Fermenting food part 2

UPDATED: pics and update added

I scooped some it for the chickens to try. I took 2 small buckets, drilled a bunch of holes in one of them, put that one inside the other and put some food it in. I filled it with water until it was a couple inches above the food. Then let it sit overnight. When I checked on it the next day the food had soaked up all the water. I added more, stirred it, and then scooped out a couple of cups full and gave it to the chickens. They loved it! I added some more food to the bucket to replace what I took out and noticed some bubbles. That means it's working. I'm curious to see if this will extend the food or not. Time will tell.
I took pics but haven't gotten them off my phone yet. I'll post them soon.

Thanks to the blogger app I don't have to go through the hassle of uploading my pics somewhere then downloading the uploading to  here.

UPDATE: They loved it! Now I try to remember to bring them a couple scoops each day. I just add more food to the water as I take some out. Totally maintenance free. I cover my bucket loosely with a lid just to keep the smell down and to keep things from falling in.

Adding my pellets

Cover them with at least 3 inches of water

What they looked like the next day. I obviously didn't add enough water.

Scooped some out for the chickens to try.

Processing chickens - WARNING don't read if you don't like this kind of stuff

We tried raising 25 meat birds with a friend of ours this summer. We learned a lot. 

1) Don't raise them on someone else's land where you have to rely on someone else and you can't check their food/water daily yourself. 

2) Process them as soon as they feel perfect, don't wait for a magic week.

We processed 6 of our chickens with some friends as a trial run. None of us had ever done this before. I read the threads, read books, watched videos and felt pretty ready but learned a lot that first time. 

Things to have ready before you start... A place to hang the birds to let them bleed out. A big pot of near boiling water. A bucket of ice water. A bucket with a bag in it for trash pieces (feathers, heads, feet, etc). Some good knives including a small one for inside. A place to do the killing/bleeding out where you don't mind blood. A place for cleaning them where you don't mind chicken guts being.

We found the easiest way to kill them was to snap their neck. The first person tried chopping their head off and it was a disaster. If you just give their head a strong tug (not too much or you'll pull it right off) it separates from their spinal cord and kills them instantly and they aren't all stressed out. That's important because those stress hormones can make the meat taste bad. Our group used a thin board on the neck on the ground and then just pulled on the head. The first person to try pulled the head clean off. The rest just pulled enough to sever the connection. Be prepared, they WILL flop all over the place. Best to have your hands on their body. It is much easier with two people. I'll have to ask my husband if he has more tips for this stage since I didn't participate. Still can't bring myself to do it. I watched though which is a big step for me. I did participate in the rest of the process.

Next we hung them to bleed. Have a place ready. We were scrambling because we hadn't thought of this. 

Next we dunked them in near boiling water. We started the water boiling in a HUGE pot over the stove then moved it outside over a fire to keep it hot. It only takes a few seconds for the feathers to loosen. We would dunk count to 10 and test. Just pull on a couple feathers, if they come out easily, you're done. 

This step seemed to take the longest since we didn't have a automatic plucker. We did it all by hand. It's amazing how easily the feathers come out but there are so many little ones it takes some time. Don't worry about the fine ones. Once you get to that point just dunk it one more time in the hot water or hold it near the flame (not too close, you just want to singe the hairs not cook the chicken!)

Next came the evisceration. Watch as many videos as you can on this step and then just be prepared to fumble your way through it. Once you do one or two though you'll get the hang of it. 

Have a bucket of cold/ice water ready. This is another thing we were scrambling for. You'll need this for storage.

We also tried skinning two of them to see which was easier. I personally liked the plucked chicken better if you are leaving it whole. My husband, who did the skinning, said it wasn't too bad. Kinda like skinning any other animal, although the wing tips give you trouble, so just cut those off. The ones we skinned I cut into pieces right then which made cooking easier later. So they both had their benefits.  

 

Overall we were happy enough with the results to want to do it again. We won't do it until we can have them on our own land though. I also would rather raise our own (thinking of doing Turkens) so we don't have to buy chicks all the time. 

