From this....
to this, in 2 1/2 hours. 16 Freedom Rangers, done. 10 more to go. I have no idea how much these guys weigh. Some felt like 4 pounds, some like 2 pounds. These guys are going up on the mountain to the guy I bartered 3 chicken tractors for. Quite an expensive trade too. Probably won't be doing any more meat birds. I'll keep the tractors for broody or sick hens. Or when I get more hens I'll keep them in them til they are ready to go in with the others.
When I was out in the milk room last night, getting ready to mix up some grain for the goats, I noticed little tiny black bugs in the bag of wheat. Then saw them in the bag of corn and barley. DARN! Makes me mad! I took all those bags and put them in a big barrel. I took it out of the milk room and into the garage. Should probably get it as far away as possible. But I'll feed that grain to the chickens and hopefully they'll eat all those darn bugs too. I am going to have a talk with the people at the feed store about this. I had also noticed bugs in the last bag of laying feed. Wonder if this is where the bugs came from?
I am getting 4 hens and a rooster this afternoon. Black Jersey Giants I think. They are 4 months old. I think since I will have a roo I'll breed them and try to sell chicks. I'll see how well they do at setting on eggs.
So I can let my laying hens out now to free range part of the day. I didn't want to before the meat birds were all gone so they wouldn't get all mixed up. I'll keep the 10 FR in the tractor so I can let the laying hens out. They will like that.
When I get back from getting the new birds, I have got to start on grape juice and jelly. And then fig preserves. Found what looks like a pretty easy recipe for that. Then next week is SOAP! I've got to make soap. I am almost out.
So what's going on at your farms today?
4 comments:
I find it quite unusual to not have bugs in grain this time if year. It is in the grain and hatces out in it. The only way I can prevent it is to stay ahead of grain buying and making sure each bag takes a week turn in the freezer to kill the critters before the hatch. You will go back to your grain and find those weivels are eating the grain very fast.
Good luck!
I'm sorry about the bugs. We just opened a brand new bag of goat feed from the feed store and it has bugs. Irritating.
I need to make some soap too- and cheese. My fridge is slam full of milk.
Your chickens look great. How old were they? I haven't tried the Freedom Rangers- only the Cornish X.
The turkeys are getting butchered next week. I wonder how big they'll be. The Tom looks big enough to put a saddle on but you never can tell with the feathers on.
So, if there are all these weavels in this feed grain, doesn't that mean the grain is not GMO?
I went ahead and made a bucket of fermented grain for the chickens. They really like it. I gave them dry grains yesterday and they wouldn't touch it.
I need to get another freezer. I saw a nice one at a thrift store the other day.
Kristin, I got these FR May 1st. 3 1/2 months ago. They are SO slow growing. And very expensive to raise. I will not be doing meat birds again for a long time! It's rainy today so I'll have to wait to do the last 10 til Thursday now. Or Monday morning.
I thought you've been making cheese every day. I'm only getting about a qt. a day now. These people that bought the triplets need to come get them so I can start milking Sandy before she dries up.
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