Homestead

We are harvesting 44 white rocks today. I mount three cones on my tractor bucket. I have cut them down to widen the mouths. I put the tractor between the chicken house and processing area.

On the left, a homemade scalder. It's an electric water tank cut in half with the thermostat replaced with a commercial thermostat (the temperature can be set higher than a residential one) and a replacement element (110V versus 220V.)

In the center is our homemade plucker. It has a spray bar around the top and a solenoid valve that turns the water on when the plucker is turned on.

We process the birds through to ready for the freezer 9 at a time.

I can post detail pictures of the plucker or a video of anyone is interested.

We are harvesting 44 white rocks today. I mount three cones on my tractor bucket. I have cut them down to widen the mouths. I put the tractor between the chicken house and processing area.

On the left, a homemade scalder. It's an electric water tank cut in half with the thermostat replaced with a commercial thermostat (the temperature can be set higher than a residential one) and a replacement element (110V versus 220V.)

In the center is our homemade plucker. It has a spray bar around the top and a solenoid valve that turns the water on when the plucker is turned on.

We process the birds through to ready for the freezer 9 at a time.

I can post detail pictures of the plucker or a video of anyone is interested.

A few weeks ago we got 40 (45) broilers. They're almost done.

We had to change our delivery date because I was going to be in Atlanta and my wife was going to be in Toronto. We had to switch hatcheries to get an earlier delivery date but the abattoir couldn't accommodate the change so I'm going to end up processing them myself on the homestead. These ones are for our own freezer. We're not allowed to sell them if they aren't processed at the abattoir where they can be government inspected.

I've got a note out to a local woman who wanted to come to learn how to do it herself. My wife's friend's son also wants to come learn.

It's a valuable skill to have if you're going to raise chickens for meat. It's especially important if the poop hits the fan and you can't get them processed at the abattoir because there's a zombie apocalypse or something.

A few weeks ago we got 40 (45) broilers. They're almost done.

We had to change our delivery date because I was going to be in Atlanta and my wife was going to be in Toronto. We had to switch hatcheries to get an earlier delivery date but the abattoir couldn't accommodate the change so I'm going to end up processing them myself on the homestead. These ones are for our own freezer. We're not allowed to sell them if they aren't processed at the abattoir where they can be government inspected.

I've got a note out to a local woman who wanted to come to learn how to do it herself. My wife's friend's son also wants to come learn.

It's a valuable skill to have if you're going to raise chickens for meat. It's especially important if the poop hits the fan and you can't get them processed at the abattoir because there's a zombie apocalypse or something.

A comment on another post reminded me...

Eggs. I really like eggs.

This is a picture of a bowl of hard boiled quail eggs with pinch bowls of salt, pepper, and paprika. I set them out at a party. They were a big hit.

We had a breeding trio of turkeys a few years ago so we had turkey eggs. I made turkey egg salad. It was delicious.

We always have ducks and I've eaten duck egg salad as well.

I can't find the picture of the big bowl of goose egg salad. If I do I'll post it.

These are Bronze Orlopps and Mini Whites. They are 242 days old as of today. They have lived a good life with all day access to outdoors, good, high quality, local drug-free feed, and clean water. They are friendly and very calm. I like turkeys far more than I like chickens.

These guys go to the spa next Friday, September 22.

This goose has adopted my parents, and is attempting to establish residency in their cabin. We suspect it is domestic and escaped from its coop. It's a seasonal cabin and they're planning to close up soon. What should they do? Central Ontario. Near Bracebridge.

UPDATE: A neighbor of theirs is set up for chickens, so could accommodate a goose. And shortly after making that arrangement an ad appeared in the community message board. So the goose is going home.

These Cornish X meat birds arrived on our farm on August 3. That makes them 30 days old today. We ordered 40 and got 45 (the hatcheries always give you extra in case there are any losses during or immediately after transport.) We have lost only one so there are 44 out there now.

My wife has Chicken Day on the calendar as September 30. They will be 59 days old at that point and should average between 6 and 7 pounds dressed.

We had a confluence of events that resulted in our cancelling our original order for 60 birds with one hatchery and ordering 40 birds from another hatchery for delivery a week earlier. That means that we lost our slot at the abattoir. We normally have half of the birds done at an abattoir and do half ourselves. We can't sell the birds we do ourselves so we eat those ones. With the situation this summer we decided not to grow any birds for anyone else this fall and will do all 40 of the birds here on the farm for ourselves.

