Ridgerunner
Garden Master
- Joined
- Mar 20, 2009
- Messages
- 8,229
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- Location
- Southeast Louisiana Zone 9A
That is a GREAT feeling!!! I felt the same, this winter, bc my incubation was a bust last year, so I have 5 EE's that are going on 3yo and my (two freebie) Silver Lace Wyandottes finally broke to two month egg drought in December. (SLW's lay brown eggs, so you can tell.) This morning I had two brown eggs and 1 blue. I have PLENTY of friends who want any leftover eggs, and my DD's eat a lot of HB's ones, too.
Have you heard about the new breed that lays super blue eggs, yet?
https://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/whiting_true_blue.html
Speaking of incubating, I turned a 100 gallon steel water tank (had a leak) into my brooder. I have always been wary about using a heat lamp in my barn, and got REALLY spooked when my friend told me that Her friend burned her barn down by knocking a lamp over!
Anyway, my ~6' x 12' tool shed used to be a chicken house at one time. There is even a screen door inside of the outside door made of painted hardware cloth. It has a cement floor and two outlets, and I'm moving my brooder in THERE this Spring to be safer. I am pretty much the only one who uses it, so I can keep my cats away from the "fuzzy eggs", as they like to call baby chicks.
Don't know if it bothers you, but I butcher my--- own chickens. The taste is so much different from store bought. People argue about this---I believe that they mix sawdust with feed to stretch it and keep chicken cheap--but I KNOW what my birds eat. I prefer to incubate myself and since you always have 2/3 roosters, I like to butcher them at 2-3 months old and send to "freezer camp." After a year the birds get tougher except if you take them right after a molt. Still, older birds need to be cooked longer and lower.
I love my SLW's!! They can be handled, but they handle take heat and cold better than my EE's and better than the RIR's that I used to keep. Plus they don't take any guff from the roosters.
(Both RIR hens and roosters are aggressive!)
Those blue egg layers aren't cheap are they? And they are pretty poor for meat form the stats. I'm OK with making my own.
When I get a new heat lamp the first thing I do is throw that clamp away so I'm not tempted to use it. I wire it securely in place so it can't be knocked over by me or anything else.
I'll argue. I think the main difference in taste is due to age. As they get older any meat animal develops flavor and texture. The same thing happens with beef, mutton, goat, any other meat animal. The chickens you get in the store to eat are mere babies, 6 to 8 weeks old. And they usually inject brine and other flavorings in their chicken. It's no wonder they taste different form ours. I've cooked some pretty old roosters and had them come out tender and tasty, but you do have to adjust cooking methods based on age. And they do have flavor. What they eat can make a little difference, but I really think the main difference is age.
Rebbetzin, it's great to see you getting eggs again. I know you really missed your chickens.
Not real worms of course. But when you tear bologna it tears around the slice to make long, curly strips. The girls went WILD for them. 
Have you seen the year-old happy meal thing?
