Meat chickens at 3 weeks old

We've been showing a weekly chronology of the growth of our Cornish Cross Meat Chickens.  The Cornish Cross chickens have been bred to mature quickly and produce meat efficiently.  They are not genetically modified, but are the result of highly selective breeding.  We started off with 50 birds in early December and lost one to suffocation last week when they all piled up on one another and lost two yesterday to hypothermia/cold/rain.  So we have 47 remaining and they are really growing fast.

They move from a cute little puff ball...

One day old

To getting a few white feathers on their wings...


One week old

 To getting sparsely populated white feathers everywhere...


Two weeks old

 To a rapidly growing, eating and pooping machine...


Three weeks old

This picture below shows why they are called fast-developing, broad-breasted, meat-type chickens.  At three weeks old, look at the meat on that bird.  At around 8 weeks old they are fully grown and ready to butcher.  I opened our freezer and we only have six cut up chickens left, so it looks like we'll run out at just the time that this batch of birds is ready for processing - perfect timing.


Only three weeks old

Now, I've been a little tardy in my postings of the growth of the birds.  This Tuesday they'll actually be four weeks old, so stay tuned for another update coming shortly.  On January 3rd we actually have the second batch of day old Cornish Cross chickens coming in.  This batch is 100 birds.  I'll have to get both brooders ready to accommodate them.

Admittedly, that is a lot of birds for our family, but we employ the "Blue Bell ice cream motto:"  We eat all we can and sell the rest!

Making Baklava!

I'll admit from the 'git go' that I have a sweet tooth.  Every year during the holidays, we make some of our favorite goodies for snacking on and one of the most treasured of those indulgences is baklava.  Baklava is an ancient dessert that can be traced back to the Ottoman empire.  It is a decadently sweet dish made with layers of phyllo dough interspersed with chopped pecans, toasted coconut and then the entire dish is drizzled with honey. Phyllo dough is made up of many layers of parchment paper thin sheets of dough.  Every time we make this we wonder how on earth they make phyllo dough since it is so thin and fragile.

Here's what you need to make it:

• 1 package of frozen phyllo dough, thawed
• 1 1/4 cups butter, melted
• 1 1/4 cups toasted flaked coconut
• 1 cup finely chopped pecans
• 1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1 cup honey
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/4 cup sugar

Yeah, go ahead and make that appointment at the dentist while you're at it.  Then get out a 13 X 9 X 2 inch baking pan.  Take out your phyllo dough and start layering one sheet of dough at a time into the pan, brushing each one with the melted butter. 


Put one sheet down and then paint it with melted butter

Cover the dough you are working with in a damp wash cloth to keep it from drying out between putting down each sheet and brushing with butter.  Count each sheet of phyllo and when you get to the tenth one, stop.


Brush each and every layer with melted butter

Combine the coconut, pecans, brown sugar, and allspice and stir it up real good.  Sprinkle a third of the mixture over the top of the tenth layer of phyllo dough and then start the process all over again. 



Sprinkling the sweet mixture on the phyllo

Once you get to the next ten layers, sprinkle another third of the mixture on top and start again, repeating the procedure twice with the remaining mixture of coconut, pecans and spices and ending with buttered phyllo.



Same song, second verse

When you've finished this process and have exhausted your phyllo, butter and mixture, cut diagonally across the pan with a sharp knife to form little diamond shaped pastries.  

Cutting the pastries up

Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes and then let cool completely.


Right out of the oven

Ahh... but we're not done.  Combine your honey, water and sugar in a saucepan and bring it to a boil.  Then reduce your heat and simmer for about 5 minutes or so.  Drizzle this syrup over the baklava.  It will make the baklava nice and shiny and tempting like in the picture below:


Looks pretty good, huh?

But here's the hard part of the recipe - you can't eat it yet.  Cover it up and let it stand at room temperature for 24 hours.  This allows all the flavors to come together and also is a good test of your patience and endurance.  At last we are ready to partake:


Goodness gracious, does this ever look good?!

Put on the coffee and scoop out a little diamond shaped pastry on a plate and grab a fork.   

M-m-m-m-m...

Here's a picture without the flash so you can see how each layer of phyllo becomes a flaky, buttery bit of heaven on your fork.


Baklava

 And there you have it, one of our favorite desserts and yet another use for those delicious pecans we picked in the yard this fall.

