Cooking with bantam chicken eggs

We have been cooking with our bantam chicken eggs this past week, and I promised an update on how they are.  First up, the shells are sturdy!  They require a little more force to crack open, and I suspect it is a function of geometry as they eat the same as the standard hens.  Second point, the yolks are the same size as the standard eggs, just with less white (albumin).

two poached bantam chicken eggs - yum!

one bantam egg (on left) and one standard egg

As for taste, if you enjoy dippy eggs, poaching bantie eggs is just perfect!  They also make more yellow scrambled eggs and omelettes.  For baking, I am using two bantie eggs in place of one good-sized standard egg for bread and that turned out just fine.  The two red hens, Ninny and Betty, have been laying about every other day or even only twice a week, so their eggs are definitely at the top end of "large" size and some probably on the lower end of "extra large" size, so two smaller bantie eggs equal one standard in overall substance, just with a lot more yolk.

As for the remaining five nuggets, they spent the first part of the morning stretching their legs and wings, and they look leggy ... I strongly suspect they are in another growth spurt.  The two for Christmas are still in the extra refrigerator, as we didn't finish plucking the one and had to skin the second due to poor skin integrity.  They have all had the same diet (plus or minus bug-catching ability) so there must be a genetic component involved.  The skinned cockerel was also easier to clean out, as membrane and ligament integrity was also lower.  In fact, it sort of felt like a store-bought chicken to me.  Hmm.

Final note: I have ordered my birthday present: 50 new chicks!  I am getting 25 golden-laced Wyandottes straight run, and then 25 assorted heavy cockerels for late spring and summer eating.  They will ship out of Texas on the 7th, and arrive here the morning of the 9th, which is my birthday.

A stay of execution

The remaining seven nuggets have a stay of execution right now - my back has been acting up yesterday and again today.  I did hold the door and navigate for hubby to move the small refrigerator into the large bathroom since we really do not have fridge or freezer space for these chickens currently.  I'll need to slaughter two tomorrow, rain or shine or hurting back.  One will be Christmas dinner, and one will be going home with hubby's parents, along with any green onion or parsley they may need.

A couple of pics of the voracious gluttons as of a few minutes ago.

Cornish Rock nuggets

7 Cornish Rock nuggets

I did have a chuckle yesterday afternoon when I saw one of the larger nuggets catch a bug, then waddle-run from corner to corner playing a cross between keep-away and Calvin ball.

Initial observations on first tractored Cornish Rock pullet

I just finished slaughtering the smallest pullet out of the Cornish Rock "nuggets," which have been in the tractor for a month.  First, her skin, membrane, and ligament integrity were excellent, to the point that skinning her took almost as long as plucking her would have.  Both her crop and gizzard were full of grass, scratch, and crumble-paste, so she has been eating almost constantly while awake.  She had very little fat on her, which is different from the nuggets I have raised previously.  She had a beautiful, very dark red liver, a strong gizzard, and an average sized heart, which surprised me given her refusal to just slip quietly into unconsciousness.

She will make at least three dinners: tonight's stir-fry will have her breast meat, then the leg quarters will be another meal, with the rest of her carcass, wings, and giblets for at least one more meal.

Compared to the vast majority of other Cornish Rock pullets that hatch, she has had both a good life and a longer life.  I have been in a commercial broiler house, and I have watched video of chicken processing in a plant ... and I have also worked the line in a few factories.  The phrase "factory farming" is very appropriate for what your grocery store chickens go through.  Cornish Rock pullets are normally slaughtered at five weeks, since their growth slows in comparison to the cockerels.  You buy these labelled "Cornish Rock Game Hens," even though there is no game bird in their lineage and they are 47 weeks shy of being hens.

I'll post pics later - almost time to work the dough for bread now.

Some times a picture says it all.

However,

I love it when a plan comes together!

Debt FREE

Today is the big day.  Our house up in Tennessee closes this morning (on Central time though) and we will have enough to not only pay off that mortgage, but also the loans we used to buy this place.  While we had enough in savings to cover more than half the sale price here, the amount we did not have was too small for a mortgage so we simply did a secured loan on our pickup truck and a small signature loan.  By Monday morning, those should be officially paid off (allowing a day or two for paper/computer work).

