|
FrostedFlake -> RE: Raising Chickens (5/10/2013 11:36:57 AM)
|
For reference, Google map these coordinates.
43°13'44.99" N 124°22'56.71" W
The green arrow points at a former pillow of mine. Over half a mile north is a chicken coop. The roosters that lived there were very well known to me. But what in hell ya gonna do.
But then, the guy who lives at the foot of my driveway get himself some chickens. Please note, the tradition in the neighborhood was to pretend no one else lived anywhere nearby. We were all out there by ourselves. Suddenly, I am being woke at a quarter to four, every goddam day. My neighbor, who I had always shown respect to in the past, had taken to punching me in the ear in the middle of the night so he could have a free lunch. He really didn't like it when I introduced myself and explained why I had introduced myself. He instantly insisted I go away and stop bothering him. Things went downhill from there. Even though I spent cash to have twentyfive hens delivered in the mail. HIS mail. I made no traction at all.
Fortunately, I don't live there anymore.
Bottom line, no one wants to hear your goddamn chickens. And it is easy for you to make sure they don't. But you have to want to do that, or you wont.
Do you? Or are your neighbors all assholes?
Getting to the advice. Since the 1930's, the Post Office has been delivering chickens. So you don't need a rooster to get them, you just have to willing to pay for them. How much? It varies, but figure about the price of a dozen eggs, each. There are two ways to order chickens, straight run or pullets. Pullets have been examined and judged female. Straight run are less expensive, because they have not been sexed, and around half are cocks. There are also two kinds of chickens. Sex link, and everything else.
A sex link breed is a cross between two other breeds. Classic example is the Barred Plymouth Rock crossed with the Rhode Island Red. The resulting chicks are easy to sex, because the males are light and the females are dark. This way, you can avoid raising cocks very easily. While it is true hens will sometimes crow if there isn't a cock already doing that, they really aren't very good at it. A strong rooster can pollute 1200 acres with his challenge. And It IS a challenge. Not a friendly "Howyadoin?" A peacock makes as much noise, but doesn' bother people very much at all.
Next thought is, did you know that a Cornish Game hen is actually a young male chicken? These birds are not so much harvested as culled. Because they don't lay eggs. You can cull your cocks, too, and there is no reason to feel bad about it. You are raising food. You have to kill it before you can eat it. If, god forbid, you are raising pets, then you still have no excuse to own a rooster, any more than you would have excuse to own a constantly barking dog.
Next is How to Kill a chicken. It is best to learn this before you cut your thumb off with a hatchet. It is simple once you have seen it. You get a 4"x4" post and stick itin the ground somewhere near but out of sight of the coop. You fasten a sheet of heavy plastic to the post in the shape of a cone, point down, with a hole in the bottom big enough for the chickens' head. Position the cone so the top is about waist high. Sharpen your knife well, stick it in the top of the post. Go get a chicken. Don't clue the bird in. Walk over to the post and dump the bird into the cone headfirst. Now the bird cant struggle, and make you whack yourself. Take your very sharp knife and slice the neck about 3/4 the way through. This leaves the spinal nerves intact. That allows the heart to keep going until the bird is empty. The bird loses consciousness as quickly, take the head off or not. The difference is in the quality of the meat. Then take the cord I didn't mention yet and tie it into a circle about a foot in diameter. Create a loop/cinch and tighten it around the chickens feet. Use the stick I haven't mentioned yet to lift the chicken and dip it for about a minuet into the large stockpot of 145 degree water that I haven't mentioned yet. Then hang the chicken to dry. After this, plucking the bird is pretty easy. Then, you have to gut the animal and then cut it to little tiny bits.
Sex link chickens for sale : http://www.cacklehatchery.com/blacksexlinkpage.html
Martin Yang shows how to debone chicken in seconds : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHmyAoY-HrA
"Dear lord, if we cannot have the chicken without the crow, could we, at least, have that one for dinner?"
A morning prayer, by William Shakespeare.
|
|
|
|
