Recently in Chickens Category

Linda said: How large will they get?

They are a medium weight chicken so not over 5 - 6 lbs at the very best in a big bird. They are nothing like my blue orpingtons. My rooster will top the scales at around 12 lbs or so at full maturity.

Kismet said: Doesn't it make you sad when the others don't hatch? There's a reason I buy my eggs from the store :)

No, it doesn't make me sad. Chicks that don't hatch usually have some deformity or internal injury that would prevent a normal healthy life. I am not interested in trying to save deformed or handicapped chicks. They have no quaility of life and will suffer and die if they don't have to be culled first. I would rather an chick not hatch than to have to cull one.

In the best of cases, it is nice when all egg develop and hatch. Not all eggs will develop in every hatch. While I would love for every egg to develop into a chick and hatch that is not the reality of the chicken world.

Even a grocery store egg has the potential to hatch. Lots of people buy eggs from the grocery and set them to hatch. They are usually leghorn or some cross bred brown layer. Health food stores will often have fertile eggs for sale. There is no difference in taste in a fertile or a nonfertile eggs. If you did not know an egg was fertile there is no way you would know it when you are preparing it for food.

Hens can lay eggs without needing a rooster. Roosters are only for when you want those hens to lay fertile eggs that have a potential to hatch. There is no worry about getting an egg from the farm or the grocery store and finding a partially developed chick in there. It doesn't work that way.

Fertile eggs require a specific incubating environment and must be cultivated in that environment for 24 - 36 hours for the cells tobegin deviding. Once the enviroment is altered the embryo dies.

Home grown, farm fresh, backyard eggs are healthier, are higher in Omega 3 fatty acids, have a much darker yolk and generally have lower cholesterol.

Once you have farm fresh eggs you'll not want the shallow image of the egg from the grocery store. As much as we would want to think differently grocery store eggs and chickens for meat are sub-quality. The chickens you buy for your family dinner is no more than 4 - 5 weeks old. Even those big ones are under 6 weeks old.

kristy said: When will you be able to tell if they're roosters or hens?

They will start showing their gender in a couple weeks. Not only are there characteristics to look for int heir body such as comb and wattle growth but males will have thicker thighs and legs and feet. Also some of those little boys stretch their necks up and try to crow at a few weeks of age. As they progressively grow and get more mature feathers the feather development is a dead give away for their gender.

Some breeds of chickens can be sexed by color at hatch. A well trained eye at raising good rhode island reds chicks can pick out females vs males at very early ages.

beahunter said: Are hens very protective of the young they hatch?

Initially they are. Over the next 4 - 6 weeks she will teach those chicks everything they need to know about eating, sleeping, roosting, scratching, and just being a chicken. At that point her maternal instincts turn off. She will start laying eggs again and those chicks will just be some other chickens. Not her babies.

This hen is very good with us. Even though she will give us a warning growl and let us know we are tredding on thin ice she still lets us look under her and handle the babies.

She managed to hatch 2 chicks.

The other eggs she was sitting on where obviously scrambled during shipping.

Mom and babies are doing well. She has them out of the crate and enjoying the barn, chick feed and cool clean water.

I got rid of my big rooster when he went after Steven repeatedly without being provoked. So I didn't have any fertile eggs at all on the farm. Then I had a hen go broody - meaning she decided she was going to sit on some eggs until they hatched. Doh!

So I got a nice lady in Alabama to send me some of her beautiful rhode island red eggs. I put my broody hen - a big fat white wyandotte (one of the Wanda's) in a quiet place and put the eggs under her.

21 days later - look what is hiding under her wing -

How sweet is that little face? She has one more trying to hatch now!

Life on the farm is super busy right now. I have so much to tell you!

She doesn't know it is a red headed stepchild. All she knows is that it is her baby. :)

I am hatching eggs again today. All 8 Buff Orpingtons have hatched. 2 blue/black/splash Orpingtons have hatched with 8 more pipped and 2 very quiet unknowns.

 

 

This is real life.

 

Do you remember back in February when I brought this little 12 week old blue orpington cockeral home?

