Signs of summer

Revamped corner planting bed contains Sedum, Minor Black Weigela and Petunias.  I can't wait until they all start to bloom and grow.  I also added rock this year instead of mulch to keep the rototillers (aka chickens) out.  It seems to be working great so far!

New bunny hutches

After we built bunny hutches several months ago, we realized they weren't quite right.  We had all of the girl bunnies together in one large hutch, which is not ideal when they're pregnant and after they give birth.  We also had a partial wood bottom, which isn't ideal as it requires a lot of work for sanitary reasons. 

This past week we've been building new wire cages for the bunnies that hang on the back of the chicken coop.  This also gives us another benefit.  Rabbits produce a lot of waste and if it just sits it creates ammonia.  Having the cages hanging up high allows the chickens to go in under them and mix up the waste while they look for worms, grubs, etc.  So the chickens are happy foraging, the rabbit waste gets mixed up naturally and we get some of the best compost available!  Win-win situation for all!

Here are the bunnies new home...

Chicken Processing Day

Here are step by step photos of our chicken processing on 5/8/10.  It was our first attempt and took us 2 hours to process 10 chickens.  Not lightning fast, but not too bad for our first time.

Here we have a pic of the Whizbang chicken plucker that Dan built.  This will keep us from hand plucking feathers right after it comes out of scalding hot water...

Here  is our setup...
Step 1 - chickens go into cones to slit throats and bleed out
Step 2 - into stainless pot with 150 degree water to loosen feathers
Step 3 - into Whizbang to remove feathers
Step 4 - onto table for butchering

Time to catch some chickens... in this case all of the Barred Rock cockerels that we don't want to keep.  After catching, they're held upside down which calms them down as blood rushes to their heads...

Into the cones they go.  After their throats are slit they instantly die, yet their hearts keep beating so they bleed out better than other butchering methods.  They need to hang here a few minutes...

After they've bled out, into the hot water for about 1 minute...

Now into the Whizbang.  You turn the drum on while spraying a little water and 30 seconds later, you have naked birds...

Now we start butchering...

The butchering is all done.  Just need to rinse the bird out and place in some cold water while we do the rest...

Egg count

30 eggs this week.

Meat birds!

20 Cornish Cross chicks.  These little eating machines will be dinner in about 8 weeks!

11 Heritage Bronze turkeys.  These will be for our Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners with a few left over to sell.

Homemade chili powder

I used the last of the store-bought chili powder making homemade taco seasoning.  So I decided to try my hand at homemade chili powder.  We've had some chilies drying since last summer that I've been meaning to use, but just haven't gotten around to it.  Today is the day!

½ cup rough chopped chilies of your choice. Remove seeds; set aside. Grind chilies to a powder.

1 tablespoon cumin powder
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon oregano
1 teaspoon smoked paprika

Put all spices/herbs back in the grinder along with seeds (whatever amount/heat you desire). I use about ½ of what I removed. Grind to combine and make more fine.

Egg count

27 eggs this week.