Animal Planet

It has been a very eventful past few days in the barnyard.  I'll get you caught up on the happenings.  As the old saying goes, "Some you're gonna win, Some you're gonna lose, Some are gonna get rained out."

The Winners:
Once we got the pullets familiarized with roosting in the bigger chicken tractor (since the meat birds are occupying their old one), we opened the doors and now they are roaming free on the pasture.  Boy, are they ever happy.  You can really tell a difference in the darker colored yolks now that they are able to forage more freely.

While I was harvesting some carrots and broccoli in the garden, I took a few pictures of Russ.  I call him the "Chicken Whisperer."  The pullets were following him around like an old friend.


Howdy neighbor!

When he bent down and was talking to them, he was able to pick one up and pet it. 

The Chicken Whisperer training his chickens

The Losers:

As Tricia was milking Rosie the other morning, Rosie kept moving her legs uncomfortably.  She normally stands still when we're milking.  Upon closer inspection, she had a couple of cuts on her one of her teats.  OUCH!  How could this have happened?  Well, as she started milking her, it became evident that someone had already gotten some of the milk... Maggie!?!?  Yes, Maggie, even though she had the weaning clip (shown below) on, had figured out a way to turn her head in such a fashion that she could rob some of our milk.  In doing so, the nose plate cut Rosie's teat.  That big galoot - she is a year and a half old and should be weaned by now.  So I took the nose clip out and deposited Maggie in the paddock with Stryker, the bull.  We'll just have to move Maggie out when she's in heat.  We treated Rosie's teat with some triple antibiotic ointment and it scabbed over.  In two days it was completely healed.

Maggie Mae's weaning clip that cut Rosie's bag.

When Maggie did come in heat, we moved her into the corral to be away from the amorous Stryker.  With lots of hormones and activity going on, apparently there was an injury in the barn to a barred rock hen.  When we got to the barn the next morning, the hen was sitting in the hay not moving - odd.  I picked her up and it was then I noticed that she had a broken leg.  I know exactly what happened.  Maggie Mae was romantically inclined and was running around the barn and undoubtedly stepped on the hen.  That's gotta hurt!

Instead of putting her out of her misery, we began nursing on her, feeding her some of Rosie's milk and some rice.  It has been a couple of days and she's standing up on her leg now and sort of hobbling around.  (Maybe I'll get the chicken whisperer to make her some crutches.)  Looks like she's getting better!
 

The chicken infirmary

Getting rained out:

So now Maggie is in the paddock with Stryker so she can't get our milk.  We have to keep track of her cycle so that we move her out when she's in heat.  Rosie, who lost her baby in early November, is going back in heat as well, so we have to keep her away from Stryker too.  


Out in the rain

Additionally, and sadly, the rain claimed two more meat birds today.  We're down to 47 now.  We lost one to suffocation several days ago and lost two today to rain/wind/hypothermia in the pasture.  I was at work when a deluge came through and dropped almost 3 inches on the farm, flooding the pasture and the chicks in the process.  Tricia and Russ were out in the rain holding the soaked birds up to the heat lamps and were able to revive all but two of them.  I attribute that to poor planning on my part.  I should have checked the weather more closely and had hay ready to put down in the tractor to keep them high and dry.

I like to leave on some good news, though.  The cows are so funny.  When I'm in the garden, they'll come begging by the garden fence for some goodies.  "Hey, Mr. can you spare some change?"  I took my pocketknife and pulled up about 7 or 8 turnips, cut them in chunks, and fed them to the poor old girls.  First Rosie...


Look who'll turn up for turnips!

Thank you, may I have another?

 And then Daisy shows up and wants in on the action.  Rosie is not big on sharing her goodies.

Not so fast, my friend

There's always some excitement going on with the animals.  Always some drama.  They really keep us on our toes.  

Fresh Squeezed Orange Juice

We have navel oranges, satsumas, and tangerines planted in our yard and enjoy eating their fruit.  We also have neighbors who share bags and bags of satsumas from their mature trees with us.  In some reading, I learned that oranges were probably introduced to Louisiana by French explorers.  Our mild tropical climate provides a pretty good environment for growing them.  I was always told by locals to wait until after a frost to harvest citrus as the cold weather increases the sugar content and makes the fruit sweeter.  I did some reading and the Orlando Florida Sentinel (they probably know a little bit about citrus in Florida, huh?) says that waiting until after colder weather to harvest citrus is a common misconception, as citrus ripening is dependant upon heat.  Oh well, I better start harvesting then. 

