Mini Horses
Herd Master
Do you know what kind of chicken?
Farmerjan's journal - Weather
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Do you know what kind of chicken?
greybeard
Herd Master
One of the things I used to laugh about regarding poultry was advertisements, both in stores and on the internet 'all natural' boards that proudly proclaimed "No hormones" and/or "No added growth hormones ever!" as if either was sticking a fat hog in the butt. All it really did was allow the retailers to increase the price per lb some.
The first one of course is patently false because all living things have hormones, including growth hormones.
For the 2nd one, they were attempting to pander to the 'all natural, no antibiotics, no growth hormones, free range, blah blah blah' crowd and neglect to mention that unless the consumer is significantly older than my 69 years, most couldn't even spell the word hormone when the US FDA completely banned the use of added growth hormones from poultry, pork, veal beef, and dairy cattle via implant, feed additives, water or any other method else in 1956.
But, that proclamation looked SOOOO good on the packaging and internet blogs and lots of people fell for it.
(growth hormones are still allowed and are relatively common in the beef sector and is still legal for the mutton industry)
The first one of course is patently false because all living things have hormones, including growth hormones.
For the 2nd one, they were attempting to pander to the 'all natural, no antibiotics, no growth hormones, free range, blah blah blah' crowd and neglect to mention that unless the consumer is significantly older than my 69 years, most couldn't even spell the word hormone when the US FDA completely banned the use of added growth hormones from poultry, pork, veal beef, and dairy cattle via implant, feed additives, water or any other method else in 1956.
But, that proclamation looked SOOOO good on the packaging and internet blogs and lots of people fell for it.
(growth hormones are still allowed and are relatively common in the beef sector and is still legal for the mutton industry)
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Ridgetop
Herd Master
One company was advertising their brand of chickens on the TV "Free Range" chickens showing a few chickens on a great green field. They were advertised as being fed no antibiotics, all vegetarian fed - BUT free range cannot be all vegetarian fed DUH! - free range means they can eat all the bugs they can find. DH, the kids and I laughed ourselves silly over that ad!
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farmerjan
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It costs $2.00 bird to kill, pluck, gut and put into plastic bags & chill in their walk in cooler. That is including the hearts & livers, not the gizzards. $.30 extra to do gizzards. This is whole birds. If I want them vacuum packed then $.50 a bird extra. So less than $3.00 each. Well worth it to me for 40+ birds. I have helped in an assembly line type deal with 4-5 doing it and it is great but to do them yourself, with not having a plucker, or a scalder is just not worth it to me. If I wanted to cut them up then I would simply get them done and chiller and then bring them home and cut up and then vacuum pack myself.
Since I get these birds for nothing, the only costs I have in them is some feed for 4-8 weeks. I sell the culls of the layers for $5-10 each at this poultry swap so expect to do the same with this next group. If I raise any more for me I will get the next batch just bagged and bring home and do in parts.
I get the "all vegetarian fed" joke with the free range birds, but mostly what they are trying to get across is that there are no animal "additives" in the feed. Funny thing is, all feed for livestock is not allowed to have any animal based additives anymore. Used to see bone and blood meal added to some feed. No more.
Does being vegetarian mean no insects? I know that it means no "animal" protein, and that being vegan is more restrictive, like no dairy maybe? But do insects fall in the "animal" category? There are way too many restrictions for me to ever even want to consider it. Besides, I like my steak, and chicken, and bacon, and eggs, and milk.......
Since I get these birds for nothing, the only costs I have in them is some feed for 4-8 weeks. I sell the culls of the layers for $5-10 each at this poultry swap so expect to do the same with this next group. If I raise any more for me I will get the next batch just bagged and bring home and do in parts.
I get the "all vegetarian fed" joke with the free range birds, but mostly what they are trying to get across is that there are no animal "additives" in the feed. Funny thing is, all feed for livestock is not allowed to have any animal based additives anymore. Used to see bone and blood meal added to some feed. No more.
Does being vegetarian mean no insects? I know that it means no "animal" protein, and that being vegan is more restrictive, like no dairy maybe? But do insects fall in the "animal" category? There are way too many restrictions for me to ever even want to consider it. Besides, I like my steak, and chicken, and bacon, and eggs, and milk.......
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farmerjan
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Off the subject of chickens to the subject of the "D#@*#D weather". Sure wish that @Mini Horses predictions/hope for getting the hay done was right. NOT !!!!!