No, this place is not a Taj Mahal, and yes, we have a couple neighbors we'd rather not associate with at all (the black bears, raccoons, pygmy rattlesnakes, and we have heard there are also bobcats and water moccasins around) ... but this place is now truly ours!  At least, as long as we keep current on property tax, but out here we actually see county services in the form of weekly garbage pick-up and road grading.

Ours.  It's time to make a sign for the corner of the driveway and the road.

The surviving chicks

The tractors have been repaired and the survivors have been caught and put back inside coops and tractors safely ... here is the final tally.  All eight nuggets survived, mainly because they were sleeping under the roost (best seen in this posts's pics) which kept bear paws and mouths from getting too close.

all 8 nuggets (Cornish/Rocks)

 Here are eight obvious cockerels from the 23 assorted chicks.

8 cockerels from the assorted bunch

 Here are what I thought were five pullets yesterday, but in this morning's chilly air it looks more like four pullets and one cockerel.  This is also a great example of my poor photography (lack of!) skills.

probably 4 pullets and a cockerel

My neighbor just came over and said she lost a chick last night to the bear.  Hubby had a feeling after we had laid down, so he got back up, got dressed, and took the BB gun and Sure-Fire flashlight outside and ended up shooting at a "pair of eyes glowing" out in the darkness near the woodline where the bears have come and gone from.

My neighbor also brought us four homemade tamales, which we just ate for breakfast and enjoyed.  She asked if I planned to order more chicks soon, so I told her Ideal sends our the weekly sales email on Thursdays.  Hubby already said he would understand completely if I wanted to get more chicks ... he even said that Saturday night.  Now, to wait for just the right sale.

Bears.

Regarding Bears.
FL Wildlife Commission's bear info page

In the link above, near the bottom of the page, is a video produced by the Florida wildlife commission. I found this to be quite informative.
They have several Bear related articles which might be worth the reading.( I'm not done yet!)
So far from what I gather covering last nights attack on the Chickens, It's our fault the bears attacked the chickens. Ok. So, to get just a little deeper here, the big rule is Don't feed the bears and don't attract the bears! Sounds good. What we needed to know before last night was that we were attracting bears. We also needed to know what bears ate and how they go about finding food. That's on us, no going back.
The big thing is securing food, trash, gardens and live stock. Which to this point we haven't really given much thought about. We don't create very much trash and mostly put it out in the morning before trash pick up. So that's covered. The gardens are all open boxes so it's fair game if we loose some to critters. No big deal they grow back?! Right?...
Livestock. Ok, we're slack where that's concerned. Mostly because we just didn't know we needed to do more. We have had our chickens for 18 months or more and until the Raccoon attack we'd not had any problems. Now things are different. we are looking at electric fencing now we are on a budget and have to plan this out. Going back to the FWC articles and video the big winner is electric fencing as a nonlethal answer to keeping out chickens safe. They say it's the most reliable way to keep bears and other critters out of where you don't want them.
I have said before education is painful and I stand by it. (Experience)
In the meantime I have put the tractors back together. I was surprised at how well they took the beating. I am hoping that the bears don't bother us again tonight
well I've gone on long enough.
Thanks for reading.

Black bears attack

Last night, two black bears got into the bigger "better" chick tractor, and killed 10 or 11 chicks.  One or both tried to get into the shorter triangle tractor the nuggets are in, but could not touch them apparently.  Hubby caught the bears red-mouthed and in the act.

Once we scared off the bears (very loud noise from a cap-and-ball black powder pistol, our noisiest firearm) we tried to assess the damage and catch the survivors who began coming out of various hiding spots.  This morning, there was one more survivor where the bigger tractor had been, looking for his buddies and food.  They aren't holding very still for counting, but it looks like we have 12 or 13 assorted chicks left now, along with all 8 of the nuggets.

I did not see the bears, but from hubby describing one as smaller than the other, I suspect this was a repeat visit from our unwelcome neighbor who came up on our porch (!) back in October.

While it is extremely expensive to build a bear-proof coop, and logistically impossible to make a bear-proof tractor, we are toying with the idea of setting up a safe zone with electric fence perimeter to scoot the tractors around inside.  Unfortunately that will need to wait until payday.

