Stuffing a Chicken.

 Our chickens, accidentally, ended up between 2kgs & our biggest was 3.5kgs (approx 4.4lbs - 7.7lbs); the biggest are far larger then anything you'll find at the grocery store. All the 3kg+ serve 4 people quite well. We like them so much we're going to change our plans for next year & grow some this large on purpose this time.

In fact, they are so big you can stuff them.

And it was delicious.

This was the really simple stuffing recipe I used, really quick on a weekday night. With home-layed eggs (or free-range farm fresh) you're going to want to reduce the number of eggs. Ours just seem to stretch a lot more then store-bought ever do. 

http://southernfood.about.com/od/stuffingrecipes/r/bldressing5.htm

I am wishing that I'd cut up some of the chickens before we froze them, we love roast chicken but having just a few breasts or something would be nice.

Since we froze them right away, it's best to leave them out in the fridge for 2-3 days to thaw and they improve in texture over that time. The birds are really flavourful and juicy.

I'd also love to hear any new recipes anyone wants to suggest.

Tomfoolery!

Well... we have two boys!

This is the CUTEST thing I have every seen turkeys do.

Looks like we're going to have some amazing toms!

Luckily it also looks like they are fighting over/trying to impress (or practicing too) a little Jenny, so we'll have a mating pair & thanksgiving dinner for next year.

Gobble Gobble Gobble

We started off in June with 4 3-4 week old Narragansett turkey poults. I was really hoping out of those 4 we'd get a breeding pair, but they were all toms! Not a bad thing, that also meant they were bigger so they made better turkey dinners.

The plan for next year is to raise our own heritage turkeys, keep a breeding pair, and fill out the frozen ranks with Broad-Breasted-White from the hatchery, then in 2 years we'll have our own breeders and we can just produce organic pasture raised heritage turkey (You can't really breed BBW for a lot of reasons). I actually crunched the numbers and it's less expensive for us to keep the breeding group then buy day-olds every year.

We looked around for a Narr hen, but couldn't find one until the day after we sold our last Tom. What I did find was some 2 month old Bourbon Reds instead. So we're going to buy a trio and hope for the best (Turkeys are hard to sex until they mature!).

The Narrs were beautiful birds, but I'm excited not to have to try to spell "Narragansett" any more!

Bourbon Reds!

Much easier to pronounce & spell! Also they get a little bit bigger then the Narr and are supposed to be the best tasting of the two.

Another Update

Ugh, hen raising chicks is supposed to be less work not more! Momma EE took the brood outside for some fresh air, and little brown got stepped on or something. He's looking okay, was definitely cold, but he's in the house now. Sitting by the fire in his make-shift little home. Hope he's alright ...

I put in the ramp just in case.
That way the chicks wouldn't fall or get
stuck outside

Really mom, It's a little chilly today.

Doing much better already but having a
hard time standing straight.

Chick Update

After that first chick was killed, we put some cardboard around the dog kennel, thinking this would keep the other chicks in the kennel & safe from being stepped on.

(I don't actually know what happened to the chick that died, again he was born overnight and there could have been something wrong with him so mom rejected him or something).

Well... that didn't work. One got out of the pen yesterday and I found him chilled, but alright & chipping for his mom. Should have been my clue this wasn't going to be a good idea! Went in this morning, and two of the little guys our out without mom, one was almost un-responsive he was so cold!

Luckily we've got a heat lamp in the same corner of the coop for the turkey poults. The little guys were close enough they didn't freeze. Once I picked up the really cold chick I just held him under (but not too close too!) the light, and he perked up after a few minutes.

I removed the barrier and Mom came rushing out to scoop up her babies and stayed over-top of them to warm them up. We're going to let them stay loose in the coop now, and hope mom is going to be able to keep them all safe. I did have the goats follow me into the coop yesterday and little EE took on Diego pretty well!

Not a peep out of the EE#2's nest, mostly because I thought they were due yesterday, and I got my dates mixed up, they are due next week. She's lost a lot of weight though, maybe time to invest in an incubator... hopefully not.

Scrap Bin!

Friday Project:

Is to fill the scrap bin with all this garbage and get it off the farm!

So no time for crafting this week (plus I still have my hot water bottle cover to do, no time so it's going really slowly).

Instead I have pictures:

Steak wants back in with mom.
The electric was not hard to re-string
but they've cracked some boards.

Good thing we decided we wanted to replace all this fencing next year anyway! Not sure what I want to do, but I'm thinking post & board.

We've got some major re-thinking of the pastures to do anyway. Originally we were going to do one big paddock, but now thinking that is silly because it is SO much cheaper to do one paddock for small animals (chickens/etc.) on small fencing and use cow-fencing for the pigs pasture.

 

I can't believe it but we ran out of feed bins! I thought we'd bought way too many, but with the addition of the pot-bellies and new turkeys we don't have enough any more. 

Horses: Fat 'n Fibre & Sweetfeed*

*(sweetfeed need to be tosses out as it's old & I'll use this for something else until fatty looses some weight)

Chickens: Layer & Chick starter

Then we have Beef feed (which we don't use often), Pot Belly Pig food, Cracked Corn & Turkey feed.

The feed room is metal-lined so we shouldn't have a mouse problem, but they are still getting in somehow, so I had to store the bags of feed in the car overnight!

Not getting any sweetfeed
At least she'll be warm over winter...

Maddie, that is the most attractive pose EVER!

He was in the ditch hiding from Fatty while he ate his dinner. He's getting nice and fleshed out now (following Meg's diet plan I guess!) I've actually had to cut his food right back!

Raspberries

The weather has been so mild I managed to get some "extra" gardening done.

We had some raspberries growing in front of the shop, we LOVE raspberries, but I didn't want them here, mostly because they are very prickly and make it that much harder when you have to break into the shop through the window because you husband locked the keys inside AGAIN.

Coop needs a coat of paint next year!

So, we're moving them in front of the chicken coop. This does not get all day sun but it does get most of the day, not a bad thing if you don't want your raspberries growing everywhere.

I believe Spring is supposed to be a better time to transplant raspberry plants, but I've always find you loose the next year after you transplant no matter when you move them. So the summer after next we should have a huge patch of raspberries right beside the chicken coop.