NH Homesteader's journal

[NH Homesteader]

I'm trying to look at our options for next year as far as meat, in particular chicken. We have been raising Cornish x meat birds for 4 years I think. This year has been awful. A couple died because they basically got stuck in a corner and run over, and now they're cannibalizing each other. They have plenty of space, fresh water and plenty of food, and fresh grass. They're disgusting idiots! We have typically eaten a fair amount of chicken so we raise about 40 birds a year for us. But I'm sick of these awful creatures.

Now we have enough laying hens that we can incubate a couple times and hopefully produce enough and that coupled with me planning to eat less chicken, we won't have to do this again.

On the other hand we have had major success with our broad breasted turkeys. Might do more next year and make my chicken soup, etc. with turkey sometimes!

Also need to find some vegetarian dishes my husband will eat, lol.

My self sufficiency journey started as growing at home what we bought from the store. Now I'm trying to rethink everything.

 

[Mini Horses]

My experience with turkeys -- they are huge eating machines.

So, why not try reducing the amount of meats, to work into more vegetarian options? And replacing the meat protein with other choices -- eggs, cheeses, beans, etc. If he's a "meat & potatoes" kind of eater then you need to ease him into it. A choice for many are soups, casseroles, stir fry, salads with meats, etc. Soon it will be less obvious to him. Summers you can use shiskabobs on the grill, instead of a whole steak each time. You'll see it work.

Mushrooms are very "meaty" tasting. Brussels sprouts sauted in drippings with bacon crisps-- WOW. It's about taste....then more veggies will be filling.

 

[NH Homesteader]

They don't eat as much as my Cornish crosses! But yes they are fairly big eaters. I can't do mushrooms, it's a texture thing.

My husband isn't a meat and potatoes really, he loves soups and stews. He just likes meat in them! He's actually pretty agreeable.

 

[baymule]

@NH Homesteader I'd say you are well on your way to being self sufficient. Kudos for you and your husband for not following the crowd and reaching for a better life. It's a journey, we all learn along the way. That's what makes this and the sister sites so special, we get to share and compare, which in turn helps us all.

 

[NH Homesteader]

Thanks! We are trying anyway! I'm hoping that I can teach my daughter to be self sufficient so she at least knows the values of it... What she does with it is her choice.

 

[NH Homesteader]

They killed THREE birds overnight. We are not new to raising these birds. There's something wrong with them! Our friend is having the same issue as us, and he ordered his from the same place.

Husband agrees, no more meat birds! We can hatch out our own heritage birds next year. This is ridiculous!

He's also psyched about Katahdins in the spring! @baymule what do you use for fencing?

 

[frustratedearthmother]

ARGH - that's awful! I remember hearing about people hanging strips of raw bacon in a coop to give the chickens something else to peck on besides each other. I also remember someone saying they kept them in a darker environment....kind of hard to do sometimes. Can you separate them into smaller groups, maybe? Or butcher the injured ones earlier so they don't continue to get pecked to death and you end up losing everything? I'm just throwing out ideas here because desperate times call for desperate measures! Hope you can get it under control!

 

[NH Homesteader]

Thanks. I'll pass that along to my husband, he's the meat bird and turkey keeper. They're too small to butcher, unfortunately.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Years ago I had a Westhighland Terrier whose sole goal in life was to kill little things that ran fast! Rats fell into that category, but so did chickens that were about 4 - 6 weeks old. One time she dug under a chicken tractor and killed about 10 of them in about 60 seconds. She snapped a neck here and crushed a chest there. I was so upset! But, I snatched up those little chickens and butchered 'em out anyway. Think Cornish game hen! They were small, but they were tasty! I loved that little dog to death, but I never could break her from chicken killing...

 

[NH Homesteader]

Ooh I would be so mad! Haha well we will see how they look tonight. I'm going to start really putting the feed to them and get them grown out. We'll have an empty coop in the next day or two, so we might move the rest of the victims over.