I think Josh has hit on the real reason our seedlings didn't do as well this year....I was suspecting it was just too cold in our back room and he just reminded me that last year, we had our dryer venting into the room for extra heat (panty hose on the end of the vent tube to catch lent), which made the room one big ol' humid, hot green house. I'm gonna have to add that note to my garden log.
Outside, we finished planting spring crops. The last of the tomatoes, peppers and melons were transplanted, lots of black eyed peas and okra planted, kentucky wonder beans and christmas pole beans, pumpkin, more squash direct seeded into the ground, basil and oregano seed spread through out the garden.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Friday, March 27, 2009
The Big Hen House in the Sky
We have an entire deep freeze full of chicken! Josh did take some pictures and videos, but he told the guys he wouldn't post them. If you are interested in seeing what the process was like, drop me an email, or leave your email in the comment section and I'd be happy to share. Looking through them, I haven't seen anything I didn't expect. Like I told Josh, I'm sure the full, "smell-o-vision" experience is quite a bit different to experience, but it's what I thought was going to happen.
Some lessons learned:
* These birds SMELL. In the future, I'd like to stick to 20-30 at a time and even then, I'm glad I only had them around 2 weeks instead of 8. I do think the smell was a little worse when we first got them though, so perhaps having access to grass and getting non-medicated feed helps in that regard.
* We should have (and would have, if we'd had time) prepared better for inclement weather. If you have several acres and the chickens are living in a "chicken tractor" that moves to new grass every day, it may not be as big an issue. In our set up, we were able to get the chickens where they weren't getting rained on, but the storms this week were so bad that the ground was soaked and there was standing water on all of our property. Our egg laying hens have a raised, enclosed coop to escape too and they did fine. The meat birds had no where to get off the ground (and honestly, I haven't seen many designs that include that for meat birds--I usually see low to the ground squares that are mainly predator protection). By the time Josh loaded them up this afternoon, their feathers were wet and I'm quite certain they wouldn't have easily made it through the 38 degree night. On a piece of acreage, cultivating good pasture that drains well probably eliminates this problem.
* We need sharper knives. I never buy whole chickens and had never actually butchered one before. I don't have the appropriate knives to do a good job and I wasn't perfect, but I got very usable leg quarters, boneless/skinless breasts, wings, and back and breastbone to make stock.
* We were prepared for this, because we had one empty deep freeze at the house, but just as an FYI, 39 chickens take up a lot of space in the freezer!
* Also just FYI, we had read the birds would eat about half a pound of feed per bird per day. We went through 50 pounds every 2.5 days (for all 41, we lost those 2 within the last few days), which is right in line with that estimate.
* And one more FYI, their water had to be refilled twice a day with temps in the high 70's.
* We've always read you slit the veins in the neck in order to drain out the most blood and nearly instantaneously cut off blood supply to the brain (putting the chicken out of its misery). Apparently, the other benefit is easier plucking. The guy doing the killing says if you snap their neck, the little muscles in the skin tense and "hold on" to the feather tighter.
* Speaking of plucking, if we ever decide to do chickens on our own, especially in larger numbers, we really need to build a whiz bang plucker
Final figures:
39 chickens (started with 41)
180 total pounds (dressed weight, whole birds, no livers, etc...)
4.66 pounds--average weight per bird
$274.25 total spent (this includes: non medicated feed, a few small supplies for the coop, 40 pound feeder, 5 gallon waterer, $2.75/bird processing)
$85 income--sold 8 chickens to friends at $2/pound
$189.25 net cost, $1.38/pound for the chicken we kept (and, okay, it's not all organic and everything, but it's more free range than "free range" chicken in the store, on non-medicated feed and not factory slaughtered)
If we were already set up with supplies and just needed to buy feed and pay for processing, we could do the exact same thing next year (raise 40, sell 8), get the same poundage, and our price would be $0.73/pound
All in all, I think we did an okay job. There are definitely improvements to be made, as is the case with anything in life.
Some lessons learned:
* These birds SMELL. In the future, I'd like to stick to 20-30 at a time and even then, I'm glad I only had them around 2 weeks instead of 8. I do think the smell was a little worse when we first got them though, so perhaps having access to grass and getting non-medicated feed helps in that regard.
