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Chicken Chronicles
- Thread starter CWS4322
- Start date
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If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
tinlizzie
Head Chef
I'm puzzling over something, CWS, and maybe you can enlighten me. About your girls and their services -- I used to have geese, who neatly cropped and ate grass, around fence posts, etc., and just out in the open. However, as I recall, the hens were pickier and just looked for the crunchy beetles or odd worms they could find in the grass -- I don't remember their eating the grass itself. Or am I just forgetting; it's been quite a while.
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CWS4322
Chef Extraordinaire
Mine eat grass...they ate nettles last summer, but they have been a bit pickier this spring. And, they LOVE seedlings in the garden--hence, the gardens are fenced and forbidden. Supposedly geese and ducks are better about assisting with bugs in the garden than chickens are...
tinlizzie
Head Chef
Hmmm. Thanks for the update. And good gardening to you.
Greg Who Cooks
Executive Chef
I had thought chickens ate seeds and bugs. I never knew they ate any vegetables (e..g. grass or nettles).
Dawgluver
Chef Extraordinaire
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- Apr 12, 2011
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Gourmet Greg said:
CWS's chickens wear lovingly handknit coats, ride in the front seat of her car, and are brought into the house on occasion. They will eat whatever she asks them to eat!
Greg Who Cooks
Executive Chef
Yes but what will CWS tell her chickens when she's hungry for chicken, when she is "the walrus?"
(Beatles lyrics, "I Am The Walrus")
What does CWS do when she's hungry for chicken? I suspect none of her egg layers end up on her stove.
I've always thought the song was about inhumane or unacceptable appetites. You can google the lyrics and make your own judgement.
Speaking for myself, I hope I can raise chickens in my next house. I would like to harvest the eggs. I would like to try butchering chickens for meat, although I suspect I might have some problems with that, but you never know until the cleaver comes down on the neck. I have no problem butchering whole chickens from the market, but market chickens don't twitch and don't bleed. If I can't stomach that then at least I can "egg them on."
I forgot to add, you need to understand Lewis Carroll's poem The Walrus and the Carpenter which appeared in his Through the Looking Glass (AKA Alice in Wonderland) to understand the predatory emphasis that I imply in "being the walrus." You can google that too. I often wonder, do our cows and pigs and chickens think that we are being nice to them by feeding them? I often think, "no, we are the walrus, we eat you." We are feeding you because you will be bigger and fatter and tastier when we kill you and eat you.
Yes I know there are many interpretations including as an indictment on capitalism. I like to think that Lewis Carroll many years in his grave would love that we are still talking about him, still debating what his literary creations meant.
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tinlizzie
Head Chef
Who'd a' thunk a poultry thread would touch on such erudition!
As to butchering a hen, I have deeply buried memories of my country aunt after having seperated a chicken from its head, throwing it under a galvanized tub so that it wouldn't spray blood everywhere as it ran around, and hearing it thump against the sides. Ah, childhood. Pardon me while I put the lid back on that box.
As to butchering a hen, I have deeply buried memories of my country aunt after having seperated a chicken from its head, throwing it under a galvanized tub so that it wouldn't spray blood everywhere as it ran around, and hearing it thump against the sides. Ah, childhood. Pardon me while I put the lid back on that box.
Addie
Chef Extraordinaire
Who'd a' thunk a poultry thread would touch on such erudition!
As to butchering a hen, I have deeply buried memories of my country aunt after having seperated a chicken from its head, throwing it under a galvanized tub so that it wouldn't spray blood everywhere as it ran around, and hearing it thump against the sides. Ah, childhood. Pardon me while I put the lid back on that box.
We used to just let it run amok. One time I got to chop the head off. Oddly enough, I didn't mind doing it. But I had the mind of a farm kid then. I also didn't get upset when we took the pigs to the butcher in Truro. That is what farm animals are raised for. To eat. We never named them. You only name championship bred animals that are going to be sold.
I remember when some of the 4H kids I worked with, they would bring their champion bulls to the Westeren Washington Fair for the sole purpose of being sold for their blood line. The money they got went to pruchase feed for their next animal project. These were animals that they helped deliver, bottle fed and raised by hand by the child. The animal was registered in their name as the owner. Sometimes the kid was worth more than their father. The ranch or farm might be deeply in debt, but some parents charged their child rent for the animal. Remember, farming is a business and the child was a partner in the endeavor. Until they sold it, the farm provided the food for it. And you don't let a champion out into the field or pasture. He might get frisky with the girls. One girl sold her bull for $25,000.00. She cried for a whole day. I refused to pamper or console her. She knew what the consequences were when you sell an animal. You turn your back and say goodby.
