Thinking about which chickens to grow next

We raised about a dozen of these this year and butchered at 12 weeks.   I have not read all the things about hatcheries to disagree with anything.  It has not been a part of my research, so I don't know exactly what the author of the following links is referring to.  But I loved her information and her presentation.  I have to say that I can substantiate what she says about their needs.  We too, give them a lot of space to scratch and dig for themselves.  They get too hot very easy.  It would not be responsible to allow these chickens to be raised without a fence for protection.   One hen dislocated a hip fairly early, maybe about six weeks old.  She could still get food and water but she walked very oddly and couldn't have out run a cat.

It is December 10th and we ate another one for dinner tonight.  The meat is significantly healthier and the bones are stronger than the standard store bought chicken.   When I say healthier, I mean you can tell the difference the same as you would notice something was strong and muscular versus soft and flabby.  Our chickens were safe, they had life full of scratch, crumble, bugs, kitchen scraps, and garden scraps.  They were fed extra weeds and were ecstatic digging and laying in their beauty dust treatments.

Our grandson helped with this project and it has been a joy educating him about safe practices and humane treatments.  It is a joy to watch him eat.  He had a near death experience with ulcerative colitis and as part of his care, we have included him in our farm life.  Getting good medical care was imperative but beyond that bringing him back into a body filled with strength and vitality through real life experiences with growing fresh vegetables, flowers for the joy of it, fresh eggs, chickens, and pigs, has been our pleasure.  There's more but that is a different story.

This one is about these chickens.  They are the best meat chickens I've ever grown.  They flight less than any other chickens I've raised.  They are sitting ducks for just about anything so we made their growing space unattractive to eagles and hawks, by keeping their area less than 6' across.  An eagle needs 6' or more to raise its wings.  I also attached those annoying little pinwheels for children all around the pens.  A few wiggling ribbons help too.  We never lost a single one of these chickens to a predator.  We made 4 divisions to the pen area so that they could rotate and have fresh greens and bugs daily.

I will raise these chickens again, but I will keep my eye open, like the author in the following articles, and hope to find a chicken I can integrate into a natural propagation routine.

Did I mention that they all dressed out over six pounds each at twelve weeks old?

http://www.theselfsufficienthomeacre.com/2013/04/raising-meat-chickens.html

http://www.theselfsufficienthomeacre.com/2013/11/can-you-keep-cornish-x-chickens-as-laying-hens.html

Happy Thanksgiving

Shadow.  Our part Greyhound, part Labrador scared cat.  Oops, I mean dog.

One of the reasons that I use the alias asunlitwalk.

When this old hemlock fell in a storm this year it added a lot more sun to my sunlit walks.

Burley Bazaar

Just a reminder of the upcoming local bazaar!  December 6th, 2014 9 AM to 4 PM.  There will be a shuttle every 15 minutes from the Purdy Park N Ride!  Park free.

www.burleybazaar.org

Soy Candles

Refillable candles make winter holidays a lot easier to plan for.

My Etsy Shop

My Etsy Shop is the best way to contact me this season.  You can send a convo to ask about the gift boxes I'm preparing for the holidays.  I cannot post them until I've assembled them, but that should be happen before the week is out.

Click on the following link.
https://www.etsy.com/shop/asunlitwalk?ref=hdr_shop_menu

Make Your own Potpourri

I've been making potpourri for years and much of it lasts for years.  I open lids of large glass containers of potpourri when I have company.  Yes, you do see dried zucchini in this potpourri.  

1. Collect plant materials such as petals, cones, seed pods, short pieces of thin twigs, mosses from logs or trees.

2. Lay them all out to dry in a single layer for two weeks or more.

3. Place them in a coffee can with a lid.

4. Add one dram (1/16 oz) of fragrance oil or essential oil per 1 cup of dried material.  

5. Put the lid on the can and shake it daily for 2 weeks.

6. If the scent is not strong enough add more.  The secret to holding the scent is to put it on something that it can sink into deeply, like the sticks or cones.

Potpourri will fade in bright sunlight.

Potpourri will last longer if you keep a lid on it while not scenting the room.

You can always add more dried ingredients to your potpourri.  

We finally had to call an Electrician

So, a few weeks ago, the hall light stopped working and since I'm the one that installed the track light in the first place, I didn't think too much about it and I did not have time to mess with it.  Then the bedroom light and two outlets quit working.  So I finally called Keith Thompson in Camas, Washington.  I called him because my brother recommended him knowing that we'd someone real patient besides being knowledgeable about electricity.

 Keith fixed the problem of the lights out.  He drew a math problem on a piece of paper explaining how many watts the circuit could handle.  Then he showed me how to add up the wattage of all the things plugged into this circuit.  Problem was the fish tank in the other room was plugged in with the TV, DVD player ETC.  Too big of a load.

He added another circuit for the fish tank and he replaced all of the outlets on the circuit.  If your plug falls out of the outlet, you need a new outlet.  Once he finished that he went on the next problem.  The list was very long as you will be able to see by the pictures below.  

He also helped my grandson frame and sheet rock a wall, add a circuit just for his room in the unfinished basement and hang a bedroom door.   But wait there's more.

   

He tidied up Medusa, followed all the loose wires from both ends, put the cover back on her, added new screws, and plugged the openings inside of her in a tidy, modern, and to code manner.

Helping the grandson make his own room.  (If you've read about the grandson, you can see that Matt is a full 150 lbs now! Yes, wiggle, squirm with happiness.  He's on Humera and it is working for him.)

Keith untangled the wiring in this room.  It was a mess.  He put all to code and added a bathroom fan in this man cave in the basement.  This was a crazy bit but he patiently drilled holes and pulled old wire away.  The yellow wire is new.

My house has never had exterior outlets.  It now has three.  The light on the left is turned on by a switch at the back porch and the lights on the right are attached to motion sensors.  A guest can now have a lighted journey back to their car.  No need to walk them out with a flashlight any more.

I had installed this string of lights a few years ago.  The wire was on the outside and there was an outlet at the end which worked only with the lights on.  Keith put the wire on the correct side of the wall, removed the outlet from the circuit, and installed a proper outlet below the lights.  He also add three more out door outlets to this building.  

This he did for fun.  He plugged the tunes into the outlet and the other cover is a light switch.  It turns on 3 lights at once.  They in turn each have switch so that they might be used one at a time.  This is out in the entertainment part of the planer shed.  He added a dimmer switch for the light over the table.

Reversed polarity found and fixed.  GFI added to kitchen.

New outlet for fish tanks.

Switches.

A light at the bottom of a dark stairwell.

Dinner!  I smell DINNER.  You can see what my husband cooks on carmensdinner.blogspot.com.  Hungry.