Bantam chicken eggs

This past week, both of our bantam/Polish cross hens - both named Eileen because we cannot tell them apart - started laying.  I am surprised they didn't do bantie-sized pullet-bullets, but regular bantam size eggs.  Here is one of the Eileens in front of the five gallon bucket that serves as their nesting box with a regular golf ball in it.  The golf ball isn't just there for size scale, it's there so we know when one of the Eileens goes broody ... we figure she will be guarding that ball plus any fresh eggs.

one of the Eileens, a "new wave" bantam cross

We have not yet cracked open the first egg, as there are a couple regular eggs in front of it (first in, first out rule).

I tried to get a new pic of Corey, the new wave rooster, but he was not inclined to hold still for the auto-focus on the digicam.

Yes, the Eileens are named such after the song, "Come On, Eileen," but I thought for sure it was by Flock of Seagulls (no, they did, "I Ran") instead of Dexy's Midnight Runners ... because the feathers on top of their heads look like those wild hair-dos Flock of Seagulls had.  What the cluck, over?  Oh well, Eileen is a better name for those two than Seagull or Ran.

Chicks at six weeks

So I have had these chicks for six weeks now, and the nuggets are getting some good size on them.  The two chick tractors are working perfectly now, with the little feathered gluttons grazing in between feeding times, and of course the all-they-can-catch-and-eat on bugs.  Hubby is quite pleased with how well they are stirring up the leaves and pulling the grass and in general scratching and pecking just like chickens should.  You can tell in these pics where the tractors were sitting before moving.

assorted chicks soon after moving the tractor over

you can certainly tell where the tractors were

a few of the nuggets tearing at the fresh grass

Oh, we are down to only 23 assorted chicks, as we lost a red cockerel, likely due to rowdiness judging from all the noise they were making the evening prior.

I am thinking of slaughtering ("harvesting"?) the nugget pullets sooner than Christmas.  There are only two of them, and the six cockerels tend to push them out of the way for feeding time so I think they may not be growing as fast.  They are a bit larger than the Cornish Rock "Game Hens" at the grocery, which are actually Cornish-Rock pullets at 5 weeks of age, with no game in them at all.

Right now, hubby is looking at these chick tractors as an end to his needing to mow ... while I look and see composting in place and think the grass will grow even faster than before.  We ought to figure out which of us is correct around May.

Building a better chick tractor part two

Hello!

We finally got the Large chick tractor built and full of chicks, which I'm sure you've already seen and read about! I took a few minutes of video to show how it came out. I know we put in a few pictures but I think this will show the tractor just a little bit better. It has the added benefit of lively little chickens bouncing around.

And a few pictures I took as well.

Thanks for reading!

Building a better chick tractor

Yesterday and today hubby has been busy building an improved chick tractor.

front door, big enough we can crouch in

built-in roosts with roof enough to shield from rain

putting on the above-roost door

I have helped with the seemingly menial parts, like climbing inside and threading the ends of the zip-ties back for hubby to secure.  He says it is twice as fast with my help, so neither menial nor insignificant.  This tractor will be big enough we could also use for goslings, keets (guinea fowl), or even poults (turkeys).  Once finished, it will hold 24 chicks (8 cockerels plus the 16 remaining pullets/maybe cockerels).

Raccoon attack

Our new chick tractor was hit in the wee dark hours of the morning.  Hubby had put a piece of plywood up against it where the chicks were sleeping too close to the wire, but apparently the plywood piece was too light, as he noticed it out-of-place this morning ... then saw the carnage.

First, do NOT try to tell me how "cute" raccoons are.  In fact, it's best to not attempt to tell any chicken owner that ... especially not one who has had to deal with the aftermath.  I knew there was at least one chicken-eating raccoon around, because my neighbor lost all but one hen to a raccoon back in the spring.  I saw the blood splatters on her coop before she washed them off.

The good news is we only lost one chick this time.  The bad news is the varmint will be back, probably tonight.  The ugly news is I awoke at 0200 and 0400 (approximately) because I was having dreams of going out and finding dead chicks.  Ugh.  Next time I have dreams like that, I will be going out to check on all the birds!

Now, for a not-really-bad pic of the poultry wire pulled out in the corner.

corner where raccoon hit, pulling out the wire

Yes, that is blood on the PVC pipe.  A basic description of how a raccoon kills a chick: it reaches its hand-like front paw in through the chicken wire, grabs the head and/or upper neck ... and yanks it out.  The body does not fit through the hole in the chicken wire, and so that stays inside.  This particular coon got a leg also.

