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Post by woodeye on Jun 2, 2023 7:33:12 GMT -6
But the next batch just hatched. Super cute. Yay!! Best of luck with the new chicks...🐣👍
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Jun 2, 2023 14:38:40 GMT -6
I saw a huge rat snake out on 670 Road a few days ago. He was probably 6' foot long and some change. It has been a long time since I've seen one that big around here. I just slowed down to get a better look at him and drove on.
When I find them in my henhouse, I usually relocate them to the opposite side of the River, but that one was over by Pee Wee's house, so I didn't bother it.
Back in the late '90s, there was a Park Ranger over at the Nature Center who said, "Any time you catch a rat snake, just bring it to me, I love those things! They make excellent exhibits that I can take out and handle for the kids who come here to visit."
Who knows how many summers I took him a snake that I caught stealing eggs from my nest boxes. He was always happy to see another one ...
Then one day, I caught a rat snake so big that it wrapped itself around my arm and was cutting the circulation off to my hand while I was driving. When my fingers started getting numb, I had to turn it loose in the car until I made the rest of the 5-mile journey to the Nature Center. When I finally got there, (expecting the same Park Ranger as usual), I opened both of the doors and began poking around under the seats, looking for the escaped snake.
After a few awkward moments, I was approached by a female Ranger who was acting very suspicious of my activity. When she asked me what I was doing, I told her that there was an escaped snake loose under the front seat and casually asked her if she wouldn't mind poking a stick under the passenger side of the seat, so I could grab it by the head when it came out my direction.
She jumped back in such shock that I thought she was going to draw her gun on me! She yelled, "YOU GET THAT SNAKE OUT OF HERE RIGHT NOW!"
When I tried explaining to her that this is where I always brought them for the other Ranger who was not on duty that day, she exclaimed, "DON'T YOU DARE TURN THAT SNAKE LOOSE IN THIS PARK!
IF I EVEN SEE YOU SLOWING DOWN ON THE WAY OUT, I'M CALLING FOR BACKUP!"
She made it pretty clear never to bring one of those there again.
Not everyone is as happy to see a good sized rat snake as the rest of us are.
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Post by FrostyTurnip on Jun 2, 2023 15:38:20 GMT -6
I guess your friend didn’t tell everyone what he was up too. And I think that was what Jarreth was pretty much worried about. LOL
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Post by FrostyTurnip on Jun 2, 2023 15:48:21 GMT -6
The chicks from the last batch were constantly uneasy, fighting a lot and screaming all night no matter our efforts. It was so bad, the kids started jump scaring them because their reactions were funny.
This batch is tender and docile and quiet, very content.
The first batch: We didn’t keep all the chicks in the incubator until all were completely hatched. The eggs were all different dates, perhaps. And we were impatient as well. I think we disturbed them too much during the incubation period, too.
This batch all hatched together within 24 from eggs all laid with 24 and I basically ignored them until lockdown. The brooder set up is the same, but the ambient temperatures are much warmer. This may also be a factor.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Jun 2, 2023 20:41:55 GMT -6
The latter part of this week has definitely been better chick-hatching weather than last week. Last week was pretty rough on the farm babies; with nighttime temperatures dropping into the low fifties. We had a baby, pre-fledgling crow here that got kicked out of its nest too early. He had too many mites on him to bring him inside, so my wife had been keeping him in a spare cage in the rabbit hutch and hand-feeding him for three or four days. He made it all last week, but was killed by last Sunday morning's extra-chilly low of 50 degrees.
When I went out to the rabbit hutch to feed him early that morning, he was already chilled to the bone. I warmed up a towel in the dryer to take out there to wrap around him, but he never recovered and died just shortly before church.
Mother Nature is a cruel babysitter.
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Post by woodeye on Jun 2, 2023 20:59:44 GMT -6
Great story, heavyhitterokra. The lady Ranger sounds like Barney Fife's sister. 😜
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Post by woodeye on Jun 2, 2023 21:04:08 GMT -6
It's great to hear that the new batch of chicks is doing so well, FrostyTurnip 😉
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Post by chrysanthemum on Jun 3, 2023 7:37:56 GMT -6
Frosty, I’ve watched that video several times now after you posted it. I’ve never seen anything like that. I noticed more things on my subsequent viewing like the cat joining the chickens. It’s hilarious.
Congratulations on your newest batch of chicks. Keep up the good work.
