Chickens | Northwoods Homesteader

Yum, Chicken for Dinner

MerrieAugust 8, 2015July 26, 2015Leave a comment

Our first try at Red Ranger chickens for meat has been a success. We butchered our first group and of the 40 we ordered we had 36 go to butcher. That is a loss of only 10% unlike last year when we had a terrible time with the Cornish Rock and a huge loss. We also got two of the above with our chick order of Red Rangers. They look like a cross between a Ranger and Cornish but I am not sure. I'm going to send some pictures to the hatchery and see what they have to tell me. These actually raised up very well. Those are some of my new Americana laying hens in the back ground. They are three months old now so hopefully they will begin laying eggs in October or so.

We took a week of vacation to take care of many things on the farm including the butchering. Fun things like having the septic tank pumped, cutting wood, chipping wood for mulch and getting ready for the next round of poultry. The baby turkeys and more Red Rangers arrived at the end of the week.

After a morning of butchering the chickens need to cool for 24 hours before being vacuum sealed and put in the freezer. For the first time ever we kept one fresh for us to eat. I found a recipe in Better Homes and Gardens for a brine and it was fantastic. I don't normally read BH&G but it came in the mail to me because I purchased some other item.

Grilled Feta-Brined Chicken

4 cups water
4 oz. feta cheese, crumbled
2 tablespoons dried oregano
2 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt (I used sea salt)
2 teaspoons cracked black pepper
2-3 pounds skinless boneless chicken thighs (I used a whole cut up bone in chicken)
1 large lemon, halved
1/4 cup olive oil

In a blender combine water, feta, oregano, salt and cracked black pepper. Cover and blend until smooth. Place chicken in zipper plastic bag or container. Pour feta mixture over chicken; seal or cover. Chill 8 hours or overnight.

Remove chicken from brine; transfer to a towel-lined tray. Discard brine. Pat chicken dry. Let stand at room temperature 30 minutes.

Grill chicken on the rack over a covered grill over medium heat 12-15 minutes (longer if you use whole bone in chicken) until interior temperature reaches 170 degrees, turning once.

Transfer chicken to a platter. Squeeze lemon over. Drizzle with oil. You can top with additional crumbled feta if desired but it was great without it.

Dinner was wonderful and it is so nice knowing where your meat comes from, what it has been eating and the fact that the chickens lead a happy life while they were with us.

So in 12 weeks or so we will do it all over again with our second batch of pastured meat birds. This is the first year that we have done two batches but now that we have a separate building and the movable fencing we have the room.

Our next project will be getting a out door run for the turkeys built. We are having some fill brought in to level out an area next to the barn that we can make a outside area for them. I'm not sure it will get finished this year but oh well, there is only so much time in a day.

New Chicken/Garden Shed

MerrieJuly 18, 2015July 11, 2015Leave a comment

The largest building project on the homestead this summer has been the new chicken/garden shed. My husband had shoulder surgery at the end of March so he was unable to help much. Don't get me wrong, I love to build things, but sometimes a second set of hands comes in real handy. He was able to help me with the roof a little. We built a platform from a pallet and strapped it to the forks of the tractor. I rode the platform while he operated the tractor to lift me up and down while I hauled up the metal pieces and screwed them down.

The blue barrel will be our watering system. I have gutter to attach and it will drain into the barrel. The barrel will be attached to the black tubing you see coming out of the building. This is currently hooked up to a hose up at the house but I would rather use the rain to feed the automatic watering system that is attached on the pasture side of the building.

One end of the 8 x 16 foot building is the housing for our meat birds and the other is a garden shed. This building is between the house and the garden so it is a perfect place for me to keep all my garden tools etc. Right now they are in a shed that is located on the other side of the house from the garden.

This year we are raising Red Rangers on pasture for meat. We had such a great loss last year with the Cornish Cross that we had raised the past 20 years that we decided to try something new this year. So far we have only lost 3 of the 40 birds that we started with. The big test will be how they dress out when we butcher them in a couple of weeks. There is a second batch of chicks coming from the hatchery about the time we butcher these. They should be ready for the freezer sometime in September. As I said we are raising them on pasture with the woven electric fence. I can move the fence when the area they are in starts to get a little beat up. I don't want the birds to take the pasture down to bare ground so I move them as necessary. The grass grows back very well since it has been fertilized :). I'll let you know how these dress out for us.

Spring Is Around the Corner!!??

MerrieMarch 15, 2015Leave a comment

Beware the Ides of March certainly applies to Maine as we are once again in the middle of a large snow storm. When I went to the barn to take care of the girls this afternoon there was already nine inches of snow and the winter storm warning is not due to expire until 11:00 pm this evening. Despite the snow as you can see the birds are still hitting the feeders.

Despite the fact that it is snowing Spring is due to come around eventually. Soon it will be time to get the seeds for the garden started. I usually start the tomatoes, peppers and a few other veggies around April 1st. Since I don't dare plant outside here in central Maine until Memorial Day for fear of frost, I give my plants about a 8 week head start.

