a man and his hoe

every day is a good day

Tag: Animals

  • Roasting a Rooster

    This is a seven and a half month old Golden Buff rooster, butchered at 224 days, and let to rest for four days in the refrigerator. Three to four days is a good time to let a chicken rest before roasting, especially these chickens which exercise so much every day.

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    Roasting a rooster step 1
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    Roasting a rooster step 10

    These are not birds which sit around all day, doing nothing but eating and growing fat. They aren’t crowded together cheek by jowl. What they do provide is a big story and a big taste. A chicken does a lot of living in seven months. As chickens go, it’s seen the world, traveled far from it’s roost every day, had the chance to experience romance and live a full life. At times they go so deep into the woods they can’t see another chicken. You’ll never find chicken like this in your supermarket.

  • 17 Day Old Chicks

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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.

  • 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?

  • 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

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    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?