So hubby and I are heading into town to buy enough stuff to make a second chick tractor, with the modifications we talked about yesterday.  These modifications certainly do include half-inch hardware cloth!

I guess this can be put down as a hard lesson learned.  Raccoons are stronger than I thought.  I am assuming they are every bit as difficult to catch/trap/kill as their reputation suggests.

Pullets out in the chick tractor

Now the rest of the chicks are OUT of the shed!  This means I can start airing the shed out for a few weeks or so .... someone described chicks as "too stinkin' cute" and the emphasis is certainly on the word "stinkin'."  I'll let hubby write up the stats/specs on our chick tractor, if he's so inclined.

the pullets discovering grass

pullets still mobbing the feeder

door in chick tractor for waterer

shelter and roost end of chick tractor

It may look like a bit of (*ahem*) rural engineering, but it will do exactly what we need it to do: hold the chicks safely while being lightweight enough to move every evening, and by only one person if necessary.

If all 17 of these chicks really are pullets, then I will consider myself very lucky!  I had ordered 25 assorted straight run.

Moving chicks outside

Been a bit busy, but here are a few pics in between rain events.  (Hopefully, no new trees will come down this week! That needs its own post though.)  I have moved the eight Nuggets (Cornish/Rock crosses) out into the chicken hutch, and while they haven't figured out the idea of going *up* into the hutch part, they are enjoying hopping around on the grass.

the nuggets enjoying the great outdoors

I moved these eight yesterday, and this morning I selected the eight biggest and most boisterous cockerels out of the assortment to move out into the old bantie-house.  Four have so far figured out the ramp, while the other four were happy to snuggle down into the pine shavings for some peaceful rest.

four of the cockerels moved out of the shed

three of the four really adventurous cockerels ....
there were four in the frame when I focused the camera!

Finally, hubby has been working on building a chick tractor to bring the rest outside.  It is light enough for me to move, with roosts for the chicks which will be under a roof with hardware cloth as a "floor" of sorts.

chick tractor in progress

When hubby finishes it up, the chicks will be able to scratch and hop around the yard inside it, safe from bald eagles, hawks, owls, and other assorted wildlife that appreciates a chicken dinner as much as we do.

Chicks at three weeks

Weekly pictures of my quick-growing chicks, taken yesterday afternoon only a couple hours after I changed the shavings out ... seriously, chickens are NOT known for being clean or tidy.

the 8 nuggets, who are hopping out of the tub regularly but always come running for food

25 assorted chicks, starting to truly feather out now

another pic of the 25 assorteds

close-up of "Beardie" the bearded/muffed pullet who may be a Spangled Russian Orloff chick

Just for the record, persuading 25 active, lively, and at times rowdy chicks to hold still for pictures is definitely not one of my talents.

Quick-growing chicks

Yesterday we had to buy a new brooder tub, as we had escapees from the 50 gallon stock tank.  The next size up that I could find was a 110g tank at Tractor Supply, so we now have chicks in both:

8 Cornish-Rock "nuggets" in the 50g

close-up of still unknown chicks showing pretty colors

And some more cute chicks with pretty feathers coming in

25 "assorted" chicks in the 110g tank

The 110g tank next to the 50g tank they were escaping from

Homemade bread and English muffins

WARNING: Do not look on an empty stomach!
Fresh bread just out of the oven today, trying a new recipe:

homemade sandwich bread fresh from the oven

Now, for a little catch-up from earlier this week, when I made my usual loaf of wheat bread and hubby made from-scratch English muffins for the first time:

homemade bread and English muffins cooling

Homemade from-scratch English muffin

 If you ask me, I will say the homemade English muffins taste light-years better than the store-bought ones ... I have never been a huge fan of English muffins, having only had the store version before this.  The fun part is that they "bake" on the stove, in a cast iron skillet.

Both the new bread recipe and the English muffin recipe come from a special issue from Hobby Farm magazine, simply called "Homemade Breads" that I found on the magazine rack in Tractor Supply recently.  I already consider it money well spent, and there are more recipes we want to try like apple-stuffed fry bread, skillet cornbread with cheese, and an Indian flatbread called naan.  The added bonus of baking our own bread is when hubby walks into the house after being outside or in his workshop and exclaims, "Yum!  It smells wonderful in here!"

