This week began with the birth of several of our little precious home grown/home bred chicks.
They are the eggs that our broody Cuckoo Marans hen started to set on, and then after 5 days gave up. We didn’t want to just feed them to the dog, so we popped them into the incubator, since we had a bunch of other eggs in there. And they are starting to hatch. We’ve had a couple duds, but most of them have begun to successfully hatch.
I don’t think I will ever grow tired of watching chickens hatch. It’s so cool. First off, they pip their eggs with their little hard egg tooth. It’s usually just a little triangular sized crack in the egg, a good hard smack at life. And then there is nothing for a few hours. I read that it takes them just all their energy to get that one hard crack started. And then they rest. After awhile, you will hear them chip, chip, chipping away at the shell. Slowly and patiently, chipping away around the egg. It’s so cool to watch and wait.
All at once, at the end, they just PUSH super hard and poof! They are free. And then they lay there for a bit, gasping and relaxing from the huge effort. Some will get active pretty quick, chirping and wobbling around, trying desperately to stand and get life started. Some will lay there a good long time in the warmth, drying off and getting ready, but not in any big rush. But within an hour, they are all up and at ’em, chirping and walking around, dry and fuzzy cute.
We give them a little time in the incubator to dry up and rest, but then we set them in the big aquarium with the other chicks so that they can see them and hear them. It seems to sooth the little babies a lot, to see others of their own kind. We do have a little box that we can set them in, inside the aquarium, if we think they need just a little more time without getting pecked and trampled and pushed around by the older chicks. It seems to help them a little bit.
So far, we have four little chicks. No one has died. They are all nice and strong. One is definitely a full Marans chick… The second one, a gold with brown speckles, is a mixed Americuna and Marans chick. Since ALL our chicks are sired by Bucka Roo and he is a Blue Copper Marans rooster, we have decided that the Americuna and Marans cross will be our new Windhaven special breed…. a Maranacuna! haha… Should be interesting. We are hoping the Maranacunas will have super dark blue and green eggs.
You see… the brown color of eggs is really just a coating that the hen produces on the way out the delivery chute. If you look at a brown egg, on the inside, when you crack it, it will be white. Now, the Americunas, they lay a true blue egg. It’s light blue on the inside as well as the outside. The Easter eggers, which are various hybrid crosses, they lay a blue egg, that is tinted with the brown coating and they come out various shade of light green to blue. Given that the true Marans lay SUPER dark brown eggs… we are wondering if our Maranacuna crosses won’t lay a dark coated solid blue egg! Wouldn’t that be cool?
Of course, we’ll have to wait till spring to find out. The problem with breeding and all. It takes a while to see the results!
The big yellow chick, he came out of a white egg. And the only white egg layer we have is Floppy Chicken. So, this little chick is a son or daughter of Floppy… mixed with Marans! Haha… Should be interesting. I wonder if it will grey up, or be a sort of striped bird when it feathers out! Interesting.
The dark colored one came from an Americuna egg as well. A blue egg. Since we only have one black colored Americuna, named Cruella… we suspect this might be her offspring. Basically, another Maranacuna for our testing program! A very cute little chick, the last one to hatch this afternoon for a while.
We have twelve other eggs in the incubator that are ours. We’ve watching over a dozen or so from our neighbors as well… they have just gotten some Jersey Giants and wanted to see if they can hatch a few of their eggs… as well as some of their other chickens in their flock. They have the most beautiful HUGE big black Astrolorp roosters mixed in with their hens… so we’re curious to see how they hatch out.
Now, we do have a broody hen. The same one that tried to hatch the clutch that we have hatching now. She has been on and off again trying to set some eggs. So I decided that we would try an experiment. I gave her 3 dud eggs, marked and 3 good eggs, also marked that should hatch in the next couple days. I know there is a chance that she will not hatch any, but so far, she has been on that nest every time we check, and we’ve been checking often. When I gave them to her, she let out the most contented hen noises I’ve ever heard. They were nice and warm from the incubator and she got to rolling and settling them in her nest and all hunkered down on them like she was in heaven. And if you go near her nest now, she makes the most evil low growl. She is protecting her returned babies. I hope she can hatch them out and then, maybe, she will stop this broody nonsense and raise those that do hatch. If she hatches them and then leaves them, we’ll bring them back into the house with the others. Just a wait and see thing. Who knows?
Look at the leg feathers on our little D’Unccl Mille Fluer banties!!! This one is Petunia… she has the flower dots starting to form as well! Her feathers are coming in, she’s about 2 weeks old now, I think. Cute for sure!
Well, as you know, we’ve been raising our first batch of meat chickens. I call them our little nuggets. But they are not really little nuggets anymore, in fact, they are verging on HUGE! They are 10 weeks old. We decided to take in a dozen birds at first, the larger ones, since we were not sure how much freezer space we would need and all that. We have some we are giving to friends and such, so I figured, this first batch would probably get distributed fairly quickly and then in two or three weeks, we would take in the remaining 14 birds.
