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.

4 comments:

Jane said...

Bad week for the birds! I like mine packaged from the grocery store - but I know they don't taste as good!

Lynn said...

Um, I'd SOO be a vegetarian at your house!

Kris said...

Me thinks you need to do something with Mr. Hugo. Bad dog.

sulkycat said...

i am in veggie corner too! by the way, the open wire mesh floor in the rabbit hutch - very bad for rabbits feet (and chickens heads from the sound of things!)