The Decision to Butcher Two Chickens

Picture taken: 4-7-2012

This past week my family butchered two of our golden comets that were almost three years old.  This task has been put off for months because we do love our chickens, and we had no prior butchering experience.  I watched numerous YouTube videos and talked with a friend about the logistics and even lost two nights of sleep thinking about it.  What bothered me most was the ethical decision to end their lives.  These chickens were the start of our homestead two weeks after moving into our home. Not having them here will be the beginning of our final chapter here in West Virginia.  We had the original three golden comets last week and during one of their final free-ranging days, two neighborhood dogs killed one.  I was sad and upset that the chicken probably had a slow death and the meat was wasted.  It was the sight of the dead chicken scattered around the yard that ultimately led to my decision to butcher them myself so their lives would be ended quickly, and we could enjoy the meat.

It was not an easy task, and I admit that I almost cried when carrying the chicken upside down in a feed sack with her head poking out.  Doing the butchering ourselves really raised a lot of questions about our food choices and the disconnect even we feel about our food.  We grow a large portion of what we eat and understand where our food comes from, but actually butchering our chickens for the meat rather than just enjoy them for the eggs, started a new conversation between Jon and I.

I did consider giving the chickens to someone else, but the golden comets have an egg-eating habit and they are major bullies.  The pecking order in our coop has been a problem because one of the golden comets will pin down another chicken while the other two pull the feathers out of her head.  This was a problem last spring and one of the barred rocks was bullied to the point that she was in a failure to thrive state from lack of food and water.  We had quite the challenge keeping the two breeds separate during the cold days when they were not free-ranging every day.  Considering these two challenges, another chicken owner probably wouldn't want to introduce these habits into their flock.

I thought it necessary to include a few pictures of our birds as a reminder to how much joy they provided us on the homestead.

The girls sunning themselves on a warm day.

An afternoon at the spa (aka dust bath).

Land sharks hunting in the weeds.

Paul's pet parrot for his pirate ship.

Weird Eggs Laid By Our Chickens

There are currently 4 hens and 1 rooster on our homestead.  This week one of our barred rocks decided that she wanted to stay outside the coop at night.  On the sixth morning, I found her dead.  I looked high and low for her every evening but her feathers are very camouflaged right now and I figured she had a good hiding place and was sitting on a nest of eggs somewhere.  It's our first incidence of a chicken taken by a predator in the 2.5 years we have raised chickens.  We think a hawk got her because the leaves around her body were not disturbed and we were viewing a hawk with binoculars the evening before roosting in a tree nearby.  Now we have 3 golden comets who lay an egg maybe once every 2 weeks and 1 barred rock who lays about every other day.  Like most of you probably already know, egg laying decreases during the winter months due to fewer daylight hours.  With our girls getting older, I have witnessed a few odd-shaped eggs the past 6 months and took pictures for posting on the blog.  Irregular eggs is considered normal when chickens age and not a concern if it happens infrequently.   

This is definitely an odd-shaped one.  If it wasn't in the nest box, I probably wouldn't identify it as an egg.

The Chickies Are Molting!

It is fall and the girls are molting.  I chuckle when I see them scratching around the yard leaving feathers in their wake.  At times the coop looks like the aftermath of a pillow fight! 

Not only are they quite mangy-looking with all the white patches, but they lose their tails too!  The chicken on the left has a little nub compared to the chicken on the right whose has a complete tail because her molt hasn't started yet.  

And here's a close-up of their new feathers coming in.  They are so little and cute!

Hot Summer Days

There are only a few hot and humid days left this year.   I am enjoying the final ones reading a good book and drinking homemade ginger ale on the porch.  

During the really hot days, the chickens keep to the shade of the woods and only wander in the yard occasionally with their wings slightly flared to catch a breeze.  We think they look pretty funny with their wings out like this! 

The honeybees form beards outside their hives at night to bring in the cool air. 

And Jon and Paul make homemade ice cream.  Just when we are about to complain about the humidity, we remember the frigid January days when the pipes froze last year and we were huddled under blankets.  We are grateful for all of the time outside and soak up the heat when we have it!