More chicks pics

Just because they are still very much in the cute phase, and because I changed out the pine shavings.

33 week-old chicks

close up of some of the week old chicks

We sent our neighbor her 25 chicks ... although we may have miscounted and sent over 27 instead.  No big deal, as the hatchery sent 7 extras, and we have only lost two chicks, so that is 33 week-old chicks in the brooder tank.  They are still growing like weeds, which has a down side in that they are still doing their run-flap-jump routine on each other, which is how we lost the second one yesterday, to general young chick rambunctiousness.

Hubby will be building a chicken tractor so we can start scooting them around the yard to eat grass and bugs once they get enough feathers grown in.

New chicks

More of an update later, but right now:

newly arrived just-hatched chicks

Twenty-five of those are my neighbors' who combined order with me to save on shipping.  The neighbors ordered just Cornish-Rock crosses to raise for meat, where I ordered 30 "assorted heavies" which means I could have quite the selection.  So we ordered 55 total, and I received 62 with extras for warmth.  All were alive and cheeping rather noisily.

The "Oh they are so CUTE!" is in full effect right now.

Cooking from scratch

As the two regular (?) readers here know, I have been cooking more and more from scratch this year.  At some point (after I wash the pickled beet brine stain out of the tablecloth I made) I need to pull out all my favorite cookbooks that have scratch recipes in them and take a pic for posterity or some such ... but sometimes I just wing it.  Both my parents began to teach me to cook back when I was still too little to reach the stovetop or counter without pulling the stepstool over - about 6 or 7 years old, I think.  I was short for many years though, but probably that early.  Yes, my mother had her cast iron skillets even back then, and still refuses to pass them on while she is still above ground.  She also refuses to even let me borrow her 1968/72 edition Betty Crocker cookbook which opens to my two favorite recipes in it.  I can remember the ingredients, just not measurements and back then I still measured on most things.

Yesterday, I made up a loaf of bread like usual, and it rose and had just the perfect consistency which is often a function of temperature and humidity levels in addition to ingredients.  Today I have two projects going: homemade ketchup where I used up the last of the pomegranate vinegar, and pasta sauce.

homemade ketchup in the little crock pot

homemade pasta sauce on the stove

Yes, there are already splatters from stirring and other dishes ... I cook in a real kitchen and not some gussied-up TV sound stage.  It's easier for me to wait until I am done and things have cooled to wipe up the splatters and drips.  The saucepot on the stove is at least twenty years old, as well ... I bought it at a garage sale way back when.  I'd say I have more than gotten my 25c worth out of it.  Or was it 10c?

Garden and chicken updates soon.

The unwelcome neighbor

Our one major unwelcome neighbor just came onto our front porch to sniff at our front door ... the black bear.  No pic, as the camera was not my first thought.  It wasn't quite my third thought either.  I can't believe how quiet she was, either ... hubby was sitting here with his back to the open window and didn't hear her.  Yes, we know she is a "her" because one of her cubs had ventured just out of the treeline.  When I did think of grabbing the camera and opening the door (after she walked off the porch!)  she loped off to her cub and the trees.

This is the first time we've actually seen her ... and she just walked up to our front door.

Planted some more stuff

Wall-of-text, probably no pics ... this is where I keep my gardening notes so the cat cannot shred a paper notebook and I should not be able to misplace this.  After last evening's huge assault on the dirt and weeds, hubby asked what WE were planting today.  I love that he has become more interested in both the gardening (including composting) and the chickens (which may also include composting).  So we attacked another bed with digging fork, shovel, hoe and rake.  Here we go:

• Green onion (Burpee Parade variety) in the box next to the store-bought green onions I had planted either in the spring or last fall.  The ones I started from seed last year near the coop have outshone and outproduced the store-boughts.  For anyone who has not yet heard the trick on store-bought green onions: chop them down to where the stems turn white ... then instead of tossing the little bulbs, plant them.  Excellent for people who have little space and use containers for gardening ... but as I mentioned, the seed started ones are noticeably better.
• Chives (Ferry-Morse, garlic variety) in the same box as the green onions.  A nice bit of variety.
• Spinach (Burpee Bloomsdale Long-Standing and Satin varieties) in the same box, also in the original salad box, and a few scattered in where I planted mustard, spinach mustard, and turnip greens the other day.  We like spinach!  Especially in salads, on sandwiches, in casseroles, etc etc etc ....
• Peas (American Seed Dwarf Gray Sugar variety) along the trellis in the bed-without-a-box we prepped this morning.  An edible-pod variety, which will mean a lot of happy stir-fries for us.
• Carrots (orange, Burpee Big Top, Scarlet Nantes, and Danvers 126 varieties) scattered on one side of the pea trellis closer to the house.
• Rainbow carrots from Ferry-Morse.  Seriously, who could resist a purple carrot?  Or a gold one, or a white one ... you could say I tend to still play with my food on a more sophisticated level! LOL
• Parsnip (Ferry-Morse, Hollow Crown variety) I was surprised the seeds are so much larger than carrot seeds, since I thought the two more closely related.  Hmm, maybe kissing cousins instead of first cousins then.
• Radish (Ferry-Morse, White Icicle Short Top variety) just because.

I am pretty sure that is all that I have planted today.  I am out of half-empty envelopes and did not use all of any one up.

Planted something (greens)

So I had made myself a to-do list Saturday night that read:

• make bread
• water gardens
• plant something

Hubby thought it was amusing ... the specificity of "plant something" ... but I just did not get it done on Sunday.  Instead I had to go chasing a pullet (dark Easter egger I thought might be sick, bought Saturday) a couple times before deciding she obviously felt well enough to go in with others.  A remarkable recovery for her, aided by our fermented wet scratch and "Poultry Booster" multivitamins, so I swapped her for one of the Silkies, who had been crying and we wanted to be sure she was eating.  She did eat and drink, but I still found her dead Monday morning.  Best I can figure is she had injured herself either going into the carrier or when the other pullets were in the carrier at the farm market, as she had cried all the way home as well.  I had named her Crybaby.  This brings us down to three feathered incubators, but those three are all looking well.

Today I finally got out into the dirt and planted "something," three different somethings, in fact.  I spread around little seeds for "Seven Top" turnips, "Florida Broadleaf" mustards, and "Tendergreen" spinach mustard.  I also scattered a few mustard seeds around my Tropical Beauty peach tree, which isn't looking too good this fall.

Now here are some more chicken pics from Saturday.

the Polish/banties, Corey and the Eileens

Buffy, with her partially-feathered feet

Buffy and Lavendar, the other Easter egger

Speckles the speckled Sussex

Sunny the Welsummer, hamming it up in hopes of a treat

Our new incubators

We bought four new incubators this morning at the farm market, and here are pics of three of them:

bantam/Polish cockerel and one of the bantam/Polish pullets

Sunny the Welsummer and the two new Silkie pullets

Nope, not the electrical style of incubators!  LOL  Both bantams and Silkies have reputations for firmly believing their purpose in life is to brood and hatch any and all fertilized eggs.  I am hoping these four live up to that reputation, because even though our electric co-op is very good about getting power back up when it goes down in a storm ... the one time you depend on that it just won't happen.  "Murphy" and his law run more than just the army.

Hubby came with me to the farm market, even though he was up until 3 AM taking care of replacing the well pump.  I wanted him to see the Silkies, the purebred Polish, and also adult guineas.  Well, more like hearing the adult guineas LOL since they can be rather loud and I want a small flock of them.  He has approved the guinea fowl idea, as long as their coop is far enough away from our bedroom windows.

When we walked up to the vendor I bought from last time, I pointed out the Silkies first, calling them "incubators disguised as feather dusters."  The vendor, Fran, thought that was hilarious, and added, "Yup, that is true!"  When I pointed out the Polish chickens in the cage above, I called them "escapees from an '80s hair band" which got chuckles from both hubby and Fran.  Instead of calling the Silkies or Polish weird or silly-looking, hubby says they look cool and he would not object to either breed running around our coops or tractoring around the yard.  So, we now have two Silkies and a breeding trio of bantam/Polish crosses which are just too cute to pass up.  The bantie/Poles look like they belong in the early '80s new bands, so one of the pullets will be named Eileen (as in "Come on, Eileen").  I just need to learn to tell them apart.