Chicken Butchering Day - 2018

Warning: If you don't like seeing blood or guts, today's post is not a good one for you.

Our Cornish Cross Meat Birds averaged 6 pounds at the time of the last weigh-in, so it was time to process them this weekend.  Process is a fancy way of saying, "It was time to butcher them."  Our chicken tractor makes it so easy to just roll them right up to where we have our outdoor butcher shop set up.  No more carrying them in wagons across the pasture.  No more ducking into the old chicken tractor that was 3 feet tall.  This tractor has a door and is 6 feet tall, so you can walk right in and grab the birds as their turn came.  The night before we work hard to sharpen all the knives with sharpening stones and a steel.  We use Chicago Cutlery knives as we've had good success with them.  We had butchered almost all the chickens when I took this picture, but I wanted to show you the ease of transportation with the tractor.  It's all about logistics.

Death Row

The first station in our butcher shop is the killing cones.  The killing cones are traffic cones hung upside down.  The chickens are placed in the cone head-first and the rubberized cone holds them tightly.  Russ gathers the chickens and brings them to Benjamin as he and Benjamin do the killing.  He administers a knife cut with precision, slicing the jugular and causing the blood to drain out of the bird.  We can kill 4 at a time and when the heart has beat all the blood out, the chicken dies.  All the blood is captured in buckets beneath each bird and will be composted into the garden.

Even the cat can't watch

Station 2 is the scalding station.  Russ and I handle this.  We get the crawfish pot heated up to a scalding 145 degree temperature and keep it at that temperature by monitoring a thermometer.  We add dish washing liquid to the water.  Once the chickens are dead, we dunk the birds again and again (about 25 dunks) or until you can easily pull out a wing feather.  That's when you know it is ready for the next station.

The dunking machin

The next station is our chicken plucker.  We built this bad boy and it is a time saver.  You turn it on, drop two birds in and watch the birds spin while the rubber fingers remove every single feather.  We let it spin until it looks like no feathers remain.  You don't want to leave it spinning too long as it will break bones and/or bruise the meat.

The Spin Cycle

Here you can see what a clean job the plucker does.  It pulls off almost every feather.  In quality control, we may pull of one or two, but the plucker really speeds things up.

The Emperor has no clothes

I line them up beside the evisceration station and pull the heads off with my hand.  You don't want to cut them as it will create sharp edges that cut the ziploc bag.  Then I cut the feet off.  Finally, I cut a slit in the neck and loosen the crop and windpipe and then cut a slit right above the vent to expose the entrails.

Chicken carcasses

Tricia does the eviscerating.  She reaches in the cavity pulling heart, crop, liver, gizzard and intestines out.  Then she cuts a 'u-shape' under and around the vent to completely remove all the guts.  There's really not much poop or stink as we stop feeding them the previous day with the noon feeding being the last.  That gives a chance for them to empty their bowels, producing a cleaner slaughter.  The gizzards are put on ice in one pot, the hearts in another, and the liver in another.

Gutting the bird

Once the bird is gutted, the lungs are removed, the bird is washed out and then is thrown into a cooling tank.  They are kept under water to keep from flies.  As the water absorbs their body heat, we dump it out and replace with cool water as the bodies cool.

Chilling out

The feet and heads go into one pot.  Some will be eaten and the rest will be composted.

Chicken feet

The guts will be composted into the garden soil, using the trench composting method.

Gut bucket

We clean up all of the tables, plucker, cones, etc. and then add ice to the buckets of chicken, giving the birds a chance to go through rigor mortis.  Later in the evening we'll cut all the birds up and freeze them individually in gallon sized ziploc bags.

Tomorrow we'll talk a little more about it.  It is good to be all finished up and it is nice to know that we have 50 chickens in the freezer from which we will feast on for the next year until it is time to butcher again.  We'll also post the statistics, showing comparisons from last year and the prior year, so we can judge our success.

Benjamin Goes To Junior Prom

Saturday night was Junior Prom at Hathaway High School.  Benjamin rented a tux in classic black with a vest and ivory bow tie and pocket square.  He got ready in our bathroom and learned all about french cuffs and cuff links and how to fold a pocket square.  This is a little bit more formal attire than what Benjamin normally dresses up in.

Once all slicked up he was ready to go pick up his date.

Once he arrived back home with his date, we took many pictures inside and outside.  However, Benjamin didn't want us walking in the yard to take pictures.  Since I was letting the cows graze in the yard, there were a few cow patties in the yard and 'ol boy was a little embarrassed in front of his date to have cow patties hither and yon.  So we stayed on the porch.

We did venture over to the column for the next photo and this column did not have bees in it.  Back in the day, we bought our prom dates corsages.  All the girls apparently now carry bouquets.

The fireplace photo is always nice.

After photos at our house, we were invited to go over to one of Benjamin's friend's home as they had an area in the back yard set up for us to take photos.  It was very nice, with a wooden hearth, candles, flowers, an old chest, carpet, a nice chair and a vase.  It looked like something out of Southern Living magazine.