Some Chickens Love Japanese Beetles

You know the phrase, "One person's trash is another's treasure?"  Well, the same thing can be true for bugs.  Some garden pests such as Japanese Beetles are a huge problem in our garden, in particular when it comes to grapes, berry plants, and edamame. These beetles have a hard exoskeleton and are not easy to squeeze between the fingers so we knock them into a bucket with a little water in it.  (The water keeps the beetles from flying out easily.)  One of our chickens, who we affectionately call "Turkey", absolutely LOVES the Japanese Beetles (and their grubs in spring) and she comes running to us from across the yard whenever she sees us carrying a bucket---talk about a good example of classical conditioning (remember Pavlov and the salivating dog from Psychology class?).  Turkey is so eager to eat the beetles that she literally climbs into the bucket to get them!  Turkey has made it very clear to the rest of the flock that only SHE can have the beetles; we don't mind - she literally eats hundreds of them at one sitting.

Damage to the edamame (soybean) plants from the Japanese Beetles.  They are most prevalent in the early morning and evening hours.

A Happy Turkey after a Japanese Beetle snack. 

Snakes in the Chicken Coop!

(Click to enlarge)

Every week new challenges await us.  This week while closing the chicken coop for the night, I came across two black rat snakes in the chicken coop.  We see black rat snakes here frequently and have surprisingly gotten used to their presence and keep our distance, but this time, I freaked out and considered getting rid of them.  Black rat snakes aren't venomous and they eat small vermin such as mice so they really are beneficial to have around.  But I have to admit, they are a bit scary since they are 4-8 feet long and slither up the side of walls.  

Inside the chicken coop, one of the snakes was in the corner where there are mouse holes, and the other snake was curled up with the eggs in the nest box.  I have heard of snakes eating eggs so I figured between the mice and eggs, the snakes weren't going to leave.  Contrast to my shocked behavior, the chickens were walking right next to the snakes as if they weren't even there!  Even the rooster was calm and collected. As you can guess, I didn't collect the eggs, but closed up the coop and quickly posted this moral dilemma on a homesteader's facebook page I follow.  The responses were a bit surprising.  Many folks said to kill them because they will never leave as long as there are eggs and others say black snakes eat baby chicks (which we don't have).  Others said to put them in a burlap sack and drop them off far away from your farm while very few advocated for leaving them alone.  Well, Jon and I decided to leave them alone for now unless they start to eat too many eggs because they are beneficial to have around and they aren't venomous.

Much to my surprise, the next morning, the snakes were no where to be seen and the eggs were all left in the nest box!  I carried the camera everywhere I went during the week, hoping to capture a picture of them since I didn't think to return to the coop for a picture the night before.  The only sighting was near the barn in the grass (see picture at the top of the page).  So, life goes on here.  The snakes did not harm the chickens or eat the eggs, and we left them alone.  It sounds all warm and cozy that we live harmoniously with nature, but instances like these do make us question the balance of nature and when humans should intervene.

The Neighborhood Rooster Visits the Homestead

Jon, Paul, and I were ecstatic last Sunday when we woke up to a rooster crowing in our front yard!  We were all jumping for joy and I ran to the barn as quick as I could to let the chickens out of the coop.  As you may remember in a recent January post, our golden comets had become very aggressive with the barred rocks and were jumping on their backs, pulling out neck feathers.  Their necks became so raw, red, and unsightly that we worried if blood were drawn, that we would find dead chickens in the coop.  So for three months we have kept the two chicken breeds in separate areas of the barn with separate free-range time because even when they forage together, the golden comets would hunt down the barred rocks and bully them.  For months Jon and I have dealt with the frustrations of isolation which quite honestly is a hassle, and if we had a larger homestead with more animals, all 6 would be processed and put into jars right now.  I have been given advice from other chicken owners on how to deal with the pecking.  Aside from putting some nasty goop like pine tar on their heads to discourage pecking, I have been told that a rooster would solve the problem.  So when this beautiful rooster just happened to be strutting around our front yard, we had a burst of hope that all of the hens could happily live together without isolation.

The rooster's first day here was quite the ruckus and the hens were doing everything they could to evade this fast running rooster!  After all, these girls have been without a dominant male and didn't have the civilized manners a rooster demanded.  He was continuously gathering them up and chasing down the hen that got away.  He was flying and running from one end of the homestead to the other.  It was quite a fiasco, but within two days, order was established and he was taking the hens out foraging in twos or threes while the others remained in the barn or grazed by themselves.  With this change in routine, the hens had their minds occupied and left each other alone.  A few times they would lunge at each other, but no pecking occurred that I saw. 