First up is a young navel orange tree that is loaded up with fruit for its small size.  Tricia and I were joking that it looked like the pitiful little Charlie Brown Christmas tree!


Poor little navel orange tree

Looking closely at the tree, it is apparent that the tree is loaded up with blooms for next year's crop.  I'd best get the fruit off of the tree so that it can direct all the energy toward the production of new fruit.  I'll also make note to walk by this tree in a week or so.  I don't know if there is a better fragrance on God's green earth that orange blossoms.  We generally stand by the tree smelling them and enjoying the scent. 

Orange blossoms about to burst into bloom

Here is a photo that has both fruit and blooms - one crop ending and another beginning.  Neat to see the full circle.

Fruit & Blooms

From that one little tree we picked a bucket full of navel oranges.  Now, they aren't pretty oranges.  They are full of scars.  I'm trying to learn about what causes this and I'm striking out so far.  My neighbor thought that birds do this damage, scratching the fruit to get the citrus oils for their feathers.  He put nets around his trees to protect them.  Others say that it is a bug causing the damage.  As I searched I found that an insect called a thrip scars citrus, but then it also said that there are no thrips in Louisiana.  Guess I'll keep looking for the culprit causing this damage - at least it is only cosmetic damage as the fruit are delicious.


Bowl of navel oranges

We eat a lot of them right out of fridge or right off of the tree, but with some, we make fresh squeezed orange juice.  We cut them in half and twist them back and forth over a hand juicer and then pour through a sieve to catch the seeds. 


Juicing a fresh picked orange

 And here is the result we get from just two oranges: a nice glass of fresh squeezed orange juice.  Sweet.  Delicious.  Nutritious.  This juice puts the OJ from concentrate to shame!


Fresh Squeezed Orange Juice

For some strange reason, drinking Orange Juice brings me back to when I was a kid.  Do you remember when Anita Bryant was the spokesperson for Florida Orange Juice and she'd sing in the orange groves?  I think in the ad she said, "A day without orange juice is like a day without sunshine."  Funny how things stick with you.  (That's an odd little creature in her hand, huh?)


 I raise my OJ glass in a toast.  Perhaps Tricia will sing in our little orange grove.  Cheers!

Battening down the hatches

We were expecting a storm today with tornado watches, hail warnings and high wind and rain predicted, so we quickly did chores and had a marathon movie day as the storm passed through.  We watched a movie called "Defiance," which was an excellent, true story about some Jewish survivors in 1941 who survived throughout the holocaust in the forest.  We also watched Rooster Cogburn, with John Wayne and Katharine Hepburn.  Both movies were about survival amidst tough circumstances.

Speaking of survival, it had rained earlier the night before and we picked up around an inch of rain, but more was predicted, so we prepared for it.  I learn most of my lessons the hard way.  Several years ago I learned my lesson losing fat healthy 25 birds that were about the same size as ours are now.  A storm blew through, bringing lots of rain, flooding the pasture and drowning all of our birds - not a one survived.


One inch in the gauge with more on the way.

A little water in the ditch with more coming...

So I wasn't going to lose birds this time.  Here's my plan that has worked well since the day we lost 25 fat meat chickens.  I like to have the birds on pasture so that they can eat grass and not only feed.  But by doing this, you open yourself up to risks that you must prepare for, storms being one of them.  So I quickly screwed some corrugated tin on the sides of the chicken tractor and stapled some feed sacks over the remaining holes.  It doesn't look pretty, but it is temporary and functional.  This blocks the wind and rain from chilling (and killing the birds).  They don't like to get cold or wet.    I'll remove this once the storm passes and nicer weather returns.  I like the sun to shine in and disinfect things.  


Temporary protection from the storm 

Step two involves hay.  You can see the wheel barrow above that is full of hay.  I ended up moving three loads.  The plan here is to lay down enough hay so that if the water rises, the birds are 3 or 4 inches above ground level and safely out of the water.

Safely out of harm's way

Our chickens have the opportunity to still get on the grass and forage on grass, if they wish, as I only fill up half of the tractor with hay.  Although the birds are pretty dumb, I've found that they will move toward the heat lamps to stay warm and dry.  So with preparations made for the animals, we ventured inside, watched movies, and watched the storm blow through.  We lost power for a short time and had high winds, the storm wasn't as bad in our area as in others. 