Here is Benjamin and some of his buddies.

Then another fun photo with the dates back in it.

Finally, they loaded up in a Mercedes van they rented.  It had big leather seats and two big screen TVs in it.  They rode to Lake Charles to eat at the Harlequin Restaurant.

Then back to the school for the dance, food, and games until 6 am.  Then they went to Waffle House for Breakfast.  What a big day!  Benjamin got up for Sunday School, but then slept until 6 pm.  Prom 2018 is done!

Butterfingers! (How to Make Homemade Buttter Without a Churn)

To go along with our post RIGHT HERE about the butter bell, I figured it would be good to show how we make the butter to go in it.  First, we skim some cream off the top of the milk and put it in a wide mouth quart jar.  We set it out on the counter for a while so it gets to be room temperature.  I think this is the most important thing.  If the cream is room temperature, it 'breaks' into butter very quickly.  If the cream is cold, it takes a lot longer.

Make sure that the lid is on securely or you will have a mess on your hands.  Then simply shake.  You can hear the thick cream sloshing around in the jar.

All of a sudden, you'll feel things change in the jar as the cream 'breaks' and suddenly instead of cream in your jar, you have butter and buttermilk.  It is as simple as that.

I use a long wooden spoon to press the butter to squeeze the buttermilk out.  As the buttermilk is expressed, I pour it into a half pint jar.  This buttermilk will be used to make pancakes, waffles or biscuits.  You can see everything we used to make butter in the photo below.

Here is a close-up of the fresh, creamy, yellow butter that is ready to be spread on some homemade bread.  Homemade butter!  Doesn't get any fresher than this...

While it may make a bit of a mess, it is worth the trouble.

You can always lick the butter off your fingers.

Stripes and Spots

Early Sunday morning the weather man said we would get a couple of inches of rain.  So Saturday we got a lot done in the garden in anticipation of the weather event.  As we were doing chores in the evening, I told Tricia that Jane's bag sure was swelling up.  Jane is a Nubian goat.  She is Annie's daughter and one of the triplets that Annie had two years ago.  Jane surprised us by turning up pregnant.  We knew that she had been exposed to Buckwheat, the buck, but we weren't sure that successful breeding had taken place.

Well...  Sunday morning, I headed out to the barn to milk.  It had rained an inch and two tenths over night.  There was water flowing in the ditches and limbs were down all over the yard.  I didn't hear any of the weather overnight, though, as I was sleeping soundly.  As I walked toward the barn, I peeked in the goat barn and saw a fresh placenta on the ground by Jane.  In the corner, I saw a little kid.  At first I though it was dead, but it soon got up.  Annie had delivered a little buckling during the storm, so we named him, "Thunder."

Our Nubians are spotted, but Thunder has MANY spots.  His spots are unlike those on our other goats.  His hind legs, however, are white.  He is unusual looking.

Except Thunder has not lived up to his namesake.  He is not loud and strong.  He is kind of weak and has the "failure to thrive" thing going on.  He also had scours.  Tricia mixed up an egg with some of Jane's milk and fed it to him in a bottle and it seemed to clear up the loose stool. 

The other thing about little Thunder is that he is not aggressively nursing.  His loose stools are bright yellow, so we know he got colostrum, but at least for the first day, he didn't nurse with 'gusto' like the other animals do.

Here is a photo of Jane next to her little Thunder.  You can see how different the spot patterns are.  Jane is more solid with a few spots.  Thunder, on the other hand looks like a dalmatian in reverse.  Jane has a striped head and has a spotted son.

Thunder has required some special care, but after a couple of days, he is doing much better.

His spotted pattern sure does catch your eye!

2018 Meat Birds - Seven Weeks Old

It is week seven already!  The chicken tractor is making its final approach to the chicken butchering area.  We will wheel it right up to the location where we will bleed, scald, pluck, gut, age and cut the chickens up.  As last week's weighing showed, these birds have grown quickly.  After losing about 10 birds shortly after arrival, the Cornish Cross Meat birds were healthy and grew better than previous years.  In fact, as we'll soon show, I think we could have butchered them this weekend, if we didn't already have plans. 

As you can see, I have the kitchen scale set up right in front of the tractor.  The birds are lounging comfortably, oblivious to their coming fate.

Peeking in at them, you can see that some are still eating their Chicken Grower Feed Ration that I pour into gutters.  They serve as perfect feed troughs.

I always grab an average-sized bird and put it in a bucket to weigh.  Of course, I zero out the scale with the empty bucket on the scale, so I am just weighing the bird and not the weight of the bucket.

