every day is a good day
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At three weeks the chicks are traveling a long distance with their mother. At times she is the one who is following them as they go in search of good things to eat.
Worms and bugs make up a big portion of a chicken’s diet. They are great to have around to keep the bug population in check. But if you are growing vegetables or flower beds, you need to keep them out, or they will quickly dig up all your vegetables and flowers as they search for worms and bugs.
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At 17 days of age, these chicks are spending most of the day outdoors. Their mother takes them outside at the crack of dawn in search of good things to eat. In a matter of hours, they will travel further than broiler chickens travel their entire lives. When you see how far chickens like to go in search of food, you understand how intolerable it is to raise them in densities of one chicken per square foot. With a mother, chicks enjoy a very rich life.
You’ll never find liver like this in the store. Liver from chickens which exercise much of the day, get plenty of fresh air and sunshine, is plump and dry.
When chickens are out walking all day, rummaging for food, playing, and having a good time, they are pumping copious amounts of oxygenated blood through their bodies, much like people who exercise. Chickens raised in cramp quarters and butchered at a very young age, never attain the level of health of chickens raised outdoors. And this shows in the quality of their livers.
Fried in butter, chicken fat, or olive oil for several minutes on each side, it has so much flavor that no salt is needed. In fact, you should first taste it before adding any salt. Often salt, instead of enhancing the flavor of foods, just makes foods taste like salt.
Liver is best eaten within a few hours of processing a chicken. Are there any stores which sell chicken liver from chickens butchered that day? Let me know if you find one. The next time you buy chicken liver in a store, ask the grocer when the liver was taken. If they don’t know, what does that say about their concern for the quality of the food they sell to you?
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<p>A little frost doesn’t bother the chickens. It’s a cloudless morning and the sun will soon melt the frost.</p>
A sure sign that there are too many roosters roaming about is to find hens on their roost during the day. Young roosters especially can harass hens more than the hens want.
So after you’ve caught a rooster to cull, what tools do you need to take care of him? Not many. The tools below will suffice.
Today’s cull resulted in a four pound plus rooster. But as you can see, this one has had his share of battles with other roosters.
Nevertheless, it will end up making a wonderful roast. At seven months old, it is also a good candidate for canning.
Maintaining of flock of roosters, hens and growing chicks, is nothing like raising meat chickens by the tens of thousands. The dynamics of chicken culture are complex. Hens like roosters and you often see them flirting with their favorite ones. At the same time, too many young roosters can be a pain in the ass for hens, not to mention a threat to the older ones. But the rewards are worth it. The eggs are out of this world. The variety, flavor, and texture of these chickens just can’t be found in any store.