Freedom of movement from hay to grass

Once the storm passed over, we ventured out to check on the animals, giving Stryker and Maggie some hay to eat.  We checked the rain gauge - only one half inch.  

Hey there

Checking in on the birds, all was okay.  The birds were safely protected from the wind and rain.  We only suffered one casualty - one of the bulbs in the heat lamp popped as shown below.  They are super-hot and what I'm sure happened is that despite our precautions, the wind blew a drop of rainwater that hit the bulb, causing it to explode.  Oh well.  It could have been much worse.  Crisis averted.  Now we'll pitchfork all the hay out of the chicken tractor and cart it off to the garden for composting.

A broken heat lamp bulb - the only casualty of the storm

Bolting

We've had some very warm weather lately.  Here it is late December and it has been in the 80 degree range.  Needless to say, we haven't had to light up the fireplace in a while.  While running around in shorts enjoying a tropical December has its advantages, it definitely has its downside as far as the garden goes.

Many cold weather crops, when faced with warm temperatures that warm the soil unseasonably, undergo a phenomenon called bolting.  Bolting is a response of the plant to produce flowers and hence, seeds, prior to the crop being harvested.  When this occurs, the plant diverts energy away from the leaf or root system (the parts of the plant we eat), and concentrates all its energy toward the reproductive system, specifically flowering and seeding.

When the plant's energy is focused on producing seeds, the quality of the harvest is diminished.  For example, a broccoli's head will be smaller than normal prior to flowering.  Lettuce leaves will become bitter and as you might imagine, that signals the end of the fresh salad season for us.  I will, however, go ahead and save the seeds from the Black Seeded Simpson lettuce below once it fully flowers and produces seeds, and use them to plant next year's crop.

Lettuce in our garden bolting

The picture below shows a long flowering stem amidst the turnips.  According to what I've read, there are certain crops that are more prone to bolting, especially lettuce, beets, broccoli, cilantro, onions, spinach, etc.  We've learned to harvest quickly if we see it taking place.  It is caused by plant hormones that induce a plant to quickly flower and seed in response to temperature swings or stresses.  You might say it is the plant's attempt to survive and produce seeds that will yield more generations of seeds to grow more of its kind for our future enjoyment.  I think it is very cool how this can all be tracked back to Genesis 1:11-12:

¹¹ Then God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees on the earth bearing fruit after their kind with seed in them”; and it was so. ¹² The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed after their kind, and trees bearing fruit with seed in them, after their kind; and God saw that it was good.

  

Turnips going to seed

There are plants that have been bred to be somewhat bolt resistant, but you can't really stop the process once it has begun.  the best thing to do is to harvest quickly, use mulch to keep the roots from getting too warm and give the plant water to reduce stress and high temperatures.  Below are a couple of shots of our bok choy bolting.   

Bolting bok choy

See the long flowering stems in the photo below?  These are all open pollinated, non hybrid seeds so I will try to see if I can save the seeds to plant again next fall.

Flowering bok choy

This next photo is my favorite.  I've been lamenting bolting as it shortens and rushes the harvest.  There are other members of God's creatures that LOVE bolting - the honey bees!  In the shot below, I captured five bees on one of the flowering boc choy.



Buzzing bees on beautiful bok choy blossoms


Well, speaking of bolting, I have to bolt off to eat and do chores!  Talk to you tomorrow.

Born in a Barn

 Joy to the World, the LORD is come!

Luke 2:6-20

New American Standard Bible (NASB)

⁶ While they were there, the days were completed for her to give birth. ⁷ And she gave birth to her firstborn son; and she wrapped Him in cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
⁸ In the same region there were some shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flock by night. ⁹ And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened. ¹⁰ But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; ¹¹ for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. ¹² This will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” ¹³ And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,

¹⁴ “Glory to God in the highest,
And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.”

¹⁵ When the angels had gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds began saying to one another, “Let us go straight to Bethlehem then, and see this thing that has happened which the Lord has made known to us.” ¹⁶ So they came in a hurry and found their way to Mary and Joseph, and the baby as He lay in the manger. ¹⁷ When they had seen this, they made known the statement which had been told them about this Child. ¹⁸ And all who heard it wondered at the things which were told them by the shepherds. ¹⁹ But Mary treasured all these things, pondering them in her heart. ²⁰ The shepherds went back, glorifying and praising God for all that they had heard and seen, just as had been told them.

