YTD Egg Stats

Total eggs in May: 149

Total eggs YTD: 619.  Divide by 12 = 51.5 dozen

51 dozen multiplied by an average grocery store cost of $3 = $153 retail value

Not too shabby for 5 hens!  I can't wait until the other 20 (yes, twenty!) hens start laying in June!

Bunnies!!!

The past few weeks, we've been breeding bunnies.  We have 4 does and so far we've bred:
Bunny #1 on 5/16
Bunny #2 on 5/23
Bunny #3 on 5/30

We will breed Bunny # 4 on 6/6. 

Bunnies have a 30-day gestation, so Bunny #1 should have babies on or around 6/15 and the next three weeks, we should have a litter from the others.  An average size litter is 6-10 kits.  Over the next 1 1/2 months, we'll potentially have around 40 more bunnies to raise, which will be for meat.  We've both only had rabbit in restaurants - we've never had it fresh, nor have we ever cooked it ourselves, so I'm anticipating some experimenting will need to be done.  Hope we like rabbit!

Egg count

30 eggs this week.

Building a brooder

We are currently in the process of building a permanent brooder for small poultry.  Our immediate need is for 10 turkeys we have in a temporary brooder in the garage.  The brooder will be large enough to have the heat lamp in it for warmth and also enough room for the birds to roam around.  Additionally, it will be slightly over 6-foot tall so Dan can walk around in it without stooping.  Here are Dan and Brian mid-project....

Gang #2

We decided that chicken gang #2 are old enough to go out foraging with the ladies.  We were curious to see how they would interact with each other.  And more importantly, how the rooster would interact with the ladies.  We decided to wait until it was late in the day to let them out, just to give them a taste, then at dark they went back into the coop.  We really didn't even expect them to leave the chicken run.  When the ladies were their age, it took them a couple of days to get the courage to go out.  Not so with this gang.  The door to the run was only open about 20 minutes before they started venturing out.  And they ventured much further, sooner than the ladies.  Here is their maiden voyage...

Egg count

26 eggs this week.

Chicken Tractor

This is a chicken tractor...

Today is moving day for our broiler chickens to their new home.  Dan constructed an 8x8x2 chicken tractor where they'll live out the rest of their lives.  Prior to today, they've been living in a brooder (a small enclosed area with heat lamps to keep them very warm).  However, part of the point of raising our own chicks is so that they can forage to eat fresh grass and bugs.  Factory chickens never have this basic opportunity.  Here are our 20 Cornish Cross broiler chicks going into the tractor...

The beauty of a chicken tractor is that it's fairly lightweight, so it can be moved by hand.  (No tractor involved, dispite the name.)  Half of the the tractor is chicken wire to allow for ventilation and the back half is covered to provide shade and refuge from rain.  The lid opens up so we can get in and out.  Each day or two, after the chicks have had time to dine on everything available in their 8x8 area, the tractor is dragged down 8 feet, where the chicks will dine on fresh grass and new bugs for a day or two, so on and so forth.  Hopefully the chicks will have a happy, healthy life and we'll have a tasty dinner.

Moving day... Saturday

We can see the Cornish Cross' growing each day.  They're getting bigger and rounder (is that a word?).  This weekend is supposed to be sunny and warm, which is the perfect weather to move them to their new home.

Crazy birds!

Our Cornish Cross' are getting big.  When they say these birds are bred to quickly produce meat, it's no joke!  We have their chicken tractor ready... we just need a few rain-free, warm days to put them out on the pasture so they can get acclimated.  About 5 more weeks until butcher time...

Egg count

28 eggs this week.

Turtle!

Just...

                 passin'.....

                                          through.........

From the dining room window, I spotted this large thing moving across the front yard.  I thought it looked like a turtle, but I wasn't sure because it was so darn big.  Normally turtles around here are about the size of your palm.  I grabbed my camera and ran outside.  Sure enough, it was a big 'ole turtle.  Here is my hand over it's shell to show the size of it....