We wound up with .7 inch from yesterdays downpour/ thunderstorm. So the raked hay was needing to be tedded out this afternoon after the sun had dried the wet off the top, and the bottom turned up. I took the 4600 ford with the big v-rake up to another field that had been cut but not yet raked as the rain had gone down through it and it wasn't so awful wet underneath. Figured we could get some raked up and then after the other was tedded and then re-raked, could get right on the baler and get going tomorrow (sat). Well guess what, early afternoon they changed the forecast to 40% chance of pop up t-storms for the afternoon. By the time I got the tractor and rake up to the field I was going to rake, it was getting black and clouds threatening. I tested my son and said......well....I'm gonna wait a bit and see if it goes around. Then it started to sprinkle and I said to come get me and we will go get the tedder and take it to the field that we need to start tedding at. Once again, it poured. We went by a field that yesterday had the prettiest alfalfa raked and ready to bale. It smelled so sweet....and there it was, most of the field baled, and the rest laying in windrows and the baler and all sitting there where they got rained out. Huge fields of grass type hay all along this one road, a few still raked in windrows, several tedded back out, and all got wet again today. All this hay will be junk with little feed value after getting "washed" a few times. But it will have to be gotten up off the fields as soon as possible as the grass is already turning green again and growing from these rains.
At the field where the alfalfa was, they were square baling it, and had a "cuber/stacker" running right behind the baler, to put the square bales into "cubes" of like 21 bales which get tied and then they can be picked up like one big bale and loaded on a truck or wagon or trailer. And I'm talking a new sq baler @ THE TUNE OF 35-40,000 , and the new "cuber" at another 40,000. And not a bit of good when the weather decides to not cooperate. There were 3 or 4 "cubes" sitting out in the field that they didn't even get a chance to get loaded and in the barn. With the value of the tractor you are looking at 150,000 of equipment and doesn't do one bit of good if the weather doesn't cooperate......
I didn't look at the rain gauge when I got home from feeding the 2 bottle calves, after we got the tedder and the other rake moved. Michael was moving some round bales off a field and we went and got the tractor with the spear so he could start getting them into rows since we couldn't do anything else. Actually saw water running down the side of the road when we were moving the equipment, so know that they got alot just north of here. The water in the one river was running real brown, so must have had a real downpour runoff upstream from there. I will look at the rain gauge tomorrow.... can't do anything about it. We will have 2nd cutting orchard grass ready to cut from the fields we got done a month ago, before we get all the 1st cutting done at the rate we are going.
We wound up with .7 inch from yesterdays downpour/ thunderstorm. So the raked hay was needing to be tedded out this afternoon after the sun had dried the wet off the top, and the bottom turned up. I took the 4600 ford with the big v-rake up to another field that had been cut but not yet raked as the rain had gone down through it and it wasn't so awful wet underneath. Figured we could get some raked up and then after the other was tedded and then re-raked, could get right on the baler and get going tomorrow (sat). Well guess what, early afternoon they changed the forecast to 40% chance of pop up t-storms for the afternoon. By the time I got the tractor and rake up to the field I was going to rake, it was getting black and clouds threatening. I tested my son and said......well....I'm gonna wait a bit and see if it goes around. Then it started to sprinkle and I said to come get me and we will go get the tedder and take it to the field that we need to start tedding at. Once again, it poured. We went by a field that yesterday had the prettiest alfalfa raked and ready to bale. It smelled so sweet....and there it was, most of the field baled, and the rest laying in windrows and the baler and all sitting there where they got rained out. Huge fields of grass type hay all along this one road, a few still raked in windrows, several tedded back out, and all got wet again today. All this hay will be junk with little feed value after getting "washed" a few times. But it will have to be gotten up off the fields as soon as possible as the grass is already turning green again and growing from these rains.
At the field where the alfalfa was, they were square baling it, and had a "cuber/stacker" running right behind the baler, to put the square bales into "cubes" of like 21 bales which get tied and then they can be picked up like one big bale and loaded on a truck or wagon or trailer. And I'm talking a new sq baler @ THE TUNE OF 35-40,000 , and the new "cuber" at another 40,000. And not a bit of good when the weather decides to not cooperate. There were 3 or 4 "cubes" sitting out in the field that they didn't even get a chance to get loaded and in the barn. With the value of the tractor you are looking at 150,000 of equipment and doesn't do one bit of good if the weather doesn't cooperate......