Butchering day is NOT my favorite day of the year but it is part of farming livestock and it has to be done. We're likely going to offer a workshop for anyone local who wants to learn how to process chickens on their own property.

I gave their bedding a toss this morning.

Our meaties always have access to outdoors from the time they're about 3 weeks old. They will continue to go outside right up until the day before they are processed.

I don't if they know any songs. The squirrel baffle keeps the hens from getting in the top of the feeder and keeps them from pooping into it from above.

We've had these same nesting boxes for about 10 years. They are holding up very well. These 8 boxes nicely serve our flock of between 40 and 50 hens (between you and me I actually have no idea how many are out there.)

EDIT: 45 hens and 3 roosters. I counted this morning.

We had a few hens taken by raccoons early in the season. They were taken outside but when you tighten up security the raccoons tend to get more aggressive so I built a stronger summer door from the main house.

Turkey day is September 22. These guys are coming along nicely. We have a mix of straight run Bronze Orlopps and Mini Whites. The turkeys are you big for my picket and most of them are sold so they are going to the abattoir.

I am the lucky owner of a 20m blackberry hedge. Last years yield was about 15kg and thus year looks to be the same.

But here's the thing, 15kg is far too much to make jam of, so last year I experimented with wine. I got this kit https://brew2bottle.co.uk/products/better-brew-hedgerow-wine-kit-23l and just followed the instructions. And it was a great success, everyone who's tasted it have even been to nice to say it was bad or have actually complimented the wine. But I still have half the wine left and now it's time for 2023s harvest.

I'm still considering wine, jam and some juice but... What would you do with a lot of blackberries?

I know it sounds dumb that the butter chicken kit contains neither butter nor chicken but trust me, they're awesome.

The box contains diced organic tomatoes, organic coconut milk, two packs of spices one for the beginning and one for the end, and a sheet of instructions for cooking it in an instant pot and on the stovetop.

Our girl cat brought a rat she'd either killed or found already dead to our patio (she hasn't done this for a few years).

As the wife and I discussed how best to dispose of it, we saw to our horror 3 large, purplish-black (2cm x 1.5cm?) fat larval things emerge from the rat's abdomen. A quick web search ('Vancouver Island rat botfly') shows matching images. Eyyyyyych.

I bagged the carcass and captured the larvae in a jar for the moment... there's a burn ban at the moment, so I can't do that, but I don't just want to throw them in the trash either so

• Is burying them sufficient?
• Are our two cats in any danger of infection? (I phoned our vet, no answer from them yet)
• Should we notify the town pest control dept.?

There are lots of cats in the area besides our own, so we thought rats weren't a big problem on our street. Now I'm not so sure.

EDIT: We didn't want to wait any longer to deal with it, so I dug the deepest hole I could under some back bushes and squashed every larva I could find, in and out of the carcass, then buried everything. I hope that's the end of that. Yuuuuuuuck.

The other day I went out in the morning, drained and rinsed the ducks pool, and put the hose in it to fill.

That evening around dinner time I went, "FUCK!" and ran down to find three very happy ducks and turn off the hose.

So I added this automatic filler. Now when I rinse the pool it will fill to a couple of inches from the top and stop.

One of our Bronze Orlopp toms reaching through the fence to steal the duck's feed. They really aren't starving. They have a 35 lb feeder full of turkey grower pellets they can access 24 hours a day. It just tastes better if you steal it from your neighbor.

One of the more than 120 varieties of dailies planted around our house and gardens.

My wife ran off the London and left me in charge for 3 weeks. I didn't kill her tomatoes.

I have a lot of fallen trees on my property. Obviously I salvage what I can for firewood, but most of it is half rotten and not suitable for either firewood nor building.

I clean it up into piles in the fall and spring and burn it in the winter. And I made a hugelkultur mound that used some of it. But there's sooo much, and I'd rather do something better than just burn it.

Any ideas?

We have 16 turkeys on the go this year. They are a mix of Bronze Orlopps and Mini White's. The largest of our Bronze birds finished at over 20 Kg on the hoof last year. We ordered a turkeys a month later this spring than last year.