 

He started filling out real nice by 19 weeks.

 

Just 2 weeks ago I thought he was awesome.

 

But look at him now at 25 weeks.

 

Isn't he a knockout?

Can you figure out how big you think he is? He is HUGE!

 

Just another little tidbit - He won't be fully grown to his adult size until he is 18 months to 2 years old.

:)

February 9th we made a trip across the mountains and into West Virginia to meet a lovely lady and her husband that I met through the World Wide Web.

We had lunch at Fatboy's Pork Palace. The pulled pork sandwhich was great!

She gave me a pair of blue orpingtons. Beautiful 12 week old cockeral and pullet.

We brought them home along with two dozen hatching eggs.

The eggs went into my incubator. 19 days later they began to hatch.




On day 21 I had 12 fat fluffy chicks!
How cool is that? Steven was just in awe at the new "chickdees!"

I love my fuzz butts! I have goose eggs in the incubator now! Woot!!!

Over the last two weekends, Steve and I have processed the chickens we raised for meat. At 12 weeks of age they weighed in at 10 - 13 pounds each. They tended to look like small turkeys as we processed them instead of chickens. HUGE!

I do not take lightly the process of ending one life, even that of a seemingly lowly creature. The Bible teaches God made all things great and small. Meaning he made me and that chicken and the life he gave is one to be respected. Therefore I have tried to use every part of the chicken and not waste it.

I harvest the livers and gizzards. I cooked the hearts for added protein for the dogs. My freezer is filled with bags of whole chickens and cut up chickens. As freezer space is at a premium I cooked down alot of the leg quarters and have put the meat in the freezer for quick meals. Also I have gallons of broth that I canned.

When I began raising the chickens I fed them lots of good food. In the last two weeks I cut back on the broiler feed and fed them alot of cracked corn. Not only did the corn help keep them warm on freezing nights by ramping up their body temp it also helped to put on a nice thick layer of fat.

You don't often see too many fat chickens at the grocery store. Sure that have some fat if you buy a whole one which is a small bit attached to the skin at the open cavity between the legs. My chickens had a huge fist size pad of fat at the lower cavity. The gizzard was incased in pure yellow fat. The liver was laced with bits of fat as it was connected to other organs. In my effort to not waste anything that could be used I also harvest the fat.

I put the fat in my crockpot and let it cook down over night until all of the oils were rendered from it.

This richly rendered chicken fat will be used for savory pies and other pastry crusts.

Just for the record this rendered fat is called schmaltz. It can be purchased in jars from most any jewish market or butcher shop. Talk about making things crazy good! Schmaltz is the key!

Before you go crazy about how bad fat is for your body take a look at the nutrtional information of rendered chicken fat.

To make a savory pastry dough only two to four tablespoons is needed. For a two crust chicken (meat) pie that serves 8 - 10

 

you really aren't getting an unhealthy dose. Plus look at the saturated fat content. Chicken fat night almost be considered healthy. I dare anyone to tell me that homemade chicken soup isn't perfect when you're sick. It has to be because of the schmaltz! LOL

I am adding the pastry recipe to the recipe box today.

There are rules for cooking kosher foods. There are rules for cooking with a pie crust if meat is involved - no dairy in the crust!

Perhaps one of the many lovely Jewish friends would fill us in on the details and perhaps add some recipe ideas for using up all of my golden yellow schmaltz. Please? And Thank You!

 

This is one of my buff orpingtons trying to lay an egg. They get rather loud when they are on the nest.

All of my girls are gearing up to lay.

I got eight eggs yesterday. Lovely brown farm fresh eggs.

Again the video and the photos are form my phone. Pardon the image quality.

I recieved 6 blue orpington eggs. I set them in my incubator. I candled at day 4 and couldn't see any signs of veins. I candled again at day 7. No sign of growth. I gave them another 6 days and still I saw no veins.

This morning I pulled the plug on the incubator. I cracked open the eggs. Just as I suspected. The eggs are not fertile.

I am cleaning the incubator and getting it ready for another try.