So how do you decide who goes to finishing school and who doesn’t? Well, you get your trusty postal scale out and give them all a weigh in. Since we have hand raised all these birds, and handled them often, they are very tame and fairly calm. So we just started out by eye-baling them and getting the biggest ones, mostly roosters and bringing them out to the weigh-in station. It was a family affair, Jessy actually came out to take some pictures and Maggie and I were the grim reapers moving through the flock and selecting our nuggets.
“Look, I’m telling ya.. that’s not 6 pounds, that’s 5 pounds 15 ounces! I ain’t ready yet! I demand a re-weigh!”
It was kinda funny how the chickens were totally calm and cool with the selection process. Of course, what did they know? What was good, was how calm and cool we were during the selection process. I was a little worried that Maggie, mostly, might be a little upset since she is really the Windhaven Chicken Mistress. She does a lot of the day to day handling of the feathered fowl of our little homestead. I am in charge of hoof stock and Jessy is in charge of the fuzzy cutes…. bunnies, kittens and her dog. Everyone can do everyone else’s chores, but that is pretty much our areas of interest and involvement.
But you know, we were all in a good place about it. We have done nothing but pamper and treat these little nuggets with care and kindness, even when they tried to peck my toes! (Note to self… NEVER wear sandals in the coop again… ouch!) They got nothing but the best grower feed and green grass, bugs and bread snacks. They adored grasshoppers, and would chase them all over the coop. They got to take dust bathes and lay in the sunshine and dig and scratch all over. They are happy birds.
Here’s Maggie… playing with her food. Haha….
Actually, Maggie has many of the young chickens trained to set on her arm. She calls them her chicken hawks. It’s pretty funny to watch them sit there and if she lowers her arm a bit quickly, they flap to steady themselves and they do look like birds of prey, just in a funny hillbilly way. They love Maggie. She can pick up all of the young birds, no problem. Some of the older, free range flock just don’t like to be held, but all the young ones we’ve raised here love it. She can often be found walking around with a chicken under her arm. It’s way cool.
I love this picture. It looks like the one little escaped nugget is looking in at the others and ratting out his enemies to Maggie.
“Yeah, take that one, that rooster over there, he’s bad… he owes me money, take him, he needs to go…”
All in all… most of our birds weighed at least 6 pounds, with two or three that tipped the scale at 7 pounds! A few weighed in at about 5.5 pounds. We took most of the roosters and a few hens. All that are left, the 14, are mostly hens. One might be a roo, but we’re not sure. Since they really don’t reach sexual maturity until a good 12 weeks or more, it’s hard to be totally certain. No one is crowing yet, but the roos seem to have bigger combs and a little more wattle developing and they were just also a bit bulkier bird.
Everything I read and learned seemed to point to birds processing out about half their live weight. So, I didn’t want to take any under 5 pounds, because a 2.5 pound chicken costs the same to process as a 6 pounder. And we might as well get the best weight for our processing costs.
We compiled a few of the costs/data of our first lot of birds.
We bought 26 Cornish cross chicks for a total of $41. (We actually ordered 25 and they sent an extra… and we didn’t loose any birds.)
We have bought 5 bags of grower feed, at $13 each. $65
Processing is $2.00 a bird, whole, and fifty cents each if we want them quartered. We have opted for half and half. 13 at $2.00 whole – $26.00 and 13 cutup at $2.50 – $32.50 So, our processing cost is $58.50. I know that we could have saved that money by doing the processing ourselves, but to be perfectly honest… I just didn’t want to. If I had to… like if we were at war or hillbilly zombies were attacking and it was all for yourself, yes, sure, I would learn to process my own chickens to feed my girls and all. But since we have this awesome family processor right around the corner and they have all the stuff and equipment to do a great job? No thanks… I just don’t have the equipment and all, and I don’t want to spend all that time doing the deed. I can raise them, and I can eat them, but I just really don’t want to kill them myself. Just not now.
So, we have a total of $164.50. To raise 26 meat chickens.
And this first batch actually averaged 4 pounds a bird! I couldn’t believe it. The fella there said my birds were very good looking, not a lot of globby fat, and just really nice looking. I imagine he tells that to all the clients, but I suspect that they were pretty nice because the lady behind me… her birds were a little, well, pale and sort of scrawny and really dirty. Ours were pretty nice and fairly clean. I say fairly, because they just never really preened and groomed, no matter what. I thought it was us, not keeping their coop clean, which we tried to do very often… but then I realized that all the heritage pullets in there with them were fine. Nice and beautifully feathered out and all. They spent a lot of time preening and primping, where the meaties just ate. For the most part. So, I’d like to think our birds looked good, at least, it was nice to hear.
So… as a recap…. 26 birds at 4 pounds average… that’s 104 pounds of chicken. That’s about $1.60 a pound for nearly free range, cleanly raised, no hormones and antibiotics and other nasty things, high grade, humanly raised birds. Sure, I’ve seen factory junk on sale for 99 cents a pound now and then, but it’s rare. Good, fancy organic birds are easily $2.99 or more a pound. So, I think we’re right in the ballpark there.