Would you look at this!:

At the end of seven weeks, the birds weight 5 pounds 15 ounces!  That shows a gain of 11 ounces over last week.  To look at previous years:

*Week 7 2017:  4 pounds 1 ounce -  we're almost two pounds heavier this year!
*Week 7 2016:  5 pounds 14 ounces - almost a carbon copy of the 2016 birds.
*Week 7 2015:  3 pounds 9 ounces - we are way ahead of 2015

So in the next few days, I'll sharpen knives, re-organize the deep freeze and get everything together as we will be butchering Saturday morning.  We'll show the process of how we do it and then we'll have an update on the numbers.  

The Story That the Rhode Island Red Hen Had to Tell

Nestled comfortably in the hay, one of our Rhode Island Red hens was sitting.  She had tucked herself away from all the activity of the cows bellowing for green grass in the yard, the goat kids jumping around, and all the other chickens scratching and competing for tasty bugs and worms.  I think if you look at her eyes below, you can see that she is unhappy that I found her.

But if you listen closely, she has a story to tell.  Even though she can't speak in any language that I can discern, her actions tell a story, if you have ears to hear and eyes to see...

The question that has been around for a long, long time is: "What came first?  The chicken or the egg?"  I think even Aristotle deemed it a real dilemma as it was an infinite loop.  Chicken or Egg?

What a silly question!  At least for Christians who believe the Bible. 

According to The Bible, the chicken came first.

"And God blessed them, saying "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the water in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth." - Genesis 1:22

So there you have it!  Just as it happened in the hay on Our Maker's Acres Family Farm, it happened back in creation.  The chicken came first and then the egg.

Sowing Seeds of Corn (not weeds)

“Your mind is the garden, 

your thoughts are the seeds.

The harvest can either be flowers or weeds.”

– William Wordsworth

Don't you just love planting seeds?  There is something miraculous about it that no matter how many times I work up the soil, dig a hole, drop a seed in and cover it, I still am in awe to see a living plant pop up out of the soil from a seed.  From such a small thing comes so much!  Take the time to look at the food on your plate and realize that so much of what you are eating came from a tiny seed. 

Several weeks ago I worked up the patch of ground in the side yard.  While I had it worked up real good, I applied a good dose of agricultural lime.  I think that is going to help unlock some of the nutrients that have been tied up in the soil.  I wanted to raise this bed up since in heavy rains, the north side of this patch will flood.

The Corn Patch

There is a part of me that likes order.  According to some publications, corn is to be planted 4-6 inches apart.  I'm not going to measure each hole, but I made a guide to help me.  I found a cane walking stick in the corner of the garage that Benjamin or Russ had made in our Webelos Den quite a few years ago.

I used a Sharpie to make lines 5 inches apart on the cane pole.  I laid the pole down and made holes in the soft soil at each line.  Then I moved it forward 8 inches and repeated the holes. 

Here I have a handful of corn seeds.  See how shriveled up and dry they look? 

This year I'm planting a new type of Sweet Corn.  I enjoy planting the open pollinated, heirloom seeds and I still intend on planting them.  However, I have experienced some issues with the ears not filling out completely.  This year I found a Non-GMO hybrid sweet corn called "Gotta Have it."  I hope it lives up to its name!

Russ helped me by dropping a corn seed into each hole.

And then we filled each hole with some garden soil.

We watered it all in and in just a few days, like miracles, they popped up out of the ground with purpose.  Hopefully that purpose will be to provide our family with delicious sweet corn in about 78 days!

Now, we'll keep the corn patch watered and weeded...

The Little Running Back And Why You Can't Cry Over Spilled Milk

One of our 3 triplet goat kids is named Georgie and she has a lot of personality.  Tricia has grown to be especially fond of her.  Georgie is the biggest of the triplets and as a result, she gets a lot of the milk.  When goats have triplets, the math doesn't exactly work out since a goat has 2 teats.  3 kids fighting over 2 teats means one is going to be left out.  When Tricia tries to catch Georgie to separate her so that the other 2 can drink, Georgie doesn't exactly oblige.

Georgie dodges, jumps, jukes and jives.  She's got elusive moves to the extent that Tricia calls her the "little running back."  When she finally catches her, Georgie is very affectionate.

She'll let Tricia hug her and kiss Tricia's cheek:

She makes ol' Tricia very happy and even whispers nice things in her ear.  I wonder if Tricia might like her "little running back" more than her husband!

Except that Georgie is mischievous.  All goats are, actually.  They are like having some bad little kids around your house - always into trouble of some sorts and causing mayhem.  When we milk the cows, it is about a 20 minute task, brushing the cows' bellies, washing the udders, lubricating the teats, and then hand milking into buckets. 

When done, we'll generally set the buckets of milk atop a table in the corner while we un-hobble the cows.

Pro-tip: You cannot do that when you have a mischievous little running back in the barn!  Curious Georgie jumped up on the top of the table.  (Goats can really jump!)  She promptly knocked the bucket of fresh milk off of the table.  We watched with dismay as the rich, creamy, fresh milk soaked into the barn floor.

But Tricia promptly said, "No use crying over spilled milk!"

Especially when Georgie, the little running back was the perpetrator.