Category: - Moose Manor Farms

Poultry Processing Workshop Survey

9/23/2012

I'm trying to gauge the level of interest in hosting a poultry processing workshop here at the farm; I've had success with 'Chicken Raising 101' workshops here. So if you have any desire to learn how to process your own poultry on a small scale (50 birds at a time or less), please take this short survey. If there're enough folks who want to learn, I'll start hosting chicken harvesting workshops in December 2012 or Spring 2013. Whether I hold classes for other types of poultry will depending on the survey results (and, of course, prices will vary with the type of birds we process).

Take the survey here:
www.surveymonkey.com/s/XC5DFC2/

The basic idea is this:

I figure a class size of between 4-7 people at $25 per person is reasonable. A small group allows everyone to see what's going on and I can do hands-on for that number by myself.

1. I give an overview of what we plan to accomplish and use a couple of diagrams to show students how we plan to do it.

2. I process one bird from beginning to end so students can see how the entire operation moves from one step to another fluidly.

3. Then the students get their birds and I walk everyone through the steps again while they do the processing themselves.

4. Once all the birds are harvested and packaged we have lunch which includes the bird I processed in the beginning of the class (I'll have a trusty assistant cooking that up while we're doing the hands-on part).

5. Then the students collect the bird they processed and take it home.

If that sounds interesting, take the survey and let me know!

Then there was that one time that I ordered 50 broiler chickens...

10/3/2011

Yep, 50. As my good friend, Kent would say, I now have half-a-hundred of these tiny yellow chicks in the brooder already eating me out of house and home.

Meyer hatchery was running a sale but I had to place a minimum 50 chick order to get the deal. I called a local farmer friend who raises these same jumbo Cornish cross for meat, usually right about the same time I do in the spring and fall. She never called me back (it's a busy time for farmers right now). The longer I wait to place my order, the further I push my harvest out so I wanted to get them growing asap.

I figured I'd just place the order and if she decided that she wanted them they would already be on their way.  And if she didn't, I'd just sell them on craigslist; wouldn't be hard at all this time of year.

Then they arrived and I started to feel all greedy about them. I wanted to have them all in MY freezer. I was feeding more people this year, wasn’t I? I need to make certain my larder was full, right? Yeeesss, you really never know when the lean times are upon you until they’re looming down… and quality organic meat is really expensive. So I decided to keep them All. For. Myself.

Yes, all 50.

This is where you might be scratching your head... "how will you harvest 50 chickens with your little operation?" Well, I figure 25 one weekend and 25 another.  I'll sell the usual amount to offset my cost and put the rest in my own freezer. Then you so sweetly remind me, "but you haven't finished your duck harvest that the hurricane brought to an early conclusion..." YesYesYes... I KNOW that. I'll do it. I'll do it soon.

OK… ummmmm... next year I'm only doing the Spring and Fall harvests. Three is clearly too many for me to handle {she says woefully while holding her head in her hands}.

So sometime in the next 6-8 weeks I need to finish my waterfowl harvest of Cayuga and Muscovy (those Muscovy drakes are on my last nerve and on the short list for the first to go), then 2 more weekends dedicated to sending the jumbo Cornish cross to freezer camp.   We WILL be eating healthy, protein filled meals this winter.

Now I just need to get the winter veggie garden planted...

You know... sometimes I wish I could get rollover minutes to add to the days I really need to cram more time into my time.

Unlike this poor womans family, my minutes would never get old enough for me to consider ever throwing them away.... those minutes are still good, man!

Yeah, OK. So the hurricane… my power was out for several days and all the eggs I had in the incubator were officially a no-go. Luckily, I was gearing down for the season and only had about 30 set at the time. And in retrospect, I really don’t need any more chickens. But I was looking forward to a few more Welsh Harlequin girls for next season.
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Day-old Welsh Harlequin Duckling

So I decided that while I had my Welsh Harlequin pair in the garden alone I would put all of Miss Blush's eggs in the incubator to see if I could get a few more girls to add to my flock for next season. I set every one of the eggs she laid, waiting until I'd gathered about a weeks worth each time. That should give me a week for slow hatching babies before I open the hatcher to put in another set. I don't expect high fertility on these eggs since it was really late in the season, but I'm likely to get a handful of ducklings from this hatch, which should net me at least 2 or 3 girls to add to Duck Dogers harem.

