Friday, July 31, 2009

catch up

I got more chickens....
they were transported home via this means.
there are 10 adult birds in those boxes.


these 3 layers were in one box.
This S.O.G.
(center bird).
he was ok eating.

Meet B.A.R.
(Bad Attitude Rooster).
we are using him to train Hugo.
We are now averaging about 6 eggs a day.
sadly i go on an egg hunt every day.
and Lady B.A.R.'s eggs
are nowhere to be found.
might be because she is
freerange and has access to almost an acre.


this was in our driveway.
yes it is an ice cream truck.
so exciting.



Tot loves her pony rides.
(4th of July)

the weirdest things were at the parade.
(4th of July)

the geese 2 weeks ago.


And the geese now.
almost lost one of the geese yesterday.
it got caught in some net.
and was choking.
very nice geese.


we have had an exceptional summer.
very sunny.
a typical day was 70 F.
it has been raining for almost a week now.
but still some nice moments in there.
like Monday was 58F and raining on my way to work at 8:30.
after work at 330 it was 73 F and sunny.
(very muggy and humid though).

Saturday, July 4, 2009

a bad week.

Last week i posted pics of my new hens.
well Sunday the red one died.
It was fine when i put them to bed at 10:30.
and then at 6:15, i went to let them out.
and the red one had a rattle in her chest
and was dripping fluid out of her beak.
By 9:45 i heard a squawking commotion
out in the garden.
the red hen died.
(took it to the dump as we don't eat sick birds).

Wednesday morn, on my way to DM's
i wiped out a whole family of spruce hens.
Mama and 4 babies.
the saddest part was one little guy flew up
and then bounced off of the roof of the car.
Had to leave them as there wasn't time
to process the mamma bird before going to work.

Wednesday Hugo got into the chicken tractor and
created havoc- no death.
then Hugo drug home a bag of fish guts.
EWWW!!!!
but we did have a happy dog
turning somersaults on top of this bag.

The roosters and Thankful were out free ranging
and i thought
i had barricaded them up ok.
guess not.
Because, Hugo mangled Thankful pretty bad.
So bad that i had to put Thankful down.
Hugo had removed the tail, ripped the throat,
and partially removed feathers from the back.
From the feathers scattered about,
Thankful put up one heck of a fight.
None of the other birds showed signs of damage.
DM came in and watched Bumpkins
while i butchered.
Decided that since the bird was already partially skinned
to finish off the skinning.
Skinning is the way to go- so much easier than plucking.
removed the wings, but left legs on.
and then with a great online tutorial
finished the gutting process.
Note: remove crop before removing innards.
was very easy to remove the innards.
easier than i expected.
Guess i have been gutting to many moose.
And the bird weighs at least 8-9lbs.
a small turkey.
might be great for a turducken.