Cook Your Bird! 09/28/2011
 The following is a great recipe that I've adapted from Food Network. Please comment and let me know how you like it! Enjoy! Ingredients
*The chicken is done when an instant-read thermometer reads 165 degrees F when inserted into the thickest part of the thigh (the legs of the chicken should wiggle easily from the sockets too.) 3 Comments The End 09/25/2011
I tried to calm the birds with classical music (below), but I think they knew something was up when I loaded them in the car yesterday. By the end of the day, they would be headless, featherless, footless, hollowed out and frozen in ice. Slaughtering was an awful experience, and I'm going to try not to extinguish any life for a long, long time. The experience was very educational, however, and now I'm an expert on preparing the carcasses of a winged creature. The video below is a general walk-through of the facility, set to the music of Ray LaMontagne (music helped lighten the mood). Here's the run-down: you kill the chickens, put them in hot water to loosen up the feathers, then place them in machine that plucks those feathers out. Next, you open up the carcass and get all the entrails out (gizzard, intestines, liver, gall bladder, heart, lungs, etc.), and then dump what's left into a cold bath. Soon after, it goes in the bag. Now it's to Richmond to sell off the birds. Wish me luck! Week Seven and Eight 09/20/2011
For the past several weeks, the chickens have done nothing but eat grain and waddle around the yard nipping at grass. They seem to be a happy bunch, and not a single predator has yet to infiltrate their sleeping quarters. The grain cost is hard to bear--it's just one $12 bag after another--and I'm looking forward to getting some return on this enormous (for me) capital investment. On Friday I'm headed to Charis Eco-Farm in Staunton where I'll finish the job, and then it's down to Richmond for deliveries. My daily schedule now is letting them out in the morning and penning them up in the evening. Oftentimes I just let them wander around all night if the moon is out. The birds aren't quite as big as I hoped, unfortunately, probably because I encouraged strong forage instinct and thus a leaner lifestyle. It's a widely agreed in the poultry industry that strong, healthy, lean birds taste better overall than fleshy, fatty ones. Makes sense; I'm sure cannibals would prefer Michael Phelps to Michael Moore. In this photo, the birds are fairly wet due to a drizzle that lasted throughout the night. In the video below, I moved them to the bard so they could stabilize their body temperature and continue to eat grain stress-free. Week Five and Six 09/01/2011
Until now I never thought to ask the following question: if Joel Salatin, King of Pastured Poultry, lets the chickens that lay eggs get to walk around the pasture, why doesn't he let the ones that don't lay eggs? A good friend alerted me to the injustice, so I opened the cage and let my birdies flap their wings. For the past five mornings, I've dropped off some breakfast and let the chickens out to mill about the field for the day. In the evening I come with dinner. They're usually hungry and thirsty, so all I have to do is clap my hands and they come scurrying back to the cage. They file in a feast and I close up the pen for the night. Just like that! You may have noticed above that I used the phrase "my birdies". I know, I know. You don't have to tell me that I should not be using terms of endearment as I talk about my livestock three weeks before I slaughter them all...but I can't help it! I love my little guys and there's a good chance and get all misty-eyed, re-sheath my knife, and let me chickens flap away to freedom on September 15. That's a joke, obviously, so don't worry if you've placed your order. And if these precious videos have warmed your heart, I can deliver the chicken alive so you can do the liberating yourself. One month! 08/30/2011
 The chicks have reached one month and, still, I have yet to lose a single one. They're drinking water and eating grain faster and faster, it seems, and without good bookkeeping I'd lose track of how many bags of feed I've bought at the co-op! For now, the most entertaining thing about the gang are crickets, which spring up from the grass after I let the chickens onto new pasture each day. One will grab the squirming cricket, cheep giddily, and run in circles as the rest chase after. After a couple second, the cricket will transfer to another chicken and so on. I'm using two waterers, as usual, and have started to dump grain onto the ground with a shower of water to moisten it. After gorging on dry feed, the chicks can continue to eat as long as its wet. The nights are cool these days so the chicks bunch together every night for warmth. As the video says, I'm going to transfer the chickens to a new tractor in town for easier access. I'll keep you updated on the move with photos and video. On the Pasture! 07/30/2011