The first of those eggs came due last week and this little cutie hatched out from the 4 eggs I set on August 31 - looks like a pretty silver phase girl (the black head = silver phase & pink bill = girl). Luckily, the night after this lone duckling was born my 50 Cornish cross arrived and I just popped this little one in with her new bunk mates. Everyone is getting along perfectly.

I have another set of Welsh Harlequin due to hatch this week so I'm looking forward to a few more fuzzy butts to add to the giant, fluffy yellow brooder bunch soon.

**Update: 2 more WH ducklings hatched on Oct 16! And based on the dark brown color of their bills, It looks like I have two boys. One appears to be a silver phase and the other probably gold phase. I've also determined that Miss Blush's eggs consistently hatch 3 days early... LOL!**

The Rooster Who Shouldn't Be

5/13/2011

Nocrow

This is Nocrow... he's my rooster.

Yeah, I know... "I thought you ran a rooster-less operation?" you say. You're right, I do... I did. Somehow this one has stayed.

You see, when I ordered my fall batch of Cornish Roaster chickens last season, McMurray Hatchery had a little checkbox - right there on that last page of your order transaction? - that says "include a free rare/fancy chicken with my order." Well, for those of us who are checkstand item picker-upers (Oooo! look, tiny hand sanitizer... hey, what ARE BradJolena doing these days??), it's a given that we're gonna check that box riiiiiiiiggghht before we hit the submit button. Oops, too late to realize that hatchery's don't give away the expensive rare and fancy breeds... unless it's a rooster. Ghaaaa!

So here he comes, a tiny black bird packed in tight with my chubby yellow Cornish Roasters. "What kind of bird is it?" I ask myself when I open the box. "Doesn't matter, he's not staying", I firmly decide, looking away so as not to accidentally make eye contact with the oddball chick.

Well, he was a daggone friendly little guy: following me around, pecking at my shoes. And he didn't make those high pitched cheep! cheep! cheep! sounds... nuh huh... he was silent unless he coo'd.

Yep, I was curious - puzzled, even. He was solid black, was he a Java? Maybe a Black Spanish? Ooooo, I know! He's a Black Marans... hmmmm, none of those are it though. Very peculiar.

OK, so I still don't know what he is but he looks a lot like the rooster gracing the cover of McMurrays 2011 catalog. The inside cover says that the bird pictured is a Silver Leghorn. But I looked them up and those birds have white neck feathers, not gold. Besides, Leghorns are small, athletic birds and this boy is BIG. *sigh*

Sheesh, what the neighbors must say! "She's got ducks... AND geese! Now a rooster?" Yep, there goes the neighborhood. I'm sure the language is a bit stronger at... oh... about 5:30am.

Anyway, he's a gorgeous bird - and big! - but I have no idea what breed he is. I asked the experts at BYC... folks loved him but had no idea what breed he was either. Pretty rare, eh? I could probably give him to about 20 different people only I don't know about shipping him.

So, I didn't create a "for sale" ad because I didn't know what to call him... then he sort of grew on me. Then I decided to put some of the girls eggs in the incubator. Every one of them was fertile and he threw three quiet little black chicks, just like him. I don't know yet if they're cockerels but unless they lay eggs, they're not staying!

Just Hatched!

Still wet... just hatched this one in the incubator last week

I've crawled out from under my rock

8/10/2010

Farm2Fork

I know it’s been a long time since I’ve updated the going’s-on of Moose Manor. So beware… this one is an extra long post to make up for it.

The harvest of the chickens and ducks (30 birds total) was exhausting physically and mentally so I took a little break from all but the most basic outside communication (ie; work). Don’t get me wrong… there are no breaks around here on the farm! Every day it’s early to rise and late to bed because there is always more to do than there is time to do it. I just needed some hermit time to reflect, renew, and finally resolve myself to moving forward with preparations for my next harvest. There are, as always, a lot of things that have to happen between now and November to ensure I’m more efficient at this task.

Farm to Fork - A recap of the Summer 2010 harvest:

I began the process on April 23rd with 16 unmedicated White Muscovy ducklings from J.M. Hatchery in Lancaster County, PA. This hatchery uses improved breeding stock from France that produces males weighing 12 pounds in 12 weeks. I’m happy to report that this is very accurate and the stock was incredibly hardy and healthy. 6 of my ducklings were male. I lost 1 duckling in week 3 when it got out of the brooder unnoticed and couldn’t get back in; I lost 2 females in week 9 when they were attacked by hawks. I selected 1 male (the 2nd largest) and 3 females (the largest, the friendliest, and the prettiest) to keep as breeding stock and the rest were allocated for harvest at the 12 week mark while they’re still young and tender.