Heavyhitterokra, your story about losing the snake in the cab of your truck was pretty funny. I have to admit that I was surprised by the rangers reaction. I can see that from a different sort of person, but I do find it surprising from a person who chose a career in nature. We all have our particular triggers, though. I love nature and the out of doors, but I have a thing about spiders. Tarantulas and scorpions give me the willies to such an extent that I don’t like to look at them, but my kids take joy in telling me about them when they appear. Thankfully it’s been a good while since we’ve had one in the house. I don’t love snakes, but I don’t react to them with the same visceral reaction that I have to spiders. With both coral snakes and rattlers being common here, I give them a wide berth. I’m not sure that I’ve ever actually seen a rattler, though, but I’ve had a couple times when I or one of my children has been nearer to a coral snake than I would like. Thankfully they’re shy creatures and are quite eager to get away from us when we get too close.
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Post by FrostyTurnip on Jul 6, 2023 13:15:42 GMT -6
Friends, the internet is confusing. When do I harvest to have tender meat? My 5 chicks are pretty scrawny at about 8 weeks. Ihave about 5 more weeks until I will need their outdoor cage, so I guess I cannot wait too long.
We’re sick of chicken, except fried. I’m looking for that tender fryer age.
If it matters, the feather coloring reveals that Hiccup is lavender buff Orpington and barred rock. Hiccup himself is a muted barred rock, so I’m assuming his momma was all or mostly barred rock. There must be another breed in there because there is no clear sex links in the chicks. I did have a hen pop out nearly all black. The sex linking is peaking my interesting.
I read sex links are wildly popular? Heavy egg producers and large meat birds? They don’t live very long, though.
But for now, I have 3 baby Barred Roos in the works. Looking for pure utility breed Barred Rocks by mid winter, perhaps.
I have 3 mutts that just hatched. LOL Chickens are pretty easy.
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Post by woodeye on Jul 6, 2023 16:49:36 GMT -6
FrostyTurnip, I also had problems getting chickens to good size in a reasonable amount of time. I've raised an abundance of roosters to be used as fryers. White Rocks actually made the best chickens for frying, in my opinion. (other than Cornish Cross) It takes a long time to get most chickens to good size, with the exception of Cornish Cross. That has been my experience with it.
Years ago I had 25 Isabrown hens that I got from a hatchery in Kansas. Those things are just like you said, outstanding layers. With 25 of those, you best have several egg customers. They are sex links, and are beautiful cinnamon and white color. I kept them for 2 years, then sold the whole flock. Isabrown sex links are a mixture of Rhode Island Red, White Island Red, White Leghorn, and others that the breeders will not disclose. That was the only flock of sex link chickens I ever had, so I can't confirm their longevity. I can confirm that they lay a crazy high number of eggs though.
I also bought Isabrown cockerels to raise for meat. They were dirt cheap back in the 80's, so I thought I would try them. They were good eating, but remained scrawny for a long time.
I've raised Easter Egger cockerels for meat. They actually grew a little faster but the meat and bones look different that regular chickens once cooked. If I remember right, the bones were a light cream color, and the white meat seemed almost like dark meat on most chickens.
I've also raised hatchery choice cockerels for meat. Same thing, they took a long time to grow out. To get to the size of a grocery store chicken took an extremely long time and by then they had to be stewed or pressure cooked to be tender enough to eat.
That's pretty much it. Experiences like this with the various breeds of chickens is the reason I started raising Cornish Cross for meat. The Cornish Cross chicks are too expensive nowadays to even consider. If I wanted home grown chicken now, I'd have to get used to the scrawny ones...
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Post by FrostyTurnip on Jul 6, 2023 18:32:11 GMT -6
Thank you . . .woodeye I guess a bunch of skinny chickens is better than none, especially since my chicks are virtually free. I’m only limited by space. 5 is a good amount but slow going on stocking up. Yet the store is still cost prohibitive right now. Sounds like I might ditch the store after I eat some heritage.
I will freeze a couple for us for the next visit.
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Post by woodeye on Jul 6, 2023 21:51:19 GMT -6
FrostyTurnip, I look forward to it.😉
Frosty's Fried Chicken (FFC) is the the best there is...
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Jul 7, 2023 4:07:48 GMT -6
Frosty,
I couldn't help but post this after reading your "Skinny chickens is better than none" comment.