Mmm... yogurt

Homemade yogurt, in fact.  It may not look quite as pretty as store-bought, but it sure tastes better!  This is  1 1/4 gallons of yogurt, which we'll probably have to share with the chickens because I don't know that two people can eat a gallon of yogurt before it will go bad.  I'm always amazed how easy and cheap it is to make homemade yogurt.  Here's the breakdown...

1 gallon whole milk - $2.25
2 cups dry milk - $ .50
Yogurt starter - Free if you saved a bit from your previous yogurt batch.  Otherwise, $.50 for a plain yogurt.

That's it!  The only other thing you need is a Tupperware container large enough to hold your milk, a heating pad and about 12 hours for it to sit.

TOTAL: $2.75 / 26 - 6oz servings = 10 cents per serving.

Sneaky!!!

One of my hummingbird feeders has been drained twice since we hung them not quite two weeks ago.  At first, I thought it had a leak.  I checked it out and no leak.  I chocked it up to very thirsty hummingbirds.  Yesterday afternoon I looked out the window and it was full.  I looked out again about 30 minutes later and it was half empty!  What the heck is going on!?!  I stood there watching it and discovered why it's emptying so quickly...  apparently we have very thirsty SQUIRRELS!!!

Signs of summer

Revamped corner planting bed contains Sedum, Minor Black Weigela and Petunias.  I can't wait until they all start to bloom and grow.  I also added rock this year instead of mulch to keep the rototillers (aka chickens) out.  It seems to be working great so far!

New bunny hutches

After we built bunny hutches several months ago, we realized they weren't quite right.  We had all of the girl bunnies together in one large hutch, which is not ideal when they're pregnant and after they give birth.  We also had a partial wood bottom, which isn't ideal as it requires a lot of work for sanitary reasons. 

This past week we've been building new wire cages for the bunnies that hang on the back of the chicken coop.  This also gives us another benefit.  Rabbits produce a lot of waste and if it just sits it creates ammonia.  Having the cages hanging up high allows the chickens to go in under them and mix up the waste while they look for worms, grubs, etc.  So the chickens are happy foraging, the rabbit waste gets mixed up naturally and we get some of the best compost available!  Win-win situation for all!

Here are the bunnies new home...

Chicken Processing Day

Here are step by step photos of our chicken processing on 5/8/10.  It was our first attempt and took us 2 hours to process 10 chickens.  Not lightning fast, but not too bad for our first time.

Here we have a pic of the Whizbang chicken plucker that Dan built.  This will keep us from hand plucking feathers right after it comes out of scalding hot water...

Here  is our setup...
Step 1 - chickens go into cones to slit throats and bleed out
Step 2 - into stainless pot with 150 degree water to loosen feathers
Step 3 - into Whizbang to remove feathers
Step 4 - onto table for butchering

Time to catch some chickens... in this case all of the Barred Rock cockerels that we don't want to keep.  After catching, they're held upside down which calms them down as blood rushes to their heads...

Into the cones they go.  After their throats are slit they instantly die, yet their hearts keep beating so they bleed out better than other butchering methods.  They need to hang here a few minutes...

After they've bled out, into the hot water for about 1 minute...

Now into the Whizbang.  You turn the drum on while spraying a little water and 30 seconds later, you have naked birds...

Now we start butchering...

The butchering is all done.  Just need to rinse the bird out and place in some cold water while we do the rest...

Egg count

30 eggs this week.

Meat birds!

20 Cornish Cross chicks.  These little eating machines will be dinner in about 8 weeks!

11 Heritage Bronze turkeys.  These will be for our Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners with a few left over to sell.

Homemade chili powder

I used the last of the store-bought chili powder making homemade taco seasoning.  So I decided to try my hand at homemade chili powder.  We've had some chilies drying since last summer that I've been meaning to use, but just haven't gotten around to it.  Today is the day!

½ cup rough chopped chilies of your choice. Remove seeds; set aside. Grind chilies to a powder.

1 tablespoon cumin powder
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon oregano
1 teaspoon smoked paprika

Put all spices/herbs back in the grinder along with seeds (whatever amount/heat you desire). I use about ½ of what I removed. Grind to combine and make more fine.

Egg count

27 eggs this week.