a man and his hoe

every day is a good day

Tag: Agriculture

  • Fresh Liver

    Fresh Liver
    Fresh Liver

    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.

    Cooked Liver
    Cooked Liver

    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.

    Dish of Liver
    Dish of Liver

    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?

  • Frosty Morning

    [wpvideo GS57lWld]

    <p>A little frost doesn’t bother the chickens. It’s a cloudless morning and the sun will soon melt the frost.</p>

  • Rooster Cull

    Too Many Roosters
    Too Many Roosters

    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.

    A Sharp Knife
    A Sharp Knife

    Scissors
    Scissors

    A Killing Cone
    A Killing Cone

    A Pot of Hot Water
    A Pot of Hot Water

    Heavy Duty Kitchen Gloves
    Heavy Duty Kitchen Gloves

    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.

    Battle Scarred Rooster
    Battle Scarred Rooster

    Nevertheless, it will end up making a wonderful roast. At seven months old, it is also a good candidate for canning.

    Four Pound Rooster
    Four Pound Rooster

    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.

  • 16 Day Old Chicks

    [wpvideo HnVeaK8F]

    The chicks are 16 days old today. Their mother is taking them for an adventure along a woodland stream. The lives of chicks are greatly enriched by having a mother. Large, commercial operators talk about enriching the lives of chicks, but their concept of enrichment consists of hanging bunches of string, giving them sand boxes, or hay bales as described by PoultryHub – Environmental Enrichment. Really? Is that all? Which would you rather have? Chicken which got to play with a bunch of string, or chicken which was raised by its mother?

  • Sharp beaks – happy chickens

    Sharp beaks
    Sharp beaks

    Healthy chickens have very sharp beaks. They need them to peck at food, dig in the dirt, and when hunting, to kill their prey. Chickens will quickly spear and kill a field mouse. Chicken beaks are complex organs with many sensory neurons which help the chicken sense things. Sadly, most commercial hen layers are debeaked as chicks. The reason is that when chickens are crowded too close, a chicken will peck to tell the other chicken it is too close. With crowded chickens, this pecking can cause injury and once a chicken develops a wound and starts to bleed, other chickens will peck at the wound leading to severe injury and death. But all you have to do is give the chickens enough room and they won’t peck each other. The next time you buy eggs, ask your grocer if the hen that laid your egg was debeaked.

    Chickens at A Man and His Hoe are never debeaked.