I placed our baby chick order this week for delivery in April. I was hoping to get the new chicken house built this week but obviously it is a bit hard to build on top of a couple feet of snow. I will be able to get the new loft put up in the barn though even if I have to work in a bit of cold. We have a 10 foot ceiling on the first floor so we are going to put up a 16 ft. by 4 ft. loft up about 3 feet from the ceiling. This loft will be used to store our bags of shavings. We used to be able to buy shavings by the truck load for a fair price from the local lumber yard but since pellet stoves have become so popular all those shavings are going to the pellet makers. Now we purchase our shavings by the bag. It actually makes them much easier to handle and much easier to store. We no longer have to shovel them out of the back of the truck into the storage bin.

A second building project inside the barn will be the addition of another chick brooder. Our flock is expanding and the April order will have 58 birds in it. The one brooder we have will be okay for a week or two with that many in it but as soon as the chicks begin to grow there will not be enough room.

It has been a tough winter on the laying hens. There have been many, many days of really cold weather as well as wind. They sure don't want to be outside in that kind of environment. So, not only are we here in the house looking forward to Spring but I know the girls are too. Well, here is what we hope to see real soon.

Farmer’s Almanac Was Right

MerrieFebruary 14, 2015Leave a comment

DSC_0032 (2) Well, apparently they are pretty much right on the money for the prediction of weather this winter in New England. We have had three major snow storms in 10 days for a total of around 30 inches here at the homestead. Many places closer to the Maine coast have gotten double that in the same 10 days. Not only have we had a lot of snow but it has been cold and windy. Our high temperatures have been in the teens during this time. And, here we go again with another big one predicted to start this evening and go through Monday morning with another 1 to 2 FEET of snow. The National Weather Service has already issued a blizzard warning.

The chickens seem to be doing okay with the cold. We give them some extra cracked corn to eat which helps them stay warmer. I’m more worried about the bees. Their hive has been battered by the cold winds. The good thing is that the snow has now covered half of the hive which will help to insulate it. When it gets a little warmer we will give the hive a little lift just to see how heavy it still is. This will help to determine how their winter stores of honey are holding out. The hive was packed full in the fall so hopefully there is enough food for them if they can survive the cold.

Our wood supply is doing well. It is so nice to be able to sit in front of a roaring fire while it howls outside. I like to put my soups and stews on a trivet on the stove when it just needs to simmer for a few hours to get all happy and flavorful. I also have a popcorn popper that can be used on the woodstove as well as the regular stove. It is nice to know that if needed I could cook on the woodstove.

Well, I need to top off the wood box and I think I'll fill the bathtub with water (to flush with) just in case. Even though we have a generator we don't run it all the time if the power is out so having the water on hand is a help. I also fill a few jugs for drinking and cooking and just leave them on the kitchen counter. We have extra fuel for the generator so I think we are all set for what is to come. The big task will be where to put it all once it stops snowing.

Happy Valentines Day everyone, hope that you are spending it with loved ones.

Fall Early Snow

MerrieNovember 15, 2014November 15, 2014Leave a comment

Well, we had our first snowfall of the year on November 1st and it was a doozy. It started during the overnight and just kept snowing all day Sunday. When it was over we had somewhere between 12 and 15 inches of heavy wet stuff. It was hard to tell because besides the heavy snow the wind blew really hard. There were times during the day Sunday that I looked out the window and the snow was falling sideways. Our power went out around 2:00 Sunday afternoon. Thank the Lord for the generator and that we have extra fuel. Since the ground was not frozen yet we could not plow for fear of digging up the ground. My wonderful husband used the bucked on the tractor to back drag it in critical areas so that we could get around in our vehicles. Besides our long 440+ foot driveway we plow out our Uncle who lives next door and Mom and Dad who live a 1/4 mile down the road.

Life goes on and we ran the generator in the mornings and evenings to get showers, animals fed and watered and to catch the news. Both my husband and I went to work as usual. I never lost power at my work and my husband has a generator where he works so we were all set. Finally Tuesday mid afternoon the power came back on.

Fortunately, the weather warmed back up for a little bit. Enough to melt off the rest of the snow except where it had been piled up. It has now gotten cold again and we had another couple of inches of snow on Thursday into Friday. Not much over 35 degrees here today but the chores must go on.

The pigs went to the butcher at the end of October but the turkeys have another week before their time so cleaning had to be done. Wrapped warmly my husband and I cleaned out the turkey pen and put down fresh bedding for them. We have had to shut off the automatic water system to barn as we do each fall so now we have waters with heaters under them for the poultry. Right now we can still use the outside faucet to fill the waters but soon it will be too cold for that and we will be using gallon jugs filled in the house to haul water.

I also got 34 pints of applesauce made and canned last week. The house smells so much like fall when applesauce is being made. There is a fresh batch of yogurt incubating right now. Made with fresh milk with the cream still on top. This yogurt comes out the consistency of greek yogurt without even taking any of the whey out.

I would like to with everyone a wonderful Thanksgiving may you be blessed to spend it with family and friends.