 It's hard for any father to say it, but my babies are all on their own now! Last night at around 10pm I decided that they were getting too big for the brooder, weighing in at over 1 lbs. at 2 1/2 weeks of age. So, I secured the chicken tractor and brought them out in a plastic bin. Not as easy as it sounds. They were scared as could be and immediately huddled together with few peeps in the cool nighttime air. I felt like I was betraying them as I went to bed that night, but sure enough, they were still there in the morning. The head is of less concern in the tractor, I think, despite the lack of a box fan to blow over them. I think the cool ground temperatures, slowly absorbing the heat for the chicks, will keep the Fahrenheit danger in check. More details below.  Some more details, as described in the video above: Two waterers and two feeders are used to accommodate for the growing appetites and thirst of the chickens; 2x4's have been placed on either end where the tractor meets the grass, simply to block the entrance of predators; a white bed sheet has been placed over the whole tractor to keep things cooler during the day, and I may spray the top down later to cool things off; bricks have been implemented while I figure out a way to secure the top flap from predator entrance. Week 2 07/28/2011
 Hey everyone! The second week has passed and the chickens are doing great. All fifty are still chirping away and eating non-stop. They are beginning to lose their fuzz and get some feathers, a process known as "feathering out" that allows them to handle larger temperature fluctuations. For now they are still relatively vulnerable. I moved them from the small cardboard brooder to a larger, elevated plywood enclosure. See photo above. It has a screen front so they chicks can get fresh air, and I even draped a fan in front to blow in air on hot days. In the video above, I'm showing the area around the new brooder. We bought the rooster last week; Ain't he proud looking? In the video below, I'm removing the chicks so I can throw in a new layer of wood shavings. I detected a slight odor and found damp bedding, so I added another four inches. Several 103-degree heat waves passed through the Valley, but the peepies stayed cool and stress-free thanks to a box fan blowing in through the screen panel. Tomorrow, I'm moving the birds into the tractor! From then until September, they'll get a healthy dose of fresh grass and bugs each day. Any other events of note? I replaced the baby waterers for two larger ones. Lastly, I got some new feed; a 50 lbs. bag of non-medicated, 17% protein grow-and-finish pellet mix. I'm sure I'll be back for more next week. For two-week-old chicks, they sure do eat a lot. Week 1 07/21/2011
So Week 1 has passed, and so far, so good! I expected at least one mortality, but the whole flock just continues to prevail. The chicks are starting to feather out in the wings, and Brigid is convinced that they've tripled in size since arriving. I watch them so closely it's hard to tell, but I'm starting to believe her. The heat lamps are keeping things warm inside my little cardboard enclosure, about 90 to 05 degrees I think. In 24 hours they consumed 4 measuring cups of protein-heavy chick feed and 1 quart of water. So they won't hurt themselves reaching, I embedded both the feeder and waterers into 1" of wood chips. They just chirp nonstop, day and night, but it's kind of soothing. According to Joel Salatin, a chirping bird is a happy bird. Moisture is my biggest paranoia. Chicks leave oozy droppings and splash drinking water, and bacteria and parasites will eventually spread if those damp spots aren't neutralized with dry wood shavings. Coccidiosis, the infestation of any one of nine species of tenacious single-celled cysts called coccidia, is the sum of all fears for poultry-growers. In my brooder, there always seems to be a damp spot somewhere, no matter how many wood shavings I dump on. Salatin would say I can chill out as long as I change the bedding every 2 days during the first weeks in a brooder where each chick has 0.5/sq. ft. of bedding. I am following directions and am yet to see any bloody droppings or ill-looking birds, but I can't help to be paranoid. Also of concern: the free wood chips I've been getting have wood ash in them. It's all carbon and thus might help neutralizing the nitrogen droppings, or it might choke the birds to death. We'll see. It didn't help my anxiety when Brigid threw in her kitty, which I thought would start going for the chicks' throats. Sure enough, the cat was more scared of them than they were it. See for yourself in the videos above and below. Enter Chicks 07/21/2011
 There's something weird about going to the post office and picking up cardboard box filled with peeping day-old chicks. The night before, I'd gotten word that my 50 Cornish Cross chicks had arrived in the Harrisonburg P.O., and that whole night I was worried about them. According to books, chicks absorb all their yolk before hatching, providing just enough energy to sustain them for about 72 hours without food or water. Almost 60 hours had passed when they arrived in Singers Glen P.O.. I saw the mail-man outside, loading his Jeep. "I would've taken 'em to ya, but my route's a bumpy one," he said. "They sound like they're thirsty!". This clearly wasn't the first box of chicks he'd handled. You know you're in the country when the mail-man knows anything about day-old chicks. So I picked up my babies for the first time and carried them to the 4Runner. Back at the farm, I activated their instinct to drink by dunking their beaks in water, and dropped them, one by one, the heat lamps of the brooder. And that's how my little chicks arrived. |  AuthorMy name is Ford Prior and I grew up in Richmond. I graduated from JMU this May with English & Spanish degrees. Now I'm apprenticing on a local organic farm. To save up, I'm installing gardens and raising chickens. |
