday, the water bucket was empty again!  So I took the waterer out and reapplied silicone again!   I put it back in this morning and it looked like all was well.  When I got home tonight the bucket was low and the nipple was leaking.  Argh!

I don't like to fix things more than once.  I took the pipe out and found a more permanent solution.

Duct Tape.

You're supposed to have one poultry nipple for every 3 birds.  I have 5 birds in the tractor and only until Saturday.  They should be fine with two nipples.

So far the fix is working.

Here they are at 8 weeks.  I see them laying down a lot.  They haven't been living up to their Freedom Ranger name by being very ranger-y.  Then again, I haven't given them a ton of freedom by keeping them in tractors.

Growing lettuce

I don't make any claims about being an expert gardener.  It's only been a hobby of mine for a few years.  I continue to learn a lot each growing season.  That said, I've always heard that lettuce is a cool weather crop and that it doesn't do well in the summer.  Well, I've been having pretty good luck with it this year.

I've tried direct sowing lettuce before.  I don't get good results.  Why?  The seeds are so small that I just toss them.  Then stuff grows and I don't thin it out properly.  I always feel bad about yanking plants out that are growing well.  Then they get too crowded and don't do well.  I've found that I can avoid this by starting lettuce in pots.  I throw in a pinch of seeds and when they first sprout I take out all but one of them. 

A few weeks ago (probably in May) I started lettuce seeds in my garage.   It took them a while to get going, but they've done well.  I've kept them under shop lights.  Rather than dealing with watering each individual container I put them in trays.  Then I pour the water in the tray and it gets absorbed from the bottom up.

I started a lot Romaine, and some leaf lettuce

 

I've been slowly transplanting the lettuce from the garage to my raised beds.  I haven't done it all at once for two reasons.  One, I haven't had room in the raised beds.  And two, if I stagger the plantings then I can stagger my harvests. 

Romaine at various stages of growth.

There are two big Romaine heads in the back and a smaller one in front.

I cut back my oregano to make room for this one.

This is some leaf lettuce I put in the other day. 

I even put lettuce in my front island next to a blueberry bush.

After cutting bunch of lettuce for dinner tonight I had room for this one.  It was a little sad, but some water should cheer it up.

Backyard broilers -- Early Graduation.

I went out this morning to check on the birds like I do every morning.  One of the birds, the very rooster-y looking bird was squawking loudly and fighting with the other birds.  I wouldn't call what he was doing crowing.  It wasn't the standard cock-a-doodle-do, but it was loud.  I couldn't have that.  I have neighbors.  I didn't want him to be making a lot of noise for the next week or two.  So, it was time for him to go.  This decision was probably influenced by the fact that I'm impatient and wanted to know what I was in for.  I like to test things out on a small scale before going into production (that's basically what I do at work, only with computers which aren't nearly as messy).

After church I went out and grabbed the chicken out of the tractor, put him in a box and took him into the garage.  Then I had to get things set up.

Out of the 11 broilers he had the biggest comb by far.

From what I read, a killing cone is the most humane way to dispatch a chicken.  I didn't want to pay for a fancy aluminum cone, so I bought an orange 18 inch traffic cone at Home Depot.

18 inch traffic cone.

I cut the top off so the chicken's head would fit through.

I turned the cone upside-down and clamped it to two balusters that I had left over from building the second chicken tractor.  The balusters got clamped to saw horses and a bucket of pine shavings was placed underneath.

Newspapers still have a use after all.

I put a pot of water on the stove to boil.  While that was happening I did some reading to find out how to butcher a chicken.  It's amazing how much information is on the Internet.

Once the water was hot I set up the processing station.  I put up a table and covered it with newspaper.  I had various knives and scissors as well as gloves and a spray bottle with some bleach solution. Before starting, I cleaned all of my utensils and work surfaces (including the sink) with the bleach solution.

I stalled for 10 minutes or so before starting.  I had a cup of coffee and wandered the yard.  Then it was time to go.  I put the chicken in the cone and wouldn't you know it, it was too long and his head didn't come out the bottom.  I had to not once, but twice, cut more off of the cone and make it shorter.  I probably should have bought the 12" one instead.

The next part wasn't too fun, but it really wasn't that bad.  I had to slit his throat.  For that I used one of those breakaway razor knives available at Home Depot.  Supposedly if you use a sharp enough knife they don't even feel the cut.  Then they bleed out in about a minute.  Towards the end right before their heart stops they spasm.  That freaked me out a bit.