When I ordered my Muscovy, I also placed an order for 21 unmedicated Cornish Cross roaster chickens with Meyer Hatchery in Polk, OH. I requested a delivery date 6 weeks prior to the scheduled harvest date so I could do all the birds at one time. These chickens are specially bred first-generation stock selected for fast feathering, rapid growth, and nice carcass finish. Meyer states 4lbs average dressed weight in 7 weeks with a 2lb feed conversion and 98% livability. I thought mid-way through that the birds had stopped growing at the appropriate pace (taking a hit in my feed conversion ratio), but there was a spike in growth right at the end. The chickens preformed as promised, and were in excellent health. The hatchery sent me 2 extra for normal mortality, I lost both in the first week. It stormed heavily at the end of week 6 so I couldn't butcher as planned then in the days that followed it was extremely hot and even with a giant box fan and lots of shade and water I lost 2 more chickens to heat just days before freezer camp. In the future, I’ll move my summer harvests closer to spring so that the Cornish aren’t heat stressed.

Harvest preparation: Several days before the harvest I created an online ordering site where folks who had expressed an interest could reserve a bird. Within an hour or so of sending out my notification email I was “sold out” of all my birds! And I still got some email requests... I even sold a couple out of my own pantry – I think I was left with one of each of the 3 types of birds for myself. LOL!

OK… having plucked a few chickens and ducks in my time, I knew that if I was gonna process 30+ birds with just my own two hands I needed to get a mechanical plucker. I immediately discovered that small plucker machines, like the Featherman, were way the heck out of my price range ($800-$2500). They work like a champ, getting 3 or 4 birds at a time spanky clean in 30 seconds. But there’s just no way I can ever justify that kind of cost for my little operation.

So, being the DIY diva that I am, I’m building a chicken plucker machine instead of buying one (you can see it in action here ). If I’m crafty enough I might get out of the project only $300 lighter in the wallet – that’s a cost I can live with for the amazing speed and convenience of this contraption. But, as you can imagine, with building housing for the different birds and the regular upkeep of the farm, and, oh yeah... that day job that pays the mortgage, there wasn’t time to get it done before harvest. Other smallholders have off-set the cost of buying a Featherman by renting it out when they aren’t using it (which is more often than you are, right?). I found a guy just about a 2-hour drive from me, over in Virginia, who was renting his machine out so I scheduled my harvest date with him. I was supposed to pick it up Friday evening so I emailed him that afternoon to make sure the time was good… he said it wasn’t back from the last renter. No Way! It would be back Tuesday so I rescheduled and took Wednesday & Thursday off of work.

Cornish Harvest: Those Cornish were not gonna make it through the weekend with the heat so I had no choice but to do all the plucking by hand. I got an early start but it still took me 12 straight hours to pluck and process 20 chickens by hand. And when all the naked carcasses were on ice I still had to dig a 4 foot hole on the back of the property to compost the waste. At 9:30 that night I finally had everything cleaned up and dragged my tired, smelly self inside to shower and sleep. I got up really early the next morning to package and weigh my birds so the customers could start picking them up at 9am. What a job!

So the stats on the dress birds… I lucked out with about 50/50 hen to cockerel ratio (I really didn’t know until I processed them). They picked very cleanly and dressed out nice. The consistency of weight was pretty exact: cockerels dressed out at 5 & 5.5 lbs each and hens dressed at 4 & 4.5 lbs each. I had one that dressed out as a Cornish game hen and one that came in at 3.5lbs (which is what folks were expecting them to average). I would like to harvest them a little smaller – or maybe grow them in two age groups next time so I have birds running between 6 lbs and 2 lbs.

Well, wouldn’t you know it, Tuesday rolls around and I contact the Featherman renter guy and the machine is still not back yet! It's not like I can go down the the Rent-all and get a plucker machine! This is the only guy advertising the rental of just the machine (and not a 16 foot trailer of mobile processing equipment). I can’t imagine plucking this many ducks by hand… they have 4 times more feathers than the chickens. No choice now but to get out there and get started since I already took the time off work and folks were expecting their ducks to be ready.

