Fried Turkey.

We decided to fry the turkey this year.  All in all it was a great success.  The bird was cooked in about a half hour and it cleared up the oven for baking everything else.  After watching it bubble I can see how people burn their houses down every year, and mine was never frozen.

We did set up the fryer about 20ft from the house in the driveway though, just in case.....

Turkey pickin

Thanksgiving is tomorrow so it is time to pick a turkey from the flock for Thanksgiving dinner

Go get em Logan!

Turkey was picked

and plucked.  We decided to inject some creole seasoning into it this year.  Now we wait until tomorrow for the bird to relax and the seasoning to marinate the meat.

Chicken stock

After making all that soup last week we had some celery and carrots left in the fridge that needed to be used up.  We also have a freezer full of chicken backs.  Time to make some more stock.

12 chicken backs

2 onions, some baby carrots and some celery.

Added to 9 quarts of water with some salt, let it simmer all afternoon and hopefully we'll get 7 quarts of stock tomorrow after it cools and we scrape the fat off the top.

Chewy Chicken War and Peace Soup

 The problem with old laying hens is that they are like rubber and pretty much impossible to chew.  That's why people call them "stew hens"  Danielle roasted them and we ran them through the food processor.

 Then added them to 12 quarts of home made chicken stock.

 A couple of onions

 and celery

 and carrots from the summer garden

Results in a great chicken soup.  We also added alphabet noodles.  Actually we added WAY too many noodles. Hence the name of "Chewy Chicken War and Peace Soup" After dinner we still had 7 quarts to pressure can and add to the pantry.  It simmered all day so it's actually condensed and needs water added, so it really yields about a quart and a half per jar.

First hatching of mama brooded turkeys

After the first batch of turkeys were hatched in the incubator I decided to just let them sit on what they laid after that.  Last year only 2 hatched from the clutch the hen was sitting on.  Within a few weeks we had 4 broody turkeys sitting on 3 nests.  Yeah, 2 turkeys are sharing a nest.  Not taking turns, sharing.  You can see them at the bottom of the picture .  Usually they are on top of each other but were a bit upset that I was taking their picture.

The hen on the right is sitting on her nest.  The hen on the left is leading around 11 poults.  So much for the 2 that I was expecting.  Hopefully we don't end up with 33 turkeys.  I have a feeling we'll be having a lot of turkey meat next year.

If you click the pics you should be able to see the poults walking around.

Spring chicken harvest 2014

We've talked before on the differences between frankenchickens (Cornish Cross) and heritage breed birds.  Above is an example.  To the right is a 9 week old frankenchicken.  To the left is a 6 month old heritage bird.  See the color difference, that's called flavor.  We don't get flavor any more from the supermarket.

Processing!

Parts in their final rinse.

The harvest, packed and ready for the deep freeze.

Another angle of the harvest.

Turkey poults

The turkeys are laying in overdrive so it's time to incubate.  We put 19 eggs in the incubator.  Last year we had a 50% hatch rate.  I was expecting maybe 10 poults.

They started hatching Saturday.

They kept hatching on Sunday....... and Monday

In fact, all but three hatched.

One died right away and we now have fifteen poults.  It's time for a Craigslist add.

First 7 chickens harvested

The first batch of chickens hit 10 weeks and we started processing them.  I got the first 7 on the line and Danielle and I realized that they were a bit small.  The last 5 got a reprieve for a few weeks to fatten up some more.  This is the first 7 heading to the freezer.

Cackle Hatchery Chicks

We got a call from Cackle on the 10th stating that the Ancona ducks didn't hatch well and could they replace them with a different type of duck.  Danielle agreed to the Blue Swedish.  I'm wondering if it will mate with the Ancona and have weird looking babies.

The chicks from Cackle Hatchery arrived today.  Actually, they were a day late.  They should have arrived at our house today but only made it to Albany.  They called and said that they could be picked up today or she could bring them to the house tomorrow.  Being the third day I thought it best to go get them.  Baby chicks have a belly full of yolk when they hatch so they are good for about 3 days with no food/water.  Almost like they were designed to be mailed :).  I drove to Albany and picked them up.  The post office wins because since I picked them up in Albany they count that as a third day delivery and don't have to refund any money.  I'm not sure I agree with that, but oh well. Here they are.