But again, it wasn’t just to save a few bucks that we did this and will do it again. It was to be in touch with our food, to know how it grows and lives and how well it was treated and all that. Our babies were adored and loved. And our young birds had a nice spacious coop and yard to wander in, and other birds to teach them how to be chickens. They were mellow, calm and happy birds. If you added up the time we spent with them, well, there’s no way they would be cheaper than just grabbing a bag of factory chicken and slinging it in your cart. But I tell you, picking up that finished chicken was really rewarding. It just felt right. Better.
I think we’re real farmers now. Maybe not a huge spread, zillion acres, but hey, we now raise two of our food sources… eggs and meat. And our little piglet is growing and will be another addition to our freezer in the spring. And next year, we will definitely have a decent garden… (The critters are creating us some fantastic compost piles!!! Can’t wait to start spreading that black gold over our plots!!!) In the spring, I really hope to add a miniature cow… for milk, butter and cheese. And her calf to raise to sell or as a little mini-stud. (Around here, mini-cows are easily a grand or more!!! So having a stud for yearly calves will be a good investment, I am sure…)
All in the plans… a little at a time…
The actual procedure was fairly straight forward. We sequestered the chosen birds in the big barn, in a nice little holding coop that Jr. made for us. They were given water, but no feed. The fellow at the processing place suggested that they have about 12 hours without feed so that they would be empty in their gizzards and their bowels. He said it just makes for cleaner processing, when they don’t have to worry as much about nicking an intestine, or just getting nasty bits out and around in the place. I’ve heard that helps for most animals that are due for slaughter.
Early in the morning, 7 am to be exact, Maggie and I went out and loaded them into a couple dog crates. Not too many, but enough in each so they felt comfortable. They were really calm and quiet. Somehow I expected them to be all crazy and upset, but they were fine. They knew us and they were calm around us.
We got to the place… known by the giant chicken in the front yard. 
I had taken some pictures, but of course, my camera decided to mess them up for me! Ugh… But this is the actual chicken… he is a famous icon for route 127 near Hudson, Michigan.
I thought it was kind of weird that one of the last things that the birds see is this giant huge rooster. One wonders if they sit and marvel at such a huge bird and that is one of the last ponderings of their lives. Guess we will never know.
The folks there were very nice and professional. They keep your birds together and asked if we didn’t mind leaving the crates so that they would not be stressed by changing cages. The fellow I talked to on the phone for a good 20 minutes easily, was very helpful and considerate and really seemed to be concerned that his processing service was humane and gentle on the birds. They even schedule appointments and will only take so many birds a day to make it less stressful for the animals. They do not sit and wait. In fact, they get brought in and dispatched very quickly so that they don’t have to sit and panic or fret with the new place and unfamiliar sounds and such. I like that. They took them in and said return in 2 hours. Wow.
Well, Maggie came with me and so we went into Hudson and had breakfast at a little cafe. It was neat, as I don’t always get to have time with just Maggie. We were calm about the birds and we talked a bit about it. Maggie was really pretty accepting of the whole situation. She told me that they had a good chicken life. I agree. She wondered if they would taste different, like the farm fresh eggs taste so much better than store eggs. I told her, honestly, I don’t know, but that everything I read and considered seemed to point to the fact that they should. She wanted to know when we would do another batch. That was good. I think perhaps in the spring. She agreed. If we start them in the winter, they would be inside a lot more and wouldn’t get as good a chicken life. No sunbathing and bugs and all that. So we think, perhaps in March or so, we’ll get a batch again. So that when they reach about a month old, they can go outside to the coop in the April spring and enjoy a lovely season and life. Depending on how quickly we go through these fellas, we will probably do 50 birds in the spring and 50 birds in the late summer again. Some for us, some for friends, etc. Maybe some for a cook out picking jam BBQ! That might be fun.
When we stopped back, about an hour and half after, we were waiting with a few other patrons. All women, some with kids. One lady, her young son was a little puzzled that they left live chickens and got plastic wrapped meat… he kept asking her… Mom, where are the chickens? We have to get the chickens…. I suspect that she had an interesting conversation on the way home.
When it was our turn, they rolled out a clean, sealed rubbermaid trash can on wheels. All our birds were in there, of course, all wrapped and clean. We paid the lady and loaded them up. Since we were only a few miles around the corner, I didn’t bring a cooler or anything like that. We just had a big Ikea bag. They were clean and bagged, and chilled. I was really surprised at the heft of the bag… I really was thinking… 6 pound birds in, 3 pound birds out. But that wasn’t the case. 6 in, 4 out! And a few were even 5 pounds! That is really cool.
Once home, we managed to get the 12 into our small freezer and the frig freezer top. Now, 26 birds, no way. Good decision. We can eat down some and give away some and then refill our freezer again. Perhaps even score another freezer on Craig’s List or something like that. We left out a nice big whole one for our dinner tomorrow night. We are going to make a nice roast chicken with tender veggies and a garlic butter sauce. To celebrate our first birds. And to give thanks for them… and for the blessings that have given us this wonderful little homestead and all that knowledge and now, experience to truly experience life and death with our own chickens. It’s been a cool week. A very contented week. Very redemptive. I think we like this life now, very very much.
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