On the first day, we knew this was the neighbor's rooster, not only by its specific crow but also because there was no crowing next door. (Did I ever mention that when I saw this house for the first time, I heard this rooster crow while waiting for the Realtor to unlock the door?  Hearing the crow was one small reason why we purchased this house.)  One could only guess how this rooster landed on our lawn.  After all, the neighbors aren't within sight of our house so it's not like the rooster had seen our chickens before.

These were my guesses on how this stud of a rooster landed at our homestead: 

1. The rooster was aggressive and the neighbors wanted to get rid of him so they dropped him at our house.

2. The neighbors didn't want a rooster anymore and they thought we wanted and/or needed one.

3. It was funny joke by someone...not everyone wants to listen to a rooster crow at all hours of the day.

4. The rooster's hens were taken away from him at his old home and he wandered the woods with a broken heart and happened to find our homestead.

After talking to one of the neighbor's down the road, the rooster has been around for years and apparently goes wherever he pleases and has even been found a half mile down the road.  There is some confusion on who the rooster actually belongs to so for now it's fine for him to be at our house!!  This fella does "walk the road" so he may just disappear one of these days!

Since we have a free-running rooster who has survived on his own for years without the safety of a coop at night, this guy perches high in a tree to sleep...like 30 feet!  He has good manners though and waits until all 6 ladies are safe in the barn before he climbs the tree.

If you look closely, you can see one of the barred rocks inside the nest box.  She was in there forever...but Mr. Rooster waited patiently for 2 hours.  He has developed a certain fondness for one of the barred rocks.  

This hen was trying so hard to conceal herself from the rooster, but her big orange butt didn't camouflage too well with the bush!

Overall, we've had a week of excitement around here with this rooster and hope he sticks around for awhile!

Chicken Water Heater

During the winter months, chicken care is pretty minimal.  The windows in the coop are closed for the winter and the interior of the coop is filled with plenty of straw and dry leaves.  Besides collecting the manure that piles up under the roosting pole, there's not much else to do on a regular basis except provide fresh water, food, and occasional heat.

The chickens stay inside most days with 24/7 access to the run.  I don't let them free-range without my constant presence because of many predators (e.g. dogs, foxes, hawks) roaming about with very little tree canopy cover for protection.  Last winter, egg laying continued even during the winter months because the coop is situated in such a way that they receive the early morning sun when it clears the hill and the sun shines consistently in the coop until around 3 pm.

This year we purchased a heated warming base for the waterer because we went on vacation for 2 weeks and didn't want the chicken sitters to hassle with frozen water dishes.  After reading reviews online, we settled on the Farm Innovators Heated Water Base for $47 at our local feed store.  One design feature I liked about this particular heater is that it is thermostatically controlled so it's not running constantly.  Jon did have to do a bit of wiring in the coop since the closest plug-in was about 25 feet away and the instructions specifically state to not use an extension cord.  In the coop it is elevated off the floor using 2 cinder blocks.

Two days after returning home, the night time temperature dropped to -5F with a wind chill of -30F.  For added precaution, we added a warming light aimed towards the roosting pole and closed access to the outdoor run for heat retention.

While we were away for 2 weeks, one of the barred rocks took a beating from the other chickens.  From the picture on the right you can see the missing feathers behind her comb.  Thankfully no blood was drawn, but we are watching her closely.  Opening up the main barn for the chickens to roam will hopefully quell some of the fighting.




I want to mention that we found this really cool handmade heated water base on the Flying T Ranch Blog using an old flat circular cookie tin and an incandescent light bulb.  As tempting as it was to make this, we didn't think it would be safe to leave it plugged in for 2 weeks straight in case of a fire; and asking the chicken sitter to turn it on and off would be another request.  We really do try and make it easy for the folks who watch our home and chickens while we are away.

Cheap and Easy Leaf Mulch

Last spring in my post about fruit trees I wrote about mulch and how well the chickens shred the leaves and fertilize it into mulch.  This fall we have been raking leaves from all over the yard and storing them for use throughout the winter so we can get a head start on the mulch and have it ready early spring.  The chickens benefit greatly from these leaves because they have something to scratch when the days are cold and they are cooped-up indoors; and the outdoor run doesn't get muddy from the wet weather.  The leaves also add a layer of insulation in the coop and outdoor run which I think keep bugs closer to the surface for them to hunt.

The process is fairly simple, I first spread two old bed sheets on the ground and rake leaves onto them. 

