First the birthday, yesterday our girl Liberty Bell aka "Libby" turned 3. She is the alpha female and full of piss and vinegar. Ruger and Jack the Cat bow to her when she passes... But, she is protective and a faithful companion (as long as her bowl is full). Needless to say, life without her would be boring.
do you know how it is when you start out to get one thing, but bring home other stuff? Well, here is our other stuff. See, I got this guy that sells barrels, and he had some nice, clean metal ones. Senior and I jumped on them. The mans son raises chickens for his 4-H Poultry Club, which I think we might join. Anyways, he was selling a pair of Barred Rock Hens. I jumped on the chance and brought the girls home. ND quickly named them "Chessie, and Checkers" because of their coloring. They are only about 6 mos. old and should start laying soon.Since they were from 4-H they had been vaccinated and accustomed to other chickens, so we went ahead and added them in to the big coop. But, things there are a bit stressful and I am not sure if Senior should build a separate place away from all the alpha female chickens, as I am not seeing them drink much water. Every time they try, they get ran off. My plan is to mate them with the Jersey Giant Rooster ( Black Jack) I think they would turn out a nice bird, that is not only a good egg layer, but good for meat too.The chicks should also net me a little profit at auction.
I know Senior just talked about this over at his blog last night but, remember back over the summer when I did the post about buying pullets from the feed store, only to have two of them be roosters? Well, we gave one away to our buddy Mr. Farmer, and the other one - was a horrible nuisance crower. All the time, non stop, it could be 3 am and you would hear him. Black Jack who is housed in the large coop behind where this one was, is not at all that way. You can spend all day outside and not hear a peep. So, we had enough and butchered him.
I got to say, Jersey Giants do make a nice meat bird. We roasted him last weekend, I do need to work on the marinating issues and seasoning, because he was a tad bit dry. I think next one we will do over the spit outside.
Take care all and have a wonderful day
-JUGM
Glad things are coming together, so to speak... And good luck with the breeding program! :-)
ReplyDeleteThank you!
DeleteTwo years ago we had some old chickens that we butchered. We tried a few things to get them moist and tender. The thing that worked best was to brine them over night and then cook them in a crock pot. I don't remember how much salt I used, it wasn't very much. How are you doing with your mom?
ReplyDeleteThanks for the tip. May try that next time.
DeleteWe are coping as best we can with mom. She continues to slide downhill but is too aggressive to let us help her. Unfortunately my dad enabkes her and allows her to go untreated.. So us kids are doing the best we can.... It's a sad situation
I like that dog, she looks looks like a good "country dog."
ReplyDeleteI am down from 56 chickens to about 40. They go way off into the woods during the summer, and there are a lot of predators out there. But when winter comes the survivors all come home to roost because they get fed corn.
Thanks Harry... Like I said, she is the Alpha Dog around here.
DeleteI am at around 14 hens and 1 rooster right now. But, I am soon going to get a incubator and do some breeding, chicks go really fast at the spring auctions