Meat Bird Housing

The original plan was to put the turkey hens in the freezer and clear out the hoop houses for the meat birds.  Fortunately for the hens we found someone that had a few toms for sale.  This was good to save the girls, but we now had a housing crisis.  The TSC meat birds are about ready to go out to the yard and didn't have a home.  I would have liked to build another hoop house but didn't have a way to get the required cattle panels home, they are 16ft long.  I decided to build a pen out of PVC pipe this time.  It will work out fine because the meat birds are too fat to roost anyway.  They're fat ground dwellers.

Logan was helpful in the assembly

It is pretty much just a frame of PVC wrapped in chicken wire.  A tarp will be added to the top where the pipe bows up for shade.

TSC Chicken Update

When I bought the chickens from TSC I thought we would be able to cancel the Cackle order.  They have a "restocking fee" so we decided to just let them send them and we would just add them to the freezer as well.  This meant that we would finally have to get a better brooder.  The old home-made wood box I've been using was already full of meat birds.  Yes, those are 9 day old Frankenchickens.

We went back to TSC and picked up a water trough to use as the new brooder.  The frame on top is one of the light holders I use in the spring for starting the garden plants, but it worked here too.  Now we just need some chicks to arrive.

Chickens from Tractor Supply

I went to tractor supply today to pick up some bird feed.  While there I noticed that they had live chicks in this year.  We asked them last year and were told that they no longer did live chicks at our store.  Turns out they changed their minds.  I wish we hadn't already ordered from Cackle.  While Cackle is cheap the cost of shipping is killer. 
I drove home and told Danielle about the birds they had and she sent me back to the store to get a dozen meat birds.  Logan and Paige went with.  They only had 14 so we took the lot, I didn't want to leave 2 all alone.
On the way out of the store Logan and Paige each were carrying a chick box with birds in it.  An older gentleman stopped us in the parking lot and and called over to his wife that was sitting in her mercedes waiting on him.  "Look honey they got chicks"  His wife gives a nice "awwww- you'll have a lot of fun with those"  Logan looks at her and says "YEAH! Our freezer is almost empty!"  She had this confused look for a minute and then a look of terror/shock swept across her face as we turned, jumped in the van and went home. 

Headless Copperhead

I went out to the chicken coop tonight to lock the birds up and remembered seeing some eggs that they had laid in the lean-to behind the coop.  I was getting ready to climb up and get them off the straw when I looked down and saw a nice Copperhead smiling at me.  Unfortunately for him, in addition to straw, that is where I keep my garden tools.  A few seconds later and one whack with the edger it's bye bye head.

New entrance to the garden

I'm not sure why, but when I built the garden fence I only put a gate at one end of the garden..... The wrong end.  So I decided to cut down the fence a few weeks ago and add another gate.  While I'm still not done with the gate, I finished the fence today.  I need to take down the turkey pen in the back corner to reclaim a cattle panel to make a gate out of.

 As with the original build I use the wedge-loc T-post hardware for the bracing.  I'm really becoming a fan of the wedge-loc system.  It makes it so easy to put up a quick fence.

You can't really see it in the picture but there is a 8 gauge monofilament  line at the top keeping it all tight.  The fence is 5ft tall but does a good job keeping the chickens out of the garden.  At least it will once I build another gate.

Chop Rite Two #12 Meat Grinder - Made in USA

For my birthday this year Danielle got me a meat grinder to grind up the old laying hens once their replacements start laying.  We found a company that makes cast-iron meat grinders here in the USA with US iron.  This meat grinder was designed in the late 1800s and manufactured under the Enterprise brand until the 1990s when the company changed hands and was renamed Chop-Rite.  I was a bit hesitant because it is not tinned like the old models but now has a Xylon coating on the cast iron.  We'll have to see how it holds up over time.

I love the warning sticker.  "DO NOT PUT HANDS OR FINGERS IN CYLINDER MOUTH OF GRINDER.  MAY RESULT IN SERIOUS INJURY OR AMPUTATION" One has to love idiot labels!