The word manger is not one we use these days unless we're referring to a nativity scene.  When you see the word manger, think "feeding trough" - that's what it is.  Imagine, Jesus Christ, our Messiah, was born in a barn!

Have you ever gone on a trip and stopped off and stayed in a hotel that was less than desirable?  One time we stayed in one that was a smoking room and it was not clean.  It made for a very uncomfortable night.  That was nothing, nothing at all, compared to the accommodations of Mary, Joseph, and Baby Jesus in Bethlehem.  Most nativity scenes look very peaceful, pastoral, clean, and quiet.  I'm not sure, but their arrangements probably weren't that comfortable.


Take our barn, for example.  Walking up on it at night, it looks warm and inviting - and it is, relatively speaking, but if you examine it closely, there are other things about a barn that aren't often considered in our nativity scenes.  Take for instance, light.  We have a light bulb shining brightly.  They wouldn't have had such a luxury and would have likely had an oil burning lamp or two.  It was dark in the stable.


We'll keep the lights on for you!

If you look closely, there are spider-webs in the rafters and walls, meaning that there are spiders, mosquitoes, and flies in the barn.  That hardly makes for a good night's rest.  And we didn't even talk about the rats and mice that inhabit the barn.  You can bet that they were saddened that there was no room IN the inn.


Oh what a tangled web we weave...

These are not proper birthing quarters for a King, are they?  I remember when our kids were born.  The hospitals had birthing suites that were furnished with all the comforts of a nice hotel.  The labor and delivery process was made, (for the father anyway!),  to be a pleasant, comfortable experience.  Not so for Mary, Joseph, and Baby Jesus.  Immanuel, "God with us", was born in a barn - IN A FEED TROUGH!


Daisy's feed trough filled with hay - a bed for a KING?

 So if there was a feed trough, what else can we learn about the stable where Jesus was born?  There were animals, cattle for one.  In the song "Away in a Manger," part of the lyrics say, "The cattle were lowing..."  What does that mean?  Lowing means the utterances a cow makes - the cattle were moo-ing.  Not a quiet place for a baby to sleep, right?


Maggie Mae in our barn

So we established that the cattle had feed troughs in the barn and were moo-ing, you know what else they were doing?  Yep, they were pooping.  Not exactly a comfortable, quiet, fragrant place for a king to be born.

Poop must be scooped out constantly to keep the barn somewhat clean

I'm sure there were chickens in the stable of the inn, leading to another chorus of cluck, cluck and cock-a-doodle-doos to add to the cattle lowing.

And that leads to the 'calling card' that the chicken leaves behind her. 


Chicken litter

And finally, the stable where Jesus was born was probably drafty.  The walls on our barn don't go all the way to ground level, leaving about a 3 - 4 inch gap that winter winds blow in while we're milking.  Likely, Jesus' stable was breezy.
 

Drafts blow in from the cold night's air

You know what I don't read in the Gospel account of Jesus' birth above?  Complaining.  There was none.  On the other hand, there was an angelic choir singing, rejoicing, praising God.  There were loving parents, Mary and Joseph, looking over their Baby with happiness, there were shepherds who arrived to see their Savior - this Child whose birth had been foretold in Scripture and announced to them by the angels. 

Our conquering King came in humility, and was born in filthy accommodations that would have parents today investigated by Child Protective Services.  Our servant King came grew up and was a servant to those around him.  He felt compassion for the masses and healed them of their sicknesses.   Our suffering King died an excruciating death - the death that criminals are consigned to.  And by his Blood, our Shepherd King leads us to life, if we Believe. 

Mark Lowry sings a wonderful song called, "Mary, did you know?"  You've no doubt heard it.  The lyrics at one point say in reference to Mary, "The Child that you've delivered, will soon deliver you..."  And He has, He has delivered us, if we believe. 


Night lights

As we turn from thinking about the barn, we begin thinking about Belief - Belief in Christ the King, for it is that Belief that provides saving faith.  Jesus came to set the people free from the law of sin and death.  The Greek word for Belief is "Pisteuo" and it means more than a head knowledge.  It means to have confidence in Him - having the conviction and trust that Jesus is who He says He is and you entrust your life to Him.  Do you have that type of Belief? Truly, that is a question of eternal significance.