Fermenting Feed

I think I'm going to try fermenting some food for the chickens. I tried growing fodder for them in the summer but it kept going moldy on me. I couldn't get the moisture level right, they would either dry out or grow mold. I've been reading a lot about fermenting feed and it seems simple enough. We just got a huge stack of buckets from the grocery store (great place to get food grade buckets for free - just ask the bakery department). I've read that if you have any fish meal in your food then the fermented stuff gets really stinky. I of course do not want that so I jumped online and looked at the ingredient list of the pellets I buy (https://www.azurestandard.com/shop/product/10220/) and luckily no fish. I would also like to use more of the bucket of wheat berries I have sitting in the front room. Someone on BYC (backyardchicken) just got these tops (http://www.amazon.com/Sprout-Ease-Econo-Sprouter-Toppers-Set-Piece/dp/B005P0SM8W/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1388414891&sr=8-1&keywords=sprout+lids) for their mason jars to make sprouting easier. I might make something similar out by poking holes in reglar lids and give it a shot.

Garden 2014

I have been thinking a lot about next season's garden. Things I am doing differently than this season...
1) use something stronger for trellises than the vegetable netting they sell at the store
2) find a way to protect seedlings from the chickens since they fly over the fence now - probably bird netting after the row covers aren't needed
3) learn more about pruning so I'll produce more food instead of greenery - it's so hard for me to thin, I hate cutting off something that's alive!
4) take my time with a proper acclimation of started seeds - I lost a lot of tomatoes for rushing this step this year
5) try square foot gardening so things are more organized and efficient
6) do more research on what needs shade and sun
7) organize myself better for when to start what seeds and where

I have been thinking a lot about trellis systems. I ordered my seeds a couple days ago and I tried to get as many vine versions as I could find since they will take up a lot less space than the bush variety.

I got a contact that is offering some metal sheets like this... I'm going to pick some up this week. I hope to use it for some good trellises


I spent a long time on my plan. It's hard to work in sunny/shady locations with crop rotations. Luckily our whole garden gets sun just some spots get more than others.

Here's my plan. Sorry it's a little hard to see. It is dark right now when I took the picture. I think I will also put some hoops over the tomato garden so I can put the seedlings out sooner. I'm wondering if I don't have to acclimate them as much if they are in the hoop since they won't get direct sun or wind.

I'll post pics as I build the trellises.
Right now the top and bottom boxes on the right side (the bottom one isn't shown in my plan because DD wants it for her stuff) is our compost dumps. We dump all table and garden scraps in those and the chickens turn it and fertilize it. They are both about half full. Then yesterday when I cleaned out the coop I dumped their shavings between the other beds. We did this a few months ago too. So I've got quite a bit of organic material in the beds but they need some dirt. That's the next step!

Garden 2013

We moved into our new house in April. We picked the house strictly for the size of the yard (though it had the benefit of having the best floor plan of all the houses we looked at). I was excited to get a garden started but didn't have a ton of time and our first priority was getting the chickens set up.

First we painted the ground to plan out the boxes.

It was a lot of work moving all the rock where the boxes would go!

We built the fence around the garden to keep the dogs out. I need a better watering system this year. Unfortunately our water spigot is way on the other side of the yard.

 

We only got 4 boxes planted and I didn't get enough dirt in the boxes we did plant. Something I'll remedy soon.

Even though the dirt wasn't the best we got pretty good crop. Here is Sky helping herself to my lettuce. Next season I'll be putting bird netting over each bed using the PVC pipes like those shown here.

 Tomatillo growing

carrots that I let go to seed. and some zucchini on the right

Potatoes

Winter squash

Delicata squash

Our squashes

Great white tomato and chocolate tomatoes.

coop

We built our coop in Feb '13 when we planned to only have 4 chickens in a small space of our tiny backyard. The total footprint is 4x10. The coop itself is 4x4.

Painting the coop. It dried a much darker color. Where DD is painting is a large human door, the window in front got shutters, and the bottom chicken door has a slider that closes it. There was also a window with shutters on the opposite side of the window shown. The coop was planned for the space right next to the playhouse in the background. You can see the framing on the ground. What you can't see is the apple tree right next to that. It was a tight spot.

Here the coop is in the new yard (we moved before the chicks ever moved in) and starting the outdoor run. 

The chickens have the whole area behind the chain link to themselves and then are let out in the garden and rest of the yard if we are home.

The run is mostly done just need to cover the rest of it with chicken wire.

This is the only inside pic I could find. On the right is the nest boxes (2).

Yesterday we decided to do a major overhaul. Since we have more than double the chickens we originally planned, we removed the nest boxes from inside, doubled them, and moved them to the outside. We also took out all the roosts and added more. I also took the opportunity to do a thorough cleaning and realized the rabbit pee was starting to damage the wood. I ran to Home Depot and picked up self stick tiles for .30 each. Here you can see me installing the tiles. Sky and Amber were not happy that I took the nest boxes out. They were in there with me the whole time squawking and pacing.

