Britesea - Living the good life in rural Oregon

Britesea

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We finished closing up the windows yesterday, and it has made a big difference in the noise level at night; since they don't see any light, they aren't crowing. Yesterday we butchered Big Red, the Welsummer. It hurt like the dickons, because he's hands down the prettiest roo we've ever had. But he was the loudest, and didn't have any particular traits I wanted to pass down to my yard birds. He's in the fridge for a couple of days until rigor mortis relaxes and then I think he will be young enough to roast instead of stewing (not quite 4 months old). Today the little Lakenvelder (who never even got a name, poor thing) has to go. He's the shrillest, and too small to be of much use to the Brahma hens. I don't anticipate a very large carcass, but maybe we can make at least one meal out of him. That leaves us with Duke Jr, the lavender Rock, and Puff, the Brahma rooster (all he's got for a tail so far is a big pompom, lol). Puff has never done a lot of crowing, he seems to be very laid back. So maybe this will back our neighbor off and she won't report us.
Next week, we'll start butchering the oldest hens- they are all 4-5 years old, and we're not getting that many eggs from them anyway. That will bring the total numbers down to 18- 6 more than the "legal limit". Since they have the run of the whole half acre during the day, it's really hard to get an accurate count if you're just casually looking at our property, so maybe she won't realize that.

Of course, if she wants to get hard nosed about it, I could, PERFECTLY LEGALLY get 12 Roosters!

Only one more cabbage that has burst. I'll take care of that one today, and I told DH to back off on the watering so maybe the rest of the crop will hold off. I can do 1 head per load in the freeze dryer, and they take just about 24 hours. I only have 6 or 7 heads left, so I should be done by next week, and then I can work on the carrots.

Last night, I fixed oxtongue in the instant pot, with garlic and onion. We had a 2 1/2 pound tongue, and I thought we'd have plenty of leftovers. Apparently DH and DS loved it so much that we barely have 3/4 of a pound left!
 

flowerbug

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i don't know chickens, but i'm curious if removing the noisy ones might then give the others the idea that they are now the top roo and they'll start making more noise? i sure hope not, but i don't know... my only experiences with chickens is cooking them.
 

Britesea

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What I've found is that one starts crowing, it gets the others going. I'm hoping by only having 2, it won't be so bad. Also, Big Red was NOT top roo; that honor goes to Duke Jr.
 

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So true -- the more the merrier. Everyone chimes in. Worse yet, it's not all together. I think they go in turns to try & outdo the last. :D I'm sure it was not a fun decision to make but, maybe the best. When you reduce the flock by the older hens, the roosters will be annoying to those ones left anyway! It's always a day I dislike --dispatching. At least the CCX are only there a short time, you don't get so attached and they all look alike -- fewer favs. Plus, most often they are ready for freezer camp before they crow.

In the cities close that are heavy populations, they won't allow any roosters. Most set a 4 to 6 limit on hens. Out here, no limits on anything except the number of horses you can have on specified acreage. Kinda dumb as they don't designate that all the acreage is required to be used for them. So 3 horses on 5 acres could theoretically be in a one acre paddock. o_O Someone was lax on that. Plus, over 10 acres and there is no limit on numbers. Yeah, screwy.

Play the game. Your neighbor may be ok now that the boys won't be crowing as early -- less light. And winter comes soon....
 

baymule

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Old laying hens make delicious canned chicken and the broth is clear golden in color and rich in flavor. Sorry that you had to butcher the two roosters.
 

Britesea

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Things are calming down. The neighbor hasn't said anything since we killed the 2 roos. Our young hens are starting to hit their stride- getting more and more little pullet eggs (which are more like medium sized eggs for those Brahmas).

I started some tinctures going- calendula, plantain, and elderberry.

I need to harvest a bunch of comfrey and dry it for making tinctures for my wound salve; also the horehound and catnip and plantain are ready for harvesting. I'm praying that we have more time before the first frost. It usually comes about the end of the month, and with the late frosts last June, a lot of my garden hasn't had time to finish growing. The beans are blooming, but no beans yet; the squash has lots of squash on them, but their not ready for harvesting yet. I have lots of green tomatoes, but so far only 1 ripe one. Luckily the cabbages did well, as did the broccoli. The greens are still very plentiful and I'll probably dry some more for soups and to feed the chickens this winter.

We have wildfires all around us. So far no evacuation warnings. The smoke is really bad; it makes my eyes sting every time I go outside.

Spaghetti tonight, using leftover sauce and cauliflower florets. It's pretty good for a low carb meal.
 

farmerjan

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Glad the neighbor has calmed down... hope that it lasts. You will find that Brahma's are not a big "crowing breed".... just not their style. Neither are big Cochins. The more "active" a chicken breed, often the more crowing you will hear. Not a hard and fast rule, but a general guideline. Of the "Asiatic breeds" the Langshans are the most active and mine are pretty vocal in the mornings but not so much during the day. The Lt Brown Leghorns crowed quite a bit and my large New Hamps crowed alot too. Bantams seem to crow more than some of their large fowl counterparts.
Sure hope that you don't get a frost anytime soon.
 

Mini Horses

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Cauliflower spaghetti......saw cauliflower pizza crusts in frozen yesterday (as I was working) and looked at ingredients. Just didn't think cauliflower, egg whites & cheese was worth $9.46 for two 10" crusts. :D I'd think that would be an easy to-do at home. :idunno

Did I interpret this right? You make a tincture from dried comfrey and use that in the salve? Curious, why not just the dried leaves?

Hopefully the neighbor is happier but, may not "tell" you. It would be nice to know, right? I anxiously await my little pullet eggs...not for the small size but, so I know they have begun laying. LOL I find some of the smaller sizes when my girls finish molt, or come off mothering a hatch....and stop the mothering.

Nice crow info @farmerjan. I have a couple big RIR that are real, real noisy. The marans are much quieter. Bantams suffer from "little man syndrome" just like a pygmy goat! Sink worse than a full sized. :lol:
 

Britesea

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Did I interpret this right? You make a tincture from dried comfrey and use that in the salve? Curious, why not just the dried leaves?
I meant to say an infused oil, not a tincture, lol. I don't want the leaves themselves in the salve because it's kind of uncomfortable on a booboo.

Finishing up my cabbages that had split in the garden. I don't get as much out of each head since I need to trim off the split area. I still have 4 more in the ice box that didn't split. It's just taking longer than I thought to do everything. *sigh*

The wind shifted in the night, and we woke up to much clearer air. DH was looking on the computer for updates on the closest fire, but he hasn't seen anything since Saturday's report that they had a "line" all around it. It started on Friday, and grew from 40 acres to 400 acres in just over an hour. This is how Paradise, in California, got engulfed. Big difference here is that Forestry Dept has been doing cleanups and controlled burns all along, so I'm not "quite" as concerned as I could be; a lot of that growth was fast-burning dry weeds, rather than trees.
 

flowerbug

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glad you are being on the watch there and staying safe! sorry about the smoke, that would get very difficult for me to tolerate.

someone down the road has new chicken(s)/rooster(s) as i heard it crowing the other day. it's the first time in several years anyone has had any within hearing distance. down the road to the south of us some people had ducks and chickens for a while but i'm not sure they still have them or not since we've quit walking that ways (too many dogs).
 

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