Ducks -- Week 2

My son got 3 ducklings at the beginning of July.  I haven't really written much about them.  There's a reason for that.  They aren't really my project.  My son is raising them.  So he gets to do all of the work!  I see (and smell) them when I go through the garage.  That's pretty much it.  He cleans the cage.  He makes sure they have water and food.  In that regard things are working out well.  This was a project for him to learn some responsibility and earn some money in the process. 

Here he is hosing out the bottom of the cage.

I've been told by several people that, "Ducks are messy."  OK, what does that mean?  It means they get into their water and get it everywhere!  I don't know how they do it.  They have a 1-quart waterer in the cage with them.  Somehow they manage to soak every last pine shaving that's in there.  It doesn't seem like there's enough water in there for them to do that.  The wet mess attracts flies, lots and lots of flies.  And it doesn't smell so great.  Luckily they should be going into the yard pretty soon. 

It only takes them a few hours to do this.

I bought a mixing tub the other day to give them the chance to get in more water.  They loved it!  My son put it on the deck and filled it with water.

I don't know if their stomachs are supposed to look like this or not. 

They grown a lot, but still don't have feathers.  I'm not sure if that's normal or not.

  They're so stinking cute that you can stay mad at them for being so messy.

 

How are the tomato stakes working out?

Back in May I put up a post about tomato stakes.  I cut down saplings in the woods,cut them to 8 feet in length, and pounded them in the ground to hold up my tomatoes. 

May 12, 2013

June 28, 2013

July 17, 2013

They haven't quite reached the top of the stakes yet, but they're getting close.

They've been producing a lot of tomatoes.  Most of them are Romas.  I don't know why my beefsteaks are taking so long to produce.  

I'm happy to be getting so many, but I'm disappointed that they're half the size that I expected them to be.

Backyard broiler update -- Week 9

I mentioned last week that the birds were looking kind of lazy and that they were spending a lot of time laying down.  So this week I decided to start letting them out into the yard. 

They loved the mulch on this island.

Here they are in the grass.

They haven't had total freedom.  I decided to start by letting them out in the evening for an hour before it got dark.  The first time I tried it the layers were out.  They didn't take kindly to the new birds on their turf.  I'm not sure why.  They've been snooping around the tractors since I put them in the yard.  Anyway, there was some fighting and pecking.  Since then I've been keeping the layers separated by fencing them into their area by the coop.

I've only been letting the 4 broilers from the original tractor out.  That one has a door on it which enables them to go back in on their own.  The new tractor only has access from the top.  They don't wander far.  They're too big.  They're all wobbly and and unstable.  Supposedly they can grow to live weight of 6 lbs.  The last ones I processed were 3.5 lbs when done.  I don't know what they weighed live, but I have hard time imagining them getting much bigger.  I'll find out soon enough. 

I thought I got all of the males last weekend.  I think I might have one more.  I have one bird with a small red comb.  It's smaller than what the other males had, but bigger than what the rest of the birds have.  Unless he starts making noise I'm going to hold off on processing him for another week.  I need a week off of doing that.

As for food, we got a bag of 16% feed on July 15.  It was $13.74.  After seeing them stumble around the yard I thought that maybe a lower percentage of protein wouldn't be a bad thing for the last two weeks.  I don't know if it'll make much of a difference or not.  

Freedom Ranger at 9 weeks.

Backyard Broilers Graduation Round 1

The birds are now eight and a half weeks old and real close to reaching maturity.  According to the hatchery web site, "The males usually start trying to crow at around 8 weeks old or possibly earlier."

Out of the 10 I had left, three of them were males.  Since I got some experience processing a chicken last weekend and since I had some time this weekend, I decided that they should go in the freezer.  I really didn't want to take the chance of having them crow.

I set up the garage as I did before.  I discovered last time that the worst part of the process is removing the feathers.  I thought that I might be able to get around that step by just skinning the whole bird.  So that's what I did with the first one.  The result?  It was no easier.  It certainly didn't save me any time.

Skinless bird #1.

So for the second bird I had a pot of nearly boiling water.  That worked very well.  I'm wondering if I didn't have the water hot enough last week.  The feathers came right off.  I used the same water for the third bird.  Unfortunately the water had cooled off too much.  I was able to get some of the feathers off, but it was difficult.  I had to get another pot of boiling water to finish it.

So the lesson I learned for next time is to keep a pot of hot water handy for each bird.

I also found that things got better with each bird.  I didn't really have any problems with the first two, but the third one just seemed to go so much better.  I didn't time how long it took me to process each bird, but from start until I cleaned everything up was about 3 hours.  I'd really like it to take less time than that, but I'm not sure how to speed things up.  That's still one hour per bird.

What was most remarkable this time was the weight of the birds.  They were all within 1 oz. of each other.  It'll be interesting to see how much the rest of the birds weigh when they are processed. 

3 lbs. 8.3 oz.

3 lbs. 7.5 oz.

3 lbs. 7.9 oz.

I can say for certain that this isn't something that I want to do on a regular basis.  It's not the most pleasant thing.  At the same time I realize that if I'm going to eat meat, an animal's life is going to be taken.  At least these birds got to live outside in the fresh air.  They got to eat bugs and grass.  They weren't kept in the dark sitting in their own waste and eating antibiotics and grain for 6 weeks until their demise. 

Grill rehab

My wife got me a grill for my birthday in 2006.  It's seen better days.  I made quick look at grills on Home Depot's site.  They all cost a lot more than I wanted to spend on one.  So I thought I'd just buy parts and replace them.

About the only thing salvageable inside was the grill rack itself.  I remember replacing it along with the heat shield several years ago.

The front of the grill didn't look too bad.

The back was in need of some paint.

The warming tray was completely rusted and even missing in places.  It went in the trash. 

I thought I might be able to save the heat shield, but it wasn't worth it.

The burner itself was rusted and had holes in it.  This is what prompted the rehab in the first place.

I started by removing all of the parts pictured above.  There was all kinds of nasty chunks of carbon and other burned stuff.  I hosed it out good with the garden hose.

Just about everything came out of there.  There were only a few minor spots that had to be scraped with a wire brush.

I ordered a new burner from Amazon.  It required some minor assembly.

Installing the burner was easy!  The knobs control valves that are attached to short pipes.  Those pipes slide right into the the lines on the new burner.  They are held in place with cotter pins.

I checked Home Depot for a new heat shield.  They had 3 different ones in stock and they were all 18" long.  That wouldn't work for a 26" grill.  So I had to go to Lowes.  They had a heat shield that would work for me.  (I'd add a link, but I can't find what I bought on their web site.  It was $12.99.)

I got a new warming rack from Amazon and a new push button ignitor (for ~$10 at Lowes).

The last thing I did was paint the exterior of the grill with some high temperature spray paint.

Back

Front

Here it is fired up and working.

I didn't light it up for very long.  The paint had only been dry for an hour.  I want to wait longer than that before using it. 

I don't know about the new ignitor.  It didn't light the grill the first few times I attempted to use it.  So I had to re-adjust it several times before it finally worked.  When I tried it again later I almost lost my eyebrows.  So the verdict is still out.  I may just continue to light the thing with a lighter.  We've been doing that ever since the last ignitor quit working a few years ago.

In total I spent around $80.  I could have done it for a lot less by just replacing the burner.  But I figure if I'm going do do something, I might as well do it right.  I still spent less than I would have on a new grill, and with any luck these updates will last us another 3-5 years or more. 

 I have a feeling that we'll be using it again real soon.

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.