I had to convince Paul that there would be an even bigger leaf pile up by the barn.

Together Jon and I carried the leaves to the barn. 

After all the hauling we took a break to play in the leaves!

Some new leaves were added to the outdoor run and the rest were left in a pile to be added throughout the winter.  Before fall ends, the pile will reach the bottom of the coop window.

Time for the chickens to go to work and shred the leaves while at the same time fertilizing it with their poop!

2013 Garden and Homestead Review

Fall is here and while there are a few items left in the garden, I decided to tally up our stash for the winter. Keep in mind that what I've listed is what we put up for the winter.  I didn't include all of the
fresh produce we ate throughout the summer (e.g. peas, cauliflower, tomatoes, lettuce, beans, etc.).

If you've been following this blog for awhile, you may remember the post about record keeping and having a preservation log.  This binder is a must-have for me and helped me put together this list in about 5 minutes.  I also posted about the canning shelf last year which makes organizing your canned goods so much easier if you have the space.  Overall Jon and I say we had a very successful year despite the wet conditions that rotted all of our root crops. Thankfully we have carrots left over from the previous year and the third planting may survive into the winter with enough mulch.
If there is one thing I have learned from homesteading it is this: always think ahead and prepare more than you need because you never know what the following year will bring.  You just can't predict the weather, the pests, your health, and everything else. This summer I had an appendectomy and threw out my back and was basically unable to help Jon for 10 weeks this summer.  Thankfully my husband shares the workload, otherwise the garden would have never happened.  With so many unknowns, you can never really have enough excess; and don't forget about all the jars that will be given away to friends and family!  : )

• 85 bulbs garlic (10 bulbs will be used for seed)
• 14 meals of frozen corn (7 full quart bags)
• 10 pie pumpkins for eating (15 for decoration)
• 30 butternut squash
• 58 quarts bush beans
• 31 quarts, 10 pints stewed tomatoes
• 22 pints tomato soup
• 25 half-pints tomato paste
• 35 pints salsa
• 12 half pints green tomato hot dog relish
• 3 quarts tomato juice
• 4 pints, and 7 half-pints strawberry jam
• 1 gallon strawberry wine (5 bottles)
• 1 gallon freezer bag srawberries
• a lot of strawberry soda and mashed strawberries in freezer for ice cream etc.
• 26 quarts peaches
• 15 quart bags frozen peppers (sweet green, beaver dam, poblano)
• 1 gallon peach wine (5 bottles)
• 1 gallon pumpkin wine
• 31 quarts applesauce
• 5 pints apple butter
• 21 quarts apple cider
• 1 gallon apple wine
• 3 gallons hard apple cider
• 3 gallon jars of dried apple slices
• 5 gallon bucket of hulled walnuts, butternuts, and hickory nuts
• 20.25 pounds honey
• Updated 11-30-13   
• 14 pints venison
• 13 pounds ground venison burger
• 2 frozen venison roasts
• 1 batch venison jerky

Golden peaches in jars don't last long!

This summer marked our first honey harvest!

The rains really flooded our seasonal creek and the culvert couldn't keep up with the water so it went over the road.  Neighbors who have lived here 35 years have never seen it flood like this before. 

With the flooding, many skunks were out digging at the ground eating the grubs.  They were up by the beehives but left them alone because there were so many grubs in the ground coming to the surface from all the water.  The flood was dubbed, " The Two Skunk Flood" by Jon's coworkers (kind of an inside joke).

We added 3 barred rock chickens to the coop this year which has been exciting!  They are a bit more skittish around us, but they are beautiful and can be hard to find when they're free-ranging in the woods...

The chicken coop now has 6 chickens.  We're still waiting for 2 of the barred rocks to begin laying.  Last year all of the golden comets were laying before the end of August, and here we are in October and the barred rocks haven't really started.  Not sure what that's all about?

Paul really helps us with the chickens.  He lets them out, puts them away, and helps with feedings and filling the outdoor run with leaves.  If anything, he has socialized them and made them gentle to handle.  Above is a picture of Paul holding our favorite chicken (affectionately named Turkey)...she is the head chicken in the roost who seems to always get more than her fair share of the scratch, crawfish, mice, and assorted grubs we give them as treats.

The green manure is filling out very nicely.  This past weekend we planted the final few rows!  Everything has been put to bed for the year and Jon anxiously waits for the seed catalogs to start arriving!