Word to the wise. Make sure you don't have an irrigation repair "that'll take 10 min" with the water off while you intend to slaughter. I had to use wet wipes to get the spray of blood off me.
Nah, just a good scald and hand pluck. I either scalded a little too long or was too rough with the plucking because I had some small areas where the skin came off. It was a good learning experience and I'll do better next time. I definitely recommend home slaughter and butcher to anyone who isn't sure they can do it. If you are used to handling raw meat like whole chickens, there aren't really any mental hurdles to get over. We were quick and he didn't feel a thing.
When I was a kid I had to help butcher chickens. I hated the smell of hot, wet feathers and still do. If I had to butcher I would, but right now I'm good buying our chicken in the store.
Maybe it's because I scalded the duck with lemon scented dishsoap, but I really did not notice any smells.
Any help is appreciated! Flock integration. We have taken on someone's 6 chickens they could no longer keep at their current address because of some new town nonsense about keeping chickens. We got them last night and kept our flock on their normal roost and kept the other flock next to the roost, but in a dog crate. Our flock has never shown any signs of a pecking order, there's no fighting or nipping or anything like that. The new flock definitely have a pecking order and definitely display it since we've let them out in the separate run section of the coop. What's the best way to get these two flock together? We experimented a little bit this morning with opening the door between the two coop sections and seeing if they would just chill with one another. They did not. Our biggest girl and their biggest girl did some pecking and jumping and flapping at one another, a few of the smaller of the new flock and one of our middle sized ones pecked and flapped and what not and then everyone kind of split up and stayed with their own flock, one in the run, one in the coop. Both have shelter, water and food, so they can stay like this for awhile, but they are eventually going to have to be able to live together in the same space without going crazy. No one really has any videos on what's an acceptable level of pecking order establishment so I don't know if this is just normal levels of integration or if they are a step away from blood and death. Chickens are roughly the same size, the new flock are about 2 years old so they are definitely bigger then ours, but not by a lot. We have 2 buffs and 4 easter eggers, the new chicks are one buff, 2 barred rocks, and 3 maybe bantams??? The 3 new ones kind of look like this.
That looks like a seabright to me. With ducks, the general recommendation is to let them have pens next to each other for some time to acclimate. "Look but no touch." I think with chickens and the pecking order thing, you have to let them figure it out on their own. A look but no touch pen might help a little but in the end, they are going to be pecking at each other to figure out who the bitch on top.... and bottom... is. If you have a totally aggressive hen or rooster who doesn't know when enough is enough, you might remove them entirely from the flock. It might be ugly at first. Missing feathers, a little blood. But nobody should be dying or close to it.
That's a Golden Seabright. They're gonna have to duke it out, but the way I try and alleviate this is to introduce new birds towards dusk when they're all settling down for the night. The new ones likely won't get roost space for a while, but eventually they will get used to each other and all will know their place. However, it's very rare I have to do this because I almost never bring new adult birds home. I have nowhere to quarantine them and it's just too easy to introduce illness or things like scaly leg mites to a flock. Been there, done that, won't do it again.
Yeah, I read one person who used to rescue chickens from poor conditions just won't do it anymore because it is way too easy to bring something home that will demolish the entire flock, with a quickness. Ducks are a bit hardier though and less disease prone. My two flocks of ducks took awhile to integrate. There was some passing snaps at each other and they mostly kept two roving flocks outside. Now they all follow each other around and are pretty well mingled when sleeping in the coop. It probably took mine 3 or 4 months to totally merge.
I don't think they were close to anything serious, but my flock has exhibited zero aggression towards one another and there's really nothing to see what a normal pecking order situation is vs when things are getting to the level where I have to step in.
The new flock shouldn't have any health issues as we know who they are coming from and our flock is fine. We did cover the coop and run with diatomaceous earth before we brought the new flock in just in case there were mites or something else we didn't catch at first.
My neighbors had chickens once upon a time and rehomed them after several years. The way they described the integration and how the pecking order activities unfolded sound a little more violent than what you described. Once they figure out their order, it's sort of set in stone. They aren't like, dogs, that might keep pushing a boundary.
I'm not sure if this belongs here, but it's about my house. This morning my refrigerator started making terrible noises; it sounded like someone stabbing a dog. I need a new refrigerator. The criteria: It has to have the freezer on the bottom, with French doors on the top. My question: Does anyone know of one that DOES NOT have electronic controls? I've heard too many bad stories about expensive "smart" appliances that crap out because of a bad circuit board that costs as much as a new machine. My current fridge (Kenmore) is 25 years old, and I could probably get it repaired, but it's showing its age, and Jungle Julia has been on my ass to get a new one for a couple/ three years.
https://www.lowes.com/pd/Whirlpool-...ce-Maker-Stainless-Steel-ENERGY-STAR/50161485 I went with this fridge. Huge, single door (I know you want french doors, but trust me, single door is the way to go) freezer on bottom and no extra bullshit inside. No ice maker, no talking fridge, no instagram on your fridge, just simple.
I second that. Our french door fridge, you had to push the doors fully closed, everytime. No quick shove and it would swing to, nope, push all the way to closed. I've left the door partially open 75,000 times, at least. Which means my wife has reminded me(read: fussed at me) 75,000 times. The ice maker and buttons have been reliable for 6 years, so that's not a complaint of mine. It isn't a smart fridge.
It depends on the layout of your kitchen. In my kitchen, the fridge is dead center so depending if I was cooking on the range or coming from the other direction, I'd have to "walk around the door" Kind of hard to explain but if you're in the showroom, imagine getting something out of the fridge if you're approaching from the hinge side. So we went with a french door style. Also, there seemed to be a LOT more options for french door vs RT/LT hinged in the counter depth class. We ended up going with a Kitchen-Aid (made by Whirlpool) because we liked the medium gray plastic interior vs the standard white. It's been 8 years since I sold appliances so I don't know what is good anymore vs junk. Last year, when we were looking at fridges, two of my old coworkers both advised against any of the Asian market units. Primarily LG & Samsung. YMMV
I increased the price on my eggs because they are laying so little right now and I am trying to cover my feed costs. I waffled over the price in my head for awhile but didn't want to lose a sale, either, so I told the lady $9/dozen and she is picking the damned things up tomorrow. Goddamnit. I should have asked more.