Welsh Harlequin Harvest: I got started at 7am because it was supposed to be a hot day with a high of 109 and I wanted to get as far along as I could before then. I had 3 Harlequin drakes that needed to be culled for a better boy/girl ratio in the flock so I did them first. They each took about 30 minutes to pluck because I had a lot of trouble getting off the tiny downy feathers closest to the skin. I followed some old timer's advice and used paraffin wax on the first duck… that was a total disaster. I probably didn’t do it right so I did the other two without. They were all juveniles and in the light duck class so they dressed out at an average 3.5lbs. They were nice and lean, half the fat during processing that I had with the chickens (who were a little on the lean side too because I didn't fatten them on corn the last week).

Muscovy Harvest: I had set aside 9 of these ducks for harvest (nearly half were very large drakes) after separating out my 4 breeder stock. I learned A LOT about harvesting ducks that day. Most important of all is that you don’t harvest these big, strong ducks the same way you do chickens and light ducks, no sir. I tried the new-fangled European system of pumping inert gas (argon or helium) in a small enclosure to make them sleepy first but that was unsuccessful. I'm still not sure the best way, personally, for me to do it. These guys were the most taxing on me mentally and every one of them was a challenge.

Stats on the meat: My drakes averaged 8lbs dressed weight and the hens averaged 5lbs dressed weight. All were very meaty but extremely lean, there was no fat on the gizzard or heart and zero excess fat to be removed in processing. The hens, especially, are very active birds so I’m not surprised.

The duck harvest had to span two days. I spent 12 hours in the heat plucking and processing by hand and I still had 3 left when it finally got dark – 1 drake and 2 hens. So I dragged myself out of the house early the next morning for round 3 of processing, which included the only Muscovy that accidentally got a name: Angel Wing. My Muscovy who I carried out to spend his days in the grazing pen with the Campbells to avoid having his deformed wing eaten by his flock-mates. The 3 busy little brown Campbells that he considered to be inferior ducks… but they liked him anyway. I decided to cull the drake first that morning to get it over with. Before I took him I grabbed the last two hens together so that the very last one wouldn’t be alone for an hour… they get very sad and a little panicky when they’re all alone. I put them in a large wire dog kennel on the other side of the barn where all the other non-harvest ducks were hanging out. That way, when I culled the second to last girl, the very last girl wouldn’t be lonely. I got started on Angel Wing and it was slow going because my plucker muscles were pretty tired from the day before. After he and the first hen were all dressed out and on ice I headed over to grab the last hen. I stood there looking at that kennel and feeling like I just could not kill one more living thing that day. I was at my limit. So instead of harvesting her, I let her out of the kennel to be with the other Muscovy. I know… I know… but I was maxed out. She half ran, half flew over to the little group and everyone seemed appropriately excited. They were all doing the little Muscovy dance around her. So now I have a slightly larger breeding stock of 4 hens and 1 drake.

And she now has a name: Lucky Girl.

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Cornish Roasters aren't big enough yet

7/6/2010

Cornish Roaster

Hmmmm... it's very odd that they grew so fast the first few weeks but they've really slowed down the last two weeks. I expected to harvest them next weekend but I'll have to weigh them to see if they're big enough yet. One of the birds is actually smaller than my Welsummer babies! Next time I'm gonna have to order the roasters from a hatchery other than Meyer.

I suppose it won't hurt to wait an additional week, they seem comfortable in the chicken tractor and the fan is keeping them cool in this heat. They also appear to be eating at a normal rate and they're drinking more than 7 gallons of water a day (wow!). I could certainly use that time to catch up on some harvesting equipment building projects that were put on the back burner while I spent time predator proofing the property last week.

If nothing else it gives me a good idea of the quality check on roasters from Meyer before I buy a larger quantity of birds.

Update: literally 3 days later they had some kind of growing spurt - LOL! It was the craziest thing... now I'm not prepared to do the harvest this weekend and it's supposed to storm for 3 days anyway so it'll have to wait until next. Of course, the July 17th weekend it's supposed to be 100 degree's. I think I'd rather be out there in the pouring rain!

Chicken Tractor is complete!

6/19/2010

Chicken Tractor

Well, it was a race against time to get the Cornish out of their brooder before it became overcrowded so I buckled down and spent all my available time designing and building a Quonset hut type chicken tractor. It had to be light enough for me to drag around the yard, but it had to be strong enough to take the abuse of dragging it all over the yard, and big enough for giant sized chickens to be comfortable in. I decided I didn’t want any more structures on the property that were “man sized” so I went with a low, squat version of a picture I saw online. When it comes time to get them out of there I may regret that decision.

