ugh.... I can't do it by myself. Hopefully they'll make it til Saturday. We don't even have the stuff together yet to make sure we have all we need. I am a "list' person and it is driving me nuts
There is another one that its rear is bright bright red - not dirty or nasty, just glow in the dark red.
I looked at the "poo chart" on BYC and the closest thing I could find to what this looks like, it says it is normal shedding of intestinal lining or something. blech
Still - the nasty sticky butt already has my dad saying I need to kill that one and throw it out, so I don't know if he will eat any of them if he knows I didn't.
It is fat and runs around with all of the others, it just has that one issue (unless it is also the one with the gross poo).
Tonight is supposed to be the first of 3 nights to get in the upper 20s. I put more litter down for the meats and turned on both lights. The tarp will be open until I get home at 130, but it is on the south side and the winds are out of the north.
I put new straw in for the layers and ran some warm water in the trough for the horses. I also bought a "flock block" for the layers. I don't think they know what to do with it.... I'm not going to leave it out there long if they don't figure it out, I dont' want to call up rats.
Today one of my buff orpington hens had scratched out a nest in the straw. While she was there, 2 of my generally sweet girls started pecking her and pulling her comb and head feathers! I guess they wanted her off of that nest so they could have it?? I shooed them away and then distracted everyone with bits of pumpkin.
Two of my doms ganged up on an Aussie. Her comb is scabbed over now. Yeah it could be the intestinal linig thing every now and then I get that kind of poo from my adults.
No sense in wasting ANY of that meat. If he is still active then he probably can wait until you are ready to go. I would just make sure to process him among the first.
I agree with Farmfresh....kill that one first. I have one with a kickstand (leg deformity) and because he can't physically get to the food fast enough he is smaller and he gets picked on a lot. I have found some of that stringy red stuff in their poo and I just killed them first. Nothing out of the ordinary when we processed them though. Examine everything....turn it into a science project. Borrow some of the neighbors kids
When you cull out some of the biggest ones the others will fatten up faster too cause they have more food. It'll all be over soon! I still have 35 to process....wanna come do mine?
Ok.... good to know. We are going to start on Saturday and I don't know for sure if we are going to do half or all, i guess it depends on sizes at that time.
In other news - it is stinking cold! Highs in the 50s today and lows in the 20s. Brrrr
It was 30* last night and everybody seemed to do fine. This is my first cold weather with chickens of my own (grew up with lots of them) and my folks laughed about me being concerned .
The layer house is sections of privacy fence, so it is very drafty. I put tin and plywood scraps on the walls so it is free of wind but still has some ventilation. The meats just kept the 2 red lamps and some fresh litter (well, it was fresh for about 20 minutes).
PASTA - so, do you have to have a pasta maker to make pasta? I was buying some today and thought I remembered reading somewhere here about just mixing up the egg etc, rolling it out flat, cutting it thin ribbons, and something else... no pasta machine.
Still waiting for the oats to come up in part of the garden. I am slowly accumulating T-posts and small PVC pipe and hope to buy some fencing soon. I want to fence off that part of the garden and open a section of the chicken yard so they can go and eat, scratch and fertilize the garden. The other part of the garden plot I am going to till in some compost and plant english peas in January. YAY!
nothing beats homemade pasta! I did it by hand for years... but it was always ugly because I just can't cut a straight line... ROFL
Hubby found me a pasta maker at the Thrift store about a month ago! I love that thing! It's the kind that mixes the dough for you and presses it out in shapes. But I really would like to get the rolling kind I found a nice cheap one on ebay for about 28 bucks that has a few cutters with it...
I made a few batches of pasta about a week ago and dried them... so next time I want chicken and noodles it will be so easy! open a jar of dried noodles.... open a jar of chicken... and open a few jars of broth!
I make my own with nothing more than a rolling pin. Egg, flour, a pinch of salt and TADA! Pasta. I use a chef knife to cut it into very thing ribbons. Makes the best alfredo, mac and cheese, well, pasta. I have a harder time rolling out pie crust than pasta dough.