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CWS4322
Chef Extraordinaire
I got the girls specifically for eggs. If they ever get broody, I will raise some chicks for meat...but, you can bet I won't be naming those...and with the high price of gasoline, getting a couple of lambs to "graze" in the backyard is getting very tempting. They would be butchered in November, with 2 more purchased next spring for the same purpose--to cut the costs to mow the lawn and to put some meat in the freezer. No names given to the lambies either.
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CWS4322
Chef Extraordinaire
Cocky Rocky has to go. For the past couple of days, he's been attacking me (when feeding them). He started this yesterday--normally, if he attacked me, it wasn't when I was feeding them. I usually crouch down on the ground and wait for him to calm down. This didn't work today. Once I stood up, he continued his assault on me. I have several puncture wounds on my shin and one on my arm (and that one really hurts). Sad as it is, Cocky Rocky has to go (either we sell him or he goes in the roaster pan). Damn. He's so handsome. Unless s/one has other ideas of how to get him to stop seeing me as a threat to "his" hens?
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Oh, that looks nasty! Too bad, but if you can't get out to take care of the girls when he is about...
Take care, CWS!
Take care, CWS!
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CWS4322
Chef Extraordinaire
Thanks, PF. It hurts! I am hoping it doesn't get infected. I will try carrying a broom. I am waiting to hear back from a friend who has 60 chickens and several roosters to see if she has any tips. I am hoping she doesn't recommend getting another rooster! One is enough. I could leave him at the farm and get him a small flock to keep out here--leave them to the DH to take care of...or, sell him, but who wants an aggressive rooster?
You took his ladies away for awhile. He's upset because he knows something is up. I know that doesn't help your dilemma, but I do understand why he's mad at you.
How soon were you planning to move them all permanently?
How soon were you planning to move them all permanently?
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CWS4322
Chef Extraordinaire
That was 2 weeks ago. He just started attacking me on Sunday. It has escalated. I was planning on moving all of them next week. At the moment, Rocky doesn't have a ticket for the ride. He's wait-listed.
You could try moving him with them and see if he will settle down. Maybe the new location will distract him. Or make it worse. Tough decision, I know. We'll still love you no matter what you do. {{{{{{{HUGS}}}}}}}}}}}.
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CWS4322
Chef Extraordinaire
I'll start wearing my rubber boots and long sleeves--I obviously won't be wearing sundresses around him or a bathing suit. I don't know why he attacks me. I guess he sees me as a threat, but I'm the one that feeds them. That's what got me this morning, I was feeding them. The other times he has flown at me has been when the girls follow me around the yard, and he hasn't been that aggressive about it. Today he would not stop and got me with his spurs...wonder if I can get those removed...
When I had a rooster I had to re-home, I simply placed a free ad in the local paper requesting (but not insisting) that I'd prefer a "live" home rather than a "cooking" home. Also listed in no uncertain terms that he was aggressive. This was a n"adoption" - I didn't want money for him.
My absolutely gorgeous Rhode Island Red roo ended up with a wonderful home with a local policeman who had just started his own flock & wanted a really nice rooster. Couldn't have ended up better.
My absolutely gorgeous Rhode Island Red roo ended up with a wonderful home with a local policeman who had just started his own flock & wanted a really nice rooster. Couldn't have ended up better.
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CWS4322
Chef Extraordinaire
I'll modify my attire and behaviour and see if that helps. Otherwise, he has a new home, a/k/a crock pot or freezer camp. Technically, the DH bought him, so I think the DH should decide what to do with him....
Addie
Chef Extraordinaire
CWS, when I was doing my dastardly deed with the elastics for worms, the last day I went into the chicken yard, the rooster came at me and got me good in the leg. I still have the little hole in the side of my leg. It developed into impetigo. I was in the fouth fourth grade at the time. Small town, only four class rooms in the whole school. Grades one through eight. The whole school became infected. Not a fun time for me. Take care of that wound. Remember Cocky Rocky is walking around in chicken droppings all day long. And yes, you can have those spurs removed.
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