I didn't look at the rain gauge when I got home from feeding the 2 bottle calves, after we got the tedder and the other rake moved. Michael was moving some round bales off a field and we went and got the tractor with the spear so he could start getting them into rows since we couldn't do anything else. Actually saw water running down the side of the road when we were moving the equipment, so know that they got alot just north of here. The water in the one river was running real brown, so must have had a real downpour runoff upstream from there. I will look at the rain gauge tomorrow.... can't do anything about it. We will have 2nd cutting orchard grass ready to cut from the fields we got done a month ago, before we get all the 1st cutting done at the rate we are going.
Baymule
Herd Master
About 10 miles from us is a beautiful hay field with the big watering system for dry weather. There is nothing that will allow one to turn the rain off. I am so sorry that the weather is not cooperating with you.
You sure have a great connection for chicken! Practically free, with only the cost of the feed, then a nominal charge for processing. I know the work we have put into 38 CCX and I am sure glad that we can wrap it up in a short time. I overfeed them and get skinless boneless breast meat at an average of 1 pound, 2 ounces per half piece. My DD and family love it, we ourselves think it is tasteless mush.
You sure have a great connection for chicken! Practically free, with only the cost of the feed, then a nominal charge for processing. I know the work we have put into 38 CCX and I am sure glad that we can wrap it up in a short time. I overfeed them and get skinless boneless breast meat at an average of 1 pound, 2 ounces per half piece. My DD and family love it, we ourselves think it is tasteless mush.
Mini Horses
Herd Master
$3 per bird sounds good....in fact, perfect! 
Bet you would think that Bay...after all you've just done. The free to pick up is definitely a positive. The expense of all the equipment isn't rational for just a one or two person household. My hatchet was $12. Have plenty of knives and the darned hens keep hatching roos. It's life on a farm. 
Bet you would think that Bay...after all you've just done. The free to pick up is definitely a positive. The expense of all the equipment isn't rational for just a one or two person household. My hatchet was $12. Have plenty of knives and the darned hens keep hatching roos. It's life on a farm.
greybeard
Herd Master
I find the following to be an interesting conversation about different ways poultry (especially chickens) are processed in different parts of the world.
Of particular interest (to me anyway) is the detailed explanation of rigor mortis, what happens during the rigor period and how it happens.
https://forums.egullet.org/topic/119882-chicken-killing-and-aging/
Of particular interest (to me anyway) is the detailed explanation of rigor mortis, what happens during the rigor period and how it happens.
https://forums.egullet.org/topic/119882-chicken-killing-and-aging/
Ridgetop
Herd Master
That is why my family were laughing - the ad was aimed at people that have no clue. That huge green meadow with a dozen red chickens in it! I don't know if bugs and worms qualify as meat, but chickens will eat anything they can catch - used to feed them any dead newborn baby bunnies I cleaned out of the nest boxes. However, those special meat chickens can hardly walk let alone run fast enough to catch anything. LOL We are in California with the strictest laws about chicken housing and space. Our egg prices will jump through the roof when the new law forbidding selling eggs that are not laid by chickens housed according to California requirements takes effect. I would get some laying chickens, but have developed allergies to bird dander. After cleaning the coop would cough my lungs up for 3 months. Don't want to end up like my mother with bird lung disease.
Such a shame about losing value on the hay from all the rain. Weather is the farmer's friend and enemy at the same time. And nothing you can do about it either.
Just pray. You had a bad hay year last year too from excess rain, didn't you? I thought I read about people not being able to find hay to buy for their animals over the winter. It really grieves me to think of what the rain is costing you and your son through with your hay business. Not only wasted time, but also dollar amount of the hay you stand to lose.Have you gotten any more news about the house and 3 acres you were interested in? Did you ever get a chance to go see it? Your landlord sounds like a real pain.
Bruce
Herd Master
I believe it is a CCX
Given the "legal" definition of "free range" means only that they aren't kept in cages and have access to the outside" those dozen birds were likely seeing that pasture for the first and last time. There is no requirement for how much time the birds spend outside, nor one for how much "outside" they have access to. Could be a 10 sq foot pad of concrete and the door open to it an hour a day. But the "feel good" label can bring a higher price. When they can advertise "pasture raised" you know that the birds spend a significant amount of their days outside. It would be nice if those "raised without antibiotics" labels had a second line "because it is illegal". And vegetarian
. I consider anything in the animal kingdom to be non vegetarian. If there are any flies or spiders in a closed chicken barn, it doesn't matter what is in their feed, they will eat the flies and spiders if they can. Oops, no longer vegetarian. Nothing to like about that situation.
