Just placed the rest of my 2013 chick orders!

[HotPepperQueen]

Chicken math has struck once again (I was not planning on any egg layers this year)- here is what is on the list!

Egg Layers/Lawn Ornaments:
2 Anconas
2 Mottled Houdans
2 Salmon Faverolles
(All due April 15th from McMurray)

Meat Birds:
60 Cornish Cross (due tomorrow from Schlecht's!)
10 Red Rangers (due April 15th from McMurray)
60 Cornish Cross (due July 1st from Schlecht's)

I already have 2 Buff Orpingtons, 1 Gold Sex Link, 2 Blue Andalusians, 3 Speckled Sussexs, 3 Black Australorps, 3 Columbian Wyandottes, 3 Welsummers, and 5 Easter Eggers. I am excited to add a few newbies to the mix. I lost a quite a few birds last fall and this winter due to age and drastic weather changes (those darn finicky Andalusians!) and it hasn't been the same. I have a big coop and it seems kind of empty :/ I can't wait for spring to see all the little buggers running around the lawn once again! It makes my heart happy to open the run door and have them crowd around me to get their treats. Oh and the cute babies aren't so bad either

 

[lesa]

What a fun mix! I really love having chickens. I will be ordering chicks this year, too. My old girls just aren't producing... I am going to order chicks for 2 friends- so as soon as I get their orders I will place mine. Not really looking forward to chicken dust in the house, but I guess you have to take the good with the bad!

 

[vfem]

Yeah, chicken math struck me HARD a couple weeks ago. MPC ran a special of 15 mixed bantams for $65 shipped. I didn't stop to think and checked out at work.

I lost a couple on the second day.... (1 drown) and now I have 12.

7 Silkies
2 Frizzle Cochin
1 Mottled Cochin
2 D'uccles

So excited except for the fact 8-9 of these will have to go.

 

[canesisters]

Why do they have to go????


Congrats to all on the new babies!!! I'm wanting some soooo bad....

 

[April Manier]

That's a lot of meat! A lot of beheading. Do you butcher in one day? Do you remove the feathers? How do you process them?

I usually just skin them, hack off the legs at the thighs with a lopper and take the breasts off. Then I make broth that I can from the carcasses.

 

[baymule]

Canssisters, what are you waiting on?? I live on a small lot in town and have a a coop/run in the backyard. I love my girls! I started with 2, then got 6 more, then got 20 that hatched at Christmas. Have had chickens for 4 years now, it is amazing how much leftovers, kitchen trimmings and garden trimmings they eat! Nothing goes to waste here. Plus, they are fun and give us lovely eggs.

About 8-9 of the 20 chicks I got look to be roos, they will go to freezer camp. After I get my feet wet butchering those, I may have to join the ranks of these-here "professional" meat chicken raisers!

You gotta get some chickies!

 

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

good luck with your new chickies! i hope all will be healthy when they arrive. just watch those salmon faverolles for color as they feather in. most hatchery faverolles have very poor coloring and may fool you into thinking you may have a roo in the mix-usually it is a dark/mixed colored pullet/hen. the usual first sign to look for is the foot feathers-cockerels tend to start showing black feathers down there and sometimes you'll see it in the wingtips as those grow out. also, watch them to be sure they are not getting picked on. they tend to be shy around other more dominant breeds.

i personally love my faverolles but i've seen some people not take to them because they can be skittish and shy when they come from hatcheries. mine came from breeders but they were mostly culls or ones i hatched myself.

 

[HotPepperQueen]

I recruit anyone and everyone I can on butchering day! I usually invite over about 11 family members and they get their processed chickens for only $1 over cost and I piece them out for free. My brothers and boyfriend dispatch them by cutting the arteries in the neck and letting them bleed out. Then dad, both grandpas, and my uncle dunk them in the hot water and pluck them by hand. After that they come to my table and I gut them out- all 60 by myself (no one seems to be able to do them up to my standards lol). Then they go into the house to my mom, aunt, great aunts, and both grandmas. There they get all the pin feathers out, clean them, piece them, package them, and make stock with the backs. Oh and I'm sure those butchered chickens get their fill of gossip while all those women are drinking their wine I usually have to step in at the end because they start slacking hehe. After everything is cleaned up we sit down to a big meal and bonfire. Every one looks forward to butchering day- it's usually a hoot. We have a lot of good memories.

 

[897tgigvib]

Such beautiful birds! Wish I could have some, a bunch, for eggs and for pets, and for manure and compost.

 

[HotPepperQueen]

Why can't you have hens in your neck of the woods, Marshall?