We are playing with the idea of a regular video blog entry. We can use this to answer direct questions from readers or just to address questions we are regularly asked…or just to have fun.
So. Here we are having fun. It’s a little weird for us too.
Let us know if there is anything you would like to see. Nothing is off-limits, even for remote viewers. So do us a favor. Ask us something in the comment section.
I love my rifle. I never imagined myself saying something so…redneck. But I do. Last winter a mink had a chicken by the neck…total hostage situation. One shot took out the mink and saved the bird. Raccoons molesting my turkeys? Problem solved. Rabbits escape their pens? Got it handled. Recently I have had an issue with a something tearing open bags of feed in my shed. Early this morning the wife called out while walking the dog, “It’s a skunk”.
My poor rifle has never been used this early in the morning and was still asleep but it didn’t complain. It fired two shots at the skunk. The first shot scared it enough that it stopped running. The second shot was clean…instant. He didn’t know anything happened. One second there was a skunk. The next second there was dinner for a vulture. In fact, the vultures really seem to like him.
That little stinker didn’t just stop at feed bags. He’s been digging in my garden and generally stinking up the place. I don’t mind a skunk if it just scavenges away from the house. When they try to move in I have to take action. I think he was digging up worms. I need those worms…
I’ll say it again, I love my rifle. It’s just what I wanted. A stainless steel Ruger 10/22 with a few minor modifications. It’s the cat’s meow. Take some time to understand the gun laws where you homestead. Learn to use the tool properly. It’s a real help at times when homesteading.
Several customers have requested help figuring out how to use a whole chicken without feeding part of it to the dog. This is more of an issue for singles and empty-nesters than for parents of hungry teens. I would like this to be a regular feature but I’ll get started simply. Forgive me if I go too fast. Feel free to ask for more detail in the comments.
We try to get three meals out of a chicken for the six people in our house. Most commonly we thaw the chicken well, mix melted butter, garlic, salt and pepper, give the chicken a good coating of the mixture inside and out, place most of a quartered onion in the vent hole and the remainder in the flap at the neck. We place the bird in a cake pan with the breast up and bake at 350 for about 15 minutes per pound. As the bird bakes, the breast will brown. My youngest son likes flaky skin but you can get carried away. When it’s brown enough for your taste, cover the breast with a tent of aluminum foil until it is finished. We usually fight over the leg quarters with the evening meal. The girls eat a bit of the breast too.
After supper we cut off the remaining breast meat for use in another meal and place the carcass in a stewpot with half an onion, a few carrots, a bit of celery and a splash of vinegar. We usually let this stew for at least 24 hours helping drain the bones of all minerals (see Susan Fallon’s Nourishing Traditions.) Then we separate the broth from the meat and bones. We sometimes stop here and just can the broth which you can use for anything. More often we add the meat back in, add a freshly chopped half of onion, a few carrots and a few stalks of celery along with a few spices. We allow this to boil for around 30 minutes while we make noodles.
You’re not done with those chicken bones! When they are finished boiling they will be soft and crumbly rather than brittle. Soft bones are no longer a choking hazard for the dog or pigs, the cat will love them or they will compost quickly. You can still find uses for them even when you’re finished eating…there is no waste.
By doing this we can feed six people at least three times, usually with a bit of leftover chicken soup for the pigs. This kind of use makes a $15.00 chicken easy to swallow. If you picked the bones clean at the first meal (as sometimes happens) you should still be able to make a good broth out of the carcass. If nothing else, you can use the broth to make the best mashed potatoes you have ever eaten.
Now, I think we’re doing a good job being frugal with the bird but my sister can do even better. She’ll be publishing a series here on how to really stretch a chicken. I’m looking forward to it…even if I’m not a big fan of mayonnaise.
We processed our 600th bird with our Featherman equipment. We did 56 birds in a little under an hour with just two adults early Sunday morning. I was kill/scald/pluck/head and feet removal…as usual. My wife hung them on the shackles and eviscerated, inspected and placed in the pink chill water. Our kids woke up and joined us when there were a few birds left. I was happy to see this pace though we haven’t broken any records. In Pastured Poultry Profits, Salatin says he did 150 birds in 2.5 hours with his wife and young son helping. I think that’s doable, we just aren’t quite there yet.
We need about an hour to scrub and sterilize the work area. We need an hour to process 60 birds. We need an hour to clean up and compost. Then we need about 2.5 hours per 60 birds to package them because I had so many cut-ups. Yikes!
The packaging process is the worst. It’s a big chunk of the reason I need $3 per pound tending toward raising the price. Darby reminded me, “You may as well do nothing for nothing as something for nothing”. Something has to change on the packaging front. Something has to change. A label printer would save a few seconds and a bit of frustration. Working to get a good scald would save a bit of time cleaning up birds before packaging. Otherwise, it just takes time to cut and bag them.
I stand by the Featherman review I published earlier. The kill cones are great. The scalder does a good job but I have found the burner to be a bit fiddly. The roto-dunker needs work as my fingers are cut from sharp edges on the dunker and the motor isn’t powerful enough. The plucker does a fine job on the birds and the shackles are awesome. Porter Pond Farm offers independent verification of the issues I am having with our processing equipment.
