Wind!

Got a little beat up last night by the wind. The first big gust pushed the rabbit hutch on it's back at some point during the day. At about 9:30 pm, another gust flipped it completely upside down and tore the metal roof off!

After that, we secured the roof and lashed the hutch to the deck posts. Bit of a wild ride for the rabbits but they are doing just fine.  :)

Real Free Range versus "cage free" Prison Eggs

Many times the eggs you buy in the store have been in the packaging and transit line for upwards of a month. this results in a loss of quality and nutrition. Its easy to see when compared to truly fresh eggs. Fresh eggs still have a deep color to their yolks and really maintain their shape.

There are five eggs in this picture that are truly free range, and then five pale "cage free" eggs (prison eggs).
The five store-bought eggs came from this package:

There is no legal definition of "free range" that an egg producer needs to adhere to in order to brand their eggs as such. In fact, many produces call their eggs "cage free" to imply that the eggs are from chickens that are roaming around, pecking and enjoying the sunshine.

Unfortunately, that could not be farther from the truth. Here is are typical "cage free" egg operations:

The bottom line is that if you really want TRUE cage-free, free range eggs, the you can't trust the labeling and need to see for yourself where eggs come from.

Chicken Run!

Nick, taking the ladies on some early-morning calisthenics after being "cooped up" all night...  :D

First Egg!

We got our first two eggs this weekend, it should not be long now before we are back in the home-grown egg business!  

The Black Australorps have been a fun breed so far, they are a lot more affectionate than our previous hens (Ameraucanas). We are looking forward to seeing how they produce over the next couple of years!

Evening Beak Count

Just to make sure all the ladies are accounted for...

From the forest to the table

After the abattoir, the venison was aged for about 12 days at 35 degrees.

It was then brought in and given a final rinse before butchering.

The kitchen island set up as a home butchering station;

• Lem meat lugs;
• Latex gloves;
• Small knife sharpener;
• Big cutting board;
• Paper towels;
• Food scale;
• Pencil and paper to log package weights;
• Sharpie marker to label packages;
• Wax paper to separate meat inside packages;
• Lem freezer tape dispenser;
• Freezer paper for the initial wrap;
• Butcher paper (and dispenser) for the outer wrap;
• Plenty of hot water.

Me, pretending to be a real butcher.

 For butchering, I mainly use three knives and one pair of scissors.

• 12' knife for initial boning and cutting large pieces;
• 3-4" metal paring knife for boning;
• 3" ceramic paring knife to remove silver skin and fat;
• Claus 8" game shears (best I have ever used).

Presenting the yum-yum, bacon-wrapped back strap...

Also prepared were venison fajita strips, tenderloin tips, roasts, ribs, and shoulder for grinding (and possibly snack-sticks). We will use the ground venison as burgers, in chili-mac, tacos, etc... the kids really like it in just about everything.

It was a long day of work, but will be good eating all year long...

Spotter duty for the Eldest

Some pictures from the hunt that I had not yet posted. My spotter for the morning...   :)

Deer Hunt 2012

Great hunt this year, I must have spent 20 hours in the stand before I saw anything other than squirrels  woodpeckers, and a skunk. Here's the postmortem:

Saturday:

6am- In the stand.

3pm- In the stand.

Warm all day, not good for getting the deer moving, few gunshots heard.

Sunday:

6am- In the stand.

Did not go out in the afternoon, too much rain.

Cold in the morning, pouring rain in the evening, no gunshots heard.

Monday:

6am- In the stand.

3pm- In the stand.

Cold, very cold, windy. No deer spotted, few gunshots heard.

Tuesday:

7:30am- In the stand. It was raining deer!

10am- Started cleaning and and dressing animals. Mother-in-law was a huge help in assisting.
4:30pm- Made it to dance lessons on time with Katie!   :)

All five of us! The three does, me and my rifle:

(Marlin 336 30/30, Nikon Prostaff scope, DNZ Gamer Reaper scope mount)

Finally, here are the dressed animals starting to age in the garage refrigerator (planning on ten days). I plan on butchering, making burger and sausage Thanksgiving weekend.   :)

Possum Ho!

Clarification:
Not "ho in the clubbing sense, more along the lines of "thar be the mangy scoundrel that be killing me yardbird."

Anyway, caught a possum last night, it has since gone to meet the great possum in the sky. Another destructive chicken killer removed....

Sick Deer found today

So this doe walked on to our property today and just sat about for a couple of hours. it was behaving oddly and allowed us to get closer than a wild animal normally would.

I called our Boone County MDC conservation agent and described the animals behavior. He said that it was consistent with Epizootic hemorrhagic disease (EHD) that has been identified this summer (and not CWD*). Apparently, it happens in season with sever drought and is transmitted by fly bites. Here is a recent MDC blog entry regarding EHD.

After a while the doe started to violently thrash around and was in obvious distress, it was a sad sight. The animal did not appear to be in good health. It was skinny, it's fur was in bad shape and seemed in poor health overall.

On the advice of the conservation agent, I put the animal down and hauled it out to the woods to dispose of the carcass.

Incidentally, the cart I used was a Timber Ridge cart and it worked great, especially over tall grass and rough ground:

*(we have not had any cases of chronic wasting disease in Boone County)

Learning to Perch

Peeked in on the hens tonight and it seems that they all have now learned to perch!  :)

Chickens LOVE Wonder Bread

In case you ever were curious...

Hens are now outside in the coop

Video throw-down as the hens move outside!

More Room for the Ladies...

The hens received an upgrade, we took our old baby gate and upgraded the hatchery.

5-Month-Old Non-refrigerated Eggs for Breakfast!

And we lived to tell the tale!

On February 15th we took raw eggs from our hens and set them back to see how long they would keep. Today we took them out and made breakfast with them. Two were suspect, so we did not use them, but the others looked great, smelled and tasted just as good!

Storing eggs from the summer/fall is a great way to even out your production from your home flock to make up for the expected drop in egg numbers during the winter.

The ones we ate Sunday were stored on 2/15/2012

Here's how to do it (but it is certainly not the only way to preserve eggs).

• Take fresh, raw eggs and cover them in food-grade mineral oil. Be sure to get a good coat on it. The idea is to fill all the pores of the egg shell so no air can get in to spoil the egg.

• Lay down some plastic wrap in an egg carton just to keep things tidy. Pack the eggs into the carton and wrap the plastic over the top of the eggs.

• Label the carton and store in a cool, dry place and they should be good for 4-8 months.
• That's it, very simple and easy.

A couple of good links on egg preservation:

• http://extension.oregonstate.edu/lane/sites/default/files/images/lc105.pdf
• http://preparednesspro.com/safely-preserving-eggs/

Into the Nursery!

Alright, the new hens are doing fine now in the "nursery" (plastic bin in the garage) and are eating and drinking like crazy. There was one that looked like she was going to die but we hand-fed her water with electrolyte additive and she is doing fine now, seems she was very dehydrated from the trip from the hatchery.

The Ladies Have Arrived!

I picked up the new hens this week. They arrived at our local post office all healthy and cheeping merrily after their long journey.

Loss of Flock Due to Predation

Recently, we lost our entire flock due to a raccoon attack. I won't elaborate as there is not too much more to say but we ordered more hens and are rebuilding the flock.