Here's the new interior

Here is the hole cut for the new nest boxes. This used to be the same size as the window seen on the other side.

Wolf doing a few finishing touches on the shingles of the new nest box. We didn't have anymore paint of that color so we picked up some free mis-tint paint at Home Depot when we got the hinge. Note the first color was also a mis-tint pick up. We had to buy a sheet of plywood to finish the boxes but I really like the change and think it was worth the $18. Notice the netting hanging above Wolf's head. That's because a hawk tried to carry off one of our chickens then sat in the tree in their area! We had to shoot at it with an airsoft gun to get rid of it! (don't worry we were only scaring it off, not trying to hurt it)

Interior with the new nest boxes. The small box on the ground is for the rabbit. You would think she likes to sleep inside of it but actually she likes to lay on top of it. I think she wants to be closer to the chickens.

That night I went to put the chickens up and this is where I found them. All huddled up together on the floor. Silly birds! I had to put a couple of them on the roosts before they seemed to notice they were there. Which is strange because as I was installing the roosts Sky kept jumping on them and knocking them down. I couldn't get her off them, now I can't get her on them. Tonight the chickens were all roosting in the garden, they weren't even in their coop. Hope they get used to it soon!

Right before our major cold spell I hung plastic sheeting all around their enclosure. It was a good thing I did! They had a dry place to hang out other than their coop and it kept the wind off them. Those 10 days showed me they need more enclosed space so our next plan is to enlarge their enclosure area.

Brooder

We started with chicks in Feb '13. Our first 5 chicks were kept in a big cardboard box half under a card table in DD's room. We had more cardboard woven on top to cover all but where the lamp hung over it. Unfortunately DD forgot to shut her door one time and our top proved to be not as cat proof as we thought it was. Rocky "played" with 2 chicks until they stopped squeaking. :( We replaced those 2 with 2 of the same type from the same place. We fortified that brooder by placing an old guinea pig cage inside the cardboard box and this worked well. We even put a piece of wood as a perch in there. It kept the cat from getting to them and protected them from drafts. Our next set of chicks we kept in a small cardboard box until the older ones went outside, then they took over the larger box. This worked well for them too. A few months later we got 18 polish chicks from a hatchery through the mail. We would need a much bigger brooder for that many chicks. So we took a large wire dog crate, put a piece of plastic on the bottom, and wrapped the outside in cardboard. The chicks were small enough to fit through the slots we left around the door to open which left us scrambling to cover those holes up. It was hard to get the chicks out because they could run to the far corners and you had to climb in there to get them. It was also really difficult to clean. The shavings got stuck between the wires and the cardboard and like getting the chicks it required climbing inside the crate to get to the corners.
So this time I wanted to try a different brooder. Since we will be setting around 30 eggs in our incubator, it needs to be big enough to hold that many chicks. I spent a lot of time on backyardchickens.com and pinterest looking at homemade brooders. As with everything else I wanted something frugal. I liked some of the brooders I saw made out of cabinets like this one...

but I couldn't find anything for less than $20 on craigslist and the one I saw that I really liked the person never got back to me (typical craigslist).
So, I went with the storage tub brooder. Walmart had 50 gallon tubs for less than $18. I already had some scrap chicken wire at home so I was set.

I cut the lid out using my handy jig saw.

Attached the chicken wire using bolts, nuts, and washers.

Completed. :)

I used some christmas money from my parents and treated myself to an EcoGlow brooder.

From what I have heard these are the best thing ever. I'll let you know how it goes.

Incubator

Earlier this year we ordered 18 day old polish chicks from a hatchery. We lost nearly half of them within the first few days! Even with the replacements we lost a lot. What a lesson in the circle of life for DD! The plus side is she is much better about handling death. We are still looking to add 3 bantam (the smaller size) chickens to our flock but shipping chicks was not only expensive, it seemed too stressful on the little things. Yes, I could've kept buying from local farm stores but the selection is limited. So I decided to hatch my own. Unfortunately I'm very frugal so I couldn't bring myself to spend hundreds of dollars on an incubator. Thanks to www.backyardchickens.com I decided to make my own out of an old cooler we had in the garage.

