Chicken to Eat!

After waiting what seemed like forever, we now have chicken in the freezer!

The night before last, Russ and I went to the farm and with him on/in one of the mobile coops and with me at the top hatch, we grabbed 32 birds. We were trying to just get the roosters but they are a slippery bunch! He ended up with three crates with 2 crates of roosters and the other of hens. We took them to a neighbor, Restoration Farm, that had the high schools processing equipment all set up.

Yesterday morning Russ went back to Restoration Farm and he along with a class of about 20 students from the high school processed them. He said that they did great! After they finished he came with the birds, all in ice water in tubs in the back of his truck, to the store. We weighed each one and put them in bags and then into the freezer at the store. We bought home two, I will put them in brine and tonight we will eat chicken!

He has already sold some of them. What a good feeling to get something back for your labors!

I think the plan is now to process the remaining roosters and keep the hens for layers. He does want to rebuild the coops. After using them for 3 months, he realises that he needs to make a few changes.

Back to the layers that are at the house, they are moulting so egg production is way down. Plus the day light is now shorter. We have egg customers at the store and I feel terrible that we have no eggs to sell! This week I put a light on a timer and hung it in the coop. I hope this helps. Maybe I should hang an axe in there too!

An update on the local election - Russell didn't make it. However he plans to run again in two years. He feels that it is very important to stay involved in the local state of affairs! I am proud of him.