If chickens could talk:
"I've been feeling a little rundown lately, so, I finally go to the Vet last week, and he tells me; 'We've run a few tests, and I'm afraid what you have here is clearly a case of teenage Children.'"
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Post by macmex on Jul 7, 2023 6:24:11 GMT -6
Frosty, here's my take on home grown chicken meat. As you know, I raise Buckeyes, which, in my opinion, are right up there with the best for meat. There is, however, a huge difference between Cornish hybrids (commercial meat chickens) and any standard bred meat or dual purpose bird. The meat hybrids grow WAY faster. Dorothy, (Mulberryknob), who used to post occasionally raised the meat hybrids every spring. She and her family went in on them together and raised about 100. They were messy and lazy birds. They ate straight bagged feed, but in about 3 months they were huge and ready to butcher. The whole extended family would drop in for a butchering day. Glen, Dorothy's husband had built a whiz bang chicken plucker, which did really fast work on plucking. They'd all take up their respective stations and, in a day, they'd have all those birds butchered, bagged and in the freezer. Everyone took they share and... they were done for the year.
A heritage/standard, old fashioned meat bird will generally take five months to reach butchering size. I even like to give them six months. They are prime at that point. But these birds, at least the way I raise them, are not lazy slobs. They are athletic. They roam the property catching insects, rodents and small reptiles. They develop muscle, which is very different when cooked, than what you find in a meat bird that barely walked a few paces to bury its face in the feeder. My birds require longer, slower cooking, as the meat is more firm than the commercial type. But the meat they produce is superior. When cooked low and slow, it is out of this world. It is gourmet. We try to serve these birds to family, when they come to visit. Everyone wants to eat them. They are not just chicken (ho hum), they are gourmet chicken.
But our chickens take nearly half a year to mature and be ready. I rarely get them all butchered on time, instead, grabbing one as we need it. Sometimes I end up butchering cockerels that are nearly a year old. The older they get the more firm (tougher) they are, but if one cooks them right, even a really old bird can be succulent. The flavor is intense compared to the fast hybrid meat.
For years our local health food store asked me if I would sell them free range chicken meat. I always told them "no." When they would ask why, I simply told them that by the time I've cared for those birds, long enough for me to get a good carcass, they are worth too much to sell. If I asked what they were really worth, folks would be offended with me. But my family, now, that's another matter. We're going to eat in style!
I chose to go the route of raising a purebred strain of chicken, in part because of consistency and in part because I could then earn some money hatching and selling chicks every spring. I always hope I can get others to raise and maintain the breed, as our country has an extremely fragile supply of good breeding stock. So many breeds of chickens are basically maintained by fewer than six or ten parties. Yet, it seems exceedingly rare to find someone willing to actually maintain a strain of poultry for more than a year or two.
As Woodeye mentioned, there are huge differences between breeds of chickens, both in characteristics such as what they like to eat, how active they are, how they relate to people and their environment, growth rate, flavor of meat, etc. I really think that it takes some years to get to know a breed of chicken (better said, a strain of chicken, as there can be widely differing strains within a given breed).
I'm a big fan of Buckeyes, and before that I raised Kraienkoppes (two wildly different breeds). I've noticed that there is such a thing as a good or bad "match" between strains of chicken and those who keep them. For some, a given strain of chicken may do terrible, while for others it might be the very best. For instance, I LOVE Buckeyes but when I send some to Ron's house they just don't do well. So, it's important to find what works for your needs and circumstances. Then, in my opinion, it's best to STICK with what you find. Maybe, experiment a bit with something else, from time to time, but hang onto the best you have found until you are absolutely sure you've found something better.
My impression of the Rock is that there are a lot of strains of Rock out there. I suspect some strains are inferior and certainly, there have to be some superb strains. These may well be very fragile and could be lost with no warning. So, I'd try to get the best I could and then start selecting for the best size and egg laying I can get from them. It sounds like the birds you have are pretty decent already.
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Post by amyinowasso on Jul 7, 2023 8:07:03 GMT -6
George, Dorothy's description of butchering day in her book sealed my decision NOT to raise meat chickens like that, LOL. Interesting about the difference in meat between the hybrid and heritage birds. We keep saying we'll have chickens again, but health issues hinder us. We buy pasture raised, cage free eggs that taste like our hen's laid. They much more expensive than regular, but I can't eat cardboard eggs anymore.
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