This is constructed of one 16 foot cattle panel cut in half, bent into an arc and attached to 2x3’s to create a 6'x8' enclosure. I stretched poultry wire over the whole thing to keep predators out and attached a tarp to the back portion to give them shelter from the rain. There’s also a narrow strip of tarp running over the crown of the structure to keep the feed dry when it rains. I suspended the food and water on a sliding mechanism so I don’t have to crawl in there to take care of that chore and it stays off the ground to facilitate one-step moving. It’s just a track from bypass closet doors with a couple of hooks attached. Seems to be working fine so far.

This is a good beta test to see what I may want to do differently when I house the next batch of Cornish Cross. I kept that in mind while I wielded the pneumatic staple gun… I may have to disassemble this thing if I feel a need to improve on the design, so I was more sparing with staples than I usually am. I also still need to attach wheels and a handle to make it drivable (manually, of course) instead of brute force dragging around with a piece of rope. But I wanted to get these guys out on some grass right away so I'll do that another time.

I had to carry those 21 fat Cornish outside in a Rubbermaid tub 4 at a time. Man, they’re heavy already! I felt sorry for them in that stuffy barn, it was pretty hot in there even with several fans going. And they kept tipping their giant waterer over and making such a mess – I think they were perching on the lip and they’re so heavy that it just emptied out all over the brooder. I could clean up their bedding but their feathers were still always dirty. Maybe now they’ll try to clean themselves up. I’m just happy they’re getting much needed fresh air and putting them on grass will cool them off considerably. I also hung a weather-proof box fan from the back of the tractor to keep the air moving constantly. They seem a lot more active and far less lethargic from the heat. That’s good.

Chicken Tractor

Scruffy Cornish

6/14/2010

Scruffy Cornish Cross

scruffy \ˈskrə-fē\ (adj) unkempt, shaggy; "a surge of ragged scruffy chickens"

Oh my! At only 2 1/2 weeks these little guys are just plain growing faster than their feathers can keep up with! They seem to be none-the-worse for wear but they're not wearing much these days - LOL! Half naked little birds... as hot as it's been they're probably more comfortable this way, they certainly seem to be producing a lot of heat. I picked one up to get a better look and he was really warm so I guess I shouldn't worry about them getting a chill. I keep a fan in the barn to move the air around, they seem appropriately active, and they're definitely eating plenty.

Hope they get some feathers soon... it's just scandalous for them to run around looking like this!

Naked Cornish

Cornish Fatties!

6/11/2010

These little guys are a week old now and they're already getting feathered out so they look pretty scruffy.

Boy are they growing fast! Most of them are this plump, rounded shape with two fat legs sticking out - LOL! They're pretty flightly right now and I don't expect them to become terribly friendly in the future - just considerably slower. They always run and pile up in the other end of the brooder when I have to put my hand in to change the bedding or fill the food & water. I imagine I must look like some giant monster to them.

I mostly try to stay at a reasonable distance from the brooder so I don't stress them unnecessarily. It helps that I have the big feeder and drinker in there already so I don't have to fill it every day. I just make sure they have clear access and that everything is flowing like it should. Of course, they need new bedding more frequently as they get older and they're not happy about me leaning over the brooder to take care of that task... they sure seem to love it when there are fresh shavings to lay on though :)

I reckon I'll be moving them out to the chicken tractor in about 2 weeks at this rate. That should make them happier.

These guys are big eaters!

6/3/2010

So far they're really good eaters - LOL! I'm gonna have to upgrade them to the 30 pound feeder this weekend because I can't keep their four 1-quart chick feeders full all day while I'm at work. Little piggies! I wasn't expecting to need the big feeder for a few weeks but I'm glad I have it handy.

So far I've lost 3, which puts me back at my original 21. I tried to nurse one back when I saw he wasn't looking so hot. I brought him in the house and kept him on a heating pad while I fed little drops of sugar water. It was a no-go. Too bad... I'm always sad when I lose animals.

The Cornish Chicks have arrived!

5/27/2010

The chicken is in the mail

I ordered 21 Cornish Roasters from Meyer Hatchery in Polk, OH and 24 just arrived in the mail. I wasn't expecting them until Friday and when Darleen down at the Pomfret Post Office called me I could hear them peeping up a storm in the background so I had to leave work half-way through the day to pick them up and get them home for something to drink.

Everyone seems to be doing well, a couple look woosy from the trip so I made certain they each got a drink of sugar water before moving them to the brooder box and putting in some food for them. So far so good!