* We should have (and would have, if we'd had time) prepared better for inclement weather. If you have several acres and the chickens are living in a "chicken tractor" that moves to new grass every day, it may not be as big an issue. In our set up, we were able to get the chickens where they weren't getting rained on, but the storms this week were so bad that the ground was soaked and there was standing water on all of our property. Our egg laying hens have a raised, enclosed coop to escape too and they did fine. The meat birds had no where to get off the ground (and honestly, I haven't seen many designs that include that for meat birds--I usually see low to the ground squares that are mainly predator protection). By the time Josh loaded them up this afternoon, their feathers were wet and I'm quite certain they wouldn't have easily made it through the 38 degree night. On a piece of acreage, cultivating good pasture that drains well probably eliminates this problem.
* We need sharper knives. I never buy whole chickens and had never actually butchered one before. I don't have the appropriate knives to do a good job and I wasn't perfect, but I got very usable leg quarters, boneless/skinless breasts, wings, and back and breastbone to make stock.
* We were prepared for this, because we had one empty deep freeze at the house, but just as an FYI, 39 chickens take up a lot of space in the freezer!
* Also just FYI, we had read the birds would eat about half a pound of feed per bird per day. We went through 50 pounds every 2.5 days (for all 41, we lost those 2 within the last few days), which is right in line with that estimate.
* And one more FYI, their water had to be refilled twice a day with temps in the high 70's.
* We've always read you slit the veins in the neck in order to drain out the most blood and nearly instantaneously cut off blood supply to the brain (putting the chicken out of its misery). Apparently, the other benefit is easier plucking. The guy doing the killing says if you snap their neck, the little muscles in the skin tense and "hold on" to the feather tighter.
* Speaking of plucking, if we ever decide to do chickens on our own, especially in larger numbers, we really need to build a whiz bang plucker
Final figures:
39 chickens (started with 41)
180 total pounds (dressed weight, whole birds, no livers, etc...)
4.66 pounds--average weight per bird
$274.25 total spent (this includes: non medicated feed, a few small supplies for the coop, 40 pound feeder, 5 gallon waterer, $2.75/bird processing)
$85 income--sold 8 chickens to friends at $2/pound
$189.25 net cost, $1.38/pound for the chicken we kept (and, okay, it's not all organic and everything, but it's more free range than "free range" chicken in the store, on non-medicated feed and not factory slaughtered)
If we were already set up with supplies and just needed to buy feed and pay for processing, we could do the exact same thing next year (raise 40, sell 8), get the same poundage, and our price would be $0.73/pound
All in all, I think we did an okay job. There are definitely improvements to be made, as is the case with anything in life.
Our chickens have a date tonight
The chickens were supposed to be processed April 1st. Then, we had some pretty serious thunderstorms come through Wednesday. Josh helped them get in the coop when the rain started (they've never learned to go back in the coop at night). We watched out the window and they seemed okay. There was lots of lightening and thunder and lots of rain. We woke in the morning to find one chicken had been trampled or smothered, or something. It appeared they had all huddled together and this one got stuck underneath the pile. I've heard of turkeys doing the same thing in thunderstorms and I'm not sure of a practical way to avoid it. There is plenty of room in the coop to spread out and they didn't. When they're out of the coop, they still huddle up even in good weather, so I think they would've done the same. Also, there was a lot of water (two little temporary rivers running through the yard), so I think if we'd left them out we would have had some drownings. So, it was disheartening to deal with the dead chicken and then we checked the weather and found we are supposed to get down to 38 tonight and 34 tomorrow night, which is significantly colder than it has been. So, we called our processor and moved up our processing date to this afternoon. Josh is going to stay while they are doing the processing, I'll see if he's willing to take pictures.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
An Open Letter
A short open letter to pediatrician's (or doctor's in general, really) offices:
Hey, guess what? This is MY kid, not yours. Hey, guess what? In 20 years you'll have no clue who we are and I'll still remember every vaccine reaction and medication side effect. You know what? That means I have the choice about what to give them and when, not you. Here's a news flash....my oldest daughter did NOT have a chicken pox vaccine at 12 months old specifically because my research convinced me she would just need a booster in the future (possibly when she was college-aged and highly unlikely to get one). Instead, I made the decision to wait until she was 3 or 4. Lo and behold, you guys now include a booster in the vaccination schedule. Man, I sure was off base, huh? I wanted both girls to have the chicken pox vaccine at the same time when my youngest was 12 months old and you guys said DTaP was more important and we should do the chicken pox at 18 months. Then 18 months rolled around and you guys skipped it again (I admit, I should have paid closer attention). When I call to inform you my not yet vaccinated kids have been exposed and I'd like to get the vaccine for both of them in the 3-5 day window where it can still prevent or lessen the severity of the infection, how about you be grateful for keeping your vax numbers up (since that's all you all seem to care about anyway) and schedule the appointment? Your snotty, arrogant, holier than thou attitude does nothing but royally tick me off and make me want to avoid doctors all together. I'm sure that was your goal, right? Take a look at the records, we've made every well baby visit and unless there were extenuating circumstances, we've even done almost every vaccine (let's be honest, my 2 month old isn't going to be exposing herself to hepatitis B anytime in the next year). Oh, wait, you wouldn't know that because their pediatrician abandoned them and moved to another clinic "temporarily" (you know, only a whole year), and then abandoned them again and moved back to the original clinic. Since we value continuity of care and stayed with the same doctor, the charts are now split between two clinics. News flash---this was your doing, send a fax and combine the charts and stop acting like I'm a delinquent. While you're at it, train your office staff to understand a simple concept--this town revolves around a very large university. Maybe, just maybe, the parent on the other end of the phone has quite a bit of education and intelligence under their belt and has reasons to back up their choices (they may even have studies from your own medical literature to back up those choices! They may even be nearly finished with PhD in immunology!). As a lactation consultant and mostly as a parent, I am sick and tired of the multitude of non-evidenced based information being given out on a daily basis. If we can't trust your science and your customer service absolutely sucks, why should we be expected to be eager to work with you?
(okay, I'm done with my vent)
Hey, guess what? This is MY kid, not yours. Hey, guess what? In 20 years you'll have no clue who we are and I'll still remember every vaccine reaction and medication side effect. You know what? That means I have the choice about what to give them and when, not you. Here's a news flash....my oldest daughter did NOT have a chicken pox vaccine at 12 months old specifically because my research convinced me she would just need a booster in the future (possibly when she was college-aged and highly unlikely to get one). Instead, I made the decision to wait until she was 3 or 4. Lo and behold, you guys now include a booster in the vaccination schedule. Man, I sure was off base, huh? I wanted both girls to have the chicken pox vaccine at the same time when my youngest was 12 months old and you guys said DTaP was more important and we should do the chicken pox at 18 months. Then 18 months rolled around and you guys skipped it again (I admit, I should have paid closer attention). When I call to inform you my not yet vaccinated kids have been exposed and I'd like to get the vaccine for both of them in the 3-5 day window where it can still prevent or lessen the severity of the infection, how about you be grateful for keeping your vax numbers up (since that's all you all seem to care about anyway) and schedule the appointment? Your snotty, arrogant, holier than thou attitude does nothing but royally tick me off and make me want to avoid doctors all together. I'm sure that was your goal, right? Take a look at the records, we've made every well baby visit and unless there were extenuating circumstances, we've even done almost every vaccine (let's be honest, my 2 month old isn't going to be exposing herself to hepatitis B anytime in the next year). Oh, wait, you wouldn't know that because their pediatrician abandoned them and moved to another clinic "temporarily" (you know, only a whole year), and then abandoned them again and moved back to the original clinic. Since we value continuity of care and stayed with the same doctor, the charts are now split between two clinics. News flash---this was your doing, send a fax and combine the charts and stop acting like I'm a delinquent. While you're at it, train your office staff to understand a simple concept--this town revolves around a very large university. Maybe, just maybe, the parent on the other end of the phone has quite a bit of education and intelligence under their belt and has reasons to back up their choices (they may even have studies from your own medical literature to back up those choices! They may even be nearly finished with PhD in immunology!). As a lactation consultant and mostly as a parent, I am sick and tired of the multitude of non-evidenced based information being given out on a daily basis. If we can't trust your science and your customer service absolutely sucks, why should we be expected to be eager to work with you?
(okay, I'm done with my vent)
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