Parts needed:

cooler - $0 

thermostat - $27. I went with a wafer thermostat after reading about it. 

heating element - $0 

thermometer/hygrometer - $5

turner (pvc pipes) - $4 in connectors

fan(s) - $2

glass - $2 (would've been $1 if I hadn't broken the first piece)

Total - $40!

For the fan I ordered 2 PC fans off ebay for .97 each. When they arrived I was surprised to find that they were little chip cooler fans, not the tower fans. So instead of the 3x3 fan I was expecting they were 1x1. So instead, I took one out of an old computer we have laying around collecting dust. I cut the connector off the end and wired it to an old 12v plug. Plugged it in and it was a virtual wind storm! My friend could feel the flow all the way across the room. Obviously that would not work for our poor little eggs! It is not being used to keep our electronics cool in our tv cabinet. :)

So I went back to the two little ones, maybe they would work after all! Wolf had the great idea to mount them on a piece of wood with holes drilled in it. So that's what I did.

Here is the wood base.

And the fans. I wired the fans to an old 12v cord we had laying around. I knew I kept all those cords for a reason!

Mounted on the board. Of course as I went to screw one on the drill slipped and I busted the fan. Nothing a little hot glue couldn't fix though (not fixed in pic).

Used some long screws to mount it on the side of the cooler. Note, this was a test run. I later used wire nuts instead of tape and moved the wires out the hole that was drilled for the turner. 

Next I tackled the heat source. I already had some light bulb bases from a science kit my mom gave me a few years ago. This is what they looked like. Rather than the bases most instructions show mine had plugs on the end rather than just the wires. I opted to use two bulbs in case one burns out I won't lose all the eggs.

I unscrewed the top part and pulled off the protective red plastic to expose the wires. I needed to do this not only because that's where the screw holes are but because I needed to know which wire went with which color screw so I could wire the two lamps together. I also wanted the wires to come up through the base so it would sit flush on the cooler wall. You can see my hole in the cooler behind this. I drilled these before really looking at my hardware. I was first thinking I could put this base on the outside of the cooler, stick the metal part through the hole, and screw on the top part to hold it in place so I drilled a hole large enough for the metal piece. Had I taken the thing apart first I would've seen that the metal piece was nowhere near long enough to stick through the side of the cooler, and the wires were detachable so I didn't need a large hole. But oh-well, it didn't hurt anything in the end.

I cut off the wire connectors, pulled the wire up through the holes in the base and reattached. Then screwed the whole thing onto the cooler wall, reinstalled the plastic cover and the top ceramic piece.

My thermostat hadn't arrived at this point so the wires just hung for a few days. But here is a pic of the trial wiring after installing the thermostat. I later replaced all tape with wire nuts. It's hard to tell but I cut the plugs off the lamps and wired the thermostat in to the circuit and wired both lights onto one plug. The wires coming out of the middle are from the theromstat, the metal thing sticking out the middle is the temp controller for the thermostat.

Next step was a turner. I didn't want to have to open the incubator to turn a bunch of eggs by hand. That seemed like it would lower the temp too low for too long. So after looking at a few pics I created a pvc turner. The pvc was the extra cuttings from our row covers in the garden. I just had to buy the connector pieces. The end under the fans sticks out about 4 inches and has a T piece as a handle. This allows turning the eggs from outside the incubator to the perfect angle. I decided how high to put the holes for the turner by holding it at the max angle I wanted and made sure it wouldn't come too close to the light bulbs. The pan underneath is a foil pan that will hold water to add humidity.


Next I needed a window for viewing without lifting the lid. I went to the dollar store and bought an 8x10 wooden frame (another great Wolf idea). I traced the glass, drilled pilot holes in the corner, and then cut out the middle with a jig saw. Next I screwed the frame and glass down onto the lid, drilling pilot holes in the frame/cooler first. This gave a nice window with no chance of cutting myself and no need for duct tape like others used. If you were paying attention at my costs, you see I had to buy a second frame. Well, the take away lesson from that is use a hand screwdriver when screwing in the frame. The only thing I could figure out is that the screw hit the glass and snapped it. The second one went on fine.

Here is the finished product.

A close up of the inside. You can see my wafer thermostat in the middle there and the digital thermometer/hygrometer. To adjust the temp you turn the key on the back of the cooler. I also put a calibrated thermometer from work in there to see how far off the temp was, turns out it wasn't! I got the temp set to 99.5-100. My thermometer also records the high and low temp for a period (until you hit reset) so I did that over a few hour span and the temp only moved 1 deg. That should be steady enough.

 Now to get some eggs!