Raising chickens is easy…even with Cornish Cross. We lose less than 2% of the birds to natural death. The percentage goes up just a little bit when you include accidental death from pre-teen feet and very rare accidents when moving the chicken tractors. Killing and eviscerating isn’t too bad. It’s manageable work. Packaging the birds in shrink bags is rough as cutting up and packaging parts eats away at the day.
I’m happy to report three 90 degree days later the compost pile is mostly containing the odor. I put in equal parts sawdust and chicken offal along with a bale of straw on top of it all. You can smell bad management. My management must not be too bad…but that means it can be better.
My grandmother never kept goats. She cooked. She reluctantly kept a small garden. She was never exactly a farmer. My uncle explained to me that she and grandpa had an agreement: she kept the house and he didn’t wash dishes and in return, he ran the farm and she didn’t milk cows.
Well. Things change. Here is my grandma the Sunday before Memorial Day holding a goat.
I’m sure grandma fed a goat last spring but I could only find a picture of my great-aunt Marion feeding Pixie.
I think that’s nice.
PS
See that hat on my son? It was in my car when my car was stolen last summer. I loved that hat. Sigh…
My wife and sister made cheese today. Sis took the whey home after canning it. I thought I would show it to you. Looks like lemonade, doesn’t it?
I wasn’t involved in the process but it looked pretty straightforward. This is similar to what they did, though they added 1/4 cup of vinegar to 2 gallons of milk to help it curd more. They made both mozzarella and ricotta.
Anybody out there making cheese? Soft cheese or hard?
The rabbits got out this morning. Again.
We have two hare pens. They found a way out of one of them. I couldn’t catch them so I put on my Elmer Fudd voice and went hunting wabbits.
5 fewer rabbits on the grass and 5 more in the freezer. Little stinkers. I’ll have to review the design of hare pen #2 because this is the third day they escaped.
How about a little backstory? My sister is visiting. We woke her up this morning with gunshots at 6:00. She rolled her eyes and went back to bed. Apparently there had been a conversation the night before about the frequency of gunshots in the city vs. out here…
Today is chicken butchering day. If you’re our customer you already know that…lol.
We had some operator issues with our Featherman scalder today. I started with a propane tank I knew was not full, expecting it to run out. It ran out…but I forgot to expect it. Consequently, we were late getting started and slow going. After the first 30 birds we thought we should go ahead and feed the kids breakfast. We started again hoping to push through in record time and as always happens…we failed. My pilot light went out in the scalder and I was paying no attention. It took forever to get that water up to temp again. Along the way we hand-plucked a ton of birds. No fun.
So we did 100 birds in 3 hours including clean-up. They aren’t packaged yet so I’m off to do that. I also have to expand my compost pile.
I also want to note that this is the third time my hands have been shredded by the Featherman roto-dunker. The baskets have sharp edges and twice today I cut my fingers as I was loading birds. Every time I have to stop, clean the wound and put on a band-aid. It’s another mark against the roto-dunker. Be careful, kids.
OK. Gotta go. Can’t be lazy today!
A friend said, “Chris, my wife wants to know what you feed those birds. She doesn’t want to eat any eggs other than yours.”
That’s always nice to hear.
We grind the Fertrell rations on the farm. In short it’s corn, oats and roasted soybean mixed with aragonite and Fertrell Poultry Nutri-Balancer. Fertrell Poultry Nutri-balancer is mostly soft-rock phosphate and includes kelp, vitamins and probiotics. Our layers get the layer ration free-choice along with whole kernel corn and oats. They also get oyster shell free choice (makes the egg shell harder). Finally, they get a new patch of pasture every third day so there are always fresh greens and bugs available to them.
This all changes in the winter. We winter the birds (and rabbits) in our greenhouse on deep bedding offering them the same feed along with several flakes up to a bale of hay daily. The deep bedding provides most of their protein requirements, prevents odors, generates warmth and makes great fertilizer for our gardens. The hay gives them a source of greens and seeds in winter and helps build up the bedding further.
That’s the plan anyway. Who knows what will really happen. Might be even better once I get the other greenhouse built.
Sweet Pea had her kids today. The darker one is male, the lighter is female…the opposite coloration Olive gave us. No names until later. Don’t want to become attached and get bad news. You know, we have fought and fought to keep sick animals alive and it almost always ends in tears. Last year it was a goat we named Shivers. Poor Shivers. I made her a sweater then buried her in it. Nope. No names yet.
I came home from work and my breathless son ran up to the house to tell me what was going on. “Sweet Pea is having kids! There’s a big problem! The back feet are coming out first!” Then he was off.
It was a problem. She labored a long time with the darker one coming out breech. Wife assisted with both as Sweet Pea was tuckered out when the second came around.
“Dad! The second one came out! There was a weird bag then the bag popped and we saw a head!”
What did your kids learn in school today?
Chism Heritage Farm 