I waited a little while longer to make sure he was done and then washed him off in the sink.  From there he went to the pot of hot water.  That loosened up the feathers.  Pulling the feathers was a very time consuming task.  I had gloves on when I started, but they were too much of a hindrance so they came off.  Pulling the feathers on the table didn't work so well either.  I found that it was easier to do in the sink.  That way I could keep washing off the bird to find the ones that I missed.  I'm not entirely convinced that I got them all, but it was good enough to move on to the next step.

Then it was back to the cutting board.  I'm not going into a lot of detail here.  I basically followed the instructions on this site.  It wasn't that bad really.  I did put a glove back on when it was time to pull the organs out.  I saved the liver and gave it to my dog.  She sniffed it, looked at me, sniffed it again, and walked away.  I thought for sure she'd eat it.  Oh well.  It along with all of the internal parts and feathers went into a plastic bag and into the freezer.  They'll go in the trash next week.

I weighed the final product.  It came in at 3 lbs. 6 oz.  At $6.50/lb. (like at the farmers market) that works out to $21.94.

The whole process took about an hour.  I think most of that time was spent pulling feathers.  I've read that some people just skin the bird.  I might try that next time. 

Rabbit update - Week 1

We've had the rabbit for a week now.  So far things are going well.  My daughter has been checking on it every day.  She makes sure it has food and water.  When it's hot she gets ceramic tiles out of the freezer and puts them in the hutch.  She's even asked me to help clean the rabbit waste off of the tray. 

Otherwise, there isn't much to report.  Pretty much all the rabbit does is what you see in the picture.  I just sits there and looks cute.  Sometimes it'll drink or eat.  That's pretty much it.  I've gotten too used to chickens.  They spend all day walking around, scratching the ground, pecking for bugs.  They're busy.  The rabbit is just happy to sit there. 

Ducks in the yard.

Here's a picture of the ducks in the yard.

They were out there for a good part of the afternoon yesterday.  They seemed to enjoy it.

Quack Quack -- Now we have ducks.

My daughter got her first rabbit the other day.  She plans on raising rabbits to sell for pets.  So my son decided that he'd like to raise ducks and sell duck eggs.  He got some books from the library and determined that he wanted Khaki Campbells.  They're a good layer.  So we split an order of ducklings with a neighbor.  They were hatched on July 1 and arrived in the mail on July 3.

Supposedly we got 3 females.  I'm not sure how they know when they're that little.

She won't be that little for long.  In three weeks they'll be in the yard.

They love, love, love the water.

Enough splashing, time for some rest.

I've always heard that ducks are messy.  I now know just how true that is.  They spend a lot of time in the water.  That gets the pine shavings soaked.  The water itself gets full of food and shavings and needs to be changed frequently.  My son has been pretty good about that.  He was playing at a friends house.  He came home to checked on the ducks and change their water and then went back to his friend's.  So already he appears to be learning some responsibility. 

I don't know why, but the ducks have attracted a lot of flies.  They're hovering around the cage and the food.  We didn't have that problem with 20 chicks in the garage so I don't know why 3 ducklings would attract them. 

They're eating plain old non-medicated chick feed.  I put a heat lamp in there with a 60w bulb, but I don't think it's really necessary. 

Backyard broiler update -- Week 7

I don't really have anything new to report.  The birds are another week older.

Me moving the tractor.

They could be ready to harvest as soon as next week, but I'm going to wait until they are at least 9 weeks old.  That'll give me a little more time to get ready.  I've never processed a chicken before, so I've been doing some research on the Internet.  It doesn't look too difficult.

I bought a 40 lb. bag of feed on June 25.  They finished it off today, July 3.  I stopped to pick up more, but there was none in stock.  They're going to have to eat some some of the 16% layer feed for a few days until I can get more.  I find it hard to believe that 11 birds can eat 40 lbs. of feed in 8 days.  At that rate I'm going to need another 80 lb. before they're done.

Look at the combs on the chickens in the picture below.  The one on the left in the back has a huge comb already.  The one on the right has nothing.  I think that guy on the left is a rooster.  It was a straight run order, so odds are they are split 50/50.  I just hope none of them start crowing before graduation day.